The Traditions of Invention: Romanian Ethnic and Social Stereotypes in Historical Context

by Alex Drace-Francis

Literary and cultural images, once considered marginal to the main currents of political and institutional development in southeastern Europe, have been accorded much greater importance by scholars in recent years. In this volume Alex Drace-Francis brings together over fifteen years of work on the topic of representations of Romania and Romanians. Crossing the East-West divide, the book studies both external images of the country and people, and domestically-generated representations of Europe and 'the West'. It draws on material in a wide range of languages and offers a long-term view, providing a nuanced and historically-grounded contribution to the lively debates over Balkanism, Orientalism and identities in Romania and in Europe as a whole.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Alex Drace-Francis is Associate Professor of Modern European Cultural History at the University of Amsterdam.