From 'Woods and Water' to the 'Gran Bazaar': Images of Romania in English Travelogues after WWI

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Published: Dec 1, 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/lincu-2015-0046
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Andi Sâsâiac
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania

Abstract

Although globalization brings different countries and cultures in closer and closer contact, people are still sensitive when it comes to aspects such as cultural specificity or ethnicity. The collapse of communism and the extension of the European Union have determined an increase of interest in Romania’s image, both on the part of foreigners and of Romanians themselves. The purpose of this paper is to follow the development of Romania’s image in English travelogues in the last hundred years, its evolution from a land of “woods and water” in the pre-communist era to a “grand bazaar” in the post-communist one, with clear attempts, in recent years, to re-discover a more idyllic picture of the country, one that should encourage ecological tourism. The article is also intended to illustrate the extra-textual (historical, economic, cultural) factors that have impacted, in different ways, on this image evolution

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Sâsâiac, A. “From ’Woods and Water’ to the ’Gran Bazaar’: Images of Romania in English Travelogues After WWI”. Linguaculture, vol. 6, no. 2, Dec. 2015, pp. 79-97, doi:10.1515/lincu-2015-0046.
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Vol. 6 No. 2 (2015)
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Articles
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Author Biography

Andi Sâsâiac, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania

Andi Sâsâiac received a BA in translation and interpreting and an MA in European Studies from Alexandru Ioan Cuza. University of Iași. He has recently completed his doctoral studies at the same university with a thesis on the translation of travel writings, with Romania as a case in point. His professional experience includes an Erasmus mobility at Université Catholique de l’Ouest, Angers, as well as the coordination of the Business English and French seminars for beginners at the Vocational College for Economists and Business Assistants in Novo Mesto, Slovenia. His fields of interest comprise journalistic translation and the translation of Romania’s images as reflected in the English-language literature. His recent publications include National Images in the Media and in Travel Writing (2015) and Projections of Romania in Anglophone Travel Books in the Period Between 1850 and 1940 (2014).

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