Hungarians in the Eyes of the Romanians. “The Era of Good Feelings”
Hungarians in the Eyes of the Romanians. “The Era of Good Feelings”

Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes the positive image of the Hungarians, as it appears in several important Romanian texts prior to the 1848 revolution. The origin of this image can be detected in the works of the Transylvanian School writers. These authors use an important element of the eighteenth‑century Hungarian self‑image, which emphasized the multiethnic character of Hungary and the fact that several peoples coexisted in harmony between its borders. This representation was predicated on the idea of tolerance, inherited from the period of the Josephine reforms. The existence of this benign horizon of expectation in imagological relations between Romanians and Hungarians is highlighted by two important Romanian texts from the first half of the nineteenth century: the travel notes written by the Wallachian boyar Dinicu Golescu (1826), and those by a petty nobleman from Făgăraș, Ion Codru Drăgușanu (1835–1844, published in 1865). Travel accounts are precious sources for imagological study, because they reveal not only what travelers see on their journeys, but also the prejudices and stereotypes they set out with, the images of the Other that permeate their cultural environment. The traditions of Enlightenment philosophy shaped an “era of good feelings” for the Romanians who wrote about Hungarians on the eve of the revolution of 1848, which was noticeable at a discursive level. This view drew its sap from the most general principles of the time but was also supported by the secular practice of cohabitation between the Romanian and Hungarian communities in Transylvania.

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