ROMANIA IN ENGLISH TRAVEL LITERATURE. FROM A WINTER IN THE CITY OF PLEASURE TO THE WAY OF THE CROSSES
ROMANIA IN ENGLISH TRAVEL LITERATURE. FROM A WINTER IN THE CITY OF PLEASURE TO THE WAY OF THE CROSSES

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore a range of travel documents about Romania published in English literature starting with the XIX century up to the present and try to extract and analyze the image of Romania as perceived and depicted by the foreign travelers in different historical and political contexts, capturing the process of its development through time. For a more balanced approach, the selection of the documents analyzed draw on four different historical and political periods starting with the end of the XIX century titles, passing through the interwar period in the first half of the XX century, continuing with the accounts taken in the communist period and finishing with the modern, democratic Romania depicted after 1989. The investigation begins with the volumes titled A Winter in the City of Pleasure. Life on the Lower Danube published by Florence K. Burger in 1877, Three Years in Roumania written by J. W. Ozanne in 1878, Roumania: Past and Present written by James Samuelson in 1882 and Untrodden Paths in Roumania signed by Mary Adelaide Walker in 1888. It continues with the travel accounts recorded during the XX century, Roumania Yesterday and To-day published by Will Gordon in 1918, Twenty Years in Roumania signed by Maude Parkinson in 1921, Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Middle Danube to the Iron Gate written by Patrick Leigh Fermor in the interwar period and issued in 1986. From the works published in the communist period, Dracula Country. Travels and Folk Beliefs in Romania signed by Andrew Mackenzie in 1977 will be taken into account. From after the Revolution, the modern English travel literature about the country analyzed here includes the volumes Along the Enchanted Way: a Romanian Story signed by William Blacker and The Way of the Crosses published by Peter Hurley at the end of 2013.

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