The Representation of the Tatars in the Polish and Romanian Historical Novel: A Case Study on Mihail Sadoveanu and Henryk Sienkiewicz
The Representation of the Tatars in the Polish and Romanian Historical Novel: A Case Study on Mihail Sadoveanu and Henryk Sienkiewicz

Summary/Abstract: The article proposes an analysis of the representations of the Tatars in two historical novels published in Poland and Romania, respectively, from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. First of all, the article discusses the history of Sienkiewicz’s reception in the Romanian literary field and interrogates the possible interferences between two (semi)peripheral literatures (Romanian and Polish) as symptoms of the polysystem (Even-Zohar) of the Central and Eastern European literary field. Secondly, the case study on Sienkiewicz’s With Fire and Sword and Mihail Sadoveanu’s Neamul Șoimăreștilor [The Șoimărești Clan] discusses the imaginary constructions articulated in the description of the Tatars ethnic minority. Using the “frontier Orientalism” concept (Andre Gingrich), the article shows how the representation of the Tatars has different roles, being a pretext for defining national identity and becoming a pretext for “the creation of transnational communities” (Terian). Therefore, the paper aims to identify the ideological stakes behind the representation of the Tatars, as well as to discuss the intersections between Sienkiewicz and Sadoveanu and their effect on the historical novel’s evolution.

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