LOCURI SIMBOLICE: CĂLĂTORI ENGLEZI ÎN ROMÂNIA SECOLULUI XX
SYMBOLIC PLACE: ENGLISH TRAVELERS IN 20TH CENTURY ROMANIA

Summary/Abstract: According to Jérôme Monnet’s “The Symbolism of Place” (2011), “a place can be considered as ʽsymbolicʼ whenever it means something to a group of individuals, in such a way that it contributes to giving an identity to the group.” (Monnet 652) Material realities like a land, a river or a cardinal point may communicate an intangible value or idea if so construed; as such, they mediate “the relationship between space, power and identity.ˮ (Monnet 652) Such symbols can be circulated for epistemic purposes and instrumentalized for ideological aims using a variety of discursive means – one of which is travel writing. This paper aims to explore the construction of Romania as symbolic space in English travelogues of the 20th century. From Patrick Leigh Fermor, Donald Hall, Sir Sacheverell Sitwell and Derek Patmore in the 1930s, Brian Hall in the 1980s, to Alan Ogden and Mike Ormsby in the early 2000s and Nick Hunt in 2016, English travelers have incorporated this Eastern destination in the Western imaginary through the topoi of nature, love and tradition, consistently representing Romania as a welcoming, domestic other.

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