Retorica afectivă şi arhetipurile puterii în Moldova şi Tara Românească (secolele al XV-lea - al XVII-lea)
Affective Rhetoric and the Archetypes of Power in Moldavia and Wallachia (15th–17th Centuries)

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the role of emotions in the exercise and legitimation of power in Moldavia and Wallachia between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. In a society where political order was conceived as a reflection of divine will, emotions did not belong to the private sphere but were integrated into a rigorous moral and theological framework. Joy, cheerfulness, sadness, and weeping were ethically evaluated and subject to precise norms, forming what recent historiography has described as “emotional regimes” or an “affective order”. The text shows that power was also expressed through the disciplined management of emotions. The prince (domnul), perceived as the embodiment of cosmic balance, was expected to display calmness, gentleness, and composure – signs of continuity and divine legitimacy. The Teachings of Neagoe Basarab to His Son Theodosius articulate this emotional ethics in an exemplary manner, distinguishing between the fleeting joy of the world and true joy, born of patience and temperance. Joy thus emerges as a political virtue, while weeping functions as a sign of either spiritual order or moral deviation, depending on its orientation. Moldavian chronicles confirm the existence of well codified affective rituals: victory feasts, triumphal entries, enthronements, and princely weddings transformed individual emotion into collective experience and reinforced authority. Shared joy operated as a form of public prayer and as evidence of divine favour. At the same time, the study highlights the role of weeping – particularly female weeping – as a powerful mode of moral and political communication. In conclusion, the study demonstrates that emotions were essential instruments of symbolic governance. The history of power cannot be understood without examining the ways in which emotions were educated, regulated, and mobilized in the service of social and religious order.

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