THE FOREIGN MIRROR OF BANAT
THE FOREIGN MIRROR OF BANAT

Summary/Abstract: This article examines Costin Feneșan’s volume Das Banat in der Sicht Fremder. 1770-1800 as a significant contribution to the study of Enlightenment travel literature and cultural imagology. The book brings together twelve accounts written by foreign travelers who visited Banat in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, a period marked by intense intellectual curiosity and geopolitical transformation following the Habsburg administration of the region.The study emphasizes Feneșan’s methodological rigor, particularly his treatment of travel narratives as a sui generis historical source capable of revealing facts, perceptions, and value judgments often absent from official administrative documents. By critically evaluating the travelers’ social background, education, itinerary, and purpose, Feneșan demonstrates that the documentary value of such accounts varies according to the observer’s intellectual formation and ideological horizon. The volume thus highlights the plurality of perspectives through which Banat was perceived, ranging from imperial elites to scholars and craftsmen. Rather than presenting a homogeneous image of the region, the book reconstructs Banat as a pluriperspectival space situated at the intersection of East-Central and Southeastern Europe. The travelers’ testimonies complete and nuance the image of a borderland shaped by political, cultural, and civilizational encounters. Through its bilingual presentation of sources and critical apparatus, the volume offers both documentary precision and hermeneutic depth. Ultimately, Feneșan’s work contributes not only to regional historiography but also to broader discussions on the construction of cultural images, the dynamics between auto-image and hetero-image, and the epistemological status of travel literature within historical research.

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