LA FRANCOPHONIE DANS LES PRINCIPAUTÉS ROUMAINES À L’ÂGE DES ÈGNES DES PHANARIOTES
Études balkaniques (Sofia) 2023, N 4
Ileana MIHAILA
University of Bucharest, Romania
Francophonie in the Romanian Principalities During the Reign of the Phanariotes
Abstract: In order to better envisage the penetration of French language and culture in Wallachia and Moldavia, a phenomenon that marked Romanian society’s entry into modernity from the early 18th century until the first decades of the 19th century, one should refer to the cultural impact of the Phanariotes’ reigns in the Romanian Principalities. The Francophonie of these Greek noblemen from Constantinople, who acted as dragomans and councilors of the sultan (allowing them, in turn, to be named reigning princes in Bucharest and Jassy), quickly became a model to the entirety of the Moldo-Wallachian high society. During their reigns, the educational institutions from the two capitals already taught French in their programs. Readings and translations from French authors increased in number, as French became not only the language of culture, but also the language of diplomacy. In the early 19th century, the Francophonie of the upper classes acted as a linguistic passport in the long process of their Europeanisation and, consequently, it facilitated the modernization of the Romanian society in its entirety.
Keywords: Francophonie, 18th century studies, Romanian culture, Phanariotes, Greek War of Independence
IANAKE VACARESCU – UN LETTRE ROUMAIN DES LUMIERES ET SON DESTIN POSTHUME
Études balkaniques (Sofia) 2021, N 2
Ileana MIHAILA
University of Bucharest, Romania
Ianake Vacarescu – A Romanian Scholar of the Enlightenment and His Posthumous Fate
Abstract: Ianake Vacarescu (1740-1797) was a great Wallachian aristocrat who was famed both for his political and diplomatic qualities and for his scholarly qualities. He knew the languages of the Balkans, as well as Western languages. A poet in his free time, he wrote the first Romanian grammar (published in 1787). However, his unsung masterpiece is a History of the All-Powerful Ottoman Emperors [Istorie a prea puternicilor împărați otomani], written during his exile in Nikopol and Rhodes (1788-1794), a work based both on his experience and of his knowledge of Turkish, Western or Romanian authors, which was left in manuscript form for 70 years and is poorly known even now. Vacarescu’s work shows how necessary it still to re-read the Romanian texts of the 18th century in the context of Ottoman Europe’s transformation into the Balkan nations.
Keywords: Ianake Vacarescu, Romanian Literature, Ottoman History, Enlightenment, Balkan Studies
LES ROUMAINS DES LUMIERES, LECTEURS DE LA LITTERATURE DE LEUR EPOQUE, VUS AU LONG DU XXe SIECLE
Études balkaniques (Sofia) 2020, N 4
Ileana MIHAILA
Université de Bucarest, Institut d’Histoire et de Théorie Littéraire (Académie Roumaine)
Roumanie
Romanians of the Enlightenment, Readers of the Literature of Their Time, As Seen Throughout the 20th Century
Abstract: Although they were at the borders of the Europe of the Enlightenment, Romanians proved to be active and avid readers of the texts that marked their era. Following their quick conversion to Francophonie, they did not limit themselves to simply reading, but instead followed it up by translating these works more or less liberally. Thus, Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Condillac, Fénelon (among others) started their long journey towards Carpatho-Danubian celebrity. In fact, their efforts to harmonize Romanian culture with the European culture of their time would not be updated before the blossoming of 18th-century studies in 20th-century Romania. The Romanian reading of the Enlightenment remains an unexhausted theme for research today, which is made all the more interesting by underlining the influence of 20th-century political vicissitudes on Romanian 18th-century studies.
Keywords: Romanian 18th-Century Studies, 20th-Century Reception, History of Translations, University Research, Communist period
LA COMPAGNIE DE LA MER NOIRE OU LA MER PERDUE DES ROUMAINS AU XVIIIe SIECLE
Études balkaniques (Sofia) 2020, N 1
Ileana MIHAILA
Université de Bucarest, Institut d’Histoire et de Théorie Littéraire (Académie Roumaine)
Abstract: This study provides information – some of which are being analysed for the first time – concerning 18th-century Romanians and the Black Sea commerce of the time, when Romanians lacked both sea and Danubian ports, which had been converted into rayahs. Nevertheless, the absence of political authority does not exclude the presence of Romanians and their maritime commercial activities. Geographically, the maps that circulated in Europe at the time (based on the models provided by Constantin Cantacuzino and Dimitrie Cantemir) depict them as still being present, which followed the historical tradition and thereby underlined the temporary character of this political situation. Several testimonies from French authors (some of them quite illustrious) and an economical project from 1770, which aimed to open French commerce with Romanians through the Black Sea, provide ample proof thereof.
Keywords: 18th-Century Studies, Moldo-Wallachian Maps, Charles-Lépold Andreu de Bilistein, Jean Baptiste d’Anville, Louis-Félix Guinément de Kéralio