Abstract
My study analyzes Rome’s landscape, as Romanian travelers described it in the context of the literature inspired by the Grand Tour. I focus on the main themes, metaphors, and topoï that describe Rome in the literary works of poets and novelists such as Gheorghe Asachi, Ion Codru Dragusanu, and Duiliu Zamfirescu. After briefly showing the main difference between the myth of Rome in European literature and in Romanian culture, I describe how these writers used the image of Rome as a symbol in order to build or strengthen national identity. In this context, the landscape of Rome is profoundly transformed and reconfigured using intertextuality, on the one hand, and reintegrating different traits that created its myth starting from the Middle Ages and, on the other, by creating the landscape of a city that is defined as the origin of the Romanian people. Thus the description of the city, profoundly transformed by literary means, becomes a symbolic landscape.
Presenters
Alexandra VranceanuAssociate Professor, Department of Literary Studies, Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, Bucuresti, Romania
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Mythocritics, Travel, Rome, Romanian, European
