Abstract The exploration of the multifarious ways in which cultural reworkings and translations have been involved in the transmission and circulation of various discourses, concepts and ideas in different historical periods and places, has become one of the most productive fields of inquiry in Early Modern Studies. Both translation and cultural reworking have been understood as forms of rewriting that involve altering, reinterpreting and adapting texts (Fischlin&Fortier, 2000; Lefevere, 1992). The main difference between the two concepts lies in their relation to the text/texts they are supposed to rewrite. Thus, translations are related to more direct and evident means of appropriation and rewriting, most often acknowledging themselves as attempts to render a specific text from one language/culture into another. Cultural reworkings, on the other hand, presuppose the appropriation and remaking of various texts and discourses in a more indirect manner, without necessarily pointing to the particular texts that are being rewritten. They represent threads that can be identifiable or at times altered beyond recognition, frequently leading to the creation of a completely different text. Therefore, cultural reworking involves the appropriation, rewriting and recontextualization - more or less explicit- of literary and non-literary texts and discourses that belong to the, cultural, political and ideological context of a certain work.
{"title":"Rewriting and Appropriating Francesco Guicciardini’s Storia D’Italia in Elizabethan England: Geoffrey Fenton’s Translation and Shakespeare’s Henry V","authors":"O. Zaharia","doi":"10.1515/msas-2016-0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/msas-2016-0006","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The exploration of the multifarious ways in which cultural reworkings and translations have been involved in the transmission and circulation of various discourses, concepts and ideas in different historical periods and places, has become one of the most productive fields of inquiry in Early Modern Studies. Both translation and cultural reworking have been understood as forms of rewriting that involve altering, reinterpreting and adapting texts (Fischlin&Fortier, 2000; Lefevere, 1992). The main difference between the two concepts lies in their relation to the text/texts they are supposed to rewrite. Thus, translations are related to more direct and evident means of appropriation and rewriting, most often acknowledging themselves as attempts to render a specific text from one language/culture into another. Cultural reworkings, on the other hand, presuppose the appropriation and remaking of various texts and discourses in a more indirect manner, without necessarily pointing to the particular texts that are being rewritten. They represent threads that can be identifiable or at times altered beyond recognition, frequently leading to the creation of a completely different text. Therefore, cultural reworking involves the appropriation, rewriting and recontextualization - more or less explicit- of literary and non-literary texts and discourses that belong to the, cultural, political and ideological context of a certain work.","PeriodicalId":53347,"journal":{"name":"Messages Sages and Ages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/msas-2016-0006","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67046008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Starting from Venuti’s binary classification of translations into ethnocentric and foreignizing this paper focuses on the factors that trigger ethnocentric attitudes in the translation of the play Macbeth in Romanian. Counterbalancing the extremely neologist tendencies at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, exemplified in Ștefan Băjescu’s translation, most of the 20th century translators prove an inclination towards the use of local, ethnic elements, that should revive the national culture and language, the integrity of which was threatened by foreign elements. Ion Vinea’s translation, that was the canonical Romanian version for more than half a century, is analysed in the paper as the representative of the ethnocentric camp. Apart from the spontaneous reactions that are generally ruled by the laws of language change, other factors that lead to the fostering of ethnocentric views are the communist regime’s constrictive ideology and, at the micro level, the translator’s own linguistic and cultural perception.
{"title":"Ethnocentric Tendencies in the Romanian Translations of Macbeth","authors":"D. Marțole","doi":"10.1515/msas-2016-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/msas-2016-0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Starting from Venuti’s binary classification of translations into ethnocentric and foreignizing this paper focuses on the factors that trigger ethnocentric attitudes in the translation of the play Macbeth in Romanian. Counterbalancing the extremely neologist tendencies at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, exemplified in Ștefan Băjescu’s translation, most of the 20th century translators prove an inclination towards the use of local, ethnic elements, that should revive the national culture and language, the integrity of which was threatened by foreign elements. Ion Vinea’s translation, that was the canonical Romanian version for more than half a century, is analysed in the paper as the representative of the ethnocentric camp. Apart from the spontaneous reactions that are generally ruled by the laws of language change, other factors that lead to the fostering of ethnocentric views are the communist regime’s constrictive ideology and, at the micro level, the translator’s own linguistic and cultural perception.","PeriodicalId":53347,"journal":{"name":"Messages Sages and Ages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67045568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The equivocation of the private life of Elizabethan and Jacobean subjects with the public life of monarchy and state endowed mothers with an import, and therefore a power, not previously acknowledged. These changes provoked a fear of female disruption to patriarchal structures which found its way onto Shakespeare’s stage by the representation of mothers as ‘unnatural’ agents of chaos, associated with witchcraft, murder, dangerous ambition, and infidelity; if not by complete absence, which “posits the sacrifice of the mother’s desire as the basis of the ideal society” (Rose, 1991: 313). I suggest that in the late romances, specifically The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, Shakespeare found a form that could demonstrate the complexity of the mother’s position, while still resolving the action with a satisfactory ending that presented a stable continuation of patriarchal lineage. The fathers rely on a fantasy of parthenogenesis to relocate the role of the mother in themselves, ensuring the children are free from her corruptive influence and the bloodlines are safe. However, as all themes return to maternity - chastity, fertility, lineage for example - the fantasy of eradicating the mother is shown to be limited even in the artificial realm of the romance.
{"title":"Maternity and Absence in Shakespearean Romance","authors":"H. Hopkins","doi":"10.1515/msas-2016-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/msas-2016-0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The equivocation of the private life of Elizabethan and Jacobean subjects with the public life of monarchy and state endowed mothers with an import, and therefore a power, not previously acknowledged. These changes provoked a fear of female disruption to patriarchal structures which found its way onto Shakespeare’s stage by the representation of mothers as ‘unnatural’ agents of chaos, associated with witchcraft, murder, dangerous ambition, and infidelity; if not by complete absence, which “posits the sacrifice of the mother’s desire as the basis of the ideal society” (Rose, 1991: 313). I suggest that in the late romances, specifically The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, Shakespeare found a form that could demonstrate the complexity of the mother’s position, while still resolving the action with a satisfactory ending that presented a stable continuation of patriarchal lineage. The fathers rely on a fantasy of parthenogenesis to relocate the role of the mother in themselves, ensuring the children are free from her corruptive influence and the bloodlines are safe. However, as all themes return to maternity - chastity, fertility, lineage for example - the fantasy of eradicating the mother is shown to be limited even in the artificial realm of the romance.","PeriodicalId":53347,"journal":{"name":"Messages Sages and Ages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/msas-2016-0002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67045717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Protean Shakespeare thrives not only in the theatre, but also through what Bolter and Grusin call remediation. This article analyses the religious stances in the play and then shows how opera, symphony and musical have been adapting the veteran Elizabethan drama since the 18th century. Its main approach is comparative and relies on the history of mentalities. Adaptation is dictated by cultural context, the conventions of the lyrical theatre, social and political factors, and reception. The confusing religious configuration of Shakespeare’s England is reinterpreted kaleidoscopically. The article demonstrates, for instance, that Berlioz and Gounod reread it according to staunch Catholicism in 19th century France, while Bernstein’s West Side Story moves the action to New York in the mid- 50’s, the Capulets and Montagues are replaced with rival Polish and Puerto Rican gangs and religion with cultural identity.
{"title":"Religion and Cultural Identity in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and the Musical Works it Inspired","authors":"Alina Bottez","doi":"10.1515/msas-2016-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/msas-2016-0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Protean Shakespeare thrives not only in the theatre, but also through what Bolter and Grusin call remediation. This article analyses the religious stances in the play and then shows how opera, symphony and musical have been adapting the veteran Elizabethan drama since the 18th century. Its main approach is comparative and relies on the history of mentalities. Adaptation is dictated by cultural context, the conventions of the lyrical theatre, social and political factors, and reception. The confusing religious configuration of Shakespeare’s England is reinterpreted kaleidoscopically. The article demonstrates, for instance, that Berlioz and Gounod reread it according to staunch Catholicism in 19th century France, while Bernstein’s West Side Story moves the action to New York in the mid- 50’s, the Capulets and Montagues are replaced with rival Polish and Puerto Rican gangs and religion with cultural identity.","PeriodicalId":53347,"journal":{"name":"Messages Sages and Ages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67045885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract From the perspective of an apparently absent author, the rhetorical commonplaces of womanhood and nourishment are mentioned in the novels of Margaret Atwood, The Edible Woman (1969), and of Jillian Medoff, Hunger Point (2002). Although traditionally relegated to contextualizing devices, the unfolding of events makes a riddle out of cooking and eating for the purpose of dramatic effect. Reporting on what might come across as domestic chores points to the topicality of food intake as well as to all the drama eating disorders entail. In the background of events, the ‘whodunit’ and the ‘kitchen sink drama’ come together into one unlikely story. The benefits of hindsight make it possible to argue that celebrated feminist novels of the past century, i.e. The Edible Woman, provided later 21st century fiction, i.e. Hunger Point, with something more than narrative emphasis on binary gender relations. I find that the gender-roles debate, as recorded in Atwood’s work, gained enough cultural momentum to prove the ready availability of the image of the nurturing female throughout the 20th century and beyond. As far as feminist fictions are concerned, over/under-feeding is always somewhere in the background, if not what drives the plot forward. Commonly, distress among fictional characters, mostly women, is linked to body weight and dieting in ways that threaten to relegate, possibly once and for good, the notions of women and food to the realm of melodrama, as it is the case with Hunger point.
{"title":"Edibles and Other Offerings to Readers: The Politics of Gender and Food in Narrative Fiction","authors":"Onoriu Colăcel","doi":"10.1515/msas-2016-0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/msas-2016-0017","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract From the perspective of an apparently absent author, the rhetorical commonplaces of womanhood and nourishment are mentioned in the novels of Margaret Atwood, The Edible Woman (1969), and of Jillian Medoff, Hunger Point (2002). Although traditionally relegated to contextualizing devices, the unfolding of events makes a riddle out of cooking and eating for the purpose of dramatic effect. Reporting on what might come across as domestic chores points to the topicality of food intake as well as to all the drama eating disorders entail. In the background of events, the ‘whodunit’ and the ‘kitchen sink drama’ come together into one unlikely story. The benefits of hindsight make it possible to argue that celebrated feminist novels of the past century, i.e. The Edible Woman, provided later 21st century fiction, i.e. Hunger Point, with something more than narrative emphasis on binary gender relations. I find that the gender-roles debate, as recorded in Atwood’s work, gained enough cultural momentum to prove the ready availability of the image of the nurturing female throughout the 20th century and beyond. As far as feminist fictions are concerned, over/under-feeding is always somewhere in the background, if not what drives the plot forward. Commonly, distress among fictional characters, mostly women, is linked to body weight and dieting in ways that threaten to relegate, possibly once and for good, the notions of women and food to the realm of melodrama, as it is the case with Hunger point.","PeriodicalId":53347,"journal":{"name":"Messages Sages and Ages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67046085","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This paper analyses Florina Ilis’s novel Cinci nori colorați pe cerul de răsărit while including it in the wider context of posthumanities. Since the writer is also the author of a theoretical study on cyberpunk fiction, I thought it adequate to use posthumanities as a primary tool. Some of the prevalent themes in the text are: the primacy of information over matter, the alteration of social or personal practices and the humanisation of technology.
摘要本文将弗洛里娜·伊利斯的小说《紫菜灰姑娘》(colorați pe cerul de riscurrrit)置于后人文主义的大背景下进行分析。由于作者也是赛博朋克小说理论研究的作者,我认为将后人文作为主要工具是足够的。文本中的一些流行主题是:信息高于物质,社会或个人实践的改变以及技术的人性化。
{"title":"Five Stories on Love and Technology","authors":"Daniela Petroșel","doi":"10.1515/msas-2016-0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/msas-2016-0013","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper analyses Florina Ilis’s novel Cinci nori colorați pe cerul de răsărit while including it in the wider context of posthumanities. Since the writer is also the author of a theoretical study on cyberpunk fiction, I thought it adequate to use posthumanities as a primary tool. Some of the prevalent themes in the text are: the primacy of information over matter, the alteration of social or personal practices and the humanisation of technology.","PeriodicalId":53347,"journal":{"name":"Messages Sages and Ages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67046062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The article tries to demonstrate that Ian McEwan’s novels, Enduring Love and Atonement, are similarly concerned with the way in which fiction writing is more apt to veil “truth” than to unveil it, also to invite partial readings of “reality” than to offer wide-ranging perspectives on it.
{"title":"Veiled Truth In Enduring Love And Atonement","authors":"Anca Turcu","doi":"10.1515/msas-2015-0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/msas-2015-0010","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The article tries to demonstrate that Ian McEwan’s novels, Enduring Love and Atonement, are similarly concerned with the way in which fiction writing is more apt to veil “truth” than to unveil it, also to invite partial readings of “reality” than to offer wide-ranging perspectives on it.","PeriodicalId":53347,"journal":{"name":"Messages Sages and Ages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67045394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The canon is a concept with a long history. The religious canon was eventually re-established on secular grounds, where it was comprehended in the categories of official literary (general) and personal (individual) canons, educational canon (reading lists) being correlated to the concept of tradition (canon as selective tradition) and the classics (canon as synchronicity, the classics as diachronicity). These aspects have different features in each national literature, particularly in Ukrainian literature. The necessity of standards and hierarchical classifications remains important after postmodernism, when new concepts, such as corps, collection, postcanon, succeed or keep up with the concept of the canon.
{"title":"Canon, Classics, Tradition: Demarcation Of The Terms","authors":"N. Gavryliuk","doi":"10.1515/msas-2015-0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/msas-2015-0011","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The canon is a concept with a long history. The religious canon was eventually re-established on secular grounds, where it was comprehended in the categories of official literary (general) and personal (individual) canons, educational canon (reading lists) being correlated to the concept of tradition (canon as selective tradition) and the classics (canon as synchronicity, the classics as diachronicity). These aspects have different features in each national literature, particularly in Ukrainian literature. The necessity of standards and hierarchical classifications remains important after postmodernism, when new concepts, such as corps, collection, postcanon, succeed or keep up with the concept of the canon.","PeriodicalId":53347,"journal":{"name":"Messages Sages and Ages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67045052","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Iele (or ielele, with a definite article) is the name of the “evil fairies” (zânele rele) of the Romanian mythology. They are mentioned in old Romanian folktales and legends and they have been a constant source of inspiration for many Romanian writers, who transformed them into literary characters in their works.1 Also, they have been a controversial subject of many folkloric studies, whose authors have tried to explain the origin and meaning of these supernatural female creatures. The present author aims to discuss the most significant (however divergent) opinions about the Romanian iele and to point out similarities with Germanic (and possibly Celtic) traditions, in which special categories of fairies have functions and names that resemble those of the Romanian iele. Under such circumstances, the idea of a probable Old Germanic origin of the Romanian term iele should not be regarded as out-of-place.
{"title":"The Probable Old Germanic Origin Of Romanian iele ‘(evil) fairies’","authors":"Andrea Bargan","doi":"10.1515/msas-2015-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/msas-2015-0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Iele (or ielele, with a definite article) is the name of the “evil fairies” (zânele rele) of the Romanian mythology. They are mentioned in old Romanian folktales and legends and they have been a constant source of inspiration for many Romanian writers, who transformed them into literary characters in their works.1 Also, they have been a controversial subject of many folkloric studies, whose authors have tried to explain the origin and meaning of these supernatural female creatures. The present author aims to discuss the most significant (however divergent) opinions about the Romanian iele and to point out similarities with Germanic (and possibly Celtic) traditions, in which special categories of fairies have functions and names that resemble those of the Romanian iele. Under such circumstances, the idea of a probable Old Germanic origin of the Romanian term iele should not be regarded as out-of-place.","PeriodicalId":53347,"journal":{"name":"Messages Sages and Ages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67045251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract In post-communist Romania, regional self-identification has undergone significant change. Particularly, a paradigm shift occurred in relation to 20th century Romanian historiography (I have in mind the national communist as well as inter-war historic narratives). The literature and the promotional films of Suceava County Council (i.e., the local government branch) are a case in point. They are designed to advertise tourism products in travel marts and various media outlets. Next to the story of a multi-faith/ethnic community, particular images and symbols are employed in order to craft the public identity of the county. A regional iconography gradually emerges on screen as more video content about Suceava is being produced. Capturing the essence of Romanian Bucovina on camera is a challenge steeped both in the history of the Habsburg Duchy and in that of the Moldavian principality (whose northernmost part was incorporated into the Habsburg Empire in 1775). Next comes the attempt to ‘touristify’ natural sites of environmental interest. History and nature are narrative tropes that amount to a coherent story delivered to natives and visitors alike. Despite the industrial scarring of the landscape well known to the natives, areas of woodland and countryside are on display. City life is largely ignored for the sake of a multicultural history of Bukovina mainly located in a rural setting. Screening Suceava has everything to do with identity-building. The rhetoric of regional self-designation seems to rank high on the local political agenda. The cosmopolitan Austro-Hungarian Bukovinian identity is obviously at odds with the ethno-national legacy celebrated in the so-called ‘Northern monasteries’ of Moldavia or in the Suceava fortress of Stephen the Great (who was built into an icon of Romanian historiography). The recreational opportunities of Suceava County are marketed to tourist boards, hotel chains, etc. as the retention of a Mitteleuropean distinctiveness. Explicitly, it is ‘something’ that has stayed with the indigenous population ever since the Austrian state set out to instruct the natives in the arts of life. There is a video side effect to the story. The mountainous countryside of Suceava is sold to the public as being peopled by men and women in national dress, a community dramatically different from all other surrounding areas of 21st century Romania.
{"title":"Suceava On Camera: The County Council And Local Self-Identification In 21st Century Romania","authors":"Onoriu Colăcel","doi":"10.1515/msas-2015-0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/msas-2015-0008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In post-communist Romania, regional self-identification has undergone significant change. Particularly, a paradigm shift occurred in relation to 20th century Romanian historiography (I have in mind the national communist as well as inter-war historic narratives). The literature and the promotional films of Suceava County Council (i.e., the local government branch) are a case in point. They are designed to advertise tourism products in travel marts and various media outlets. Next to the story of a multi-faith/ethnic community, particular images and symbols are employed in order to craft the public identity of the county. A regional iconography gradually emerges on screen as more video content about Suceava is being produced. Capturing the essence of Romanian Bucovina on camera is a challenge steeped both in the history of the Habsburg Duchy and in that of the Moldavian principality (whose northernmost part was incorporated into the Habsburg Empire in 1775). Next comes the attempt to ‘touristify’ natural sites of environmental interest. History and nature are narrative tropes that amount to a coherent story delivered to natives and visitors alike. Despite the industrial scarring of the landscape well known to the natives, areas of woodland and countryside are on display. City life is largely ignored for the sake of a multicultural history of Bukovina mainly located in a rural setting. Screening Suceava has everything to do with identity-building. The rhetoric of regional self-designation seems to rank high on the local political agenda. The cosmopolitan Austro-Hungarian Bukovinian identity is obviously at odds with the ethno-national legacy celebrated in the so-called ‘Northern monasteries’ of Moldavia or in the Suceava fortress of Stephen the Great (who was built into an icon of Romanian historiography). The recreational opportunities of Suceava County are marketed to tourist boards, hotel chains, etc. as the retention of a Mitteleuropean distinctiveness. Explicitly, it is ‘something’ that has stayed with the indigenous population ever since the Austrian state set out to instruct the natives in the arts of life. There is a video side effect to the story. The mountainous countryside of Suceava is sold to the public as being peopled by men and women in national dress, a community dramatically different from all other surrounding areas of 21st century Romania.","PeriodicalId":53347,"journal":{"name":"Messages Sages and Ages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/msas-2015-0008","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67045311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}