Cover not available
Article published In:
Politeness in and across Historical Europe
Edited by Annick Paternoster, Gudrun Held and Dániel Z. Kádár
[Journal of Historical Pragmatics 24:1] 2023
► pp. 124–142

Ritual and modern “politeness” in the Romanian Principalities during the Phanariot period

| University of Bucharest

The paper focusses on ritual “politeness” in the eighteenth- and early-nineteenth century Romanian Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia from a historical sociopragmatic perspective. The analysis of ceremonial literature and memoirs aims to highlight the instrumental role that the performance of conventional gestures and the use of conventional formulae have in presenting the self/other image. The period under consideration attests to the prominence of the Ottoman cultural model in the Romanian Principalities; nevertheless, the conduct prompted by Western and Central European culture was also rapidly emerging in these borderlands at the same time. When Romanian participants shift their behaviour in intercultural interactions according to the Eastern or Western norms, the choices they make have profound implications (political, social, and cultural).

Keywords: historical pragmatics, intercultural adoption, politeness, ritual practice, Romanian Principalities, self-presentation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Ritual, ritual submissive behaviour, “politeness”
  • 3.Data
  • 4.Data analysis
    • 4.1Ceremonial literature
    • 4.2Memoirs
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Sources
  • References
Published online: 30 March 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.00070.con
References

Sources

Gheorgachi – Literatura românească de ceremonial. Condica lui Gheorgachi, 1762
[‘ Romanian ceremonial literature. Gheorgachi’s book, 1762 ’] 1939 Introductory study and edition by D. Simonescu. București: Fundația Regele Carol I.Google Scholar
Ist Oth – Ianache Văcărescu
. Istoria othomanicească [‘ The History of the Most Powerful Ottoman Emperors ’] 2001 Critical edition, introductory study, notes and glossary by G. Ștrempel. București: Editura Biblioteca Bucureștilor.Google Scholar
Bax, Marcel
2010a “Rituals”. In Andreas H. Jucker and Irma Taavitsainen (eds), Historical Pragmatics, 483–519. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010b “Epistolary Presentation Rituals. Face-Work, Politeness and Ritual Display in Early Modern Dutch Letter-Writing”. In Jonathan Culpeper and Dániel Z. Kádár (eds), Historical (Im)Politeness, 37–86. Bern, Berlin, etc.: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
2011 “An Evolutionary Take on (Im)Politeness: Three Broad Developments in the Marking out of Socio-Proxemic Space”. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 12 (1/2): 255–282. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boia, Lucian
2002 România: ţară de frontieră a Europei [‘ Romania: Borderland of Europe ’]. Bucureşti: Humanitas.Google Scholar
Bryson, Anna
1998 From Courtesy to Civility: Changing Codes of Conduct in Early Modern England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carré, Jacques
(ed.) 1994 The Crisis of Courtesy: Studies in the Conduct-Book in Britain, 1600–1900. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Constantinescu, Mihaela-Viorica
2013 “Forme și strategii ale politeții la cronicari” [‘Politeness Forms and Strategies at the Chroniclers’]. In Rodica Zafiu, Ariadna Ștefănescu, Carmen Mîrzea Vasile and Raluca Brăescu (eds), Limba română: variație sincronică, variație diacronică [‘ Romanian: Synchronic Variation, Diachronic Variation ’], 53–66. (Volume II1.) București: Editura Universității din București.Google Scholar
2015 “Observații asupra mărcilor comportamentale ale politeții la cronicari (sec. xvii–xviii)” [‘Remarks on Politeness Behavioural Markers at the Chroniclers (Seventeenth-Eighteenth Centuries)’]. In Marius Sala, Maria Stanciu Istrate and Nicoleta Petuhov (eds), Lucrările celui de-al cincilea simpozion internațional de lingvistică, București 27–28 septembrie 2013 [‘ Proceedings of the Fifth International Linguistics Symposium. Bucharest, 27–28 September 2013 ’], 763–776. București: Enciclopedic Gold.Google Scholar
2016a Principatele române între Orient și Occident: dinamica modelelor culturale ale politeții și impoliteții în secolul al XIX-lea [‘ The Romanian Principalities between the Orient and the Occident: The Dynamics of Cultural Models of Politeness and Impoliteness in the Nineteenth Century ’]. București: Editura Muzeul Național al Literaturii Române.Google Scholar
2016b “Performativitate verbală și gestuală” [‘Verbal and Non-Verbal Performativity’]. Analele Științifice ale Universității „Ovidius” din Constanța. In honorem Petre Gheorghe Bârlea 21: 205–216.Google Scholar
2018a “A Perspective on ‘Impoliteness’ in Early Modern Romanian Court and Diplomatic Interactions”. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 19 (1): 92–121. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018b “The Historical Variation of the Pragmeme ‘Greeting’ in Romanian”. Revue Roumaine de Linguistique lxiii (1–2): 73–97.Google Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan
2017 “The Influence of Italian Manners on Politeness in England, 1550–1620”. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 18 (2): 195–213. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dicționarul limbii române
[‘ Academic Dictionary of Romanian ’]. ( da.) 1913– București: Librăriile Socec & Comp. și C. Sfetea.Google Scholar
Dicționarul limbii române: serie nouă
[‘ Academic Dictionary of Romanian ’]. ( dlr.) 1965– București: Editura Academiei Române.Google Scholar
Dicționarul literaturii române de la origini până la 1900
[‘ The Dictionary of Romanian Literature from its Origins up to 1900 ’]. ( dlro.) 1979 București: Editura Academiei.Google Scholar
Djuvara, Neagu
1995 Între Orient şi Occident. Ţările române la începutul epocii moderne (1800–1848) [‘ Between Orient and Occident: Romanian Principalities at the Beginning of Modernity (1800–1848) ’]. București: Humanitas.Google Scholar
Eelen, Gino
2001 A Critique of Politeness Theories. Manchester: St Jerome Publishing.Google Scholar
Elias, Norbert
1973 La civilisation des mœurs [‘ The Civilising Process ’]. Paris: Calmann-Lévy.Google Scholar
Gillingham, John
2002 “From Civilitas to Civility: Codes of Manners in Medieval and Early Modern England”. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 121: 267–289. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Held, Gudrun
1999 “Submission Strategies as an Expression of the Ideology of Politeness: Reflections on the Verbalisation of Social Power Relations”. Pragmatics 9 (1): 21–36.Google Scholar
2010 “ Supplica la mia parvidade… Petitions in Medieval Society – A Matter of Ritualized or First Reflexive Politeness?” Journal of Historical Pragmatics 11 (2): 194–218. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hirschon, Renée
2001 “Freedom, Solidarity and Obligation: The Socio-Cultural Context of Greek Politeness”. In Arın Bayraktaroğlu and Maria Sifianou (eds), Linguistic Politeness Across Boundaries: The Case of Greek and Turkish, 17–42. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hitchins, Keith
2014 A Concise History of Romania. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jucker, Andreas H.
2011 “Positive and Negative Face as Descriptive Categories in the History of English”. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 12 (1/2): 178–197. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kádár, Dániel Z.
2017 Politeness, Impoliteness and Ritual: Maintaining the Moral Order in Interpersonal Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kádár, Dániel Z. and Michael Haugh
2013 Understanding Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kádár, Dániel Z. and Yongping Ran
2015 “Ritual in Intercultural Contact: A Metapragmatic Case Study of Heckling”. Journal of Pragmatics 771: 41–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mazilu, Dan Horia
1998 Recitind literatura română veche [‘ Rereading Old Romanian Literature ’]. (Volume II1.) București: Editura Universității din București.Google Scholar
Paternoster, Annick
2015 Cortesi e scortesi. Percorsi di pragmatica storica da Castiglione a Collodi [‘ Politeness and Impoliteness: Paths of Historical Pragmatics from Castiglione to Collodi ’]. Roma: Carocci.Google Scholar
2023 “The Codification of Nineteenth-Century Etiquette: On Politeness, Morality, Rituals and Discernment”. Special issue of Journal of Historical Pragmatics 24 (1): 160–178. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pippidi, Andrei
2001 Tradiţia politică bizantină în Ţările române [‘ The Byzantine Political Tradition in the Romanian Principalities ’]. Bucureşti: Corint.Google Scholar
Ricci, Maria Teresa
2009 Du cortegiano au discreto: l’homme accompli chez Castiglione et Gracián. Pour une contribution à l’histoire de l’honnête homme [‘ From Cortegiano to Discreto: The Accomplished Gentleman for Castiglione and Gracián. A Contribution to the History of the Man of Manners ’]. Paris: Honoré Champion.Google Scholar
Simonescu, Dan
1939 Literatura românească de ceremonial. Condica lui Gheorgachi, 1762 [‘ Romanian Ceremonial Literature: Gheorgachi’s Book, 1762 ’]. Introductory study and edition by Dan Simonescu. București: Fundația Regele Carol I.Google Scholar
Ștrempel, Gabriel
2001 “Introducere” [‘Introduction’] to Istoria othomanicească [‘The History of the Most Powerful Ottoman Emperors’], v–lxxv 1. București: Editura Biblioteca Bucureștilor.Google Scholar
Tasca, Luisa
2004 Galatei. Buone maniere e cultura borghese nell’Italia dell’Ottocento [‘ Conduct Books: Good Manners and Bourgeois Culture in Nineteenth Century Italy ’]. Firenze: Le Lettere.Google Scholar
Terkourafi, Marina
2011 “From Politeness1 to Politeness2: Tracking Norms of Im/Politeness across Time and Space”. Journal of Politeness Research 7 (2): 159–185. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Terkourafi, Marina and Dániel Z. Kádár
2017 “Convention and Ritual (Im)Politeness”. In Jonathan Culpeper, Michael Haugh and Dániel Z. Kádár (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Linguistic (Im)Politeness, 171–195. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Timotin, Andrei
2018 “Le code des usages de Gheorgaki le logothète et ses rapports avec la littérature byzantine de cérémonial” [‘The Conduct Book of the Chancellor Gheorgachi and its Connection with the Byzantine Ceremonial Literature’]. Etudes Balkaniques 2018 (2): 314–323.Google Scholar
Turnaturi, Gabriella
2011 Signore e signori d’Italia. Una storia delle buone manière [‘ Ladies and Gentlemen from Italy: A Story of Good Manners ’]. Milano: Feltrinelli.Google Scholar
Vasilescu, Andra
2016 “De la politeţea epistolară la politeţea conversaţională în româna veche” [‘From Epistolary Politeness to Conversational Politeness in Old Romanian’]. Studii și cercetări lingvistice lxvii (2): 151–167.Google Scholar
Vintilă-Ghițulescu, Constanța
2015 Patimă și desfătare. Despre lucrurile mărunte ale vieții cotidiene în societatea românească 1750–1860 [‘Passion and Pleasure: Everyday Life in the Romanian Society 1750–1860’]. București: Humanitas.Google Scholar
2019 “Shawls and Sable Furs: How to Be a Boyar under the Phanariot Regime (1710–1821)”. In Cornelia Aust, Denise Klein and Thomas Weller (eds), Dress and Cultural Difference in Early Modern Europe, 137–158. Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
n.d. “Using Luxury and Fashion for Constructing a Social Status. The Case of Ianache Văcărescu”. Working Paper, ERC-CoG-2014 grant no. 646489 LuxFaSS. Accessed 20 September 2019 at: [URL]