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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
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Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Kádár, Dániel Z., Gudrun Held & Annick Paternoster
2023. Introduction. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 24:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Paternoster, Annick
2023. The codification of nineteenth-century etiquette. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 24:1 ► pp. 160 ff. DOI logo

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