Turkish Characters in Romanian Literature

Year 2017, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 105 - 113, 04.10.2017

Onorina Botezat

Abstract

The present paper studies the image of the Turk in the Romanian dramaturgy

of the twentieth century, through the play Take, Ianke and Cadîr by Victor

Ioan Popa. The masterpiece of Victor Ioan Popa, Take, Ianke and Cadîr is,

without any doubt, the pearl of the Romanian dramaturgy. A Jew, a Romanian

and a Turk - central figures of the play are merchandisers who share their

clients. The Romanian’s girl and the Jew’s boy end up loving each other,

though their love story, in their fathers’ conception is impossible. The old

Cadîr, always in love and cherishing life, makes their love come true and

sets up the scene for a happy ending. The two shops merge breaking down

the wall between the shops. The play offers us a totally different image of

the Turk, that is no longer related to the expansionist Turk stereotype from

Romanian historical writings – friendly, caring and tender Cadîr, who turns

out to be smarter and wiser than his neighbors. The success of this play on

stage proves us that one could dissociate the Turk from early religious and

historical stereotypes, traced back to the Crusades, through the medieval

Romanian literature

Keywords

imagology, Turkish character, Romanian literature

References

• [1] Bacalbaşa, Anton. „Fatmè” in Moş Teacă [Greybeard Teaca]. Edition of Andrei Hropotinschi, Bucharest Chişinău: Litera International, 2003. [2] Galaction, Gala. Papucii lui Mahmud [Mahmud’s shoes], Edition of Teodor Vârgolici, Bucharest: Gramar, 1993. [3] Istrati, Panait. Chira Chiralina. Codin. Ciulinii Bărăganului [Chira Chiralina. Codin. Baragan’s Thistles], Preface by Cornel Ungureanu. Chronology and critics by Răzvan Năstase, Bucharest: Curtea Veche Publishing, Jurnalul Național, 2009. [4] Leerssen, Joep. „Rhetoric of National Character: a Programmatic Survey.” în Poetics Today, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2000, pp. 267-292. [5] Leerssen, Joep. „The downward pull of cultural essentialism”, in Image into identity: Constructing and assigning identity in a culture of modernity, ed. M. Wintle, Amsterdam, 2006, pp. 31-52. [6] Popa, V. I. Take, Ianke și Cadîr, Bucharest: Univers și Teatru Național I.L.Caragiale, 1972. [7] Urechiă, V.A. „Amor cu cel de altă lege” [Love with the one of other law] in Scrieri literare [Literary writings], Edition of Alexandru George, Bucharest: Minerva, 1976