Output details

Cross-cultural encounters: mores and dress during the Fanariot period (1711-1821) in the Romanian Principalities as described by Western European travellers

This volume offers a varied and informed series of approaches to questions of mobility, virtual and imaginary as related to visual culture. Contributors address these questions in the light of important contemporary issues in the context of Media Studies, Visual Culture, Contemporary Art, New Media, Film Studies, Philosophy of Art and Aestheics, Regional Art, Theory of Media Communications.

My contribution is in Part 1: Still Images, which also includes contributions from: Stephen Bann, Wibke Joswig and Gulru Cakmak.

In this essay I analyze the important process of cross-cultural encounters between East and West, which resulted in a melting pot where literature, philosophy, music and visual arts, not least sartorial dress converged. I focus on the specialized literature Fanariot Period in the Romanian Principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia) – hitherto virtually unknown in Western European bibliographies - to show how a society influenced by the Turkish way of life was emerged in the Romanian Principalities and one consequence was the growing social and economic polarization of its population. A Fanariot ‘look’ emerged at this historical juncture which was the result of the creative amalgamation of Ottoman, Greek and autochthonous elements. Its complexity and beauty provide a perfect mirror of the cultural conflict that had ensued as a consequence of the Ottoman domination over the Romanian principalities on the one hand and on the other, their struggle for independence and political emancipation eventually achieved during the 19th century.