Femeia română în reprezentările călătorilor străini din secolele XVI-XVIII/The Romanian Woman in the Representations of Foreign Travelers from the XVI-XVIII Centuries

Abstract

The study brings back into discussion the complex theme of the image of the Romanian woman transposed in the writings of foreigners who crossed the Romanian Lands at the end of the Middle Ages. Despite a dose of subjectivism, prejudice or resentment, the testimonies of foreigners are valuable from the perspective of imaginary and gender relations, because they bring additional information to reconfigure aspects of men's attitudes and behaviors towards women and its status in medieval Romanian society. The main point of these sources is the tension between the way Romanian women are viewed by foreigners, the virtues and vices attributed to them, and the opinion that men in the Romanian Lands themselves have about the representatives of the beautiful gender.