Diversitate si Identitate Culturala in Europa (May 2010)
LE MACROACTE TESTAMENTAIRE ROUMAIN DU XVIIe SIECLE DANS L’ESPACE EUROPEEN. STEREOTYPIE ET INNOVATION
Abstract
THE 17 TH CENTURY ROMANIAN TESTAMENTARY MACRO-SPEECH-ACT IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT. STEREOTYPY AND INNOVATION. In this paper we focus on the 17th century Romanian testamentary dispositions, advancing the idea that the testaments could be interpreted as a composite speech act. We will investigate this kind of documents not only from the structural and lexical point of view, but also in a pragmatic and rhetoric perspective. In the analysis of testamentary dispositions various communicative phenomena are at stake, such as the structure of the documents, produced by a testator within a certain cultural- historical framework, with certain intentions, using certain textual instruments. The 17th century Romanian testamentary dispositions follow ancient patterns, and have a standard structure. Compare to the western testaments, the Romanian testamentary dispositions restrain themselves to essential requirements just on a need to know basis. Towards mid 17th century they increasingly became a space in which the testators express their feelings, opinions and perceptions. We will investigate several formulae that aim to avoid any violation of a testament (the so- called clauses of warning comprising threats of anathema or malediction)
