„Asemenea hoți înfrățiți cu poporul”: inventarea haiducului în cultura românească romantică

In this paper I examine the discourse on banditry (haiducie) articulated by the romantic elite of 19th century Romania. By relying on the various literary productions of the era, from short stories to memoirs and travel literature, I posit that the image of the noble bandit is rather manufactured by the elite to fit their political agenda, if not actually imported from ready-made west-European bandit models. The reason behind the cosmetic treatment of robbers and highwaymen that the Romanian elites perform in their writings, is the same as that of their western counterparts: noble bandits are easily integrated in the emerging nation-state narrative of the era and are useful as precursors of the political claims of the elite.