Cities, Networks, and Hierarchies: 
A Systematic Model of Romanian 
Novel
Alina Bako
Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Letters and Arts, 5-7 Victoriei Blvd., 550024, Sibiu, 
Romania
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1450-9188
alina.bako@ulbsibiu.ro
This article sets out to observe the manner in which using the city as a narrative 
scenario can determine the creation of a systemic model of knowledge. Based on 
Morillo’s theory that urban spaces can be analyzed by observing the interaction 
between the networks they belong to and the hierarchies they form, eventually 
becoming “hubs of knowledge,” we try to prove that the Romanian novels of the 
late nineteenth century and the interwar period are valuable points of reference 
for sketching a systemic model of the South-East European space. The specificity of 
Romanian literature, reflecting historical conditions and relations with empires 
such as the Austro-Hungarian or Ottoman empires, as well as the constitution of 
labor relations through the transition from rural to accelerated urbanization 
produces a viable matrix. These aspects can be encountered in the novels of 
Romanian writers such as Ioan Slavici and Liviu Rebreanu, who reflect the 
reality of the Transylvanian space and the relations between the communities of 
Romanians, Germans, Saxons or Swabians, Hungarians and Jews, to Hortensia 
Papadat-Bengescu, the writer who creates the image of Bucharest as part of the 
European urban network, even if it is hierarchically subordinate to Paris.
Keywords: Romanian literature / Romanian novel / imagology / city / networks / 
hierarchies /  systemic model
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Primerjalna književnost (Ljubljana) 46.3 (2023)
The present study sets out from the observation that the manner in 
which cities are reflected in literature may determine the construction 
of a model of knowledge made up of networks and hierarchies. Starting 
out from this observation, we shall discuss the networks made up of 
interconnected urban nodes, by way of the literary texts advanced be-
longing to Romanian literature. We shall then analyze social and po-
litical hierarchies, as they appear in the same reflections of the urban 
PKn, letnik 46, št. 3, Ljubljana, november 2023
102
space, and in the last part we shall analyze the manner in which the 
two have interacted forming a systemic model. What is paramount for 
our discussion is Morillo’s statement according to which “the cities 
were the hubs of knowledge formation and exchange because of the 
location of both markets and political centers in urban areas” (Morillo 
15), a thing that implicitly generates the recognition of the importance 
of studying the city as a defining element for the sketching of social 
networks and hierarchies. The argument resorted to by Quayson “that 
the city tends to be the favored scalar unit for multiple world-making 
projects both below and above the nation-state scale. Cities are thus 
simultaneously sites where ‘global designs’ touch down, and matrices 
of possibility, where connectivity, reinvention, and self-translation also 
occur” (Quayson and Watson 7) leads us to the idea that the analysis of 
urban space generates an alternative model of knowledge. Applying this 
literature deconstructs a static landscape, determining the inclusion of 
literary works in a corpus essential for global knowledge.
The hypostases of cities presented as narrative frameworks, studied 
in the Romanian literature of the end of the nineteenth and the begin-
ning of the twentieth century are reflections of urban networks created 
in Europe, as we shall see from the analysis of the travels undertaken by 
the characters and from the exchange of political, economic, social and 
cultural ideas between the nodes of this network, but also of the hier-
archies created vertically, from urban centers such as Paris or Vienna, 
towards secondary cities, belonging, to use the term employed by World 
Literature, to the peripheries, such as is the case for the Romanian 
space. The city as a prop for the narrative scenario played a crucial 
role in the construction of fiction, advancing various visions character-
izing the multitude of cultural landmarks in central and South-East 
Europe and the relations with cultural urban spaces. The core thesis 
we wish to start out from in the construction of the present paper’s 
endeavor thus advances the creation of a model by which to prove that 
the evolution of knowledge took place in direct relation with the devel-
opment of urbanism, aspects which are reflected in literature. Central 
and South-East Europe developed an entire network of communica-
tion through the nodes of which an accelerated growth took place in 
various domains of activity. In such a model, applied to Medieval Asia, 
Stephen Murillo showed that cities are placed at the intersection of 
two grand structures: networks and hierarchies, and the position they 
are in is a result of belonging to one of the two. Thus, networks can 
be defined as “the horizontal, extensive, cooperative, and economical-
cultural links between cities large and small (and through those cities to 
Alina Bako:     Cities, Networks, and Hierarchies: A Systematic Model of Romanian Novel
103
their economic hinterlands) […] network flows also inevitably included 
people, ideas, and thus culture generally” and hierarchies as “vertical, 
coercitive and political structures, encompassing what are commonly 
called states, chiefdoms, and other sorts of polities into which specific 
societies tended to be organized. Complex, state-level hierarchies were 
almost always built on a base of rural agricultural production” (Morillo 
2). These networks and hierarchies imply alpha type cities and second-
ary cities, which have developed around such large urban structures. 
One of the questions the present study attempts to answer is how is the 
connection between the urban space in East European literatures and 
lighthouse cities, which swallow them up, constructed? Are we dealing 
with peripheral or secondary urban spaces here?
Secondary literature has discussed peripheral and central cities, 
principal and secondary ones, which have changed their status accord-
ing to industrial and technological development, as well as the rela-
tionship between the city and world literature (Quayson and Watson; 
Agathocleous; Eade; Lehan; McNamara; Soja). The criteria employed 
to categorize urban settlements are quite diverse, however, we hold that 
the central and East-European space brings up important arguments as 
part of this new classification, also in what the functions these spaces 
fulfil as part of this global urban network are concerned. An ample dis-
cussion was devoted to so-called alpha cities, which have shaped knowl-
edge. Thus, Jason Finch, Lieven Ameel and Markku Salmela observed: 
“On a global scale, one can find a distinctive group of cities that could 
be called ‘alpha’ world cities: New York, London, Paris and Tokyo in 
economic terms.” (Finch, Ameel and Salmela 12) Such a relationship 
can be envisaged between Paris and the Romanian space, to be more 
precise the capital Bucharest, but also between the Transylvanian space 
of the twentieth century and the imperial capitals Budapest and Vienna. 
Pascale Casanova considered Paris a center of “world literary space,” 
a Greenwich meridian (Casanova 34) for World Literature, alongside 
London and New York. The question thus arises whether the literary 
reflection of cities belonging to semi-peripheral or peripheral geographic 
spaces can bring elements of novelty to global knowledge: “Compared 
to peripherality, secondariness is perhaps at once more ordinary and 
more visible, a condition that is hidden in the open. Most urban dwell-
ers experience their cities as somehow secondary to other, bigger, or 
more famous, cities.” (Finch, Ameel and Salmela 96) We can thus 
observe that “secondary cities” fulfil certain functions, whether we refer 
to being political, cultural, or economic centers or important nodes of 
a network. Jacques Derrida in his essay “Plato’s Pharmacy,” discussed 
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as early as 1972 the oppressive component implied by a relationship 
between a dominant and a dominated. Cities can be subordinate to 
such centers, while simultaneously being part of a hierarchical pyramid, 
but also nodes of a cultural, economic, political or religious network.
The case studies we employed as part of the present discussion focus 
on three authors who are representative for the chosen time frame 
and for Romanian literature. Their selection was also determined by 
the accessibility of prose and translations. The first of these authors, 
chronologically speaking, Ioan Slavici, is the one who contextualized 
the discussion regarding the power relations between Transylvania and 
the capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire, identifying both networks 
and hierarchies existing at the level of urban spaces. Another Romanian 
writer, Liviu Rebreanu, brought up the multicultural component of 
Transylvania, but, at the same time, advanced images of the second-
ary city, as perceived through the lens of the multiethnic. The third 
example is Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, an author who focused on 
the description of the capital city, Bucharest, analyzing French influ-
ences, but also aspects connected to the construction of a network by 
mains of the characters’ travels, as well as the establishment of hier-
archies between Paris and Bucharest, aspects which define Romanian 
culture integrated into the European space. We can thus notice a break 
with traditional spatial patterns, an aspect which will be noticeable in 
the differences between the urban representations of Slavici, a writer 
rather connected to the nineteenth century and Rebreanu and Papadat-
Bengescu, modern writers, with whom space fulfils different functions. 
As noted by Eric Bulson, part of what made realist novels so powerful 
was their capacity to make readers believe that fictional cities had “a 
counterpart in the cities of the earth” (Bulson 34). This is precisely 
what happens also in Slavici’s writings, whose texts belong to nine-
teenth century realism.
Networks featuring urban nodal points
The construction of a network of urban nodal points is obvious in 
Slavici’s prose (1848–1925), as the cities he mentions in Transylvania 
are secondary type ones such as Arad, Radna and Lipova, narrative 
stages for the characters, but at the same time starting points for the 
construction of a commercial, economic, political and religious net-
work. Slavici’s novel Mara (published in a magazine in 1894, and 
as a volume in 1906) contains references to the construction of such 
Alina Bako:     Cities, Networks, and Hierarchies: A Systematic Model of Romanian Novel
105
relationships. Beyond the story of the main female protagonist, Mara, 
additional details surface regarding wealthy families, localized action, 
based on historical information offered, between the years 1850–1860 
(Slavici 844). Thus, when the circumstances are revealed that led to 
their reaching the provincial town, Slavici resorts to the identification 
of geographical landmarks. The multi-ethnical component shapes the 
narrative discourse, the novel being characterized by the permanent 
tension between the German, Hungarian and Romanian communities. 
Thus, the family of Națl Hubăr, who becomes the husband of Persida, 
Mara’s daughter, belongs to the Swabian community of Banat and, 
implicitly, to a different social class, due to Hubăr’s job as a butcher. 
The origins of Hubăroaie, Natl’s mother, are localized in the Austrian 
Empire, in Buda, while Hubăr, the father, comes from Vienna, the 
capital. We can thus notice that the urban networks become forms of 
analysis of social relations, status and the roles played by the characters:
A Swabian from Buda, she had married Hubăr while still very young, an 
industrious and merry Viennese, but with a short temper, and they had come 
here not so long ago, where they did not know anyone. With the help of her 
dowry, Hubăr had managed to gather within a few years, especially during the 
1848 revolution, quite a fortune. They were even luckier after the revolution, 
when Hubăr became, due to his being a German from Vienna, very respected, 
and their household became one of the most prominent ones. (43)
Special emphasis is placed on the presentation of ethnic origins, be-
cause not only did Hubăr hail from Vienna, but he was also German, 
being thus a double exile. Characters are thus moving between Arad 
and Vienna, with the latter being perceived as a space where they can 
sometimes seek refuge and find a solution to their personal or economic 
problems. The network created also advances a transfer of knowledge, 
as the characters bring with them to the region they settle in new men-
talities, customs and cultural constructs.
Slavici imagines the character of the Jewish merchant Griner who 
gives them a loan, playing the role of a creditor,1 an ever-present per-
sonage in any era. The leather merchant lends him three hundred flo-
rins, in order to be able to leave in the aftermath of the conflict with 
his father, at other times it is mentioned that he wants to borrow a 
couple of hundred florins in order to leave “far away from this world,” 
and during another episode of emotional turmoil he acts repetitively: 
1 Interest for economic elements in Slavici’s novels appears as early as 1943, e.g. 
Iorgulescu.
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“Tuesday evening, when Persida was with Bandi on the bridge, Naţl 
was sitting with his face in his hands, tormented by intense emotions 
before Oancea. He had taken five hundred florins from Griner and he 
had decided that he would depart for Arad and then for Vienna as soon 
as the sun would set.” (103) The florin was the currency the protago-
nists used in order to travel to imperial territories. Thus, for Persida, 
Vienna is simultaneously a point of attraction but also of repulsion, 
being seen as “the big noisy city,” and socializing as well as adapting 
to its rhythm changes Persida’s perception of it: “They spent the eve-
ning with Burdea, and around ten, when they returned home, Persida 
no longer felt that life in Vienna was insufferable. Time had passed 
without her noticing it; she had never spent more agreeable hours than 
those.” (178) The places of origin of the two characters are brought 
up, whether under the form of references to Națl’s visit to Buda, to 
see Hansler, his mother’s cousin, whether it is the discussion of cities 
where he had relatives: “Especially Hubăroaie was happy. They had 
friends in Arad, Timişoara and Lugoj; they had relatives—she in Buda 
and Pojon, and her husband in Vienna: wherever he would have gone, 
her son would have been well received, he would have even found a 
bride fit for his social status.” (43) The power centers brought up are 
Buda, Bratislava (Pojon) and Vienna, perceived as friendly cities for the 
inhabitants of Transylvania, which was part of the Empire.
What is also interesting is the characters’ relation to linguistic 
aspects, that creates a network generated by the urban spaces they hail 
from. Thus, the narrator points to the extent of the linguistic contami-
nation process and to the imposition of a dominant of power which 
constructs a hierarchy: “Persida and Naţl always spoke German. […] 
You will hate me terribly one day, he told her in Romanian.” (156) 
We can thus observe that during the moments of crisis, the couple 
renounces the official language, in order to use the language closer to 
their hearts as a linguistic vehicle, considering that Persida was the 
daughter of the Romanian Mara. About Națl we get to know that hav-
ing been “raised among Romanians, he spoke Romanian just as well as 
German” (37). Similarly, changing discourse according to the situation 
is done in order to highlight the manner in which the two communi-
ties relate to one another. During an argument with his father, the 
character tells him: “The drunkard Germans, he said in Romanian, are 
fighting like animals. Yes! He continued in German, they are right to 
mock us!” (143) We encounter here a reference to the prejudices sur-
rounding ethnic Germans, but also to the objective of appealing to the 
consciousness of the merciless father. Mara’s observations regarding the 
Alina Bako:     Cities, Networks, and Hierarchies: A Systematic Model of Romanian Novel
107
community churches brings up the topic of “colonizing,” as well as of 
the construction of a network made up of the clash between civiliza-
tions: “if one crosses the Murăş one gets to Lipova with its sparkly and 
ornate tower of the Romanian church, and downstream there is the 
endless plain of Hungary” (33; see also Bako). The tensions between 
communities are also fed by the fact that the times were ripe with ideas 
of independence, and the dissolution of the empire was at hand. Slavici 
introduces also a short analysis of foreign politics: “The young men 
enrolled in Mantua, Verona and Venice were writing that a certain 
Garibaldi had appeared, a great general, who seeks to unite Italians 
and raise them above the emperor; while Hungarians were whisper-
ing and bragging that their Kossuth had connections to Garibaldi and 
that he would return in spring in order to drive away the emperor’s 
guards.” (236) Indeed, the year 1859 is representative for the funda-
mental changes of political regimes, Garibaldi, who starting with the 
year 1860 coagulates a revolutionary movement in Italy, and the rela-
tionships between various conservative and liberal groups with immi-
grants gathering around Kossuth being destabilizing elements of the 
Austrian Empire. Important power centers now shift towards Italy and 
the Hungarian resistance, both becoming models for the fight for inde-
pendence. The example suggested by Slavici is presented with honesty, 
with the reader finding out that the Italians are fighting the foreign 
administration, throwing them into the sea, into the Garda Lake, into 
the Adige River and suggesting that Hungarians might do the same in 
order to gain independence. We are thus dealing with a European con-
textualization of Transylvania’s situation, where the administration was 
the body representing Austrian power. Not accidentally, I. Negoițescu 
notices the fact that on the one hand “cosmopolitism brings the author 
of Mara closer to the values of the old continent […] a typical repre-
sentative of the spirit of Central Europe,” and on the other hand we 
notice that “provincialism” one can find also in “the Italian novels of 
the second half of the 19th century” (Negoițescu 116). The idea of an 
obvious belonging to European literature is expressed, but which is 
nonetheless original by bringing to the forefront the particular situa-
tion of the Romanian space.
On the other hand, in the novel Cel din urmă armaș / The Last 
Governor (published in 1923 and apparently written in the Văcărești 
prison), the characters travel one step further from a geographical 
point of view. The time span of events is 1875–1880. In this time 
frame, the protagonist Iorgu and his wife go beyond alpha cities, those 
power centers, and reach the west, equating the journey to a process of 
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refining and climbing the social ladder and constructing a network. 
They use Vienna only as a stop on their way to Paris or as a medical 
center. Slavici associates Vienna with a space where characters can heal: 
“[W]e decided to stop in Vienna. There is a Romanian doctor there, 
Sterie Ciurcu, who opened a sanatorium and has connections to all 
medical celebrities. We will stay with him for a while and we will see 
what the Viennese celebrities will tell us.” (Slavici 269)
We find the same association also with Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, 
Vienna becoming an alpha city in this network, a space of healing by 
offering solutions to bodily problems. The nineteenth century writer 
however observes that the best manner to have access to Viennese med-
ical services is by means of acquaintances, in this case the character of 
Stere Ciurcu. We can sense a certain degree of insecurity in handling 
the problem here, with the supporting character being characterized as 
a “Romanian doctor.” Dishevelled Maidens presents the protagonists 
on their journey to Vienna, the alpha city is analyzed also in her other 
novels, seen from a double vantage point: a place of education, but also 
perceived from the perspective of medical institutions, meant to bring 
about healing: “Lenora had gone to Vienna lately, where Coca-Aimee 
was studying and for a medical check-up. A hypochondria typical of 
spoiled women […]! It was caprice that had brought her to Vienna 
instead of Bucharest.” (Papadat-Bengescu 40) The urban space of 
Warsaw is associated with “a big export business” run by Drăgănescu. 
The journey then proceeds “with a stop in Vienna, in order to provide 
the doctors taking care of Lenora the latest medical letter” (53). What 
is also brought to the forefront are protagonists’ visits to Vienna, such 
as the one where in the course of ten days “Lenora walked around 
with Coca-Aimee, bargained, and made graceful conversation with the 
doctors” (54). However, the small landowner Drăgănescu becomes 
impoverished, the reason being “the trips to Vienna, the exaggerated 
unforeseeable spending, brought about by Lenora’s disease, his being 
kept from keeping an eye on the estate, that he had previously never 
abandoned.” (57)
The travels feature Vienna as a mandatory stop, seen as a city that 
simultaneously attracts and repels. If in the novel Mara, previously dis-
cussed, the protagonists had relatives in the Austrian Empire, and could 
thus identify with the space granting them power, even from a distance, 
in The Last Governor, alpha European cities are perceived by the pro-
tagonist as a power that attracts and fascinates, while at the same time 
remaining foreign. Whether they spend their honeymoon in “Vienna, 
where the newlyweds planned to stop for a few days and ended up staying 
Alina Bako:     Cities, Networks, and Hierarchies: A Systematic Model of Romanian Novel
109
for a few weeks” (Slavici 441) or make a short stop before heading further 
to Paris: “They were after all not the only Romanians who stopped in 
Vienna on their way to Paris” (442). We can notice the construction of 
a network corresponding to tourist destinations. From euro-peripheral 
spaces such as Bucharest or from rural spaces characters travel to European 
capitals, either in order to be fashionable, or out of snobbery, or because 
large urban settlements mean a loss of identity and an intense experience 
of life, involving gambling, parties, psychedelics or Bacchic orgies. For 
example, Mrs. Margot confesses to Iorgu her affairs with Zonas and the 
African Ali Buduc and the hallucinatory hashish experiences: “We were 
both taking hashish in our coffee.” (445) Thus, the characters advance 
practices typical for urban spaces. The urban network transfigures the 
characters who moving from one city to another come to experience new 
things. The characters’ journeys establish a true European itinerary, lead-
ing through Zurich, Geneve where Zonas buys pearls, through Nice and 
up to Paris where Iorgu becomes a cultural attaché. Travels are recorded 
with stops of several hundred kilometers, such as the following: “It seems 
like I caught a cold on the way, so I was very worried and had to stop in 
Vienna and then in Munich. I did not find Zoe in Zurich, but I was told 
she had departed to Geneva—and not alone, but accompanied by a rich 
Brazilian.” (447) Cities sometimes become a place of refuge, at other 
times the protagonist perceives the distance to his home country as an 
obligation, a duty by means of which he gained access to the new social 
class he was part of: “So, they all went to Paris, where it was even better 
and more beautiful than in Zurich. Iorgu felt like a stuffed doll being 
dragged around, that a madman had scorningly tied to the tail of a horse 
that had been whipped.” (470) Simultaneously, another hypostasis is 
the one of escaping personal issues by entering “the midst of people who 
are unaware of them, whether in Paris, in Switzerland, or in Munich” 
(474). Slavici’s characters are small landowners who have to constantly 
choose between taking care of their estate, or selling it and moving to 
the Capital, in order to experience the ongoing process of urbanization. 
Iorgu, torn between the two different attitudes understands “what the 
landowner loses if he gives up his estate,” an opportunity for the writer 
pleading for human rights to bring up the issue of property. If landown-
ers had “been allowed to create the necessary agricultural installations” 
(478), then, the character notes, the country would have also profited 
from it. The small Romanian landowner is attracted to foreign cities, 
traveling to such alpha cities becoming an obligation in order to main-
tain social status: “Most of them take loans in order to be able to spend 
the winter in Paris, Nizza or even Monaco” (478) says Talpă, one of the 
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novel’s characters. The influence of the cultural spaces visited is obvi-
ous, even in the interior design of homes: “The room was ready: ceiling 
and walls painted in the same color, the color of oily milk. The others, 
Pompeii style. The nobleman, a stylish man returning from Paris, had 
chosen everything to be simple but very beautiful, especially the ceiling, 
and the plasterer was working alongside two journeymen on the decora-
tions on the edges.” (478) The association with central spaces such as 
Paris becomes a form by means of which everything becomes contami-
nated with its image. Whether they are going to Nice or stop in Zurich 
to find “letters from home” (453), the characters travel through Europe 
sometimes out of sheer snobbery, at other times in order to maintain 
their status, but at all times relating to their acquaintances back home, 
in the Romanian space, whom they never break with. It is a journey that 
always bears a double sense: attraction towards the alpha city, contami-
nation with its force, transformation and the return to one’s own coun-
try, where social status is being reinforced. In fact, this is the role of the 
alpha city in the novels discussed: to offer the protagonist reaching them 
some of its attributes of force, to use them in the subordinate space. The 
global cultural network is described, based on the circulation of goods. 
Social status is measured by the desire to accumulate goods from far-
away places. The centers of wealth, seen as the only instrument for social 
climbers, are the European cultural spaces, to which objects from farther 
and farther places are added, like in an interconnected network: “Today 
furniture from Paris or at least Vienna, tomorrow Russian horses and 
expensive carriages, the day after that Persian rugs, gobelins, paintings, 
vases and various frills, and on top of that servants and more servants 
dressed like in Paris and offered a good life.” (287)
For the modernist novelist, Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, giving up 
the estate and along with it life in the countryside brings about an 
emotional metamorphosis detailed by the narrator by means of allu-
sive observations: “Mrs. Eliza whispered something in approximate 
French,” “for the first time in city attire,” “an overcoat that seemed to 
hinder him” (Papadat-Bengescu 128). The description of another one 
of the characters, Mika-Le, is done by means of mentioning brands that 
marked the evolution of fashion in the beginning of the century, such 
as, precum Maison Lys or Couturier Premet: “[A] mannequin from 
Maison Lys, with very narrow hips, without life-giving thighs, created 
not for bearing children, but for wearing the latest creations of Premet, 
some silk scarf covering a non-existing body.” (128) At other times, 
reflector characters such as Mini and Nory bring up gossip topics, for 
example the remark concerning doctor Rim:
Alina Bako:     Cities, Networks, and Hierarchies: A Systematic Model of Romanian Novel
111
You, a feminist, the adept of great mentalities, harbor this sarcastic and vulgar 
tone! Still, she too said to herself inside her head, even if not out loud: “That 
ugly German!” It seemed like there was some method in the Romanian’s bad 
habit: elegance and cordiality towards strangers are always dependent on the 
latter’s attitude. Today, it was all Rim’s fault. He acted too aggressively and too 
much like a foreigner. (44)
In other novels such as Drumul ascuns / The Hidden Road, references 
to such spaces as Mont-Cenis appear, “where the guide teaches you 
to lean over and gaze into the abyss …” (Papadat-Bengescu 1087), 
or Geneva and Zurich: “Elena had been startled to find out that he 
had sold his apartment in Geneva, when he had departed for Zurich” 
(1087), centers of power especially from the perspective of Marcian’s 
profession of a musician. What seems interesting to us is the tableau-
like insert that brings up Darwinism, by means of a portrait hanging 
in doctor Walter’s salon: “The en pied portrait of Darwin was sur-
veying them.” (1103) Papadat-Bengescu multiplies perspectives out 
of a desire not to contour a dominant idea of the text, “the ances-
tral grimace” being useful for the human being in order to justify any 
action from a Nietzschean perspective. Corporeality is an animalic ele-
ment, by means of everything that prompts us to identify humans as 
“beasts,” as bereft of any moral principle. It is a remark reminiscent of 
Dostoevsky that the narrator makes here, because bringing up bestial-
ity, lack of self-control, representing a hypostasis of the “body” associ-
ated with a diseased consciousness. The constructed network becomes 
an evolutionary chain where the travelling characters exchange ideas, 
adopt attitudes or take over clothing preferences, all contributing to an 
interconnectedness of the Romanian and the European space.
Hierarchies: The city between subnational and supranational
Beyond the shadow of a doubt the history of literature is traced by 
means of the history of cities and the relationships existing between 
them, relationships that have shaped society since the earliest times. 
Whether we are speaking about antique spaces where manuscripts 
have encountered a space to expand, or whether we move closer to 
more recent times, the urban spaces have always shaped the itinerary 
of cultural ideas. The second idea supporting the model we initially 
advanced is the one of hierarchies. Thus, we can notice between the 
cities depicted in the novels analyzed not only a horizontal relation-
ship which constructed the networks, but also a vertical one, which 
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112
determined hierarchies: “Cities are simultaneously subnational, oper-
ating below nation at regional level, and supranational, transcending 
nation via city-to-city global circuits.” (Rooney 280) We notice that 
such a statement is applicable also to the cities depicted in Romanian 
novels. The Romanian space has a special status, because in its case 
we are dealing with a double hypostasis: firstly, the territorial frag-
mentation before the unification of 1918 and the different cultural 
adherences which have shaped the Romanian provinces in radically 
different ways. While Transylvania established hierarchical relations 
with the Austrian, and then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, of which 
it was a part for a period of time, the Romanian Principalities main-
tained a constant relationship with the Ottoman Empire and Oriental 
culture (even after the War for Independence in 1877). Some writ-
ers, among them also Slavici, whom we have mentioned above, in-
sert ideas related to foreign politics into their novels, containing this 
above-mentioned hierarchy.
If war were to break out between the Turks and the Russians, the battles could 
only have taken place at Romania’s borders with Russia, Romania being a 
vassal country of the Ottoman empire. […] Others thought that it would be 
best for the country to declare its independence, to cut ties with the Ottoman 
kingdom, which would have stopped the Russians from claiming right to cross 
the Prut River. (Slavici 235)
This is a sort of negotiation of power relations between global spaces, 
a realignment of hierarchies by means of force. Studying the manner 
in which hierarchical relations with “global” cities are reflected in lit-
erature proves a transnational interaction with other cultural spaces. 
This hierarchical pyramid generated by the relations between cities and 
implicitly between countries/empires can be traced also from the per-
spective of the peculiar situation of the Romanian spaces. Thus, in the 
case of Rebreanu’s prose hierarchies are established at a primary level 
by means of a certain “colonization” that is brought up by means of the 
linguistic criterion. In the novel Ion (1920), the Transylvanian writer, 
even though he brings to the narrative foreground an individuality, by 
means of the portrait of the Romanian peasant from Transylvania, cre-
ates a backdrop against which social, economic, political and cultural 
realities of the region are painted. Close to the moment of disintegra-
tion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Rebreanu’s characters experi-
ence intense personal and national tragedies. These are introduced into 
the narration in order to prove the existence of a latent state of ten-
sion. Thus, the deputy of the “constituency” in Armadia, Ion Ciocan, 
Alina Bako:     Cities, Networks, and Hierarchies: A Systematic Model of Romanian Novel
113
even though he was the principal of the Romanian school, “had flirted 
with the Hungarians, making compromises for their sake, introduc-
ing, mainly through the back door, the Hungarian language into the 
study programs” (Rebreanu, Opere 148, vol. 4) and being consequently 
rewarded with the position of a deputy. The same attitude of compro-
mise can be observed in the following fragment, “independence then 
gained him the professorship of Romanian literature at the University 
of Budapest and maintained the representation of Armadia in parlia-
ment until his death” (149). The lingering conflict between communi-
ties is captured by presenting the two candidates for the available posi-
tion of deputy, after Ciocan’s demise. The two candidates represent two 
communities: “Victor Grofşoru, a prominent lawyer from Armadia, 
supported by the entire Romanian community, and the banker Bela 
Beck, a Hungarian Swab from Budapest, who it was rumored was will-
ing to spend even a hundred thousand crowns and being a member of 
the government had at his disposal, with a most efficient discreetness, 
the support of bigger and smaller authorities” (149), two hypostases 
corresponding to two attitudes regarding the role of the Romanian 
community in the Budapest Parliament. Secondly, the hierarchy is es-
tablished by means of belonging to a social or professional category, 
as exemplified by Morillo’s pyramid, who placed local elites on the 
bottom, followed by elites and on top a “unitary political leader.” A 
character from Rebreanu’s prose, Ion Pintea, from Cernăuți, caught 
up in a debate with Titu, explains the role of politics and hierarchies, 
as experienced by a middle-class governmental clerk, by resorting to 
words such as “political turmoil,” “fights, harassment, scandal, filth,” 
“their small ambitions,” “disgust.” The conclusion that astonishes Titu 
and grants a new meaning to the ideas he had previously stood for is a 
sort of demolishment of patriotic discourse:
I believe freedom is the greatest misfortune for the nation not prepared for 
it. This is why you people here are happier, in spite of all your whining and 
revolt … This is the truth, my dear Sir! Here the Hungarians, foolishly, harass 
you, persecute you, subdue you—that is all true. This is your only luck, 
because this is what makes you strong, united and determined. The moment 
you would be granted liberty, you would do the same as us … The Hungar-
ians are dumb and make you stronger instead of weakening you. They would 
however destroy you the moment they would unchain you! (181)
The bitter conclusion reached by the character who had experienced such 
liberty in Cernăuți is internalized by Titu, a defender of Romanianism 
in all its forms. The discussion thus advances a hypostasis by means of 
PKn, letnik 46, št. 3, Ljubljana, november 2023
114
which solidarity is generated by a common enemy, a goal for which 
members of the community come together, a principle according to 
which even social movements function. Power, represented here by the 
dominating empire, plays the role of a “necessary evil,” which the oth-
ers, the weaker ones, gather to fight.
Another hypostasis of the hierarchies represented by the creation 
of an elite shaped in imperial cities such as Budapest, due to the 
characters’ studies at Hungarian universities. In Forest of the Hanged, 
Apostol Bologa receives a scholarship in order to study there: “The 
answer arrived three weeks later: he was granted a place in a ‘student 
college’ in Budapest, full board and even with a few crowns monthly 
as pocket money.” During the two years he spends studying in the 
capital-city he grows as an individual, however Rebreanu attributes 
a hypostasis to him by means of which the nostalgia for his native 
Parva and the nature which granted him freedom are seen in opposi-
tion to “life in the capital” which “he found insufferable. The noisy 
streets, people’s egoism, the mechanization of life bothered him” and 
“in nature he felt free and closer to the world’s heartbeat. Any time 
he could, he escaped the city. He knew the hills around Buda as well 
as the surroundings of Parva …” (Rebreanu, Opere 88, vol. 3). Thus, 
a hierarchy of cities is produced, according to the manner in which 
Apostol Bologa relates to these spaces: the urban development of 
Budapest and to what this power-space could offer him, he realizes 
that his manner of feeling is different, unable of granting him the 
individual protection he is craving. We can observe that certain ten-
sion between modernity, meaning evolution, including by bringing 
up university education, a source of changing mentalities, and the tra-
ditional represented by the attachment to his native, rural space. The 
incapacity to adapt is justified by his emotional makeup insufficiently 
adaptable to urbanization. In the novel other characters with different 
journeys appear, which are briefly described, in the manner of a bio-
graphical note: “He told him that he was a Saxon, the son of a peas-
ant, from a village next to Braşov, half of which were Romanians and 
the other half Saxons. […] He liked the book and he graduated from 
the Commercial Academy in Vienna. He had secured a position as 
accountant in a bank in Sibiu …” (88) In another one of Rebreanu’s 
novels, Răscoala / The Uprise (1932) Grigore Iuga studies abroad, but 
only in order to return to his country and “import” the knowledge he 
gathered there. The hierarchy is quite clear, advancing the solution of 
learning the “know-how”:
Alina Bako:     Cities, Networks, and Hierarchies: A Systematic Model of Romanian Novel
115
He had gone to Germany to specialize in agronomy, after he had received his 
BA in Law in Bucharest, not in order to practice, but merely to have a title. 
He left for three years, his mother died during the first year and the old man 
asked him to stay home, to abandon all this useless science. He barely agreed 
to allow him to continue studying for one more year. He returned from abroad 
with a head full of grand plans and with certain solutions for all hardships. 
(Rebreanu, Opere 88, vol. 8)
The 24-year-old young men had left to Germany to specialize in agron-
omy, an idea concordant with his country’s obvious ruralism, during 
those times. The influence of the German culture and education is ob-
vious, as the character’s studies were meant to modernize the tradi-
tional system. The father, “the old man” as he calls him in the novel, is 
the one who does not trust science, taking up a retrograde attitude, not 
at all open to novelty, and the son who could have changed something 
falls prey to the Nadina’s allure and renounces the power conferred to 
him by his studies abroad. In The Uprise comparisons to other alpha 
cities appear: the two capitals, Bucharest and Budapest. In a comment 
referring to the state of Father Belciug, a character in the novel Ion, it 
is noted that “Belciug should return to the country, as he had prom-
ised when the new church in Pripas was built; being a rich widower, 
he can easily come here and he won’t regret the money spent, because 
Bucharest is a more likeable city than Budapest, apart from being the 
heart of Romanians” (229). Paris, the French capital, is mentioned 
in connection with shopping for clothes, necessary for taking part in 
events such as the ones mentioned by Nadina:
There was, only in November, the opening of the Parliamentary Session, the 
Eleonora Duse and Feraudy performances, apart from the Paderewski concert. 
She had brought some things with her from Paris, when she returned home, 
but she soon realized with dread that with the multitude of events which 
claimed her presence, she could just well have been naked. (325)
As part of the same discussion, the relationship with the power center 
is analyzed by reminiscing about lost fortunes or big sums of money 
squandered, the city being seen as “a place of doom.” Reminiscent of 
“creolization” a space is thus described, keeping important elements 
imported from the hierarchic pyramid:
A small night-time restaurant, in a back street. A modest exterior. Inside 
blinding lights, sought-after luxury, warm atmosphere, real French waiters 
and some sensational attractions. The owner, from a noble family, with a dis-
tinguished name, who spent a huge fortune in Paris and build the restaurant 
PKn, letnik 46, št. 3, Ljubljana, november 2023
116
from whatever money he had left, in order to have an occupation, receives his 
customers personally and ceremoniously like a senior would receive his guests 
to a stylish reception. Raul Brumaru, of course, a friend of the owner’s, makes 
the introductions skilfully. And Nadina smiles delightedly and repeats over 
and over again: — Ah, oui, c’est vraiment très chic, très parisien! (323).
This mixture is created by bringing French elements to a Parisian loca-
tion, as part of an overtly expressed influence. Such references appear 
even during moments of happiness as “Raul Brumaru, more of an early 
bird than all of us, came down fully groomed, happy, joyfully humming 
a new tune that was incredibly popular in Paris” (467). Nadina’s hus-
band, Grigore Iuga, realizes that his wife’s life abroad implied “spend-
ing enormous amounts of money,” and what Platamonu had sent him, 
representing “his fall earnings paid out a few months in advance, even 
though only he knew how he had actually been able to conjure up 
such a huge sum” (479) had been squandered. The narrator’s attitude 
evinces his sympathy towards the downtrodden, and condemns the at-
titude of estate owners and landholders.
A systemic model: The Romanian novel
If in Ion, Rebreanu’s novel, the discussion gravitated primarily around 
the Hungarian language, in The Uprise we realize that the hypostases 
of language are different, as “Nobody on the editorial board spoke 
any other foreign language except French, so that nobody could read 
to them,” and because Titu Herdelea was “from abroad,” the secretary 
asked him to select from the German and Hungarian press the news 
about Romania and enslaved Romanians. He immediately offered him 
an impressive pile of virgin newspapers” (136). If in the novel published 
in 1920, the world described had relationships above all with the Austro-
Hungarian Empire, in The Uprise the vision is transformed, evincing a 
world “speckled like an oriental mixture” where we simultaneously see:
[W]orkers and clerks, then peasants walking in groups like scared sheep, ser-
vants in Hungarian peasant clothes, tiny soldiers, young ladies wearing exces-
sive makeup, eyeing all men, apprentices and high school students teasing 
each other and bumping into people and walls, juice sellers, Bulgarians wear-
ing brass bells, Turks carrying candy … (23)
The mixture noticed also by Rebreanu proves the existence of a new 
systemic model, where networks, by means of horizontally shaped 
Alina Bako:     Cities, Networks, and Hierarchies: A Systematic Model of Romanian Novel
117
relations between Romanian urban centers and foreign ones over-
lap with hierarchies, constructed vertically, as the oriental hypostasis 
evinces a taking over which brings chaos, as opposed to order. Nadina 
notices the “lack of civilization” that she attributes to the Orient, 
while Bucharest’s road to becoming a “civilized” city is attributed to 
the French influence. “Inside the carriage, wrapped in furs, Nadina 
said joyfully:—How good that Bucharest started to be more civilized, 
not only a place for grilled meat, loud music and bad behavior! … 
Don’t you agree, Grig?—Yes, of course!—And the musician was quite 
interesting! She added after a pause. Did you notice that he only sang 
for me?” (153).
As Morillo pointed, “the general cultural difference between the 
two types of structures, and indeed the different purposes for which 
each type of structure existed, made the intersection of networks and 
hierarchies potentially tense and conflicted, requiring a variety of cul-
tural and administrative mechanisms to mediate and regulate the ten-
sion” (Morillo 5). We can thus conclude that there exists, as part of 
the process of transferring knowledge, two essential phases that con-
struct a viable literary model generated by the Romanian space: the 
first is the one by means of which urban spaces become nodal points 
for the characters’ travels, whether we are referring to journeys through 
Transylvania towards Vienna or Budapest, or from Bucharest to Paris 
or other alpha cities. In the prose texts of the three writers who have 
served as case studies one can notice this openness towards the integra-
tion of Romanian cities, by means of the characters, into a European 
network. The second phase is the one where hierarchies are established, 
as the urban node network also means a hierarchization of city spaces. 
Starting out from the linguistic vehicle used by the characters and the 
power relations we can encounter in this context, until the analysis of 
foreign policies and the manner of election of political leaders, accord-
ing to the relation with a certain alpha city, a political center. The clash 
between cultural spaces is obvious in the texts analyzed, as inevitably 
between dominant and dominated an oppressive relationship is estab-
lished, which also constructs the pyramid of power relations. The urban 
center becomes the reflection of this systemic model, produced by the 
intersection of knowledge acquired in central and western Europe and 
the Oriental heritage.
PKn, letnik 46, št. 3, Ljubljana, november 2023
118
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Mesta, omrežja in hierarhije: sistematični model 
romunskega romana
Ključne besede: romunska književnost / romunski roman / imagologija / mesto / 
omrežja / hierarhije / sistemski model
V članku opazujemo, kako je mogoče uporabiti mesto kot narativni scenarij in 
s tem vplivati na ustvarjanje sistemskega modela znanja. Izhajajoč iz Morillove 
teorije, ki urbane prostore analizira z opazovanjem interakcije med omrežji, 
ki jim pripadajo, in hierarhijami, ki jih vzpostavljajo, ter nazadnje postanejo 
»vozlišča znanja«, bomo skušali dokazati, da predstavljajo romunski romani s 
konca 19. stoletja in iz obdobja med vojnama dragocene mejnike za zarisova-
nje sistemskega modela Jugovzhodne Evrope. Specifičnost romunske književ-
nosti, ki odraža zgodovinske razmere in odnose z imperiji, kot sta avstro-ogr-
ski ali otomanski, ter vzpostavitev delovnih razmerij ob prehodu s podeželske 
na pospešeno urbanizacijo ustvarja ustrezno matrico. Te vidike lahko srečamo 
v romanih pisateljic in pisateljev romunske književnosti, kot sta Ioan Slavici 
in Liviu Rebreanu, ki odsevajo realnost transilvanskega prostora ter odnosov 
med skupnostmi Romunov, Nemcev, Sasov in Švabov, Madžarov, Judov, vse 
do Hortensie Papadat-Bengescu, pisateljice, ki je orisala podobo Bukarešte kot 
dela evropske urbane mreže, četudi hierarhično podrejene Parizu.
1.01 Izvirni znanstveni članek / Original scientific article
UDK 821.135.1.09
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3986/pkn.v46.i3.06