A M oldovan ‘sheep'? – framing M oldovan passivity

This article offers a different perspective for understanding M oldovan discourses of passivity by turning its attention to representations of national identity. Its main focus is a M oldovan ballad, M ioriţa, and the way in which it discursively both frames and legitimises inaction. It builds on the idea that M ioriţa is a central part of the way in which M oldovans represent their identity with respect to the writings of I on D ruţă, its main promoter in M oldovan society. More importantly, the ballad is conceptually linked to national characteristics such as lamentation and kindness, characteristics that can be summed up under the headline of ‘passivity’. Thus, drawing from constructivist and post‐structuralist approaches, the article stresses how these elements inform the M oldovan view of the self, its identity and even its representations of foreign affairs, framing the M oldovan lack of agency on a discursive level.