1918-2018. La literature nationale comme projet unificateur

👤Author

Name: Paul Cernat
Affiliation: University of Bucharest
Contact: cernatpaul@gmail.com

📄Article

Citation Recommendation: Cernat, Paul. „1918-2018. La literature nationale comme projet unificateur”. Synthesis, XLII (2023): 11-21.
Title: 1918-2018. LA LITTÉRATURE NATIONALE COMME PROJET UNIFICATEUR
Pages: 11-21
Language: French
URL: https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2022-2023/1-2/2_P_Cernat.pdf

Abstract

This paper offers a new approach on the topic of the identity of Romanian Literature as National Literature. I will discuss the case of the referential History of the Romanian Literature from its Origins until Present Day (1941) written by the most important Romanian literary critic and historian G Călinescu. This holistic historical narrative sends to a particular strategy of legitimizing the national literature as a history of literary values. I will argue that his focus on Romanian language as a trademark of Romanian literary identity proves insufficient as there are too many examples which invalidate Călinescu’s theory. I will propose in exchange an alternative, rather relative, but dynamic and integrative perspective: national literature as a concept with a variable geometry. That means, among others, the outcome of a historical metamorphosis, with its multiple borders and changing statutes, also with its modern and pre-modern avatars. We know that the challenges and new conflict between national and supranational brought by globalisation radically reformulate literary national identities and particularly peripheral and semi-peripheral identities, which need to update their roles and strategies of affirmation and preservation. This approach regarding National Literature will open a new dialogue with concepts like Regional Literature and even World Literature (in terms of world system analysis)

Key-words: literary history, identity, national literature, transnational literature, regional literature

Bibliography:

CĂLINESCU, G, Istoria literaturii române de la origini până în prezent [L’histoire de la littérature roumaine depuis ses origines jusqu’à nos jours], București, Fundația Regală pentru Literatură și Artă, 1941

MARTIN, Mircea, G. Călinescu și „complexele” literaturii române [G. Călinescu et les «complexes» de la littérature roumaine], București, Editura Minerva, 1981

IORGA, N, Oameni cari au fost [Les disparus], édition et notes de Ion Roman, vol II, București, Editura pentru Literatură, 1967 

CASANOVA, Pascale, La République mondiale des Lettres, ed revue et corigée, Paris, Seuil, 2008

SIMION, Eugen (coord), Dicționarul General al Literaturii Române [Dictionnaire Général de la Littérature Roumaine], I-VIII (A-Z), 2ème édition revue et mise à jour, București, Academia Română, Editura Muzeul Literaturii Române, 2016-2021

• DOI: 10.59277/synthe.2023.1-2.11