👤Author Name: The Editorial Team, Galin TIHANOVAffiliation: Queen Mary University of LondonContact: g.tihanov@qmul.ac.uk 📄Article Citation Recommendation: The Editorial Team, Tihanov, Galin. “The responsibility of critical examination, the duty of thinking cannot be outsourced.…” An interview with Galin Tihanov”. Synthesis, 4 / 2025: 285-290.Pages: 285-290Language: EnglishURL:https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2025/4/12_Tihanov.pdf

👤Author Name: Cécile VaissiéAffiliation: Université Rennes 2, FranceContact: cecile.vaissie@univ-rennes2.fr 📄Article Citation Recommendation: Vaissié, Cécile. ‟Littératures russe et française : deux siècles entre obsessions non-réciproques et bouleversements des statuts”. Synthesis, 4 / 2025: 7-22Pages: 7-22Language: FrenchURL:https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2025/4/1_Vaissie.pdf Abstract Russian literature appeared late in comparison to French literature and under the influence of the latter, but became very quickly an essential component of world literature, with many talented, original and influential writers. Nevertheless, throughout the 19th century, and until the October Revolution, it manifested, in the works and lives of its authors, what could be called an “obsession” with the West – Western Europe –, for which there was no real reciprocity in French literature. This “obsession” disappeared in the 20th century, during which at least two major changes happened in the relations between French and Russian literatures. The first one was due to the emergence of a Soviet literature defined according to Lenin’s wishes, and to the fascination that the Soviet project then exerted on many French intellectuals. The second major change started in the 1960’es, when Western intellectual re-evaluated the works produced by an official Soviet literature that no longer attracted them: it was judged provincial, conservative and dogmatic, while a more…

👤Author Name: Cristina DEUTSCHAffiliation: Institute of the Literary History and Theory “G. Călinescu”Contact: cristina_deutsch@hotmail.com 📄Article Citation Recommendation: Deutsch, Cristina. “Neal Alexander and David Cooper (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Literary Geographies, Series: Routledge Literature Handbooks, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2024, 446 p.”. Synthesis, 4 / 2025: 299-307.Pages: 299-307Language: EnglishURL:https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2025/4/14_Cristina_Deutsch.pdf Abstract Bibliography

👤Author Name: Daniela VIZIREANUAffiliation: Institute of the Literary History and Theory “G. Călinescu”Contact: d.vizireanu@yahoo.com 📄Article Citation Recommendation: Vizireanu, Daniela. “Dennis Yi Tenen, Literary Theory for Robots: How Computers Learned to Write, W.W. Norton & Company, 2024, 158 p.”, Synthesis, 4 / 2025: 308-309.Pages: 308-309Language: EnglishURL:https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2025/4/15_Daniela_Vizireanu.pdf Abstract Bibliography

👤Author Name: Darius BUMBARAffiliation: University of Bucharest Contact: dariusbumbar@gmail.com 📄Article Citation Recommendation: Bumbar, Darius. “Gisèle Sapiro and Delia Ungureanu (ed.), Pascale Casanova’s World of Letters and Its Legacies, Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2022, 213 p.”. Synthesis, 4 / 2025: 310-313.Pages: 310-313Language: EnglishURL:https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2025/4/16_Darius_Bumbar.pdf

👤Author Name: Cristina SCARLATAffiliation: Institute of the Literary History and Theory “G. Călinescu”Contact: cristinannscarlat@yahoo.com 📄Article Citation Recommendation: Scarlat, Cristina. “Bruce Lincoln, Secrete, minciuni și consecințe, Trecutul ascuns al unui mare savant și asasinarea discipolului său, Traduction de l’anglais par Sorana Lupu, Iași: Polirom, 2024”. Synthesis, 4 / 2025: 314-318.Pages: 314-318Language: FrenchURL:https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2025/4/17_Scarlat.pdf

👤Author Name: The Editorial Team, Marko JUVANAffiliation:  Institute of Slovenian Literature and Literary Studies, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts;Contact: marko.juvan@zrc-sazu.si 📄Article Citation Recommendation: The Editorial Team, Juvan, Marko. “Partnerships among ‘peripherals’ in joint research projects and scholarly publishing also contribute significantly to the decolonization of literary studies”. Synthesis, 4 / 2025: 291-295.Pages: 291-295Language: EnglishURL:https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2025/4/13_Juvan.pdf

👤Author Name: Svetlana KARADZHOVAAffiliation: БАН-Институт за литература, Institute of Literature, Bulgarian Academy of SciencesContact: Svetlana.karadzhova@gmail.com 📄Article Citation Recommendation: Karadzhova, Svetlana. “Eminescu’s The Morning Star in Banat Bulgarian Literature – Between Margins and Centers”. Synthesis, 4 / 2025: 268-281.Pages: 268-281Language: EnglishURL:https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2025/4/11_Karadzhova.pdf Abstract The community of Bulgarian Catholics in Banat is an example of cultural synchronization through translations of works by Romanian and Bulgarian authors into the Banat version of the Bulgarian literary language. The study presents one of the translations of Mihai Eminescu’s most famous poem, „Luceafărul” (“The Morning Star”) in Banat, focusing on the role of translation in juxtaposing the marginal literature of the Banat Bulgarians with Romanian and Bulgarian literature. What is created in the periphery in relation to the centre becomes a centre in itself. Texts that construct their own cultural space through the interpenetration of different models of describing the world through speech create the conditions for the emergence of a new centre. The theoretical model that represents this process is the philosophy of pragmatism developed by Charles S. Peirce. His semiotic theory captures processes and their changes in motion, is flexible, and offers a valuable terminological apparatus.   Key-words: Banat Bulgarians, Banat, Mihai Eminescu, Star Beshenov, Hyperion Bibliography ABADZHIEVA, Magdalena, Банатските българи…

👤Author Name: Catrinel POPAAffiliation: Universitatea din București [University of Bucharest], RoumanieContact: p_catrinel@yahoo.com 📄Article Citation Recommendation: Popa, Catrinel. “L’Ouest regarde l’Est. La convention  du voyageur étranger dans la littérature roumaine d’hier et d’aujourd’hui”. Synthesis, 4 / 2025: 252-267.Pages: 252-267Language: FrenchURL:https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2025/4/10_Catrinel_Popa.pdf Abstract Starting from the assumption that, since the 19th century, the topic of the foreign traveler has acquired a particular relevance in Romanian literature, the present article aims to analyze several fictional works that highlight the complex relationship between Romanians’ Eastern legacy and their urge to embrace the model offered by Western civilization.  Around 1848, when the intellectuals from the Principalities were engaged in a sustained effort to modernize Romanian society, Vasile Alecsandri published Balta Albă, a short story that humorously depicts the gallery of contrasts characteristic of Moldavian and Wallachian societies, seen through a French traveler’s eyes. Almost a century later, Mihail Sadoveanu brings back to the forefront the topic of the Western traveler in two of his interwar masterpieces: Zodia cancerului (1929) and Nopțile de Sânziene (1934), while in the second half of the 20th century, Maria Luiza Cristescu relocates it in a sophisticated parabolic novel called Privilegiu (1987). The present article will primarily explore the ways in which these fictional representations manage to soften and nuance the tensions raised by…

👤Author Name: Shiqian ZHOUAffiliation: 香港大學, The University of Hong KongContact: u3605552@connect.hku.hk 📄Article Citation Recommendation: Zhou, Shiqian. “Voiceless Resistance: Gender, Colonialism, and the Limits of Agency in Xu Xi’s Hong Kong Rose”. Synthesis, 4 / 2025: 202-224.Pages: 202-224Language: EnglishURL:https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2025/4/8_Zhou.pdf Abstract This paper argues that although Xu Xi advocates for a unique Hong Kong identity that resists assimilation into both Chinese nationalism and Western colonial narratives, her portrayal of Rose, the protagonist in Hong Kong Rose, ultimately fails to fully reject Orientalist representations. While the novel acknowledges Rose’s dual oppression under Western and Confucian patriarchal structures, it does not grant her sufficient narrative agency to transcend them. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Edward Said’s Orientalism, Gayatri Spivak’s concept of the subaltern, and Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s critique of Western feminism, this study demonstrates that Rose’s struggle for autonomy remains constrained by cultural expectations and colonial discourse. Her attempts to assert independence, such as engaging in extramarital intimacy or choosing emigration, are presented as emotionally conflicted and morally compromised rather than as acts of empowerment. Ultimately, the novel aestheticizes Rose’s endurance and positions it as a form of quiet virtue, rather than constructing a fully emancipated subjectivity. Despite its intention to critique patriarchal and colonial oppression from…