Balkan World Literature: A Romanian Perspective

December 9, 2024

👤Author

Name: Alina BAKO
Affiliation: â€žLucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Romania
Contact: alina.bako@ulbsibiu.ro

📄Article

Citation Recommendation: Bako, Alina. â€œBalkan World Literature: A Romanian Perspective”. Synthesis, 3 / 2024: 100-114.
Pages: 100-114
Language: English
URL:https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2024/3/6_Bako.pdf

Abstract

David Damrosch discusses the relevance of what he calls Balkan world literature in a recent essay (2023) which includes two Romanian authors. The Balkan world literature paradigm serves to construct a discourse through which Romanian literature generates, in a global context, an added knowledge of the space from which it originates. The binder used by Damrosch is linked to the Balkan space, a source of inspiration for literature. The main thesis of the present essay, articulated as a complement to Damrosch’s method, is around a historical figure from the Eastern space who influenced Central literatures. We proceed to a twofold movement, from the centre – to the Oriental (the adoption of the model), but also from the periphery to the centre. We consider case studies which have as protagonist a historical character, Sultana Roxelana, and we will discuss the fiction of Mihail Sadoveanu and Marguerite Yourcenar to see if “Balkan world literature” model works from this perspective as well.

Key-words: Balkan world literature, novel, historical figure, Marguerite Yourcenar, Mihail Sadoveanu, nereids

Bibliography

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