Bucur, R. Jewish-Romanian Writers: a Converging Or a Parallel Canon
Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Bra şov Series IV: Philology and Cultural Studies • Vol. 4 (53) No.1 - 2011 JEWISH-ROMANIAN WRITERS: A CONVERGING OR A PARALLEL CANON? Romulus BUCUR 1 Abstract: Starting from the discussions around the notion of canon in Romanian culture, especially since the translation of Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon, the present paper examines the canonical status of a particular group of writers, that is, those who belong simultaneously to Romanian literature, and to the Romanian-speaking Jewish minority. It reviews the cases of two writers, Mihail Sebastian and N. Steinhardt, both from the point of view of their self-image, and of the reception of their work. Keywords: canon, Jewish, inherited vs. acquired identity. revived and firmly stated in (Bloom, 1998), How do Jewish / minority writers situate and refined, within the field of Romanian (themselves) towards the literature of the literary theory, by Mircea Martin (Martin, majority? There are a series of approaches 1997-1998), (Martin, 2000a), (Martin, of the issue, from various points of view: 2000b), (Martin, 2000c), (Martin, 2000d). (Călinescu, 1983: 963-964, 791, 794, 796, Considering literature “in and for itself, and, especially, 973-976), (Crohm ălniceanu, beside any considerations foreign to its 2001), (Morar, 2006), the writers discussed intimate nature and to literary life”1 (Martin, being Ronetti-Roman, Felix Aderca, Mihail 2000b), and canonization taking place Sebastian, Max Blecher, I. Peltz, Ury “exclusively within the literary field”, a Benador, Ion C ălug ăru, H. Bonciu, Tristan decisive part is played by literary critics, but Tzara, B. Fundoianu, Ilarie Voronca, also by “the writers, themselves, through Gherasim Luca and Norman Manea, a their publicly asserted preferences and special issue of the Vatra review etc.; it does affinities” (Martin, 2000b).
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