Comparative Literature in Contemporary Romania: Between National Self-Legitimation and International Recognition Andrei Terian Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Letters and Arts, Romania
[email protected] This paper examines the current state and prospects of comparative literature in Romania. Romanian literary studies in the 20th century was characterized by the subordination of comparative perspectives to the national literary historiography, the absence of a strong local methodological tradition, and the dominance of an essayistic and impressionistic brand of criticism. The study focuses on forms of institutionalization of comparative studies in postcommunist Romania (associations, research centers, journals, etc.) and the emergence of several comparative “schools” (particularly those in Timişoara, Cluj and Braşov). Keywords: comparative literature / Romania / Romanian literary criticism / post-communism / institutionalization / internationalization This study proposes a critical account of the current situation of comparative literature in Romania.1 Such an endeavor is justified on at least two levels. On the one hand, a systematic survey of the current situation of Romanian comparatism is absent from international bib- liography. Admittedly, at present, there are several very useful studies of the history of Romanian comparative literature. However, of these, many were published during the communist period (see, e.g., Dima and Papadima) and are no longer relevant nowadays because of their anach- ronism and the tendentious