Page 190 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 190
Ideology in the 20th Century: studies of literary and social discourses and practices
190
The General Timeline of Translation of Novels in Communist Romania (1944–1989)
Genre Fiction in Romania: from ‘Subliterature’ to Functional
Literature
In 1848, only three novels were rendered in Romanian: Istoria unui mort.
Povestită de el însuși (unidentified original title) by Alexandre Dumas–
père, Speronare (part III, part I–II had already been published in 1846)
and the more famous Călătoriile lui Guliver în țări îndepărtate [Gulliver’s
Travels] by Jonathan Swift. The latter would not be commented in liter-
ary magazines until 1879, in a translated article by French critic H. Taine.
Most of the translated literature from the mid-nineteenth century was,
in fact, genre fiction, specifically adventure novels and sensationalist lit-
erature. In 1849, only two novels were translated, one by Alexandre Du-
mas–père and the other by Mme Célarier. During the 1850s, translated
fiction was genre fiction with the exception of Chateaubriand and Balzac,
and hence it appears that from 1840 to 1860 the most important authors
translated were Alexandre Dumas–père, Eugène Sue, George Sand, and
Harriet Beecher Stowe, with the last two often presented as sentimental
novel authors (Cohen 2002, 106). By 1880, they would be joined by au-
thors such as Victor Hugo and Goethe, alongside James Fenimore Coop-
er, Jules Verne, and Xavier de Montépin. After 1880, the translations of
fiction in Romania became more and more diverse, indicating institu-
tional modernization, which coincided with what is believed to be the
end of the ‘critical spirit in Romanian culture” [‘spiritul critic în cultura
română”], a phrase Garabet Ibrăileanu coined in 1909 which implicates
that a true analytical stage had only been reached in Romania in 1880. In
190
The General Timeline of Translation of Novels in Communist Romania (1944–1989)
Genre Fiction in Romania: from ‘Subliterature’ to Functional
Literature
In 1848, only three novels were rendered in Romanian: Istoria unui mort.
Povestită de el însuși (unidentified original title) by Alexandre Dumas–
père, Speronare (part III, part I–II had already been published in 1846)
and the more famous Călătoriile lui Guliver în țări îndepărtate [Gulliver’s
Travels] by Jonathan Swift. The latter would not be commented in liter-
ary magazines until 1879, in a translated article by French critic H. Taine.
Most of the translated literature from the mid-nineteenth century was,
in fact, genre fiction, specifically adventure novels and sensationalist lit-
erature. In 1849, only two novels were translated, one by Alexandre Du-
mas–père and the other by Mme Célarier. During the 1850s, translated
fiction was genre fiction with the exception of Chateaubriand and Balzac,
and hence it appears that from 1840 to 1860 the most important authors
translated were Alexandre Dumas–père, Eugène Sue, George Sand, and
Harriet Beecher Stowe, with the last two often presented as sentimental
novel authors (Cohen 2002, 106). By 1880, they would be joined by au-
thors such as Victor Hugo and Goethe, alongside James Fenimore Coop-
er, Jules Verne, and Xavier de Montépin. After 1880, the translations of
fiction in Romania became more and more diverse, indicating institu-
tional modernization, which coincided with what is believed to be the
end of the ‘critical spirit in Romanian culture” [‘spiritul critic în cultura
română”], a phrase Garabet Ibrăileanu coined in 1909 which implicates
that a true analytical stage had only been reached in Romania in 1880. In
