Page 191 - 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. 191
The Functions of Socialist Realism: Translation of Genre Fiction in Communist Romania 191
a way, the so-called ‘critical spirit’, which represents the rampaging crit-
icism stage in the Romanian culture (1840–1880), ended with a matura-
tion that implied moving away from literature for consumption and gen-
re fiction due to a new desire to create literature that would portray the
‘national trait’ better (Terian 2013, 6) through the assimilation of high-
brow oeuvres.
Although publishing houses continued to sell translations of sensa-
tionalist novels (especially French and American), those were never com-
mented on and had little impact within the world of cultural elites. For
this reason, Alexandre Dumas–père, Jules Verne, and Eugène Sue have al-
ways been seen in a condescending or pejorative light in Romanian cul-
ture. In the twentieth century, and especially during the interwar period,
a large number of genre fiction works was translated for commercial pur-
poses, but the high expectations and superiority complexes of the literary
system, doubled by the emergence of the Romanian nationalistic move-
ments and the rising modernist trend, rendered them practically invis-
ible, barring the reading public. Nationalistic movements tried to raise
taxes on any translation, so that national literature would prevail (Goldiș
2018a, 101), and modernists neglected genre fiction since they focused
more on highbrow literature.
Starting with 1944, Romanian culture faced the problem of organiz-
ing all these trends, and the distinction between high fiction and popular
fiction had to be completely revised because of the transversal problem of
judging fiction as either valid or invalid on ideological grounds. Even if
popular fiction as represented by sensationalist novels was seen as a cap-
italist product, driven by consumerism, the political agenda was none-
theless compelled to recover some of those ‘capitalist editorial enterpris-
es’ because of the importance of some of those popular fiction writers for
the communist party. In Scânteia [The Spark], the most important maga-
zine in Romania after World War II, this struggle shows itself in the fol-
lowing words:
Against the rise in the profitability of literary works produced by Roma-
nian authors, editors multiplied and thrived. It is true, however, that only a
mean share of these writers benefited from this increase in the circulation
figures: some of great caliber such as Mihail Sadoveanu, and some produc-
ers of ready-mades for the use of disoriented youth (12 October 1944).
As a result, by reconsidering the authors close to the party and
through the interventionist dimension literature had in the socialist edu-
cation, socialist realism revisited the need for genre fiction.
a way, the so-called ‘critical spirit’, which represents the rampaging crit-
icism stage in the Romanian culture (1840–1880), ended with a matura-
tion that implied moving away from literature for consumption and gen-
re fiction due to a new desire to create literature that would portray the
‘national trait’ better (Terian 2013, 6) through the assimilation of high-
brow oeuvres.
Although publishing houses continued to sell translations of sensa-
tionalist novels (especially French and American), those were never com-
mented on and had little impact within the world of cultural elites. For
this reason, Alexandre Dumas–père, Jules Verne, and Eugène Sue have al-
ways been seen in a condescending or pejorative light in Romanian cul-
ture. In the twentieth century, and especially during the interwar period,
a large number of genre fiction works was translated for commercial pur-
poses, but the high expectations and superiority complexes of the literary
system, doubled by the emergence of the Romanian nationalistic move-
ments and the rising modernist trend, rendered them practically invis-
ible, barring the reading public. Nationalistic movements tried to raise
taxes on any translation, so that national literature would prevail (Goldiș
2018a, 101), and modernists neglected genre fiction since they focused
more on highbrow literature.
Starting with 1944, Romanian culture faced the problem of organiz-
ing all these trends, and the distinction between high fiction and popular
fiction had to be completely revised because of the transversal problem of
judging fiction as either valid or invalid on ideological grounds. Even if
popular fiction as represented by sensationalist novels was seen as a cap-
italist product, driven by consumerism, the political agenda was none-
theless compelled to recover some of those ‘capitalist editorial enterpris-
es’ because of the importance of some of those popular fiction writers for
the communist party. In Scânteia [The Spark], the most important maga-
zine in Romania after World War II, this struggle shows itself in the fol-
lowing words:
Against the rise in the profitability of literary works produced by Roma-
nian authors, editors multiplied and thrived. It is true, however, that only a
mean share of these writers benefited from this increase in the circulation
figures: some of great caliber such as Mihail Sadoveanu, and some produc-
ers of ready-mades for the use of disoriented youth (12 October 1944).
As a result, by reconsidering the authors close to the party and
through the interventionist dimension literature had in the socialist edu-
cation, socialist realism revisited the need for genre fiction.
