Paris-Bucharest, Bucharest-Paris: Francophone Writers from Romania

by Anne Quinney

This collection of essays presents new research on the work of Romanian writers who chose French as a literary language. Romanian is itself, of course, a Romance language, and there is a long history of close Franco-Romanian ties. But given the complex and often multilingual cultural heritage of these writerswhose influences included German, Russian, and Ottomantheir contribution to French literature represents a unique hybrid form of "francophonie." And yet unlike the literary production of former French colonies, this work has received little scholarly attention as a contribution to French literature. This book aims to rectify this situation. Focusing on the historical, cultural, and artistic links between France and Romania in the twentieth century from the standpoint of such figures as Tristan Tzara, Anna de Noailles, Panait Istrati, Eugene Ionesco, Isidore Isou, and E.M. Cioran, the essays develop innovative and insightful perspectives with regard to the work of individual authors. The volume as a whole will thus serve to reshape prevailing conceptions of Francophone literary production and to expand fundamentally the conceptual boundaries of Francophone Studies."

282 pages, ebook

First published March 21, 2012

Reviews

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

A nationalistic wet dream: the cultural influence of the Romanians anywhere. The irony: the same nationalists wouldn't even consider most of the list as "coming from Romania".