A World-Systems Analysis of Semiperipheral LiteraturesThe Case of Romanian Literature

Rationale: Given the increasingly accelerated globalization, which causes numerous crises and attempts to redefine national (including cultural) identities, our project proposes an investigation of the Romanian literature from Immanuel Wallerstein’s perspective of world-system analysis. In the working frame of this theory, the Romanian literature is delineated as a semiperipheral literature, for the examination of which we chose, as auxiliary instruments, Even-Zohar’s polysystems theory, Durišin’s theory of interliterary processes and Mircea Martin’s theory of cultural “complexes”. To sum up, our project endeavors to provide answers to questions such as: What are the borders of Romanian literature according to world-system analysis? What role do the zonal cultural formations, bilingualism, acculturation, exile and Diaspora play in this literature? How important were the translations and foreign cultural models in the formation and evolution of the Romanian literature? How did the literary forms and styles generated by the core literatures manifest here? To what extent was/is the Romanian literature itself a core literature? And, last but not least, what is the current position of the Romanian literature in the world literature?

Final Evaluation Report