The age of Romanian literature. A rhizomatic study
In the first part, the study dismantles and combats the “historical literary fiction” regarding the venerable age of Romanian literature, in whose production and perpetuation have contributed outstanding critics and theorists from Nicolae Manolescu to G. Călinescu. There are subject to discussion and dispute not only G. Călinescu’s theories from the “National Specifics”, afterword of the famous “History of Romanian literature from its origins to the present”, published in 1941, but also Edgar Papu’s protochronist theory or that regarding the “involuntary expressivity”, developed by Eugene Negrici. Then, the study shows that the young age of the Romanian literature (on the scale of the European civilization, in which it really participates from less than two centuries) is not a handicap but an asset, a chance. Finally, the study tries to define the current cultural moment, seen as a sui generis combination between Museum/Archive, Theme Park and Show Room. Since, for reasons related to the dynamics and dimensions of the globalized “symbolic market”, a significant presence in the Theme Park is inaccessible, in order to be taken into consideration, Romanian literature only has the options of the Show Room and Museum/Archive. In these cases, what really matters is only extreme novelty (that of the interwar avant-garde and, potentially, contemporary creation) and extreme age (oral folk literature, preserved in thoughtfully realized anthologies and promoted by spectacular exegesis.)
Keywords: Romanian literature, ages, specificity, protochronism, symbolic market, Theme Park, Museum/Archive, Show Room
