A different history of Romanian literature

Despite the pandemic, this year saw the publication by Polirom of a considerable collective work consisting of five volumes and entitled "The Encyclopaedia of the Imaginaries" (Enciclopedia Imaginariilor). With contributions from writers and academics, the work looks at five different areas of cultural production, namely literature, history, religion, linguistics and the arts. A concept that transgresses the notion of "imagination" and "fantasy", which is seen as merely producing illusions, fiction and imaginary worlds, the imaginary has for a number of years become an independent subject of academic study in Romania as well, says Corin Braga, the editor of the volume dedicated to literature:

"The imaginary is a function that structures our forms of knowledge just like reason and the senses. It helps us understand the way in which we relate to the world. We can speak of social imaginary, collective imaginaries, and also individual imaginaries. The collective imaginaries can be divided according to different fields: literary, historical, theatrical, artistic, etc. There even exists a religious and geographical imaginary, and even a linguistic imaginary. That's how this encyclopaedia is divided, with each volume dealing with a different field. The first volume explores the literary imaginary, namely the representations that inform the visions and imaginary universes in the theatre plays, novels and poetry that together form Romanian literature."

The volume about the literary imaginary contains 20 chapters written by 20 different authors and edited by Corin Braga. The first chapter is about folk literature, which is described from the point of view of the images that make up the special universe of folk production. It is therefore an approach that differs from conventional literary history, which is based on chronology, and from thematic history, which is based on ideas. Corin Braga explains:

"Literary history usually covers shorter or longer periods, depending on their focus, whether on centuries or literary movements, so we can speak of old literature, 18th century literature, the Enlightenment, Romanticism and 1848 literature, the literature of our great classic authors, inter-war literature and post-war literature. This encyclopaedia, however, without ignoring conventional chronology, groups the material in a different way, namely into constellations of symbols that transcend historical periods and literary movements and which can be found both in the 18th century as well as in the 20th century. The chapter dedicated to the folk universe is followed by one about the religious imaginary in Romanian literature, namely religious representation. It starts with a number of religious rather than literary texts written by the likes of Dosoftei and Anthimus of Iberia and goes all the way up to the 20th century to writers who found inspiration in religion: the Psalms of Tudor Arghezi and the poems of Lucian Blaga, Ioan Alexandru and Vasile Voiculescu. We were particularly interested in the constellations of symbols that make up a system to see how they have evolved until the present day."

Literature inspired by history is given the same treatment in "The Encyclopaedia of the Imaginaries in Romania". Chronology is not eliminated entirely, says the editor of the volume Corin Braga, but overly restrictive categories are broken down:

"The volume contains a number of articles referring to the Enlightenment and the rational and cultural imaginary of the authors belonging to this movement. Another chapter looks at the Levantine, Balkan imaginary, of Oriental inspiration, in Romanian literature, another at the Romantic imaginary, or the Decadentist imaginary. I'm going to give you an example from Romantic literature, which has its own characteristic phrases: it entails a form of pre-Romanticism and another of militant Romanticism, from around 1848, and great Romanticism as represented by Eminescu, who is on par with the likes of Novalis and Byron. However, Romantic imagery and themes, such dreams, love and ghosts, are still found in Romanian literature beyond Romanticism. They can be found, for example, in the works of the contemporary writer Mircea Cărtărescu, who employs dream-like images reminiscent, somewhat, of Eminescu. There was even a group of oneiric poets, such as Leonid Dimov and Dumitru Țepeneag, who are in the tradition of the great Romantic oneirism, despite having their own definitions."

"The Encyclopaedia of the Imaginaries in Romania" thus provides not only a fresh perspective on the history of Romanian culture, but also new interpretations of the connection between past and present in literature and beyond.