A Transnational History of Romanian Literature

Descripción del proyecto

Repensar el concepto de «nación» en medio de la globalización

En las últimas décadas, la globalización ha desencadenado una mayor interacción e integración entre las personas, las empresas y los gobiernos. Por ejemplo, las multinacionales se han expandido y la función de algunas organizaciones superestatales ha germinado. Además, los medios de comunicación se han desarrollado rápidamente y se ha registrado un aumento considerable de la inmigración. Por todos estos motivos, es necesario repensar el concepto de «nación». El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos TRANSHIROL evaluará la hipótesis de que la literatura «nacional» no debería considerarse mayoritariamente como un sistema, sino como una red definida por las comunidades transnacionales en las que se integra. Se centrará en los quinientos años de historia de la literatura rumana y en su desarrollo global progresivo en una historia de la literatura mundial escrita desde una perspectiva rumana.

Objetivo

Demographic trends and the epistemic mutations of the past decades have led to numerous critiques of the nationalist-organicist model of literary history. Furthermore, the ethnic status of the individuals identifying as Romanians has become increasingly complex upon increased migration and the emergence of a new state where they amount to an important share of the total population (Moldova).

Consequently, a series of questions are yet to be properly explored and answered: How could and should a transnational history of “national” literatures be written in a post-national age? How can we avoid the methodological protectionism typical of “smaller” cultures against the resurgence of nationalist/populist sentiments? How can we steer clear of narrow nationalism without falling into neoliberal traps and embracing uncritically the theory of free-floating cosmopolitanism? How should a history of Romanian literature look like in the age of globalization?

The working hypothesis of TRANSHIROL – and one of its ground-breaking elements – is that a “national” literature should not be regarded mainly as a system (even if it has systemic properties), but rather as a network defined by the transnational communities into which it is integrated depending on its geopolitical situation. Throughout our project, this hypothesis will be operationalized via two sets of innovative instruments: the dichotomy between cultural matrix and cultural model, and a fourfold taxonomy of literary operators (institutional/paradigmatic/connective/imaginary).

By combining systematic theorizing with historical scholarship and close reading with distant reading, TRANSHIROL sets out to chart the over five-century-long history of Romanian literature and the progressive evolution of its network toward planetary proportions, since a transnational history of Romanian literature strives to ultimately become a history of world literature written from a Romanian perspective.