Andrei Terian, Critica de export. O pledoarie
A Plea for Export Criticism
My study is a plea for what might be called “export criticism”, i.e. that critical discourse which retains some relevance beyond the strictly local, regional or national context where it has arisen. In this respect, I carry out an inventory of both external and internal obstacles impeding the promotion of Romanian literary criticism abroad. As regards external obstacles, the most important are the few translations of Romanian literary works into languages of international circulation (especially English and French), the absence of a recent history of Romanian literature written in a foreign language, the difficulties of assigning Romanian literature in a disciplinary niche (as an object of analysis, it seems to be at the periphery of both Romance and East-European studies) and the poor communication between Romanian and foreign researchers. Regarding internal obstacles, mention should be made of the methodological belatedness of Romanian literary criticism, its essayistic tradition and a certain dogmatism which renders it incompatible with the dominant pluralism on the international market. However, the thesis I attempt to underscore in the present paper is that Romanian literature and criticism not only can be, but they already are areas of international relevance and academic interest.
Keywords: export criticism, translations, Romance studies vs. East-European studies, essayistic vs. academic criticism, national vs. transnational literary canons
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