PERIPHERAL INTERACTIONS IN MIHAI IOVĂNEL’S HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ROMANIAN LITERATURE: 1990-2020
PERIPHERAL INTERACTIONS IN MIHAI IOVĂNEL’S HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ROMANIAN LITERATURE: 1990-2020

Summary/Abstract: Peripheral Interaction in Mihai Iovănel’s History of Contemporary Romanian Literature. 1990–2020. The overall purpose of this contribution is to assess the impact the use of examples from “marginal” literatures has on the transnational mapping of contemporary Romanian literature undertaken by Mihai Iovănel in his recent History of Contemporary Romanian Literature: 1990-2020. Thus, the article aims to discuss the interconnections between contemporary Romanian literature and other peripheral literatures in the History. The author uses, Mîrț argues, the Western canon strategically to show how local literary production has been incorporated into the global literary circuit. Starting from the polysystem theory of Even-Zohar (1990), the article discusses the relationship between static and dynamic canonicity. The paper notes that in Iovănel’s project, the center–periphery and canonical–non-canonical dichotomies are complicated by the use of examples from other marginal spaces and, respectively, by the integration of paraliteratures in discourse. In terms of patterns or external influences, the Western canon’s presence in contemporary Romanian literature supplemented by literary and cultural material from Central and East European literature. In mapping local literary production, Iovănel takes into account Bessarabian literature as well.

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