Politica tipografierii în contextul românesc 1508–1989. Diversitate, identitate și uniformitate politizată în tipografia românească
The Politics of Typography and Linguistic Diversity in Romania during Twentieth Century

Summary/Abstract: Typography does not merely represent the materiality of the text in which elements of politics and history are embedded but also generates meaning both through the design of the letters and their arrangement and connection with language and the content of the text. Typography can also offer new perspectives on how linguistic diversity is visualized, perceived, and politicized. The evolution of the use of the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets with their variations in design (Gothic and Antiqua) in the Romanian space from the 16th century to the end of the 20th century in the territories where Romanian was spoken, which belonged to three different empires (Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ottoman Empire, and Russian Empire) until 1918 when modern Romania was created, presents a vast and relevant material for outlining the three proposed periods of typographic evolution here. Local typographic development and the Romanian typographic landscape followed the predominance of multilingualism in Transylvania and Banat, as well as the multilingualism in Wallachia and Moldavia. After the Second World War, Socialist Romania belonged to the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union, and Soviet standards were imposed on the Romanian printing industry, significantly affecting typography and the quality of printed materials. This work aims to bring attention to a possible characterization model for an easier navigation and understanding of the evolution of Romanian typography between the appearance of the first printed work on Romanian territory in 1508 and the fall of communism in Romania in 1989.

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