Re-Reading the Postwar Romanian Canon: Sorin Titel and the Case of the “Tolerated” Writing
Re-Reading the Postwar Romanian Canon: Sorin Titel and the Case of the “Tolerated” Writing

Summary/Abstract: The postwar Romanian literary field remains one of the most controversial periods in terms of reading and interpreting narratives. The particular relationship between literature and politics existing during the communist regime is increasingly seen as a criterion for classifying literary texts that are, therefore, placed in particular categories built according to how closely they relate to the political context. In this respect, a relevant example is the non-canonical author Sorin Titel (1935–1985), regarded as the Romanian writer who was the most receptive to the formula of the Nouveau Roman. Although the critics noted the singularity and the complexity of its stylistic mechanisms, Sorin Titel’s fiction seems to be in dissonance with the model validated during the period, meaning the political novel and “the obsessive decade” formula (as illustrated, among others, by canonical writer Marin Preda). Sorin Titel’s texts are thus marginal in such research, the author being immediately included in what Eugen Negrici called “tolerated writers” in 2003. Therefore, this paper aims to prove that a transversal reading of the non-canonical postwar literature is not just necessary, but vital for understanding the esthetical complexity of the field. Also, the paper proposes a re-reading of the interpretations non-political literature had been given in time, through the case of Sorin Titel’s position in the late 20th-century literary hierarchies.

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