Carmen Sylva (Queen Elisabeth of Romania): Bridging the East and the West, Networking Women
Carmen Sylva (Queen Elisabeth of Romania): Bridging the East and the West, Networking Women

Summary/Abstract: Queen Elisabeth of Romania (1843–1916) was the first Queen of Romania and the wife of Charles I Hollenzollern-Sigmaringen. As a writer and art patron she took the pseudonym Carmen Sylva. Making her work known abroad meant making known Romania, a newly independent country that had just appeared on the map. The Queen was not only a patron of arts but also contributed significantly to creating a network of women writers who supported each other by translations, writing critical essays or paratexts. Her amazingly diverse literary work (prose, poetry, drama, aphorisms, diaristic writings) bridges the East and the West and it displays two main trends: the revisitation of the Romanian nationalistic canon for the international readerships and a discreet feminism based on the valorization of Christian values. A writer and public figure of considerable importance for la Belle Époque, Carmen Sylva is exemplary as an elite woman who tried to forge her own cultural and social niche in the patriarchal society of the time subverting traditional models of female passivism and using her privilege for good social causes.

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