Big Numbers: A Quantitative Analysis of the Development of the Novel in Romania
Big Numbers: A Quantitative Analysis of the Development of the Novel in Romania

Summary/Abstract: The presentarticle proposes a quantitative analysis of the evolution of the novel in Romania. The study de factocompares, based on the data provided by Dicþionarul cronologic al romanului românesc(Chronological dictionary of the Romanian novel, abbr. DCRR) and by Dicþionarul cronologic al romanului tradus în România(Chronological dictionary of the translated novel in Romania, abbr. DCRT) for the period between 1845 and 2000, the evolution of the number of domestic novels and that of the number of translated novels in Romania, as well as the ratio between these values, which, dubbed the “index of literary autonomy” (ILA), serves as a measure of the degree of (in)dependence of the Romanian literary system. Starting from the aforementioned data and concepts, the present research delimits four phases in the development of the novel in Romania (1845–1917; 1918–1947; 1948–1989; 1990–2019) and attempts explanations of the diverse variations in novelistic production—especially its “rises” and “falls”—based on the various political, economic and cultural factors which caused them.

• Details
• Contents