“Poeta Regina Mater, Mulier, etcétéra, Carmen Sylva la Mamma:” The Reception of the Poet Queen in the Netherlands
“Poeta Regina Mater, Mulier, etcétéra, Carmen Sylva la Mamma:” The Reception of the Poet Queen in the Netherlands

Author(s): ROB VAN DE SCHOOR
Subject(s): Cultural history, Social history, Romanian Literature, Theory of Literature, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Addleton Academic Publishers
Keywords: Carmen Sylva; Netherlands reception; Dutch translations; literary criticism; poet queen; philanthropy; public image; women’s emancipation; transnational literature; cultural reception;
Summary/Abstract: This paper deals with the critical reception in the Netherlands (1875- 1925) of the literary work of the Romanian queen and writer Carmen Sylva, less well known by her maiden name Elisabeth zu Wied (1843- 1916). Her books were translated into Dutch by such writers as Frits Smit Kleine, Cornélie Huygens, Fiore della Neve (M.G.L. van Loghem), B. de Graaff-Van Cappelle, and Marie van Buuren; each translation was noted and often extensively reviewed by literary magazines. Carmen Sylva was celebrated as the “poet queen” who had gained widespread respect through her philanthropic work after the death of her only child. The queen herself carefully modelled her image as an engaged modern woman, concerned about social issues and political justice. With a keen eye for the publicity this would generate in intellectual circles, she invited writers and artists from all over Europe to visit her in Bucharest. Several biographies of Elisabeth were published during her lifetime, with Mite Kremnitz’s Carmen Sylva (1882, 1903) being the most influential. Though not uncritical as to her literary achievements, Carmen Sylva’s co-author and maid of honour Kremnitz praised Elisabeth as an extraordinary woman, with a great interest in Romanian culture and tradition, without any royal pretentions, filled with an ardent ambition to promote female emancipation. This image has undergone drastic revision in modern historical studies, in which she is depicted as whimsical, conceited, obsessed with the paranormal, and an eager intriguer in private court affairs.

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