Reinventarea ca scriitor american a lui Norman Manea

Abstract

The present research aims to bring into discussion the complex figure of Norman Manea, representative of the studies concerned with the analysis of the globalization strategies of Romanian literature. Relevant in this sense is the process of “reinvention” of a Romanian writer in an American context, through which one can understand the efforts of cultural and literary transplantation, of a constant, non-euphoric revisionism – according to Claudiu Turcuș’s formula –, as an alternative to the necessary political scale of aesthetics, but also the confrontation of clichés coming from the American continent. Throughout this endeavor, attention will be paid to the manner in which Romanian literature allows itself to be shaped, from its (semi)peripheral position, by the effects of a quintessentially transnational culture, such as the American one. What does the integration of Norman Manea entail, formed as an identity in the Eastern European context and as a survivor of some totalitarian regimes, how much of this identity is “saved” or diminished to ensure integration, how is a successful dialogue between the margin and the center formed, remain pillar questions for a profitable discussion for current Romanian studies, concerned with the status of Romanian literature as world literature. Norman Manea’s writings thus facilitate the updating of other themes, in addition to that of dislocation and relocation that migration produces: the contrast between the representation of communism in Eastern European prose and the representations of the West or the international reception of contemporary Romanian literature, subjects through which we aspire to overcome the proposed framework discussion.