Paris-Bucharest, Bucharest-Paris (Francophone writers from Romania)

This collection of essays presents new research on the work of Romanian writers who chose French as a literary language. Romanian is itself, of course, a Romance language, and there is a long history of close Franco-Romanian ties. But given the complex and often multilingual cultural heritage of these writers–whose influences included German, Russian, and Ottoman–their contribution to French literature represents a unique hybrid form of francophonie. And yet unlike the literary production of former French colonies, this work has received little scholarly attention as a contribution to French literature. This book aims to rectify this situation. Focusing on the historical, cultural, and artistic links between France and Romania in the twentieth century from the standpoint of such figures as Tristan Tzara, Anna de Noailles, Panaït Istrati, Eugène Ionesco, Isidore Isou, and E.M. Cioran, the essays develop innovative and insightful perspectives with regard to the work of individual authors. The volume as a whole will thus serve to reshape prevailing conceptions of Francophone literary production and to expand fundamentally the conceptual boundaries of Francophone Studies.