The Culture of Translation in Romania

Without claiming to align Romanian research in translation studies with the progress it has seen abroad, this volume is nonetheless intended as a first step in this direction and an attempt to signal the need for a shift in Romanian scholarly and public perspectives on translation. From translation criticism inquiries and public meetings — round tables and forums — to academic ventures — articles and conferences — , Romanian philologists appear to have not transcended the commonly held belief that translation is a second-hand or -rate endeavor. It is for this reason that, in the last years, we have carried out several cultural and aca­demic projects, aimed at not only promoting translations themselves, but also at encouraging debates on the craft of translation. From poetry festivals to meet-ups with writers and translators, which eventually culminated with an academic conference on translation, we sought to (re) introduce translation as a topic of interest on the national literary agenda. To mark the achievements of these events, part of a larger cultural project titled “ Writers and Translators, ” co-financed by the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu and the National Cultural Fund Administration (AFCN), we have decided to publish some of the contributions made over the course of the project by reputable and emerging researchers from Romania and Germany. The volume features three major sections, and is divided as such with a view to highlighting the research methods deployed and degrees of distance taken in their analyses of several central phenomena in Romanian and foreign literatures from a Romanian cultural perspective.