The Readers’ International: The Politics of Foreign Literature in War Times in Benjamin Fondane’s Essays

Authors

  • Adrian Tudurachi Institute of Linguistics and Literary History Sextil Pușcariu, Romanian Academy

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/2384-8987/596

Keywords:

Benjamin Fondane, First World War, “Readers’ Internationale”, global system of literatures, ‘preferences’.

Abstract

The Readers’ International. A foreign literature policy in war times in Fondane’s essays. Between 1919 and 1922, B. Fondane engaged himself into a legitimisation enterprise, which grew into a unique form of reading internationalism. By radically stating the subjective nature of all ‘preferences’, the essayist could figure out the character of a reader free from all national determinations, able to cross the cultural limits as well as the prejudices on their actual hierarchy. Our essay proposes to examine this form of contingence and contact with foreign literatures, inspired, paradoxically, by the warlike imaginary of the First World War.

Author Biography

Adrian Tudurachi, Institute of Linguistics and Literary History Sextil Pușcariu, Romanian Academy

Ph.D. Research fellow, Institute of Linguistics and Literary History “Sextil Pușcariu” (Cluj-Napoca), Romanian Academy. His research is mainly centered around the historical-socio-literary enquiry into the Romanian literary ideas in a broad time span which includes XIXth and XXth century. Other research topics: nationalism in language representation, literary culture of small nations, literary theory at the peripheral spaces, World-Republic of Letters. His most recent publications include: Le stéréotype ethnique dans la littérature roumaine d’avant-garde et les dérives de l’internationalisme, in T. Hunkeler (ed.), Internationalisme, nationalisme et traditionalisme dans les avant-gardes européennes, Paris, Garnier, 2014 (sous presse); Le nationalisme des avant-gardes: les contextes mineurs, in I. Bot, A. Tarantino, A. Saraçgil (eds.), Storia, identità e canoni letterari, Firenze, Firenze University Press, 2013, p. 189-198; L’identité nationale: réalité, histoire, literature, Bucharest, 2008 (ed. with I. Bot), “Transylvanian Review”, XXII (2013): Frontières intérieures / Inner Frontiers (ed. with I. Balasz and I. Bot).

References

A. Corpus

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Published

2014-06-30

How to Cite

Tudurachi, A. (2014). The Readers’ International: The Politics of Foreign Literature in War Times in Benjamin Fondane’s Essays. RiCOGNIZIONI. Rivista Di Lingue E Letterature Straniere E Culture Moderne, 1(1), 69–78. https://doi.org/10.13135/2384-8987/596

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2014)

Section

CrOCEVIA

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