„Astra. Roman epistolar” de Dito şi Idem – un caz de istorie literară

“Astra. Epistolary novel” by Dito and Idem – a case of literary history

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35824/sjrs.v4i1.23063

Keywords:

Carmen Sylva, Mite Kremnitz, „Dito und Idem, the literary collaboration, the feuilleton-novel

Abstract

The literary collaboration between Carmen Sylva and Mite Kremnitz under the pseudonym “Dito und Idem” was a real accomplishment in the 19th century not only in Romania, but on the whole European continent. After a series of individual projects on translations of Romanian literature into German, Carmen Sylva and Mite Kremnitz began their literary collaboration (1882-1889). The main aim of the literary project was to promote the Romanian literature and culture in Western and Central Europe. Therefore, the project produced two epistolary novels (Aus zwei Welten, Astra) with a real success on the book market. As a result of their attainment, only one novel was translated in Romania. The epistolary novel Astra was published in 1886 in German and translated and printed in feuilleton, in Romania, the same year. Taking everything into account, the study looks into the manner in which Carmen Sylva and Mite Kremnitz managed to use literary methods characteristic to the feuilleton-novel (pickling technique, narrative “seduction”, sensational plot etc.) which assured a consistent distribution of the novel. Furthermore, the comparison between the feuilleton-format and book format of the novel Astra offered us a new perspective on the transition of translated novels into the pages of a feuilleton. All in all, the literary collaboration between Dito and Idem represents a whole page in the literary history of the Romanian novel.

Author Biography

Lucretia Pascariu, Universitatea "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" Iaşi

Lucreţia Pascariu is a PhD student at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași with a thesis about the feuilleton-novel in 19th century Romanian literature. She is a member of Digital Humanities Laboratory (UAIC), the PI of Pop-Lite: Romanian Popular Novels and Their Sub-genres during the Long Nineteenth Century: digital editing and corpus analysis (PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2019-0127), Hai-Ro: Hajduk Novels in Romania during the Long Nineteenth Century: Digital Edition and Corpus Analysis Assisted by Computational Tools (PN-III-P3-3.1-PM-RO-FR-2019-0063). She is also a member of the ELTeC-ROM team within the European Literary Text Collection, produced by the CA16204 "Distant Reading for European Literary History" (2017-2021). Her main areas of interest are cultural studies and digital literary studies. Until now, she has published articles about the structural function of the feuilleton-novel within the Romanian novel (e.g. The Feuilleton-Novel and the Contraction Process. A Case Study – Babeta. Roman original in The Annals of The West University of Timişoara. Humanities Series, LVIII/2020). Email: lucretia.pascariu@gmail.com.

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Published

2021-05-13

How to Cite

Pascariu, L. (2021). „Astra. Roman epistolar” de Dito şi Idem – un caz de istorie literară: “Astra. Epistolary novel” by Dito and Idem – a case of literary history. Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies, 4(1), 26–37. https://doi.org/10.35824/sjrs.v4i1.23063