Capitalul cultural, circuitul consumerist al literaturii și secularizarea istoriei. apariția romanului istoric românesc

Cultural capital, the consumerist cycle of literature, and the secularization of history: the emergence of the Romanian historical novel

Abstract

A non-specialized audience, seeking innocent literary pleasures and interested in formulaic texts, represents a distinct phase in social evolution, necessitating a bourgeois class shaped by the industrial spirit of easily consumable entertainment. In the Romanian cultural context, where the bourgeois class emerged decades after the establishment of a taste for the novel, the clear division between literature and paraliterature complicates the understanding of the historical and cultural evolution of this genre.  Entertainment for the masses cannot be directly equated with that intended for a specific social class, which is more of an exception. The Romanian novel of the long 19th century encompasses not only superficial imitations of successful European works but also attempts to adapt dynamic plots and melodramatic elements to a more erudite and refined audience. Romanian novelists frequently incorporate literary references, and their characters engage in rhetoric through monologues and dialogues on various profound themes. Reflexivity often takes precedence over action, regardless of the subgenre. Moreover, the historical novel employs official historiography and alternative narratives to reflect on the past and national destiny. Consequently, stereotypical plots drawn from Western novels undergo transformations that align with more sophisticated intellectual standards and literary expectations grounded in the reading of European novels in their original language.