ROMANIAN LITERARY CRITICS, THEORETICIANS AND HISTORIANS IN THE WORLD

The following text is based upon research of Romanian literary criticism and literary history, written and published by a range of personalities of Romanian origin outside the context of Romania. The contemporary discussions in the Romanian literary environment focus on literature by exiled authors, while literary theory and criticism receives little attention. Few realise that it is exile literary criticism in particular that has contributed to the spreading of awareness on the work of Romanian exile writers abroad. Exilic literary criticism of Romanian writers has, however, made an impact in scholarly circles. It has contributed to the diversification of literary studies abroad and continues to direct its interests and orientation. It is not an accident that it is the writing from the outside, from discourses outside of the established canon and frames of scholarship that was able to relax its norms and widen the thinking about literature towards less-known aspects. Scholars of Romanian origin must be recognised as belonging among those literary critics, scholars and historians who in the last decades have most significantly contributed to the discourse of literary scholarship in the world.