Revista de Istorie și Teorie Literară (Dec 2020)
Literatura franceză a războiului în România (1916-1926). Un număr din „Annales”, scriitorii pacifiști și scandalul Barbusse
Abstract
The article deals with the dialogue between French and Romanian cultures as far as concerned by the war literature of the First World War. It is focused on both its national war propaganda and its internationalist, pacifist counterpart born during the war and immediatley in its aftermath. I present and analyse the special issue of the French review „Les Annales” (17 September 1916, number dedicated to Romania) which celebrates the alliance between the two sister-countries based on their common Latin family ancestry. Then I analyse the Romanian reception of the defetist, humanitarian and pacifist French group Clarté. I try to offer an short overview of Romanian periodicals, translations of Clarté authors and also the influence of these writers over some Romanian authors like Ion Pas, Felix Aderca, Eugen Relgis. The study focus on the case of Henri Barbusse, who is a relevant character of the epoch, involved personally in some political affairs in Romania. From a cultural hero, the intellectual advocating for European peace in the early ’20s, he turns into an activist, bolshevic figure a decade later, in the Romanian press. The influence of Clarté group remains important in Romania for opening up the question of war literature and for advancing new international ideas on the national cultural scene.
