Romanian Sea Fiction: a Small Literature Within a Small Literature?

Abstract

My articles tries to place Romanian Black Sea fiction within its own national literary space, as well as determine which works acquired international validation. As a small literature, Romanian literature was focused from its beginnings on nation building. Gaining control over Dobruja and the Black Sea littoral only in the 19th century, which was also the period of the most intense nationalist sentiments, Romania had a difficult and complex relantionship with the new space, which required integration into national consciousness. The multi-ethnic make-up of the Dobrujan population both prompted assimilation and defied it. Overall, Romanian Black Sea fiction is highly complex, as it deals with various topics: symbolic nation-building, literary tradition (Ovid), the “lived” experience of that space, as well as literary topoi such as the association sea-woman, or marine adventures.