Jewish Literature in Romania in the First Half of the 20th century

Iulia Ticărău, "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu. 

Jewish Literature in Romania in the First Half of the 20th century; Case Study: Mihail Sebastian and the Jewish Identity

Jewish literature from Romania in the first half of the 20th century has had a difficult and unique path, because Jewish writers of Romanian origin were not integrated into the Romanian literary canon, being considered inferior from a literary point of view as compared to Romanian writers. Our presentation is divided into two main parts: the first one deals with the manner in which Romanian intellectuals relate to Jewish literature, what are the aspects that make Jewish literature to be considered a minor literature (Deleuze, Guattari) and what are the causes that led to the support of the right wing extremism and the intensification of anti-Semitism among Romanian intellectuals. In the second part we discuss the Romanian writer of Jewish origin - Mihail Sebastian - and his novel De două mii de ani (For two thousand years), published in 1935, which stirred up a considerable amount of controversy at the time because of the particular way in which the character sets out possible solutions to the Jewish problem.

Iulia Maria Ticărău is a teaching assistant at the "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu. She graduated from the Faculty of Letters and Arts ("Lucian Blaga" University) in 2016. Since 2018 she is a PhD student at the same university with a thesis entitled ”The Microsystem of Jewish Literature in Romania in the First Half of the 20th-century.” She teaches Romanian language seminars (Normative Grammar, Language and Communication) and Romanian as a foreign language. She is currently involved in two research projects  titled: Preservation, Transformation and Study of the Romanian Linguistic Patrimony in the Context of Globalization (PATLIRO) and The coverage and reception of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in Polish, Romanian and English-language media: A comparative critical discourse study with recommendations for journalism training (CORECON).