The launch of an
\nanthology of Romanian contemporary fiction titled Das Leben wie ein
\nTortenboden. Neue Rumanische Prosa (Life as a Cake Batter), recently
\nreleased by Transit Publishers in Berlin, was one of the highlights of the
\nInternational Book Fair in Leipzig, held over March 15-18, where Romania was
\nguest of honour. The anthology comprises Romanian contemporary texts published
\nbetween 2002 and 2014 by writers such as Gabriela Adame\u015fteanu, Bogdan Costin,
\nPetru Cimpoesu, Adela Greceanu, Nora Iuga, Dan Lungu, Marin M\u0103laicu-Hondrari,
\nOvidiu Nimigean, Ioana P\u00e2rvulescu, Marta Petreu, R\u0103zvan R\u0103dulescu, Adina
\nRosetti and Lucian Dan Teodorovici. After the launch at the fair, the anthology
\nwas also presented at the Romanian Cultural Institute headquarters in Berlin. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The texts were
\ntranslated as part of workshops hosted by the Romanian Cultural Institute in
\ncooperation with the Romanian Department of the University of Humboldt. The
\nworkshops, which began in 2015 and were coordinated by translator Anke Pfeifer,
\nare aimed at shaping a new generation of professional translators of Romanian
\nand German. Another goal is to facilitate contact between Romanian writers,
\ntranslators and publishers in the German-speaking space, with a view to
\npromoting Romanian writers on the German book market. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
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Anke Pfeifer,
\none of the editors of the volume, has a close connection with Romanian
\nliterature. Her PhD thesis is titled Elements of the Picaresque in Romanian
\nLiterature. She has given Romanian literature lectures at prestigious
\nuniversities and has written articles on Romanian literature, as well as
\nreviews of books translated into German. Anke Pfeifer believes the recently
\nreleased anthology of Romanian prose will provide German readers with an
\noverview of Romanian contemporary fiction. In an interview to RRI, Anke Pfeifer
\nexplained how this anthology was born as a result of the workshops held by the
\nRomanian Cultural Institute in Berlin:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Romanian
\nlanguage workshops that I give are open to everybody. The participants are
\nusually Romanian language students, former students or native Romanian
\nspeakers. But they are not designed as permanent courses. Two years ago there
\nwas a translation workshop coordinated by translator Ewa Wemme, but the
\nparticipants only translated poetry. Then the Romanian Cultural Institute in
\nBerlin organised a new project, focusing on prose translations, with a view to
\npublishing an anthology. There were some texts by contemporary Romanian authors
\nalready translated at the Humboldt University, but these were only 6 texts, not
\nenough for a volume. This is why myself and the other editors, and I would like
\nto mention Daniela Duca and Valeriu Stancu especially, chose a few other texts
\nas well. And the workshop participants, some of them students, translated the
\nrespective works. Obviously, during our classes we discussed the translations
\nand decided on the final version. I can certainly say that it was a pleasure
\nand a challenge alike for us to translate these works. And of course, the fact
\nthat they were supposed to be published in a volume was a great incentive for
\ntranslators.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Anke Pfeifer
\nalso tells us that there were several stages in the compilation and editing the
\ncontemporary Romanian prose anthology published by Transit Publishers:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Eight years
<\/p>\n
At the Leipzig
<\/p>\n
At the Leipzig
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Anthology of Romanian fiction is launched at Leipzig Book Fair, where Romania was guest of honour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":162001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[33247],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-162000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture","tag-leipzig-book-fair"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nago, professor Valeriu Stancu from the Romanian Language Chair of the Alexander
\nvon Humboldt University in Berlin chose some Romanian texts that had just been
\npublished. But it was actually the students who worked on the translation
\nproper that had the last say in the selection of the texts. They chose both
\nshort prose pieces and excerpts from novels, by authors like Dan Lungu, Lucian
\nDan Teodorovici, Bogdan Costin and Razvan Radulescu. We noticed that only male
\nwriters had been chosen, and because contemporary Romanian literature also has
\nsome very good women writers, in the second stage of the selection process we
\npicked texts written by women. Some of them are writers that are already known
\nin Germany, like Nora Iuga and Gabriela Adamesteanu, others are less frequently
\ntranslated into German, such as Ioana Parvulescu, Adela Greceanu and Adina
\nRosetti. Our anthology was talked about in the media, for instance in the
\npublication Neue <\/em>Z\u00fcrcher Zeitung<\/em>,
\nor in special shows devoted to the Leipzig Book Fair. Two weeks ago, at the
\nRomanian Cultural Institute in Berlin, we presented it to quite a large
\naudience. We are planning further presentations, in various cities in Germany,
\nAustria and Switzerland. And we hope many readers will show up in those cities
\nas well.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nBook Fair, Romania was the guest of honour, and so were the Romanian literature
\nprojects organised by our guest today, Anke Pfeifer:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nBook Fair, readers were quite interested in Romanian literature. Romania
\npresented more than 40 translations, and the Romanian stand was constantly
\nswarming with people leafing through the books. People attended the presentations
\ngiven by the guest authors, as well as the debates concerning the Romanian
\nculture and literature. I believe this year’s fair and the newly released books
\nwill be a good starting point for those who want to know more about the
\nRomanian literature. As far as I’m concerned, I’m planning a number of reviews,
\none on a novel by Stefan Agopian that has just been translated into German, and
\nanother one on a new book of poems by Ana Blandiana.<\/p>\n