Anthology of Romanian Fiction gets published in Germany

Anthology of Romanian fiction is launched at Leipzig Book Fair, where Romania was guest of honour.

Corina Sabău, 21.04.2018, 14:05

The launch of an
anthology of Romanian contemporary fiction titled Das Leben wie ein
Tortenboden. Neue Rumanische Prosa (Life as a Cake Batter), recently
released by Transit Publishers in Berlin, was one of the highlights of the
International Book Fair in Leipzig, held over March 15-18, where Romania was
guest of honour. The anthology comprises Romanian contemporary texts published
between 2002 and 2014 by writers such as Gabriela Adameşteanu, Bogdan Costin,
Petru Cimpoesu, Adela Greceanu, Nora Iuga, Dan Lungu, Marin Mălaicu-Hondrari,
Ovidiu Nimigean, Ioana Pârvulescu, Marta Petreu, Răzvan Rădulescu, Adina
Rosetti and Lucian Dan Teodorovici. After the launch at the fair, the anthology
was also presented at the Romanian Cultural Institute headquarters in Berlin.

The texts were
translated as part of workshops hosted by the Romanian Cultural Institute in
cooperation with the Romanian Department of the University of Humboldt. The
workshops, which began in 2015 and were coordinated by translator Anke Pfeifer,
are aimed at shaping a new generation of professional translators of Romanian
and German. Another goal is to facilitate contact between Romanian writers,
translators and publishers in the German-speaking space, with a view to
promoting Romanian writers on the German book market.

Anke Pfeifer,
one of the editors of the volume, has a close connection with Romanian
literature. Her PhD thesis is titled Elements of the Picaresque in Romanian
Literature. She has given Romanian literature lectures at prestigious
universities and has written articles on Romanian literature, as well as
reviews of books translated into German. Anke Pfeifer believes the recently
released anthology of Romanian prose will provide German readers with an
overview of Romanian contemporary fiction. In an interview to RRI, Anke Pfeifer
explained how this anthology was born as a result of the workshops held by the
Romanian Cultural Institute in Berlin:

The Romanian
language workshops that I give are open to everybody. The participants are
usually Romanian language students, former students or native Romanian
speakers. But they are not designed as permanent courses. Two years ago there
was a translation workshop coordinated by translator Ewa Wemme, but the
participants only translated poetry. Then the Romanian Cultural Institute in
Berlin organised a new project, focusing on prose translations, with a view to
publishing an anthology. There were some texts by contemporary Romanian authors
already translated at the Humboldt University, but these were only 6 texts, not
enough for a volume. This is why myself and the other editors, and I would like
to mention Daniela Duca and Valeriu Stancu especially, chose a few other texts
as well. And the workshop participants, some of them students, translated the
respective works. Obviously, during our classes we discussed the translations
and decided on the final version. I can certainly say that it was a pleasure
and a challenge alike for us to translate these works. And of course, the fact
that they were supposed to be published in a volume was a great incentive for
translators.

Anke Pfeifer
also tells us that there were several stages in the compilation and editing the
contemporary Romanian prose anthology published by Transit Publishers:

Eight years
ago, professor Valeriu Stancu from the Romanian Language Chair of the Alexander
von Humboldt University in Berlin chose some Romanian texts that had just been
published. But it was actually the students who worked on the translation
proper that had the last say in the selection of the texts. They chose both
short prose pieces and excerpts from novels, by authors like Dan Lungu, Lucian
Dan Teodorovici, Bogdan Costin and Razvan Radulescu. We noticed that only male
writers had been chosen, and because contemporary Romanian literature also has
some very good women writers, in the second stage of the selection process we
picked texts written by women. Some of them are writers that are already known
in Germany, like Nora Iuga and Gabriela Adamesteanu, others are less frequently
translated into German, such as Ioana Parvulescu, Adela Greceanu and Adina
Rosetti. Our anthology was talked about in the media, for instance in the
publication Neue Zürcher Zeitung,
or in special shows devoted to the Leipzig Book Fair. Two weeks ago, at the
Romanian Cultural Institute in Berlin, we presented it to quite a large
audience. We are planning further presentations, in various cities in Germany,
Austria and Switzerland. And we hope many readers will show up in those cities
as well.

At the Leipzig
Book Fair, Romania was the guest of honour, and so were the Romanian literature
projects organised by our guest today, Anke Pfeifer:

At the Leipzig
Book Fair, readers were quite interested in Romanian literature. Romania
presented more than 40 translations, and the Romanian stand was constantly
swarming with people leafing through the books. People attended the presentations
given by the guest authors, as well as the debates concerning the Romanian
culture and literature. I believe this year’s fair and the newly released books
will be a good starting point for those who want to know more about the
Romanian literature. As far as I’m concerned, I’m planning a number of reviews,
one on a novel by Stefan Agopian that has just been translated into German, and
another one on a new book of poems by Ana Blandiana.