Istoria literaturii române, astăzi

The article draws upon a general view of recently published studies in Romanian literary history, commenting on the difficulties this discipline still has – 20 years after the collapse of communism – in elaborating a coherent reflection, with theoretical implications, upon its object and methods, its relationship with political ideologies as well as with the new Western trends in literary studies (new historicism, mainly, but also – social history relying upon literature in order to provide its thick descriptions etc.). We therefore try to explain the reasons of this difficult “rebirth” of a discipline long despised by Romanian literary scholars, in addition to being controlled by the totalitarian ideological apparatus of communist power