Spaces of Freedom: Considerations on the Role of Literary Translations Under Communism

Abstract

This article presents some considerations on how translations continued to play a crucial role in sustaining the processes of Westernization and modernization of Romanian culture under communism, processes that had been so tragically jeopardized by the establishment of the regime. It focuses particularly on two ways in which translations impacted the literary system during the communist era, providing two illustrative examples: the individual translation experience of the great poet Leonid Dimov, and the institutional case of a magazine specialised in translations of foreign literature, namely Secolul 20.