The Impact of Paratext on Literary Translations from Italian into Romanian between 1965 and 1989

Abstract

This article explores the role of paratexts in shaping the reception of Italian literature translated into Romanian during the years 1965-1989, a period marked by the communist censorship. Drawing on a corpus of editorial and critical texts accompanying translations of various authors, the study examines how paratextual discourse functioned simultaneously as a cultural mediator and as an ideological filter. The article emphasizes the strategies of censorship and self-censorship that shaped the presentation of Italian authors to Romanian readers. The paratexts often reframed the original texts within an acceptable ideological framework, emphasizing humanism, ethical consciousness, and moral clarity, all the while minimizing or omitting themes of religiosity, sexuality, existential despair, or political dissent. At the same time, the study highlights the subtle forms of cultural resistance embedded in these commentaries. Due to the fact that both translators and critics strived to preserve the literary integrity of the originals, under the guise of ideological conformity, the paratexts from this period simultaneously act as records of ideological adaptation and indicators of creative mediation.