Examines translations by canonical Romanian writers Lucian Blaga, Constantin Noica, and Emil Cioran, arguing that that their works reveal a new, "minor" mode of national identity. Studies of the Romanian national imagination have historically focused on the formation of modern Romania after World War I, Romania's fascist movement and alliance with Germany during World War II, or the remobilization of nationalist discourse in the 1970s and 1980s -- moments in which Romanian intellectuals imagine their nation assuming or working toward major cultural status. Literary Translation and the Idea of a Minor Romania examines translations by canonical Romanian writers Lucian Blaga, Constantin Noica, and Emil Cioran following the imposition of Communist rule, arguing that their works reveal a new, "minor" mode of national identity based on the model of the translator. The "minor" emphasizes intercultural exchange, adaptation, and ironic distance in the ways a nation thinks of itself. Drawing on theorists as diverse as Benedict Anderson, Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, and Francoise Lionnet, Sean Cotter proposes that this multilingual and multicultural version of the nation is better suited than older models to understanding a globalized world, one in which translation plays an indispensable role.. Sean Cotter is associate professor of literature and literary translation at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Widely regarded as the greatest Romanian novel of the twentieth century, Mateiu Caragiale's Rakes of the Old Court (Craii de Curtea-Veche) follows four characters through the bars and brothels of Bucharest. Guided by an amoral opportunist, the shadowy narrator and his two affluent friends drink and gamble their way through a city built on the ruins of crumbled castles and bygone empires. The novel's shimmering, spectacular prose describes gripping vignettes of love, ambition, and decay. Originally published in 1929, Rakes of the Old Court is considered a jewel of Romanian modernism. Now canonical, Mateiu's work has been celebrated for its opulent literary style and enigmatic tone.

Poetry. Translated from the Romanian by Sean Cotter. Nichita Danilov (b. 1952) places himself in the tradition of mystics such as Meister Eckhart, St, John of the Cross, and Pseudo-Dionysius. Combining the spiritual heritage of his native Romania with a surrealist poetics, his writing is playful, ironic, and language-centered, engaging in games of a metaphysical depth. In this selection of his poetry (presented bilingually) and prose, Danilov describes a world full of caprice in a voice coming from the darkness of a purgatory where the divine appears in bizarre images.

In this modern classic of global feminist literature, the only novel by one of Romania's most heralded poets, styled as a long letter addressed to the man she is ready to leave, a woman meanders through a cosmic retelling of her life from childhood to adulthood with visionary language and visceral detail. Like a contemporary Scheherazade, she spins captivating tales that create space in the cosmos for the female experience. Through a dreamlike thread of strange images and passing characters from the small incidents of their lives together to the intimate narrative of her relationship to womanhood, her stories invite the reader into a fantastical vision of love, loss, and femininity.