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Daiana Gârdan

Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Letters, Department of Comparative Literature, Faculty Member

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Daiana Gârdan is a Ph.D. Candidate with the Department of Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Letters, Babeș-Bolyai University, and an assistant editor at 'Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory'. She authored several quantitative studies dedicated to the Romanian modern novel and criticism, as well as articles engaging transnational perspectives on Romanian topics.
Supervisors: Associate Professor Mihaela Ursa, PhD

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University of Zagreb

Uppsala University

University of East London

University of Leicester

Gwen Robbins Schug

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Gabriel Gutierrez-Alonso

University of Salamanca

Macquarie University

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

Swansea University

Jesper Hoffmeyer

University of Copenhagen

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Papers by Daiana Gârdan

De la cărți la date. Schimbări paradigmatice în studiile literare după turnura digitală

Transilvania

Employed in the study of national or transnational literatures, the relevance of digital humaniti... more Employed in the study of national or transnational literatures, the relevance of digital humanities, computational analyses, and quantitative sociology can no longer be ignored. In this paper, we aim to argue that, in spite of it still being seen as a niche endeavor, the digital or quantitative study of literature generates paradigmatic shifts in literary scholarship, both in literary criticism and comparative studies. In order to demonstrate this statement, the following study will illustrate how three core principles of digital humanities are actively shaping humanities as we know it. These principles – openness, replicability, and collaboration – challenge the way we understand the role of the literary historian and their „traditional” tasks. To consolidate this argumentation further, we will briefly present an example of how digital humanities start changing the dominant narrative in Romania.

Mapping Emotions in the Romanian Erotic Novel of the Interwar Period. Canonical Affect and Popular Sensibility

Dacoromania litteraria, 2019

The Life of a Literary Network – A Quantitative Approach to Sburătorul Literary Cenacle

Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory

Investigated mostly in a co-dependent relationship with its titular figure – E. Lovinescu (1881-1... more Investigated mostly in a co-dependent relationship with its titular figure – E. Lovinescu (1881-1943), the Romanian literary circle Sburătorul has achieved a paradoxical position in the field of Romanian critical inquiry. On one hand, this particular group is an ever-present reference in research dedicated to the interwar Romanian literary modernist scene. On the other hand, only a few monographic works explore the actual dynamic of this group, and while they are well documented and multi-layered a lot of material remains yet to be explored. The Sburătorul Literary Journals (Sburătorul: Agende literare), kept by E. Lovinescu and subsequently edited and published posthumously by his daughter, Monica Lovinescu, are one of the most valuable yet underestimated bibliographical instruments in Romania. Owing much to this particular instrument, my paper aims to investigate the human resource of Sburătorul literary circle. The methodology of my paper stands at the intersection between networ...

Genurile romanului românesc (1901-1932). O analiză cantitativă

Transilvania, 2020

Combining the instruments of quantitative analysis with those of genre theory, the present articl... more Combining the instruments of quantitative analysis with those of genre theory, the present article studies the ratio, characteristics, and tendencies underpinning the most important subgenres of the Romanian novel between 1901 and 1932. Among these subgenres, we lay special emphasis on those of popular fiction, on the social, historical, sentimental, psychological, and philosophical novel, as well as on the so-called “event novel”. The conclusions of our inquiry illustrate the ever-growing divide between artistic literature and popular fiction, the recasting of the Romanian novelistic subgenres during the early 20th century, and the gradual relocation of the novelists’ focus from the unmediated depiction of events towards the world and the individual self.

The Great Female Unread. Romanian Women Novelists in the First Half of the Twentieth Century: a Quantitative Approach

Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory, 2018

The following paper intends to investigate the main junctures and disjunctures of Romanian prose ... more The following paper intends to investigate the main junctures and disjunctures of Romanian prose written by women in the first half of the twentieth century from a quantitative perspective. The paper will employ a macroanalysis of both the novels written in this period and the prose written by female writers, in order to establish a pattern in the modernisation and institutionalisation of Romanian literature in the inter-war period, more specifically in the 1930s, the decade that saw the emergence of the main canonical Romanian novels. The paper will also delve into the main principles and discussions surrounding early Romanian feminism. Aspects such as import literature, translations, and the circulation of Western literary trends in the Romanian cultural field will be critical to understand how Romanian prose written by women evolved over the course of the twentieth century and established an alternative literary canon.

Geografia romanului românesc (1901-1932): arealul național

Transilvania, 2020

This article is part of a series that investigates through quantitative and geocritical means the... more This article is part of a series that investigates through quantitative and geocritical means the corpus of novels created by the research project Astra Data Mining. The Digital Museum of the Romanian Novel 1901-1932 (around 370 novels digitized). One of the many foci of our analyses delves into the internal geography of the Romanian novel as it manifests itself through geolocated metadata that reveal the spatial diversity of the corpus, concerning not only plot setting, but also relating to the main topographical nodes underpinning the novelists’ consciousness. Because of such geolocational diversity, the following study will only deal with the national setting of the Romanian novel.

Diversitate identitară în romanul românesc (1844-1932)

Transilvania, 2020

This study explores, using intersectionality and quantitative analysis, several axes that help sh... more This study explores, using intersectionality and quantitative analysis, several axes that help shape the identity of the characters in the fictional worlds from a corpus of approximately 500 Romanian novels published between 1844 and 1932. They are gender, ethnicity/nationality, and class/work. It also briefly analyzes the gender gap in the production of the novel and examines the dynamics between the gender of the authors and the gender of the main character(s) and the person of the narration, by using metadata compiled by our research team and complex searches in the digital corpus.

Space in Literature and Literature in Space

Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory, 2020

The present introduction aims to outline the major theoretical approaches of spatial studies, tog... more The present introduction aims to outline the major theoretical approaches of spatial studies, together with their most relevant inquiries and pursuing their many methodological ramifications. Our main goal is to deliver a panoramic study engaging both traditional geocritical perspectives and contemporary transnational, quantitative, or digital studies that shaped the way in which we understand the notion of space and its literary functions. The present introduction targets national, transnational, and global projects, aiming to integrate Romanian debates in a broader, international dialogue. Our thematic issue gathers a diverse body of studies, each one of them advancing original approaches that employ comprehensive theoretical frameworks and different tools and perspectives, from symbolic geography and migrations studies to distant-reading and World Literature.

The peasant and the nation plot: a distant reading of the Romanian rural novel from the first half of the twentieth century

Rural History-economy Society Culture, Sep 6, 2022

Shaping the Canon. The International Profile of Viața Românească (1906-1916)

The present paper aims to investigate the circulation of foreign cultural input in one of the mos... more The present paper aims to investigate the circulation of foreign cultural input in one of the most important Romanian literary periodicals of the prewar era. The main focus of the present research revolves around the means by which the editorial group of Viața Românească (The Romanian Life), have managed to create an international dialogue oriented towards Western models that helped shape the modernization of both the autochthonous literary production and the critical or theoretical national systems. Generally considered a rather reactionary community, with nationalistic tendencies, the aforementioned literary group has engaged in many occasions into transplanting foreign theoretical and critical models. The amplitude of these communications and its quite remarkable effects on the Romanian cultural scene may still come as a surprise. By means of quantitative and digital methods, the present proposal attempts to measure and investigate this very particular process.

Poli de producție ai romanului românesc (1901-1932): Rețele editoriale și forme de canonizare

Transilvania, 2020

The following study employs a quantitative analysis of the Romanian novelistic production from th... more The following study employs a quantitative analysis of the Romanian novelistic production from the period 1901-1932. By using the literary corpus developed by the research project ASTRA Data Mining. The Digital Museum of the Romanian Novel 1901-1932, implemented by ASTRA National Museum Complex, this paper focuses on the secondary canonical writers (with their “b-sides and rarities”), the novelists’ origins, the abundance and the geographical nodes of production, in order to investigate the dynamic relation between national cultural centers and their respective editorial networks, as well as the mechanisms of canonization within the Romanian novel of the period.

Hybrid Geographies of Global Genres: The Global Space in the Romanian Modern Novel

Caietele Echinox, 2020

My paper aims to investigate an early phase of the globalization phenomenon as it has manifested ... more My paper aims to investigate an early phase of the globalization phenomenon as it has manifested in a specific peripheral space, attempting to map, by means of both close and distant reading, how the internalization processes have been mirrored in the modern Romanian novel. The scope of my research revolves around the responses that Romanian literature – a peripheral, minor literature – has had towards transnational or global models, and how the novelistic production of the aforementioned timeframe has metabolised and illustrated the foreign input in our culture. The theoretical framework of the present

Mapping Literature Through Quantitative Instruments. The Case of Current Romanian Literary Studies

Interlitteraria, 2020

Following a two-pronged line of argumentation, our article seeks to analyze and evaluate the curr... more Following a two-pronged line of argumentation, our article seeks to analyze and evaluate the current state of quantitative approaches applied to Romanian literature within the context and framework of one of the most prominent emergent fields of literary studies: quantitative formalism. Thus, on the one hand, the paper will attempt to present the most well-known lexicographic instruments currently used in quantitative studies in Romania (The Chronological Dictionary of the Romanian Novel from its Origins to 1989, The Chronological Dictionary of Translated Novels in Romania from its Origins to 1989, and The Bibliography of the Relations between Romanian Literature and Foreign Literatures in Periodicals 1919–1944), and, on the other, to employ the emerging methods that make use of these instruments, alongside their inherent limitations and the pragmatic issues that concern them) as a starting point for a debate on the current state of theoretical and critical approaches to the study o...

Detecting Borders

American Book Review

Diversitate identitară în romanul românesc (1933-1947)

Transilvania

Following the 2020 article on identity diversity in the Romanian novel, this study provides both ... more Following the 2020 article on identity diversity in the Romanian novel, this study provides both a statistical account and individual examples of fictional representations of characters in the Romanian novel between 1933-1947. With a three-fold structure, our essay focuses at first on gender diversity, analyzing the ratios between female and male authors and female and male protagonists. It then concentrates on religious, ethnic, and national minorities, using both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis, exploring how they are represented and approached. Without drawing any definitive conclusions, our undertaking provides a blueprint for further research on identity representations in the Romanian novel.

Distant Reading the Social Novel in Romania. Theoretical and Taxonomical Challenges

Cum iubim? Coduri de gen în romanul de dragoste românesc

My paper aims to present how the Romanian romance novel written between late 19th century and the... more My paper aims to present how the Romanian romance novel written between late 19th century and the Second World War fictionalized some of the gender codes active in that particular timeframe in social and familial contexts. A very popular subgenre amid the unprofessional readers, romance fiction rises a new kind of responsibility for literary critics and historians, that traditionally gave little to no attention to the matter of toxic gender codes found in these novels. This article attempts to analyse, by means of both close and distant reading tools, a few narrative aspects that encoded gender inequality.

Style at the Scale of the Canon. A Stylometric Analysis of 100 Romanian Novels Published between 1920 and 1940

Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory

The present study proposes an experimental exploration of the Romanian novel written between 1920... more The present study proposes an experimental exploration of the Romanian novel written between 1920 and 1940 through the use of stylometry, a method of distant reading employed for the statistical analysis of style. Drawing from the most recent advances in the field of computational stylistics, we select a formal standpoint from which we seek to investigate the relation between the Romanian novelistic canon and minor, tertiary novels published in the same. In our test cases, we will attempt to establish some of the more promising aspects of stylometric analysis, as well as single out the experiments that yield no relevant result. Because of the relative novelty of the method, the purpose of our investigations is to offer a kind of pilot experiment that can illustrate the benefits of using computational methods on Romanian literary corpora.

One Theory's Underdog Is Another Theory's Treasure: The Novelistic Genre in Different Regimes of Relevance

Revista Transilvania, 2020

Mapping Literature Through Quantitative Instruments. The Case of Current Romanian Literary Studies

by Daiana Gârdan and Emanuel Modoc

Interlitteraria, 2020

Following a two-pronged line of argumentation, our article seeks to analyze and evaluate the curr... more Following a two-pronged line of argumentation, our article seeks to analyze and evaluate the current state of quantitative approaches applied to Romanian literature within the context and framework of one of the most prominent emergent fields of literary studies: quantitative formalism. Thus, on the one hand, the paper will attempt to present the most well-known lexicographic instruments currently used in quantitative studies in Romania (The Chronological Dictionary, on the other, to employ the emerging methods that make use of these instruments, alongside their inherent limitations and the pragmatic issues that concern them) as a starting point for a debate on the current state of theoretical and critical approaches to the study of literature in the Romanian academic field. A selective and detailed application of the quantitative methodologies in question, as they are theorized by scholars such as Franco Moretti ("distant reading") or Matthew L. Jockers ("macroanalysis") will be another focal point of our paper, as it will seek to further illustrate the manner in which a meta-reflection on the approach itself can encourage the further development of quantitative methods in the study of Romanian literature.

De la cărți la date. Schimbări paradigmatice în studiile literare după turnura digitală

Transilvania

Employed in the study of national or transnational literatures, the relevance of digital humaniti... more Employed in the study of national or transnational literatures, the relevance of digital humanities, computational analyses, and quantitative sociology can no longer be ignored. In this paper, we aim to argue that, in spite of it still being seen as a niche endeavor, the digital or quantitative study of literature generates paradigmatic shifts in literary scholarship, both in literary criticism and comparative studies. In order to demonstrate this statement, the following study will illustrate how three core principles of digital humanities are actively shaping humanities as we know it. These principles – openness, replicability, and collaboration – challenge the way we understand the role of the literary historian and their „traditional” tasks. To consolidate this argumentation further, we will briefly present an example of how digital humanities start changing the dominant narrative in Romania.

Mapping Emotions in the Romanian Erotic Novel of the Interwar Period. Canonical Affect and Popular Sensibility

Dacoromania litteraria, 2019

The Life of a Literary Network – A Quantitative Approach to Sburătorul Literary Cenacle

Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory

Investigated mostly in a co-dependent relationship with its titular figure – E. Lovinescu (1881-1... more Investigated mostly in a co-dependent relationship with its titular figure – E. Lovinescu (1881-1943), the Romanian literary circle Sburătorul has achieved a paradoxical position in the field of Romanian critical inquiry. On one hand, this particular group is an ever-present reference in research dedicated to the interwar Romanian literary modernist scene. On the other hand, only a few monographic works explore the actual dynamic of this group, and while they are well documented and multi-layered a lot of material remains yet to be explored. The Sburătorul Literary Journals (Sburătorul: Agende literare), kept by E. Lovinescu and subsequently edited and published posthumously by his daughter, Monica Lovinescu, are one of the most valuable yet underestimated bibliographical instruments in Romania. Owing much to this particular instrument, my paper aims to investigate the human resource of Sburătorul literary circle. The methodology of my paper stands at the intersection between networ...

Genurile romanului românesc (1901-1932). O analiză cantitativă

Transilvania, 2020

Combining the instruments of quantitative analysis with those of genre theory, the present articl... more Combining the instruments of quantitative analysis with those of genre theory, the present article studies the ratio, characteristics, and tendencies underpinning the most important subgenres of the Romanian novel between 1901 and 1932. Among these subgenres, we lay special emphasis on those of popular fiction, on the social, historical, sentimental, psychological, and philosophical novel, as well as on the so-called “event novel”. The conclusions of our inquiry illustrate the ever-growing divide between artistic literature and popular fiction, the recasting of the Romanian novelistic subgenres during the early 20th century, and the gradual relocation of the novelists’ focus from the unmediated depiction of events towards the world and the individual self.

The Great Female Unread. Romanian Women Novelists in the First Half of the Twentieth Century: a Quantitative Approach

Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory, 2018

The following paper intends to investigate the main junctures and disjunctures of Romanian prose ... more The following paper intends to investigate the main junctures and disjunctures of Romanian prose written by women in the first half of the twentieth century from a quantitative perspective. The paper will employ a macroanalysis of both the novels written in this period and the prose written by female writers, in order to establish a pattern in the modernisation and institutionalisation of Romanian literature in the inter-war period, more specifically in the 1930s, the decade that saw the emergence of the main canonical Romanian novels. The paper will also delve into the main principles and discussions surrounding early Romanian feminism. Aspects such as import literature, translations, and the circulation of Western literary trends in the Romanian cultural field will be critical to understand how Romanian prose written by women evolved over the course of the twentieth century and established an alternative literary canon.

Geografia romanului românesc (1901-1932): arealul național

Transilvania, 2020

This article is part of a series that investigates through quantitative and geocritical means the... more This article is part of a series that investigates through quantitative and geocritical means the corpus of novels created by the research project Astra Data Mining. The Digital Museum of the Romanian Novel 1901-1932 (around 370 novels digitized). One of the many foci of our analyses delves into the internal geography of the Romanian novel as it manifests itself through geolocated metadata that reveal the spatial diversity of the corpus, concerning not only plot setting, but also relating to the main topographical nodes underpinning the novelists’ consciousness. Because of such geolocational diversity, the following study will only deal with the national setting of the Romanian novel.

Diversitate identitară în romanul românesc (1844-1932)

Transilvania, 2020

This study explores, using intersectionality and quantitative analysis, several axes that help sh... more This study explores, using intersectionality and quantitative analysis, several axes that help shape the identity of the characters in the fictional worlds from a corpus of approximately 500 Romanian novels published between 1844 and 1932. They are gender, ethnicity/nationality, and class/work. It also briefly analyzes the gender gap in the production of the novel and examines the dynamics between the gender of the authors and the gender of the main character(s) and the person of the narration, by using metadata compiled by our research team and complex searches in the digital corpus.

Space in Literature and Literature in Space

Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory, 2020

The present introduction aims to outline the major theoretical approaches of spatial studies, tog... more The present introduction aims to outline the major theoretical approaches of spatial studies, together with their most relevant inquiries and pursuing their many methodological ramifications. Our main goal is to deliver a panoramic study engaging both traditional geocritical perspectives and contemporary transnational, quantitative, or digital studies that shaped the way in which we understand the notion of space and its literary functions. The present introduction targets national, transnational, and global projects, aiming to integrate Romanian debates in a broader, international dialogue. Our thematic issue gathers a diverse body of studies, each one of them advancing original approaches that employ comprehensive theoretical frameworks and different tools and perspectives, from symbolic geography and migrations studies to distant-reading and World Literature.

The peasant and the nation plot: a distant reading of the Romanian rural novel from the first half of the twentieth century

Rural History-economy Society Culture, Sep 6, 2022

Shaping the Canon. The International Profile of Viața Românească (1906-1916)

The present paper aims to investigate the circulation of foreign cultural input in one of the mos... more The present paper aims to investigate the circulation of foreign cultural input in one of the most important Romanian literary periodicals of the prewar era. The main focus of the present research revolves around the means by which the editorial group of Viața Românească (The Romanian Life), have managed to create an international dialogue oriented towards Western models that helped shape the modernization of both the autochthonous literary production and the critical or theoretical national systems. Generally considered a rather reactionary community, with nationalistic tendencies, the aforementioned literary group has engaged in many occasions into transplanting foreign theoretical and critical models. The amplitude of these communications and its quite remarkable effects on the Romanian cultural scene may still come as a surprise. By means of quantitative and digital methods, the present proposal attempts to measure and investigate this very particular process.

Poli de producție ai romanului românesc (1901-1932): Rețele editoriale și forme de canonizare

Transilvania, 2020

The following study employs a quantitative analysis of the Romanian novelistic production from th... more The following study employs a quantitative analysis of the Romanian novelistic production from the period 1901-1932. By using the literary corpus developed by the research project ASTRA Data Mining. The Digital Museum of the Romanian Novel 1901-1932, implemented by ASTRA National Museum Complex, this paper focuses on the secondary canonical writers (with their “b-sides and rarities”), the novelists’ origins, the abundance and the geographical nodes of production, in order to investigate the dynamic relation between national cultural centers and their respective editorial networks, as well as the mechanisms of canonization within the Romanian novel of the period.

Hybrid Geographies of Global Genres: The Global Space in the Romanian Modern Novel

Caietele Echinox, 2020

My paper aims to investigate an early phase of the globalization phenomenon as it has manifested ... more My paper aims to investigate an early phase of the globalization phenomenon as it has manifested in a specific peripheral space, attempting to map, by means of both close and distant reading, how the internalization processes have been mirrored in the modern Romanian novel. The scope of my research revolves around the responses that Romanian literature – a peripheral, minor literature – has had towards transnational or global models, and how the novelistic production of the aforementioned timeframe has metabolised and illustrated the foreign input in our culture. The theoretical framework of the present

Mapping Literature Through Quantitative Instruments. The Case of Current Romanian Literary Studies

Interlitteraria, 2020

Following a two-pronged line of argumentation, our article seeks to analyze and evaluate the curr... more Following a two-pronged line of argumentation, our article seeks to analyze and evaluate the current state of quantitative approaches applied to Romanian literature within the context and framework of one of the most prominent emergent fields of literary studies: quantitative formalism. Thus, on the one hand, the paper will attempt to present the most well-known lexicographic instruments currently used in quantitative studies in Romania (The Chronological Dictionary of the Romanian Novel from its Origins to 1989, The Chronological Dictionary of Translated Novels in Romania from its Origins to 1989, and The Bibliography of the Relations between Romanian Literature and Foreign Literatures in Periodicals 1919–1944), and, on the other, to employ the emerging methods that make use of these instruments, alongside their inherent limitations and the pragmatic issues that concern them) as a starting point for a debate on the current state of theoretical and critical approaches to the study o...

Detecting Borders

American Book Review

Diversitate identitară în romanul românesc (1933-1947)

Transilvania

Following the 2020 article on identity diversity in the Romanian novel, this study provides both ... more Following the 2020 article on identity diversity in the Romanian novel, this study provides both a statistical account and individual examples of fictional representations of characters in the Romanian novel between 1933-1947. With a three-fold structure, our essay focuses at first on gender diversity, analyzing the ratios between female and male authors and female and male protagonists. It then concentrates on religious, ethnic, and national minorities, using both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis, exploring how they are represented and approached. Without drawing any definitive conclusions, our undertaking provides a blueprint for further research on identity representations in the Romanian novel.

Distant Reading the Social Novel in Romania. Theoretical and Taxonomical Challenges

Cum iubim? Coduri de gen în romanul de dragoste românesc

My paper aims to present how the Romanian romance novel written between late 19th century and the... more My paper aims to present how the Romanian romance novel written between late 19th century and the Second World War fictionalized some of the gender codes active in that particular timeframe in social and familial contexts. A very popular subgenre amid the unprofessional readers, romance fiction rises a new kind of responsibility for literary critics and historians, that traditionally gave little to no attention to the matter of toxic gender codes found in these novels. This article attempts to analyse, by means of both close and distant reading tools, a few narrative aspects that encoded gender inequality.

Style at the Scale of the Canon. A Stylometric Analysis of 100 Romanian Novels Published between 1920 and 1940

Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory

The present study proposes an experimental exploration of the Romanian novel written between 1920... more The present study proposes an experimental exploration of the Romanian novel written between 1920 and 1940 through the use of stylometry, a method of distant reading employed for the statistical analysis of style. Drawing from the most recent advances in the field of computational stylistics, we select a formal standpoint from which we seek to investigate the relation between the Romanian novelistic canon and minor, tertiary novels published in the same. In our test cases, we will attempt to establish some of the more promising aspects of stylometric analysis, as well as single out the experiments that yield no relevant result. Because of the relative novelty of the method, the purpose of our investigations is to offer a kind of pilot experiment that can illustrate the benefits of using computational methods on Romanian literary corpora.

One Theory's Underdog Is Another Theory's Treasure: The Novelistic Genre in Different Regimes of Relevance

Revista Transilvania, 2020

Mapping Literature Through Quantitative Instruments. The Case of Current Romanian Literary Studies

by Daiana Gârdan and Emanuel Modoc

Interlitteraria, 2020

Following a two-pronged line of argumentation, our article seeks to analyze and evaluate the curr... more Following a two-pronged line of argumentation, our article seeks to analyze and evaluate the current state of quantitative approaches applied to Romanian literature within the context and framework of one of the most prominent emergent fields of literary studies: quantitative formalism. Thus, on the one hand, the paper will attempt to present the most well-known lexicographic instruments currently used in quantitative studies in Romania (The Chronological Dictionary, on the other, to employ the emerging methods that make use of these instruments, alongside their inherent limitations and the pragmatic issues that concern them) as a starting point for a debate on the current state of theoretical and critical approaches to the study of literature in the Romanian academic field. A selective and detailed application of the quantitative methodologies in question, as they are theorized by scholars such as Franco Moretti ("distant reading") or Matthew L. Jockers ("macroanalysis") will be another focal point of our paper, as it will seek to further illustrate the manner in which a meta-reflection on the approach itself can encourage the further development of quantitative methods in the study of Romanian literature.

Book Review: Liviu MALIȚA, Heretical Literature. Politically Censored Texts between 1949-1977, Cartea Românească, 2016, 372 p.

Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory, 2019

Book Review: Galin Tihanov, The Birth and Death of Literary Theory: Regimes of Relevance in Russia and Beyond, Stanford University Press, 2019, 258 p.

Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory, 2019

There are few literary critics and theorists that delve into the afterlives of past theories and ... more There are few literary critics and theorists that delve into the afterlives of past theories and theoretical trends as dazzlingly and lucidly as Galin Tihanov does. In this respect, his latest volume, The Birth and Death of Literary Theory: Regimes of Relevance in Russia and Beyond, is not an altogether unforeseen event in terms of its premises, nor is it a surprise in terms of its object of study. His latest work revolves around the location of theory, underlining the co-dependence between literary theory and history, employing, with a slightly different twist, Michel Foucault's notion of regime of relevance, "a constellation of social and cultural parameters that shape the predominant understanding and use of literature for the duration of that particular constellation" (19), all the while not only owing to, but also investigating the imprint on contemporary literary studies of Eastern and Central Europe theory, notably the Russian formalist critical and theoretical developments.

Book Review: Robin van den Akker, Alison Gibbons, Timotheus Vermeulen (eds.), Metamodernism. Historicity, Affect and Depth after Postmodernism

Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory, 2018

The turn of the millennium garnered a series of approaches that sought to redefine both the metho... more The turn of the millennium garnered a series of approaches that sought to redefine both the methodology used in cultural studies and literary theory and the new sensibility proposed by young authors and performers in the fields of art, music, film, literature, and new media. These approaches were also stimulated by the various shortcomings of the more historicised fields, such as traditional comparative studies, hermeneutics, deconstructivism or postmodernism, which were, since the eighties, subject to different attempts of methodological renewal and adjustment to the needs of the age of globalisation (World Literature studies is a good example of this methodological turn).

Book Review: Mihai Iovănel, Ideologiile literaturii în postcomunismul românesc [The Ideologies of Literature in Romanian Post-communism]

Dacoromania Litteraria, 2017

COMPTES RENDUS / BOOK REVIEWS 189 d'une mise en forme disciplinée -quelque chose d'imposé, d'auto... more COMPTES RENDUS / BOOK REVIEWS 189 d'une mise en forme disciplinée -quelque chose d'imposé, d'auto-imposé, quelque chose dans le genre de la discipline autrichienne, par laquelle ma grand-mère essayait de m'habituer à me "tenir ensemble" » (259). Ligia TUDURACHI Romanian Academy Cluj-Napoca Branch "Sextil Puşcariu" Institute of Linguistics and Literary History MIHAI IOVĂNEL, Ideologiile literaturii în postcomunismul românesc [The Ideologies of Literature in Romanian Post-communism], București, Muzeul Literaturii Române, 2017, 251 p.

CFP for the July 2020 issue 6.1: SPACE IN LITERATURE AND LITERATURE IN SPACE: GEOCRITICAL PRACTICES

by Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory, Daiana Gârdan, and Mihaela Ursa

Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory, 2020

Deadline proposals (150-word abstract, 5-7 keywords, 3-5 theoretical references, 150-word bioprof... more Deadline proposals (150-word abstract, 5-7 keywords, 3-5 theoretical references, 150-word bioprofile): Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory is an open-access, peer-review, online publication for academic research, published twice a year by the Faculty of Letters, Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj, Romania. It promotes free-access for academic work and it welcomes authors who want to share their research and resources with their peers. It encourages, recognizes and rewards intellectual excellence in interdisciplinary and intermedial approaches of literary culture, visual culture and theory. The journal welcomes papers in English (or, for regionally oriented topics, Romanian) from the following domains: comparative studies, including digital and posthuman studies; literary studies, cultural studies, including social and gender studies; media and film studies, literary criticism and theory, cultural poetics.-The 1960s bring a change of paradigm known as the spatial turn, through which the importance of space in exploring socio-cultural contexts is revealed. Henri Lefevbre's and Gilles Deleuze's theoretical approaches on space in the 1970s-1980s shed new light on the phenomenon. These multiple perspectives enjoy diverse methodologies in exploring literary practices through space, place, geography and cartography. In other words, investigating the polymorphism of space and place opens numerous theoretical pathways. Such endeavours confirm the relevance of geography in the study of literature. The latter, not seen as an autonomous domain in relation to the socio-political, becomes an essential component of the global context. Literature is a major instrument in charting global societies, but it also reveals itself as a force agent for change. That is why research areas such as human geography,

„Interstitial Spatiality in the Romanian Novel of the Interwar Period. Mute Rurality and Subverted Urbanity”, în Maria Sass, Vlad Pojoga, Ștefan Baghiu (coord.), Ruralism and Literature in Romania, Berlin, Peter Lang, 2019, p. 69-80

by Daiana Gârdan and Stefan Baghiu

Peter Lang, 2019

Diversitate identitară în romanul românesc (1844-1932)

by Vlad Pojoga and Daiana Gârdan

Transilvania, 2020

This study explores, using intersectionality and quantitative analysis, several axes that help sh... more This study explores, using intersectionality and quantitative analysis, several axes that help shape the identity of the characters in the fictional worlds from a corpus of approximately 500 Romanian novels published between 1844 and 1932. They are gender, ethnicity/nationality, and class/work. It also briefly analyzes the gender gap in the production of the novel and examines the dynamics between the gender of the authors and the gender of the main character(s) and the person of the narration, by using metadata compiled by our research team and complex searches in the digital corpus.

Genurile romanului românesc (1901-1932). O analiză cantitativă

by Andrei Terian, Daiana Gârdan, Emanuel Modoc, Cosmin Borza, VARGA DRAGOȘ, and David Morariu

Transilvania, 2020

Combining the instruments of quantitative analysis with those of genre theory, the present articl... more Combining the instruments of quantitative analysis with those of genre theory, the present article studies the ratio, characteristics, and tendencies underpinning the most important subgenres of the Romanian novel between 1901 and 1932. Among these subgenres, we lay special emphasis on those of popular fiction, on the social, historical, sentimental, psychological, and philosophical novel, as well as on the so-called “event novel”. The conclusions of our inquiry illustrate the ever-growing divide between artistic literature and popular fiction, the recasting of the Romanian novelistic subgenres during the early 20th century, and the gradual relocation of the novelists’ focus from the unmediated depiction of events towards the world and the individual self.