Două vechi istorii literare româneşti în limba germană: Wilhelm Rudow (1892) şi Gheorghe Alexici (1906) şi literatura şi cultura română
Two Old Histories of the Romanian Literature and their Authors: Wilhelm Rudow and Gh. Alexici. Some Considerations Regarding Models of the Past

Summary/Abstract: In the literary historiography, some of the older publications have been replaced by new writings. As a rule, these have more and new information which contributes to a better understanding of the literary phenomenon. Then, why should we remember two literary histories of 1892 and 1906? In the first place, because some older suggestions/ considerations, especially those referring to the method of research, deserve to be reconsidered. In the present case Gheorghe Alexici tried to present the Romanian literature from all the provinces inhabited by Romanians, therefore, those from Macedonia and Greece as well. Even today, it would be not out of interest to include the written literature of Aromanians in histories of the Romanian literature. Wilhelm Rudow (1858-1899) included -especially for his German contemporaries- many poems translated from Romanian. These productions are not present in histories of the Romanian literature destined to the space outside Romania. Nevertheless, they have a contribution to a real understanding of the Romanian literary phenomenon, and as such, they are useful.No matter how outdated the information in some older literary histories may be, one can find here data forgotten in time, and they deserve to be remembered. Such literary histories (especially those in foreign languages) have been ignored, even by those who were contemporaries with the respective authors. As far as Rudow is concerned, it is only Alexandru Philippide who made a serious criticism, in a German magazine, to his literary history. But, not only Rudow, who lived in Romania from 1888 until his death, being married to the poetess Lucretia Suciu, was forgotten, but also Gheorghe Alexici, professor of Romanian in Budapesta, as well as a great part of their contributions to propagate the Romanian culture outside Romania. Rudow defended his PhD in Halle (1886), with a dissertation on the Romanian folklore (he was not allowed to answer in Romanian as, we may assume, the members of the board did not speak this language). In 1888, Rudow published a substantial anthology of Romanian folk poetry, in 1892 a history of the Romanian literature, and in 1891 included in the first place, in an anthology of universal poetry, the Romanian poetry (30 pages; only the Polish poetry is given the same preponderence). Rudow, who master 32 languages, included the Romanian literature in a fairly wide context. As far as Alexici is concerned, whose studies on the Romanian folklore were republished in 1966, nobody else has investigated his manuals of Romanian or his literary history.The two propagators of the Romanian literature and culture outside Romania in the 19th century deserve consideration even today, remembering that their work may be one of the duties of the literary historians of present time.

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