The Battle between the Aesthetic and the Culturalist Perspective in Studying Literature
The Battle between the Aesthetic and the Culturalist Perspective in Studying Literature

Summary/Abstract: In 2008 Nicolae Manolescu, the most famous Romanian literary critic and historian of literature published his Critical History of the Romanian Literature, a monumental work of over 1500 pages. This work was eagerly awaited for different reasons. Manolescu is one of the central personalities of Romanian cultural life. He had an exceptional career as a literary critic, starting in Contemporanul in 1962 and ending in România literară in 1992. In three decades Manolescu “sailed” through the troubled waters of communism trying to make no compromise to the literary works that had no aesthetic value. After the Revolution, Manolescu has become the leader of the Civic Alliance Party, and a senator. In 1992 he was close to be nominated the candidate of the Democratic Convention for the presidency of Romania. A cultural personality before 1989, Manolescu has become a public personality after the Revolution. Nowadays, he is Romania’s ambassador at UNESCO.

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