The Functions of Socialist Realism: Translation of Genre Fiction in Communist Romania

Socialist realism has often been perceived as a mass culture movement, but few studies have succeeded in defining its true structure as being mass-addressed. The general view on literature under socialist realism is that of standardized writing and formulaic genre. This paper aims to analyze the genre fiction and subgenres of fiction translated in Romania during socialist realism with a view to acquiring a more comprehensive perspective of the social purpose and functions of socialist realist literature. There have been many attempts to control popular and youth novels in keeping with the ideological program of the USSR and its entire sphere of influence. At the same time, these struggles should be opposed/connected to the development of popular fiction in the Western cultures, as the two opposite cultural systems share several important similarities: if we consider that the most translated authors of fiction within the Stalinist Romanian cultural system were Alexandre Dumas, Jack London and Mark Twain, the gap between Western and Eastern popular fiction would no longer seem so great, while their functions may be opposite.