Open Access

Alexandra Chiriac

• The Romanian literature of the 18th century is witnessing a remarkable metamorphosis, whereas step by step the Enlightment’s ideas penetrate the Romanianspeaking soil and through various mechanisms replace the medieval order in society, politics and arts. In this time of the Enlightment the small popular book “Bertoldo” from the late Italian 16th century was adapted in French and then in German and through the German intermediary reached Transylvania at the end of the 18th century (Hermannstadt, 1799). In the centre of our analysis we place the concept of “cultural transfer” and that of the “cultural translation”, concepts that help us illustrate the adaptation strategies of the foreign material and the integration principles of the Enlightment’s ideals on the Romanian soil. Working with eloquent examples from the “Bertoldo”-text in a comparative manner we will try to bring to light the interaction of the poetical and ideological functions of the translations from German and its role in forming and shaping a new kind of Romanian cultural and literary sensibility.