A Daring and Fascinating Rewriting of a Canonical Romanian Fairy Tale

Abstract

The author of the article proposed to highlight the advantages of returning to Ion Creangă’s writings by elucidating their importance as sources of inspiration for contemporary prose writers who publish valuable works rewriting the famous creations of the Romanian classic. Such an indisputable achievement in the context of Romanian prose of the last decades is the novel that came out in 2004 and is entitled „Relatare despre Harap Alb” („A Report about Harap Alb”) by Stelian Țurlea, a prolific author that has dozens of books on his record, but who, surprisingly, does not feature in the recent histories of Romanian literature („The Critical History…” of Nicolae Manolescu and that of Mihai Iovănel which covers the time segment between 1990 and 2020), although he is the holder of several literary awards, including the one from 2005 which was awarded for this exceptional rewriting, in a postmodern register, of the Crengian fairy tale about Harap Alb. Thus, is emphasized and motivated the necessity to valorize the Crengian literary heritage, but also that of recognizing the merits of the novelist Stelian Țurlea by highlighting his contribution and his position in the landscape of current fiction.