The Critical Reception of George Eliot in Communist Romania

Drawing on the premise that Communist Romania was the space of a culture deeply loaded with the assertive Marxist ideology, the present study aims to establish the reception of George Eliot during that period. In addition, building on Edmund Husserl’s claim that the actual object of philosophical investigation is not the object itself but the contents of our consciousness, I shall argue that the way in which the Victorian writer was received in Romania is highly dependent on and influenced by the social and political context. It is hoped that by looking at the criticism of that time, this study will support the claim that Eliot’s works had been used to promote literary tendencies and movements such as ruralism and socialist realism, which suited the communist agenda.

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