BOOK REVIEW: ANCA PEIU, “ROMANTIC RENDERINGS OF SELFHOOD IN CLASSIC AMERICAN LITERATURE”. BUCUREŞTI: C.H. BECK, 2017, 380 P.

Abstract

Anca Peiu connects eleven essential American writers under the central theme of self and its expressions, seen as rejecting the anxiety of influence and constructing profoundly original, characteristic modes of expression. Peiu focuses on the theme of selfhood "in/or poetry" for five of the trademark figures and "in/or story-telling for other six in an attempt to investigate the thematic as well as the foundational pillar of the American literature. Aware of her markedly ex-centric, East European position, the author decides to reiterate her standing as an advantage which offers her the opportunity to read and interpret these canonical, widely discussed and analyzed figures from a novel point of view. Peiu insists on the highly selective and subjective nature of the process, the final products serving as a guide for both students and American literature novices eager to expand their vision of the world literature and its continuum which spans continents and centuries.