The impact of the Strega Prize on Romanian translations

The article analyses the impact of the Strega Prize on Romanian translations from 1990 to the present day, following the political shift of 1989 that gave rise to a reconfiguration of the cultural sphere. Since the 1990s, Romania has also entered the free market and started to align more with the international publishing landscape, especially regarding translations from a wide range of literature, including Italian. The research avails itself of the constantly updated online database Scrittori italiani tradotti in romeno: 1990-2024 (Italian Writers Translated into Romanian: 1990-2024), created and edited by Afrodita Carmen Cionchin, published in the bilingual intercultural journal “Orizzonti culturali italo-romeni” (“Italo-Romanian Cultural Horizons”). The analysis suggests that the impact of Italy’s most prestigious literary prize on Romanian translations has various facets, from the immediate effect to the spotlight effect to the trailblazing effect for further publications, and to the reverb effect, as well as writers present in Romanian translation with titles other than the book that won the Strega Prize. Consequently, eighteen writers who have won the Strega Prize are available in Romanian translation.