Accessing Local Literatures via Public Institutions Websites

Abstract

Most public institutions create and disseminate pragmatic, community oriented information via their official websites. Some, however, also have pages dedicated to literary text production, distribution and consumption. A case in point is the regional “V. A. Urechia” Public Library, Galati, Romania, with its webpage, available at http://www.bvau.ro/. Its cultural component, Axis Libri, includes links to the homonymous literary salon, cultural magazine, publishing house and book festival – all of which primarily promote Romanian culture, literature and education – but for the larger public access is limited due to the fact that translation into international languages (mostly English and French) is only partly provided, for three of the twenty-four volumes of the Axis Libri cultural magazine. A sample text and its translation into English, ‘Fănuş Neagu: Cum am scris Îngerul a strigat’ [‘Fănuş Neagu: How I Wrote The Angel Yelled’], are under scrutiny here, generating considerations regarding local representation and intercultural communication.