Biografie și ficțiune. Contradicțiile lui Panait Istrati – capcane pentru exegeți

Biography and Fiction. The Contradictions of Panait Istrati – Traps for Exegetes The proposed text is an excerpt from a larger study devoted to the writings of Panait Istrati. It aims to highlight the importance of literary history for a more accurate understanding of the reception of Panait Istrati in Romania, especially in the interwar period, taking a critical distance from the thesis of the author’s “marginalization” in Romanian and French literature. By researching Istrati’s articles from several decades and his correspondence with Romain Rolland, the study describes the contradictions of the author, the process of fictionalization of his biography, the invention of “roles” and the construction of a “personal myth”.