Some authors were seen as too hard for students. Why? Well, they were presented in chronological order.
At first, this sounds crazy. If you were teaching English, you wouldn’t start with Bede. If you were teaching French, you wouldn’t start with Patagruel or the song of Roland. Or, would you?
In high school, I remember reading extracts of Shakespeare in grade seven or eight (I remember the middle school). In year 9, we read Julius Ceasar. In year ten, we read The Merchant of Venice. In year 11, we read Macbeth. In year 12, it was Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Moliere, the big objection
In the comments section, people said, why study Moliere? Do the French study Romanians? Yes, they do, but we’ll get back to that.
Well, I’ve seen the previous Romanian curriculum, and it had American authors (like Mark Twain) were in there, along with other foreign authors, mostly from the English speaking world. My copy of Lecturi pentru scolari clasa III-a has works by Jack London, Johanna Spyri, Mark Twain, Hector Malot, Lewis Carol,…
Which country, outside of Romania, might study Romanian authors? Probably only France. I spent a year there, they studied international works (beyond just French and the anglo-dominant.) And, one of the most famous “francophone” authors is Romanian, Ionesco.
I was sixteen before I saw a play by Moliere because they didn’t appreciate Moliere as much in the English speaking world. Tartuff was so visual, I could understand it in a language that I didn’t quite understand. Les Fouberies de Scapin wasn’t as obvious, the director took a lot of liberties and set it in the old west.
In any case, I didn’t think Moliere was as complex as Goethe, or even modern writers. The difficult thing about understanding Moliere is the language, it is a bit archaic. But, if you are reading a good translation anyway, it’s not that much of a problem. (The problem with translations is you lose a little, especially the Alexandrines.)
The audience of Moliere in France and Belgium are not a bunch of artsy snobs. No, you have middle aged ladies who go out for a good time, and I never heard a Belgian audience laugh the way those ladies did at a good Moliere play. It is like they are watching Charlie Chaplin, or Nelu Marin Miliardaire, or a good modern stand up. Or enthusiastic children who just discovered the world’s funniest clown.
The French enjoy good comedy, probably because they have good comedy. Many of the 20th century’s greatest comics were French. When you ask a Frenchman who their greatest countryman is, they are more likely to tell you the name of a comedian than an athlete or a politician.
It seems much easier for French audiences to understand Moliere than it is for English audiences to understand Shakespeare. I think it is because France has better actors, many English actors are basically illiterate and just memorising the lines without understanding what they mean.
Some of Moliere’s plays have references to things of the past. They assume a knowledge of history, of magic herbs, of geography, of something beyond anime and social media. But they don’t assume much, and it is easy enough just to define the odd reference in the footnotes.
Ironically, there is an easy A1 easy French reader of Moliere’s Le Malade Imaginaire. We saw it in a book fair in Cluj. That is like, Moliere’s hardest play. And they made an A1 version of it. Ha!
About ten years ago, the Moliere play “Le Malade Imaginaire” was in the Cabridge reading list for A-level French. So, second language readers were expected to understand, but not necessarily 14 year olds. However, the second language Brits were expected to read it in French. British people are not known for their second language skills, so that is a flex.
It is ironic that Romania is part of Francophonie. And, they don’t know Moliere here. Even the greatest writers and teachers think he is too hard, so they protested, and had him removed from the beginner’s curriculum.
Goethe, yeah, that’s hard. And not as fun. Some of the other French authors that were chosen weren’t great either.
But, did the authors protest because the works were too hard? Or, was it because by starting in chronological order (starting from the late 16th or even 19th century, I didn’t see any Greek or Roman or even medeival authors mentioned), they were afraid that their own books wouldn’t be read until PhD level?
Most contemporary Romanian authors kind of suck anyway. I don’t know why anyone listens to them. I tried to read one or two myself, and I find 19th century Romanian (or even communist era Romanian) much easier than the stuff from the past few years. In the 20th century, Mircea Eliad is great, so is Traian Tandin. Is Tandin on the new list? He should be.
But for the 21st century, I found a few obscure writers that are interesting, but the famous ones are not as fun. I would rather read Moliere in Romanian, or early Romanian playwrights like Alecsandri, than most of the recent members of the academy. (Do you have any recommedations? I mean, good writers, not ones that you heard others praise but were unable to read yourself.)
Now stay tuned… will they listen to the economists who are protesting against the government’s increasingly demanding digital-paperwork requirements for business? The bureaucracy, red tape, or whatever you want to call it, that gets in the way of us selling eco friendly Romanian products unless we fill out all kinds of forms? (But that protects multinationals from having any local competitors by stiffling innovation?)