About our Researchers

 Maria-Sabina Draga

Maria-Sabina Draga Alexandru is Associate Professor of American Studies and postcolonialism at the University of Bucharest. She holds a PhD in philosophy (the aesthetics of postmodernism) from the University of Bucharest (2000) and a PhD in English (contemporary Indian fiction in English) from the University of East Anglia (2007). Her research interests are: contemporary Indian fiction in English, global writing in English and narrative knowledge in the global age, minority cultures in the media, gender studies, postcolonialism and postcommunism. 

Publications

Books

Performance and Performativity in Contemporary Indian Fiction in English. Leiden and Boston: Brill Rodopi, 2015. 289pp. ISBN: 9789004292598 (paperback); 9789004292604 (ebook).

Between History and Personal Narrative: East-European Women’s Stories of Transnational Relocation. Co-edited with Madalina Nicolaescu and Helen Smith. Vienna and Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2014. 292pp. ISBN 978-3-643-90448-5.

Shakespeare, Translation and the European Dimension. Co-edited with Madalina Nicolaescu and Oana-Alis Zaharia. 250 pp. Bucharest: Pro Universitaria, 2012. 304pp. ISBN 978-606-647-387-3.

Postcolonialism/Postcommunism: Dictionary of Key Cultural Terms. Co-authored with Monica Bottez, Bogdan Stefanescu, Ruxandra Radulescu, Ruxandra Visan and Alina Bottez. Bucharest: The University of Bucharest Press, 2011. 394pp. ISBN: 978-606-16-0063-2.

Postcolonialism/Postcommunism: Intersections and Overlaps. Co-edited with Monica Bottez and Bogdan Stefanescu. Bucharest: The University of Bucharest Press, 2011. 240 pp. ISBN: 978-606-16-0052-6.

Cultura româneasca in perspectiva transatlantica. Interviuri (Romanian Culture in Transatlantic Perspective. Interviews). Co-edited with Teodora Serban-Oprescu. Bucharest: University of Bucharest Press, 2009. 310pp. ISBN 978-973-737-761-6.

Identity Performance in Contemporary Non-WASP American Fiction. Bucharest: The University of Bucharest Press, 2008. 207pp. ISBN 987-973-737-510-0.

Women’s Voices in Post-Communist Eastern Europe. Co-edited with Madalina Nicolaescu and Helen Smith. Volume I: Rewriting Histories. Bucharest: University of Bucharest Press, 2005. 180pp. ISBN 973-737-055-4; Volume II: Bodies and Representations. Bucharest: University of Bucharest Press, 2006. 204pp. ISBN 973-737-201-8. (Reviewed by Lenka Pánková, University of Pittsburgh, in Comparative Literature Studies, 45.2, 2008, pp. 261-263).

Conditia postmoderna: spre o estetica a identitatilor culturale (The Postmodern Condition: Towards an Aesthetic of Cultural Identities). Bucharest: The University of Bucharest Press, 2003. 270pp. ISBN 973-575-741-9.

 

Peer-reviewed articles in international journals

“Transatlantic Translations as Identity Mediating Discourses”. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology (ISI-rated), DOI:10.1080/0907676X.2012.702399. 20(3), 2012. 1-15. ISSN 0907-676X print/ISSN 1747-6623 online. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0907676X.2012.702399

‘Urban and Rural Narratives of Female Relocation in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Novels Queen of Dreams and The Mistress of Spices’, American, British and Canadian Studies 19, Dec. 2012. 77-86. ISSN 1841-1487 (print); 1841-964X (online).

‘Narrative and Discursive Games: Translating the Postcolonial into the Postcommunist’, American, British and Canadian Studies 17, Dec. 2011, pp. 12-22. ISSN 1841-1487 (print); 1841-964X (online).

‘Textualities outside the Text: Music and the Performance of Englishness in Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music’. Textus: English Studies in Italy, 23.2, 2010. 453-468. ISSN 1824-3967.

‘Performative Symbols and Structures in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things’. Commonwealth Essays and Studies, 31.2, 2009. 62-77. ISSN 0395-6989.

‘Love as Reclamation in Toni Morrison’s African American Rhetoric’, European Journal of American Culture 27.3, 2008, pp. 191-205. 1466-0407.

‘Performance, Performativity and Nomadism in Vikram Chandra’s Red Earth and Pouring Rain’, Comparative Literature Studies, 45.1, 2008, pp. 23-39. ISSN 0010-4132.

‘Alternatives to the Novel Form: Oral Storytelling and Internet Patterns in Vikram Chandra’s Red Earth and Pouring Rain’, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 43.3, 2008, pp. 45-60. ISSN: 0021-9894.

‘Changes and Challenges in Gender Stereotypes in Romanian TV Shows and Publicity in the Light of EU Accession’. Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, 6.1, Winter 2007. 101-122. ISSN: 1409-9268.

‘Exiles from Power: Marginality and the Female Self in Postcommunist and Postcolonial Spaces’, in The European Journal of Women’s Studies, special issue: Women in Transit, 7.3, August 2000, pp. 355-366. ISSN: 1350-5068.

 

Book Chapters

‘Towards a Post-“American Dream” Condition: From Migration to Nomadism în Domnica Radulescu’s Writing”. (Im)Migration Patterns: Displacement and Relocation în Contemporary America. Eds. Adina Ciugureanu, Ludmila Martanovschi and Nicoleta Stanca. Iasi: Institutul European (Academica series, vol. 273), 2016. 155-166. ISBN 978-606-24-0159-7.

‘Narrative Exploration against Mentality Issues: Indirect Education for Multiculturalism in Tintin’. Representing Multiculturalism in Comics and Graphic Novels. Eds. Ian Hague and Carolene Ayaka. London and New York: Routledge, 2015. 163-176. ISBN 978-1138025158.

‘“Shakespeare Tourism”: Translations of Space in Contemporary Perceptions of Shakespeare”. Shakespeare, Translation and the European Dimension. Eds. Madalina Nicolaescu, Maria-Sabina Draga Alexandru and Oana-Alis Zaharia. Bucharest: ProUniversitaria, 2012. 173-186. ISBN 978-606-647-387-3.

‘Towards a Global Poetry: Transatlantic Connections in Ruxandra Cesereanu’s Writing’. East-European Cultural Space from Post-Communism to Post-EU Accession. Transatlantic Perspectives and History in the Making. Eds. Rodica Mihaila and Roxana Oltean, Bucharest: University of Bucharest Press, 2011. 299-316. ISBN 978-973-737-935-1.

‘Provincialising London in Vikram Chandra’s Novel Red Earth and Pouring Rain’. India and the Diasporic Imagination (part of PoCo series). Eds. Rita Christian and Judith Misrahi-Barak. Montpellier: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée, 2011. 149-163. ISBN 978-284-269-927-7.

‘Poetry as Transatlantic Dialogue: Forgiven Submarine by Ruxandra Cesereanu and Andrei Codrescu’. Romanian Culture in the Global Age. Eds. Rodica Mihaila and Dana Mihailescu. Bucharest: University of Bucharest Press, 2010. 201-216. ISBN 978-973-737-848-4.

‘Shakespeare Goes Bollywood: Adaptation and Gender in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Maqbool and Omkara’. (In)Hospitable Translations: Fidelities, Betrayals, Rewritings. Eds. Madalina Nicolaescu and Sorana Corneanu. Bucharest: University of Bucharest Press, 2010. 189-199. ISBN 978-973-737-796-8.

‘Fictions of History: Subaltern Traces in Dalrymple’s The Last Mughal’. Regards croisés dans la mondialisation: Les représentations de l’alterité après la colonisation. Eds. Cécile Girardin et Arkiya Touadi. Collection “Discours identitaires dans la mondialisation” dirigée par Michel Naumann. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2009. 131-141. ISBN 978-2-296-09121-4.

‘Cartographies of Indian Modernity in Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet and The Enchantress of Florence’. Cartographies of Identity. Eds. Mihaela Irimia and Dragos Ivana. Bucharest: University of Bucharest Press, 2009. 392-403. 978-973-737-447-9.

‘Digital Diasporic Communities: Towards a Romanian-American Internet Culture’. Transatlantic Dialogues: Eastern Europe, the US and Post-Cold War Cultural Spaces. eds. Rodica Mihaila and Roxana Oltean. Bucharest: University of Bucharest Press, 2009. 132-144. ISBN 978-973-737-680-0.

‘Towards a Politics of the Small Things: Arundhati Roy and the Decentralisation of Authorship’. Authorship in Context. eds. Kyriaki Hadjiafxendi and Polina Mackay. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2007. 163-181. ISBN 978-1-4039-4901-1.

 

Interviews

“States of Exile: An Interview with Domnica Radulescu”, Contemporary Women’s Writing, February 22, 2016, doi:10.1093/cwwrit/vpw004.

“Barcelona în 1909 și scriitorul catalan contemporan” (“Barcelona in 1909 and the Contemporary Catalan Author”), an interview with Lluís-Anton Baulenas, România literară 18/ May 1, 2015. p. 20.

‘Virtual Reality on Infinite Bandwidth: Vikram Chandra in conversation with Maria-Sabina Alexandru, Washington DC, 4 September 2003’, The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 40.2, 2005, pp. 5-22. ISSN: 0021-9894.