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“Sameness and Otherness: A Synchronic and Analytical Approach to the Reception of Samuel Beckett’s and Franz Kafka’s Short Prose in Romania.” Introduction Samuel Beckett’s work, having been translated into twenty languages, naturally prompted an overview of the extent to which the writer’s work was subjected to different acts of criticism and translations in Romania. In analyzing the technique employed by both Beckett and Kafka, it became clearer that it was the organization of the piece, the clarity of “details”, the control, the variety of the sentence structure, the word choice, the consistency and the appropriateness of tone that were to be extensively pondered upon. The reception of Samuel Beckett and Franz Kafka in Romania during 1963-1993 took the form of a contrastive pattern, an astonishing “otherness” with a more prolific output in the case of Samuel Beckett’s reception outside Romania and Franz Kafka’s reception in Romania. This pattern proves to be worthy of an in-

“Sameness and Otherness: A Synchronic and Analytical Approach to the Reception of Samuel Beckett’s and Franz Kafka’s Short Prose in Romania.” Prolegomenon The choice of thematic field came with the interest of the researcher recently turning towards literary reception as a social phenomenon of utmost importance. The most appealing issue in this context remains doubtlessly that of intercultural exchange, specifically that of the direct impact of Samuel Beckett’s and Franz Kafka’s short prose writings on the Romanian literary scene. Historically speaking, Beckett’s short prose received little attention from the Romanian readership – an aspect noticeable in the small amount of reviews referring to his work and the relatively scant body of translations of his short prose. Considering the fact that Beckett’s work is undoubtedly part of the international literary canon established by Harold Bloom (mainly due to works such as Murphy, Watt, The Molloy Trilogy, How It Is, Endgame, Kr