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Focusing on the success of Florina Ilis’ novel The children’s crusade, this article explores its potential as a literary contribution in a broader global discourse, as it could be considered “literary Romanian capital” in a discussion about world literature. While the book draws on clichéd stereotypes of Romanian society from the early 2000s, including the Ceaușescu era and the challenging transition from communism to democracy, the author uses a universal language of trauma. This allows for a wider audience to engage with the themes presented in the novel. Thus, her story becomes part of a global collection of works exploring the theme of the “children’s crusade” (including George Zabriskie Gray, Marcel Schwob, Lucian Blaga, Jerzy Andrzejewski, Thea Beckman, Gregory J. Rinaldi, Karleen Bradford, Kathleen McDonnell, Bryce Courtenay, Mario Vargas Llosa, Tullio Avoledo, amongst others). Considering the connection between continuity and innovation in Romanian literature, 75 years following Lucian Blaga’s play, with the same title, Florina Ilis employs a plot with medieval roots in her novel, which has fascinated writers worldwide, to deliver a unique perspective, in a new discourse.

The paper aims to offer a synthetic perspective upon the dramatic genre in the Romanian folklore. We present several preliminary elements within a short historical account of the dramatic manifestations; afterwards we create an inventory of the forms of theatrical arts, following the first historical records, a description of the rituals and props in order to depict the folk syncretism and all its beauty. The working instruments are those offered by historiography and the methodology in the field as well as the ethnographic description. Although less consistent than the folk poetry or epic, folk theatre contributes to the complexity and flavour of Romanian folklore. The unseen mechanisms of syncretism have functioned and are still functioning, generating new forms of folk art. The laic and the religious, the traditional and the modern, the epic and the drama, the masks, the dances as well as the costumes and the props – all these contribute to the survival of this particular folk genre. Moreover, being the least discreet of all Romanian folk genres, the folk theatre represents also an element of attraction and cultural export nowadays.