Poetry versus reportage

The study questions once more – starting from the mutations in the postmodern world and culture – Malllarmé’s distinction between poetry and character. The fragmentation of the “collective” soul of the clan, tribe, city into a multitude of “individuals” decides, on the one hand, the creation of the difference between “I am interested” (in a superficial inertial manner, as an extension of the collective psychism) and “I care” (in an individual, absolute, interior manner). It is the difference between reportage and poetry. On the other hand, the very configuration of the interior space is mutated, due to the emergence of new communications media – radio, television, mobile phone, internet. What took shape in the dawn of modernity, and then became dominant in the XIXth and XXth century, that is the Human episteme, as Foucault calls it (in Words and things), is transforming now into something else, something vague and virtual. A new challenge, because now, at the beginning of XXIst century, the boundary between poetry and reportage is constantly moving. (It appears, for example, the reportage of the “individual”, e.g. the blogs.) The only criterion – always available – to distinguish today between poetry and reportage remains the opposition between “I care” and “I am interested”.
Keywords: contemporary poetry, modernism, postmodernism, the Human episteme, reportage, medium, message

• Baudrillard, Jean, Paroxistul indiferent, Idea Design & Print, 2001.
• Baudrillard, Jean, Sistemul obiectelor, Echinox, 1990.
• Baudrillard, Jean, Societatea de consum. Mituri şi structuri, Comunicare@ro, 2008.
• Benjamin, Walter, Iluminări, Idea Design & Print, 2002.
• Debord, Guy, Societatea spectacolului, Idea Design & Print, 2003.
• Călinescu, Matei, Conceptul modern de poezie, Paralela 45, 2002.
• Derrida, Jacques, (Ex)poziţii, Idea Design & Print, 2001.
• Dobrescu, Caius, Revoluţia radială, Editura Universităţii Transilvania, 2008.
• de Duve, Thierry, Kant după Duchamp, Idea Design & Print, 2003.
• Foucault, Michel, Cuvintele şi lucrurile, Univers, 1996.
• Groys, Boris, Despre nou, Idea Design & Print, 2003.
• Lovink, Geert, Cultura digitală, Idea Design & Print, 2004.
• McLuhan, Marshall, Texte esenţiale, Nemira, 2007.
• Muşina, Alexandru, Unde se află poezia?, Arhipelag, 1996.
• Muşina, Alexandru, Eseu asupra poeziei moderne, Cartier, 1997.
• Muşina, Alexandru, Supravieţuirea prin ficţiune, Aula, 2005.
• Podoabă, Virgil, Metamorfozele punctului de plecare, Editura Universităţii Transilvania, 2008.
• Sloterdijk, Peter, În aceeaşi barcă, Idea Design & Print, 2002.
• Sloterdijk, Peter, Reguli pentru parcul uman, Humanitas, 2003.
• *** The Cantos of Ezra Pound, New Directions, 1996.

Quentin Meillassoux or anti-modern philosophy

The claim for „strong” thinking has not lost all its relevance after the decline of ideological narratives, even if such a claim has to comprehend the reasons of the actual postmodern relativism. This is what only theory dares, and Quentin Meillassoux takes on this task in his book Apres la finitude. Essai sur la necessite de la contingence (Paris, Seuil, 2006, translated into English as After Finitude, an essay on the necessity of contingency, trans. Ray Brassier, University of Michigan, Continuum, 2008). After deconstruction, the principle of „the necessity of contingence” proposes, in an heroic gesture, to retie with the pre-„correlationist” philosophy and thus to find out a way of thinking whose truth does not depend anymore on the effective presence of the subject. Relaying upon the way Alain Badiou, theorizes the transfinite numbers, Quentin Meillassoux tries to ascertain the augural gesture of human reason to think transcendance as a rest, always irreducible, of immanence. a fondement In this book. This is why we think that Meillassoux is an excellent illustration of what Antoine Compagnon calls „the antimodernes – moderns in freedom”.

Key words: Quentin Meillassoux, French theory, leftist thinking, metaphysics, correlationism

• Quentin Meillassoux, Après la finitude. Essai sur la nécessité de la contingence, Paris, Seuil, 2006
• Antoine Compagnon, Antimodernii, trad. Irina Mavrodin şi Adina Diniţoiu, Bucureşti, Art, 2008
• Immanuel Kant, Critica facultăţii de judecată, Bucureşti, Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică, 1981.

The alienated lynx

In all medieval bestiaries, the lynx is a ferocious beast, very brave and very selfish, as it burries its urine, which produces a very precious stone. It also has a very sharp look. In Cantemir’s novel, The Hieroglyphic History, this character is a mean one, as it is one of the Unicorn’s enemies. So, his fierceness is replaced by lack of personality and his courage by an coward art of avoiding the direct confrontation. In this way, a symbol of corage becomes a symbol of cowardness.

Keywords: bestiary, lynx, Dimitrie Cantemir, negative symbol

• Albert the Great, Man and the Beasts. De animalibus (Books 22-26), translated by James J. Scanlan, M.D., Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, Binghamton, New York, 1987
• Cantemir, Istoria ieroglifică, în Dimitrie Cantemir, Opere, Vol. I, Divanul, Istoria ieroglifică, Hronicul vechimei a romano-moldo-vlahilor, ediţie de Virgil Cândea, Editura Academiei Române şi Univers Enciclopedic, Bucureşti, 2003
• Isidor din Sevilla, Etymologiae (Book XII), în Robert M. Grant, Early Christians and Animals, Routledge, London& New York, 1999
• Plinius, Naturalis Historia, ediţie îngrijită, prefaţă şi note de Ioana Costa, volumul al II-lea,Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2001.

The vanishing Iaşi… A deserted city. Teodoreanu’s nostalgies

The study represents an imagological approach regarding a decaying city; starting with an analysis of The Isle of the Dead, the famous painting of the Swiss Arnold Böcklin, the author defines the main set of characteristics of a general Necropolis and then observes the same features as they result from the literary representation of Iaşi, the city portrayed by Ionel Teodoreanu in his best-known novel, La Medeleni. A comparison is also drawn between the respective city and the so-called “dead cities” or “abandoned cities”, such as Venice or Bruges – Iaşi being compared by Teodoreanu with a Moldavian Venice. The final part of this comparative imagological investigation makes use of Derrida’s concept of hauntology, as coined in The Specters of Marx, applying this mourning-related concept to the Iaşi of the fin de siècle, understood as a city of shadows.
Keywords: modern Romanian literature, Ionel Teodoreanu, imagology, decadent city, Necropolis, Iaşi, Jacques Derrida, hauntology

• Derrida, Jacques, Spectrele lui Marx, traducere de Bogdan Ghiu şi Mihaela Cosma, prefaţă de Cornel Mihai Ionescu, Polirom, Iaşi, 1999.
• Ralea, Mihai, Scrieri din trecut, în literatură, Editura pentru Literatură, Bucureşti, 1963.
• Stanca, Radu, Acvariu, prefaţă, text ales şi îngrijit de Mircea Tomuş, Editura Dacia, Cluj, 1971.
• Teodoreanu, Ionel, La Medeleni, III, ediţie îngrijită, prefaţă, repere biografice şi bibliografice de Valeriu Râpeanu, EdiTURA 100+1 Gramar, Bucureşti, 1997.
• Teodoreanu, Ionel, „La masa umbrelor” în Opere alese, vol. VI, Editura Minerva, 1971.

The logic of the departing point
or
Power and revelating experience as legitimizing resort of creation

The present study analyzes the most important works, Supravieţuiri / The Survivals, of the influential Romanian novelist Radu Cosaşu, departing from the axiom of the political topic as major issue of all his writings, even the most playful and erotic ones. Not only does this topic function as a main correlative for all the other topics, but it has concretely affected the genesis itself of Cosaşu’s work; his biographical experience with the Communist power is an
active and reactive presence in his texts’ background, Power even becoming a central topic in some of them. Thus, despite its ludic and frolicsome appearance, Cosaşu’s prose proves to be a macro-narrative of Power.
Keywords: contemporary Romanian literature, Radu Cosaşu, Supravieţuiri, political topic, power, revelating experience

• Radu Cosaşu, Logica (Supravieţuiri, V), Bucureşti, Ed. Cartea Românească, 1985.
• René Girard, Minciună romantică şi adevăr romanesc, trad. de Alexandru Baciu, Bucureşti, Ed. Univers, 1972.
• René Girard, Critique dans un souterrain, Paris, Grasset, 1983
• René Girard, Des choses cachées depuis la fondation du monde, Paris, Grasset, 1989
• Gabriel Liiceanu, Jurnalul de la Păltiniş, Bucureşti, Ed. Humanitas, 1996.
• Rudolf Otto, Sacrul, în româneşte de Ioan Milea, Cluj, Ed. Dacia, 1992.

Romanian Literature in school fifties

„Decree no. 175/1948 regarding Educational Reform” meant, among other things, placing the Romanian educational system under the doctrinaire sign of the communism of Soviet extraction. An essential component of subjects taught at high school level along the fifties, literature became not only an instrument of political propaganda, but also one of forming approximate consciences, structured around rudimentary Manichaeist ideological principles, and almost exclusively based on doctrine. Following the 1950 Provisional Theses of Romanian Literary History, the 1952 curriculum is one of the documents which sets out the full ideologisation of this subject.

Keywords: social genesis, social function, literary heritage, class orientation, class struggle, the influence of Soviet literature

On the morphology of the edge

Mircea A. Diaconu aims in the book Who’s Afraid of Emil Cioran? Cioran the alien to analyze the paradoxes that build Cioran the man while he writes the letters addressed to the friends in the country and while he writes in his Notebooks. The author of the essay realized that he can understand Cioran easier and that he can also disambiguate “the figure of the creative spirit”in these authentic existential documents. It is here where he identifies the unfalsifying evidences of the being, of the truth of Cioran’s inner self, as these evidences establish a freedom that invites Cioran to become himself, while he is constantly being someone else due to the awareness of the inconsistency.
Keywords: Cioran, criticism on Cioran, Mircea A. Diaconu, identity, alienation, anonymity, skepticism, disease

Mircea A. Diaconu, Cui i-e frică de Emil Cioran? / Who’s Afraid of Emil Cioran?, Ed. Cartea Românească, Bucureşti, 2008.

Fighting Athletes in Greek poetry

Pindar, one of the poets willing to areas of abstract thinking, reflected on religious issues, ethical and aesthetic. At the core concept of meditation and Pindar stood under. Pindar’s thought of the measure is sent to the athlete and the winner is based on wisdom traditions apollinice the vision of man and his condition. In his odes, Pindar is concerned with virtue and meditation athletic related content under the generic human capabilities and human duty to strive for perfection this divine gift in him, despite his condition limited aspects is a good opportunity to continue reflection on the nature, status or function of poetry and the poet’s means of expression. In the specific relationship between poetry and the poet feels agonistic victory triumphant anthem as a moral obligation to an athlete who inspired him to write the song and as a reward for his effort, designed to transmit the next generation memory meritorious deeds. Pindar’s Ode ended and gradually participate in the disappearance of lyric opera.

Keywords: virtue, measure, learning, poetry, athlete, odes

On “the all denying spirit”

Seriousness is the shape in which often comes out in the world a reduced intelligence. From this point of view, Socrates is far from being a serious guy. His seriousness is ironic, his irony is always serious. Eros himself is not serious and his irony is involuntary. Satan, well, Mephistopheles, is serious, but not without irony. Irony, unlike seriousness, implies the second one, the same way the lie, which is “state of war”, while irony is “state of peace”. The liar cheats, the ironist delays. Both seem to be under the condition of a bet with Platonic premises: “you must not fall asleep in the middle of the day” (Phaidros, 259d). Seriousness may end up in platitude, it takes a nap, but not irony as well, irony is not apathetic. The serious man does not obey to a school of women as Socrates obeys to Diotima. Seriousness begins when the Devil interferes, irony begins afterwards. And all this take place at the border between wager, agreement, bet and argument.

• Ionescu, Nae, Problema mântuirii în Faust al lui Goethe, Editura Anastasia, Bucureşti, 1996.
• Moroianu, Mihai, Marii damnaţi, Editura Muzicală, Bucureşti, 1983.
• Pascal, Cugetări, Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti, 1992.
• Septuaginta, Tomul 4/II, Iov, Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2007.

A „satyr” at Queen Victoria’s court: Algernon Charles Swinburne

The present study deals with the intricate relationships between Algernon Charles Swinburne’s public „persona” and his Victorian contemporaries. For the nineteenth century literary careers it is taken into consideration the broad social context referring to the rise and establishment of burgeois values and life style, then the particulary interplay of discreet ideologic targets and public biographic disclosures with sheer cultural action. While still fighing with the contradictory tendencies and ideas of his age, Swinburne likes to dwell inside the paradox. Consequently, at the dawn of the twentiest century, he came to be paradoxically considered as the main mouthpiece of middle class shallowness and vanity. All in all, a Victorian booby trap.

Keywords: burgeoisie, biography, Romanticism, Decadence, Victorianism, myth of literature, public/ prive life

• H. Abrams, Natural Supernaturalism. Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature, New York, W.W. Norton Comp.&Inc., 1971.
• William E. Buckler, The Victorian Imagination: Essays in Aesthetic Exploration, New York, New York University Press, 1980.
• Samuel C. Chew, Swinburne, Hamden, Conneticut, Archon Books, 1929.
• Caius Dobrescu, Revoluţia radială. O critică a conceptului de postmodernism dinspre înţelegerea plurală şi deschisă a societăţii burgheze, Braşov, Editura Universităţii din Braşov, 2008.
• Peter Gay, The Burgeois Experience. Victoria to Freud. Education of the Senses, vol. I, New York, Oxford University Press, 1984.
• Coulson Kernahan, In Good Company. Some Personal Recollections of Swinburne, Lord Roberts, Watts-Dunton, Oscar Wilde, Edward Whymper, S. J. Stone, Stephen Phillips, London, John Lane, 1917.
• William Morton Payne, Algernon Charles Swinburne în Greater English Poets of the Nineteenth Century, http://openlibrary.org.
• Algernon Charles Swinburne, Notes on Poems and Reviews, London, John Camden Hotten, 1866.
• Edward Thomas, Algernon Charles Swinburne: A Critical Study, London, Martin Secker, 1912.
• David Weir, Decadence and The Making of Modernism, Amherst, University of Massachusetts Press, 1995.

Ruben Dario’s poetry within the context of Latin American modernism

Rubén Darío is one of the most important representatives of Latin-American poetry, also embodying the new type of modernist artist. Far from originating solely with intellectuals from metropolitan Western Europe, the term “modernism” first surfaced in print in the writings of a major author from a small “underdeveloped” country in Central America. It was in the late 1880’s that the celebrated Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío (1867–1916) first used and explained the term “modernism” (“modernismo”, in Spanish). As Latin America’s earliest avant-garde movement, “modernismo” was first limited largely to literature: essays, poetry, and short stories. Such was the case with Rubén Darío’s now legendary volume Azul (Azure, 1888), which conjoined the innovative self-critical splintering of poetic language (based on mid-line caesura) with broader critical reflections on the process of modernization. At issue was a heterogeneous new cultural force that linked self-consciously French-influenced vanguard language with period tropes from an agrarian-based Central America and unlikely recollections of little-known pre-Columbian cultural traditions. This tightly intertwined dynamic of formal disjunction and thematic displacement was summed up by the poet in his well-known book entitled Prosas profanas.
Keywords: modernism, avant-garde, Romanticism, Latin-American poetry, modern art

• Ştefan Augustin Doinaş, Poeţi străini, Bucureşti, Editura Eminescu, 1997.
• Hegel, Estetica, citat de Guillermo de Torre în Problematica de la literatura, Bueno Saires, Losada, 1951.
• Hugo Friedrich, Structura liricii moderne. Traducere de Dieter Fuhrmann, prefata de Mircea Martin, Bucuresti, Editura Univers, 1998.
• Octavio Paz, Copiii mlaştinii.Poezia modernă de la romantism la avangardă, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Dacia, 2003

Street names in Petreşti – in the past and nowadays. Denomination strategies.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the denomination strategies – between 1930 and present day – of the streets in Petreşti, a bilingual locality in the South-West of Transylvania, with a population of around 4500 inhabitants and to verify to what extent the socio-political transformations in 1945 and 1989 have influenced the natural and administrative toponyms of this locality.

Function of the reconstruction possibilities of the denomination strategies, the street names in Petreşti are semantically classified in ten onomastic groups. Categories 1 to 6 refer to natural Romanian and German toponyms that have a local orientation function, while categories 7 to 10 represent Romanian administrative street names, with a mainly political function, which appeared after 1945.

The reason for changing the street names is most of the times a political-historical one. The change takes place by modifying the denomination strategy. The street names in Petreşti have been modified after 1945 and 1989, a political-ideological function being added to the identification and orientation one. Not all street names have been changed after 1989, but only those that didn’t match the new political orientation.

Using new indicators, in 2005 old German street names have been brought back to life.

Urban street names are proofs of local cultural, linguistic and of mentality history.

Keywords: onomastics, microtoponymy, street names, bilingual street names indicators, street denomination strategies, natural street names in German and Romanian, administrative street names in Romanian, street names change and the politics behind it, revitalization of old street names in German.

• Bâscă Ioan: Petreşti – şapte milenii de istorie. Repere monografice. / Petreşti – Seven Millennia of History. Monographic Markers. Altip Verlag, Alba Iulia 2009.
• Bering Dietz: Grundlegung kulturwissenschaftlicher Studien über Straßennamen: Der Projektentwurf von 1989. / Founding the Cultural-Scientific Studies Related to Street Names: Conception of the 1989 Project In: Name und Gesellschaft. Soziale und historische Aspekte der Namengebung und Namenentwicklung. / Name and Society. Social and Historic Aspects of Denominating and Developing Names. Hrsg. von Jürgen Eichhoff, Wilfried Seibicke und Michael Wolffsohn, Dudenverlag, Mannheim, Leipzig, Wien, Zürich 2001, S. 270-281.
• Dengel Mathias und Dengel Brigitte (Hrsg.): Heimatbuch Petersdorf. / The Book of the Birth Place: Petreşti. Verlag der Siebenbürgisch-Sächsischen Stiftung, München 2002.
• Dengel Mathias und Probsdorfer Simon: Dorfanlage und Siedlungsgebiet. / Placementof the Locality and the Colonization Area, S. 19-26; Dengel Mathias und Probsdorfer Simon: Handel, Gewerbe und soziale Einrichtungen – Baugewerbe. / Trading, Handicrafts and Social Services / Construction Industry, S. 175-190; Fackner Simon: Flurnamenkarte der Gemarkung Petersdorf. / The Map of the local rural toponimics of the territorial surface of Petreşti, S. 30-31; Haider Egon: Die Bedeutung der Papierfabrik / The Importance of the Paper Factory, S. 152-159 und S. 161-166; Kasper Thomas: Die Entwicklung der Bevölkerung / Demographic Development, S. 91-102; Kasper Thomas: Industrie – Die Papierfabrik von Petersdorf / Industry -The Paper Factory in Petreşti, S. 145-152; Thomke Gerhard: Kirche und kirchliches Leben / The Church and theReligious Life, S. 203-248.
• Föllner Ursula: Historische Straßennamen der Stadt Magdeburg. / Historical Street Names in the Town of Magdeburg. In: Magdeburger Namenlandschaft. Onomastische Analysen zu Stadt und Region in Geschichte und Gegenwart. / The Onomastic Landscape of Magdeburg. Onomastic Analysis of the Town and of the Region in the Past and in the Present Hrsg. von Armin Burkhard, Ursula Föllner, Saskia Luther, Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, S. 211-223.
• Fuchshuber-Weiss Elisabeth: Straßennamen: deutsch. / Street Names in German In: Handwörterbuch zur Sprach-und Kommunikationswissenschaft (HSK): Namenforschung. Ein internationales Handbuch zur Onomastik. / Compendium of Language and Communication Science: Name Studies. International Onomastics Handbook. Bd. 2, Hrsg. von: Ernst Eichler, Gerold Hilty, Heinrich Löffler, Hugo Steger, Ladislav Zgusta, Walter de Gruyter Verlag, Berlin / New York 1996, S. 1468-1475.
•  Glasner Peter: Die Lesbarkeit der Stadt. Kulturgeschichte der mittelalterlichen Straßennamen Kölns. / Town Legibility. The Cultural History of Medieval Street Names in Köln. Bd. 1 u. 2, DuMont Verlag, Köln 2002.
• Hanke Christian: Hamburgs Straßennamen erzählen Geschichte. / StreetNames in Hamburg Tell History. Medien-Verlag-Schubert, Hamburg 1997.
• Koß Gerhard: Haus-, Straßen-, Viertels- und Flurnamen: die Mikrotoponymie. / Names of Houses, Streets, Districts and Rural Local Toponyms: Microtoponymy. In: Namenforschung. Eine Einführung in die Onomastik. / Names Research. An Introduction to Onomastics. von Gerhard Koß, 3. Auflage, Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 2002, S. 147-165.
• Lista abonaţilor la serviciul telefonic din judeţul Alba. / List of Landline Users in Alba County. Direcţia Judeţeană de Poştă şi Telecomunicaţii Alba Iulia 1979.
• Lista abonaţilor telefonici din judeţul Alba. / List of Landline Users in Alba County. Pagini Aurii S.A. în colaborare cu Romtelecom S.A., 2001-2002.
• Lista abonaţilor telefonici din judeţul Alba. / List of Landline Users in Alba County. Pagini Aurii S.A. în colaborare cu Romtelecom, 2008-2009.
• Naumann Horst: Namen von Verkehrswegen und Plätzen. / Names of Transport Routes and Markets. In: Namenarten und ihre Erforschung. Ein Lehrbuch für das Studium der Onomastik. / Name Types and Their Exploration. Handbook for the Study of Onomastics. Hrsg. von Andrea Brendler und Silvio Brendler, baar-Verlag, Hamburg 2004, S. 491-526.
• Neubauer Ernst: Häuserbuch der Stadt Magdeburg 1631-1720. Teil 1 / The Book of the Houses in Magdeburg Town. 1631-1720. Parts 1. Magdeburg 1931.
• Neubauer Ernst: Häuserbuch der Stadt Magdeburg. Teil 2 / The Book of the Houses in Magdeburg Town. 1631-1720. Parts 2. Aus dem Nachlass bearbeitet und mit Register versehen von Hanns Gringmuth-Dallmer, Halle 1956.
• Nistor Adina-Lucia: Die Straßennamen von Petersdorf / Mühlbach. Formanalyse und Nameninterferenzen. / Street Names in Petreşti / Sebeş. Formal Analysis and Onomastic Interferences. In: Germanistische Beiträge 26 / Germanistic Contributions 26 der Lucian-Blaga-Universität, Hrsg. von Maria Sass, Sibiu / Hermannstadt 2010, S. 223-238.
• Sobotta Kirsten: Neue und alte Straßennamen in der Gemeinde Barleben seit der deutschen Wiedervereinigung – Eine onomastische Analyse. / Old and New Street Names in Barleben, Since the Unification of Germany – An Onomastic Analysis. In: Magdeburger Namenlandschaft. Onomastische Analysen zu Stadt und Region in Geschichte und Gegenwart. / The Onomastic Landscape of Magdeburg. Onomastic Analysis of the Town and of the Region in the Past and in the Present. Hrsg. von Arnim Burkhardt, Ursula Föllner, Saskia Luther, Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, S. 225-236.
• Steger Hugo: Institutionelle innerörtliche Orientierungssysteme – Fallstudien. / Institutional Orientation Systems in a Locality – Case Studies. In: HSK: Namenforschung. Name Studies. Les Noms Propres. Ein internationales Handbuch zur Onomastik. / Compendium of Language and Communication Science: Name Studies. International Onomastics Handbook. Bd. 2, Hrsg. von Ernst Eichler, Gerold Hilty, Heinrich Löffler, Hugo Steger und Ladislav Zgusta, Walter de Gruyter Verlag, Berlin / New York 1996, S.1499-1521.
• Witkowski Teodolius: Grundbegriffe der Namenkunde. / Basic Notions of Onomastics. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1964.
• Web Resurces: Google Earth

The Relics of Saint Apostle Andrew and his worship at Patras, Constantinople, Amalfi and Rome

The author presents, relying on scientific documentation and proper theological interpretation, several considerations regarding the transportation of the relics of Saint Apostle Andrew and their worship in Patras (Greece), Constantinople, Amalfi (Italy), and Rome. As is known, St. Andrew was one of the Twelve Apostles, brother of Saint Peter, crucified on an X-shaped cross. According to a later tradition, St. Andrew also preached the Gospel in Scytia Minor (i.e. Dobrogea). After discussing the cult of St. Andrew at Patras and the worship of the saint’s relics in the former capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, the author provides information regarding the context and subtext of their transportation to Amalfi, as well as the transportation of St. Andrew’s head in Rome, finally approaching the significance of the procession of the return of St. Andrew’s head in Patras.
Keywords: theology, lives of the saints, St. Andrew, worship, relics, relics’ history and transportation, significance of processions

• ***, Lexikon des Mittelalters, VI, 1996 F. Chiovara (ed.), Histoire des saintes et de la sainteté chrétienne / History of saints and of Christian sainthood, I, Paris, Hachette, 1986
• F. Dvornik, The Idea of Apostolicity in Byzantium and the Legend of the Apostle Andrew, Cambridge, Mass., 1958 Mircea Păcurariu, Geschichte der Rumänischen Orthodoxen Kirche / History of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Erlangen, 1994
• W. Sanders (ed.), Andreas – Apostel der Ökumene zwischen Ost und West / Andrew – Apostle of the connection between East and West, Köln, 1985.

Forms and Aspects of the violence and intolerance

in the Byzantine and Balkan world of the 11^th-13^th centuries

The complex and contradictory Byzantine society of the 11^th-13^th is distinguished by two extremes: a special refinement of its civilization, but also through a violence sometimes taken to the paroxysm. This second feature was to be transmitted to Balkan states emerged and developed in the 12^th and 13^th centuries on the ruins of Byzantium that was temporally disappered under the bows of the participants in the 4^th Crusade, which were pretending to be the heiresses of the Byzantium and its political traditions. Among the manifestations forms of intolerance and violence specific to the Byzantium and Balkan world, one can distinguish: violence as state policy practiced against both external and internal enemies, ethnic intolerance practiced in certain political context in relation to various ethnic groups inside the empire, respectively the Balkan states, and popular violence, as a result of the uncontrolled surge of the masses.

Keywords: political violence, ethnic intolerance, popular violence, Byzantium, Constantinople, Byzantine world, Balkan world.

• Nicetae Choniatae, Historia, ex recensione Immanuelis Bekkeri, Bonnae, 1835.
• Ioannis Cinnami, Epitome rerum ab Ioanne et Alexio Comnenis gestarum. Ad fidem Codocis Vaticani, recensuit Augustus Meineke, Bonnae, 1836.
• S.B. Daşkov, Dicţionar de împăraţi bizantini / Dictionary of Byzantine Emperors, Bucureşti, 1999.
• *** Fontes Historiae Daco-Romanae, vol. III, Bucureşti, 1975.
• Al. Kajdan, Andronic Comnenul – curajos, perfid şi cavaler / Andronikos Comnenos – brave, treacherous and knight, în «Magazin Istoric», V, 1971, 8(53).
• V. Mărculeţ, Vlahii balcanici şi românii nord-dunăreni în viziunea cronicarilor şi scriitorilor bizantini din secolele XI-XVI / The Balkan Vlachs and the North-Danubian Romanians in the vision of the Byzantine chroniclers and writers of 11^th-16^th centuries, în «Istorie şi tradiţie în spaţiul românesc», VII, 2007.
• Georgii Pachymeris, De Michaele et Andronico Paleologis libri XIII, recensuit Immanuelis Bekkerus, vol. II, Bonnae, 1835.
• Mihail Psellos, Cronografia. Un veac de istorie bizantină (976-1077) / The Chronography. A century of Byzantine history (976-1077), ed. R. Alexandrescu, N.Ş. Tanaşoca, Iaşi, 1998.

Political parties and democratic ideology

The relationship of dependence between the democratic institutional-political framework wherein political parties operate and, otherwise, between political organisations and the consolidation of the aforementioned democratic political regime is an extremely complex one.  However, in political theory – both prescriptive and empirical – the idea according to which the health of a democracy is directly influenced by the institutional health of the political organisations to which its citizens subscribe to express their ideas has become an axiom. In this game there are, of course, a wide series of other factors, such as the constitutional framework, the form of state,  electoral  legislation, the economic system, political culture or international influences. The aim of this study is to argument that all these factors do not diminish the role played by political parties in the construction of a democratic environment wherein as many as possible of the citizens’ interests  can be expressed and of a decision-making mechanism able to guarantee the balance of the political system.

Keywords: political parties, democratic ideology, associative culture, pluralism, political-institutional syndrome, political-cultural syndrome.

• ARBLASTER, Anthony, 1996, Democraţia, Editura Du Style, Bucureşti
• BRÉCHON, Pierre, 2004, Partidele politice, Editura Eikon, Cluj-Napoca
• DAHL, Robert, 1999, Poliarhiile. Participare şi opoziţie, Editura Institutul European, Iaşi
• DENNI, Bernard, LECOMTE, Patrick, 2004, Sociologia politicului, volumul 2, Editura Eikon, Cluj-Napoca
• HABERMAS, Jürgen, 2005, Sfera publică şi transformarea sa structurală, Edictura Comunicare.ro, Bucureşti
• HAYEK, Friedrich von, 1996, Drumul către servitute, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti
• LIJPHART, Arend, 2000, Modele ale democraţiei. Forme de guvernare şi funcţionare în treizeci şi şase de ţări, Editura Polirom, Iaşi
• LIJPHART, Arend, 2002, Democraţia în societăţile plurale, Editura Polirom, Iaşi
• LOCKE, John, 1999, Al doilea tratat asupra guvernământului civil. Scrisoare despre toleranţă, Editura Nemira, Bucureşti
• MARTIN, Pierre, 1999, Sisteme electorale şi modurile de scrutin, R.A. Monitorul Oficial, Bucureşti
• MILL, John Stuart, 1994, Despre libertate, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti
• POPPER, Karl, 2005, Societatea deschisă şi duşmanii săi, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti
• ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques, 1996, Contractul social, Editura Nemira, Bucureşti
• SARTORI, Giovanni, 1999, Teoria democraţiei reinterpretată, Editura Polirom, Iaşi
• SCHUMPETER, Joseph, 1976, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, New York: Harper and Brothers, 5th edition
• TOCQUEVILLE, Alexis, 1995, Despre democraţie în America, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti

The bugetary sistem of the European Union between constraints and possibilities

A coherent budgetary process in the European Union directly influences the member states’ budget. From this perspective, the European Union’s budget is the document which authorizes the financing of the activities and Community interventions within the member states, expressing the amounts of the member states contributions and the priorities of the Community policies.

At European Union wide drafting the budget means taking some political decisions to assign financial resources. The negotiations take place primary with the member states and then with regions and different social groups from these countries. In present, over 80% from the total expenses financed from the EU budget is assigned for financing the Common Agricultural Policy and structural funds grants. The difference of 20% is assigned for functioning and administrative expenses of own institutions, innovating policies (in which EU is proposing to become global leader), humanitarian help and development expenses, research and environment.

Analysed by comparison, the EU budget is small as opposed to the member states budget (approximate 1%) but its contribution to the development may be important if the budget is treated in a unitary, balanced and coherent manner. The amount of collected income is affected by the reticence of member states to finance it more generously, by the feeling that some states finance other ones and by the complicated technical procedures.

In contrast with the big interest for European funds, Romanian Government is considered to be a minor player in the debates regarding the EU budget. As a member state of European Union, Romania is adept of the financial burden distribution principle between member states on the basis of their own economic development, namely more developed countries to contribute proportionally, more to the Union’s budget.

Keywords: European Union budget, Common Agricultural Policy, Romania, budget authority, financial burden distribution principle

• COMISIA EUROPEANĂ Bruxelles, 28.5.2010, Propunere de REGULAMENT AL PARLAMENTULUI EUROPEAN ŞI AL CONSILIULUI privind Regulamentul financiar aplicabil bugetului general al Uniunii Europene/European Comission, Bruxelles, 28.05.2010, proposal for a regulation of the European parliament and council concerning the finacial regulation appliable to the general budget of the European Union
• Absorbţia fondurilor structurale în România, / The absorbtion of structural fonds in Romania, Institutul pentru Politici Publice, Bucureşti, 2006.
• Documente de bază ale Comunităţii şi Uniunii Europene, / The basis documents of the European Union and Community, Editura Polirom, 1999.
• Puşcas V., Relaţii internaţionale/transnaţionale,/International/transnational relations,Ed. Sincron, 2005.
• Wallace Helen ş.a., Elaborarea politicilor în Uniunea Europeană,/ The elaboration of policies in the European Union, ediţia a V-a, Institutul European din România, 2005

Economic cataclisms that quake the world

The author makes a thorough analysis of Professor Dan Popescu’s volume, published in 2010 entitled “Economic cataclysm that is shaking the world”. The work is being examined on two hundred pages regarding the research on the financial economic crises in the world. Other parts of the volume examine the development and evolution of the world economy and the economy trajectory of such important people being analyzed from the universal outlook. The book also deals with the significant of some past events in the light of the future. Having remarkable analytical strengths the reviewer work is relevant in assessing the book.

Keywords: economic cataclysms, financial economic crises, world economy, the economy trajectory, analytical strengths

A reference work of current Romanian Ethnology

The work “Habits of human life in Maramures, I, Birth and Childhood” written by Mihai Dancus has a monographic form. The traditions and the ceremonies of birth are treated in detail having as support research in the field, in the geographical space of Maramures considered a conservative area. The research in the field also includes the Romanian villages from the right of Tisa belonging to Ukraine.

I noted in our chronicle the author’s merit of treating all stages of the birth period: pregnancy, birth and childhood. We highlighted the complexity of research from multiple perspectives: sociological, historical, anthropological, ethnoethnological.

Keywords: Mihai Dăncuş, tradition, Maramureş, ethnology, habits.