Jaroslav Hašek and I.L. Caragiale: On the Golden Age of Steadiness

The present study is focused on the works of the Czech Jaroslav Hašek and the Romanian I.L. Caragiale; it is conceived as a comparative study aiming at showing how the consistent humour of both writers builds a type of an impeding mechanism which does not allow dramatic circumstances to develop into a catastrophe. In Hašek, even World War I is rather a comedy instead of a tragedy; in Caragiale, the almost obscene world of politics is seen with the eye of a cheerful comedian, always counterposing some neutralizing characters to the genuine evil ones, avoiding thus the involution towards tragedy.

Keywords: modern Czech literature, Jaroslav Hašek, modern Romanian literature, I.L. Caragiale, dramatic and tragic in literature

The Onomatology of Mihail Sebastian’s Novels

This study reviews the novels of Mihail Sebastian, in order to investigate them in terms of proper names of characters. Onomastics regime at this controversial interwar author is not spectacular, but in the same time it’s not insignificant at all, given that in the default poetic of his prose you can observe some features specific to the anthroponyms. This regime stands on the one hand by some particular names, and on the other by the reflection on their functioning and prospects they express themselves on the names of the characters. In fact, in this way, through the characters, the authorial awareness of the role and characteristics of proper names in Mihail Sebastian ‚s novelistic prose is revealed to us.

Keywords: proper names, novel, modernism, poetic, characters.

• Romulus Bucur, Mihail Sebastian – monografie / Mihail Sebastian – A Monograph, Aula, Braşov, 2007
• George Călinescu, Istoria literaturii române de la origini până în prezent / The History of Romanian Literature from its Origins to the Present, 2nd ed., revised and enlarged, Minerva, Bucureşti, 1985
• Maria Dinescu, Mihail Sebastian: publicist şi romancier / Mihail Sebastian: Columnist and Novelist, Du Style, Bucureşti, 1998
• Dorina Grăsoiu, Mihail Sebastian sau Ironia unui destin / Mihail Sebastian or the Irony of a Destiny, Minerva, Bucureşti, 1986
• Mihai Iovănel, Evreul improbabil. Mihail Sebastian: o monografie ideologică / The Improbable Jew. Mihail Sebastian: an Ideological Monograph, Cartea Românească, Bucureşti, 2012
• Aurel Martin, Mihail Sebastian romancierul / Mihail Sebastian the Novelist, Minerva, Bucureşti, 1993
  Cornelia Ştefănescu, Mihail Sebastian, Tineretului, Bucureşti, 1968
• Ovid S. Crohmălniceanu, Literatura română între cele două războaie mondiale / Romanian Literature between the two World Wars, vol. 1, E. P. L., Bucureşti, 1967
• *** Mihail Sebastian interpretat de… / Mihail Sebastian interpreted by, anthology by Anatol Ghermanschi, Eminescu, Bucureşti, 1981

Mircea Eliade – The Portugal Journal as Soteriological Writing

This study makes a radiography of the 1941-1945 period, which Mircea Eliade spend in Lisbon, as cultural counsellor, after having left Romania (as it proved later, for ever), in April 1940, under extremely tense historical and political circumstances. I examine not only the writings he published during this time span–books and essays circulated both in Portugal and Romania—but also the genesis of his editorial projects, which would configure the author’s later literary works and those on the phenomenology of religion. I closely scrutinise the trajectory of Mircea Eliade, who took great pains to distance himself from Romanian issues (in the 1930s, they had made him align himself with the Iron Guard), in order to construct his career as an internationally acknowledged writer. In the main, the reading grid by means of which I investigate the evolution of the writer is provided by the journal that Eliade kept throughout “the Portuguese period”; it remained quasi-unknown for about half a century, until the Humanitas Publishing House, Bucharest, decided to print it, in 2006, under the title The Portuguese Journal.

Keywords: journal, diaristic writing, Latinity, cultural propaganda, Salazar’s revolution, nationalism, the Second World War, hermeneutics, subliminal message

• Mircea Eliade, Jurnalul portughez şi alte scrieri / The Portugal Journal and Other Writings, prefaţă şi îngrijire de ediţie de Sorin Alexandrescu, studii introductive, note şi traduceri de Sorin Alexandrescu, Florin Ţurcanu, Mihai Zamfir, traduceri din portugheză şi glosar de nume de Mihai Zamfir, 2 vol., Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 2006
• Mircea Eliade, Prefaţă la ediţia a doua / Preface to the Second Edition, in India, ediţie îngrijită şi prefaţă de Mircea Handoca, Bucureşti, Editura pentru turism, 1991

Paul Goma. Adameva: The game of Narrative Instances. Part 1

Being a part of a complex analysis, the actual study aims to reveal, beyond the “generic” allegiance and the genesis of the novel, how a “new formula” of knowledge of narratorial identity takes shape according to a downward path of the three pronominal references. It seeks the operation of knowledge generated by the inter-time, the changes occurred in relation to other ages and their materialization in the corpus of the three persons.

Another point is to illustrate how the author, in order to take revenge against the ban system, turns to an “I” sequestered between two dates and two contradictory rhythms: the outer rhythm of everyday dating and the inner rhythm of remembering. On the other hand, we can see, however, a complementary relationship between the two categories because the one who tries to know himself (“à se connaître”, the diarist) wants, in fatal way, to become known by his writing (“à se faire connaître”, the author of memoirs). In this way, in addition to rigorously analyzing the behavior of his fellows, the narrator analyzes himself. Therefore, he becomes his own object of study; he studies himself starting with his responsibility as a human and ending with his responsibility as a writer.

In fact, it is a knowledge that is not carried out no matter how, but through consciousness, it means objectively. Hence the (auto) -observation, -analysis, -irony. Beyond this, the text highlights the concern for revealing details, for the characteristic notes with aesthetic and knowledge value, and finally, for the particular images designed to create a more unique painting as, starting from the principle of an unrepeatable life, it provides a good creative premise from the beginning.

Keywords: Paul Goma, Adameva, Lăteşti, forced domicile, narrative instances, revealing details, dialectic of alterity

• Goma, Paul. Adameva (Adameva). Bucureşti, Curtea Veche Publishing, 2008, 198p.
• Podoabă, Virgil. Metamorfozele punctului. În jurul experienţei revelatoare (The metamorphoses of the full stop. Around the revealing experience). Piteşti, Paralela 45, 2004, 307 p.
• Podoabă, Virgil. Punctul critic. Pagini despre şi de confesso-literatură. Studii şi mărturii (The critical point. Pages on confessional writing. Studies and testimonials). Piteşti, Paralela 45, 2007, 330 p.
• Poulet, Georges. Conştiinţa critică (Critical consciousness). Traducere şi prefaţă de Ion Pop, Bucureşti, Univers, 1979, 332 p.
• Plutarh. Vieţi paralele. Alexandru şi Cezar (Parallel lives. Alexander and Caesar).Vol. IX. Traducere, notiţe istorice, note de N.I. Barbu, Bucureşti, Editura Ştiinţifică, 1957, 188 p.
• Simion, Eugen. Ficţiunea jurnalului intim, I. Există o poetică a jurnalului (The Fiction of the Intimate Diary, I. There is a poetic of the diary). Bucureşti, Univers Enciclopedic, 2001, 290 p.
• Valette, Bernard. Romanul. Introducere în tehnicile moderne de analiză literară (The Novel. Introduction

George Bălăiță: Landmarks of Professional Evolution in the Provincial, Totalitarian “chronotrope”

The aim of this study focuses on the existence of a writer during the totalitarianism regime in Romania and it is interest in establishing the place of the writer George Balaita in the Romanian Literature. In a period when the censure reined the cultural life and the literary scene, it is difficult to talk about a natural and normal rise and evolution of an artist, especially, for those who lived in a provincial area, far away from the “cultural center”- Bucharest. Using the answer Balaita gave during his life in lots of interviews, searching in archive and looking for explanation in his books, we tried to reconfigure the trajectory of the professional life of the author of “The World in Two Days”.

Keywords: George Bălăiţă, communism, sixties generation, proletarian culture, interview, biography, communism, essayistic discourse, subjectivity

• Bălăiță, George, 2011, Marocco (II), „Câinele în lesă”, Iaşi, Editura Polirom.
• Bălăiță, George, 2011, Marocco (I), Iaşi, Editura Polirom.
• Bălăiţă, George, 2001, „Aşa îmi trebuie” în „Conflicte” în Observatorul cultural, nr.83, p.25.
• Antologia Ateneu / Ateneu Anthology, 1987. „Manifestare în cadrul Reuniunilor revistei Ateneu, consacrată prozatorului
• George Bălăiță” în Ateneu, nr. 11, p.6.
• Adam, Sergiu, 1999. Pagini dintr-un jurnal posibil / Pages from a Plausible Diary, în Familia, nr. 5, pp. 63-65.
• Adameșteanu, Gabriela, Starea și perspectivele culturii la început de mileniu / Despre articolul lui George Bălăiță Fotoliul Baroni apărut în Ziua literără / The State and Perspectives of Culture at the Beginning of the Millenium / About George Bălăiță’s article The Baroni Armchair that appeared in Ziua literară, în 22, nr. 29, p.14.
• Călinescu, Al., 1987. George Bălăiță – premiul George
• Bacovia pentru beletristică / George Bălăiță – George
• Bacovia prize for fiction, în Ateneu, nr.11, p.6
• Călin, Constantiniu, 1996. Arc-ul lui George Bălăiţă / George Bălăiță’s Arch, în Ateneu, nr.6, p.2.
• Cesereanu, Ruxandra, 1992. Antiutopiile comuniste / Communist Dystopias, în Steaua nr.1, p.16.
• Donea, Marilena, 2007. George Bălăiţă, Biobiliografie /
• George Bălăiță, Bibliography, Bacău, Editura Corgal Press, 2007.
• Dimisianu, G., 1999. Adevărul literar şi artistic / Literary and Artistic Truth, nr.456, pp.1-8.
• Gafiţa, M., 1999. „Palladion” în Adevărul literar şi artistic, nr.456, pp.1-8.
• Grigurcu, Gheorghe, 1999. Opiniile unui ucenic neascultător / The Opinions of An Unruly Apprentice, în Convorbiri literare, nr. 8, p. 9.
• Grigurcu, Gheorghe, 2001. Bilanțul unei comemorări Mateiu
• Caragiale / The Balance of a Mateiu Catagiale Celebration, în Convorbiri literare, nr. 3, p. 47.
• Grăsoiu, Liviu, 2001. Scriitori subevaluaţi / Underestimated Writers în Luceafărul, nr. 8, p. 16.
• Groșan, Ioan, 1999. Se poate glumi doar până în proximitatea morții / You Can Joke Only Until Death Approaches, în Familia, nr. 5, p. 74-75.
• Lăncrănjan, Ion, 1999. Referat „George Bălăiţă – Palladion” în Adevărul literar şi artistic, nr.456, pp.1-8.
• Mincu, Marin, 2001. Despre carierismul literar sau despre virusarea ireversibilă a statului de scriitor / About Literary Careerism or the Irreversible Alteration of the Social Status of the Writer în Luceafărul, nr.10, p.10.
• Naum, C., 1998. Scurt excurs biografic / Brief Biographical Deviation, în George Bălăiță. Lumea în două zile, Bucureşti, Editura 100+1 Gramar, pp.IX-X.
• Oprea, Al; 1999. Palladion nuvelă din volumul Conversând despre Ionescu / Palladion, Novella from Talking About Ionescu, în Adevărul literar şi artistic, nr.456, pp.8-9.
• Prisecaru, M, 2002. Scriitorul George Bălăiţă şi rectorul Marius Paraschivescu au devenit cetăţeni de onoare ai Bacăului / George Bălăiță, Writer, and Marius Paraschivescu, Dean, became Honorary Citizens of Bacău, în România literară, nr. 3812, Supl. Ediție de Moldova, p.1
• Sorescu, Constantin, 1988. Scriitori români contemporani:
• George Bălăiță: Cerul gurii și umbra bibliotecii / Romanian Contemporary Writers: George Bălăiță: The Roof of the Mouth and the Shadow of the Library, în Scânteia tineretului, nr.31, p. 9.
• Stănescu, C., 1999. Cenzura: Opere alese / Censorship: Selected Works, în Adevărul literar şi artistic, nr.450, pp.1-8.
• Stănescu, C., 1999. Uşa cenzurii / The Door of Censorship, în Adevărul literar şi artistic, nr.456, pp.1-8.
• Stoiciu, Liviu Ioan, 2001. Absenteismul scriitoricesc / The Absenteeism of Writers, în Cotidianul, nr. 86, p. 8.
• România literară, Consiliul Uniunii Scriitorilor, nr.22, p.3.
• Scrisoarea adresată Martei Petru de George Bălăiță / Letter to Marta Petreu from George Bălăiță, 2001. Apostrof, nr.2, p.2.
• Ziua literară, 10 întrebări (fără răspuns) pentru George Bălăiță / 10 Questions (without answer) for George Bălăiță, nr. 2, p. 4.

Miguel Angel Asturias, ”The President”. Reality, fiction, power and myth

Miguel Ángel Asturias was one of the first Latin American writers so interested in evaluating within his creation the implications of tyranny and dictatorship. Of course, he has some famous forerunners in this field, such as Romulo Gallegos or Ramón del Valle-Inclán. But they remained mostly at the surface of this specific phenomenon, whereas Asturias goes deeper and always searches for more profound meaning. His novel El Senor Presidente (1946) uses some narrative techniques related to those imposed by the Surrealist movement, because this author was closely connected to the great representatives of Surrealism, spending in Paris some years of his youth. Besides, the fictional reality of the book maintains a permanent relationship with the historic reality of Guatemala. Therefore the mythic characteristics of the protagonist have to be discussed taking into consideration the evolution of Asturias’s native land, always torn between its aspirations to democracy and the dangers of tyranny as it was.

Keywords: Latin American novel, dictator, tyranny, fictional reality, historic development

• Fernando Alegría, Nueva historia de la novela hispanoamericana, Hanover, NH, Ediciones del Norte, 1986, p. 223.
• Luis Harss, Los nuestros, Buenos Aires, Editorial Sudamericana, 1966, p. 101.
• Jonathan Culler, The Pursuit of Signs: Semiotics, Literature, Deconstruction, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1981, p. 18.
• Giuseppe Bellini, Narrativa de Miguel Ángel Asturias, Buenos Aires, Losada, 1969, p. 57.
• Ricardo Gutiérrez-Mouat, El espacio de la crítica, Madrid, Origenes, 1989, p. 45.
• Richard Callan, Miguel Ángel Asturias, New York, Twayne, 1970, p. 13.
• Arturo Uslar Pietri, Cuarenta ensayos, Caracas, Monte Ávila, 1990, p. 121.
• Günter W. Lorenz, „Entrevista con Asturias”, în Mundo Nuevo, 43 (1970), p. 40.
• Carlos Ferrer Plaza, „Miguel Ángel Asturias y Alejo Carpentier: la evolución literaria del dictador hispanoamericano”, în Glauks, v.7, n. 2 (2007), p. 126.

Milan Kundera and the Deconstruction of Symbolic Immortality through Art

The current study is set to analyse the representations of symbolic immortality through art in Milan Kundera’s 1999 novel, Immortality. His overview on immortality is fundamentally determined by his perception of Otherness, a view which is strongly influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre’s (1905-1980) negative philosophy of the Other. The paper underlines that even though symbolic immortality is a typical concept for Postmodernity, its deconstruction via the negative interpretation of the Other represents a subtle critique of the Postmodernist way of conceiving and representing symbolic immortality, especially through art.

Keywords: symbolic immortality through art, Kundera, the negative Other, Sartre, deconstruction, Postmodernity.

• Ariès, Philippe, Western Attitudes Toward Death: From the Middle Ages to the Present, (P. M. Ranum, trad.), Baltimore & London, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974.
• Baumeister, Roy F., Meanings of Life, New York, Guilford Press, 1991.
• Berger, Peter. L.; Luckmann, Thomas, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, New York Garden City, Doubleday, 1966.
• Deloro, Cyrille, L’autre. Petit traité de narcissisme intelligent [The Other. A Small Treatise on Intelligent Narcissism], Paris, Larousse, 2009.
• Gorer, Geoffrey, Death, Grief and Mourning, New York, Anchor Books, 1967.
• Han, Byung-Chul, Agonia erosului şi alte eseuri [The Agony of Eros and Other Essays], (V. Nişcov, trad.), Bucureşti, Humanitas, 2014.
• Heidegger, Martin, Fiinţă şi timp [Being and Time], (G. Liiceanu, trad.), Bucureşti, Humanitas, 2006.
• Javeau, Claude, Les paradoxes de la postmodernité [The Paradoxex of Postmodernity], Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 2007.
• Kundera, Milan, Nemurirea [Immortality], (Jean Grosu, trad.), Bucureşti, Humanitas, 2013 [1990].
• Lesourd, Serge, La mélancolisation du sujet postmoderne ou la disparition de l’Autre [The Melancholisation of the Postmodern Subject or the Dissolution of the Other], în Cliniques Méditerranéennes, 1(75), pp. 13–26.
• Lifton, Robert Jay; Olson, Eric, Living and Dying, London, Wildwood House, 1974.
• Morin, Edgar, L’homme et la mort, Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1976.
• Sartre, Jean-Paul, L’être et le néant. Essai d’ontologie phénoménologique [Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology], Paris, Gallimard, 1943.

Italian hermeticism and romanian oneirism: An ideological approach

The aim of this article is to draw a parallel between two totalitarian ideologies – fascist and communist – which reflect in the lives and works of two poets: Giuseppe Ungaretti and Daniel Turcea. The better to explore these issues, I want to set out two distinct objectives. The first is to describe, by comparing and contrasting, the two ideologies, in order to set the scene for a discussion on Italy’s fascist and Romania’s communist cultural policies, mainly in relation to literary culture. The second is to establish a connection between the two cultural policies and the lives of the discussed poets. By way of conclusion I will focus upon the influences and effects of the two ideologies in Ungaretti’s and Turcea’s literary works.

Keywords: Fascism, Communism, Hermeticism, Oneirism, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Daniel Turcea.

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• Goldiș, Alex, The Trenches of the Literary Criticism. From Socialist Realism to Aesthetic Autonomy, Cartea Românească, Bucharest, 2011
• Gridan, Irina, From National Communism to Nationalist Communism, in Vingtième siècle, no. 109, Jan.-Mar. 2011
• Griffin, Roger, The sacred synthesis: the ideological cohesion of Fascist cultural policy, in “Modern Italy”, vol. 3, no. 1, 1998
• Luti, Giorgio, Introduction to Italian Literature of the 20th Century, La Nuova Italia Scientifca, Roma, 1985
• Malița, Liviu, Ceauşescu, Literary Critic, Vremea, Bucharest, 2007
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• Negrici, Eugen, The Illusions of Romanian Literature, Cartea românească, Bucharest, 2008
• Negrici, Eugen, Literature and Propaganda in Communist Romania. Editura Fundației Pro, Bucharest, 2006
• Noto, Nila, Poetical Space in Ungaretti’s Work, Celebes, Trapani, 1976
• Papi, Giampaolo, The First Ungaretti, Lacaita, Manduria, 1988
• Pauley, Bruce F., Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century. Harlan Davidson, Wheeling, 2003
• Pavel, Ecaterina, Daniel Turcea in the Secret Police Files, in România literară, no. 5, 3rd of Feb. 2012
• Pavel, Laura, Oneirism, between Literary History and Political History, in Vatra, No. 10-11, 2007
• Piccioni, Leone, The Life of a Poet. Giuseppe Ungaretti, Rizzoli Editore, Milan, 1970
• Re, Lucia, Alexandria Revisited. In: A Place in the Sun. Africa in Italian colonial culture from post-unification to the present, editor: Patrizia Palumbo, University of California Press, California, London, 2003
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• Simuț, Ion, Proletcultism or Socialist Realism? (II), in România Literară, no. 31, 2008
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• Talbot, George, Alberto Moravia and Italian Fascism: Censorship, Racism and Le Ambizioni sbagliate, in Modern Italy, Vol.11, No. 2, June 2006
• Ungaretti, Giuseppe, Life of a Man, editor Leone Picioni, Mondadori, Milano, 1969
• Ungaretti, Giuseppe, Life of a Man, Essays and Speeches, editors M. Diacono; L. Rebay, Mondadori, Milan 1974
• Vatulescu, Cristina, Police Aesthetics: Literature, Film, and the Secret Police in Soviet Times, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2010
• Verdery, Katherine, National Ideology Under Socialism. Identity and Cultural Politics in Ceauşescu’s Romania, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991
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