An Imperial Exegesis

The following study examines Oratio Constantini, a discourse attributed to emperor Constantine the Great. The emphasis is put on the fact that in the Greek translation of the royal discourse, Vergil’s text of the fourth Eclogue has been ruthlessly rewritten with the purpose of giving the content a new meaning. Though a messianic poem, the fourth Eclogue doesn’t tell of the birth of Jesus Christ, as the emperor would have us believe. It couldn’t have been possible. The Christian exegets (the emperor Constantine is beyond doubt one of them) bring forth another perspective and a new standpoint regarding the content. Ultimately the study concludes that by the commentator rewriting Virgil’s poem, the text itself derives from the significance attributed to it and not the meaning from the text.

Keywords: Oratio Constantini, exegesis, literal reading, allegorical reading, meaning, significance.

• Allen, Michael J. B., Nuptial Arithmetic: Marsilio Ficino’s Commentary on the Fatal Number in Book VIII of Plato’s Republic, Oxford: University of California Press, 1994;
• Barnea, Ion & Iliescu, Octavian, Constantin cel Mare, Bucureşti: Editura ştiinţifică şi enciclopedică, 1982;
• Cameron, Averil & Hall, Stuart G., Eusebius’ Life of Constantine: Introduction, Translation and Commentary, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999;
• Carcopino, Jérôme, Virgile et le mystère de la IVe Églogue, Paris: L’Artisan du Livre, MCMXXX [1930];
• Clausen, Wendell Vernon (ed.), A Commentary on Virgil: Eclogues, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994;
• Clines, David, J. A., “Varieties of Indeterminacy”, in On the Way to the Postmodern: Old Testament Essays 1967 – 1998, 1, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998, pp.126-137; Eco, Umberto, Arta şi frumosul în estetica medievală, în româneşte de Cezar Radu, Bucureşti, Editura Meridiane, 1999;
• Ehrman, Bart D., The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993; Ehrman, Bart D., Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed The Bible and Why, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005; Hubbard,
• Thomas K., “Intertextual Hermeneutics in Vergil’s Fourth and Fifth Eclogues”, in The Classical Journal, 91: 1 (1995): 11-23; Piganiol, André, L’empereur Constantin, Paris: Les Éditions Rieder, MCMXXXII [1932];
• Thornton, Bruce, “A Note on Vergil Eclogue 4: 42-45”, in The American Journal of Philology, 109: 2 (1988): 226-228; Vergilius, Bucolica. Georgica, în româneşte de Nicolae Ionel, Iaşi: Institutul European, 1997.

The dialectical fox

While in the case of other animals, with a weaker reputation, Dimitrie Cantemir dares to turn their traditional image into the negative reflection of his own interest, with the Fox he is obligged to obbey the typical representation and only to emphasize it. So, the Fox remains a very shy animal, enemy of the wolf and ready to do any compromise in order to get his own advantage. Yet, Cantemir’s character is one of the most interesting of the gallery, altogether with the well known Renard form the medieval French texts.

Keywords: Bestiary, Dimitrie Cantemir, Fox

• Mircea Anghelescu, Literatura română şi Orientul/ Romanian literature and the East, Editura Minerva, Bucureşti, 1975
• Bestiaires de Moyen Age/Bestiaries of the Middle Ages (Pierre de Beauvais, Guillaume le Clerc, Richard de Fournival, Brunetto Latini, Corbechon), mis en français moderne et présentés par Gabriel Baiciotto, Editions Stock, 1992
• Dimitrie Cantemir, Opere, vol. I, Divanul, Istoria ieroglifică, Hronicul vechimei a romano-moldo-vlahilor/The Council, The Hieroglyphical history, Chronicle of the age of the Romanian-Moldo-Vlachians, ed. by Virgil Cândea, Editura Academiei Române and Univers Enciclopedic, Bucureşti, 2003
• Mihai Coman, Bestiarul mitologic românesc/The Romanian mythological bestiary, Editura Fundaţiei Culturale Române, Bucureşti, 1996
• Debra Hassig, Medieval Bestiaries. Text, Image, Ideology, Cambridge University Press, 1995
• Isidor din Sevilla, Etymologiae (Book XII), in Robert M. Grant, Early Christians and Animals, Routledge, London& New York, 1999
• Michel Pastoureau, O istorie simbolică a Evului Mediu occidental/A symbolical history of the Western Middle Ages, Editura Cartier, Chişinău, 2004
• Plinius, Naturalis Historia, ed., pref. and ann. by Ioana Costa, vol. II, Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2001
• G.D. Suchaux, M. Pastoureau, Le bestiaire médiéval. Dictionnaire historique et bibliographique/Medieval bestiary. Historical and bibliographical dictionary, Le Léopard d’Or, Paris, 2002
• Manuela Tănăsescu, Despre „Istoria ieroglifică”/On the „Hieroglyphical history”, Editura Cartea românească, Bucureşti, 1970.

The age of Romanian literature. A rhizomatic study

In the first part, the study dismantles and combats the “historical literary fiction” regarding the venerable age of Romanian literature, in whose production and perpetuation have contributed outstanding critics and theorists from Nicolae Manolescu to G. Călinescu. There are subject to discussion and dispute not only G. Călinescu’s theories from the “National Specifics”, afterword of the famous “History of Romanian literature from its origins to the present”, published in 1941, but also Edgar Papu’s protochronist theory or that regarding the “involuntary expressivity”, developed by Eugene Negrici. Then, the study shows that the young age of the Romanian literature (on the scale of the European civilization, in which it really participates from less than two centuries) is not a handicap but an asset, a chance. Finally, the study tries to define the current cultural moment, seen as a sui generis combination between Museum/Archive, Theme Park and Show Room. Since, for reasons related to the dynamics and dimensions of the globalized “symbolic market”, a significant presence in the Theme Park is inaccessible, in order to be taken into consideration, Romanian literature only has the options of the Show Room and Museum/Archive. In these cases, what really matters is only extreme novelty (that of the interwar avant-garde and, potentially, contemporary creation) and extreme age (oral folk literature, preserved in thoughtfully realized anthologies and promoted by spectacular exegesis.)
Keywords: Romanian literature, ages, specificity, protochronism, symbolic market, Theme Park, Museum/Archive, Show Room

• Alecsandri, Vasile, Poezii populare ale românilor, Minerva, 1973
• Baudrillard, Jean, Paroxistul indiferent, Ideea Design & Print, 2001
• Blaga, Lucian, Spaţiul mioritic, Humanitas, 1994
• Călinescu G., Istoria literaturii române de la origini până în prezent, Minerva, 1982
• Debord, Guy, Societatea spectacolului, Est, 2001
• Djuvara, Neagu, Civilizaţii şi tipare istorice, Humanitas, 1997
• Dobrescu, Caius, Mihai Eminescu, Aula, 2004
• de Duve, Thierry, Kant după Duchamp, Ideea Design & Print, 2003
• Eliade, Mircea, De la Zalmoxis la Gengis-Han, Editura Ştiinţifică şi enciclopedică, 1980
• Groys, Boris, Despre nou, Ideea Design & Print, 2003
• Iorga, Nicolae, Bizanţ după Bizanţ, Gramar, 2003
• Josephus, Flavius, Antichităţi iudaice, (vol. 1, 2) Hasefér, 2002, 2003
• Lovinescu, Eugen, Istoria civilizaţiei române moderne, Minerva, 1997
• Lovink, Geert, Cultura digitală, Ideea Design & Print, 2004
• Lyotard, Jean François, Inumanul, Ideea Design & Print, 2002
• Manolescu, Nicolae, Istoria critică a literaturiii române, Paralela 45, 2008
• Martin, Mircea, G. Călinescu şi complexele literaturii române, Paralela 45, 2002
• Mazilu, Dan Horia, Barocul în literatura română din secolul al XVII, Minerva, 1976
• Muşina, Alexandru, Scrisorile unui geniu balnear, Aula, 2007
• Muşina, Alexandru, Poezia. Teze, ipoteze, explorări, Aula, 2008
• Negrici, Eugen, Expresivitatea involuntară, Cartea Românească, 1977
• Papu, Edgar, Din clasicii noştri, Editura Eminescu, 1977
• Sloterdjik, Peter, În aceeaşi barcă, Ideea Design & Print, 2002
• Virilio, Paul, Spaţiul critic, Ideea Design & Print, 2001

The escapism in literature facing the power

– Ştefan Agopian and Dumitru Ţepeneag –

The works of these two writers are studied focusing on the Romanian communist context which influenced their novels.

This study tries to discover the ways in which the works of Agopian and Ţepeneag are characterized by escapism.

It is structured as follows: the two writers’ relation with the communism and the way it influenced the publication of their works, the relation between the literary and the politic (the free will, the characters and the narrator’s self-awareness, the lack of heroes and the lack of character’s initiation, the meals and the feasts).

Ţepeneag’s work is rationally structured around the dream’s rules. So this author stands between two worlds, having to assume the exiled position: between reality and text, between Romania and Europe, between narrator, character and witness of the events. His work has a partial escapist character; the author wants to detach from the politic through his work but he gets to the depths (for example the Romanian specificity) which hang up by his feet as the weights of a convict.

Agopian’s work is a way of defense, having thus a character of escapism. Agopian’s work avoids the reality being also fully contaminated by it; the author is one with his work, being like an illusionist who, using some mirrors, reflects the past into present and the present into past or being like a doctor who tests the vaccine on himself and then watches relaxed its effects.

Keywords: contemporary Romanian literature, contemporary Romanian prose, Ştefan Agopian, Dumitru Ţepeneag, escapism, communism, awareness

• Agopian, Ştefan, Însemnări din Sodoma, Ed. Eminescu, 1993.
• Agopian, Ştefan, Manualul întâmplărilor, Bucureşti, Ed. Humanitas, 1993.
• Agopian, Ştefan, „Spre o gramatică liberală”, în vol. Competiţia continuă – Generaţia ’80 în texte teoretice, antologie îngrijită de Gheorghe Crăciun, Piteşti, Ed. Vlasie, 1994.
• Agopian, Ştefan, Tache de catifea, ed.Ararat, 1995.
• Bârna, Nicolae, “Dumitru Ţepeneag: opera prozastică în raccourci”, în “Obsevator cultural”, nr. 400, din 29 noiembrie 2007.
• Bârna, Nicolae, Prefaţa la Zadarnică e arta fugii, Bucureşti, Ed. Art, 2007.

A.E. Baconsky. Subversion and superposed narcissism

Anatol E. Baconsky was a controversial intellectual, covering the whole range of possible reactions to the Communist regime. He is still considered today a striking example of “conversion”. In 25 years he made the transition from an ancillary social poetry glorifying the regime to a literature imbued with anti-totalitarian rhetoric strongly resembling dystopian models. His literary criticism essays help us have a better understanding of his metamorphosis as a shift operated strictly at a formal and poetic level, but informed by the same ethical principles and identitary values as his previous works. He sees art, more specifically poetry, as a „superposed reality”, an alternative with its own rules and goals. At the same time, reversing this process and looking from art to reality, we can observe an identical configuration, in which the reality is obscured by a narcissistic, self referential quest that predates any other objective drama. The intellectual, in his vision, has a primary duty to the transcendental world of Art which he permanently seeks and which permanently evades him.

Keywords: transcendence, superposed reality, aestheticism, distopia, reflexivity

• Baconsky, Anatol E. – Colocviu critic/ Critical Dialogues, ESPLA, Bucureşti, 1957.
• Baconsky, Anatol E. – Scrieri I – poezii/ Writings I – poems, Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, 1990
• Baconsky, Anatol E. – Scrieri II – proze/ Writings II – prose, Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, 1990
• Booker, Keith – Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide, Greenwood Press 1994.
• Bud, Crina – Rolul şi rolurile lui A.E. Baconsky în cultura română/ The Role and the Roles of A.E. Baconsky in Romanian literature, Piteşti, Editura Paralela 45, 2006.
• Bud, Crina – „Când golul şi plinul sunt umbra celuilalt…” în Cărţile supravieţuitoare/„When the void and the full are each other’s shadow…” in The Surviving Books, coord. Virgil Podoabă, Braşov, Editura Aula, 2008.
• Crăciun, Gheorghe, Dimensiuni tranzitive în poezia modernă/ Transitive Aspects in Modern Poetry, Piteşti, Editura Paralela 45, 1998.
• Creţu, Bogdan – Utopia negativă în literatura română/The Negative Utopia in the Romanian Literature, Bucureşti, Ed. Cartea Românească, 2008.
• Gregori, Ilina – Povestirea fantastică/The Fantastic Story, Bucureşti, Ed. Du Style, 1996.
• Iorgulescu, Mircea – Rondul de noapte/The Night Tour, Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, 1974.
• Regman, Cornel – Patru decenii de proză literară românească/ Four Decades of Romanian Literary Prose, Bucureşti, Editura Institutului Cultural Român, 2004.
• Steinhardt, Nicolae – Jurnalul fericirii/The Happiness Journal, Editura mânăstirii Rohia, 2005

Directer Lovinescianism and stylistic Calinescianism

in Ion Negoitescu’s critical work

Ion Negoitescu’s critical project has a Lovinescian foundation and is being developed on the coordinates of subjectivity, flabbergasting originality and fragmentarism. The critic – an aesthete – proves to have a tight contact with the literary text, the sapidity of which impregnates him instantaneously. This fact does not turn him into a Richardian thematist, as his sympathetic propensities divide the text and focus on its latencies and virtuality. The abundant comparatism and the Alexandrine concreteness of style are other marks of the criticism professed by Ion Negoitescu.

Keywords: literary criticism, post-War, the autonomy of the Aesthetics, polemic, axiological criterion, Lovinescianism, Calinescianism, thematism.

• Grigurcu, Gheorghe. Eugen Lovinescu între continuatori şi uzurpatori/ Eugen Lovinescu between Descendants and Usurpers. Bucureşti, Editura „Jurnalul literar“, 1997;
• Grigurcu, Gheorghe. Critici români de azi/ Romanian Critics from Today. Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, 1981;
• Manolescu, Nicolae. Istoria critică a literaturii române/ A Critical History of the Romanian Literature. Piteşti, Editura Paralela 45, 2008;
• Martin, Mircea. Critică şi profunzime/Criticism and Reconditeness. Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1974;
• Negoiţescu, Ion. Scriitori moderni/Modern Writers. Bucureşti, EPL, 1966;
• Negoiţescu, Ion. Însemnări critice/Critical Notes. Cluj, Editura Dacia, 1970;
• Negoiţescu, Ion. Engrame/Engrammes. Bucureşti, Editura Albatros, 1975;
• Negoiţescu, Ion. Alte însemnări critice/Other Critical Notes. Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, 1980;
• Negoiţescu, Ion. Istoria literaturii române/ The History of the Romanian Literature. Volumul I, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1991;
• Negoiţescu, Ion. Poezia lui Eminescu/Eminescu’s Poetry. Ediţia a IV-a, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Dacia, 1995;
• Negoiţescu, Ion. Ora oglinzilor/The Mirrors’ Hour. Cluj-Napoca, Editura Dacia, 1997;
• Negoiţescu, Ion. Despre Eugen Lovinescu/About E. Lovinescu. Piteşti, Editura Paralela 45, 1999;
• Negoiţescu, Ion. Scriitori contemporani/Contemporary Writers. Ediţia a II-a, Piteşti, Editura Paralela 45, 2000;
• Poantă, Petru. Cercul literar de la Sibiu/ The Literary Circle from Sibiu. Cluj-Napoca, Editura Clusium, 1997;
• Richard, Jean-Pierre. Poezie şi profunzime/ Poetry and Profoundness. Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1974;
• Richard, Jean-Pierre. Literatură şi senzaţie/ Literature and Senzation. Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1980.

Psychological Realism and the “Ambassadors” of a Writer

This study aims to analyse a book published by Dana Dumitriu in 1976 – “The Ambassadors” or the Psychological Realism, and some of her articles concerning the same subject. Particularly, the essay from 1976 presents the most important features of the psychological realism, a sintagm that establishes the origins of this novel – the objective realism and the psychological prose, and that specifies its particularities – the objective point of view and the priority of the inner life.

The external author disappears and he is replaced by the character, who becomes the “ambassador” of the writer, a reflexive and a very sensitive person, the “fine central intelligence” as Henry James defined it. If the character of the analysis novel doesn’t change from a psychological point of view and the external events determine his inner life, for the psychological realism it is impossible to explain the internal universe according to the external world. This novel offers a unit of perspective, because the “ego” is the centre of the fictional universe. Different perspectives and many dialogues also appear, because the novelist presents many points of view, in order to be objective. So the novel is an “inconclusive prose”. The reader himself is asked to get into the novel, to find significance for the universe created by the “ambassador” of the writer.

Keywords: psychological realism, ambassador, inner life, psychological point of view, a unit of perspective, different perspectives, sensitive observer, the “fine central intelligence”, unreliable narrator, dramatization, inconclusive prose

Primary Bibliography:

• Dumitriu, Dana, Ambasadorii sau despre realismul psihologic/ “The Ambassadors” or the Psychological Realism, [Bucureşti], Editura Cartea Românească, [1976]
• Dumitriu, Dana, Tăcerea şi sentimentul vinovăţiei/ The Silence and the Feeling of Guilt, în Gazeta literară, an XV, nr. 39(830), 26 sept.1968, p. 3; Text şi pretext în critica literară/ Text and Pre-text in Literary Criticism, în România literară, an IV, nr. 15, 8 apr.1971, p. 8; Realismul psihologic/ The Psychological Realism, în România literară, an V, nr. 45, 2 nov.1972, p. 3; O aventură primejdioasă; un eseu despre Henry James/ A dangerous adventure: an essay on Henry James, în România literară, an VI, nr. 11, 15 martie 1973, pp. 28-29; Proustianismul Hortensiei Papadat-Bengescu/ Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu`s proustianism, în Luceafărul, an XVII, nr. 39(648), 28 sept.1974, p. 8; Critica literară sau dragoste cu discernământ/ Literary Criticism or discerned love, în România literară, an XIV, nr. 1, 1 ian.1981, p. 10

Critical Bibliography:

1. a) volumes

• ***, Romanul românesc în interviuri. O istorie autobiografică/ The Romanian Novel in interviews. An Autobiographical History, antologie, sinteze bibliografice şi indice de Aurel Sasu şi Mariana Vartic, vol. I, partea a II-a, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1985
• Bahtin, Mihail M., Problemele poeticii lui Dostoievski/ Problems of Dostoievsky`s Poetics, traducere de S.Recevski, Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1970
• Barthes, Roland. Romanul scriiturii/ The Novel of l`écriture, antologie, selecţie de texte şi traducere Adriana Babeţi şi Delia Şepeţean-Vasiliu, prefaţă de Adriana Babeţi, postfaţă de Delia Şepeţean-Vasiliu, Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1987
• Cozea, Liana, Portretul unei doamne/ The Portrait of a Lady, cu o postfaţă de Nicolae Manolescu, colecţia „Deschideri”, seria „Universitas”, [Piteşti], Editura Paralela 45, 2000
• Genette, Gérard, Figuri/ Figures, selecţie, traducere şi prefaţă de Angela Ion şi Irina Mavrodin, Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1972
• Iorgulescu, Mircea, Scriitori tineri contemporani/ Contemporary Young Writers, Bucureşti, Editura Eminescu, 1978
• Lintvelt, Jaap, Încercare de tipologie narativă. Punctul de vedere. Teorie şi analiză/ Essay on narrative typology: the Point of View, traducere de Angela Martin, studiu introductiv de Mircea Martin, Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1994
• Manolescu, Nicolae, Dana Dumitriu în Istoria critică a literaturii române.5 secole de literatură/ Critical History of Romanian Literature. Five centuries of literature, Piteşti, Editura Paralela 45, 2008
• Pavel, Toma, Gândirea romanului/ Thinking of the Novel, traducere din franceză de Mihaela Mancaş, Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 2008
• Thibaudet, Albert, Reflecţii/ Meditations, traducere de Georgeta Pădureanu, texte alese, prefaţă şi note de Mircea Pădureanu, colecţia „Biblioteca pentru toţi”, vol. I şi II, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1973
• Tomuş, Mircea, Carnet critic/ Critical Notebook, Bucureşti, Editura pentru Literatură, 1969

1. b) periodicals

• Cristea, Valeriu, “Ambasadorii” unei prozatoare/ “The Ambassadors”of a She-Writer, în România literară, anul IX, nr. 40, 30 sept. 1976, p. 11
• Friduş, Al.I., Virtuţile realismului psihologic/ Virtues of Psychological Realism, în Convorbiri literare, nr. 5(89), mai 1977. p. 14
• Grigurcu, Gheorghe, Despre “Realismul psihologic”/ Notes on “Psychological Realism”, în Viaţa Românească, an XXX, nr. 10, oct.1977, p. 63-64
• Marcoş, Ion „Ambasadorii…” sau despre autenticitate/ “The Ambassadors” or notes on Authenticity, în Tribuna, an XX, nr. 42 (1034), 14 oct. 1976, p. 3
• Mareş, Radu, Confesiunea patetică/ The Pathetical Confession, în Tribuna, an XXXI, nr. 43 (1609), 22 oct.1987, p. 4
• Maxim, Ion, Ambasadorii sau despre realismul psihologic/ The Ambassadors or notes on Psychological Realism, în Orizont, an XXVIII, nr. 2(464), 13 ian.1977, p. 2

A measure of decomposition – about Jehan Calvus’s prose

The following study thoroughly examines an extremely peculiar work of an equally peculiar author – the strange and unique novel Bumgartes the IInd, written by the mysterious writer from Cluj who uses the pen-name Jehan Calvus. The author of the study compares the magic realism of Bumgartes the IInd with the variants of the same literary technique from the works of the well-known Romanian novelists A.E. Baconsky and Ştefan Bănulescu and of the famous Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. An important and significant parallel is also drawn with the works of Brancusi.
Keywords: contemporary Romanian literature, contemporary prose, Jehan Calvus, Bumgartes the IInd, magic realism, Ştefan Bănulescu, A. E. Baconsky, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

• Jehan Calvus, Bumgartes al II-lea, Bucureşti, Editura Universal Dalsi, Târgu Mureş, Editura Arhipeleag, 1999.
• M. Bahtin, Probleme de literatură şi estetică, Traducere de Nicolae Iliescu, Prefaţă de Marian Vasile, Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1982.
• Henri Bergson, Eseu asupra datelor imediate ale conştiinţei, versiunea românească:Diana Morăraşu, studiu introductiv:Anton Adămuţ, Iaşi, Institutul European, 1992.
• Corin Braga, De la arhetip la anarhetip, Iaşi, Editura Polirom, 2006.
• Brâncuşi împotriva Statelor Unite, Traducere de Petru Comarnescu, Postfaţă de V. G. Paleolog, Cluj, Editura Dacia, 1971.
• Ernst Cassirer, Eseu despre om.O introducere în filozofia culturii umane, traducere de Constantin Coşman, Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 1994.
• Charles Mauron, De la metaforele obsedante la mitul personal, Traducere din limba franceză de Ioana Bot; aparat critic, bibliografie şi note pentru ediţia românească de Ioana Bot şi Raluca Lupu, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Dacia, 2001.
• Georges Poulet, Metamorfozele cercului, Traducere de Irina Bădescu şi Angela Martin, Studiu introductiv de Mircea Martin, Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1987.
• Irina Petraş, Scriitorul închipuit sau despre marţieni, în vol. Literatură română contemporană, Bucureşti, Editura Ideea Europeană, 2008.
• Simona Popescu, Emblemata lui Calvus, scriitorul închipuit, în ,,Observator cultural”, nr. 24, 2000.
• Mihaela Ursa, Peripeţiile Păpuşarului în teatrul Bibliotecii, în ,,Vatra”, nr. 4-5, 2001.

The second age of Ion Pop’s poetry

Andrei Bodiu debates the poetry of a welknown Romanian auhor, Ion Pop. The author separates two periods of Ion Pop’s poetry : one between author’s debut and 1990 and one starting with 2003. Using the concept of Virgil Podoabă, the „revealing experience”, Andrei Bodiu thinks that Ion Pop’s poetry has a strong turn after a strong illness of the author. This turn can be seen starting with the volume Elegii în ofensivă (2003) and continues with the volume Litere şi albine (2010) The conclusion is that the best poetry by Ion Pop is the one in the books published at 62 and 69 years.

Keywords: contemporary Romanian poetry, Ion Pop, periods of creation, revealing experience, Virgil Podoabă

• Virgil Podoabă, Poezia experienţei revelatoare / Poetry of the revealing experience, in Poezia română postbelică / Post-war Romanian poetry, Braşov, Ed. Univeristăţii Transilvania, 2005
• Ion Pop, Elegii în ofensivă / Elegies in attack, Bucureşti, ed. Vinea, 2003
• Ion Pop, Litere şi albine / Letters and bees, Cluj-Napoca, ed. Limes, 2010

Literature versus film. Social-political and intellectual landscape in Transylvania in the screening of Eginlad Schlattner’s novel, “The beheaded cock”

The present article deals with the film Der geköpfte Hahn (The Beheaded Rooster) realized under the cinema direction of Radu Gabrea, based on the same-title novel of the Romanian-born German writer Eginald Schlattner. Starting from an analysis of the novel which deals with the decline of the Saxon community in Transylvania and the almost entire disappearance of a culture that has been founded over a period of more than eight centuries, the assets and drawbacks of the screen adaptation are mentioned. Narrating by the means of cinematography, the film adheres to the story line of the novel almost entirely; the scenario has a dramatic potential, the music is adequate, the scenery authentic. Some drawbacks, such as the insufficient argumentation of some particular scenes, can be identified, this fact leading to a certain lack of clarity.

Keywords: Der geköpfte Hahn (The Beheaded Rooster), Transylvanian trilogy, identity, the Second World War, anti-Semitism, novel, screen adaptation, film cast

• Bauschinger, Sigrid (Hrsg.): Film und Literatur. Literarische Text und der neue deutsche Film. München 1984
• Horn, Christian: Literaturverfilmungen. Filmrezension.de.online-magazine für filmkritik. Düsseldorf 2006
• Metz, Christian: Semiologie des Films. München 1972
• Mitchievici, Angelo: Cocoşul decapitat. In: România literară nr. 13/ 2008
• Monaco, James: Film verstehen. Reinbek 2002
• Schanze, Helmut (Hrsg.): Fernsehgeschichte der Literatur. München 1996
• Schlattner, Eginald (1998): Der geköpfte Hahn, Wien: Paul Zsolnay
• Schlattner, Eginald (2005): Das Klavier im Nebel, Wien: Paul Zsolnay
• Schlattner, Eginald (2001): Rote Handschuhe. Wien: Paul Zsolnay
• http://www.e-timisoara.info/stiri-localte/cocosul-decapitat-un-antidot-al-uitarii.
• http://www.observatorcultural.ro/FILN-Cocoşul decapitat-patru-perspective critice – Numărul 417 Wieninternational.at/2007

The image of the gypsy in Romanian literature

Literature is the silent witness of slow, corrosive processes carried out under traditional imagery but also the potentially explosive depositary of the frustrations, aversions and obsessions of a nation. The purpose of this paper is to selectively and not exhaustively illustrate the preservation and proliferation of ethnic stereotypes related to the image of the Gypsy in the national literature space. The route is imagologic, inspired from researcher Andrei Oişteanu’s approach, who lead the way towards Romanian ethnic imagology and was the author of the study entitled The image of the Jew in Romanian culture.

Keywords: popular imaginary, gipsy, jew, romanian literature, alien, imagology

• Boia, Lucian, For a history of the imaginaire, Bucharest: Humanitas Publishing House, 2006;
• Idem, History and myth in the Romanian conscience, Bucharest: Humanitas Publishing House, 2005;
• Budai-Deleanu, Ion, Ţiganiada, Muşateşti: Tana Publishing House, 2008;
• Călinescu, G., The history of Romanian literature from its origins to the present day, Bucharest: Minerva Publishing House, 1982;
• Călinescu, G., The history of Romanian literature. Compendium, Bucharest: Editura pentru literatură Publishing House, 1968;
• Cărtărescu, Mircea, Dazzler. The Left Wing, Bucharest: Humanitas Publishing House, 2004;
• Lovinescu, Eugen, The history of contemporary Romanian literature, vol.I-III, Bucharest: Minerva Publishing House, 1981;
• Lovinescu, Eugen, Aqua forte, Bucharest: Minerva Publishing House, 1998;
• Manolescu, Nicolae, The critical history of Romanian literature. 5 centuries of literature, Piteşti: Paralela 45 Publishing House, 2008;
• Mihăieş, Mircea, The catcher in the mirror, Bucharest: Cartea Românească Publishing House, 1988;
• Negrici, Eugen, Involuntary expressivity, Bucharest: Cartea Românească Publishing House 1977;
• Idem, The illusions of Romanian literature, Bucharest: Cartea Românească Publishing House, 2008;
• Oişteanu, Andrei, The image of the Jew in Romanian culture, Bucharest: Humanitas Publishing House , 2004;
• Preda, Marin, Moromeţii, Braşov: Cartex Publishing House, 2000;
• Rebreanu, Liviu, Ion, vol I., Bucharest: Tineretului Publishing House, 1968;
• Slavici, Ioan, The Lucky Mill, Bucharest: Prometeu Publishing House, 1998;
• Wunenburger, Jean-Jacques, The imaginaire, Bucharest: Dacia Publishing House, 2009.

Understanding and interpretation (I)

This two-part study aims to analyze the complex linguistic, pragmatic and cultural mechanisms involved in the act of text (discourse) understanding. The fundamental questions concerning this issue are as follows: How do we understand texts and what specific competences are involved in understanding? What exactly causes differences in understanding? And then, what are the causes of misunderstanding? Why, despite differences in understanding, can we find dominant ways of understanding texts? In short, what is understanding? Is there a relation between understanding and interpretation? And finally, what is interpretation?

The first part of the study starts from the analysis of an ordinary type of discourse (the transcript of a video), and here we identify and discuss three types of competences involved in the process of understanding: the linguistic competence, the interdiscursive competence, and the cultural competence. The interactive dynamics of these three competences generates valid and functional meanings in a specific context. Meaning does not represent the objective or ultimate truth, but it is a good functioning of the discourse in the given context. Therefore, accidents of understanding are unavoidable, and they can be caused by the malfunctioning of one of the three competences involved.

Keywords: understanding process, interpretation, linguistic competence, interdiscursive competence, cultural competence, frames, cognitive linguistics.

• Armengaud 1982: Françoise Armengaud, „Eléments pour une approche pragmatique de la pertinence” în Philosophica, Gand, nr. 29, 1982;
• Barsalou 1992: Cognitive Psychology: An Overview for Cognitive Scientists, Hillsdale, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum, 1992;
• Chomski, 1965: Noam Chomsky, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1965.
• Cornea 1998: Paul Cornea, Introducere în teoria lecturii, Iaşi, Polirom, 1998.
• Cornea 2006: Paul Cornea, Interpretare şi raţionalitate, Iaşi, Polirom, 2006.
• Ducrot, Schaeffer, 1996: Oswald Ducrot, Jean Marie Schaeffer, Noul dicţionar enciclopedic al ştiinţelor limbajului, Babel, 1996.
• Eco 1997: Umberto Eco, Şase plimbări prin pădurea narativă, Constanţa, Pontica, 1997;
• Fillmore 1985: C. J. Fillmore, “Frames and the Semantics of Understanding”, Quaderni di Semantica, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 222-254, December 1985.
• Foucault 1999: Michel Foucault, Arheologia cunoaşterii, Bucureşti, Univers, 1999;
• Grice 1957: H. P. Grice, „Meaning”, în The Philosophical Review, Vol. 66, No. 3 (Jul., 1957), 377-388;
• Grice 1979: Paul Grice, Logique et conversation, „Communications”, nr. 30 (juin 1979) Seuil, Paris, , p. 57-72.
• Kerbrat – Orecchioni 1990: Catherine Kerbrat – Orecchioni, Les intéractions verbales, vol. I, Paris, Armand Colin, 1990.
• Kovecses 2006: Zoltán Kövecses, Language, Mind, and Culture, Oxford University Presss, 2006;
• Lakoff 1987: George Lakoff, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1987;
• Maingueneau, 1984: Dominique Maingueneau, Genèses du discourse, Liege, Pierre Mardaga, 1984 ;
• Mîrţu 2008: Mihaela Mîrţu, Studiu introductiv la  Dominique Maingueneau, Lingvistică pentru textul literar, Iaşi, Institutul european, 2008;
• Rastier 1996: Fr. Rastier, (1^ère éd. 1987) Sémantique interprétative, Paris, PUF.
• Rastier 1998: Fr. Rastier,  Le problème épistémologique du contexte et le problème de l’interprétation dans les sciences du langage, în „Langages”, 129, pp. 97-111.
• Taylor 1989: John Taylor, Linguistic Categorization, Oxford: Claredon Press, 1989;
• Wittgenstein 2004: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Cercetări filosofice, Bucureşti, Humanitas, 2004.

Literary history in the Perspective of Undecomposable Temporal Unity

Literary history, a field within the humanities having its own respectable tradition, has traversed throughout the past century a crisis generated by the formalist, structuralist and semiotic doctrines. Significant theoretical and philosophical voices, from Benedetto Croce to Roland Barthes and Foucault, have launched a harsh attack towards the discipline, questioning its legitimacy. Nevertheless, nowadays the field seems to be reestablished. However, in an age marked by reassessments, the question concerning what will be preserved of the constants that structured past literary history still stands. Such a constant was represented by the idea of organicity, unity and continuity that is supposed to characterize literary development.

It cannot be denied that the defenders of the idea of the singularity of the valuable literary work are able to provide arguments against the linear perspective on history. However, as paradoxical as it may seem, the differences and particularities that distinguish the work of art do not preclude continuities or universals. They are most probably bound to remain fundamental themes of literary history, as contemporary examples have also shown. As it appears, the restructuring of the field was unable to diminish the importance of the idea of the continuum, one of the basic principles of the discipline.

Keywords: literary history, theoretical foundations, philosophical legitimacy, Benedetto Croce, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault

• Compagnon, Antoine – Faire l’histoire littéraire du XXème siècle (Making the Literary History of the 20th Century) in L’histoire littéraire à l’aube du XXIème siècle (Literary History in the Dawn of the 21st Century), PUF, Paris, 2005.
• Cornea, Paul – Delimitări şi ipoteze. Comunicări şi eseuri de teorie literară şi studii culturale (Delimitations and Hypotheses. Communications and Essays in the Theory of Literature and Cultural Studies), Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2008.
• Harris, Wendell V. – Literary Meaning. Reclaiming the Study of Literature, McMillan Press LTD, 1996.
• Manolescu, Nicolae – Istoria critică a literaturii române (The Critical History of Romanian Literature), Editura Paralela 45, Piteşti, 2008.
• Patterson, Lee – Literary History in Critical Terms for Literary Study, Edited by Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin, The University of Chicago Press, 1990.
• Perkins, David – Is Literary History Possible? The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.
• Veyne, Paul – Cum se scrie istoria (Writing History: Essay on Epistemology), Traducere Maria Carpov, Editura Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1999.

The relations between archaic and modern myths in Gert Ungureanus novel
“Musette oder die mörderische Frage nach dem kleinen Unterschied

The present approach analyses the relations between archaic and modern myths in Gert Ungureanus novel Musette oder die mörderische Frage nach dem kleinen Unterschied.

The novel deals with the so called revolution in December 1989 in Romania, not from a political point of view but from a mythical one. All the important persons of the novel are somehow related to the magic mountain peak Omul. The elements of archaic myths like the allegorical shepherd Ion, the supernatural bond with nature, that defies time and space are combined with elements of modern myths, especially related to the secret service Securitate. The most important mystical element is the belief in predestination. Nevertheless all these magic, mythical items, happenings or persons are presented with a subtle irony that, once understood, offers a wide range of interpretations.

Keywords: Gert Ungureanu, allegorical shepherd, magic place Omul, predestination, Romanian revolution

• Ungureanu, Gert (2002): Musette oder die mörderische Frage nach dem kleinen Unterschied. Saeculum Verlag, Sibiu/Hermannstadt.
• Boia, Lucian (2005): Istorie şi mit în conştiinţa românească. Ed. A 4-a, Bucureşti: Humanitas.
• Haupt-Cucuiu, Herta (2005): Musette oder die mörderische Frage nach dem kleinen Unterschied. Rezension. In: Südostdeutsche Vierteljahresblätter, 54.Jahrgang, München: 2005, Heft 2, S. 218.
• Kegelmann, René (1998): Die ausgereiste Literatur. Selbst- und Fremdbilder. Zur jüngsten Generation „rumäniendeutscher“ Schriftsteller in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. In: Das Bild des Anderen in Siebenbürgen. Stereotype in einer multiethnischen Region. Hrsg. Von Konrad Gündisch, Wolfgang Höpken, Michael Markel. Köln Weimar Wien: Böhlau Verlag.

The Thanatophobic Zeitgeist. An Interdisciplinary Approach

It has been said, many times and in various interpretative registers, that modern society is thanatophobic and death has become the greatest taboo of our age. Philippe Ariès, probably the most famous transgressor of this taboo, bitterly claimed that, overwhelmed by the mystery of death and by her fatal omnipotence, scientists have preferred to ignore it, being silent “like any human being and like the humans that they study”. However, an approach, not necessarily more objective but rather interdisciplinary and retrospective, allows us to notice that, sometimes before and sometimes concomitantly to Aries, other thinkers, from various disciplines, have sharply raised the issue of mortality denial in modern age. The hereby study shall critically explore the arguments submitted by authors such as S. Freud, P.-L. Landsberg, G. Gorer, N. Elias et alii, to support the statement that the modern Zeitgeist is a thanatophobic one, generating a troubling existential entropy, for individuals as much as for  the whole society.

Keywords: death, denial, zeitgeist, thanathophobic, individualization

• Ariès, Phillipe, Essai sur l’histoire de la mort en Occident (Essay on the History of Death in Occident), Paris, Seuil, 1975, 225 p.
• Ariès, Philippe. Omul în faţa morţii (The Man in Front of Death), vol. I-II, Bucureşti, Editura Meridiane, 1996, 860 p.
• Becket, Samuel. Malone murind (Malone dying), Bucureşti, Editura Est, 1995, 143 p.
• Ciocan, Cristian. Moribundus sum : Heidegger şi problematica morţii (Moribundus sum : Heidegger and The Problem of Death), Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 2007, 409 p.
• Eliade, Mircea. Eseuri (Essays), Bucureşti, Editura Ştiinţifică, 1991, 311 p.
• Eliade, Mircea. Ocultism, vrăjitorie şi alte mode culturale (Occultism, Witchcraft, and Cultural Fashions), Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 1997, 190 p.
• Elias, Norbert. The Civilizing Process, vol.2, Oxford, Blackwell, 1982, 376 p.
• Elias, Norbert. The Loneliness of Dying, New York, The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 2001, 95 p.
• Freud, Sigmund. Opere (Works), vol.III, Bucureşti, Editura Trei, 2000,  318 p.
• Gorer, Geoffrey. Death, Grief and Mourning in Contemporary Britain, London, Cresset Press, 1965, 184 p.
• Laertios, Diogene. Despre vieţile şi doctrinele filosofilor (On Philosophers’ Lifes and Doctrines), Iaşi, Editura Polirom, 1997, 618 p.
• Landsberg, Paul-Ludwig. Eseu despre experienţa morţii (Essay on Death Experience), Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 2006, 160 p.
• Montaigne, de Michel, Eseuri (Essays), Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1984, 395 p.
• Rinpoche, Sogyal. Cartea tibetană a vieţii şi a morţii (The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying), Bucureşti, Editura Herald, 2001, 382 p.
• Spinoza, de Baruch. Etica (Ethics), Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 2006, 286 p.
• Stevens-Long, Judith. Adult life: developmental processes, Palo Alto, Mayfield Publ. Comp., 1979, 549 p.
• Yalom, Irvin D. Staring at the Sun. Overcoming the Terror of Death, San Francisco, Jossy-Bass, 2008, 306 p.

Aestetic and ethic Canon of Ancient Greece

Presentation and representation of the nude human body was a genuine media of Hellas. The whole miracle of ancient Greece revolves around the hero or athlete stripped. In gymnasiums and stadiums, as well as legends of Olympus, the nude was ethical and aesthetic rule supreme. The normality of ancient Greece was the basis of the most important cultural identity corporeality history.

Keywords: canon, nude, gymnasium, sign, harmony, corporeality, identity

• Bănciulescu, Victor; Ludu, Virgil, Sport şi artă / Sport and Art, Editura Sport – Turism, Bucureşti, 1987
• Buffiere, Fèlix, Miturile lui Homer şi gândirea greacă / Homer’s Myths and the Greek Thinking, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1987
• Douglass, Bailey, W., Prehistoric Figurines, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London and New York, 2005
• Hăulică, Dan, Nostalgia sintezei / The Nostalgia for Synthesis, Editura Eminescu, Bucureşti, 1984
• Matei, Ion, Ramul de măslin al Olympiei / Olympia’s Olive Branch, Editura Albatros, Bucureşti, 1985
• Mouratidis, John, Article – The Origin of Nudity in Greek Athletics, Revue – Journal of Sport History, Vol. 12, nr. 3, Winter, 1985
• Petecel, Stela, Antichitatea greco-romană despre sport / About Sport in Greek and Roman Antiquity, Editura Sport – Turism, Bucureşti, 1980
• Platon, Opere V, Republica, Partea a III-a / Works V, The Republic, Part III, Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică, Bucureşti, 1986
• Radian, H.R., Cartea proporţiilor / The Book of Proportions, Editura Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1981
• Sauerlandt, Max, Griechische Bildwerke / Ancient Greek Sculptures, Karl Robert Langewiesche, Düsseldorf und Leipzig, 1907
• Tsatsos, Constantin, Filosofia socială a vechilor greci / The Social Philosophy of Ancient Greeks, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1979

The Affinity Relationships between Ideology and Science

Between ideology and science there are affinity relationships, even if the general opinion deems them to be antithetical realities. The studies in the socio-political area comprise two directions. The first considers that ideology is rather a system of beliefs that deforms or occults the scientific truth. The second direction, which recognises the existence of positive relationships between ideology and science, consists of at least four perspectives: the first postulates the existence of a scientific core within the framework of ideology, which is a kind of rhetoric that helps the popularisation of scientific truths; the second considers that ideology belongs to the same type of rationality as science; the third view presents ideology as the medium wherein the scientific discourse is built, the former being the prior of any type of discourse; the forth perspective sees ideology as a means of knowledge which provides the scientific character of the cognitive endeavours in the social field.

Keywords: truth, context, ideology, individual, interest, Marxism, masses, politics, practical, society, science.

• Louis ALTHUSSER, Citindu-l pe Marx – Reading Marx (Bucharest: Political Publishing House, 1970).
• ARISTOTLE, Politica – Politics (Bucharest, IRI Publishing House, 2001).
• Terence BALL & Richard DAGGER, Ideologii politice şi idealul democratic – Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal, Second Edition (Iași: Polirom, 2000).
• Peter L. BERGER & Thomas LUCKMANN, Construirea socială a realității – The Social Construction of Reality (Iași: Universe Publishing House, Bucharest, 1999).
• Ioan Petru CULIANU, Eros şi magie in Renaştere. 1484 – Eros and Magic in the Renaissance. 1484 (Bucharest: Nemira Publishing House, 1994).
• Clifford GEERTZ, “Ideology as a cultural system”, in David E. APTER (ed.), Ideology and Discontent (New York: Free Press, 1964).
• Jürgen HABERMAS, „Cunoaştere şi interes” in Cunoaştere şi comunicare – ‘Knowledge and interest’ in Knowledge and Communication (Bucharest: Political Publishing House, 1983).
• George A. HUACO, „On ideology”, in Acta Sociologica vol. 14, no. 4, 1971.
• Ghiţă IONESCU, Politica şi căutarea fericirii – Politics and the Pursuit of Happiness (Bucharest: All Publishing, 1999).
• Herbert MARCUSE, “Omul unidimensional” in Scrieri filosofice – “One-Dimensional Man” in Philosophical Writings (Bucharest: Political Publishing House, 1997).
• Karl MANNHEIM, Ideology and Utopia (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1968).
• Karl MARX & Friedrich ENGELS, Ideologia germană – The German Ideology (Bucharest: the State Publishing House for Political Literature, 1956).
• Karl MARX & Frederich ENGELS, Selected Correspondence (Moscova: Progress, 1965).
• David McLELLAN, Ideologia – Ideology (Bucharest: DU Style Publishing House, 1998).
• David MILLER (coord.), Enciclopedia Blackwell a gândirii politice – The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought (Bucharest: Humanitas, 2000).
• Michael OAKESSHOTT, Raţionalismul in politică – Rationalism in Politics (Bucharest: All, 1995).
• Paul RICOEUR, „Ştiinţă şi ideologie” in Eseuri de hermeneutică – ‘Science and ideology’ in Essays in Hermeneutics (Bucharest: Humanitas, 1995).
• Daniel ŞANDRU, Reinventarea ideologiei. O abordare teoretico-politică – Reinventing Ideology. A theoretical-political approach (Iaşi: Institutul European Publishing, 2009).

The Liberal and The Deliberative Democracy

This study has in view the qualities and the deficiencies of two dominant patterns in the contemporary theory of democracy: the liberal pattern and the deliberative one. The liberal pattern has got as a finality the rational individual who posses rights. The deliberative pattern has got as finality the social participation and cooperation between individuals. Although both patterns have been criticized because of their constituent structure, a cooperation between their ideas can be the great advantage of the theory of democracy at the begining of the third millenium.

Keywords: democracy, liberalism, rational deliberation, epistemic patterns

• Benhabib, Seyla (ed.), 1996, Democracy and Difference. Contesting the Boundaries of the Politics, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Bohman, James, Rehg, William (eds.), 1997, Deliberative Democracy, Essays on Reason and Politics, Cambridge: The MIT Press.
• Dahl, Robert A., 2000, Poliarhiile. Participare şi opoziţie, translation by Mihaela Sadovschi, Iaşi: Institutul European.
• Dryzek, John S., 2000, Deliberative democracy and beyond: liberals, critics, contestations, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Elster, Jon (ed.), 1998, Deliberative Democracy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Gutman, Amy, Thompson, Dennis, 1997, Democracy and Disagreement, Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
• Habermas, Jurgen, 1991, Moral Consciousness and Comunnicative Action, Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Habermas, Jurgen, 1996, Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy, Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Held, David, 2000a Modele ale democraţiei, translation by Cipriana Petre, Bucureşti: Univers .
• Held, David, 2000b, Democraţia şi ordinea globală, translation by Florin Şlapac and Gabriela Inea, Bucureşti: Editura Univers.
• Huzum, Eugen, 2006a, „Fundaţionismul azi, ‘mort’ sau ‘în viaţă’”, I, Symposion, tom IV, nr. 7, Iaşi: Editura Academiei.
• Huzum, Eugen, 2006b, Fundaţionismul azi, ‘mort’ sau ‘în viaţă’”, II, Symposion, tom IV, nr. 8, Iaşi: Editura Academiei.
• Huzum, Eugen, 2008, „Are nevoie întemeierea democraţiei de fundamente?”, Anuarul Universităţii „Petre Andrei” din Iaşi. Stiinţe socio-umane, Serie nouă, tomul III, Iaşi, Institutul European, 2008.
• Lefort, Claude, 1988, Democracy and Political Theory, Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Marti, Jose Luis, 2006, 27-56. „The Epistemic Conception of Deliberative Democracy Defended. Reasons, Rightness and Equal Political Autonomy”, in Deliberative Democracy and its Discontents, ed. Samantha Besson and Jose Luis Marti, Asghate Publishing Limited.
• Macedo, Stephen (ed.), 1999, Deliberative Politics. Essays on Democracy and Disagreement, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Miller, David (ed.), 2000, Enciclopedia Blackwell a gândirii politice, translation by Dragan Stoianovici, Bucureşti: Humanitas.
• Parkinson, John, 2006, Deliberating in the Real World. Problems of Legitimacy in Deliberative Democracy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Platon, 1986, Opere V, Republica, Bucureşti, Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică,)
• Rawls, John, 1997, „The Idea of Public Reason Revisited”, University of Chicago Law Review 74.
• Rawls, John, 2006, Political Liberalism, New York: Columbia University Press.
• Sartori, Giovanni, 1999, Teoria democraţiei reinterpretată, translation by Doru Pop,Iaşi: Polirom.
• Schumpeter, Joseph, 1943, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, New York: Harper&Row.
• Tamaş, Sergiu, 1996, Dicţionar politic. Instituţiile democraţiei şi cultura civică, second edition, Bucureşti: Şansa.

Books with chains (libri catenati)

The current text is an academic lecture on medieval books provided with chains. The libri catenati must be understood not just as some dusty old books, but as persuasive evidence of a direct manifestation of the culture in medieval Transylvania on various areas of medieval European spirituality. The cultural and political availability of reading books provided with chains remain an individualized expression of a culture taking the path of modernity. One cannot exclude also medieval views and practices connected directly to the process of reading, in an era when the book addressed only to a lesser number of readers, holding a high material value. In the end, the libri catenati represent books that helped define a concept of the civilized and modern European spirit.
Keywords: medieval Europe, medieval Transylvania, medieval books, libri catenati, reading in the Middle Ages

Images from the Napoleonic Epoch Existing in the Old Romanian Books Printed in Buda (1814-1815)

Napoleon’s wars ended in a disastrous retreat of his army from Russia, followed by his downfall which greatly impressed his contemporaries, exciting their interest both for the French and for the Russian people. For this reason the stories concerning the famed emperor’s deeds or the personalities contemporaneous with him used to spread easily. In the second decade of the 19^th century, at the University Typography of Buda, there appeared several books in Romanian, edifying in this respect, of which some contain an illustration each engraved in metal. The popularity of these works within the Romanian territory is also ensured by the fact that at the time there was no newspaper or magazine to keep the public well-informed on the worldly news.

The four engravings, with reference to the Napoleonic age, from the Romanian books printed in Buda in the years 1814-1815 represent incontestable epoch documents which, at that time, must have raised a great curiosity among the readers eager to know the course of events of their time, which as it is well-known, troubled the whole Europe. The two authors who sign, Adam Sandor Ehrenreich and Gottfried Prixner, as well as the others who are anonymous persons demonstrate through these images that they endeavoured, being more or less endowed with talent, to popularize the important personalities and developments of their age and in this respect they attentively gathered documentary evidence showing perseverance and passion in their work. The large number of books printed in Buda enabled these engravings with historical themes to spread over the whole territory inhabited by the Romanians and within various strata of society.

Keywords: the University Typography from Buda, old Romanian book, engraving, Napolonean epoch, Russia

• Bianu, Ioan, Hodoş, Nerva, Simonescu, Dan, The Old Romanian Bibliography, (1508-1830), Tom. I-IV, Bucureşti, Editura Socec& CO., Soc. Anonimă, 1903-1944.
• Oprescu, Gh., The Romanian Graphic Arts in the 19th Century, vol. I, Bucureşti, Fundaţia Regală Pentru Literatură şi Artă, 1942.
• Thieme, Ulrich, Becker, Felix, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Visual Artists from the Ancient Time up to the Present, vol. I-XXXVII, Leipzig, 1907-1950.
• Tatay, Anca Elisabeta, Tradition and Innovation in the Tehnique and art of Illustrating the Romanian Books Printed in Buda, 1780-1830, Alba Iulia, Editura Altip, 2010.
• Alexandru Duţu, Wisdom Books in the Romanian Culture (cap. 2. France’s Image during the Napolonean Campaigns), Bucureşti, Editura Academiei, 1972.

The inhabitants of the HoSpital in Sibiu, in the 18^th century

The study is based on the three lists with the inmates of the Hospital in Sibiu. One list is undated and the others are dated 1766 and 1773. The lists gathered general information (age, place of birth, the name and husband occupation), the social status of the inmates: the occupation in the Hospital and the aids from community.

The younger inmate is 18 years old and the oldest was 104 years. There are a lot of poor families, a soldiers’ widow and many widows of handicraftsmen. We can observe the evolution of some families: many of the women survived and the children left the Hospital. We have, also, information about the rooms of the building, the diseases and debility of the inmates. In fact, the list is a glimpse of the town society in the second half of the 18^th century when the emigrants increased the poverty.

Keywords: hospital, Sibiu, inmates, 18-th century, charity

• Beşliu Munteanu, Petre Spitalul medieval din Sibiu (The medieval Hospital from Sibiu) Sibiu, 2007
• România, Direcţia Judeţeană a Arhivelor Naţionale Sibiu (România, The National Archiv from Sibiu).
• Grimm, Jacob şi Wilhelm, Deutsche Worterbuch, Berlin Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, în www. woerterbuchnetz.de); The German Dictionary.
• Cadeschi, Ligia Livadă. De la milă la filantropie. Instituţii de asistenţă a săracilor din Ţara Românească şi Moldova în secolul al XVIII-lea, Bucureşti, 2001 (From the charity to the philanthropy. Charity institutions in the 18-th century Moldavia and Walachia)

From behind the Scenes: The struggle for power among Hungarian minority from Romania. HPU-SDP Relations in Cluj, in 1946.

The subject of this study is events of struggle for Political Power among members of Hungarian Political Elite from Transylvania, right before Elections in 1946. Our study, based on documents of Political Police from National Archives of Romania, presents two episodes. The first one is related to desires of Hungarian Social-Democrats to create an alternative party to the Hungarian People’s Union, organization considered by them to be a satellite of the Communist Party. The second episode is concerning the openly anti/Communist attitude of Lakatos István, the very popular leader of local labor Unions, and its consequences. Because of this Lakatos had to be removed from local leading positions, and his opponents tried to remove him from the Electoral List for Parliamentary Elections too. These events, unpublished in the daily press, are described in details in documents of the Political Police.

Keywords: Lakatos István, Social-Democrat Party, Hungarian People’s Union, Political Elite, Year 1946.

Surse Inedite

• România, Direcţia Judeţeană a Arhivelor Naţionale Cluj. Fondul PCR. Comitetul Regional PCR Cluj. / Romania, National Archives, Cluj County Directory. Romanian Communist Party Fund. Regional Comittee of Regional Organization.
• România, Direcţia Judeţeană a Arhivelor Naţionale Cluj. Fondul PCR. Note informative zilnice primite de la organele militare în legătură cu diferite probleme şi spionaj. / Romania, National Archives, Cluj County Directory. Romanian Communist Party Fund. Daily reports of different Secret Servicies regarding Different Issues and Espionage.
• România. Colecţia Fundaţiei „Jakabffy Elemér” din Cluj-Napoca. Lakatos István, A Romúniai Szociáldemokrata Párt rövid története. Scurta istorie a Partidului Social-Democrat/ Short History of the Social/Democrat Party.
• România. Colecţia Fundaţiei „Jakabffy Elemér” din Cluj-Napoca. Lakatos István, Emlékiratai./ Memorii/ Memories
• România. Colecţia Fundaţiei „Jakabffy Elemér” din Cluj-Napoca. Lakatos István, Szociáldemokrata vezető visszaemlékezései./ Amintirile liderului social-democrat Istvan Lakatos/ Memories of social-democrat leader Istvan Lakatos

Lucrări generale şi de specialitate

• Chiper, Ioan. Constantiniu, Florin. Pop, Adrian. Sovietizarea României. Percepţii anglo-americane./ The Sovietization of Romania. English and American Perceptions.   Bucureşti, Editura Iconică, 1993, p 221.
• Deletant, Dennis. România sub regimul comunist./ Romania under Communist Rule. Editura Academia Civică,  2006, p 294.
• Faur, Antonio. Realităţi transilvănene în rapoartele unor diplomaţi francezi ( 1945-1948)./ Transylvanian Realities in Reports of French Diplomats. 1945-1948.  Oradea, Editura Universităţii din Oradea, 2008, p 500.
• Fătu, Mihai. Alianţe politice ale Partidului Comunist Român. Alliances of Romanian Communist Party.  Cluj-Napoca, Editura Dacia, 1979, p 372.
• Hitchins, Keith. România 1866-1947.Romania 1866-1947. Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 1996, p 660.
• Kremm, Werner, Graf, Rudolf. Fenomenul muncitoresc şi social-democrat din România. Secolele 18-20. Worker social Movements and Social-Democracy in Romania. 18-20 Centuries. Reşiţa, Editura InterGraf, 1997, p 107.
• Lakatos, Artur. Partidul Comunist Român din Cluj în 1945, Ramonian Communist Party of Cluj in 1945.  în Anuarul Institutului Italo-Român de Studii Istorice, anul V, 2008, p 131-158.
• Markham, Reuben H. România sub jugul sovietic./ Romania under the Soviet Yoke. Fundaţia Academia Civică, 1996, p 460.
• Onişoru, Gheorghe. Alianţe şi confruntări între partidele politice din România ( 1944-1947)./Alliances and Conflicts between Political Parties in Romania. 1944-1947.  Editura Fundaţia Academia Civică, 2006, p 296.
• Tismăneanu, Vladimir. Stalinism for All Seasons, A Political History of Romanian Communism.  Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, University of California Press, 2003, p 395.
• Ţuţui, Gheorghe. Evoluţia Partidului Social-Democrat din România. De la Frontul Unic la Partidul Unic. /  Evolution of Social-Democrat Party of Romania. From the One Front to the One Party. Bucureşti, Editura Politică, 1979, p 342.
• Vincze Gábor, Illúziók és csalódások. /Iluzii şi decepţii/ Illusions and Deceptions. Miercurea Ciuc, Editura Státus, 1999, p 347.

Structure and anti-structure in rites of passage

The main objective of this paper is to underline the importance, in any rite of passage, of liminal stages, initially identified by the French anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep and then revisited by the well-known rite specialist Victor Turner. The paper focuses on the idea that people “on the edge”, i.e. threshold people, have ambiguous characteristics, that is, they are neither here nor there, belonging, in fact, to no world. Following the line of thought advanced by Turner, we are provided with two models of understanding human relations: the first is that of society as a system structured, differentiated and often ordered, on political-economical-legal positions; the second model, which can be identified in the liminal period, is that of society as an unstructured or poorly structured ensemble, named communitas. Bearing in mind the abovementioned models, I propose a schematic positioning of the people found in the liminal stage in the state of communitas. I believe that in the proposed model there are some elements of the sociological theory supported by Berger and Luckmann. Thus, we find the idea that every day reality (structure, in our case) keeps its supremacy, even when there are “leaps” to other social realities. Extrapolating, my conjecture is that, in its turn, structure is “superior”, because it is supposed that, when the liminal stage ends, individuals wish to return to a structured world.

Keywords: liminality, structure, anti-structure, communitas, alternations, ritual, rites

• Alexander, Bobby C. Victor Turner Revisited. Ritual as Social Change. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1991.
• Bell, Catherine. Ritual. Perspectives and Dimensions. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
• Berger, Peter L., Luckmann, Thomas. Construirea socială a realităţii. Bucureşti: Editura Univers, 1999.
• Coman, Mihai. Introducere în antropologia culturală. Mitul şi ritul. Iaşi: Editura Polirom, 2008.
• Gennep, Arnold Van. Riturile de trecere. Iaşi: Editura Polirom, 1996.
• Grimes, Ronald. Deeply into the Bone. Re-inventing Rites of Passage. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
• Kertzer, David I. Ritual, politică şi putere. Bucureşti: Editura Univers, 2002.
• Lardellier, Pascal. Teoria legăturii ritualice. Bucureşti: Editura Tritonic, 2009.
• Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process. Structure and Anti-Structure. USA: Aldine Transaction, 2009.
• Turner, Victor. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. New York: Cornell University Press, New York.
• Turner, Victor. Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society. Cornell University Press, 1974.
• Zamfir, Cătălin, Vlăsceanu, Lazăr, Dicţionar de sociologie. Bucureşti: Editura Babel, 1993.
• http://inoe.inoe.ro/ianus/Serban%20Anghelescu.htm

Magical valences and religious context in the performance of traditional celebration.

The „Sangiorz”, the time for „strigoi” and „sheep mating”

– Practices and customs in Salaj County villages –

The vast paradigm of practices and customs – many of them with a ritual component – within the greatest celebrations in the world of the Romanian traditional village support the conclusion that in the traditional community, celebration – beyond its sacred-temporal side – is not just a welcome and necessary communion with sacredness but also a well met break for replenishing the power for working and an environment for discovering secrets, for making predictions and for fulfilling wishes.

The initial periods of preparation, purification are eventually transformed under the influence of Christianity into long fasting which precedes most holydays, temporal sequences to which all community members partake in the hope of fulfillment of all wishes.

It is this framework one must refer to for the celebration of the Sangiorz – one of the greatest celebrations in the Christian calendar.

In the archaic memory, Saint „Gheorghe” was the god of vegetation, protector of horses and cows and of crops. He would watch over the nature. He was a brother of Saint „Dumitru” with wich he would share the year in two:” the pastoral summer and the pastoral winter”. They both own huge keys, which they use to lock away seasons: the „Sangeorz” locks winter and unlocks summer on April 23 and the „Sanmedru” locks summer and brings winter on October 26.

Over this masculine idea, full of vitality, the Christian calendar overlapped Saint „Gheorghe”’s image – the victory bearer for the martyrdom under Diocletian’s ruling.

For the calendar of the Romanian peasant, overlapped by sequences of supernatural apparitions, the celebration of Saint ”Ghorghe” and especially its eve, condense a time saturated by magic-ritual representations: this is the time the „live fire” is lit, this is when people and animals are purified by crossing through smoke and fire, people are sprinkled with dew from plants or washed with clean water, acts of wizardry are performed, houses are decorated with green leaves or protected against the „strigoi” with lovage or garlic and one can open the skies and find the burning treasures within.

All these performances are possible because the time for celebration is a special one, which allows the enactment of magic-ritual scenarios with effects spreading across the year, to the next celebration.

Keywords: traditional community, archaic memory, magic-ritual representations, magic-ritual scenarios, live fire;

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