About Frenchness and its effects

In the course of 1941, in the aftermath of the French defeat, Emil Cioran writes a short essay, titled De la France. This text, written in Romanian, was translated in French and published by L’Herne in 2009. In its pages, Cioran investigates the reasons accounting for France’s fall. Furthermore, the text shows a transformation in Cioran’s writing. Both the French culture’s influence and the historical predicament inform this rhetorical transfiguration. Thus, De la France appears as a new turning point in Cioran’s body of work.

Keywords: Cioran ; De la France ; French culture ; decadence ; exemplariness

• CIORAN, Emil, De la France, Éditions de l’Herne, Paris, 2009.

Fragmentary ecriture

This paper represents a part of a more complex investigation of fragmentary writing in Emil Cioran. In this study I analyse a few general features of the fragment as a genre from the perspective of the hermeneutics of Cioran’s writing and of his relation to aphorism in particular.

Keywords: whole – part; fragment – aphorism; discursiveness – discontinuity.

• Blanchot, M. Nietzsche y la escritura fragmentaria, en Varies: Nietzsche. 125 Afios. Bogota. Temis. 1977.
• Gailliard, M. Le fragment comme genre. Poetique, # 120. Vov. 1999. Seuil

Emil Cioran’s Humour: A Brief Note

While merely introducing the issue of Cioran’s humour, I widen the area of my investigation to include registers of irony as an instance of his discursive construction. I do so in order to illustrate the cathartic valences of humour and the virulence of sarcasm with reference to the paradoxical diversity of imbrications of literature, linguistics, philosophy and metaphysics that is achieved through the deconstruction of the tragic.

 Keywords: Risible discourse, derisive discourse, remedy

• Cioran. Le crépuscule des pensées, en Oeuvres, Paris, Gallimard,1995
• Cioran, Entretiens, Paris, Gallimard, 1995
• Cioran, Syllogismes de l’amertume, in Oeuvres, Paris, Gallimard, 1995
• Doina Constantinescu, La risa, la ironía y la melancolía en Cioran, en Paradoxa , Revista de Filosofía 13, junio del 2007 (traduc. del francés de M. L. Herrera), Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira.

Philosophy and skepticism

This paper aims to identify the philosophical position from the conception of skepticism found in E. Cioran. It explores the conditions that Cioran presents from skepticism in his texts and determines in which cases may or may not appreciate the philosophical setting in the author’s work.

Keywords: contemporary philosophy, Emil Cioran, skepticism, lucidity.

• Cioran, E. Cahiers, 1957-1972, Paris Gallimard
• Cioran, E. Conversaciones, Barcelona, Tusquets, 1997
• Cioran, E. Le mauvais demiurge, en Œuvres, Gallimard, Paris, 1995
• Demars, Aurelien. Le vertige chez Cioran: une métaphysique du vide en Cahiers Emil Cioran, approches critiques IX. Editura Universităţii Lucien Blaga, Sibiu, 2008

The Legionarism of Cioran and Eliade

This article focuses on the issue of Romanian nationalism during the period between the two world wars, topic analyzed especially by means of the articles written by the “young generation”, respectively Cioran and Eliade. The ideology of the generation was to follow Nae Ionescu in his nationalism and to get the country out of its cultural isolation. We have selected some quotations from the work of Eliade and Cioran, who rely strictly on the necessity to revolutionize the country, mentioning on the reform, the transfiguration of Romania, its relationship with history.

Two issues appeared compelling at the time: to what extent was the political background democratic and why did authoritarianism finally win during a full process of building capitalism? The between the two world wars Romania and until the installation of communism did not benefit from favorable conditions to develop a genuine capitalism. Historically, it was impossible.

Furthermore, given the autarkic structure and the self-sufficient Romanian character, the difficult democratic tests could be well justified.

Keywords: Romanian nationalism, Iron Guard, Cioran, Eliade, mission of « the young generation »

Ouvrages:

• Laignel-Lavastin, Alexandra, 2004, Cioran, Eliade, Ionesco, uitarea fascismului, Bucarest, Est
• Cioran, Emil, 1936, Schimbarea la faţă a României, Bucarest, Vremea
• Cioran, Emil, 2001, Schimbarea la faţă a României, Bucarest, Humanitas
• Codreanu, Corneliu Zelea, 1936, Pentru legionari, vol. I, Sibiu, Totul pentru ţară
• Convorbiri cu Cioran, 2004, Bucarest, Humanitas
• Culianu, Ioan Petru, 2004, Mircea Eliade, troisième édition revue et argumentée, traduite par Florin Chiriţescu et Dan Petrescu, avec une lettre de Mircea Eliade et une postface de Sorin Antohi, Bucarest, Polirom
• Eliade, Mircea, 1942, « Salazar şi revoluţia din Portgalia», Bucarest, Gorjan
• Eliade, Mircea, 1990, Profetism românesc, 2 volumes realisés par Alexandru V. Diţă, Bucarest, Roza Vânturilor
• Eliade, Mircea, 2001,Texte „legionare” şi despre „românism”, notes sur l’édition et préface par M. Handoca, Cluj-Napoca, Dacia
• Noica Constantin, 1997, Manuscrisele de la Câmpulung. Reflecţii despre ţărănime şi burghezie, commentaires par Vlad Zografi, Bucarest, Humanitas
• Petreu, Marta, 2004, Un trecut deocheat sau schimbarea la faţă a României, Bucarest, Institutul Cultural Român
• Stolojan, Sanda, 1996, Nori peste balcoane, Jurnal din exilul parizian, (Au balcon de l’exil roumain à Paris, 1999) version roumaine par Micaela Slăvescu, revisée par Sanda Stolojan, Bucarest, Humanitas
• Solomovici, Tesu, Romania iudaica, vol. II, Bucarest, Teşu, 2001
• Zeletin, Stefan, 1992, Neoliberalismul, studii asupra istoriei şi politicii burgheziei române, Bucarest

Articles dans des revues:

• Cioran, Emil, 5 août 1934,« Scrisori din Germania. Revolta sătuilor », Vremea, an VII, nr. 349
• Eliade, Mircea, 11 mars 1934, « Compromiterea românismului », Vremea
• Eliade, Mircea, 1935, « Reabilitarea spirtualităţii », Criterion, an II, , nr. 6-7, janvier- février
• Eliade, Mircea, 10 novembre 1935 « Popor fără misiune?! », inclus dans Profetism românesc, p. 136
• Eliade, Mircea1937, « De unde începe misiune României ? », Vremea, an X, nr. 477, 28 février
• Eliade, Mircea, 1937, « Naţionalismul », Paşti, inclus dans Profetism românesc, p. 193
• Eliade, 17 décembre 1937, « De ce cred în biruinţa Mişcării legionare », Buna Vestire, inclus dans Texte „legionare” şi despre „românism”, p. 64
• Eliade, Mircea, 24 janvier 1937, « Ion Moţa şi Vasile Marin», Vremea, inclus dans Texte „legionare” şi despre „românism”, p. 36
• Eliade, 19 septembre 1937, « Piloţi orbi», Vremea, inclus dans Texte „legionare” şi despre „românism”, p. 254
• Eliade, Mircea,1938, « Noua aristocraţie legionară», Vremea, an XI, 23 janvier, nr. 522
• Eliade, Mircea, août 1953, « Destinul culturii româneşti », inclus dans Profetism românesc, p. 138

The Discourse of Hysteria and the Hysteria of Emil Cioran’s Discourse

My research focuses on the coordinates of the discourse of hysteria as evidenced in the coherent discursiveness of Cioran’s oeuvre, the expression of a modern cogito and sensibility which preserve, in the enigma of the psyche and the eloquence of corporality, a paradoxical reverberation constantly trafficked between private humours and culture.

Keywords: contemporary philosophy, Emil Cioran, dissociative and somatic disorders; body language; discoursive emphasis.

• Cioran, Œuvres, Quarto, Paris, Gallimard, 1995.
• Cioran, Cahiers. 1957-1972, Paris, Gallimard, 1997.
• Cioran, Entretiens, Paris, Gallimard, 1995.
• CIM-10/ICD-10, Classification internationale des maladies. Dixième révision. Chapitre V: Troubles mentaux et troubles du comportement, traduction de l’anglais par C.B. Pull, O.M.S, Genève, 1993
• Kristeva, Julie, Le Contre-transfert: une hystérie réveillée,” Revue internationale de psychopathologie, 5, 1992, pp. 43-64.
• Freud, S., J. Breuer, Etudes sur l’hystérie, trad. fr, Paris, P.U.F, 1967.
• Freud, S. (1938) Abrégé de psvchanalyse, Paris, P. U. F.1985.

Cioran and the Female Saints

Of all topics of the paradoxical meditation of Emil Cioran, of all the topics discussed by his negatory or only relativizing spirit, few are those which are substracted from thinking in paradoxes or contesting action. Maybe there were five or six. Among these, the saints. Alongside reflections on music, love, nature and partially on sainthood, the saints theme configures a different type of discourse and another kind of philosophical attitude. It is not the bivalent discourse with thesis and antithesis – the latter satisfying the lust of denial or doubt – it is a unilateral rhetoric, affirmative, positive, a “loving discourse”. It is not the inflamed, demolishing, terrible attitude, of rejection, specific to the  paradoxical man, but an attitude of acceptance and total agreement on the entire demonstrative way. The meditation on female saints and martyrs is part of Cioran’s first book, Lacrimi şi sfinţi [Tears and Saints], published in Bucharest in 1937,more specifically in the first three chapters of the book. The theme is reloaded in a subsequent addendum, a posterior summarising looking back, with a view to mitigating the lover’s exaltations. That is the sequence „The Saints’ Disciple” from the chapter „Sainthood and the Absolute’s Funny Faces”[ Sfinţenia şi strâmbăturile absolutului]  of his  first book published in France, Tratat de descompunere /Précis de décomposition, 1949.

Keywords: Emil Cioran, disciple of saints, self-flagellation, Saint Theresa, Saint Catherine of Siena, catholic saints

• Cioran, Emil, Lacrimi şi sfinţi, Bucureşti: Humanitas,1991
• Cioran, Emil, Tratat de descompunere. Bucureşti: Humanitas, 1992

Emil Cioran – Nihilist, mystic, stylist or skeptical

The author renders a survey of the life and work of the Romanian-French philosopher and the rekindled interest in Cioran’s theory, using examples of some French, German and Romanian publications of the past five years. The main emphasis of the essay is on the childhood and adolescence in Romania, his first publications in the 1930’s, the political straying in his homeland and in Germany. In focus are also his turning to writing in French and his alienation from any kind of ideology, beginning with the 40’s in French exile. Finally the author looks into the newly rediscovered correspondence between Cioran and the Austrian Wolfgang Kraus.

Keywords: contemporary philosophy, Emil Cioran, nihilism, mysticism, National Socialism, anti-Semitism, pessimism, scepticism

• Patrice Bollon: Cioran, der Ketzer. Aus dem Frz. von Ferdinand Leopold; Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M. 2006; 362 S.
• E. M. Cioran: Lehre vom Zerfall. Essays; Rowohlt, Hamburg 1953; 216 S.
• E. M. Cioran: Über Frankreich. Aus dem Rumänischen von Ferdinand Leopold; Suhrkamp, Berlin 2010; 105 S. Berlin 2010; 105 S.
• E. M. Cioran: Über Deutschland. Aufsätze aus den Jahren 1931-1937, Suhrkamp, Berlin 2011; 216 S.
• Cioran: Schimbarea la faţă a României; Humanitas, Bucureşti 1990/2010; 200 S.
• Cioran: Scrisori către Wolfgang Kraus 1971-1990. Traduse din germană, ediţie îngrijită şi note de George Guţu; Humanitas, Bucureşti 2009.

On “Tradiţionalism” and Mircea Eliade

This study attempts to provide further clarifications regarding the influence of traditionalism on Mircea Eliade development (to avoid any confusion, traditionalism will be called by its synonym: perennialism), as René Guénon founded it, demonstrating that it is not as crucial as one may think. It also shows Mark Sedgwick’s book (Against the Modern World) insufficient documentation, at least in what concerns Eliade, concluding that he was not actually a perennialist, even one soft as Sedgwick calls him, but an optimist who saw that the sacred is camouflaged into the profane, and he shared this to the world.

Keywords: Mircea Eliade, Traditionalism, perennialism, René Guénon, Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World

• David, Dorin. De la Eliade la Culianu. I (From Eliade to Culianu. I). Cluj-Napoca, Eikon, 2010
• Eliade, Mircea. Jurnal I [Journal I]. Bucureşti, Humanitas, 1993
• Eliade, Mircea. Naşteri mistice [Birth and Rebirth]. Bucureşti, Humanitas, 1995
• Eliade, Mircea. Insula lui Euthanasius (1943) [Euthanasius’ Island], în Drumul spre Centru. Bucureşti, Univers, 1991
• Gardaz, Michel. The Trojan horse of philosophia perennis’: Mircea Eliade’s quest of spiritual transformation. În: Religion, 38, 2008, p. 338-345
• Guénon, Réne. Criza lumii moderne [The Crisis of Modern World]. Bucureşti, Humanitas, 1993
• Oldmeadow, Harry. The Comparative Study of Eastern and Western Metaphysics: a Perennialist Perspective. În: Sophia, 46, 2007, p. 49-64
• Sedgwick, Mark. Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press, 2004
• Spineto, Natale. Mircea Eliade and Traditionalism. În: Aries, 1 (1), 2001, p. 62-87
• Spineto, Natale. Mircea Eliade and “Traditional Thought” în Rennie, Bryan (ed.). The International Eliade. Albany, State University of New York Press (SUNY Series, Issues in the Study of Religion), 2007

Lucian Blaga. Essay on poetic modernity

The present study is focused on Lucian Blaga’s poetic work, having its starting point on the evidence that, from all the major inter-war poets, Blaga seems to have undertaken the most serious deflation. His work, sometimes mostly influential, does not arise anymore the „anxiety of influence” in any contemporary poet. In a world where the process called by Max Weber die Entzauberung der Welt has reached its final stasis, such a passionate pledge for the Verzauberung der Welt seems to be as inadequate as it gets. The study aims at identifying an angle of interpretation which to make possible the recovery of Blaga’s modernity.

Keywords: modern and contemporary Romanian poetry, Lucian Blaga, modernity, modern self, Entzauberung der Welt

• Corin Braga, Eonul Blaga. Întâiul veac / The Blaga Aeon. The first century, Bucureşti, Albatros, 1997
• Matei Călinescu, Conceptul modern de poezie / The modern concept of poetry, Bucureşti, Eminescu, 1972
• Şt. Aug. Doinaş, Orfeu şi tentaţia realului / Orpheus and the temptation of the real, Bucureşti, Eminescu, 1974
• Hugo Friedrich, Structura liricii moderne / The structure of modern poetry, Bucureşti, Univers, 1998
• Gilles Lipovetsky, Jean Serroy, Ecranul global. Cultură, mass-media şi cinema în epoca hipermodernă / The global screen. Culture, mass-media and cinema in the hypermodern era, Iaşi, Polirom, 2008

Charon’s Boat

This paper aims to analyze Lucian Blaga’s novel “Luntrea lui Caron” (“Charon’s Boat”), from two points of view. The first one is related to the book’s documentary dimension. There are many facts that the main character, Axente Creangă, borrows from the author’s real life. The other refers to the fictionized autobiography, which the writer builds around himself, attempting to make a “pro domo sua” pleading. The events are interpreted in a mythical key. Blaga’s alter ego describes his problems between with the new communist authorities (1944-1950). Excluded from the University, shadowed by the politic policy, the oppressed intellectual becomes unable to compose a poem. Only when he rediscovers his erotic dimension, the protagonist passes beyond the crisis, as if terror has not the power to vanquish love.

Keywords: Lucian Blaga, “Luntrea lui Caron” (“Charon’s Boat”), document, fictionized autobiography, mythical interpretation, communism.

• Lucian Blaga, Luntrea lui Caron: roman, ediţie îngrijită şi stabilire text Dorli Blaga şi
• Mircea Vasilescu, notă asupra ediţiei Dorli Blaga, posfaţă de Mircea Vasilescu, Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 1990.
• Ion Bălu, Viaţa lui G. Călinescu, Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, 1981.
• Alte noi rotonde 13 (VI), prefaţă şi notă asupra ediţiei de Lucian Chişu, Bucureşti, Editura Muzeului Literaturii Române, 2009.

Blaga’s „Science and creativity”: the stylistic mark of scientific theories

This article is trying to provide an overview over Blaga’s conception of the relationship between science and culture as he outlines it in his work „Science and creativity”. He contests the validity of the common picture that scholars have of science as a corpus of knowledge developping linearly, stressing the importance of the cultural factor in the formation of scientific theories, that is the influence of the stylistic traits of that particular culture on the practice of science and on how thinkers shape their scientific theories.

Keywords: Blaga, culture, science, style, creativity

• Oswald Spengler, Der Untergang des Abendlandes. Umrisse einer Morphologie der Weltgeschichte (Declinul Occidentului. Schiţa unei morfologii a istoriei universale), erster Band, Gestalt und Wirklichkeit, (vol. I, Formă şi realitate), C.H.Beck, München, 1924
• Ernst Mach, Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung (Cunoaştere şi eroare. Schiţe asupra psihologiei cercetării), Johann Ambrosius Barth, Leipzig, 1906
• Galileo Galilei, Lettere copernicane/Scrisori copernicane, ediţie bilingvă, trad. de Smaranda Bratu Elian şi Gheorghe Stratan, Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2010
• Lucian Blaga, Opere, vol. 10: Trilogia valorilor, Editura Minerva, Bucureşti, 1987; lucrarea “Ştiinţă şi creaţie”, p. 53 – 211
• Dumitru Ghişe, Angela Botez, Victor Botez (coord.), Lucian Blaga – cunoaştere şi creaţie. Culegere de studii, Cartea Românească, 1987

The relantionship between the gnoseological crisis and ,,the great passage’’ in Blaga’s writings.

A theological perspective

The article aims at showing the main similitudes and discrepancies between Blaga’s philosophical system and the orthodox doctrine given the fact that mystery is the central element in both Blaga’s system and the dogmatic tradition of the Orthodox Church. If in the orthox dogma there is a echilibrium between the cataphatical cognition and the apophatical one, Blaga emphasis only on the latter, instituting a transcendental censorship that makes impossible any personal relantionship between man and the absolute. This gnoseological crisis results in chaos and in existential anxiety , both responsible for the apocaliptical vision that is evident in two of Blagas’s best known volumes of poetry, In the Great Passage and In Praise of Sleep. By refusing special revelation, Blaga annihilates the esential ontological difference between the Being, God, and the Non-Being, man, which receives beingness from Divinity. Where the orthodox dogma gives a solution by explaining man’s creative destiny through his resemblance with God and trough theophany, Blaga’s postulate of the Great Anonymous leaves the individual at the mercy of incertitude and absolute death.

Keywords: natural and special revelation, cataphatic and anaphatic cognition, The Great Anonymous, trascendental censorship, apocaliptical vision, Being and Non-Being

• Blaga, Lucian, Opere, ediţie îngrijită de George Gană, vol. I, Bucureşti, Ed.Minerva, 1982.
• Cazan, Al. Gh, Lucian Blaga-metafizică şi raţionalism ecstatic, Bucureşti, Ed.Semne, 2008.
• Diaconu, Floricica şi Diaconu, Marin, Dicţionar de termeni filosofici ai lui Lucian Blaga. Bucureşti, Ed. Univers Enciclopedic, 2000.
• Doinaş, Ştefan Aug.,,,Eseu asupra poeziei lui Lucian Blaga’’ în Lectura poeziei urmată de Tragic şi demonic, Bucureşti, Ed. Cartea Românească, 1980.
• Matsoukas, Nikolaos. Teologia dogmatică şi simbolică, vol. II, Expunerea credinţei ortodoxe, traducere de Nicuşor Deciu, Bucureşti, Ed. Bizantină, 2006.
• Pestroiu, Emanuela, Viziune ortodoxă şi relevanţă estetică în lirica lui Blaga (Teză de doctorat), Ed. Universităţii Bucureşti, 2009.
• Remete, George, Dogmatica ortodoxă, Alba Iulia, Ed. Reîntregirea, 2006.

I.L. Caragiale. Substantiality of the world and fascination of the text

Part of a wider research project of interpreting Caragiale’s works, the present paper aims at analysing some of the writer’s short texts, considered relevant for the world’s ontological crisis theme. The absence of any transcendental meaning dwells in Caragiale’s meticulous wording. The world as a theatre décor that can only come into being as text, the world as harmony within chaos, these are the main themes in Caragiale’s works.

Keywords: I.L. Caragiale, Theatre décor, Textualism, empty transcendence

• I.L.CARAGIALE, 2000: Opere I, Proza literară, Ediţie îngrijită şi cronologie de Stancu Ilin, Nicolae Bârna, Constantin Hârlav, Prefaţă de Eugen Simion, Univers enciclopedic, Bucureşti.
• CĂLINESCU, Alexandru, 2000: Caragiale sau vîrsta modernă a literaturii, Editura Institutul European, Iaşi.
• PAPADIMA, Liviu, 1999: Caragiale, fireşte, Editura Institutul Cultural Român, Bucureşti.
• PETREU, Marta, 2003: Filosofia lui Caragiale, Editura Albatros, Bucureşti.
• TOMUŞ, Mircea, 2004: Caragiale după Caragiale, Editura Media Concept, Sibiu.
• VARTIC, Ion, 2002: Clanul Caragiale, Editura Biblioteca Apostrof, Cluj Napoca.

The unknown Ionel Teodoreanu

The present review emphasizes upon the necessity of new interpretations in Ionel Teodoreanu’s case, maybe the most popular Romanian writer of the inter-bellum period, the author of countless best-sellers, with great public success, but unfortunately treated rather distantly and obliquely by the most authoritative contemporary critic voices. We tried to stress on the fact that Angelo Mitchievici and Ioan Stanomir, the young researchers who joined forces to recover the lost writer, „reloaded” the aggrieved literary figure by two laborious and intelligent socio-cultural studies, that really managed to bring again to the fore, using nevertheless perfectly mature investigation tools, the best known childhood novels in the Romanian literature. Furthermore, we showed that the two overshadowed studies meet in their integrative principles, as the nowadays critics preferred to unrule the aesthetic prejudices and discover the human being hidden behind pages.

Keywords: bourgeois official writer, bourgeois culture, childhood novel, literature for children, impressionism, imagism, musicality, nostalgia, Arcadian topos

• Angelo Mitchievici şi Ioan Stanomir, Teodoreanu reloaded, Editura ART 2011.

Understanding and interpretation (II)

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 previous part of the study is concerned with the definitions of the three competences required in the process of understanding, i.e. linguistic, interdiscursive, and cultural competences. Now, this second part focuses on the analysis of both dominants and differences in understanding. The cause of this paradox in understanding is our world-based experience, which is the nucleus of our cultural competence. By means of frame theories borrowed from cognitive linguistics, we demonstrate that our understanding mechanisms are influenced by our embodied cognitive patterns that affect our individual and cultural experience. Therefore, our conceptual system and conceptual categories that define our experiences are quite similar, and thus they represent the basis of our cultural construals, which can differ across cultures and communities. This fact could explain both similarities and differences in understanding. In essence, understanding means building contextual bridges between differently determined world -based experiences. But, in this process, differences will always remain, at least as finer nuances, because understanding is interpretation. The only difference between understanding and interpretation is represented by their dynamics: while understanding is static and contextual, interpretation is trans-contextual and versatile.

Keywords: understanding process, understanding mechanisms, 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.

Recourse to a phenomenology of the critical conscience and experience

As a product of transition epochs, new types of characters emerge. In the writings of Romanian writers Mihai Eminescu and I.L. Caragiale, wecan encounter two categories of characters that manifest comun features: Catilina-followers in Mihai Eminescu’s works and social temeperature-sensitivindividuals, with a special immediacy of poltical opportunism in I.L. Caragiale’s oeuvre. The swivel-eyed characters, the slyboots and the trialogue witness do represent, besides Catilina-followers and social temperature-sensitive individuals, various ways of reflecting life, history and otherness (peers, opponents, oneself), ascontained in the works of the great classics.

Keywords: Catilina-followers; slyboots; swivel-eyed characters; literary and socio-political outlook; the iconic character, individuals sensitive to political and social temperature, author’s blueprint; the trialogue witness

• Bachelard, Gaston. Poetica spaţiului (trad. Irina Bădescu), Piteşti, Editura Paralela 45, 2003.
• Baudrillard, Jean; Guillaume, Marc. Figuri ale alterităţii (trad. Ciprian Mihali), Piteşti, Editura Paralela 45, 2002.
• Buber, Martin. EU şi TU (trad. Ştefan Aug. Doinaş), Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 1992.
• Burgos, Jean. Imaginar şi creaţie (trad. Irina Proţap, Bianca Năforeanu samd.), Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 2003.
• Derşidan, Ioan. Iconi si literatură, Bucuresti, Editura Univers Enciclopedic, 2002 .
• Derşidan, Ioan. Nordul caragialian – periplul versiunilor – Bucuresti, Editura Univers Enciclopedic, 2003.
• Derşidan, Ioan. Viziera cavalerului, Editura Universităţii din Oradea, Biblioteca revistei „Familia”, 2008.
• Derşidan, Ioan. Catilinari şi temperatori: Eminescu şi Caragiale, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Casa Cărţii de Ştiinţă, 2010.
• Dufrenne, Mikel. Fenomenologia experienţei estetice. Percepţia estetică, vol. II, (trad. Dumitru Matei), Bucureşti, Editura Meridiane, 1976.
• Durand, Gilbert. Figuri mitice şi chipuri ale operei (de la mitocritică la mitanaliză) (trad. Muguraş Constantinescu , Anişaoara Bobocea), Bucureşti, Editura Nemira, 1999.
• Durand, Gilbert. Structurile antropologice ale imaginarului. Introducere în arhetipologia generală (trad. Marcel Aderca), Bucureşti, Editura Univers Enciclopedic, 2000.
• Fancillon, Roger. Jean Rousset sau pasiunea lecturii (trad.), Cluj-Napoca, Editura Limes, 2011.
• Levinas, Emmanuel. Totalitate şi infinit. Eseu despre exterioritate (trad. Marius Lazurca), Iaşi, Editura Polirom, 2008.
• Poulet, Georges. Metamorfozele cercului (trad. Irina Bădescu, Angela Martin), Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1987.
• Poulet, Georges. Conştiinţa critică (trad. Ion Pop), Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1979.
• Starobinski, Jean. Melancolie, nostalgie, ironie (trad. Angela Martin), Piteşti, Editura Paralela 45, 2002.
• Starobinski, Jean. Textul şi interpretul (trad. Ion. Pop), Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1985.

Life as a dream and the world as a theatre. From Pedro Calderón de la Barca to Luigi Pirandello

Choosing to discuss some aspects related to theatre, theatrical performance and the subtle and complicated relation between the reality as we perceive it and theatrical reality, as embodied on stage, this essay takes into consideration the work of two great playwrights: the Spanish Pedro Calderón de la Barca and the Italian Luigi Pirandello. Although creating in very different ages, they share the same passion for masking (and dreaming), their most important plays being comparable from this perspective. For both of them, the world is a stage, although the ways of proving this theatrical and ontological truth of their work are very different. Stressing the importance of dream as the perfect vehicle of communication between the truth of reality and the truth of his characters’ inner world, Calderón perfectly represents The Golden Age of the Spanish literature (the 17^th century, age of Renaissance and of Baroque), whereas Pirandello works differently, embodying the alienated soul of the 20^th century. Thus he transforms mask in the only possible condition for the contemporary human being and, in the same time, proves with all his theatrical means that the theatre is the only genuine essence in a world of perfect appearances.

Keywords: theatre, theatrical illusion, theatrical performance, scenic reality, dream, human existence, truth, actor.

• Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Viaţa e vis. Traducere de Sorin Mărculescu, Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1970.
• Luigi Pirandello, Teatru. Traducere de Alexandra Bărcăcilă şi R. A. Locusteanu, Bucureşti, Editura pentru Literatură Universală, 1967.
• Antonin Artaud, Teatrul şi dublul său. Traducere de Voichiţa Sasu şi Diana Tihu, postfaţă şi selecţia textelor de Ion Vartic, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Echinox, 1997.
• Rosario Assunto, Universul ca spectacol, Bucureşti, Editura Meridiane, 1983.
• Alexandru Balaci, Luigi Pirandello, Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1986.
• Salvatore Battaglia, Mitografia personajului, Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1976.
• Ileana Berlogea, Pirandello, Bucureşti, Editura pentru Literatură Universală, 1967.
• Călinescu, Scriitori străini, Bucureşti, Editura pentru Literatură Universală, 1967.
• Leone de Castris, O istorie a lui Pirandello. Traducere de Ştefan Crudu, Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1976.
• Jean Chevalier, Alain Gheerbrant, Dicţionar de simboluri. Mituri, vise, obiceiuri, gesturi, forme, culori, figuri, numere, Bucureşti, Editura Artemis, vol. 1 – 3, 1995.
• Anne Ubersfeld, Lire le theatre, Paris, Editions Sociales, 1978.
• Anne Ubersfeld, Termenii cheie ai analizei teatrului, Iaşi, Editura Institutul European, 1999.
• Maria Vodă Căpuşan, Dramatis personae, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Dacia, 1980.
• Ion Zamfirescu, Istoria universală a teatrului, Bucureşti, Editura pentru Literatură Universală, 1968.

Whitsunday: „bless these fields, Our Lord …”

  – practices and customs within Salaj County villages –

Celebration of yearly events or life passage has been possible in the traditional Romanian village in the framework of development of that certain collective belief generically known as cosmic Christianity.  The celebration of Whitsunday is a very important one and the days and weeks between Easter and Whitsunday used to have a very strong significance for the Romanian village at the end of the XIX th century. These were thought to be more special than other days within the year as they were holier and could have had a good or bad influence over people and their belongings.

On Whitsunday, the priest casts holy water onto the fields towards the four horizons, under the shape of the cross, then he blesses, one by one, all the Christians while they bow to the Saint Mary icon. This scenario of blessing the fields for Whitsunday is a complex one, and it engages magical ritual components along with religious ones.

For the traditional community, the village boundary – especially crop fields – used to have a special importance as agriculture was the main subsistence source for the peasant. That is why maintenance of fields in a fertile state was essential and the celebration of Whitsunday – with its social component of protection of the boundaries and fields – can be looked upon from a common level with the John Baptist’s blessing of the gardens and with the first day of plowing. This level has as a foundation the symbolic health of fertile crops.

Keywords: traditional community, cosmic Christianity, magic-ritual representations, magic-ritual scenarios, holy water, fields, symbolic health

• Braudel, Fernand, Timpul lumii, Editura Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1989.
• Butură, Valer, Cultura spirituală românească, Editura Minerva, Bucureşti, 1992.
• Chevalier, Jean, Gheerbrant, Alain, Dicţionar de simboluri, Editura Artemis, Bucureşti, 1995.
• Cristescu – Golopenţia, Ştefania, Gospodăria în credinţele şi riturile magice ale femeilor din Drăguş (Făgăraş), Bucureşti, 1940.
• Moise, Ilie, Consideraţii privind creştinismul cosmic în spaţiul carpatin, în “Creştinismul popular între teologie şi etnologie”, Editura Reîntregirea, Alba Iulia, 2007.
• Nicoară, Toader, Transilvania la începuturile timpurilor moderne (1680 – 1800). Societate rurală şi mentalităţi colective, Editura Presa Universitară Clujeană, Cluj Napoca, 1997.
• Niculiţă – Voronca, Elena, Datinile şi credinţele poporului român adunate şi aşezate în ordine mitologică, Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 1998.
• Toşa, Ioan, Munteanu, Simona, Calendarul ţăranului român de la sfârşitul secolului al XIX-lea, Editura Mediamira, Cluj Napoca, 2003.
• Rânduieli şi rugăciuni, Tipografia Eparhială, Oradea, 1994.

Religiosity on glass

This article is about representations of saints on glass icons, like the icons artisans imagined. This way: Saint Ilie was the sender of good rains for the crops, Saint Haralambie protected against the diseases, Saint Nicolae was the protector of unmarried girls, Saint Gheorghe protected the young frontier guard, The Virgin Mary was considered the protector of new families.

For bringing the world of saints closer to their hearts, the icons artisans and the hagiographic legends introduced native elements. From this combination resulted the icons that are saying an entire story, where the religious characters lend human features.

Keywords: glass icon, popular art, religious art, orthodox religion, hagiographic legends

• Chevalier 1994 – Jean, Chevalier, Alain Gheerbrant, Dicţionar de simboluri, vol. 1, Bucureşti, 1994
• Dancu 1975 – J. Dancu, D. Dancu, Pictura ţărănească pe sticlă, Bucureşti, 1975.
• Kligman 1998 – G. Kligman, Nunta mortului. Ritual, poetică şi cultură populară în Transilvania, Iaşi, 1998.
• Marian 1995 – S. Fl. Marian, Naşterea la români, Bucureşti, 1995
• Niculescu 1957 – V. V. Niculescu, Contribuţii la cunoaşterea icoanelor pe sticlă şi a xilogravurilor ţăranilor români din Transilvania, în SCIA , 3-4, 1957.
• Quenot 2004 – M. Quenot, Sfidările icoanei: o altă viziune asupra lumii, Bucureşti, 2004.
• Apostol Popescu 1969 – I. Apostol Popescu, Arta icoanelor de la Nicula, Bucureşti, 1969.
• Popescu 1986 – A. Popescu, Tradiţii de muncă româneşti, Bucureşti, 1986.