The definition of a concept (a proposal). The investigation of a literary moment (an exposure)

This essay tries to approximate a theoretical definition for the concept of literary circle. Most of the time, this notion is approached from a historical perspective, as a trivial clique of writers trying to obtain notoriety. Obviously, this description neglects an important aspect: every literary circle also represents a shooting range for a multitude of reading strategies. A prototype for what Stanley Fish called in 1976 „interpretive communites”. In a thorough analysis of Fish’s study, his concept fits to our expected definition. In the second part of the essay, the activity of one of the most famous romanian literary circles (Cenaclul de Luni) is investigated in the light of this conceptual proposal.
Keywords: literary circles, interpretive communities, contemporary Romanian literature, generation ’80, Stanley Fish, Mircea Cărtărescu, Florin Iaru, Alexandru Muşina, Matei Vişniec, Ion Bogdan Lefter

• Fish, Stanley, Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities. Harvard University Press, 1980.
• Vakulovski, Mihail, Portret de grup cu generaţia 80. Inverviuri/ A Group Portrait of the 80 Generation. Interviews, Bucureşti, Tracus Arte, 2011
• Lefter, Ion Bogdan, Flashback 1985. Începuturile „noii poezii”/ Flashback 1985. The Beginnongs of the „new poetry”, Piteşti, Paralela 45, 2005, p. 113.
• Lefter, Ion Bogdan, Prietenii din povestea literaturii/ The friends from the Literature Fairy Tale, Piteşti, Paralela 45, 2013
• Cărtărescu, Mircea, Postmodernismul românesc/ The Romanian Postmodernism, ediţia a doua, Bucureşti, Humanitas, 2010
• Muşina, Alexandru, Poezia. Teze, ipoteze, explorări/ Poetry. Thesis, assumptions, explorations, Braşov, Aula, 2008
• Vişniec, Matei, Cronica ideilor tulburătoare/ The Cronical of Thrilling Ideas, Iaşi, Polirom, 2010
• Popa, Marian, Istoria literaturii române de azi pe mâine / The History of Romanian literature. Today for tommorow, 2 vol., versiune revizuită şi augmentată, Bucureşti, Semne, 2009
• Manolescu, Nicolae, Istoria critică a literaturii române. Cinci secole de literatură / The critical history of Romanian literature. Five centuries of literature, Piteşti, Editura Paralela 45, 2008.

The Debris of Imagination

One of the most important components of the human mind, imagination has been the object of interest of many thinkers and researchers of all times. Despite the attention, there have been many unknown ideas about its source, its way of functioning, its status among other mental faculties. And there is also a critical component of its presentation. We asked why? First because of the impossibility of giving satisfying explanations, second because it has been considered dangereous for reason, for the right judgement. It is true that imagination too can stir the feelings, the emotions, as delirium and hallucinations are extreme examples of the effects of the lack of control over this faculty. Even if today imagination has a higher status, it is left in the care of the psychologists. The others, philosophers, anthropologists, aestheticians, etc. concentrate of the study of the imaginary. This does not mean that everything was said about imagination, on the contrary, there are a lot of explanations to be given on this subject, to highlight the dangers, but especially the good effects of imagination and its activity on the human existence. The specialty studies can investigate further this subject.
Keywords: Imagination, image, mental faculty, perception, cognition, truth

• Beardsley, Monroe C., Aesthetics from Classical Greece to the Present, The University of Alabama Press, 1991.
• Castoriadis, Cornelius, Domaines de l’homme. Les carrefours du labyrinthe 2 / Domains of Man. The Intersections of the Labyrinth , Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1986.
• Chateau, Dominique, L’autonomie de l’esthetique. Shaftesbury, Kant, Hegel et quelques autres / The Autonomy of the Aesthetics. Shaftesbury, Kant, Hegel and some others, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2007
• Clemens, Eric, La fiction et l’apparaître / The Fiction and the Appearance, Paris, Ed. Albin Michel, 1993.
• Gadamer, H.G., L’art de comprendre II, Herméneutique et Champ de l’expérience humaine / The Art of Comprehension. Hermeneutics and Field of Experience, Editions Aubier, 1991.
• Wunenburger, Jean-Jacques, Filozofia imaginilor / The Philosophy of Images, Traducere de Muguraş Constantinescu, Polirom, 2004.
• Wunenburger, Jean-Jacques, L’Imaginaire / The Imagery, Paris, PUF, 2003.

Ioan Slavici: Novelist, Journalist and… Businessman

Ioan Slavici is generally recognized as an insightful novelist and an important journalist. His activity as businessman, however, is less known. Slavici was among the first people who promoted a spa resort in Romania. Even though he did not possess enough funds to finalize his investment in Buşteni and had to sell the business, his background in economics is vast and can clearly be recognized in his writings. Far from being concerned solely with the description of rural life, Slavici showed interest in the lives and work of craftsmen, who often appear as literary characters in his novels and novellas.
Moreover, in his work as journalist, Slavici was specialized in analyzing economic and financial aspects of contemporary life, writing for over 50 years about issues such as the national budget, loans and interest rates, as well as using his knowledge as a former law practitioner.
Keywords: Slavici, Mara, Vighi, business, gain, crisis, Şaguna

• Cioculescu, Şerban, Streinu, Vladimir, Vianu, Tudor, Istoria literaturii române moderne / The history of Romanian modern literature, Editura Eminescu, Bucureşti, 1985.
• Manolescu, Nicolae, Arca lui Noe. Eseu despre romanul românesc / Noah’s Ark. Essay on the Romanian novel, vol. I, Editura Minerva, Bucureşti, 1980.
• Slavici, Ioan, Amintiri, Închisorile mele, Lumea prin care am trecut / Memories, My prisons, The world I passed through, Editura Albatros, Bucureşti, 1998.
• Szabo, Lucian-Vasile, Un alt Slavici. O geografie publicistică după gratii / An other Slavici. A publicistic geography from behind bars, Editura Universităţii de Vest, Timişoara, 2012.
• Ungureanu, Cornel, Geografia literară / Literary geography, Editura Universităţii de Vest, Timişoara, 2002.
• Ungureanu, Cornel, Istoria secretă a literaturii române / The secret history of Romanian literature, Editura Aula, Braşov, 2007.
• Vatamaniuc, Dimitrie, Ioan Slavici şi lumea prin care a trecut / Ioan Slavici and the world he passed through, Editura Academiei, Bucureşti, 1968.
• Vighi, Daniel, Onoarea şi onorariul / The honor and the honorarium, Editura Cartea Românească, Bucureşti, 2007

Bryan Rennie and Eliade. On what Eliade means in the world today

This study introduces Bryan Rennie to Romanian scholars and public. He is one of the best interpreters of Mircea Eliade oeuvre. Analyzing his last book, this article shows the significance of Eliade’s writings, the importance they still have in our times, not only in Religious Studies, but also in others fields (for example Literary Criticism or Anthropology).
This research starts with an introduction in Bryan Rennie’s work; in the second part it analyzes the articles from the last book about Eliade he edited. It reveals the authors main critical points of view. The conclusion of these interpretations is that Eliade’s thought is still significant nowadays.
Keywords: Bryan Rennie, Mircea Eliade, hermeneutics, religious studies, literary criticism, history of religions, anthropology

• David, Dorin. De la Eliade la Culianu. I / From Eliade the Culianu , Cluj-Napoca, Eikon, 2010.
• David, Dorin. „Despre ‘tradiţionalism’ şi Mircea Eliade”/ On „Traditionalism” and Mircea Eliade. Transilvania 5 (2011): 36-39.
• David, Dorin. „The International Eliade. Edited by Bryan Rennie. State University of New York Press, 2008”. Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 40, 3 (2011): 400-401.
• Eliade, Mircea. Aspecte ale mitului (Myth and Reality). Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1978.
• Eliade, Mircea. Jurnal I. Bucureşti, Humanitas, 1993.
• Rennie, Bryan S. International Eliade. Albany, State University of New York Press, 2007.
• Spineto, Natale. „Mircea Eliade and Traditionalism”. Aries 1 (2001): 62-87.

Mircea Horia Simionescu or about looking into the mirror of literarity

The following study is focused on Mircea Horia Simionescu’s status regarding the relation between biography and fiction that represents the main issue when dealing the private diaries of this author. Even if the diarist gives his best to assure his readers that the biographical aspects are true, Simionescu is also aware of the fact that his writings are characterized by a diminished sincerity which leads to a fictional insertion within the lines of his diary.
Keywords: Mircea Horia Simionescu, literarity, private diary, biography, fiction

• Simionescu, Mircea Horia, Trei oglinzi / Three mirrors. Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, 1987.
• Ionescu, Eugen, Nu. Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 1991.
• Gherghişor, Gabriela, Mircea Horia Simionescu. Dezvrăjirea şi fetişizarea literaturii / Mircea Horia Simionescu. Literature’s Disenchant and Fetish. Bucureşti, Editura Muzeul Literaturii române, 2011.
• Simion, Eugen, Întoarcerea autorului. Eseuri despre relaţia autor – operă / The Author’s Return. Essays regarding the relation between the author and work. Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, 1981
• Mihăieş, Mircea ,Cărţile crude. Jurnalul intim şi sinuciderea, Ediţia a II-a / The real books. Private diary and suicide. Second edition. Iaşi, Polirom, 2005

“The Gossip File” or In Search of Lost Communism

The current article is part of my broader interest in studying the literature of Romanian-American diaspora, and its main purpose is to bring into foreground the work of a writer deeply engaged in turning the exile’s stormy voyage through life into a captivating tale, employing all the artistic tools of fiction. Being the sequel of other two novels on the theme of exile, Gabriel Pleşea’s The Gossip File depicts in vivid colours the gruesome image of a malignant, oppressive regime that holds full control of the political and social life in communist Romania. The author’s double perspective – his insider position as a witness to the incidents narrated, as well as his outsider standpoint provided by distance (exile) and time (memory) – render the novel heartfelt and genuinely truthful.
Keywords: exile, diaspora, communism, ‘sintactic’ culture/society, stereotypical identities, ideological clichés

• Hărşan, Ramona, „Identităţi suspendate şi surogate identitare în proza lui Mircea Nedelciu” [Suspended and Surrogate Identities in Mircea Nedelciu’s Fiction], în Revista Transilvania, nr. 4, 2012, pp. 24-27.
• Lotman, Iuri, Studii de tipologie a culturii [Studies of Cultural Typology], Ed. Univers, Bucureşti, 1974.
• Pleşea, Gabriel, „Dosarul cu bârfe” [The Gossip File], în New York Magazin, Anul 10, Nr. 485, 30 august 2006.
• Pleşea, Gabriel, Dosarul cu bârfe [The Gossip File], Ed. Vestala, Bucureşti, 2000.

Confessional Feminine Poetry in Romania

The interest in studying women’s confessional poetry arises and strengthens as their scriptural manner not only heralds a paradigm change or the continuity with the overseas poetry or synchronization – even if out of time, but in the spirit of the age psychology – but announces the emancipation of the woman vision and maturing the society’s thinking about the independent female roles from the old gender bias. We are witnessing a mentality split that the confessional paradigm is highlighting in all its aspects and will eventually produce a revolution that crosses the poetic border.
Keywords: confessional feminine poetry, autobiography, self-fiction, phantasia and mimesis, subjectivity, confessional pact

• Cohn, Dorrit, The Distinction of Fiction, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
• Hamburger, Käte, The Logic of Literature, Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 1993.
• Lyotard, Jean-François, The Postmodern Condition, Cluj, Idea Design & Print Publishing House, 2003.
• Muşina, Alexandru, The Paradigm of Modern Poetry, Braşov, Aula Publishing House, 2004.
• Sartre, Jean-Paul, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology, Piteşti, Paralela 45 Publishing
  House, 2004.
• Schmitt, Arnaud, Real Ego/ Fictitious Ego. Beyond a Postmodern Confusion, University of Toulouse – Le Mirail, Mirail Publishing House, 2010

Reality – Main Character in Mariana Marin’s Poetry

The present study observes Mariana Marin’s poetry from the point of view of its relation with the reality and the real.
Thus, it is clearly shown one of the high performances of Mariana Marin was to be able to write a poetry of direct reactivity to the reality in political times when any direct reference to the real was strictly forbidden and punished (namely, under the communist regime of the 1980s). Unlike most of her colleagues in the so-called „generation ‘80”, Mariana Marin refused to understand poetry as a textualist play with conventions, no matter how sophisticated and attractive; for her, poetry also comprised a strong ethical nature, it had to be reactive to reality, and not evasive in front of it. This explains why reality is, with a memorable phrase, indeed, the main character in Mariana Marin’s poetry.
Keywords: contemporary Romanian poetry, generation ‘80, Mariana Marin, textualism, relation with the reality, evasion, postmodernism.

How Romanian speculative fiction breathes in 2013. Case study: Dan Doboş

Dan Doboş is one of the speculative fiction Romanian writers with the debut after 1989. Living in Iaşi, educated in Iaşi, working as a journalist in Iaşi, Dan Doboş developed a steady interest and a personal approach to literature due to the Iaşi literary community in which lecture clubs – especially Opinia Studenţească and Quasar – he read his early writings. Dan Doboş wrote prose for teenagers, comedy for children, but his main efforts were towards creating worlds in speculative fiction after the examples of Frank Herbert’s Dune. After a debut with short stories, between 2000 and 2010, Dan Doboş create the trilogy Aba?ia (The Abbey) who won him many national prizes and European as well as North American recognition amongst the sf fans and critics, with the English version. The Abbey is the most pirated genre book in Romania, written by a Romanian Author. The most recent novel of Dan Doboş, DemNet (2011), is a similar succes. From the stilistic point of view, the writing of Dan Doboş gives great attention on characters development, having a personal note by allowing a scale of ethical problematization, very few of his characters being as sketchy as the paragon of speculative fiction demands. For the evolution of his literary career, for his many firsts, Dan Doboş has an unique place in Romanian speculative fiction in 2013.
Keywords: Romanian speculative fiction, case study, trilogy, building worlds, ethical problematization

• Doboş, Dan, Abaţia, (The Abbey), Editura Nemira, Bucureşti, 2002
• Doboş, Dan, Blestemul Abaţiei, (The Curse of the Abbey), Editura Nemira, Bucureşti, 2003
• Doboş, Dan, Abaţia Infinită, (The Infinite Abbey), Editura Media-Tech, Iaşi, 2005
• Doboş, Dan, DemNet, Editura Media-Tech, Iaşi, 2011
• Opriţă, Mircea, Anticipaţia românească, (Romanian SF), Editura Viitorul Românesc, Cluj, 2004

Failure, Yet Consensus: Celan – Adorno Meetings

In reading letters between Paul Celan and Theodor W. Adorno, we need to remind ourselves that, motivated by Celan’s work, Theodor W. Adorno dramatically nuanced his famous “sentence” of 1949, according to which, the writing of poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric, and he came to praisingly emphasize in his Aesthetic Theory, posthumously issued, the lyrics of Celan (which is his only contemporary writer, besides Beckett to be mentioned throughout his aesthetics) and he considered them alongside of hermetic poetry tradition, being a poetry of future contents. This study of missed meetings between Paul Celan and Theodor W. Adorno is therefore not a study about failure, yet about real meetings – those in thinking.
Keywords: Paul Celan, Theodor W. Adorno, poetry after Auschwitz, future contents, aesthetic theory

Childhood in Virginia Woolf’s and Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu’s novels

This paper focusses on the manner of expressing femininity from early childhood, with the female characters in the novels of Virginia Woolf and Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu.
One could easily notice the presence – even from infancy – of similar definite traces of explicit feminine behaviour, which are to be found throughout the entire lives of female characters with both authors.
The distinctions observed are to be mentioned in terms of positive versus negative connotations attached to infancy and childhood: the little baby-girls who are characters in Virginia Woolf ’s novels unveil a morality and breeding shaped by the strict patriarchal Victorian rules of education, whereas most of the little girls in Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu’s novels prove a rather lax, less articulated morality, due to the inconsistency and instability of social structures in the midst of which the young characters were bred and educated.
Keywords: Childhood, morality and breeding, feminine behaviour, patriarchal Victorian society, inconsistancy in education, social structures

• I. Istorie, critică, teorie literară şi culturală
• Albérès, R.-M., Istoria romanului modern. Traducere de Leonid Dimov. Prefaţă de Nicolae Balotă, Editura pentru Literatura Universală, Bucureşti, 1968
• Beauvoir, Simone de, Al doilea sex. Traducere de Diana Bolcu şi Delia Verdeş, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1999,
• Booth, Wayne C., Retorica romanului. Traducere de Alin Clej şi Ştefan Stoenescu. Prefaţă de Ştefan Stoenescu, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1976
• Manolescu, Nicolae, Arca lui Noe. Eseu despre romanul românesc. vol. II, Editura Minerva, Bucureşti, 1981
• Concise Dictionary of British Litterary Biography, Modern writers, vol 6, A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book, Gale Research Inc. Detroit, London, 1984 (British Novelists, Virginia Woolf).
• II. Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu
• Balaurul, Editura Minerva, Bucureşti, 1978. Postfaţă şi bibliografie de Roxana Sorescu
• Fecioarele despletite, Editura Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1986. Prefaţa de Doina Modola
• Concert din muzică de Bach, Editura Tineretului (Colecţia Lyceum), Bucureşti, 1967. Prefaţă şi note de Eugenia Tudor
• Drumul ascuns, Editura Tineretului (Colecţia Lyceum), Bucureşti, 1967. Prefaţă şi note de Eugenia Tudor
• Rădăcini, Editura Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1986. Postfaţă şi tabel cronologic de Doina Modola
• Cristescu, Maria Luiza, Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu. Portret de romancier, Editura Albatros (colecţia „Contemporanul nostru”), Bucureşti, 1976
• III. Virginia Woolf
• Călătorie în larg Traducere şi note de Georgeta Pădureleanu, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1994.
• Noapte şi zi. Traducere de Veronica Focşeneanu, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1987.
• Doamna Dalloway. Traducere de Petru Creţia. Prefaţă de Geta Dumitriu, Editura Rao, Bucureşti, 2003.
• Anii. Traducere de Frida Papadache, Editura Rao, Bucureşti, 1995.
• Spre far. Traducere de Antoaneta Ralian, Editura Rao, Bucureşti, 2002
• Orlando. Traducere de Vera Călin, Editura pentru Literatură Universală, Bucureşti, 1968
• Valurile. Traducere şi prefaţă de Petru Creţia, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1973.
• Între acte. Traducere şi postfaţă de Frida Papadache, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1978
• Jurnalul unei scriitoare, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1980

Fondane paradoxical rejection of modern poetry

In the present article we analyze the paradoxical position on modernity of the avant-gardist poet Fondane, based especially on his various interventions in the Romanian press,where symbolism is recalibrated by classicism,and its delimitation from Surrealism (accused of being rationalized the dream and having established the terror of politicization
in the literature). Follower of both Nietzsche and Chestov`s philosophy, Fundoianu begins to separate himself by the laws of extreme modernity (surrealism). For the latter aspect are essential both his study Faux traité d’esthétique and his unpronounced speech, prepared for the writers’Conference in Paris, in 1935,when some of the surrealists (as Louis Argon) have pleaded for enrollment surrealism as for the Bolshevik revolution.
Keywords: symbolism, classicism, surrealism, anti-modernity, Bolshevik propaganda

• Călinescu, G., Istoria literaturii române de la origini până în
  prezent [History of Romanian Literature from origins to the present], Bucureşti, Éditura Fundatiilor Regale, 1941, p. 864-866.
• « Correspondance entre Fondane et Paulhan » [Correspondence between Fondane and Paulhan], in Cahiers Benjamin Fondane, n° 7/2004, p. 55-61
• Guedj, Dominique, « Le romantisme et la „modernité” à contre-courant de Fondane » [ Romanticism and „modernity” against the grain of Fondane], in Cahiers Benjamin Fondane, n. 7/2004, p. 7-15
• Benjamin Fondane, Faux traité d´esthétique. Essai sur la crise de la réalité [Deals with false aesthetics. Essay on the crisis of reality], Paris, éd. Denoël, 1939
• Fundoianu, Benjamin, Imagini şi cărţi [Images and books], avant-propos de Mircea Martin, Éd. Minerva, 1980
• Benjamin Fondane, L´écrivain devant la Révolution [The writer in the face of Revolution], discours non prononcé au Congrès International des Ecrivains de Paris (1935), préface de Louis Janover, éd. Paris-Méditerranée, 1997
• Fundoianu/Fondane et l’avant-garde [Fundoianu/Fondane and the avant-garde], anthologie de Răileanu, Petre et Carassou, Michel, Fondation Culturelle Roumaine/Paris Méditerranée, 1999
• Lovinescu, E., Istoria literaturii române contemporane. 1900-1937 [History of Romanian contemporary literature 1900-1937], Éd. Ancora, [1937], p. 178-179.
• Pour la défense de la culture. Les textes du Congrès international des écrivains, Paris, juin 1935 [In defense of culture. The texts of the International Congress of Writers, Paris, 1935], textes réunis et présentés par Sandra Teroni et Wolfgang Klein, Editions Universitaires de Dijon, coll. „Sources”, Dijon, 2005.

Borges and translation

Translation – like any act of writing – is always under some influence: the translator’s language, cultural and socio-historical context in which the translator performs his task. Translation is a rewriting of a text from one literary system into another, from the source language and context into the target language with its specific time and place. This implies for the translator using all his knowledge, creativity and leads Borges to say that translations have as much a value as the originals. This article means to show that every translation is a work of art in itself relying on what Borges said at the begin of the last century.
Keywords: translation, Borges, creativity, source language, target language

• Panter, Peter, Die Weltbühne, 1929, Nr. 38.
• Rafael Olea Franco: Borges y el Civilizado. Arte de la
  traduccion: una infidelidad creadora y feliz, Nueva Revista
  de Filología Hispánica, vol. XLIX, núm. 2,
  julio-diciembre, 2001, pp. 439-473, Centro de
  Estudios Lingüísticos y Literarios, México.
• Steiner, George: After Babel. Aspects of language and
  translation, Oxford University Press, 1998.
• Técnica Literaria. Recursos y material de estudio para escritores.
  Data 11.03.2009: Internet http://www.tecnicaliteraria.
  com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=1136
• Waisman, Sergio: Borges and translation: The irreverence of
  the periphery, Bucknell University Press, Cranbury,
  2005.