Emil Cioran or the alibi of History

The thrust for „judging” Cioran’s Romanian writings – especially after Alexandra Laignel Lavastine’s study in 2002 on Eliade, Cioran, and Ionesco – has generated number of defensive reactions that do not help understanding his ideas in the particular situations they were expressed. Therefore, we do not wish to accuse nor defend Cioran, but to show, on reading his famous Transfiguration of Romania (1936), how his deep historical sensibility did not come to be revised after 1940, but had to find other ways to express itself as the reality of Revolution showed its inanity, and the astonishing similarities between the ideas of “historical jump” expressed by Cioran and the first stage of Ceausescu’s regime1[i].

Keywords: Emil Cioran, Transfiguration of Romania, historical jump, Aufhebung, revolution, nationalism

• Emil Cioran, Schimbarea la faţă a României / Transfiguration of Romania, Bucureşti, Humanitas, 1990
• Emil Cioran, Transfiguration de la Roumanie /Transfiguration of Romania, Paris, L’Herne, 2009
• Constantin Zaharia, „Cioran au passé antérieur” / „Cioran in the anterior past”, Critique, no 756, mai 2010, p. 387-404

Cioran or “How can one be European?”

The recent European crisis has triggered more Euroskepticism than ever, however, doubts about Europe’s destiny are not new. When Cioran wrote about the decline of Europe, he was not regretting the failure of Hitler’s idea of the “New Europe” as some critics said. Although they may seem based on xenophobic stereotypes, his writings underline the absurdity of nationalism and the uncertainties of geopolitics.

Keywords: Europe, nationalism, Euroskepticism, fascism, national/regional identity

Cioran and the Historical Critifiction

This essay is an attempt to trace a few historical and (anti-)modernist themes of Cioran’s philosophical thought, deemed, after Raymond Federman’s theoretical proposal, as historical „crifictions”, that is fictions about what history and culture might have been if it hadn’t been as it actually had. This very fact makes Cioran’s philosophy of history and cultural criticism quite outdated, unless this chapter of his works could be revived as a historical testimony of modernist thought, with attitudes of self-criticism included.

The essay explores the themes of time, history, utopias, liberalism, bourgeoisie, Europe, cultural criticism, modernity in Cioran’s History and Utopia (1960), and corroborates these ideas with the thinker’s similar ideas of youth, so expressed in the Romanian newspapers of the 1930s, and with the notes made during the 1950s-1960s in his private notebooks.

The conclusions plead for Cioran’s consideration solely as a straight modern thinker, despite some post-modern indications contained in his works, and for his remembrance more for the man’s everyday literature than for the ideological one.

Keywords: time and history, critifiction, utopia, cultural criticism, (anti)modernity

• Cioran, Caiete I. 1957-1965 (Notebooks I. 1957-1965), cuvânt înainte de Simone Boué, traducere din franceză de Emanoil Marcu şi Vlad Russo, Ediţia a II-a, Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2010;
• Cioran, Istorie şi utopie (History and Utopia), traducere de Emanoil Marcu, Humanitas, Bucureşti, 1992;
• Cioran, Emil, Revelaţiile durerii. Eseuri (Revelations of Pain. Essays), ediţie îngrijită de Mariana Vartic şi Aurel Sasu, prefaţă de Dan C. Mihăilescu, Ed. Echinox, Cluj, 1990.

Cioran on Jews, Nationalism and the Inconvenience of Being Born Somewhere

While Cioran is often criticized for his anti-semitic juvenalia, his later writings often make reference to the positive dimensions of exile the ideal model of which are Jews. Throughout his writings Cioran identifies with Jewish exile and even attempts to model his existence accordingly via a self-imposed exile. The hope is to resist the risks of nationalist illusions and to remain vigilant of becoming rooted in a homeland.

Keywords: exile, Jews, homeland, nationalism, communism, anti-semitism.

• Cioran, Emil. Œuvres / Works, Paris, Gallimard: Quarto, 1998.
• ***. Cahiers 1957-1972 / Notebooks 1957-1972, Paris, Gallimard, NRF, 1997.
• Laignel-Lavastine, Alexandra, Cioran, Eliade, Ionesco – l’oubli du fascisme / Cioran, Eliade, Ionesco – the oblivion of fascism, Paris, PUF, 2002.
• Mitroi, Anca. « Ionesco et le français: langue maternelle ou choix culturel » / « Ionesco and French: maternal language or cultural choice », in Lingua Romana, vol. 3, 2.

The reception and the translation of the philosopher Emil Cioran during and after the communist regime in Romania

Since 1948, with the establishment of the communist regime, until the revolution of December 1989, ideological censorship was institutionalized in Romania, affecting all areas of creative and cultural activity. Translation of many writers, including those Romanian in exile, is forbidden in communist Romania. Emil Cioran, the Romanian philosopher whose books we read today, paradoxically, in translation from French, is one of the authors banned during the communist regime. Although Cioran was never explicitly critical attitude towards the Bucharest’s communist regime, he was always considered a dangerous anti-national promoter of ideas, hilarious conclusion drawn by the regime from reading and interpreting the philosopher’s work. In this communication we aim to emphasize the importance of translating Cioran’s work after constraints suffered by the Romania culture before the revolution. In this sense, “the Emil Cioran moment ” is one of great importance, opening the way to translate other authors banned until December 1989, as we will see.

Keywords: translation, ideological censorship, communist regime, Emil Cioran, literature.

• Awais, Henri & JARJOURA Hardane (dirigé par), “Jean-René Ladmiral, le dernier des archéotraductosaures, interviewé par l’ETIB”, Beyrouth , École de traducteurs et Interprètes de Beyrouth, Université Saint-Joseph, Collection Sources-Cibles, 2010 [“Jean-René Ladmiral, the last of archéotraductosaures, interviewed by the ETIB”, Beirut, School of Translators and Interpreters of Beirut, Saint-Joseph University, Sources-Cibles Collection, 2010 ].
• Cioran, Căderea în timp, Bucureşti, Humanitas, traducere de Irina Mavrodin, 1994. [The fall into time, Bucarest, Humanitas, translation into Romanian by Irina Mavrodin 1994]
• Cioran, E.M., Oeuvres, Paris, Gallimard, 1995.
• Cioran, Tratat de descompunere, Bucureşti, Humanitas, traducere din franceză de Irina Mavrodin, 1996 [A short history of decay, Bucarest, Humanitas, translation from French by Irina Mavrodin, 1996].
• Klupack, William, Finkenthal (Michel), The temptations of Emile Cioran, New York-Berlin-Paris, P. Lang, 1997.
• Laignel-Lavastine, Alexandra, Cioran, Eliade, Ionesco. L’oubli du fascisme, Paris, PUF, 2002. [Cioran, Eliade, Ionesco. Forgetting fascism, Paris, PUF, 2002].
• Lasconi, Elisabeta (interviu cu Antoaneta Ralian), « Cu Elisabeta Lasconi despre traduceri si nu numai », in Observatorul, publicat în Toronto, Canada, (online http://www.observatorul.com/ articles_main.asp?action=articleviewdetail&ID=6594, consultat la 19.09.2011). [interview by Antoaneta Ralian, “With Elizabeta Lasconi about translation and beyond” in Observatorul, published in Toronto, Canada (online http://www.observatorul.com/articles_main.asp?action=articleviewdetail&ID=6594, consulted on 19.09.2011) ]
• Liiceanu, Gabriel, Itinerariile unei vieţi : E.M.Cioran, Apocalipsa dupa Cioran (Ultimul interviu), Bucureşti, Humanitas, ed. a 2 a, 2011 [Routes of a life: E.M. Cioran, Revelation after Cioran (last interview), Bucureşti, Humanitas, second edition, 2011]
• Mavrodin, Irina , « Sub semnul centenarului Cioran. Intalnirile mele cu Cioran », in Convorbiri literare, aprilie 2011, nr. 4 (184), pp. 28-31. [“Cioran’s centenary. My meetings with Cioran”, in Convorbiri literare, april 2011, nr. 4 (184), pp. 28-31]
• Mavrodin, Irina, Cioran sau marele joc/ Cioran ou le grand jeu, Bucureşti, Institutul Cultural Român, 2007 [Cioran or the big game, Bucureşti, Institutul Cultural Român, 2007]
• Ştefănescu, Alex., « Dezbatere: Literatura Română în timpul comunismului », in Romania literara, nr. 21, 2004 [“Debate: Romanian Literature under communism” in Romania literara, nr. 21, 2004]

Emil Cioran, “a chronic annotator”

The present study attempts to explore the role of Cioran as author of numerous notebooks, published one year after his death, in 1998, under the title Cahiers 1957–1972. A part of the article is theoretical: Does the note open up possibilities not inherent in the aphorism or the fragment? Is it meaningful to speak of a genre of the note, or is that marginalia something else entirely, a pre-study that the author intends to use or incorporate into a later text? Finally, considering the multiplicity of classificatory schema, is the note something one can synthesize? Put differently, do the multiple “uses” of the note – in Cioran’s writing but also in the notebooks and aphorisms of George Perros, Pierre Reverdy or Friedrich Nietzsche – define or defy the contours of the note as an emerging genre?

Keywords: Emil Cioran, Georges Perros, note, notebook, author, lector

• Barthes, Roland, Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes / Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes, Paris, Seuil, 1975.
• Cioran, Emil, Entretiens / Interviews, Gallimard, 1995.

— Œuvres / Works, Gallimard, coll. « Quarto », 1995.

— Cahiers. 1957-1972 / Notebooks. 1975-1972, Gallimard, 1997.

• Dambre, Marc et Gosselin-Noat, Monique (éds.), L’Éclatement des genres au XX^e siècle / The eclosion of the genres in the 20th century, Paris, Presses de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2001.
• Lire Perros / Reading Perros, sous la direction de Jean-Claude Corger et Jean-Pierre Martin, Lyon, Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 1995.
• Lüthi, Ariane, Pratique et poétique de la note chez Georges Perros et Philippe Jaccottet / The practice and the poetics of the annotation at Georges Perros and Philippe Jaccottet , Paris, Le Sandre, 2009.
• Perros, Georges, Papiers collés. Notes / Collated papers. Notes, Gallimard, coll. « Le Chemin », 1960. (Repris dans la collection « L’Imaginaire/Gallimard » en 1986.)

— Papiers collés II/ Collated papers II, Gallimard, coll. « Le Chemin », 1973. (Repris dans la collection « L’Imaginaire/Gallimard » en 1989.)
— Papiers collés III/ Collated papers III, Gallimard, coll. « Le Chemin », 1978. (L’éditeur y insère des fragments d’Échancrures et de L’Ardoise magique. Repris dans la collection « L’Imaginaire/Gallimard » en 1994.)

• Perros, Georges/Noël, Bernard, Correspondances / Correspondences, préface et notes de Hervé Carn, Draguignan, Éditions Unes, 1998.
• Renard, Jules, Journal 1887–1919 / Diary 1887-1919, Paris, Gallimard, Bibl. de la Pléiade, 1965.
• Stéfan, Jude, Senilia. Notes, Cognac, Le Temps qu’il fait, 1994.

E.M. Cioran and the perpetual movement of disengagement

Can we conceived thought and life as inseparable things, or still foreign and parallel existential ways? The tension which emanates from this question seems at the center of Emil Cioran impressive and indispensable work. It is indeed because it is crossed by the rupture produce by the reflexive necessity in its relationship to the life, by the subtle and noisy presence of the conflict, that the works of Cioran still owes to be approached in the light of what appears as an extremely creative and fertile tension. It is in this spirit that this text wishes to interpret the feverish writing of Cioran: that is as a word which raises itself against the world and its productions, but also as a voice which wants to say the life, its hardships, and which has respite to re-drop the life in the reality, to relight it every time the theoretical thought blows out its evience.

Keywords: Cioran, thought, reason, life, nihilism, engagment.

• Cahier de l’Herne : Cioran, Paris, L’Herne, 2009.
• Celan, Paul, Contrainte de lumière / Compulsion of light, Paris, Belin, 1989.
• Cioran, Emil, Œuvres / Works, Paris, Gallimard, coll. Quarto, 1995.
• Cioran, Emil, Cahiers 1957-1972 / Notebooks 1957-1972, Paris, Gallimard, 1997.
• Cioran, Emil, Cahier de Talamanca / The Talamanca notebook, Paris, Mercure de France, 2000.

The Irreparable in Cioran’s Writing

The aim of this article is to lay down the premises of an interpretation of the irreparable as an underlying concept in Cioran’s writings. Cioran’s essays depict a gripping vision of the irreparable that is fundamentally embedded in the human existence. He is therefore concerned with writing the irreparable. Human life unfolding in the hinges of history and time represents the epitome of the irreparable. However, this key notion applies to writing itself, seen both as a means and a process. This article expands on the different aspects of the irreparable as it defines Cioran’s writing. Intrinsically flawed — for subject to time — writing perpetuates the irreparable through the writer’s pursuit of the forever eluding meaning, of the quintessential Word, all the more daunting for the writer in a foreign language. Although marked by the irreparable, Cioran’s writing reveals itself as a means of escaping time and ultimately as a modus vivendi.

Keywords: Cioran, the irreparable, bilingual writers, modern authorship, discourse analysis

I

• Cioran. Cahiers 1957-1972/Notebooks 1957-1972. Paris, Éditions Gallimard, 1997
• Cioran. Entretiens/Interviews. Gallimard, Collection Arcades, 1995
• Cioran. Œuvres/Complete Works. Gallimard, Quarto, 1995

II

• Barthes, Roland. Essais critiques IV, Le Bruissement de la langue/Critical Essays IV, The Rustle of Language. Paris, Éditions du Seuil, 1984
• Ionesco, Eugène. Journal en miettes/Fragments of a Journal. Gallimard, Collection Idées, 1973
• Picon, Gaëtan. L’Écrivain et son ombre. Introduction à une esthétique de la littérature/The Writer and His Shadow. Introduction to an Aesthetics of Literature. Paris, Gallimard, Collection Tel, (1953) 1996

Le Trésor de la Langue Française Informatisé: http://atilf.atilf.fr/tlf.htm

The “paradises of silence”

The present study examines the correspondence between Emil Cioran and Armel Guerne, observing those unfrequent but yet striking fragments where the standard epistolary style is abandoned in favor of an extremely personal writing resembling more the nature of the private diary. As Cioran’s correspondence with Guerne starts in 1955 and, on the other hand, Cioran’s work at his Notebooks begins in 1957, the author presumes that this chronological parallelism is to be taken into account. The common obsession of the two letter writers is that of the “paradises of silence” (phrase coined by Guerne) – Guerne already being a citizen of the said paradises, Cioran desperately craving for it.
Keywords: Emil Cioran, Armel Guerne, correspondence, mysticism, writing and silence, “paradises of silence”.

• E.M. Cioran – A. Guerne, Lettres 1961-1978, Edition établie et annotée par Vincent Piednoir, Paris, L’Herne, 2011.
• Lettres de Guerne à Cioran 1955-1978. Edition établie, présentée et annotée par Sylvia Massias. Préface de Charles Le Brun. Editions Le Capucin, 2001.
• Les Cahiers du Moulin, 10, nr. 19, octobre 2011, comprenant des articles de Sylvia Massias et Jean-François Foulon sur la correspondance Cioran-Guerne.
• Eugène Van Itterbeek, Correspondances inédites: Emil Cioran et Armel Guerne, dans Approches critiques IV, Leuven-Sibiu, Editura Universitǎţii ‘Lucian Blaga’ et Editions Les Sept Dormants, 2003, pp. 123-132 et du même: Dieu dans les lettres de Cioran à Armel Guerne, Ibidem, 2007, pp. 22-33.

The novel’s temptation of not existing

The present study is focused on the perspective of Emil Cioran’s point of view regarding some epistemic aspects of the novel expressed in his essay Dincolo de roman/Beyond Novel (1956), published in the volume Ispita de a exista (The temptation of existing). Emil Cioran considers that the self-destruction of the novel should rather be converted into the possibility of deeply questioning both the human “functions and limits”, incapable of expressing more than the disintegration of an entire world. We have come to the conclusion that the fundamental truth of the novel should be searched “beyond” the genre itself, in the peculiar ground that exhausts it or, on the contrary, makes it survive. The only element of the novel stability is the “active”, plurivalent nature of illusioning, actually the highest certainty between its multiple impossibilities of being.

Keywords: poetics of contradiction, experimental novel, authorless novel, novel self-destruction

• Emil Cioran, Ispita de a exista, Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 1992
• Simona Modreanu, Cioran, Iaşi, Editura Junimea, 2005
• Richard Reschika, Introducere în opera lui Cioran¸ Bucureşti, Editura Saeculum I.O., 1998.
• *** Bătălia pentru roman, antologie de Aurel Sasu şi Mariana Vartic, Bucureşti, Editura Atos, 1997.

The therapeutic writing or the reverse creation

This article aims at revealing the main elements that compose Cioran’s perspective on the activity of writing and the way in which his creation is influenced by the disruptive states of his mind and body. The discomfort of living will definitely be integrated in his writings and the crisis appears to be a vital necessity. Cioran’s work is consistently marked by terms that refer to the vocabulary of violence and aggression, to a state of rebellion against the outside world and against his own self. Crisis and anxiety create an enabling environment in which the writer can begin his artistic gestures, the act of expression being able to offer him the opportunity to a perpetual renewal of his state of mind, a “therapeutics” through which he attempts to treat and to comfort his troubled soul.

Keywords: Cioran, therapeutic writing, creation, crisis, vengeance

• Cioran, Œuvres (Works), Paris, Gallimard, « Quarto », 1985.
• Idem, Entretiens (Interviews), Paris, Gallimard, « NRF Arcades », 1995.
• Idem, Cahiers 1957-1972, Paris, Gallimard, 1997.
• Gilles Deleuze, Critique et clinique (Essays Critical and Clinical), Paris, Minuit, 1990.
• Michel Jarrety, La Morale dans l’écriture – Camus, Char, Cioran (The Morality in Writing – Camus, Char, Cioran), Paris, PUF, 1999.
• Michel de M’Uzan, De l’art à la mort – itinéraire psychanalytique (From Art to Death – A Psychoanalytic Route, Paris, Gallimard, 1983.
• Paul Nizon, Marcher à l’écriture – Leçons de Francfort (Walking Towards Writing – Frankfurt’s Lessons), Arles, Actes Sud, (1985) 1991, traduit de l’allemand par Jean-Claude Rambach.
• Olivier Revault D’Allonnes, La Création artistique et les promesses de la liberté (The Artistic Creation and the Promises of Freedom), Paris, Klincksieck, 1973.
• Martin Walser, « Écrire », La Naissance du texte (The Birth of Text), ensemble réuni par Louis Hay, Paris, José Corti, 1989.

Cioran’s Providential Bicycle

E.M. Cioran’s bicycle, which represented for him a cure for the insomnia that had tormented him for approximately seven years, is the focal point of this essay. Hugh Kenner cleverly labeled the human on a bicycle the “Cartesian Centaur,” as it represents the culmination of human cognition with an exteriorized, tool-like enhancement. Inspired by Kenner’s reading of bicycles in Samuel Beckett, this speculative analysis triangulates the bicycle, Cioran, and Beckett in order to assess the symbolic, aesthetic, pragmatic, and philosophical value of this modern apparatus.

Key Words: E.M. Cioran, Samuel Beckett, René Descartes, bicycle, insomnia, Paul Fournel, Hugh Kenner

• Bly, Nelly. “Champion of her sex.” New York Sunday World (February 2, 1896).
• Cioran, E.M. Œuvres. Paris: Gallimard, 1995.
• Fournel, Paul. Besoin de vélo. Paris: Seuil, 2001.
• Guitar, Mary Anne. Twenty-two Famous Painters and Illustrators Tell How They Work. New York: David McKay Company, 1964.
• Jakob, Michel and E.M. Cioran. “Wakefulness and Obsession: An Interview with E.M. Cioran.” Translated by Kate Greenspan. Salmagundi no. 103 (Summer 1994): 122-145.
• Jobs, Steve and WGBH Boston. “Interview.” http://video.pbs.org/video/2151510911# (accessed November 10, 2011).
• Kenner, Hugh. Samuel Beckett: A Critical Study. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1968.
• Liiceanu, Gabriel. Itinéraires d’une vie: E.M. Cioran. Translated by Alexandra Laignel-Lavastine. Paris: Éditions Michalon, 1995.
• Regier, Willis G. “Cioran’s Insomnia.” MLN 119, no. 5 (December 2004): 994-1012.
• Ronnberg, Ami and Kathleen Martin, eds. The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images. Cologne: Taschen, 2010.
• Tournier, Michel. Le vent Paraclet. Paris: Gallimard, 1977.
• Van Itterbeek, Eugène. “Les montagnes magiques.” Magazine littéraire 508 (May 2011): 64-65.
• Weiss, Jason and E.M. Cioran. “An Interview with Cioran.” Grand Street 5, no. 3 (Spring 1986): 105-140.

Two Archetypes of Melancholy Reflections: Arthur Schopenhauer and Emil Cioran

In this paper I intend to survey a few aspects of melancholy philosophical reflection as instantiated by two celebrated philosophers, Arthur Schopenhauer and Emil Cioran. I examine these thinkers’ idiosyncratic argumentation of the irrationality of life, the permanence of suffering, egocentrism, buddhism, love, eugenics, misogyny etc., as well as a number of remedies inspired by seclusion, asceticism, or the therapeutic magic of art.

 Keywords: life’s irrationality, pessimism, asceticism, Buddhism, the magic of art.

• Cioran, Cahiers 1957-1972 / Notebooks 1957-1972, Avant-propos de Simone Boué, Paris, Gallimard,1997.
• Cioran, Entretiens / Interviews, Paris, Gallimard, Coll. Arcades, 1995.
• Cioran, Œuvres / Collected Works, Quarto, Paris, Gallimard, 1995.
• Fouconnet, André, L’esthétique de Schopenhauer / Schopenhauer’s Aesthetics, Paris, Librairie Felix Alcan, 1913.
• Schopenhauer, Arthur, Douleurs du monde / On the Suffering of the World, Paris, Ed. Rivages, 1991.
• Schopenhauer, Arthur, Du néant de la vie / The Wisdom of Life, Paris, Edité par Mille et une nuit, 2004.
• Schopenhauer, Arthur, Essai sur les femmes / Of Women, Paris, Actes sud, 2002.
• Schopenhauer, Arthur, Esthétique et métaphysique / Aesthetics and Metaphysics, Paris, Ed. Lgf, Coll. Philosophie, 1999.
• Schopenhauer Arthur, Le monde comme volonté et représentation / The World as Will and Representation, (1818), traduction de A. Burdeau, révisée par Richard Roos, Paris, PUF, 1966.
• Schopenhauer, Arthur, Sur la religion / Religion, Paris, Flammarion, 1995.
• Convorbiri cu Schopenhauer / Interviews with Schopenhauer, ed. by Cristian Badiliţă, transl. by Ana Florescu, posted by Toader Paleologu, Iaşi, Editura Polirom, 2006. (Le livre est une suite de dialogues presque platoniciens, le rôle de Socrate étant pris par Schopenhauer en dialogue avec C. Challemel-Lacour, Louis-Alexandre Foucher de Careil et Frederic Marin).
• Ion Dur, Hârtia de turnesol. Generaţia ’30 / Litmus paper. Generation 30, Sibiu, Editura Saeculum, 2000.
• Marta Petreu, Schopenhauer et Cioran. Philosophies parallèles / Schopenhauer and Cioran. Parallel philosophers, in Cahiers Emil Cioran, Approches critiques, II, textes réunies par Eugène van Itterbeek, Sibiu, Editura Universităţii « Lucian Blaga » /Leuven, Edition Les Sept Dormants, 2000, pp. 107-122.

Cioran’s correspondence with his brother Aurel

In this study we aim at presenting Emil Cioran’s correspondence with his brother Aurel, who remained in Romania and with whom Cioran has corresponded from his departure to the Berlin scholarship in 1933 and until his life’s final years. The said correspondence has been donated by Aurel to the ASTRA library from Sibiu and comprises approx. 300 letters and postcardss written during more than four decades. The letters exchange is only interrupted between 1949 and 1955, when Aurel was sentenced to prison by the communist regime for his legionary political activity.
Keywords: Emil Cioran, Aurel Cioran, letters, Romanian culture, Romanian language, Sibiu, Rasinari.

• Emil Cioran, Corespondenţa, editatã în format electronic (DVD) în cadrul proiectului Europa un patrimoniu cultural comun (2007), Sibiu, Biblioteca Judeţeanã ASTRA, 2007.
• Cioran, Scrisori către cei de acasă (Lettres aux siens), (stabilirea şi transcrierea textelor de Gabriel Liiceanu şi Theodor Enescu; traduceri din franceză de Tania Radu) ; ediţie, note şi indici de Dan C. Mihăilescu, Bucureşti, Humanitas, 1995.
• Irina Mavrodin, Cioran sau Marele Joc. O Poietică/poetică a ambiguităţii Cioran ou le Grand Jeu. Une poiétique/poétique de l’ambiguité. Ediţie bilingvă. Edition bilingue.Versiune franceză de/Version française par Irina Mavrodin, Bucureşti, Institutul Cultural Român, 2007.
• Nicolae Petraşcu, Acuzat, acuzator, martor în procesul vieţii mele (Accusé, témoin, défenseur dans le procès de ma vie), Sibiu, Editura Puncte Cardinale, 1995.

The “Treatise on decay” of Emil Cioran (1949): The birth of a “French moralist”

Since the publication of Précis de décomposition, Cioran is considered in France as one of the heirs of one of the most important literary traditions of the country: the French moralists (Montaigne, Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère). The purpose of this paper is to examine the origin of this attachment or this inclusion of Cioran in this literary filiation. How a writer of Romanian origin has become one of the last great French moralists? Précis de décomposition marks the birth of the “La Rochefoucauld of the twentieth century” (as Jean Chalon called him). Our thesis is that Cioran is not only close to the moralists by his ideas; the writing of the book clearly shows the will to include the text in the moralist tradition; because written for the French public, the Précis is for Cioran an opportunity to be placed in the tradition of La Rochefoucauld and La Bruyère. And it is in this literary tradition that we must understand the meaning of “decomposition” that wants to achieve Cioran.

Keywords: Cioran, French moralists, philosophy, La Rochefoucauld, Précis de décomposition

• Cioran, Emil, Œuvres / Works, Paris, Gallimard, collection « Quarto », 1995
• La Rochefoucauld, Maximes, Mémoires, Œuvres diverses / Maxims, Memoirs, Various works (éd. J. Truchet, revue par M. Escola, et A. Brunn), Paris, Le livre de poche / Classiques Garnier, 2001.
• Liiceanu, Gabriel, Itinéraires d’une vie: E. M. Cioran, suivi de « Les continents de l’insomnie » (entretien avec E. M. Cioran) / Itineraries of a life: E. M. Cioran, followed by “The continents of insomnia” (interview with EM Cioran), Paris, Editions Michalon, 1995.
• Montaigne, Essais / Essays (ed. P. Villey, revue et rééditée par V.-L. Saulnier), Paris, PUF.
• Moralistes du XVIIe siècle / Moralists of the seventeenth century (dir. J. Lafond), Paris, Editions Robert Laffont, 1992.
• Nietzsche, F., Le Gai Savoir / The Gay Science (éd. G. Colli, M. Montinari, trad. P. Klossowski, revue par M. B. de Launay), Paris, Gallimard, 1982.
• Ruggeri Marc, « Cioran ou la Leçon de Ténèbres des moralistes français » / « Cioran or Lesson of Darkness of the french moralists », Dix-septième siècle, 2006/2 n° 231, p. 217-241.
• Saint-Evremond, Œuvres en prose / Prose works, tome II (éd. R. Ternois), Paris, Librairie Marcel Didier, 1965.
• Van Delf, L., Les moralistes. Une apologie / The moralists. An apology, Paris, Gallimard, 2008.

Theological hermeneutic essay of book issues

“The Shortcomings of Being Born”

The issue of Emil Cioran’s book – The Shortcomings of Being Born – reveals both the virtual connection between the various existential themes that philosopher alternative addresses, and especially the profound suffering of contemporan human.

Since the release in question of birth is inseparable from implementation cause of death, all painful journey between these two poles betrays a nostalgic desire to return to origins, which are identified with dark nothingness, or with distant light that we were inevitably separated. What we propose is an analysis in light of Christological anthropology, spiritual metabolism of “broken human” or, in other words, of the fallen human.

Beyond the psychological or metaphysical speculation, our theological hermeneutics essay does not intend the human as absolutely finite being, but as being eternal, meant to incorruption. In addition, we consider extremely important that the skepticism or negativity that cioranian aphorism evoleves, an initially eye discoveres traces of saving Redemption.

Keywords: birth/death, being/nothingness, light/dark, akedia, theological exegesis, Emil Cioran

• Albérès, R. -M., L’Aventure intellectuelle du XX^e siècle. Panorama des littératures européennes 1900-1970 / Intellectual adventure in the 20th century. A panorama of the European literatures 1900-1970, 4^e édition revue et augmentée, Paris, Éd. Albin Michel, 1969.
• Beauvoir, Simone de,  Puterea vârstei / The power of the age, Timişoara, Ed. Amarcord, 1998.
• Calinic Botoşăneanul, Tanatologie şi nemurire / Tanathology and immortality, Avant-propos par Gheorghe Scripcaru et Petre Dumitrescu, Iaşi, Ed. Cantes, 1999.
• Cioran, Emil – Guerne, Armel, Lettres (1961-1978) / Letters (1961-1978), L’Herne.
• Cioran, Emil, « La Fin du roman » / « The end of the novel », in Nouvelle Revue Française, décembre 1953.
• Idem, De l’inconvénient d’être né / On the inconvenient of being born, Paris, 1973, in Œuvres, coll. « Quarto », Paris, Gallimard, 1995.
• Idem, Précis de décomposition / Treatise on decay, in Œuvres, coll. « Quarto », Paris, Gallimard, 1995.
• Idem, Le crépuscule des pensées / The twilight of thoughts, in Œuvres, coll. « Quarto », Paris, Gallimard, 1995.
• Idem, Écartèlement / The tearing, in Œuvres, coll. « Quarto », Paris, Gallimard, 1995.
• Idem, Entretiens / Interviews, Paris, Gallimard, 1995.
• Idem, Cahiers 1957-1972 / Notebooks 1957-1972, Paris, Gallimard, 1997.
• Idem, Caiete I. 1957-1965/ Notebooks I. 1957-1965, Bucureşti, Ed. Humanitas, 2005.
• Diaconu, Marin (dir.), Pro şi contra Emil Cioran. Între idolatrie şi pamflet / Emil Cioran, pros and cons. Between idolatry and pamphlete, Bucureşti, Ed. Humanitas, 1998.
• Green, Julien, Varouna, Éd. de la Maison française, 1941.
• Lossky, Vladimir, Introducere în Teologia Ortodoxă / Introduction in Orthodox theology, trad. en roumain par Lidia et Remus Rus, Editura Enciclopedică, Bucureşti, 1993.
• Mantzaridis, Georgios, Morala creştină / Christian ethics, II, trad. en roumain par Cornel C-tin Coman, Bucureşti, Ed. Bizantină, 2006.
• Mussner, Franz, Histoire de l’herméneutique de Schleiermacher à nos jours / History of hermeneutics from Schleiermacher to our days, trad. de l’allemand par T. Nieberding et M. Massart, Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1972.
• Nellas, Panayotis, Omul-animal îndumnezeit / Deification in Christ, Sibiu, Ed. Deisis, 1999.
• Popovitch, Justin, Philosophie orthodoxe de la vérité. Dogmatique de l’Église Orthodoxe / The Orthodox philoophy of truth. Dogmatics of the Orthodox Church, trad. du serbe par Jean-Louis Palierne, t. II, coll. « La Lumière du Thabor », Lausanne, L’Age d’Homme, 1993.
• Stăniloae, Dumitru, Teologia dogmatică ortodoxă / Orthodox dogmatic theology, t. 1, Bucureşti, EIB, 1997.

Ressource électronique:

• http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/greg_m_epstein/2007/10/less_antitheism_more_humanism.html, consulté le 3 mai 2011

Who’s afraid of Transdisciplinarity or (re)finding Cioran

Our study aims at proving the existence of an incomplete transdisciplinary formula in the critical investigation made by Mircea A. Diaconu upon Emil Cioran. We are discussing Cui i-e frică de Emil Cioran? (Who’s Afraid of Emil Cioran?), published in 2008 by Mircea A. Diaconu and two of Cioran’s volumes, Scrisori către cei de-acasă (Letters to those from home) and the Notebooks from the period 1957-1972. We find that this incomplete transdisciplinary formula is closely related, in a mirror effect produced by the empathy of Mircea A. Diaconu with the researched author, to a similar formula detectable in all of Cioran’s work. We see how this formula is defined, both in his literary and critical occurrence, and what relevance it may have for the reception of Cioran’s philosophical and literary works, and also for him as a cultural figure. Thus, our approach illustrates a double benefit: on the one hand, a methodological one, the application of the transdisciplinary theory in literature and meta-literature, and on the other hand, an ontological benefit of meaning enrichment, the growing of the semantic dimension of Cioran’s cultural personality.

Keywords: Cioran, Mircea A. Diaconu, Ontology, Contradiction, Transdisciplinarity, Levels of Reality

• Bauman, Zygmunt, Mortality, Immortality, and Other Life Strategies, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1992.
• Bollon, Patrice, Cioran era un dandy intelectual (interviu realizat de Ciprian Vălcan) (Cioran was an Intellectual Dandy, interview made by Ciprian Vălcan), în: Dilemateca, noiembrie 2011.
• Bollon, Patrice, Cioran, l’Hérétique, Gallimard, 1997.
• Emil Cioran, Scrisori către cei de-acasă (Letters to those from home), stabilirea şi transcrierea textelor de Gabriel Liiceanu şi Theodor Enescu, traducere din franceză de Tania Radu, ediţie, note şi indici de Dan C. Mihăilescu, Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2004.
• Emil Cioran, Caiete I, 1957-1965, Caiete II, 1966, Caiete III, 1969-1972 (Notebooks I, 1957-1965, Notebooks II, 1966, Notebooks III, 1969-1972), cuvânt înainte de Simone Boué, traducere din franceză de Emanoil Marcu şi Vlad Russo, ediţia a II-a, Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2005.
• Diaconu, Mircea A., Cui i-e frică de Emil Cioran? (Who’s afraid of Emil Cioran?), Cartea Românească, Bucureşti, 2008.
• Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Adevăr şi metodă (Truth and Method), traducere de Gabriel Cercel, Gabriel Kohn, Călin Petcana şi Larisa Dumitru, Editura Teora, Bucureşti, 2001 [Wahrheit und Methode, 1960].
• Modreanu, Simona, Cioran, Oxus, Paris, 2003.
• Nicolescu, Basarab, Noi, particula şi lumea (Us, the Particle and the World), Polirom, Iaşi, 2002 [Nous, la particule et le monde, Éditions Le Mail, Paris, 1985].
• Nicolescu, Basarab, Transdisciplinaritatea (manifest) (Transdisciplinarity (manifest)), Polirom, Iaşi, 1999 [La transdisciplinarité (manifeste), Éditions du Rocher, Monaco, 1996]
• Nicolescu, Basarab, Ştiinţa, sensul şi evoluţia. Eseu asupra lui Jakob Böhme (Science, Meaning and Evolution. An Essay on Jakob Böhme), traducere din limba franceză de Aurelia Batali, Cartea Românească, Bucureşti, 2007 [La science, le sens et l’evolution. Essai sur Jakob Boehme, Éditions le Félin, 1988].
• Nicolescu, Basarab, În oglinda destinului. Eseuri autobiografice (In the Mirror of Destiny. Autobiographical Essays), Ideea Europeană, Bucureşti, 2009.

On Cioran and the fascination of melancholy

The following study is focused on Dan C. Mihăilescu`s study on „Cioran and the fascination of madness”, published in 2011, at the centennial of Cioran`s birth. In this book, Dan C. Mihăilescu states that, even though Emil Cioran and Constantin Noica represented two mutually irreducible types of masters, his youth was seduced by a simultaneous fascination for both philosophers.  The article observes the influential traces left by this oxymoronic fascination on Dan C. Mihăilescu`s writing and intellectual career, depicting thus his trajectory from Noica (his youth`s revered master) towards Cioran (beloved master of the mature years), correspondent to the already archaetypal glide from Eminescu towards Caragiale.

Keywords: contemporary Romanian philosophy, Emil Cioran, Constantin Noica, master and disciple relationship, Dan C. Mihăilescu, „Cioran and the fascination of madness”

• Dan C. Mihăilescu, Cioran şi fascinaţia nebuniei / Cioran and the fascination of madness, Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 2011
• Jean Starobinski, Melancolie, nostalgie, ironie / Melancholy, nostalgy, irony, Piteşti, Editura Paralela 45, 2002.

Cioran on culture, experience, and language

The following study observes the significant differences produced in Cioran’s thought through the shift from the Romanian to the French period, mainly in what regards his ideas on culture, experience, and language. From the initial apprehension of culture as a „negative fiction” to the late praise of the poetic language, Cioran’s thought has developed a progressive mistrust in the possibility of identifying a definite meaning of any experience and, subsequently, of life itself.

Keywords: Emil Cioran, culture, experience, poetic language, style