Purgatorio 28-33: Matelda

In Purgatorio, Canto 28, Dante meets the beautiful Matelda. The feeling the poet gets is strange and hard to explain. It is not about veneration, even though Matelda does take Virgil’s place and becomes the guide of the pilgrim in Eden, but of a feeling that is almost erotic in nature. The poet describes the woman’s beauty in pagan terms: she is being compared to the nymphs, Venera or Proserpina. But is it truly an erotic love? Some experts strongly disagree with this assumption. Dante cannot feel passion. Others consider that the tercets that speak of Matelda, do not have a literal meaning, but an allegoric one. Lastly, some are of the opinion that Matelda portrays a real person, and they allude to St. Matilda in the Christian calendar. It is wrong to make these kind of assumptions. Matelda is Matelda (a being made out of words) and not the lyrical image of some historical characters. Therefore, which is the simplest interpretation of the poet’s meeting with Matilda in the terrestrial paradise? The following study offers an answer.

Keywords: hermeneutics, principle of simplicity, alegoric interpretation, literal interpretation

• Armour, Peter, “Matelda in Eden. The Teacher and the Apple”, Italian Studies, 34 (1979): 2–27.
• Barnes, John C., “Dante’s Matelda: Fact or Fiction?”, Italian Studies, 28 (1973): 1-9.
• Brown, Jr., Emerson, “Proserpina, Matelda, and the Pilgrim”, Dante Studies, 89 (1971): 33-48.
• Ferrante, Joan, The Political Vision of the Divine Comedy, Princeton, N.J., Princeton UP, 1984.
• Holmes, Olivia, “Dante’s Choice and Romance Narratives of Two Beloveds”, Dante Studies, 121 (2003): 109-147.
• Kirkham, Victoria, “Purgatorio XXVIII”, Lectura Dantis, 12: 2 (1993): 411-432.
• Linafelt, Tod, “Biblical Love Poetry (…and God)”, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 70: 2 (2002): 323-345.
• Mazzaro, Jerome, “The Vernal Paradox: Dante’s Matelda”, Dante Studies, 110 (1992): pp.107-120.
• Pizzorno, Patrizia Grimaldi, “Matelda’s Dance and the Smile of the Poets”, Dante Studies, 112 (1994): 115-132.
• Singleton, Charles S., Dante Studies 2: Journey to Beatrice, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958.

In search of lost time. A rhizomatic analysis

The study is a post-semiotic approach of Marcel Proust’s novel; preserving the classic conceptual and discoursive framework, the present study’s analysis abandons the vertical fabric, obsessed with the purity of a certain theoretical language, for the benefit of a fabric which is rhizomatic, pulsational, plural, a succession of the most unexpected intuitions and associations, bringing together psychoanalysis and etymology, mythocritics and epistemology, phenomenology and neurosciences, history of religions and hermeneutics, cultural anthropology a.s.o. Marcel Proust’s masterpiece requires such an approach, as it has produced a real revolution not only in literature, but also in the self-awareness of the (post)modern man. Marcel, the author-narrator-character, is an archetype of the “last man”, who sets himself as only purpose and unique universe and who, using the principle of the texistence as a band of Moebius, generates a new reality, an artificial and virtual one, but nevertheless the only reality still accessible to him and inside which his existence still makes sense. Marcel Proust is, through his masterpiece, a true prophet of the paranoiac non-existence, of the average exceptionality and of autotelic memory, all these being marks, or even earmarks, of the (post)modern man, living in a secularized world.
Keywords: Marcel Proust, semiotics, texistence, rhizomatic analysis, revelatory experience, Logos Spermatikos

• Barthes, Roland – „Le Degré zéro de l’écriture suivi de Nouveaux essais critiques”, Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 1953.
• Baudrillard, Jean – „Le Système des objets”, Gallimard, Paris, 2000.
• Bergson, Henri – „Eseu asupra datelor imediate ale conştiinţei”, Editura Institutului European, 1992.
• Deleuze, Gilles et Guattari, Felix – „Rhizome”, Le Seuil, Paris, 1973.
• Derrida, Jacques – „L’Écriture et la différence” , Seuil, Paris, 1967.
• Durand, Gilbert – „Structurile antropologice ale imaginarului”, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1977.
• Eco, Umberto – „Tratat de semiotică generală”, Meridiane, 1981.
• Eliade, Mircea – „Mituri, vise şi mistere”, Editura Univers Enciclopedic, Bucureşti, 1998.
• Foucault, Michel – „Les Mots et les choses”, Gallimard, Paris, 1966.
• Freud, Sigmud – „Scrieri despre literatură şi artă”, editura Univers, 1980.
• Girard, Renée – „Le Bouc émissaire”, Editions Grasset et Fasquelle, Paris, 1982.
• Greimas, Algirdas Julien – „Du Sens. Essais sémiothiques” , Seuil, Paris, 1970.
• Heidegger, Martin – „Originea operei de artă”, București, Editura Univers, 1979.
• Hmelnitzcky, Brigitte – „Chemie und Alchemie des Errinerung”, Sein und Zeit Verlag, Berlin, 1984.
• Lacan, Jacques Marie Émile – „Les Quatre concepts fondamen-taux de la psychanalyse”, Seuil, Paris, 1964.
• Lapin Duval, Isengrin – „Le Sexe de Proust. Une sémiose de l’identité postnatale”, Editions du Lac, Lausanne, 1997.
• Marion, Jean Luc – „Fenomenul erosului”, Editura Deisis, Iaşi, 2004.
• McLuhan, Marchall – „Texte esenţiale”, Editura Nemira, Bucureşti, 2006.
• Moceanu, Ovidiu – „Visul şi literatura”, Editura Paralela 45, 2002.
• Morris, Charles – „Fondations of the Theory of Signs”, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1938.
• Muşina, Alexandru – „Supravieţuirea prin ficţiune”, Editura Aula, Braşov, 2005.
• Nietzsche, Friederich – „Știința voioasă. Genealogia moralei. Amurgul idolilor”, București, Editura Humanitas, 1994.
• Peirce, Charles Sanders – „Collected Works” (vol. I-X), Harvard University Press, Boston, 1954-2001
• de Saussure, Ferdinand – „Cours de linguistique générale”, Payot, Genève, 1995.
• Podoabă, Virgil – „Fenomenologia punctului de plecare”, Editura Universităţii Transilvania, Braşov, 2008.
• Proust, Marcel – „În căutarea timpului pierdut”, Editura pentru Literatură / Editura Minerva, 1968-1977.
• Sebeok, Thomas A. – „Signs. An introduction to Semiotics”, Toronto University Press, 1994.
• de la Tour, Rubédien – „Swami ou Swann? Sémiose et metempsychose chez Marcel Proust”, Editions de la Nouvelle Pensée, Paris, 2001.
• Volfenson Krishnapati, Ahmed – „What to do with Proust? The complete guide to «À la recherche du temps perdu»”, The Central University Press, San Pedro, BS, 2003.
• Vörtebücher, Heinz Helmuth – „Le Goût de la mère. Une psychanalyse du corp féminin”, Editions de l’Avenir, Paris, 1944.

The Master’s Shadow – rereading Bulgakov

The aim of this paper is to revisit the legacy of Bulgakov’ s writings, placing him within the context of the soviet and russian literature. As a writer who chose to confront the dominant ideology of his time, Bulgakov remained, up to the very end, a marginal, unable to fit into the landscape of officially  endorsed literature. In the same time, his condition is the epitomy of whay some critics might be calling “ internal exile”. The stalinist regime effectively forbade him from publishing, and his playrights were barred from being staged. Hence, his attempt to frame a coherent vision on literature and freedom, recolving around his own determination to continue writing as if the outside world ceased to exist. “ Manuscripts don’t burn” – the famous phrase of Woland, in “Master and Margarita”, encompasses the tribulation of Bulgakov himself under the totalitarian yoke.

Keywords:literature, soviet union, internal exile, censorship.

• Svetlana Le. Fleming, Bulgakov’ s use of the fantastique and the grotesque, in “New Zeeland slavonic journal”, 2/ 1977.
• Elisabeth Stenbock- Fermor, Bulgakov’ s The Master and Margarita and Goethe ‘ s Faust, în “The Slavic and east european journal”, 3/ 1969
• Edythe C. Haber, The lamp with the green shade. Mikhail Bulgakov and his father, în “Russian Review”, 4/ 1985
• Ion Vartic, Prefaţă, în Mihail Bulgakov, “Corespondenţă. Jurnale”, traducere note şi indice de Ana- Maria Brezuleanu, editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2006.

E. Lovinescu. The retrieval of the melodramatic model in modern literature (I)

Always focused on the dialogue between pleasure and ideology, with an echo in the present reality, melodrama played the part of an open aesthetical form, encouraging the public to acknowledge and self-perceive its identity with a sort of enthusiasm which foregoes the mass culture phenomenon. Contrary to the views expressed by Lovinescu and other theorists which assert the eternity of melodramatic structures (Eric Bentley, among others), Peter Brooks harbours the melodramatic category to the strict boundaries of modern culture – and, particularly, to the purist aesthetics of modernity – by neglecting its socio-cultural side. Aesthetically speaking, the outstanding originality of melodrama does not lie in the psychological insight on fictional characters which are now moulded according to an “existential” way of being. It is the intrigue the element which keeps a tensioned atmosphere of suspense and, more precisely, the explicit scenic disposition which astonishes the public by displaying pompous paraphernalia and theatrical effects and draws the spectator to recognize the eternal pattern of good-evil fight. After its stage settings and awesome effects, melodrama actually comes nearer to the experimental genres. It releases the strong feeling that, bearing the ability to reshape itself on various contexts and conditions, melodrama resembles very much to the model of avant-garde literature. Lovinescu’s point in pinning up the actuality of melodrama is nevertheless meritorious as, engrained by melodramatic techniques, his novels break open the ways to other perspectives on modernism.

Keywords: melodrama, melodramatic, mass-culture, lyricism, suggestion, musicality, psychologism, expressionism

• I.

1. Lovinescu, Opere (Works), edited by Maria Simionescu and Alexandru George, Bucharest: “Minerva” Publishing House, 1982-1992

• ***, Scrieri (Writings), edited by Eugen Simion, Bucharest: “Minerva” Publishing House, 1969-1982
• II.
• Ien Ang, Watching Dallas. Soap Opera and the Melodramatic Imagination, London and New York: Routledge, 1996
• Peter Brooks, The Melodramatic imagination: Balzac, Henry James, Melodrama & the Mode of Excess, New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1976
• Paul Cernat, Modernismul retro în romanul românesc interbelic (Vintage Modernism in the Romanian Inter-bellum Novel), Bucharest: “ART” Publishing House, 2009
• Imitations of Life. Two Centuries of Melodrama in Rusia, edited by Louise McReynolds and Joan Neuberger; London & Durham: Duke University Press, 2002
• André Jolles, Formes simples (Simple Figures), translated by Antoine Marie Buguet, Paris: Seuil, 1972
• Georg Lukács, Teoria romanului (The Theory of the Novel), translated by Viorica Nişcov, Bucharest: “Univers” Publishing House, 1977
• Melodrama. The Cultural Emergence of a Genre, Edited by Michael Hayes and Anastasia Nikolopoulou, London: McMillan Press, 1996
• Angelo Mitchievici, Decadenţă şi decadentism în contextul modernităţii româneşti şi europene (Decadence and Decadentism in Romanian and European Modernity), Bucharest: “Curtea Veche” Publishing House, 2011
• Virgil Nemoianu, Îmblânzirea romantismului (The Taming of Romanticism), translated by Alina Florea şi Sanda Aronescu, Bucharest: “Minerva” Publishing House, 1998
• Mario Praz, La crisi dell’eroe nel romanzo vittoriano (The Crisis of the Hero in the Victorian Novel), Firenze: N. C. Sansoni, Editore, 1952
• Frank Rahill, The World of Melodrama, University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1967
• Marthe Robert, Romanul începuturilor şi începuturile romanului (The Origins of the Novel), translated by Paula Voicu-Dohotaru, Bucharest: “Univers” Publishing House, 1983

Mircea Eliade in Culianu’s ’’reading’’: religious hermeneutics and history (I)

Referring to the division of periods established by Horia-Roman Patapievici, it is observed, in the transition from ”young Culianu” to ”the last Culianu”, an obvious metamorphosis of his historical views as well as of the mission of the history of religions, a privileged discipline through which he will commence his external contemplations. This article aims to emphasize this precise stage of genuine thinking and the metamorphosis which, at the end, materializes a unique theory of the ”mind games.” The manner in which the disciple interprets the master’s (i.e. Mircea Eliade’s) work is revelatory for the field of ideas.

Keywords: history, religious hermeneutics, mind games, system, cognitivism, Mircea Eliade, Ioan Petru Culianu

• Antohi, Sorin (coord.). Ioan Petru Culianu. Omul şi opera / Ioan Petru Culianu. The Man and the Work, translated by Corina Popescu, Claudia Dumitriu, Ioana Ieronim, Cristina Ionică, Tereza Culianu-Petrscu, Iaşi, Polirom Publishing House, 2003.
• Boia, Lucian. Jocul cu trecutul: Istoria între adevăr şi ficţiune / Playing with the Past: History between Truth and Fiction, 3rd Edition, Bucharest, Humanitas Publishing House, 2008.
• Culianu, Ioan Petru. Mircea Eliade, 2nd Edition, translated by Florin Chiriţescu, Sorin Antohi, Bucharest, Nemira Publishing House, 1998.
• Idem. Iocari serio. Ştiinţă şi artă în Renaştere / Iocari serio. Science and Art in Renaissance, Iaşi, Polirom Publishing House, 2003.
• Idem. Studii româneşti I. Fantasmele nihilismului. Secretul doctorului Eliade / Romanian Studies I. The Phantasma of Nihilism. The Secret of Doctor Eliade, 2nd Edition, translated by Corina Popescu, Dan Petrescu, Iaşi, Polirom Publishing House, 2006.
• Eliade, Mircea. Insula lui Euthanasius / Euthanasius’Island, Bucharest, Humanitas Publishing House, 1993.
• Idem. Nostalgia originilor. Istorie şi semnificaţie în religie / The Nostalgia of the Origins. History and Meaning in Religion, translated by Cezar Baltag, Bucharest, Humanitas Publishing House, 1994.
• Idem. Fragmentarium, Bucharest, HumanitasPublishing House, 1994.
• Idem. Sacrul şi profanul / The Sacred and the Profane, 3rd Edition, translated by Brânduşa Prelipceanu, Bucharest, Humanitas Publishing House, 2007.
• Patapievici, Horia-Roman. Ultimul Culianu / The Last Culianu, Bucureşti, Humanitas Publishing House, 2010.

“Avram Iancu” by Lucian Blaga.

Tragic Perspective on the Mythical Hero in the Historical Mystery

The Romanian apriorism, the presumed autochthonous ancestral mentality had no means to express itself through tragic drama in the antiquity. Thus the playwright Lucian Blaga introduces the presumptive conception by means of modern methods, the author being concerned with the metamorphosis of the native spirituality from prehistory to the ontological failure of modern times. With regards to “Avram Iancu” the mythical dimension seems to grow indistinct due to the historical facts. It reduces itself to the appearance of the protagonist from the legend and his final departure into the legend. Yet the well documented plot of the historical drama is merely an opportunity to cogitate on the insinuation of the absolute in the fatal development of the daily existence towards the “original, archetypal and eternal phenomenon”.

Keywords: Avram Iancu, legend, mentality, myth, Romanians, spirituality.

• Blaga, Lucian. Filozofia stilului (The Philosophy of Style). Bucureşti, Cultura Naţională, 1924.
• Blaga, Lucian. Spaţiul mioritic. (The Mioritic Space). Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 1994.
• Blaga, Lucian. Teatru, 2. (Dramaturgy). Ediţie îngrijită de Dorli Blaga, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1984.
• Blaga, Lucian. Zări şi etape (Horizons and Stages). Text îngrijit şi bibliografie de Dorli Blaga, Bucureşti, Editura pentru Literatură, 1968.
• ***, Dicţionarul personajelor din teatrul lui Lucian Blaga. (The Dictionary of Characters in Lucian Blaga’s Dramaturgy). Coordonator Constantin Cubleşan, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Dacia, 2005.
• ***, Lucian Blaga interpretat de… Studiu, antologie, tabel cronologic şi bibliografie de Emil Vasilescu. (Lucian Blaga. Essay, Anthology, Chronology and Bibliography by Emil Vasilescu). Bucureşti, Editura Eminescu, 1981.
• Modola, Doina. Lucian Blaga şi teatrul. Insurgentul. Memorii. Publicistică. Eseuri. (Lucian Blaga and the Theatre. The Insurgent. Memoirs. Journalism. Essays). Bucureşti, Editura Anima, 1999.
• Todoran, Eugen. Lucian Blaga. Mitul dramatic. (Lucian Blaga. The Dramatic Myth). Timişoara, Editura Facla, 1985.

Gherasim Luca – Inventor of non-Oedipal Love and of Sound Poetry

This essay forms part of a book of comparative literature that I am working at, entitled The Creative Bilingualism, concerned with some writers who accomplished their work, either successively or simultaneously in Romanian and French. The chapter dedicated to Gherasim Luca deals comparatively with his bilingual work taking into consideration an invention of a peculiar Non-Oedip, understood as a negation of the well-known Oedupus complex, and also a specific non-oedipal type of love, linking his surrealist poetry and fiction to the sound poetry cultivated in the French language.
Keywords: bilingualism, Oedipus complex, Non-Oedipal, non-oedipal love, sound poetry

• Sarane Alexandrian, L’Evolution de Gherasim Luca à Paris/ Evoluţia lui Gherasim Luca la Paris, Ed. Vinea şi Icare, Bucureşti, 2006.
• André Breton, Manifestes du surréalisme, Ed. Gallimard, Paris, 1972.
• Dominique Carlat, Gherasim Luca l’intempestif, Librairie Jose Corti, Paris, 1998.
• Gilles Deleuze şi Felix Guattari, Capitalism şi schizofrenie (I): Anti-Oedip, Ed. Paralela 45, 2008.
• Sigmund Freud, Introducere în psihanaliză, Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, Bucureşti, 1980.
• Henri-Pierre Jeudy, Corpul ca obiect de artă, Ed. Eurosong & Book, 1998.
• Gherasim Luca, Héros-Limite, Librairie José Corti, Paris, 1987.
• Gherasim Luca, Inventatorul iubirii şi alte scrieri, Ed. Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 2003.
• Otto Rank, Le traumatisme de la naissance, Ed. Payot&Rivages, Paris, 2002.
• Petre Răileanu, Gherasim Luca, Ed. Junimea, Iaşi, 2005.

Devout mistresses (I). Otilia Cazimir

The present study is focused on the life and work of Otilia Cazimir, the most prominent lady poet of Iaşi in the interwar period. Involved in a romantic affair with the leading poet George Topârceanu (even though in an adulterine relation), Otilia Cazimir was the official poetess of the influential literary magazine Viaţa românească. After 1945, she gained immense popularity mainly due to her children poems, included in numerous school handbooks, but also because of her poems celebrating the Communist party. In its first part, the study observes the history of her work’s critical reception, and then one proceeds to a close reading of her poetry, volume by volume.
Keywords: Romanian literature, interwar and postwar Romanian poetry, literary life in interwar Iaşi, feminine poetry, Otilia Cazimir

• Otilia Cazimir, Cîntec de comoară. Poezii, Editura Naţionala Ciornei, Bucureşti, /f/a./ /1930.
• Otilia Cazimir, Poezii. 1928-1963, cu o prefaţă de Const. Ciopraga, Editura pentru literatură, Bucureşti, 1964.
• Otilia Cazimir, Scrieri în proză, II, Editura Junimea, Iaşi, 1972.
• Otilia Cazimir, Inscripţii pe marginea anilor, Ediţie îngrijită şi prefaţată de George Sanda, Editura Junimea, Iaşi, 1973.
• Demostene Botez, Memorii, Editura Minerva, Bucureşti, 1970.
• Călinescu, Istoria literaturii române de la origini pînă în prezent, Ediţia a II-a, revăzută şi adăugită, Ediţie şi prefaţă de Al. Piru, Editura Minerva, Bucureşti, 1982.
• Ov. S. Crohmălniceanu, Literatura română între cele două războaie mondiale, II, Editura Minerva, Bucureşti, 1974.
• Aliona Grati, Privirea Euridicei. Lirica feminină din Basarabia. Anii 20-30, Institutul de filologie al Academiei de Ştiinţe a Moldovei, Chişinău, 2007.
• Aurel Leon, Umbre, Editura Junimea, Iaşi, 1970.
• Lovinescu, Scrieri. IV. Istoria literaturii române contemporane, Ediţie de Eugen Simion, Editura Minerva, Bucureşti, 1973.
• Dumitru Micu, Literatura română în secolul al XX-lea, Editura Fundaţiei Culturale Române, Bucureşti, 2000.
• Gheorghe Perian, în Dicţionarul Scriitorilor Români, I, A-C, coord. Mircea Zaciu, Marian Papahagi, Aurel Sasu, Editura Fundaţiei Culturale Române, Bucureşti, 1995.
• Perpessicius, Opere, II, Menţiuni critice, Editura pentru literatură, Bucureşti, 1967.
• Al. Piru, Istoria literaturii române de la început pînă azi, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1981.
• Al. Raicu, Descoperirea păsării Sitela, Cu un cuvînt înainte de George Macovescu, Editura Eminescu, Bucureşti, 1989.
• George Sanda, Otilia Cazimir, Editura Cartea Românească, Bucureşti, 1984.
• Marg. Miller Verghy şi Ecaterina Săndulescu, Evoluţia scrisului feminin în România, Editura Bucovina, Bucureşti, 1935.

• *** After Confession. Poetry as Autobiography, editat de Kate Sontag & David Graham. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Graywolf Press, 2001.
• *** La mimèsis, Alexandre Gefen (coord.), Paris : GF Flammmarion, 2003.
• Barthes, Roland, Le Bruissement de la langue. Paris : Seuil, 1984.
• Colonna, Vincent, Autofiction et autres mythomanies littéraires. Paris: Tristram, 2004.
• Couturier, Maurice, La Figure de l’auteur. Paris: Seuil, 1995.
• Deleuze, Gilles; Guattari, Félix, What is Philosophy?. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
• De Man, Paul, The Resistence to Theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986.
• Doubrovsky, Serge, Autobiographiques. De Corneille à Sartre. Paris: PUF, 1988.
• Dummet, Michael, Truth and Other Enigmas. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978.
• Engel, Pascal; Rorty, Richard, La ce bun adevărul?. Bucureşti: Editura Art, 2007.
• Gasparini, Philippe, Est-il Je ? Roman autobiographique et autofiction. Paris : Seuil, 2004.
• Genette, Gérard, Figures II. Paris: Seuil, Points, 1969.
• Gusdorf, Georges, Les Écritures du moi. Paris: Odile Jacob, 1990.
• Habermas, Jürgen, Etica discursului şi problema adevărului. Bucureşti : Editura Art, 2008.
• Hamburger, Käte, The Logic of Literature. Bloomington and Indianapolis : Indiana University Press, (1973) 1993.
• Joubert, Jean-Louis, Genres et formes de la poésie. Paris : Armand Colin, 2003.
• Margolis, Joseph, What, After All, is a Work of Art?. University Park (PA): The Pennsylvania State University Park, 1999.
• Meschonnic, Henry, La rime et la vie. Paris: Gallimard, 2006.
• Ricoeur, Paul, Soi-même comme un autre. Paris : Seuil, 1990.
• Ricoeur, Paul, Temps et Récit, Vol. I. Paris : Seuil, 1983.
• Rorty, Richard, Adevăr şi progres. Bucureşti: Editura Univers, 2003.
• Sartre, Jean-Paul, Fiinţa şi neantul. Eseu de ontologie fenomenologică. Piteşti : Paralela 45, 2004.
• Schaeffer, Jean-Marie, Pourquoi la fiction?. Paris : Seuil, 1999.
• Schmitt, Arnaud, Je réel / je fictif. Au-déla d’une confusion postmoderne. Université de Toulouse – Le Mirail: Presses Universitaires de Mirail, 2010.
• Searle, John R., The Construction of Social Reality. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1996.
• Searles, Georges J. (dir.), Conversations with Philip Roth. Jackson: University Press of Mississipi, 1992.
• Smyth, Edmund J., Postmodernism and Contemporary Fiction. London: Bastford, 1991.
• Valéry, Paul, Œuvres, Vol. I. Paris : Gallimard, « Bibliothèque de la Pléiade », 1980.
• Wilde, Oscar, Decăderea minciunii/The Decay of Lying. Iaşi: Polirom, 2000.

Reviving the past in the „elegies” by Stefan Bănulescu

This article aims to bring to attention one more time a volume which has been discussed about too little – Stefan Bănulescu – Elegii la sfârsit de secol / Elegies at the End of the Century (1999). The volumes could be ranked among the Romanian biographical writing after the 1990s, still having a specific character. The Elegies written by Bănulescu do not focus only on the self, but also on the memories of a nation under a totalitary system. Banulescu appeals to a method known as fragmentarism with the purpose of depicting genuine images of the past. Sweet irony, lucidity, impartiality, confession, disguise, are only a few of the traits of this text which could be savoured not only by the reader who is not familiar with the previous works by Stefan Banulescu.

Keywords: Stefan Bănulescu, biographical writing, fragmentarism, totalitary system, irony, lucidity, confession.

• Ştefan Bănulescu, Opere / Works, volumes I-II (Volume I: Iarna bărbaţilor / Men’s Winter; Cartea Milionarului; Proză eseistică / The Book of the Millionaire; Essays; Volume II: Proză memorialistică / Biographical Prose; Publicistică / Journalism; Corespondenţă / Correspondence), Edition by Oana Soare, Preface by Eugen Simion, Bucureşti, The National Foundation for Science and Art Publishing House, Univers Enciclopedic Publishing House, 2005.
• Ileana Mălăncioiu, Umbra din jurul lui Ştefan Bănulescu / The Shadow around Stefan Banulescu, in România literară / Literary Romania, year XXXIII, issue 30, 2-8 August, 2000, p. 10.

“Confusion became a way of life”. The Security Dossier of the Poet Georg Hoprich

This article refers to the German poet from Romania, Georg Hoprich (1938-1969) and to his Security Dossier. By studying this dossier from the Security Archives, the literary historian Stefan Sienerth highlights and analyses aspects of the writers’ prosecution and of the literary censorship during the Communist period. The poet Georg Hoprich was accused of country betrayal, because he did not dedicate his work to the Socialist Romania, the accusations being based on delation and false testimony. He was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, but he was released by amnesty after more than three years. Being unable to adapt to the everyday life, as he was still prosecuted by the Security, he committed suicide.

Keywords: Oskar Pastior, Georg Hoprich, anti-communist poetry, hard labour camps, political prisoner

The Hypostases of the Reader in Post-Totalitarian Autobiographical and Memorialistic Writing

To the extent that personal histories, destined for publication, are created in relation to a universe of reception, identity discourses undergoing constraints conditioned by the “official self-presentation” (P. Bourdieu), autobiographical and memorialistic stories published in post-communist Romania cannot be interpreted outside a connection with the reader, as social individual and textual instance (the implied reader): reconstructing a “totalizing” history where to recognized himself, the author-narrator textually projects his “ideal” image of the self (even when he simulates objectivity, going as far as self-criticism), capable of “seducing” the real reader, while also creating its implied reader, as textual strategy. In our article, we intend to trace the manner in which the post-war writer relates, in the present, in the “life stories”, to his own positioning in the cultural field circumscribed to the age of dictatorship and to identify, from the perspective of the aesthetics of reception, the role played by the reader – real, as well as implied – in the identity reconstructions detectable at the level of the texts in the corpus.

Keywords: autobiographic and memorialistic narrative, (auto)biographical ideology, narrative identity, horizon of expectation, implied  reader

Corpus

• Călinescu, Matei, Vianu, Ion, Amintiri în dialog [Memories in Dialogue], ediţia a III-a, Polirom, Iaşi, 2005
• Manea, Norman, Anii de ucenicie ai lui August Prostul [The Apprenticeship Years of Augustus the Fool] (ediţia a II-a, revăzută), Polirom, Iaşi, 2005
• Manea, Norman, Despre Clovni: Dictatorul şi Artistul [On Clowns: The Dictator and the Artist] (ediţia a II-a, revăzută), Iaşi, Polirom, 2005

Studies

• Bourdieu, Pierre, L’Illusion biographique [The biographical Illusion], în Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, iunie 1986, Vol. 62-63
• Bourdieu, Pierre, Questions de sociologie [Sociology in Question], Minuit, Paris, 2002
• Clerc, Thomas, Les écrits personnels [Personal Writings], Hachette, Paris, 2001
• Eco, Umberto, Lector in fabula. Cooperare interpretativă în textele narative [The Reader in the Story: Interpretative Cooperation in Narrative Texts], Bucureşti, Univers, 1991
• Hubier, Sébastien, Littératures intimes. Les expressions du moi, de l’autobiographie à l’autofiction [Intimate Literatures.The Expressions of the Self, from Autobiography to Autofiction], Armand Colin, Paris, 2005
• Iser, Wolfgang, L’Acte de lecture [The Act of Reading], Bruxelles, P. Mardaga, 1985
• Lejeune, Philippe, Le pacte autobiographique. Nouvelle édition augmentée [The Autobiographical Pact], Seuil, Paris, 1996
• MacIntyre, Alasdair, After Virtue, a Study in Moral Theory, Notre Dame (Ind.), University of Notre Dame Press, 1981
• Miraux, Jean-Philippe, L’autobiographie. Ecriture de soi et sincérité [The Autobiography. Writing of the Self and Sincerity], 3^e édition, Armand Colin, Paris, 2009
• Ricœur, Paul, Soi-même comme un autre [Oneself as Another], Paris, Seuil, 1990
• Ricœur, Paul, Temps et récit I. L’intrigue et le temps historique [Time and Narrative, Volume I], Paris, Seuil, 1983
• Ricœur, Paul, Temps et récit III. Le temps raconté [Time and Narrative, Volume III], Paris, Seuil, 1985

A few theoretical notices about “ars poetica”

The purpose of this study is to define of the concept of ars poetica, following its diachronic transformations in function, its constitutive and legitimatory valences. From its systematic, lawmaking character, ars poetica develops in modernity into a particular form of establishing a style, a personal manner expressing the identity of one’s writing and onto-poetic experience. Its ratification in modernity is no longer under the influence of the academia, under the pressure of canonical poetics, having its basis, at best, on anti-literary and metaliterary responses to previous paradigms.
Keywords: ars poetica, legitimatory function, normative poetics, unsystematic poetics

• Baudelaire, Charles, Pictorul vieţii moderne şi alte curiozităţi, Editura Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1992.
• Breton, André, Manifestes du surréalisme, Gallimard, Folio, 1985.
• Chauveau, J.P., în Dictionnaire des littératures de langue française: Auteur A-D, Beaumarchais, Jean-Pierre; Couty, Daniel; Rey, Alain, Bordas, Paris, 1999.
• Dicţionarul de termeni literari, coord. Al. Săndulescu, Ed. Academiei RSR, Bucureşti, 1971.
• Peters, Francis E., Greek Philosophical Terms, New York University Press, 1967 (Termenii filosofiei greceşti, trad. Drăgan Stoianovici, Humanitas, ed. a III-, revăzută, Bucureşti 2007).
• Ilie, Rodica, Manifestul literar. Poetici ale avangardei în spaţiul cultural romanic, Editura Universităţii Transilvania, Braşov, 2008.
• Ilie, Rodica, Poetica manifestului literar. Aspecte ale avangardei române, Editura Universităţii Transilvania, Braşov, 2007.
• Poe, E.A., Principiul poetic, Eseuri, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1971, trad. Mira Stoiculescu
• Rimbaud, Arthur, Scrieri alese, tălmăciri de Petre Solomon şi N. Argintescu-Amza, Editura pentru Literatură Universală, Bucureşti, 1968.
• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Confessions, Librairie Plon, Paris, (Confesiuni, trad. şi prefaţă, Pericle Martinescu, EPL, 1969).
• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire, (Visările unui hoinar singuratic, trad. Mihai Şora, prefaţă Vera Călin, Paralela45, 2006).
• Wellek, René; Warren, Austin, A Theory of Literature, 1949, Teoria literaturii, trad. Rodica Tiniş, prefaţă Sorin Alexandrescu, EPLU, Bucureşti, 1967.
• Arte poetice. Antichitatea, culegere îngrijită de D.M.Pippidi, Univers, Bucureşti, 1970; Arte poetice. Renaşterea, Univers, Bucureşti, 1986.
• Arte poetice. Romantismul, coord. Angela Ion, studiu introductiv Romul Munteanu, Univers, Bucureşti, 1982.

The Role of the Satirical Press in Mirroring the Transylvanian Social-Historical Realities of the Second Half of the XIX^th Century

The present article aims at highlighting the place that satire, irony and humour own within press, mainly late XIX^th and early XX^th century press. Starting with the definition of their primary signification, the paper dwells upon the role that satire, irony and humour hold in exposing social and national injustice or the political abuses of this fervent period of the Romanians’ history. Offering some concrete examples of domains that are constantly satirized in the pages of the humorous magazines of that time emphasizes the fact that satire, irony and humour represented the main tools that press used in raising readership awareness on the social-political realities that they were witnessing.

Keywords: satire, humour, irony, press.

• Cherciu, Ion Gr., Genuri şi specii publicistice în presa umoristică românească de la sfârşitul secolului al XIX-lea / Publicistic Genres and Species within the Romanian Humorous Press in the Late XIX-th Century, Cluj-Napoca, 2000.
• ***, Dicţionarul explicativ al limbii române / Explanatory Dictionary of Romanian Language, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 1984.
• ***, Dicţionarul general al literaturii române / General Dictionary of the Romanian Literature, Bucureşti, Editura Univers Enciclopedic, 2006.
• Ene, Virgiliu, Satira în literatura română. Studiu şi antologie / Satire in Romanian Literatur. Study and Anthology, Bucureşti, Editura Albatros, 1972.
• Gura Satului, Pesta, X, 1870, nr. 39.
• Hangiu, I., Dicţionar al presei literare româneşti / Dictionary of Romanian Literary Press, Bucureşti, Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică, 1987.
• Macavei, Elena, “Umorul, atitudine existenţială şi mod de comunicare” / “Humour, existential attitude and method of communication” în Psihologia, nr. 1 / 2001, p. 15-23.
• Macavei, Elena, Umorul în publicaţii astriste / Humour in Astra publications, Sibiu, Ed. Asociaţiunii Astra, 2007.
• Moftul român, seria I, nr. 23.
• Panaitescu, Val, Humorul / Humour, vol. I şi II, Iaşi, Editura Polirom, 2003.

Transylvanian art critique reflected in Luceafărul magazine (1902 – 1914)

At the beginning of XX-th century the Rumanian students from Budapest edited the first number of “Luceafarul” magazine. More then a decade, this magazine represented a tribune of the Rumanian culture from Transylvania. An important preoccupation of the journalists was also the promotion of the plastic arts. The art chronicles were signed by some personalities as Octavian C. Tăslăuanu, O. Goga, Otilia Cosmuţa, Marin Simionescu-Râmniceanu, Adrian Corbul etc. One of the aspects analyzed by critics was the encouragement of the artists through the publication in the magazine’s pages, in some exceptional technical conditions, of articles, illustrations and reproductions of some works belonging to well-known artist or of artists in the beginning of their career: Grigorescu, Luchian, Brâncuşi, Smigelschi, Medrea etc.

In the light of the artistic preoccupations and of the quality of published chronicles, it may be stated that the beginnings of the Rumanian modern critique from Transylvania can be identified with Luceafarul magazine.

Keywords: artistic chronicles, Transylvania, Rumanian modern art, Luceafarul magazine, artistic trends and movements.

• Tampa, Natalia; Dincă, Ileana; Grigorie, Ioana; Brusaru, Cornelia; Fodor, Ligia-Maria; Tudor, Mirela. Casa Regală. Documente oficiale. Inventar arhivistic (Royal House. Official Documents. Inventory Archives), vol II (1901-1930), A.N.R., Bucureşti, 2004, 332 p.
• Bérenyi, Maria. Cultură românească la Budapesta în secolul al XIX-lea (Romanian culture in Budapest in nineteenth century), Giula: Societatea culturală a românilor din Budapesta, 2000, 319 p.
• Brezianu, Barbu. Brâncuşi şi Transilvania (Brancusi and Transylvania), antologie de Constantin Zărnescu, Cluj-Napoca, Editura GRINTA, 2001, 160 p.
• Florea, Vasile. Arta românească modernă şi contemporană (Modern and Contemparary Romanian Art), vol. II, Bucureşti, Editura Meridiane, 1982, 444 p.
• Istoria României. Transilvania (Romanian history. Transylvania), Vol II, Editura George Bariţiu, Cluj-Napoca, 1997, 1177 p.
• Matei, Pamfil. Asociaţiunea în lumina documentelor (1861-1950) – noi contribuţii (Astra in the light of documents (1861-1950) – new contributions), Sibiu, Editura Universităţii „Lucian Blaga”, 2005, 360 p.
• Tăslăuanu, O. C.. Amintiri dela ,,Luceafărul”(Memories from ”Luceafărul”), Bucureşti, Tipografia ,,Bucovina” I.E. Torotiu, 1929, 212 p.

Reflecting on Ratzinger’s concept of Europe

The crisis of the moral values is one of the main reasons attributed by Ratzinger to the fall of the modern society. He stresses the fact that once people start losing their Faith in God, moral values are useless. While finding solutions to the crisis, Ratzinger states the fact that if the world and the man hadn’t been the product of a creative intelligence that would contain measures and organize our existence in a rational way, then all that’s left behind would have been just unnecessary rules. Taking into account the consequences of such a perspective, it stands true that concepts like logos, the word in the beginning, the creative reason and the love are decisive for the Christian revealance of God.

Keywords: reason, european spititual power, modernity

• Nichols, Aidan. The thought of Benedict XVI, New York : Burns and Oates, 2005.
• Marga, Andrei. Philosophia et Theologia Hodie, Cluj: Editura Fundatiei pentru Studii Europene, 2008.
• Marga, Andrei. Religia în Era Globalizării, Cluj: Editura Fundatiei Pentru Studii Europene, 2006.
• Pera, Michael/ Ratzinger, Joseph. Ohne Wurzeln. Der Relativismus und die Krise der europaeischen Kultur, Augsburg: Sankt Ulrich Verlag, 2005.
• Ratzinger, Joseph / Habermas, Juergen. Dialectica secularizării, Despre raţiune şi religie, Cluj: Biblioteca Apostrof, 2005.
• Ratzinger, Joseph. Gott und die Welt. Die Geheimnisse des christlichen Glaubens, Muenchen: Goldmann Verlag, 2008.
• Ratzinger, Joseph. Glaube und Vernunft. Die Regensburger Vorlesung von Benedikt XVI. Freiburg: Herder Verlag, 2006.
• Ratzinger, Joseph. Introducere în creştinism: prelegeri despre Crezul apostolic, Iaşi: Editura Sapientia, 2004.
• Ratzinger, Joseph. Interpretare biblică în criză. Despre problema fundamentelor şi cailor exegezei astăzi, Cluj: Editura fundatiei pentru studii europene, 2007.
• Ratzinger, Joseph -Benedikt XVI. Licht der Welt, Freiburg: Herder Velag, 2010.
• Ratzinger, Joseph. Sarea pământului, creştinismul şi biserica catolică la cumpăna dintre milenii. Iasi: Editura Sapentia, 2006.
• Ratzinger, Joseph. Vom Wiederauffinden der Mitte. Grundorientierungen, Texte aus vier Jahrzehnten. Freiburg: Herder Verlag, 1997.
• Ratzinger, Joseph. Wendezeit fuer Europa? Diagnosen und Prognosen zur Lage von Kirche und Welt, Einsiedeln: Johannes Verlag, 1991.
• Spaemann, Robert. Universalismus oder Eurozentrismus Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1988.

Eugenio Coseriu and the Evolution of the Translation Phenomenon

This paper discusses the outstanding contribution of Eugenio Coseriu to the development of the translation Phenomenon; it will also point out the main reflections about the translation process beginning with Antiquity, like those of:  Cicero, Ieronim, Martin Luther, but also of Wilhelm von Humboldt. The second part of the article highlights out Eugenio Coseriu’s arguments to consider translation a section of text linguistic. Looking at the translation phenomenon as a form of speech content, virtually identic in two languages, Coseriu’s theory focusses on three main concepts: designation, signification and sense that have important implications in the translation theory. The paper also focuses on Eugene A. Nida’s approach to translation, because his perspective remains one of the most important for the translation of the sacred texts. Special emphasis will be placed on Coseriu’s new perspective over translation theory and text linguistic.

Keywords: translation theory, Eugenio Coseriu, text linguistic, designation, signification, sense, Eugene A. Nida.

• Baker, Mona. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, Routledge, London & New York,1998.
• Coseriu, Eugenio. Vives y la problema de la traducción. În Tradición y novedad en la ciencia del lenguaje. Estudios de historia de la lingüística, Los estudios I, II, III, V, VIII y IX han sido traducidos den alemán por Marcos Martinez Hernándes. (…) Todas las traducionnes han sido revisadas por el autor especialmente para esta edición, Biblioteca Románica Hispánica, Editorial Gredos, Madrid,1977.
• Coseriu, Eugenio. Lo erróneo y lo acertado en la teoría de la traducción. În El hombre y su lenguaje, Editorial Gredos, primera editión, diciembre de 1977, reimpresión, marzo de 1985, Los estudios I, II, VIII, X y XI han sido traducidos del alemán, y el estudio n. VI del francés, por Marcos Martínez Hernández. Las traducciones han sido revisadas por el autor espicialmente para esta editión, Madrid,1985.
• Coseriu, Eugenio. Relaţia dintre lingvistica contrastivă şi traducere / The Relation between Translation and Contrastive Linguistic. În Analele Ştiinţifice ale Universităţii „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iaşi (Serie Nouă), Secţiunea Limbi şi literaturi străine, Tomul I, 1998, Editura Universităţii „Al. I. Cuza” din Iaşi, p. 5-20. Traducere de Casia Cujbă. Textul original: Kontrastive Linguistik und und Übersetzung: ihr Verhältnis zueinander. În „Akten des Internationalen Kolloquiums”, Trier/ Saarbrücken, 25-30.9. 1978, Wilhelm Fink Verlag München, 1981, pp. 183‑199.
• Coşeriu, Eugeniu. Omul şi limbajul său. Studii de filozofie a limbajului, teorie a limbii şi lingvistică generală / Man and his Language. Studies of Language Philosophy, Language Theory and General Linguistics. Antologie, argument şi note de Dorel Fînaru, traducere de Eugenia Bojoga, Dumitru Irimia, Eugen Munteanu et alii, Editura Universităţii „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, Iaşi, 2009.
• Dollerup, Cay. Basics of Translation Studies, Institutul European, Iaşi, 2006.
• Munteanu, Eugen. Despre traduceri şi despre limbile de cultură / About Translations and Languages of Culture. În „ Dialog”, nr. 120, noiembrie, Iaşi, 1987, p. 8.
• Munteanu, Eugen. Humboldt şi humboldianismul / Humboldt and Humbold’s Ideology. Introducere la Wilhelm von Humboldt, Despre diversitatea structurală a limbilor şi influenţa ei asupra dezvoltării spirituale a umanităţii / About the Structural Diversity of Languages and its Influence on Spiritual Deveopment of Humanity. Prima traducere în limba română, introducere, notă asupra traducerii, tabel cronologic, bibliografie şi indici de Eugen Munteanu, Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2008, p. 5­41.
• Munteanu, Eugen. Lexicologie biblică românească / Romanian Biblical Lexicology, Humanitas, Bucure şti, 2008.
• Newmark, Peter. A Textbook of Translation, Prentice Hall, NY, London, Torino, Sydney, Tokyo, 1988.
• Nergaard, Siri. La teoria della traduzione nella storia, vol. I, III edizione Strumenti Bompiani febbraio,Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri, I edizione Strumenti Bompiani, novembre 1993, Milano, 2007.
• Nida, Eugene A. Bible Translating, An Analysis of Principles and Procedures, with Special Reference to Aboriginal Languages, First Edition 1961, United Bible Societies, London, 1961.
• Nida, Eugene A. Toward a Science of Translating, With special Reference to Principles and procedures involved in Bible Translating, Leiden, E. J. Brik, 1964.
• Wilss, Wolfram. The Science of Translation. Problems and Methods, Aus dem Deutschen übersetzt von Wolfram Wilss, Stuttgart, 1977, Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen, 1982.

Parallel Worlds’ Twilight

The present study is a review of the book “Parallel Worlds’ Twilight” written by Professor Dan Popescu. The author examines the book’s content, mentioning and detailing the main ideas and the horizons of the approach.  It highlights the interfering plans of theoretical analysis with those that relate directly to the concrete issues of development, characters, people, situations, etc.. Also, the message for the present is emphasized, as well as the study’s perspectives.

Keywords: development, resources, equilibrium, parallel worlds, profit, economic solidarity, social ends, virtual, reality.