Nobody shall disdain your old age…

The following text is an affectionate laudatio written by the priest and professor Constantin Necula on the 80th anniversary of the academician Mircea Păcurariu, who also functions as a professor at the „Lucian Blaga” University from Sibiu. Written with a deep and intense personal participation, the text surveys the life and activity of the academician both as a passionate professor and a devoute priest, proving his lifetime commitment for Romanian Orthodoxism.
Keywords: contemporary Romanian Orthodoxism, contemporary theological studies, academician Mircea Păcurariu, 80th anniversary

On God’s Vestiges in ”Itinerarium mentis in Deum” at Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274)

This study aims at analysing the contemplating course imagined by Saint Bonaventure in Itinerarium mentis in Deum, which has as finality the ecstasy in divine rest. Passionate and tributary to one of the plenary figures of his age – the figure three – Saint Bonaventure builds an ontology of the Trinity which has at its foundation the “threefold path” – purification, illumination, communion – towards the mystic ecstasy and to which a triad existence of the created things corresponds: the sensitive ones, those from the intellect, the intelligible ones. The ingredients used by Saint Bonaventure to decree the theory of illumination in six steps and three stages are Augustine’s path to illumination, the agent (active) intellect of Thomas Aquinas and the subjective experiences from the mystical models. Faith is certified by reason and theology is strengthened by philosophy. The contemplation of the three spheres of creation attests the very vestiges of God. The ecstasy of the “day of rest”, the seventh, crowns the toilling with the “rewards” of knowing and adoring God.

Keywords: vestiges, illumination, God, contemplation, intellect

• Adămuţ, Anton I., Filosofia Sfântului Augustin (The Philosophy of Saint Augustine), Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2001.
• Aertsen, Jan A., „Ce este prim în mod fundamental? Începuturile filosofiei transcendentale” (“What is fundamentally first? The Beginnings of the Transcendental Philosophy”), Trad. de Dan Săvinescu, în Tătaru-Cazaban, Bogdan (coord.), Pluralitatea metafizicii medievale. Istorie şi structuri (The Plurality of the Medieval Metaphysics. History and Structures), Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2005.
• Aristotel, Despre suflet (On the Soul), Ediţie bilingvă greacă-română, Traducere, note, îngrijire de ed. de Alexander Baumgarten, Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2005.
• Augustin, De Trinitate (On the Trinity), in Migne, J. P., Patrologia cursus completus series Latina.vol. 42, Paris: Migne, 1845.
• Bejan, Petru, Istoria semnului în patristică şi scolastică (The History of the Sign in Patristics and Scholasticism), Editura Fundaţiei Axis, Iaşi, 1998.
• Bonaventura, Itinerariul minţii în Dumnezeu (Journey of the Mind into God), Trad. din lb. latină, note şi postfaţă de Gh. Vlăduţescu, ediţie bilingvă, Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti, 1994.
• Bourke, Vernon J., s.v. „Synderesis” în Dagobert D. Runes (ed.), The Dictionary of Philosophy, Philosophical Library, New York, 1942.
• Dancă, Wilhelm, Logica filosofică. Aristotel şi Toma de Aquino (The Philosophical Logic. Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas), Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2002.
• Gilson, Étienne, Filosofia în Evul Mediu (History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages), Trad. din lb. franceză de Ileana Stănescu, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 1995.
• Gilson, Étienne, Tomismul – Introducere în filosofia Sfântului Toma d’Aquino (Thomism: the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas), Trad. din lb. franceză de Adriana Niţă, Trad. din lb. latină de Lucia Wald, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2002.
• Glare, P. G. W., Oxford Latin Dictionary, Oxford Universitiy Press, Oxford, 1968-1982.
• Langston, Douglas C., Conscience and other virtues: from Bonaventure to MacIntyre, The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, 2001.
• Pelikan, Jaroslav, Tradiţia creştină – o istorie a dezvoltării doctrinei. Evoluţia teologiei medievale (600-1300) vol. III. (The Christian Tradition. A History of The Development of Doctrine: The growth of medieval theology (600-1300), volume III), Trad. de Silvia Palade, Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2006.
• Sfântul Dionisie Areopagitul, Despre Teologia mistică (Mystical Theology), în „Opere complete şi scoliile Sfântului Maxim Mărturisitorul” (“The Complete Works and Scholies of Saint Maximus the Confessor”), Trad., introd. şi note de Pr. Dumitru Stăniloae, Editura Paideia, Bucureşti, 1996.
• Trottman, Christian, „Probleme de metafizică în Evul Mediu şi Renaştere” (“Problems of Metaphysics in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance”), Trad. de Dan Săvinescu, în Tătaru-Cazaban, Bogdan (coord.), Pluralitatea metafizicii medievale. Istorie şi structuri (The Plurality of the Medieval Metaphysics. History and Structures), Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2005.

Literary theory’s becoming as a story

In the aftermath of the theoretical fashion in the human sciences, French literature metadiscourses come more and more from the historical fields and from ethics: history of ideas (history of the idea of literary theory and that of modern literature, or even of modernity, new historicism, foucauldian archaeology), ethics and pragmatics (what is it good and what is it correct to say about literature, in regard of literary theory, but also what are the heuristic limits of theory put in the day-to-day life context). In the light of these two outlooks, literary theory appears it its own historicity, and the efforts to reveal its historical determinations put modern literature in a more comprehensive light.
Keywords: literary theory, modern literature, French theory, William Marx

• Jacques Bouveresse, La connaissance de l’écrivain: Sur la littérature, la vérité et la vie / Writer’s knowledge: On literature, on truth, and on life, Agone, 2008
• Antoine Compagnon, Le démon de la théorie / The demon of theory, Seuil, Paris, 1998
• Antoine Compagnon, Les Antimodernes / The antimoderns, Paris, Gallimard, 2005
• Tony Duvert, Le Bon sexe illustré / The good sex illustrated, Paris, Minuit, 1974
• Pascal Engel, Les lois de l’esprit: Julien Benda ou la raison / The laws of the spirit : Julien Benda or the spirit, Ithaque, 2012.
• Michel Foucault, Dits et ecrits / Sayings and writings, I, Gallimard, 2001
• Laurent Jenny, La fin de l’intériorité. Théorie de l’expression et invention esthétique dans les avant-gardes françaises (1885-1935) / The end of interiority. The theory of aesthetic expression and invention in the French avant-gardes (1885-1935), Paris, PUF, 2002
• Laurent Jenny, Je suis d’une métaphore (1830-1975) / I am the revolution. History of a metaphor (1830-1975), Belin,
  2008.
• Jean-François Mattéi, Le Regard vide. Essai sur l’épuisement de la culture européenne / The empty look. Essay on the exhaustion of European culture, Flammarion, 2007
• Toma Pavel, Le Mirage linguistique / The linguistic mirage, Paris, Minuit, 1988
• Gilles Philippe, Sujet, verbe, complément. Le moment grammatical de la littérature française. 1890-1940 / Subject, verb, complement. The grammatical moment of French literature. 1890-1940, Gallimard, 2002
• Sophie Rabau, „Perdre le sens (commun)? Remarques sur l’histoire de la théorie litteraire” / „Losing the (common) sense? Observations on the history of literary theory”, in Acta fabula, no 0, http://www.fabula.org/lht/0/Rabau.html
• Sophie Rabau, Fictions de présence. La narration orale dans le texte romanesque du roman antique au XXe siècle / Fictions of presence. Oral narrative in fiction from the ancient novel to the 20th century, éditions Champion, Bibliothèque de littérature générale et comparée, 2000.
• Lionel Ruffel, Le Dénouement / The dénouement, Paris, Verdier, 2005
• Paul Veyne, Comment on écrit l’histoire: essai d’épistémologie / How on write history: essay on epistemology, Paris, Seuil, 1970

On annotation or… on salt in literature

Andréas Pfersmann’s study offers a history of literary notes and – advancing new categories and concepts – he delineates a poetics of a “prose notulaire”. The critical and narrative valences of annotations are featured in a discourse observant of the history of literary forms but also of the context that generated them.

The metamorphoses of annotations, understood as the “metaleptic salt” of literature, are analysed from a comparatist perspective beginning with the 17^th century and up to the present day.

Keywords: literary annotation, metalepsis, critical spirit, ludic spirit, self-reflexivity.

• Andréas Pfersmann, Séditions infrapaginales. Poétique historique de l’annotation littéraire (XVIIe-XXIe siècles), Droz, 2011.

The literariness of electronic literature

The paper overviews the contemporary status of electronic literature and the ways in which it challenges the old concept of literariness. The development of computational technologies modifies the writing and reading practices, generating a new type of aesthetics. Seen as a form of avant-garde writing, or as a prolongation of OuLiPo’s literary principles, electronic literature is largely indebted to the distinctive features of the digital medium where it is produced, distributed and accesed. The numerous genres of electronic literature (hypertext/network fiction, interactive fiction, e-mail and SMS novels, kinetic poetry, locative narratives etc.) display both various artistic creeds, and a large category of software and hardware devices, because the history of electronic literature also comprises its technological background. There is an entire set of changes occuring when the text leaps from the flat page of the printed book to the interactive environment of the screen, and literary theory combines with new media theory to outline these new openings of the literary field.

 Keywords: electronic literature, interactive fiction, reading, interaction.

• Birkerts, Sven, The Gutenberg Elegies. The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age, Faber and Faber, USA, 1995.
• Hayles, Katherine, Electronic Literature: What is It?, 2007, disponibil la http://eliterature.org/pad/elp.html, accesat la 22 august, 2011.
• Hayles, Katherine, “The Time of Digital Poetry: From Object to Event” in New Media Poetics: Contexts, Technotexts, and Theories, ed. Adelaide Morris and Thomas Swiss (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2006), pp. 181-210.
• Montfort, Nick, Wardrip-Fruin, Noah, Acid-Free Bits. Recommendations for Long-lasting Electronic Literature, disponibil la http://eliterature.org/pad/afb.html, accesat la 24 noiembrie, 2011.
• Murray, Janet, Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in the Cyberspace, MIT Press, 1998
• Pulizzi, James, Machine Intelligence and Electronic Literaturei, disponibil la http://newhorizons.eliterature.org/essay.php@id=9.html, accesat la 29 noiembrie, 2011.
• Rettberg, Scott, Dada Redux:Elements of Dadaist Practice in Contemporary Electronic Literature, publicat în The Fibreculture Journal, 2008, disponibil la http://eleven.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-071-dada-redux-elements-of-dadaist-practice-in-contemporary-electronic-literature/, accesat la 12 decembrie, 2011.

Ioan Budai-Deleanu, at times within an unfaithful reading

Ioan Budai-Deleanu is one of the most important Romanian writers of all times. His fundamental work, Ţiganiada, is a writing of a European value, owing to the use of some formulas, prosodic methods and famous themes from ancient and medieval literature. Ioan Budai-Deleanu has founded the literature of imagology in Romanian culture. Psychologically, sometimes it modelled upon a farcical humour, but, fundamentally, it was a humour of a constructive essence, whose value would be equaled much later, in Ion Luca Caragiale’s well-known writing.

The present article reveals just a few of the most significant mistakes that the authors of the edition, Gheorghe Chivu and Eugen Pavel, have done while working. Exceedingly regrettable are those from Ţiganiada, which has more than twenty editions so far. Despite this experience, after almost a century and a half since the first edition, the poem has been drowned by linguistic errors, which have degraded the authors’ achievement.

Keywords: Ioan Budai-Deleanu, transcribed text, manuscript, linguistic errors, edition

• Ion Budai-Deleanu, Opere. Ţiganiada. Trei viteji. Scrieri lingvistice. Scrieri istorice. Traduceri. Ediţie îngrijită, cronologie, note şi comentarii, glosar şi repere critice de Gheorghe Chivu şi Eugen Pavel. Studiu introductiv de Eugen Simion, Academia Română, Fundaţia Naţională pentru Ştiinţă şi Artă, Colecţia „Opere fundamentale“, Bucureşti, 2011.

One Hundred Years Later, Caragiale is Still with Us!

The growing wealth of information on I. L. Caragiale may both baffle researchers and exhaustively illuminate some of the most intriguing aspects of his drama.Even if researchers are reluctant to consider Caragiale as being representative of the Theater of the Absurd, one cannot ignore the refined way in which the dramatist approached the grotesque, whom he granted a superior, spiritualized dimension. While observing the world’s intrinsic monstrosity, the dramatist considered it as a perennial characteristic of social laws whose mechanisms have got out of control, affecting nonplussed people exhibiting an amazing adaptation to the times. The present paper analyzes several such situations and characters and draws several analogies between Caragiale’s drama and the Theater of the Absurd.

Keywords: I. L. Caragiale, theater, characters, theater directors, the Theater of the Absurd

• I.L. Caragiale, Oare teatrul este literatură?, în Opere, vol. IV, Bucureşti, Editura pentru Literatură, 1965.
• L. Caragiale, Scrisoare către Petre Th. Missir, apud Florin Manolescu, Caragiale şi Caragiale, Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, 1983.
• Ştefan Cazimir, I. L. Caragiale faţă cu kitschul, Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, 1988.
• Constantinescu, Caragiale şi începuturile teatrului european modern, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1974.
• Elvin, Modernitatea clasicului I. L. Caragiale, Bucureşti, Editura pentru Literatură, 1977.
• Fanache, Caragiale, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Dacia, 1997.
• Eugen Ionescu, Note şi contranote, apud B. Elvin, Modernitatea clasicului I. L. Caragiale, Bucureşti, Editura pentru Literatură, 1977.
• Silvian Iosifescu, Introducere, I. L. Caragiale, Opere, Vol. I, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1971.
• Liviu Papadima, Caragiale, fireşte, Bucureşti, Editura Fundaţiei Culturale Române, 1999.
• Camil Petrescu, apud Dumitru Solomon, Teatrul ca metaforă, Bucureşti, Editura Eminescu, 1976.
• Anca-Maria Rusu, Cercurile concentrice ale absurdului, Iaşi, Editura Timpul, 1999.
• Ion Vartic, I. L. Caragiale, Temă şi variaţiuni — momente, schiţe, amintiri, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Dacia, 1988.

Figures of sublime in Lucian Blaga’s aesthetics and philosophy

The following paper will present and discuss some of the main features of the aesthetic category of sublime and the manner in which they are reflected by certain philosophical texts belonging to Lucian Blaga. Divided into three parts, the presentation below will focus at first on a diachronic perspective of sublime, dealing with some representative approaches. Afterwards it will reveal and comment upon several concepts from Blaga’s philosophical theories which are based on contradictory forces and strains out of the common perception. The final part integrates the previous discussion into a larger paradigm and aims to demonstrate the antimodernity of Lucian Blaga’s literature, having as a basis Antoine Compagnon’s study, Les Antimodernes.

Keywords: aesthetics, sublime, Lucian Blaga, philosophy, Antoine Compagnon, antimodernity.

Works

• Blaga, Lucian, Opera poetică / Poetical work, ed. by George Gană and Dorli Blaga, pref. by George Gană, Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 2007.
• Idem, Artă şi valoare / Art and value in Opere / Works, vol. X (Trilogia valorii / The trilogy of value), ed. by Dorli Blaga, introd. study by Alexandru Tănase, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1987.
• Idem, Filozofia stilului / The philosophy of style, Munchen, I.D.V., 1986.
• Idem, Orizont şi stil / Horizon and style, in Opere / Works, vol. IX (Trilogia culturii / The trilogy of culture), ed. by Dorli Blaga, introd. study by Alexandru Tănase, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1985.
• Idem, Opere / Works, vol. 1, Poezii antume / Anthumous poems, ed. and introd. study by George Gană, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1982.
• Idem, Daimonion, in Opere / Works, vol. VII (Eseuri / Essays), ed. by Dorli Blaga, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1980.
• Idem, Feţele unui veac / The faces of a century, in Opere / Works, vol. VII (Eseuri / Essays), ed. by Dorli Blaga, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1980.

Studies

• Burke, Edmund, Despre sublim şi frumos. Cercetare filosofică a originii ideilor / On sublime and beautiful. A philosophical inquiry on the origins of ideas, transl. by Anda Teodorescu and Andrei Bantaş, pref. by Dan Grigorescu, Bucureşti, Editura Meridiane, 1981.
• Compagnon, Antoine, Antimodernii. De la Joseph de Maistre la Roland Barthes / The antimoderns. From Joseph de Maistre to Roland Barthes, transl. by Irina Mavrodin, Adina Diniţoiu, pref. by Mircea Martin, Bucureşti, Editura Art, 2008.
• Kant, Immanuel, Critica facultăţii de judecare / The critique of the power of judgment, transl. by Vasile Dem Zamfirescu, Alexandru Surdu, Constantin Noica, Bucureşti, Editura Trei, 1995.
• Idem, Observaţii asupra sentimentului de frumos şi sublim / Observations on  the feeling of the beautiful and sublime, transl., introd. study, notes, bibliography, index by Rodica Croitoru, Bucureşti, Editura All, 2008.
• Ianoşi, Ion, Sublimul în estetică / The sublime in aesthetics, Bucureşti, Editura Meridiane, 1983.
• Rusu, Liviu, Logica frumosului / The logics of the beautiful, Bucureşti, Editura pentru Literatură Universală, 1968.
• Vianu, Tudor, Mihai Eminescu, prefaţă Al. Dima, Iaşi, Editura Junimea, 1974.

Mircea Ivănescu. The radicalization of absolute discretion

The following text represents a commentary of the first collection of Mircea Ivănescu’s posthumous poems. It has been said repeatedly that Mircea Ivănescu’s poetry knows no evolution and no variation at all, it is exquisite and monotonous from its first public manifestations at the end of the fifties to the last poems published in 2000. Even though undoubtedly true in what regards its exquisite quality, this critical cliché must be adjusted or, even best, refuted in what concerns the monotony and the lack of variation – these posthumous poems display from time to time a surprising radicalization of what I have called in my book on Mircea Ivănescu „the absolute discretion” of his poetry. Thus, Ivănescu’s poetry do has an evolution – if not in quality, at least in its ascendant tone: from the initial diminuendo, its inner tragic force is revealed openly by the rinforzando of the later poems.
Keywords: contemporary Romanian poetry, generation 1960, biographism, confessional poetry, bookish vs. biographic, radicalization of absolute discretion

• Alexandru Cistelecan (coord.), Mircea Ivănescu 80, Piteşti, Paralela 45, 2011
• Alexandru Cistelecan, Mircea Ivănescu. Micromonografie / Mircea Ivănescu. A micro-monograph, Braşov, Aula, 2003
• James Dickey, The Suspect in Poetry, The Sixties Press, 1964
• T.S. Eliot, On Poetry and Poets, Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2009
• Mircea Ivănescu, cele mai frumoase poezii, selected with a foreword by Gabriel Liiceanu, Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2012
• Mircea Ivănescu, versuri poeme poesii altele aceleaşi vechi nouă, selected with a foreword by Matei Călinescu, Polirom, Iaşi, 2003
• Gabriel Liiceanu, Măştile lui M.I. / M.I.’s Masks, Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2012.
• Ralph J. Mills Jr, Creation’s Very Self: On the Personal Element in Recent American Poetry, in Essays on Poetry, Dalkey Archive Press, 2003
• Andrei Terian, Mircea Ivănescu: neptunic şi plutonic / Mircea Ivănescu: the Neptunic and the Plutonic, in Alexandru Cistelecan (coord.), Mircea Ivănescu 80, Piteşti, Paralela 45, 2011
• Tudor Vianu, Goethe şi timpul nostru / Goethe and our time, in Secolul 20, no. 259-260-261, 1982
• Tudor Vianu, Goethe şi timpul nostru / Goethe and our time, in Gândirea, year XII, 1932, no. 3

The Memory of a Surviver (The Dialogic Principle as Autobiographical Strategy in Radu Cosaşu’s Writings)

The purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between intertextual and autobiographical memory in Radu Cosaşu’s work (undoubtedly one of the most interesting in Romanian contemporary literature).

Starting from the assumption that almost every book that he has written carries the stamp of what we might call a “dialogical” dialectics (in Mihail Bahtin’s terms), we will try to reveal some specific characteristics and paradoxes of this case, stressing especially on the author’s quest of preserving his inner freedom, along with the ultimate meaning of some “realms of memory”. In this context, the act of reading plays a crucial part, since the books of the past (especially those written during the period between wars – an almost mythical reference for the Romanian intellectuals), were considered able to offer their readers the possibility of escaping the external constraints of the sombre reality of the totalitarian era. Consequently, Mateiu Caragiale’s novel, Craii de Curtea Veche (Old-Court Philanderers) or Camil Petrescu’s Patul lui Procust (The Procustean Bed), for instance, turned into some sort of fixed marks for our refined reader/writer, eager to break free into o protective space, at the same time “real” and imaginary.

Besides, departing from the investigation of these individual defense mechanisms in Radu Cosaşu’s autobiographical prose, we can envisage the possibility of building a connection between autobiography and collective memory.

Keywords: intertextual memory, autobiographical quest, identity, reading

• Bakhtin, M.M., The Dialogic Imagination. Four Essays, ed. by Michael Holquist; trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist, University of Texas Press, 2006, 446 p.
• Cosaşu, Radu, Ficţionarii. Supravieţuiri IV [The Fictionaries. Survivals IV], Bucureşti, Cartea Românească, 1983, 208 p.
• Cosaşu, Radu, Sonatine [Tiny Sonatas], Bucureşti, Cartea Românească, 1987, 247 p.
• Cosaşu, Radu, Opere I [Works I], Iaşi, Polirom, 2008, 540 p.
• Cosaşu, Radu, Opere IV [Works IV], Iaşi, Polirom, 2011, 486 p.
• Eakin, Paul John, Fictions in Autobiography. Studies in the Art of Self Invention, Princeton University Press, 1985, 288 p.
• Lejeune, Philippe, On Autobiography, edited and with a foreword by P.J. Eakin, trans. by Katherine Leary, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1989, 290 p.
• Neculau, Adrian, Memoria pierdută. Eseuri de psihosociologia schimbării [The Lost Memory. Essays on Psycho-Sociology of Change], Iaşi, Polirom, 1999, 200 p.
• Thom, Françoise, Limba de lemn [The Newspeak], trad. din franceză de Mona Antohi, studiu introductiv de Sorin Antohi, Bucureşti, Humanitas, 2005, 248 p.
• Zafiu, Rodica, Naraţiune şi poezie [Narativity and Poetry], Bucureşti, Editura All, 2000, 354 p.
• Zamfir, Mihai, Ironia contemporană: condiţia ei stilistică [Contemporary Irony: Its Stylistic Dimension]. În Viaţa Românească, nr. 7-8/ 1978.

The Healing

Andrei Bodiu continues his studies on the Romanian novel, analyzing this time the most recent work of Ovidiu Moceanu, The Confession. Novel with 30 Windows. After a brief presentation of Moceanu’s work in prose, Andrei Bodiu integrates the novel published in 2012 in what he calls the novel of the double experience, which means the exploration the communist and the post-communist worlds. After integrating the novel in this tipology, Bodiu comments on the originality of the book in the context of the Romanian contemporary novel pointing out the story of the main character Valer Cărpinişa.

Keywords: contemporary Romanian literature, generation 80, contemporary novel, Ovidiu Moceanu, novel of the double experience

• Moceanu, Ovidiu, Spovedania. Roman cu 30 de ferestre/ The Confession. Novel with 30 Windows, Cluj, Casa Cărţii de Ştiinţă, 2012.
• Moceanu Ovidiu, Povestiri cu uşa deschisă/ Storries with An Open Door, Braşov, ed. Aula, 2009.
• Cimpoeşu, Petru, Simion liftincul/ Simion the „liftinc”, Bucureşti, ed. Compania 2000.
• Crăciun, Gheorghe, Pupa Russa/ The Matryoska Doll, Bucureşti, ed.Humanitas, 2004.
• Petreu, Marta, Acasă, pe Cîmpia Armaghedonului/ At Home, on the Fields of Armagheddon, Iaşi, Polirom, 2011.

Crime fiction: the 20^th century’s genre

Crime fiction is a growing and extremely popular contemporary genre. In England, France and Scandinavia this genre had a great development in the 20^th century. In France crime fiction has chanced from being classified as a genre mineur to be recognized as an important part of its patrimoine culturel. In Germany crime fiction became better known and loved in the second half of the 20^th century, when the novel escaped the traditional pattern and came to be a critic of the society and political life.

Keywords: novel, crime fiction, genre

• Glauser, Friedrich: Dada, Ascona und andere Erinnerungen. Arche, Zürich 1976.
• Gur, Batya, Denn die Seele ist in deiner Hand, Goldmann Verlag, 2003.
• Ritzel, Ulrich, Internet Seite http://www.libelle.ch/backlist/909081868.html.
• Schweikle Günther, Schweikle Irmgard, Metzler Literatur Lexikon: Begriffe und Definitionen, J.B. Metzler Verlag Stuttgart, 1990.
• Schneiders, Ulla, Grüne Wasser sind tief, Piper Taschenbuch, 2004.
• Vogt, Jochen (Hrsg.): Der Kriminalroman: Poetik – Theorie – Geschichte, Fink Verlag München, 1998.

The Myth Of The Greeks Gifts In The Medieval Historiography

The study wants to present why I consider Vergilius phrase Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes a historiographical myth. It was used especially by the Latin chroniclers from the 11^th and 12^th centuries as a mental preparation for the conquering of the Byzantine Empire. Vergilius phrase is turning out along other denigrating epithets into a cliché of the medieval clerics who wanted to justify their aggressive actions against the Eastern Empire. The Latin chroniclers related to this ancient myth of the poisoned gifts offered by the Greeks only to underline why their ideological approach was fully entitled. Their mental preparation needed an ideological substrate to explain their legitimate military actions against Byzantium. This has been found in the myth of the “dangerous Greeks gifts”. To legitimate their attack, the Western chroniclers needed something to rely on and to justify it. And it was found in this antiquity myth about the cunning Greeks.

Keywords: gifts, anti-Byzantine, Latins, myth, chroniclers, Normans, clergy, Constantinople, Vergilius.

Sources

• Aimé, Du Mont-Cassin, Histoire de li Normant, Paris, 1921.
• Albert, von Aachen, Geschichte des ersten Kreuzzuges, I. Die Eroberung des heiligen Landes, II. Das Königreich Jerusalem, Jena, 1923.
• Anna, Comnena, Alexiada, Bucureşti, 1977.
• Ansbert, Der Kreuzzug Friedrich Barbarossas 1187-1190, tr. Bühler, Stuttgart, 2003.
• Bernard, de Clairvaux, De Consideratione. Book of Ceremonies, London, 1982.
• Gesta Francorum, Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolymitanorum, ed. & tr. R. Hill, London, 1962.
• Guibert, de Nogent, Geste de Dieu par les Francs, Paris, 1998.
• Guillaume, de Tyr, Chronique. Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, Brepols, 1986.
• Historia Peregrinorum, in: A. Chroust, Quellen zur Geschichte des Kreuzzugs Kaiser Friedrichs I., Berlin, 1928.
• Malaterra, Gaufredus, De rebus gestis Rogerii Calabriae et Siciliae comitis et Roberti Guiscardi Ducis fratris eius, Bologna, 1928.
• Niketas, Choniates, Historia, ed. J. Dieten, Berlin, 1975.
• Odo, de Deuil, La croisade de Loius VII. roi de France, ed. Henry Waquet, Paris, 1949.
• Orderic, Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History Of Orderic Vitalis, IV., ed. Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford, 1980.
• Raoul, de Caen, Histoire de Tancrède, Paris, 1935.
• Raymond, de Aguilers, Le Liber de Raymond d’ Aguilers (Raimundes Agilaeus), ed. & tr. John Hugh Hill, Paris, 1978.
• Robert, de Clari, La Conquête de Constantinople, ed. Philippe Lauer, Paris, 1924.
• Robert, the Monk, Gesta Francorum, ed. Rosalind Hill, Oxford, 1967.
• Robertus, de Monte Sanctis Michaelis, The Gesta Normannorum Of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis And Robert Of Torigni, Oxford, 1995.
• Virgilius, P.Maro, Eneida, Bucureşti, 1978.
• William, de Apulia, La geste de Robert Guiscard, tr. Marguerite Mathieu, Palermo, 1961.

Specialized studies 

• Beck, Hans-Georg, Byzanz und der Westen im 12. Jahrhundert; in: Vorträge und Forschungen, 12, Konstanz, 1969, p. 227-241.
• Guillou, André, La Civilisation byzantine, Paris, 1990.
• Harster, Wilhelm, Walther von Speyer. Ein Dichter des X. Jahrhunderts, Berlin, 1907.
• Kindlimann, Sibyll, Die Eroberung von Konstantinopel als politische Förderung des Westens im Hochmittelalter, Zürich, 1969.
• Peden, Alison, Unity, Order, And Ottonian Kingship In The Thought of Abbo of Fleury; in: Belief and Culture in the Middle Ages: Studies Presented to Henry Mayr-Harting. Ed. Henry Mayr-Harting, Henrietta Leyser and Richard Gameson ,Oxford, 2001, p.129-154.
• Shepard, Jonathan, When Greek Meets Greek: Alexius Comnenus And Bohemund In 1097-1098; in: Byzantine And Modern Greek Studies, 12, 1988, p. 185-257.
• Wynn Williams, Watkin, The Correspondence Between Peter the Venerable And Bernard Of Clairvaux, 2002.

The Beginning of The Women Emancipation Movement in Transylvania and in other Romanian Territories (the nineteenth century)

The present study deals with the beginnig of the Women Emancipation Movement in Transylvania and in other Romanian territories (the nineteenth century) and with its crucial impact on The Feminist Movement in Romania’s history. There were numerous female personalities that coordinated the struggle for recognition and acquisition of women rights, at that time, such as: Ana Ipătescu, Maria Rosetti, Elena Cuza, Pelaghia Roşu, Sevastiţa Bălcescu, Zoe Golescu, Elena Ghica (Dora d`Istria), Sofia Cocea Chrisoscoleu, Constanţa Dunca Schiau, Maria Flechtenmacher, Adela Xenopol, Ella Negruzzi, Sofia Nădejde, Eugenia de Reuss Ianculescu, Nelly Cornea etc. They founded and coordinated various publications, associations and societies in order to awake from lethargy and activate a great mass of women, in urban areas. Throught their studies, speeches and diplomatic actions and activities, they have succeeded in convincing a great number of women about the importance of their social movement.They tried to define, establish and defend equal social, economic and political rights for women in Transylvania and in The Romanian Principalities.

Keywords: The nineteenth century, The Women Emancipation Movement, Transylvania, The Romanian Principalities, urban areas, women status, women rights, the concept of feminism.

• *** În chestia inferiorităţii. (Inferiority issues). În: Buletinul Ligii Femeilor (secţiunea Iaşi), anul I, nr.5, octombrie 1895 – articol semnat “Crivăţi”.
• *** Omul romantic.(Romantic Man).Iaşi, Editura Polirom, 2000.
• Bălcescu, Nicolae. articol. În: Foaie pentru Minte, Inimă şi Literatură, anul VIII, nr. 5/28 ianuarie 1846, p.33.
• Cornea, Nelly. Femeia şi civilizaţia. (Women and civilization). În: rev. Dochia, anul II, nr.10, februarie 1898.
• Cornea, Nelly. Ce-i feminismul? (What is Feminism?). În: rev.Drepturile femeii, anul II/ mai 1913.
• Flechtenmacher, Maria. Despre Legea Telegrafistelor. (On Telegraph Female Workers’Law). În: revista Femeia Română, anul III, nr.207, 14 septembrie 1880. Heliade-Rădulescu, Ion. articol. În: Curier de Ambe Sexe, 1837, nr.2, p.43-48.
• Ianculescu, Eugenia (de Reuss). Drepturile femeii. (Women’s Rights).În: rev. Drepturile femeii, anul I, nr.7, iulie 1912.
• Mihăilescu, Ştefania. Din istoria feminismului românesc. (From the History of Romanian  Feminism). Antologie de texte (1838 – 1929. Iaşi, Editura Polirom, 2002.
• Nădejde, Sofia. Libertatea femeii în prelegerea d-lui Missir. (Women’s Freedom in Mr. Missir’s Speech). În: rev. Contemporanul, 1882/1883, anul II, nr. 18, p.712-717.
• Nădejde, Sofia. Studentele. (The Female Students). În: rev. Contemporanul, anul V, nr. 11 mai 1887, p. 477 – 479.
• Nădejde, Sofia. Şicane bărbăteşti. (Wickedness from Men). În: rev. Contemporanul, anul III, nr. 8, 1883, p.312-315.
• Popescu, Liliana. Condiţia femeii în secolul XIX- începutul secolului.(Condition of Women in the nineteenth century-early twentieth century).Art.disponibil la adresa de web http://ebooks.unibuc.ro/istorie/ciupala/conditiafemeii.htm, accesat la 14 august 2008 şi la 9 octombrie 2011.
• Xenopol, Adela. Drepturile Femeii.(Women’s Rights). În: revista Dochia, anul I, nr.3, iulie 1896.

Samuel von Brukenthal, who was the governor of Transylvania between 1777 – 1787, was also a great collector of many things, not only paintings, weapons or stones but also books. At his death in 1803 his collection of books was about 16000 . Nowadays the collection is about 300000. Among them there are a lot of illustrated ones. The present work deals with these kind of books with a stress on rococo books. There are presented some interesting and beautifully illustrated ones belonging to the 18^th century; the most of them being printed in France. There are also brought a lot of information about the author, the edition and the artists that engraved the illustrations for each and every book.

We wanted to draw the attention upon the great and beautiful collection of illustrated books belonging to the Brukenthal Library in Sibiu.

Keywords: Brukenthal, library, books, rococo, ornaments

• Bénézit, E. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintre, sculpteurs, dessenateurs et graveurs, Grűnd, 1999, în 14 vol.
• Flocon, Albert, Universul cărţilor,, Bucureşti, 1976
• Graesse, Jean George Theodore, Trėsore de livres rares et precieux ou Nouveau Dictionnaire Bibliographique, Dresde, Geneve, Londres, Paris, 1859-1869, în 6 vol şi supliment
• Jugăreanu, Veturia, Biblioteca Muzeului Brukenthal din Sibiu, Bucureşti, 1957
• Jugăreanu, Veturia, Cartea rococo din Biblioteca Brukenthal în Revista muzeelor, nr. 1/1970
• Klima, H, Guvernatorii Transilvaniei (1774 – 1867), Sibiu, 1943
• Nagler, G. K., Neues all gemeines Kunstler – lexicon oder nachrichten vom dem leben und werken der Maler, Bilhauer, Baumeister, Kupfersterher, Lithographen, Formschneider, Zeichner, Madailleur, Elfembeinarbeiter, barveit, 3 auflage. leipzig, 1835 – 1852, în 25 vol.
• The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition, Chicago, Aukland, London, Madrid, Manila, Paris, Rome, Seoul, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, 1994, în 29 vol.

Foreign chrematonyms in Romania: a sign of globalisation?

Names of institutions (organisations, corporations, restaurants, pubs etc.) or things in the field of culture, commerce, politics or economics are closely related to the pragmatic dimensions of the message transmitted. These names are labelled as chrematonyms. Some of them are used in a culture, but related to another. They can influence people to react in a particular way, especially in the age of globalisation.

We will focus on foreign (mainly English) chrematonyms in Romania, analysing whether they represent a sign of globalisation. We will also analyse why foreign chrematonyms have gained an intensive and pervasive meaning in the Romanian society.

Keywords: chrematonyms, globalisation, culture, pragmatic dimensions

• Arvidsson, Adam (2006), Brands: Meaning and Value in Media Culture, USA and Canada: Routledge.
• Clyne, Michael “Towards an Agenda for Developing Multilingual Communication with a Community Base”, in Juliane House and Jochen Rehbein (2004), Multilingual Communication, Amsterdam: John Benjamin’s Publishing Co.
• Galkowski, Artur, the presentation La nature idiosyncrasique des chrématonymes held at the XXIV ICOS International Congress of Onomastic Sciences. Names in Daily Life, section 2, 5-9 September, 2011)
• He, Shaoyi (2007), “Internet Multilinguality: Challenges, Dimensions, and Recommendations”, in St. Amant De Kirk, Linguistic and Cultural Online Communication Issues in the Global Age, London: Information Science Reference.
• Holt, Douglas, B. (2004), How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding, Harvard: Harvard Business School Publishing.
• Kerbrat-Orecchioni, Catherine (2005), Le discourse en interaction, Armand Colin.
• Lull, James (2000), Media, Communication, Culture. A Global Approach, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Scollon, Ron and Scollon, Suzanne Wong (2001), Intercultural Communication. A Discourse Approach, 2nd edition, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd..
• Tannen, Deborah (2006), “Language and Culture” in An Introduction to Language and Linguistics, Ralph W. Fasold and Jeff Connor-Linton, New York: Cambridge University Press.

Corpus
1. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Toulouse-Lautrec/275500169642?sk=info, 7th of October 2011.
2. http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amsterdams, 8th of October 2011.
3. http://spunesitu.adevarul.ro/Cultura/Interviuri/Interviu-cu-Dan-Byron-%E2%80%9CA-fost-odataca-niciodata-un-tanar-rebel-si-talentat—-8757, 9th of October, 2011.
4. http://www.cluj4all.com/adrese/cultura,1/centreculturale, 8/, 10th of October, 2011.
5. http://flipflop.ro/home/2011/09/29/egretta-vsgrimus-%E2%80%93-ca-de-la-pasare-la-pasare/, 16th of October 2011.

The Cross – bridge for Resurrection: traditions and funeral monuments from Oltenia

The following book review deals with a cultural product, realized by Astra’s Sibiu Museum researchers during 2010. The main scientific direction of those ethnographic studies reveals the human attitude towards Death, in traditional Romanian culture.

Keywords: Death, cross, resurrection, the afterlife, tradition, graveyard.

• Mirela Creţu, Ovidiu Baron, coordonatori, Crucea – punte a Învierii . Tradiţii şi monumente funerare din Oltenia, Editura Astra Museum, Sibiu, 2011, 250 p.

The energetical security of the European Union. From Nabucco to South Stream

Energy need is attracting more and more attention states worldwide. Subject to natural resources is a subject list debates met daily in the international press. Encounter daily in the media or televised debate article which is related to the global energy market. The present paper is trying to show which project, whether the Nabucoo or the South Stream project is more reliable for Romania and the European Union and which are the advantages or the disadvanteges of each project. Certain analysts, whom are in favour of the Nabucco project, say that the South Stream project proposed by the Russian Federation is only trying to make the European Union more dependent to the gas reserves coming from there. An alternative, such as the Nabucco project, would be much more interesting for the Eu because it would grow its political and energetical independence from the Russian Federation.

Keywords: Nabucco, South Stream, European Union, energetical independence, alternative energy

• Barry Commoner, The Politic of Energy, New York, 1979;
• Constantin Mostoflei, Dr. Nicolae Dolghin, Studii de Securitate și Aparare./Security and defense studies Vol. I, Ed. Universităţii Naţionale de Apărare, Bucureşti, 2005;
• Cristian Băhnăreanu, Securitatea energetică,/ Energetical security Editura Universităţii Naţionale de Apărare „Carol I”, Bucureşti, 2008;
• François Massoulié, Conflictele din Orientul Mijlociu,/The Middle East conflicts Editura All, Bucureşti 2003;
• Gratiela Catalina Livietta Buru, Strategii energetice ale UE și proiectul Nabucco, /Energetical styrategies of the EU and the Nabucco Project, Academia Română, Institutul Naţional de Cercetări Economice, vol. 381-382, Bucureşti, 2009;
• Ion Roşu-Hamzescu, Criza energetică sau criza de tehnologii,/The energetical crise and the technology crise, Ed. Scrisul Românesc, 1984;
• Marian Marinescu, PERSPECTIVE ALE SECURITĂŢII ŞI APĂRĂRII ÎN EUROPA, / Perepectives of security and defense in Europe, 19-20.11.2009, vol I, Bucuresti, Centrul de Studii Strategice de Apărare şi Securitate, Universitatea Nationala de Aparare, „CAROL I”,p. 331, accesat la data de 30.05.2012
• Nabli Mustapha Kamel, Breaking the barriers to highest economic growth, Ed. Washington D.C., The World Bank, 2007;
• Paula Daniela Gânga, Relatia Uniunea Europeana-Rusia. Problema Energetică, /The raltion Eu- Russia. The energetical problem, Institutul European, Iasi, 2010, p. 122;
• Paul Dimo, Sistemul energetic planetar,/ The planetary energetical system, Ed. Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, Bucuresti, 1988;
• Teodor Frunzeti, Vladimir Zodian, Lumea 2007,/The world 2007, Ed. Centrului Tehnic-Editorial al Armatei, Bucureşti, 2007;