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6-7 / 2022

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Featured Transilvania 6-7-2022
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Revista: Transilvania
Anul Publicarii:2022
Print ISSN: 0255-0539

Științe socio-umane

Arte vizuale

Filozofie și studii sociale

Antropologie și etnologie

Sociologie

Științe politice & juridice

Istorie & Antropologie

Studii culturale

“…and Gypsies get many a beating…”: On the Significance of Radu Jude’s Aferim!

Autor: Andrei GORZO, Veronica LAZĂR
Email: andrei.gorzo@unatc.ro

Abstract: The article offers an in-depth analysis of Radu Jude’s 2015 film Aferim!. It considers the film as a revisionist take on the Romanian tradition of historical cinema. It discusses Aferim!’s originality as a depiction of the origins of contemporary Romanian anti-Roma racism. It analyzes Jude’s artistic strategies—for instance, his lavish and playful deployment of literary and cinematic quotation. The paper also addresses the film’s reception in Romania. It goes on to discuss two stage productions in which Jude has further explored issues of racism.

Keywords: Radu Jude, New Romanian Cinema, Aferim!, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, The Controversy of Valladolid, anti-Roma racism, slavery, historical films.

Citation suggestion: Gorzo, Andrei, and Veronica Lazăr. “‘…and Gypsies get many a beating…’: On the Significance of Radu Jude’s Aferim!.” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 1-11..

https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.01.

Materialism dialectic și istoric în comunismul românesc (II)

Autor: Alex CISTELECAN
Email: altcistelecan@gmail.com

Dialectical and Historical Materialism in Romanian Communism (II)

Abstract: The article (published in 2 parts) analyzes the expression and development of Marxist philosophy in communist Romania, as seen in the evolution of the official handbooks and courses of dialectical materialism and historical materialism. Its first part looked at the original Marxian foundations (Marx and Engels’ views on metaphilosophy and their actual philosophical practice), the Soviet mediations (the institutional and conceptual reconfigurations of Soviet Marxist philosophy until the death of Stalin) and the initial local Romanian configuration, as seen in the first two editions of the handbooks, published in the early 1950s and early 1960s respectively. The second part of the article follows this evolution further, up to 1989, and concludes by formulating a series of observations on the uses and abuses of Marxist philosophy in communist Romania.

Keywords: Dialectical Materialism, Historical Materialism, Marxism, State Socialism, Romanian Communism.

Citation suggestion: Cistelecan, Alex. “Materialism dialectic și istoric în comunismul românesc (II).” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 14-23.

https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.02.

Mercurialul denumirilor stradale: restructurările spațiului simbolic în Sibiul postbelic, 1945-1948

Autor: Mihai S. RUSU
Email: mihai.rusu@ulbsibiu.ro

Street Names Mercurial: Restructuring the Symbolic Space in Postwar Sibiu, 1945-1948

Abstract: In order to achieve their functional purpose – that of organizing the urban landscape and helping locating people and geographical objectives through an efficient addressing system – street names are bound to remain stable spatial landmarks. On the other hand, street names are also semiotic devices of signifying space with the political and commemorative agenda of the ruling power. This latter characteristic renders them vulnerable to successive renaming following important power-shifts and especially regime changes. What happens when the ideological imperative of politicizing the street nomenclature undermines its functional requirement of providing spatial orientation through extensive renaming? Such a tensional situation is examined in the case of postwar Sibiu between 1945 and 1948, when the city endured a thorough redefinition of its toponymy under the political regime of communist “popular democracy” in Romania. The paper quantifies the scope of toponymic revision and then evaluates the content of these street name changes in terms of three major concepts: class, ethnicity, and gender. Grounded on the results of this analysis, the paper advances the notion of “mercurial street names”. It concludes by arguing that such a concept should complement the existing metaphoricity underpinning the scholarship in place-name studies, which draw on “text”, “discourse”, and “palimpsest” to conceive of the processes of street (re)naming.

Keywords: street names, communism, toponymy, gender, ethnicity.

Citation suggestion: Rusu, Mihai. “Mercurialul denumirilor stradale: restructurările spațiului simbolic în Sibiul postbelic, 1945-1948.” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 24-34.

https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.03.

Biblioteconomie

Științele limbii

Sharing vs. quoting: știrile false și responsabilitatea morală

Autor: Simina-Maria TERIAN
Email: simina.terian@ulbsibiu.ro

Sharing vs. quoting: fake news and moral responsability

Abstract: The aim of this article is to analyze the relationship between the spread of fake news across social media and moral responsibility. To this end, my study conducts a detailed comparison between the act of social media sharing and a similar, even more traditional communication practice, namely quoting. The conclusion of the research is that, as with quoting, the spread of fake news through sharing entails the moral responsibility of the distributor, since the purpose of both operations is to grant readers access to information that is difficult to verify rather than require them to verify the accuracy of said information on their own.

Keywords: fake news, sharing, quoting, moral responsibility.

Citation suggestion: Terian, Simina-Maria. “Sharing vs. quoting: știrile false și responsabilitatea morală.” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 116-119. https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.14.

Foreignness in the Nineteenth Century Romanian Novel (1845-1900): From Semantic Valences to Specific Markers of Novelistic Subgenres

Autor: David MORARIU
Email: david.morariu@ulbsibiu.ro

Foreignness in the Nineteenth Century Romanian Novel (1845-1900): From Semantic Valences to Specific Markers of Novelistic Subgenres

Abstract: This paper operates with the archive of digitized texts (about 150 novels published between 1845 and 1900) offered by the project ASTRA Data Mining: The Digital Museum of the 19th Century Romanian Novel. By identifying the occurrences for the term “străin” (“foreign/er”; “strange/r”) and its entire lexical family, the study intends to prove that there is a strong correlation between linguistic signs and literary concepts. More precisely, my survey finds its starting point in the methodology developed by Ryan Heuser and Long Le-Khac. The two researchers use the pair of notions “signal/concept,” where “signal” means “any number of things that are readily tracked computationally” and “concept” represents “the phenomenon that we take a signal to stand for, or the phenomenon we take the signal to reveal,” in order to explain their working method. This precisely is the main reason why I have chosen to classify the occurrences of my key-word based on their semantic valence and to discuss semantic variation as an important indicator in trying to delineate different types of literary discourse and the novelistic subgenres. Lastly, my paper intends to provide a complete ad litteram image of “foreignness” as it occurs in the nineteenth-century Romanian novel. This image will be formed based on the meanings (“implicit” and “explicit” meaning, according to Teun A. van Dijk’s delineation) of the terms that comprise the lexical family for my key-word and on the context (the “micro-” and “macrocontext”) in which these words occur as well.

Keywords: ad litteram image of “foreignness,” lexical family, nineteenth-century Romanian novel, semantic valence, semantic variation, subgenres of novel.

Citation suggestion: Morariu, David. “Foreignness in the Nineteenth Century Romanian Novel (1845-1900): From Semantic Valences to Specific Markers of Novelistic Subgenres” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 120-135. https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.15.

Ce este o limbă de circulație internațională? Puncte de plecare pentru o discuție viitoare

Autor: Georgiana UNGUREANU
Email: georgiana.ungureanu@ulbsibiu.ro

What Is An International Language? Starting Points for a Further Discussion

Abstract: In the current context of globalization, the use of a widely known linguistic code becomes a requirement for maintaining the economic, political and trading relations between different nations around the world. Considering the phenomenal spread of the English language that contributed to its qualification as a “global language”, the aim of this paper is to establish what makes a language to be international. To this purpose, I discuss different sets of criteria elaborated by various researchers and I argue that the main test for classifying a language as “international” is not the mere number of its speakers, but the number of users who learn to speak it in an unconditional manner, i.e., the extension of what linguists call its “area of influence”.

Keywords: international language, global, foreign speakers, influence area, functional power.

Citation suggestion: Ungureanu, Georgiana. “Ce este o limbă de circulație internațională? Puncte de plecare pentru o discuție viitoare” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 136-139. https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.16.

Cu privire la cuvântul fapt

Autor: Monica BORȘ
Email: monica.bors@ulbsibiu.ro

Concerning the Word fapt

Abstract: The article studies some occurences in which the word fapt (fact), derived from the Latin perfect passive participle factum, works with verbal and substantive value, as well as the contexts in which it has the meaning of spell. After a history of the term, which documents the transition from the etymological form fapt to the analogical form făcut (made), the article analyses the absolute transitive status of the verb to make and the semantic recovery of the unexpressed direct complement in certain syntactic patterns. The examples taken from the folklore material collected by Grigore Tocilescu, Simeon Florea Marian, Tudor Pamfile, I. Jarnik, Andrei Bârseanu highlight that the intended meaning, that of spell, appears in both nominal forms (analogous and etymological) and only in the analogical verbal form.

Keywords: linguistics, semantcs, Romanian language, origins of words. Citation suggestion: Borș, Monica. “Cu privire la cuvântul fapt.” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 140-145. https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.17.

Științele economice

Antropologie. Studii filozofice

Teologie

Studii literare

„Geniul” la Eminescu și „geniul” lui Eminescu. Problemă cosmologică și afacere național(ist)ă (II)

Autor: Teodora DUMITRU
Email: teodoralilianadumitru@gmail.com

The Genius in Eminescu and Eminescu’s Genius: The Cosmologic Problem and the National(ist) Affair (II)

Abstract: In this paper I investigate how the interpretation of the Romantic poet Mihai Eminescu’ work verifies the European transition from a rationalist conception of “genius” (according to which “genius” is a phenomenon subjected to the laws of nature/ society) to an irrationalist conception, where “genius” becomes a supernatural, transcendental, miraculous or inexplicable phenomenon.

Keywords: genius, planet, nature’s laws, cosmology, thermodinamics, entropy, nationalism, communism, postcommunism, Eminescu, romanticism, Schopenhauer, C. Dobrogeanu-Gherea, Titu Maiorescu, E. Lovinescu, G. Călinescu

Citation suggestion: Dumitru, Teodora “‘Geniul’ la Eminescu și ‘geniul’ lui Eminescu. Problemă cosmologică și afacere național(ist)ă (II).” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 35-43.

https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.04.

Postumanismul și poezia română contemporană

Autor: Emanuel LUPAȘCU
Email: emanuel.lupascu@stud.ubbcluj.ro

Posthumanism And Contemporary Romanian Poetry

Abstract: The present study aims to map the links between posthumanist theory and contemporary Romanian poetry, as well as the socio-political, economic and philosophical contexts that have made possible the emergence of a “new sensibility”, since the generation 2000 exhausts its transitive, violent-existential poetics, focused on radically biographical writing. In order to understand the dynamics of posthuman coordinates in contemporary poetry, I will analyse the two poetic trends that have evolved from a focus on the posthuman environment and from close links with digital culture to an assumed critical perspective on the exclusionary forms of humanism. My analysis is meant to highlight the posthumanist (empathetic and supportive) viewpoint, in the volumes that address identity issues both in relation to the tradition of dehumanization exercised by the canonical, white, male and heteronormative man, but also in relation to the new digital existence, and the eco direction, concerned with the ecological crisis, not just the political or social one. My interpretation approaches the way in which the “new sensibility” functions as a legitimizing principle for the posthuman/ist collective, in solidarity with marginalized, sexualized or racialized communities.

Keywords: posthumanism, contemporary literature, poetry, aestethics, post-communism.

Citation suggestion: Lupașcu, Emanuel. “Postumanismul și poezia română contemporană.” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 44-57.

https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.05.

Rewriting under Ideological Pressure: A. Fadeyev’s The Young Guard

Autor: Olga GRĂDINARU
Email: olga.gradinaru@econ.ubbcluj.ro

Rewriting under Ideological Pressure: A. Fadeyev’s The Young Guard

Abstract: The study analyses A. Fadeyev’s novel The Young Guard (1946, 1951), a political command in Stalinist era, inspired by historical events of the Second World War. Although included in the Socialist Realism canon, the novel had a difficult destiny, as it was rewritten under A. Zhdanov’s close assistance after Stalin’s critical reaction to the 1947 film adaptation. The novel may be regarded as a victim of the Soviet myth-making machine and a case of ideological fictionalization, imbued with the main Stalinist motives. The article unveils the tension between the initial creative project inspired by the anti-fascist movement in Krasnodon (1946) and the imposed party direction reflected in the second edition of the novel (1951), which became the official version of the actual events.

Keywords: A. Fadeyev’s The Young Guard, Soviet myth-making machine, Socialist Realism canon, ideological fictionalization.

Citation suggestion: Grădinaru, Olga. “Rewriting under Ideological Pressure: A. Fadeyev’s The Young Guard:” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 58-62.

https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.06.

“Grafting” Hope: The Ethics of Rewriting In Colm Tóibín’s House of Names

Autor: Ada BELEUȚĂ
Email: beleutaandreea@yahoo.com

“Grafting” Hope: The Ethics of Rewriting In Colm Tóibín’s House of Names

Abstract: : Exploring the particularities of rewriting in Irish contemporary fiction through an analysis of Colm Tóibín’s House of Names (2017) within a theoretical framework of narrative ethics, this paper argues that a function of cultural healing is actualized both within the retold story of the Oresteia and in the context of civil war violence to which the novel responds. Drawing on the work of Hanna Meretoja and Dorothy J. Hale, it suggests that a source of potential ethical power is revealed through the reworking of the ancient tragedy using the structures and techniques of the contemporary novel. Traces of differing worldviews or even ways of constructing cognitive and affective complexity determine a constant oscillation between original and rewritten that creates a space of epistemological uncertainty. Valorised through the meta-ethical affect of unverifiability conceptualised by Hale, this effect is also read in light of Meretoja’s understanding of a narrative-bound sense of possibility and the challenges that both contemporary and ancient understandings of hope or catastrophe pose to its ethically valuable expansion.

Keywords: narrative ethics; rewriting; ancient tragedy; hope; unverifiability; civil war; violence; Irish-American fiction; Colm Tóibín.

Citation suggestion: Beleuță, Ada. ““Grafting” Hope: The Ethics of Rewriting In Colm Tóibín’s House of Names.” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 63-72.

https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.07.

Devianță psihologică și stil cognitiv în Enigma Otiliei de G. Călinescu (1938)

Autor: Daniel COMAN
Email: emil.coman@ulbsibiu.ro

Psychological Deviance and Mind Style in G. Călinescu’s Enigma Otiliei (1938)

Abstract: Drawing on theoretical developments from cognitive sciences and the literary field, more specifically on concepts such as mind style, literary categorization, and prototypical distortion, in the present article, I set out to explore the relationship between literary characters and psychological deviance. In so doing, I analyze G. Călinescu’s 1938 novel Enigma Otiliei (Otilia’s Riddle) and, in the wake of several literary critics’ shared view that the novel’s characters are individuals driven by much more complex internal mechanisms than simply being based on a single social schema, I suggest that this complexity can be accounted for by the tools provided by psychopathology. Therefore, I point to the maladaptive psychological traits that the characters exhibit and to how these are projected into the character’ language, forming thus idiosincratic linguistic patterns. Finally, I argue that the author employs the narrative device of “prototypical distortion” to lampoon the characters’ deviance.

Keywords: mind style; schema-based characters; psychological deviance; prototypical distortion; comedy.

Citation suggestion: Coman, Daniel. “Devianță psihologică și stil cognitiv în Enigma Otiliei de G. Călinescu (1938)” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 73-81.

https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.08.

Problema sinuciderii la I.L. Caragiale. O interpretare a „Inspecțiunii”

Autor: Luana STROE
Email: luana.stroe@yahoo.com

The Problem of Suicide at I.L. Caragiale. An Interpretation of “The Inspection”

Abstract: Inspecțiune is one of Caragiale’s most discussed texts. In this paper, I explore some possible sources of the enigma surrounding Anghelache’s suicide. Suicide and its causes became a genuine subject of research in the second half of the 19th century. A new field of inquiry emerged then: moral statistics. Central to my discussion is one of Titu Maiorescu’s articles, published in Convorbiri literare, in which he addresses that new way of investigating suicide, starting from Enrico Morselli’s book, An Essay on Comparative Moral Statistics. It is plausible to believe that Caragiale had read Maiorescu’s article.

Keywords: I.L. Caragiale, Inspecțiune, Titu Maiorescu, moral statistics, suicide, Enrico Morselli.

Citation suggestion: Stroe, Luana. “Problema sinuciderii la I.L. Caragiale. O interpretare a ‘Inspecțiunii’.” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 82-86.

https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.09.

Aleš Šteger, Iartă. Măști și carnavaluri

Autor: Rodica GRIGORE
Email: rodica.grigore@ulbsibiu.ro

Aleš Šteger, Absolution: Masks and Carnivals

Abstract: Often considered one of the most interesting young writers of contemporary Slovenia, Aleš Šteger offers his readers a theatrical vision and he discusses from an original perspective the relationship between identity and alterity. All these aspects are obvious in his novel entitled Absolution (Odpusti – 2014), an excellent and challenging text, well received both by the general public and the literary critics. Set in Maribor, the second city of Slovenia, this novel presents the quest of Adam Bely, decided to find the truth hidden behind a very complex system of masks worn by many of its inhabitants, making up „The Great Orc”, a secret organization meant to control the city and the lives of all people there. The game of masks is complicated once more by the theatrical representation described at length in the last part of the novel, an essential fragment of Absolution, the perfect expression of the meanings of masks and carnival abounding in this extraordinary text.

Keywords: mask, carnival, identity, alterity, contemporary novel, East European literature.

Citation suggestion: Grigore, Rodica. “Aleš Šteger, Iartă. Măști și carnavaluri.” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 87-91.

https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.10.

La perle et le rubis: Incarnations de l’imaginal dans le quatrième conte des Sept Portraits de Nezâmi

Autor: Irena KRISTEVA
Email: krustevagr@uni-sofia.bg

The Pearl and the Ruby: Incarnations of Imaginal in the Fourth Story of Haft Peykar by Nezâmi

Abstract: The article is based on the hypothesis that the poetic intensity of Nezâmi’s Haft Peykar stems from the entanglement of the Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real. Our goal is to prove that this romantic epic unveils beauty through its reflection. Thus, first we pose on the structural and thematic implications of the Imaginal. Then, we seek to elucidate the symbolic meaning of the legend told by the Slavonic princess. Finally, we try to demonstrate that beauty is epiphanized through metaphorical images with symbolic value. One is the gemological metaphor, in particular that of the two par excellence gems of beauty: the pearl and the ruby. Another is the vegetable metaphor, in particular that of the two par excellence plants of beauty: the rose and the cypress.

Keywords: Haft Peykar, Imaginal, Imaginary, Nezâmi, Real, Sensible, Symbolic.

Citation suggestion: Kristeva, Irena. “La perle et le rubis: Incarnations de l’imaginal dans le quatrième conte des Sept Portraits de Nezâmi.” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 92-98.

https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.11

Ian McEwan’s Nutshell as a Contemporary Hamlet: Gender and the Hero

Autor: Alicia MURO
Email: alicia.muro@unirioja.es

Ian McEwan’s Nutshell as a Contemporary Hamlet: Gender and the Hero

Abstract: Timeless heroes such as William Shakespeare’s Hamlet embody the characteristics attributed to the tragic hero by Aristotle in his Poetics. These heroes, however, cannot find a place in our contemporary society and are in consequent need of a reevaluation. This rewriting turns the tragic hero, therefore, into an anti-hero—a figure much identified in twenty-first century culture. Ian McEwan succeeds at this reevaluation in his novel Nutshell (2016), where he adapts Shakespeare’s Hamlet into a contemporary setting. Prince Hamlet, in this case, is turned into an unborn anti-hero, acting from inside his mother’s womb. The female characters are also updated, since figures like Gertrude or Ophelia are no longer relatable for audiences of the twenty-first century.

Keywords: tragic hero, anti-hero, Hamlet, Ian McEwan, rewriting, gender, contemporary

Citation suggestion: Muro, Alicia. “Ian McEwan’s Nutshell as a Contemporary Hamlet: Gender and the Hero.” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 99-109.

https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.12.

Plateforme de rencontre : Michel Foucault et Michel Houellebecq

Autor: Gabriela VIERU
Email: gabrielavieru1204@yahoo.com

Meeting Platform: Michel Foucault and Michel Houellebecq

Abstract: The present text aims to analyse the body concept, as it is illustrated in the novel Platform, by Michel Houellebecq. For this, we will need, first of all, some clarifications of the hybrid literary genre that this novel presents, it constituting the track of our analysis: this new form of autofiction will lead us to the bridges between the novelist and the philosopher Michel Foucault in what regarding the status and power of the body in late postmodernism. Being published in 2001, the novel offers the necessary tracks for such an interpretive analysis, in which certain positions related to sexuality, society and the geopolitical context will be confronted and debated, with a view to confirming or, why not, denying the influence that the French philosopher had, over the years, in the sphere of affirmation of the novelist Michel Houellebecq.

Keywords: body, autofiction, Houellebecq, biopolitics, Foucault.

Citation suggestion: Vieru, Gabriela. “Plateforme de rencontre: Michel Foucault et Michel Houellebecq.” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 110-115.

https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.13.

Științe vizuale

Dosar

Istorie si studii culturale

Istorie

Tradiții populare, tradiții hermetice: contrareforma și raționalizarea lumii

Autor: Dragoș DRAGOMAN
Email: dragos.dragoman@ulbsibiu.ro

Popular Culture, Hermetical Culture: Counter-Reformation and the Rationalization of the Universe

Abstract: The modern heading towards a purely rational understanding of the universe is by no means related to expanding the range and accuracy of empirical techniques and instruments of measure. In a way, modern science came alive when it was least needed, as emphasized by Culianu. What seems to have greatly favored it was the outcome of a bitter fight run by the Church, both Catholic and Protestant, against any use of human imagination. Defeating both popular and hermetical culture inherited from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the ecclesiastical power set the road for the use of more ideologically neutral quantitative measures, and prepared the ground for the sovereignty of modern experimental sciences.

Keywords: Popular culture, hermetical tradition, Inquisition, religious terror, Culianu, Ginzburg.

Citation suggestion: Dragoman, Dragoș. “Tradiții populare, tradiții hermetice: contrareforma și raționalizarea lumii.” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 146-152.

https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.18.

Științele educației

Filozofie și studii politice

Stiintele comunicarii

Etnografie si folclor

Fizica speculativa

Recenzii

Economie

Artele spectacolului

Eveniment