How much wisdom do proverbs hide?

Too often, unfortunately, we mistake wisdom with proverb. It must be said however that between the two of them it is established a report of the part – whole type. The part is reserved for proverb, the whole is for wisdom. The middle path, so much praised, will say most being convinced that they are really right, is seen as a solution for this fake problem. I want to prove that they are not right, at least not always, for the proverb, mistaken with wisdom, often becomes a mean to justify the error by blaming the others. I.e., if there is a measure in every thing, I cannot see why the proverb would remove itself from measure? This is why I choose, to exemplify, two proverbs. I try to prove, by making a short history of them, how far are we from what we immediately believe that there is in them. These proverbs are: “truth is always in the middle” and “never look a gift horse in the mouth”.

Keywords: wisdom, proverb, truth, lie, argument.

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St. Gregory of Nyssa on the Mystery of Penance and the Eucharist as steps towards deification

Gregory’s spiritual teaching has been the subject of intensive study since the Second World War. Several writers have seen in Gregory a major exponent of the doctrine of deification, but in fact he appeals to the doctrine less. Deification for the bishop of Nyssa refers primarily to the transformation of the flesh assumed by the Son at the Incarnation (and, by extension, to the operation of the sacraments), and secondarily to man’s participation in the divine perfections. Saint Gregory of Nyssa came to describe the Eucharist as a sacrifice, specifically an unbloody sacrifice. The Eucharistic mystery bears an objective Real Presence. The bread and wine are believed to become the genuine Body and Blood of the Christ Jesus (a mode of thought supported by such verses as John 6, 55) through the operation of the Holy Spirit. The union of divine and human in Christ endowed his flesh with true life.

Keywords: St. Gregory of Nyssa, Penance, Eucharist, deification, the sacramental gift, Church, Incarnation.

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Nicolaus Cusanus and the Doctrine of Analogy

Below, I am aiming to analyze, first of all, N. Cusanus’ standpoint regarding the issue of analogy, this very frequent procedure in the texts of scholastics. How does Cardinalus Teutonicus relate to this inherent method of human thinking? Secondly, I am interested especially in a passage from De docta ignorantia [II, 4], where N. Cusanus speaks about a certain type of participation: quantum potest.

Keywords: knowledge, analogy, participation quantum potest, theology, Christology, divinization.

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• Cusanus, Nicolaus. De Deo abscondito [On the Hidden God], Romanian translation by Mihnea Moroianu, Iaşi, Polirom, 2008, [Romanian translation by Bogdan Tătaru-Cazaban, Bucharest, Humanitas, 2008].
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Borders between cultures

The author of the study brings forth into discussion a relatively new culturological concept, namely that of borders between cultures, and tries to observe the process through which it shaped during the course of time our spiritual identity, as a combined result of the victory of Christianity, of the position of the Danubian principalities at “the gates of the Orient”, and of the late contact of the Romanians with the Western world.
Keywords: Christianity, East – West relations, borders between cultures, globalization, small cultures complex, Romanian-Russian relations

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Some considerations on Catholic communities occurring in the first half of the 19^th century in Moldova

Starting in the second half of the 18^th century and continuing to the third decade of the 19^th century, it is observed that a large number of people moved from the Carpathian Mountains to Moldova. Among them were many Christians of the Latin rite, they settled mainly in villages on the Siret River Valley. After a generation or two, due to the increase of the population in these settlements, and there being insufficient land owned by the families, to produce enough food, it is observed that a second migration took place, by the descendants of the original settlers, who moved to other places in Moldova, where previously there had been no Catholic Communities. These new communities, of groups of emigrants and immigrants, were linked only by an economic interest and the Catholic rite.

Keywords: Transylvania, Moldavia, Catholics, Csango, immigrants, demographics, onomatology

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A few elements regarding the change of the religious perspective:
secularization, transnationalism and the adoption of the sects in the ceangăi villages from Moldavia

The paper aims to describe phenomena’s of modernization in Moldavian Csango villages in the context of religiosity. It interprets the most significant shifts in the life forms and traditional religiosity, the change of central values, tendencies of secularization and the emergence of sectarianism. The author argues that the religious experience gradually evades community and (Church) legitimation, so that the ever larger individualization of religious experiences and conceptualization leads to the pluralization of worldviews. The impersonalization of social control, the changing norms that affect everyday life, the role change of religious values, the individualization of communities, basically the transforming forces of modernization on society disable the catholic church to fully integrate the Csango village population, who in rising numbers attend new teachings that offer an updated worldview, as well as a brand new set of community/religious norms. The author argues, that sectarianism/sectarianization is a part of modernizational strategies, and that as a consequence of transnational life forms, sects have become part of social mobility.

Keywords: Moldavian Csango, modernization, religion, secularization, sect, transnationalizm

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Was Nicolae C. Paulescu an authentic Orthodox Christian?

The Romanian physiologist Nicolae C. Paulescu (1869 – 1931) employed biological rasism and pseudo-Christian values as the basis for his political activites. He attempted to demonstrate that people can be catagorized according to religious criteria that Christianity reflects godly gualites, while the Jews are a manifestation of satanic forces. In his dichotomous approach the Jews had a destructive influence on Christian believers. For Paulescu, Christianity was a way achieve the damnation of the Jews and to demande the etnic cleansing of the Romanian territory.

Keywords: history of phisiology, Nicolae C. Paulescu, antisemite use of science, racism, ethnic cleansing

• Nichifor Crainic, Ortodoxie şi Etnocraţie, Bucureşti, Editura Cugetarea P. Georgescu-Delafras, 1937.
• *** Doctorul Nicolae C. Paulescu sau Ştiinţa mărturisitoare, Editura Christiana, Bucureşti, 2009
• Nicolae C. Paulescu, Spitalul, Coranul, Talmudul, Cahalul şi Francmasoneria, 1913.
• Nicolae C. Paulescu, Sinagoga şi Biserica faţă de pacificarea omenirii, Bucureşti, 1924.
• Nicolae C. Paulescu, Degenerarea rasei jidăneşti, Bucureşti 1928.
• Nicolae C. Paulescu, Desfrâul jidanilor, Bucureşti, Tipografia Raiculescu, Cloşca 19, 1928.
• Nicolae C. Paulescu, Tălmăcirea Apocalipsului. Soarta viitoare a jidănimii, Bucureşti, 1941.
• Trifu, Profesorul Paulescu 1869–1931, Editura Fundaţia regală pentru literatură şi artă, Bucureşti 1944.

Caricatural Aspects of Gura Satului Satirical Magazine (1867-1881; 1901-1903)

The present article aims at making a short presentation of the satirical magazine entitled Gura Satului (1867-1881, 1901-1903), placing emphasis on its caricatural side, as this type of drawing is constantly present in its pages. The paper presents the life of this magazine, pointing out its collaborators, themes and columns and then stopping over certain concrete examples of caricatures, from various numbers, which are analysed in terms of the message that they send to the readers. Representative of the satirical journalism of the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Gura Satului stands out as a publication that deserves special attention due to the militant role that it held within the satirical press of the time.

Keywords: Gura Satului, Transylvania, caricature, satirical 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 literaturii române de la origini până la 1900 / Dictionary of Romanian Literature from Its Origins to 1900, Bucureşti, 1979.
• Drimba, Lucian, Iosif Vulcan / Iosif Vulcan, Ed. Minerva, Bucureşti, 1974.
• Ene, Virgiliu, Satira în literatura română, Studiu şi antologie / Satire in Romanian Literature, Study and Anthology, Editura Albatros, Bucureşti, 1972.
• Grămadă, Livia, Presa satirică românească din Transilvania, 1860-1918. Antologie, studiu introductiv, note, glosar şi anexe / Romanian Satirical Press in Transylvania, 1860-1918. Anthology, Introductory Study, Notes, Glossary and Appendices, Ed. Dacia, Cluj, 1974.
• Melente Nica, Gabriela Groza, Emil Şimăndan, Evoluţia şi tipologia presei arădene (1833-2002) / Evolution and Typology of Media of Arad (1833-2002), Editura Fundaţiei „IOAN SLAVICI”, Arad, 2006.
• Negrilă, Iulian, Presa literară românească arădeană şi Marea Unire / The Romanian Literary Press of Arad and the Great Union, Arad, 1993.
• Popa, Mircea, Taşcu, Valentin, Istoria presei româneşti din Transilvania de la începuturi până în 1918 / History of the Romanian Press of Transylvania from Its Beginnings until 1918, Ed. Tritonic, Bucureşti, 2003.
• Tatay, Anca Elisabeta, O privire de ansamblu asupra revistei “Gura satului” (1867-1881). Studiu de caz asupra caricaturilor „Gurii satului” din perioada pestană – ianuarie 1869 – martie1871 / An Overview of “Gura Satului” Magazine (1867-1881). Case Study of the Caricatures of “Gura Satului” during Its Pest Period – January 1869 – March 1871, în Revista „Şcoala Ardeleană”, Nr. 3/2008.

“I’m afraid of not invented stories”. The Security Files of Oskar Pastior

The present study appeared in the periodical “Spiegelungen” (München) and deals with the persecution and collaboration of the modern German poet Oskar Pastior (1927, Sibiu – 2006, Frankfurt am Main) with the Security before leaving Romania and settling in Germany. The German poet, an adolescent aged 17, was deported to the labor camps of the Soviet Union where he survived for 4 years. Once he returned to his country, he continued his studies – the Brukenthal Highschool in Sibiu and the German Studies at the University in Bucharest –, being persecuted by the Secret services, both for his homosexual inclinations and for his anti-Soviet poetry. 1961 he signed a collaboration agreement as an informer with the Security and he assumed this role until 1968 when he left on a journey to Germany and didn’t return to Romania any more. Oskar Pastior was a close friend and collaborator of Herta Müller, the 2009 Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature.

Keywords: Oskar Pastior, Herta Müller, deported, informer file, persecution file, The National Council for Security Archives Study

B. Fundoianu / Benjamin Fondane – Towards a more comprising identity or Ulysses’ never returning road

This essay presents, from a comparative perspective, the subtle relationship established between Romanian poet B. Fundoianu and the French author Benjamin Fondane, seen as different and subsequent creative hypostases of one and the same writer, this being a clear and interesting example of bilingual poetic exercise. B. Fundoianu is an important poet as far as the evolution of the modern Romanian literature is concerned in the period before the Second World War. His only one volume of poems written in Romanian, Privelisti (Landscapes) is a traditional one as far as the content is concerned, classical in form and modern in expression and the anti-descriptive tendency toward the idea of landscape. His “landscapes” are not inspired from Vasile Alecsandri’s poems, but from Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal, all of these texts representing examples of anti-poetry. After adopting the French language, the author starts using the pen-name of Benjamin Fondane, without adhering to any aesthetic movement; thus he writes avant-garde poems (as seen in his volumes entitled Ulysses and Titanic) that indicate the distance but also the profound relationship with his Romanian roots and his Romanian poetic identity; nevertheless, in the mean time the poet expresses his aspiration toward a more clearly defined artistic identity.

Keywords: contemporary Romanian poetry, B. Fundoianu, Benjamin Fondane, creative bilinguism, poetic identity

• T.S. Eliot, Eseuri, Ed. Univers, Bucureşti, 1974
• Fundoianu, Imagini şi cărţi, Ed. Minerva, Bucureşti, 1980.
• Hugo Friedrich, Structura liricii moderne, Editura pentru literatură universală, Bucureşti, 1969.
• Mircea Martin, Introducere în opera lui B. Fundoianu, Ed. Minerva, Bucureşti, 1984.Ion Pop, Din avangardă spre ariergardă, Editura Institutului Cultural Român, Bucureşti, 2010.
• Olivier Salazar-Ferrer, Benjamin Fondane, Ed. Junimea, Iaşi, 2005.
• Laurenţiu Ulici, Arghezi, Bacovia, Barbu, Blaga, Fundoianu, Maniu, Pillat, Vinea, Voiculescu prezentaţi de…, Editura enciclopedică română, Bucureşti, 1974

Lexical Elements of French Origin in the Novel “Disheveled Virgins” by Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu

In this paper we aim to undertake an analysis of the way in which some loanwords of French origin in the Romanian language were valued in the prose language of the interwar period, having as a support text the novel Disheveled Virgins  by Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu. We refer both to the lexical loans that adapted themselves from a phonetic, spelling, morphological and semantic point of view to the system of the Romanian language and which were unconsciously taken over by the writer as inherent elements of her working language (loanwords) and to the un-adapted or partially adapted loans (xenisms) used deliberately, with stylistic purpose, to individualize the characters and achieve linguistic realism. We can notice that Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu tends to use old lexical variants that belonged to early stages of integration of the French neologism and which differ from the forms provided by the dictionaries of that period.

Keywords: loanword, xenism, linguistic contact, stylistic effect, loanword  adaptation

• Călinescu, George. Enigma Otiliei / Otilia’ s Mistery, Bucureşti, Editura Eminescu, 1982.
• Coteanu Ion; Sala, Marius. Etimologia şi limba română / The Etymology and the Romanian language, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, 1987.
• Goldiş-Poalelungi, Ana. L’ influence du français sur le roumain (Vocabulaire et syntaxe) / The Influence of French on the Romanian language (Vocabulary and Syntax), Paris, Société des Belles Lettres, 1973.
• Hristea, Theodor (coord.). Sinteze de limba română / Synthesis of the Romanian language, ediţia a III-a, Bucureşti,Editura Albatros, 1984.
• Iordan, Iorgu; Robu, Vladimir. Limba română contemporană / Contemporary Romanian language, Bucureşti, Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, 1973.
• Eugen Lovinescu, Memorii / Memoirs, Aqua Forte, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1998.
• Munteanu, Ştefan; Ţâra, Vasile D. Istoria limbii române literare / History of the Romanian Literary Language, Bucureşti, Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, 1978.
• Oprea, Ioan, Nagy, Rodica. Istoria limbii române literare. Epoca modernă / History of the Romanian Literary Language. The Modern Epoch, Suceava, Editura Universităţii Suceava, 2002
• Papadat-Bengescu, Hortensia. Ciclul familiei Hallipa / The Cycle of the Hallipa Family, prefaţă, consideraţii bibliografice de Valeriu Râpeanu, Bucureşti, Editura 100 +1 Gramar, 2002
• Puşcariu, Sextil. Limba română / Romanian language, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1976
• Stoichiţoiu-Ichim, Adriana, Aspecte ale influenţei engleze în româna actuală / Aspects of the Influence of English on the Contemporary Romanian language, în Vocabularul limbii române actuale. Dinamică, influenţe, creativitate / The Vocabulary of the Contemporary Romanian language. Dynamics, influences, creation, Bucureşti, Editura All, 2008
• Zafiu, Rodica, „Complect”, în România literară / Literary Romania, Nr. 47, din 24 noiembrie 2006 link: http://www.romaniaculturala.ro/articol.php?cod=7924

Fănuş Neagu’s short story fiction

Ovidiu Moceanu’s study gives an overview of Fănuş Neagu’s short story fiction up to the volume Pierdut în Balcania – Lost in Balcania (1982), which he considers a synthesis and configuration of the defining elements for the author’s narrative art. The obsession of the pure word is, undoubtedly, one of the most striking dimensions of Fănuş Neagu’s prose. Even in the case of possibly less successful stories, comprised especially in the first volumes, the failings do not have stylistic causes. The sensation of elaboration is dispersed under the extraordinary pressure of daily life happenings, sometimes so brutal they fringe paroxysm, some other times picturesque or eccentric. The preoccupation for composition is overt in all the volumes. This is exactly what Fănuş Neagu referred to when he stated that, while writing his first novel „he was overwhelmed with despair and fear”. The metaphorical density of Fănuş Neagu’s work is indebted to the school of the Romania classics (Sadoveanu, Creangă, Panait Istrati), the style being „vital”, „as each author comes up with a world, with his own world, which lives as he used to live once upon a time, in his childhood, or as he is currently living (…) The style, Fănuş Neagu specifies next, is my eye carried over the field which hosts the living world”. The author of the study starts from these statements and discovers the characteristic features of Fănuş Neagu’s short stories, considering the thematic and stylistic core of the pieces which provided the author’s unmistakable identity in the Romanian short story fiction of the second half of the 20^th century.

Keywords: Short story, narration, style, metaphor, rural universe, flabbergasted characters, terror, nostalgia, customs, transition

• Balotă, Nicolae, Prefaţă la volumul În văpaia lunii, Buc., Minerva, 1971.
• Grigor, Andrei, Fănuş Neagu, Braşov, Aula, 2001.
• Kayser, Wolfgang, Opera literară, O introducere în ştiinţa literaturii. Traducere şi note de H.R. Radian, cuv. înainte Mihai Pop, Buc., Univ., 1979.
• Mugur, Florin, Profesiune de scriitor, Buc., Albatros, 1979, p. 113 (interviu reluat de
• revista „Argeş”, nr. 6/1972).
• Neagu, Fănuş, Răspunsuri la o anchetă despre roman, în Caiete critice, 1983, nr. 1-2, p. 44.
• Păunescu, Adrian, Sub semnul întrebării, Buc., C. R., 1971.
• Regman, Cornel, Nuvela şi povestirea românească contemporană (1944-1974), studiu introductiv, antologie şi bibliografie de…, Buc., Eminescu, 1974.
• Regman, Cornel, Nuvela şi povestirea românească în deceniul opt, antologie, introducere şi aparat critic de …, Buc., Eminescu, 1983.
• Simion, Eugen, Scriitori români azi, I, Buc., C. R., 1978.
• Ungheanu, Mihai, Interviu cu Fănuş Neagu, în „Luceafărul”, 1979, nr. 16, p. 3

Elegy Lane meets Trade Boulevard

The Elegies of Mariana Marin represent an important part of her poetic work. They share the same title in all the five volumes published and speak about fundamental themes of poetry of all times: the condition of the individual, love and death, all of them constantly related to poetry. The individual is seen as an isolated fragment of the universe and he is continously fighting with it. Captive in a reality that does not suit his personality, he is also betrayed by his inner world, where the feeling of alienation and imprisonment make him helplessly incapable of relating to other people. Without the accomplishment of common love and suitable relationships, the artist of the elegies has to face the dramatic process through which the poem becomes independent of his author. Each poem highlights Mariana Marin’s great sensibility and talent in describing the pain of the artist rejected by his own poem.

Keywords: Mariana Marin, contemporary romanian poetry, the literary motif of double, tragic duality, deathly obsessions

• Bodiu, Andrei, Direcţia optzeci în poezia română / Eightieth Orientation In Romanian Poetry, vol. I, Editura Paralela 45, Piteşti, 2000.
• Perian, Gheorghe, Poezia salvată / The Rescue of Poetry, în „Vatra”, nr. 4, 1992.
• Marin, Mariana, Zestrea de aur (antologie) / Golden Dowry (Anthology of Poetry), Editura Muzeului Literaturii Române, Bucureşti, 2002.

The role of translations during 1960-1990

The present study is focused on the issue of translations published in Romania beginning with the 60s, in the decades following the dark era of the socialist realism. When it was again possible to publish translations from Western literatures, y compris from Western literary criticism and philosophy, translations have become a method of intellectual resistance against communist ideology. Observing some case studies (such as the literary magazine Secolul 20, for example), the author realizes a comprising survey of the manner in which translations have given to Romanian artists and thinkers the intellectual substance necessary for their resistance and survival.

Keywords: contemporary Romanian literature, generation 60, translations, communist ideology, translation as intellectual resistance

• CÂRNECI, Magda, Art et pouvoir en Roumanie 1945-1989 / Art and power in Romania 1945-1989, Paris, Editions L’Harmattan, 2007.
• DAMASCHIN, Dan, „Cercul literar de la Sibiu / Cluj”: deschidere spre europeism şi universalitate / „The Literary Circle from Sibiu / Cluj”: deschidere towards Europeanism and universality, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Zenit, 2009.
• IONESCU, Gelu, Orizontul traducerii  / The horizon of translation, Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1981.
• MACREA-TOMA, Ioana, Privilighenţia. Instituţii literare în comunismul românesc / Priviligentsia. Literary institutions in Romanian communism, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Casa Cărţii de Ştiinţă, 2009.
• MANOLESCU, Nicolae, Istoria critică a literaturii române. Cinci secole de literatură / The critical history of Romanian literature. Five centuries of literature, Piteşti, Editura Paralela 45, 2008.
• TRONCOTĂ, Tiberiu, România comunistă. Propagandă şi cenzură, prefaţă de Brânduşa Armanca, Bucureşti, Editura Tritonic, 2006.
• VASILE, Cristian, Literatura şi artele în România comunistă 1948-1953, cu o prefaţă de Vladimir Tismăneanu, Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 2010.

Articole:

• GOLDIŞ, Alex, Rolul progresist al cronicii literare în anii ’60 (I), în Cultura, serie nouă, anul IV, nr. 41 (245), 15 octombrie 2009, p. 14-16
• Idem, Rolul progresist al cronicii literare în anii ’60 (II), în Cultura, serie nouă, anul IV, nr. 42 (246), 22 octombrie 2009, p. 14-16.