Un caz de mimetism social privit din exterior. Ela în „Ultima noapte de dragoste, întâia noapte de război” de Camil Petrescu
A Case of Social Mimicry Viewed from the Outside. Ela in “The Last Night of Love, the First Night of War” by Camil Petrescu

Summary/Abstract: This paper is a reading of Camil Petrescu’s novel ”Ultima noapte de dragoste, întâia noapte de război” through his theatre theory as the author is a well-known drama writer, theoretician and theatre journalist of the Romanian interwar period. That is why I try to prove that there is a strong connection between his theatrical philosophy and the „ecriture” of his novels, influences that can be seen on multiple levels: the vision upon existence that the novelist promotes (life is often perceived in his prose as a theatre scene that stages all kinds of dramatic encounters between characters belonging to different worlds), character building (the author focuses not on the psychological depths of his characters, but on their social behaviour, on their day-by-day play) or his writing philosophy (the possibility of reading his novels through a series of concepts that he places at the centre of his theatre theory: theatricality, dramatic situations, dramatic participation, value). I start from the definition that Cristophe Wulf gives to the concept of mimesis, defined as a „mise-en-scene”, in order to create a link between mimesis, theatre and ritual, and relate it to the definition that Camil Petrescu gives to the phenomenon of social mimetism that he explores in both of his interwar prose writings. In the novel that I analyse, the phenomenon is studied from the outside: the becoming mondaine of Ştefan Gheorghidiu’s wife, Ela.

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