L’ÉCRIVAIN FACE AU MONDE : LA CONDUITE DE MIRCEA CĂRTĂRESCU DANS LES ENTRETIENS POUR UN PUBLIC ANGLOPHONE
THE WRITER FACING THE WORLD: MIRCEA CARTARESCU S POSTURE IN INTERVIEWS FOR AN ENGLISH-SPEAKING AUDIENCE

Summary/Abstract: Using the concept of “literary posture” proposed by Alain Viala, this paper aims to analyse Mircea Cărtărescu’s attitude in online interviews for an English-speaking audience between 2011 and 2019, in order to integrate the observations into a broader reflection on how the Romanian author positions himself in the world literary space. In this sense, we will refer, on the one hand, to the socio-political position and, on the other hand, to the literary aesthetics, considering primarily the image of Bucharest in the work (but also in the life) of the writer. Following these two directions, we can notice an expansive tendency, of transgressing the national, as well as of universalization, both in terms of interactions in the political field and of cultural landmarks. In addition, the author mobilizes a network of references for the construction of an internalized and, thus, delocalized textual Bucharest, building at the same time his position owing to a neo-romantic heritage. Following this process of figuration, the image of an uprooted humanist writer emerges. He projects his work for a foreign audience by virtue of a Western canon/ shared social and political values and against the national complexes that he displays nonetheless in interviews. The ambivalence of this posture, both confident and hesitant, benefits from the analysis of the possible trajectories on the road to consecration, showing in time the triumph of the illusion that envelops the struggle for symbolic power (illusio).

• Details
• Contents