SYMBOL, MYTH, METAPHOR IN LUCIAN BLAGA’S POETRY
SYMBOL, MYTH, METAPHOR IN LUCIAN BLAGA’S POETRY

Summary/Abstract: The present study shows the relationship between “symbol”, “myth” and “metaphor” which exists in Blaga’s poetry. The term “symbol” comes from the French “symbole”, Latin “symbolum”, Greek “Symbolon”, “a sign of recognition”, signification that, in the Ancient Greece, denoted the identification of two halves of an object, divided between two partners1. The concept is put next to “myth” and “metaphor”, leading to the same revealing act. The myth constitutes a system of symbols, illustrating the transsignifications. The metaphor, from the French “métaphore”, the Greek “metaphora”, indicates a semantic transfer between two different terms based on a similarity. A further analysis reveals there are various classifications of the metaphor, according to the relationship between terms and meaning, by semantic extension. If the basic term has several corresponding figurative terms, these can also generate new metaphors. But in Blaga’s vision the metaphor can also be intensified through myth. Lucian Blaga is attributed the expressionist reaffirmation of the myth (for example, the wizards become Dacian voivodes in “Uninvited Guests”). The style and the stylistic matrix also play an important role in defining metaphor. Blaga defines Man through culture, the culture through style and the style originates in the stylistic matrix, in the unconscious. The stylistic matrix, the unconscious, have a metaphysical basis, they are transcendent but also immanent to the essence of man. Man is characterized in Blaga's vision by an ontological singularity, which consists in his creative capacity. Man is the only being in the universe who tries to reveal the mysteries, but he is always censored by the Great Anonymous.

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