I.L. Caragiale. On the author, the reader, and the various mechanisms of seduction, starting from A lecture Cover Image

I.L. Caragiale. Despre autor, cititor și diferite mecanisme de seducere, pornind de la O conferență
I.L. Caragiale. On the author, the reader, and the various mechanisms of seduction, starting from A lecture

Author(s): A. Mircea Diaconu
Subject(s): Romanian Literature, British Literature, American Literature
Published by: Språk- och litteraturcentrum, Lunds Universitet
Keywords: I.L. Caragiale; poetics; reception theories; Alphonse Allais; Henry James;

Summary/Abstract: The present text aims to problematise the work of I.L. Caragiale through the lens of reception theories, hermeneutics, and textuality while at the same time questioning some of the structuring themes of his writing, such as truth, the quest and the reader. Using texts such as ‘O conferență’, ‘Două loturi’, ‘Inspecțiune’, ‘Năpasta’, ‘D’ale carnavalului’, ‘Abu Hassan’, ‘1 Aprilie’ and others, the author aims to highlight elements of substance, attitude and style that converge in Caragiale’s writing, which, beyond the social, it associates the metaphysical comic or the idea of empty transcendence with the concern for truth, meta-textuality or the social. In this context, the proximity of I.L. Caragiale to Alphonse Allais or Henry James, in the interpretations of Umberto Eco and Wolfgang Iser, is supported beyond the similarities that legitimise the reading of I.L. Caragiale from the perspective of reception theories, by the fact that their relevant texts were written at the height of the Belle Époque. Therefore, Caragiale’s world appears as a luminous, complicit, seductive irony.

  • Issue Year: 7/2024
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 20-36
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Romanian
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