The Possibility of Narratorial Irony in the Novel Ion by L. Rebreanu
The Possibility of Narratorial Irony in the Novel Ion by L. Rebreanu
Author(s): Béla BíróSubject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: the problem of the narrator; fictional signals; the reader's contribution; the case of the epithet „nationalist”; points of view; nationalism as annihilation of empathy; true empathy; the public man and the writer; empirical writer; abstract writer
Summary/Abstract: Liviu Rebreanu is one of the greatest Romanian writers. The theme of his novel Ion is the life of the Romanian community in Transylvania at different levels of the social structure. Traditional Romanian literary criticism considers this novel to be the foundation of Romanian nationalism on the whole. The paper will demonstrate, by multilevel narratological analysis, the idea that despite of those above, the writer does not himself represent nationalist thinking as his narrator employs very sophisticated methods for distancing himself from the nationalistic heroes of the novel. The narratological attitude suggests a fine irony against all kinds of nationalistic prejudices. The analogies with the personal life of the author, the base of earlier analyses, lead to misunderstanding. The study presents an interpretation of the novel that may help Romanian and Hungarian communities in the reciprocal understanding of the problems confronted.
Journal: Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica
- Issue Year: 1/2009
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 145-163
- Page Count: 19
- Language: English
