On Retro-modernism
On Retro-modernism

Summary/Abstract: Paul Cernat’s theories are crystalized around the idea of a Romanian interwar modernism reformed with an eye on its former Belle Époque aestheticism. Although this book on 'retro modernism' has no radical intentions to redefine certain concepts, it manages to reshape our imaginary intimacy with some characters from the most familiar Romanian novels of modernity. All the chosen interwar novels on Cernat’ list have some of the main characters trapped between two worlds. However, it is not the critic’s list that is important here, but the critic’s light. The protagonists mentally indulge in the world of the past, for instance the end of the 19th century and thus they cannot be fully absorbed into their (interwar) present with its changes. In congruence with the topic of the book, the retro element, the light chosen by the critic is the penumbrae in which the subtle movements of a staged choreography are melted.

• Details
• Contents