„Caiete critice” ’86 sau patru reţete compensatorii pentru o bibliografie săracă
„Caiete critice” ’86 or four compensatory recipes for a poor bibliography

Summary/Abstract: This paper represents a meta-critical analysis of a special number of the magazine “Caiete critice”, published in 1986. The issue was entirely dedicated to the concept of postmodernism, and most of the important Romanian critics from that time had contributed with their articles. We are dealing, in this case, with the first major reference in Romanian culture, regarding the concept of postmodernism. Given the fact that in the 80’s the dictatorial regime in Romania did not agree to such Western concepts as postmodernism, many Western books on this topic were difficult, illegal or impossible to find, thus, these bibliographical gaps had to be resolved by Romanian critics. Their rhetorical and theoretical solutions are the main topic of this paper, and the articles that I shall discuss include authors such as: Andrei Pleşu, Mircea Cărtărescu, Nicolae Manolescu, Ion Bogdan Lefter, Radu G. Ţeposu.As an example, some of the rhetorical strategies include the apologetic/detached discourse of Andrei Pleşu, the intimate discourse of Cărtărescu (who tries to avoid any theoretical or critical terms, preferring a 1st person confession concerning his activity as a postmodern writer), the appeal to Romanian bibliography in the cases of Manolescu and Lefter and the partial mentioning of Western bibliography (in opposition to the completely given reference of Romanian bibliography) in the case of Radu G. Ţeposu. Implicitly, my study will also take into consideration historical, political and cultural aspects concerning that period of Communist Romania, in relation to the European context, especially focusing on the field of literary theory. My aim is that of determining the main rhetorical strategies of these important critics from the 80’s and also to point out the difficulties of a cultural context that was politically hostile to new (at that time) Western concepts such as postmodernism.

• Details
• Contents