VIAȚA LUI C. Z. CODREANU: O ISTORIE PARAFACTUALĂ
The Life of C. Z. Codreanu: A Parafactual History

Summary/Abstract: This paper grapples critically with Tatiana Niculescu’s historical biography on the Romanian interwar fascist Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. The book, The Mistique of the Pray and the Pistol. The Life of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu is subjected to a thorough critique, which brings to the fore and sheds light on the multiple and serious issues undermining the book’s academic credibility. These flaws range from problems regarding the originality of the contribution in the light of the available scholarship, questions pertaining to the work’s critical apparatus, and – the most significant of them all – methodological problems concerning the use of historical documents and especially regarding the interpretation of available historical data. Drawing attention on the perils of essayistic-historical writing based on literary intuition rather than on sound methodological approaches, the paper concludes by outlining the superficial scholarship underpinning Niculescu’s work, arguing that it belongs in the category of “parafactual history.”

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