ONCLE ANGHEL DE PANAÏT ISTRATI OU L’AVENTURE ANTÉCHRISTIQUE D'UN JOB MODERNE
PANAÏT ISTRATI'S UNCLE ANGHEL OR THE PRE-CHRISTIAN ADVENTURE OF A MODERN JOB

Summary/Abstract: This research aims to explore the novel Oncle Anghel (first published in 1924) by Panait Istrati, Romanian writer of French expression, from a double perspective: religious and aesthetic. The analysis of the numerous biblical references in the novel allows us to highlight a religious metaphor anchored in a rustic Orthodoxy and packed with pre- Christian remains. A reading approach from the perspective of early 20th century modernism, which proclaims the absence of God, helps identify the movement towards creative atheism suggested by this work of art, which anticipates the rise of a new dogma. By alternating between the temptation of the Western world and the calling of the East, Istrati’s novel sacralises the artistic act and allows the storyteller to take the place of the divine figure.

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