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Incursions into the Imaginary Cover Image

Incursiuni în imaginar
Incursions into the Imaginary

Publishing House: Editura Aeternitas
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Comparative Study of Literature
Frequency: 1 issues
Print ISSN: 2501-2169
Online-ISSN: 2601-5137
Status: Active

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15/2024 Cover
  • Year: 2024
  • Volume: 15
  • Number: 2

Editorial
Articles list
TIME, SPACE, AND MAGICAL REALISM. SALMAN RUSHDIE’S EAST, WEST AND THE JUXTAPOSITION OF TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL LANDSCAPES

TIME, SPACE, AND MAGICAL REALISM. SALMAN RUSHDIE’S EAST, WEST AND THE JUXTAPOSITION OF TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL LANDSCAPES
(TIME, SPACE, AND MAGICAL REALISM. SALMAN RUSHDIE’S EAST, WEST AND THE JUXTAPOSITION OF TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL LANDSCAPES)

  • Publication: (2/15/2024)
  • Author(s): Corina Mariana Mitrulescu
  • Contributor(s):
  • Language: English
  • Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Other Language Literature
  • Issue: 2/15/2024
  • Page Range: 23-44
  • No. of Pages: 22
  • Keywords: cultural hybridity; East; West; magical realism; Salman Rushdie; short stories; spatial and temporal juxtaposition;
  • Summary/Abstract: Although best known for his novels, Salman Rushdie has effectively managed to contrast magical or fantastical elements in his short stories. East, West is a collection of short stories in which Salman Rushdie skilfully weaves together narratives to control time and space in novel ways by blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the author, by the layering of historical periods or the disruption of concepts of linear time, is able to create complex temporal and spatial landscapes within his narratives. In order to depict displacement and hybridity, a variety of spatial contexts are juxtaposed, from the modern landscapes of London and New York to the busy streets of Bombay. As deeper realities about the human condition are revealed, the lines separating reality from the imagined are shifted. East, West presents Rushdie’s postcolonial perspective and his ideas of displacement and alienation through the investigation of time and space while magical realism is used as a potent technique for delving into issues relating to hybridity and cultural identity.
REALISMUL MAGIC BALCANIC: O REȚEA LITERARĂ EUROPEANĂ

REALISMUL MAGIC BALCANIC: O REȚEA LITERARĂ EUROPEANĂ
(BALKAN MAGICAL REALISM: A EUROPEAN LITERARY NETWORK)

  • Publication: (2/15/2024)
  • Author(s): Alina Bako
  • Contributor(s):
  • Language: Romanian
  • Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature
  • Issue: 2/15/2024
  • Page Range: 45-69
  • No. of Pages: 25
  • Keywords: magical realism; Balkan World Literature; Cultural Indigenization; Transnational Literature;
  • Summary/Abstract: The present discussion focuses on a reconfiguration influenced by regional space, incorporating concepts such as ‘magical realism.’ Various narrative forms that fulfill specific criteria have been analyzed to elucidate the framing of fiction under the encompassing paradigm of this perspective. Our thesis posits that magical realism has become indigenized within the Balkan context, resulting in fiction that carries distinct national and transnational implications. A particularly relevant example used to illustrate the viability of Balkan World Literature is Danilo Kiš’s work, specifically Encyclopaedia of the Dead, alongside Ștefan Bănulescu’s Book of Metopolis, which collectively provide a comprehensive analysis of the Balkan literary tradition. This exploration begins with an interregional and transnational dialogue that yields significant transformations in analytical domains such as “magical realism”.
MITOLOGÍA Y ESTILÍSTICA CARTARESQUIANAS EN SOLENOIDE Y EMINESCU: EL SUEÑO QUIMÉRICO (EMINESCU: VISUL CHIMERIC). LAS PERSPECTIVAS DEL AUTOR Y DE ALGUNOS CRÍTICOS

MITOLOGÍA Y ESTILÍSTICA CARTARESQUIANAS EN SOLENOIDE Y EMINESCU: EL SUEÑO QUIMÉRICO (EMINESCU: VISUL CHIMERIC). LAS PERSPECTIVAS DEL AUTOR Y DE ALGUNOS CRÍTICOS
(CARTARESQUIAN MYTHOLOGY AND STYLISTICS IN SOLENOID AND EMINESCU: THE CHIMERICAL DREAM (EMINESCU: VISUL CHIMERIC). THE PERSPECTIVES OF THE AUTHOR AND SOME CRITICS)

  • Publication: (2/15/2024)
  • Author(s): Felix Nicolau
  • Contributor(s):
  • Language: Spanish
  • Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Romanian Literature
  • Issue: 2/15/2024
  • Page Range: 73-105
  • No. of Pages: 33
  • Keywords: Mircea Cărtărescu; sublime; grotesque; mythocriticism; critical reception; phantasy¸ sentimentalized realism;
  • Summary/Abstract: The article will focus on two books by Mircea Cărtărescu, Eminescu: The Chimerical Dream (Eminescu: Visul chimeric, Humanitas, 2011), originally his bachelor’s thesis, and Solenoid, the massive novel of 2015. The intention is to see how the archetypes, complexes, themes and motifs of fiction (and autofiction) influence the author’s theoretical approaches. The interpretations of literary critics and historians Alex Ștefănescu and N. Manolescu will also be analyzed to establish a starting point for the critical analysis. Therefore, the research will attempt a Cărtăresquian mythocriticism in combination with a study of critical reception. Additionally, it is of great importance to notice how the aesthetic categories of grotesque, sublime, and pathos inform narratives built with maximalist stylistic means. The focus of the research is to identify the degree of innovation and originality in a quantitatively imposing literary prose. In this respect, studying Cărtărescu masterful mingling of phantasy and sentimentalized realism proved to be of great help in understanding the peculiar narrative and hermeneutic strategies used by the author.
REALITATE ŞI FICŢIUNE – COORDONATE ALE NARAŢIUNII LUI MARIO VARGAS LLOSA

REALITATE ŞI FICŢIUNE – COORDONATE ALE NARAŢIUNII LUI MARIO VARGAS LLOSA
(REALITY AND FICTION – COORDINATES OF THE PROSE OF MARIO VARGAS LLOSA)

  • Publication: (2/15/2024)
  • Author(s): Liliana Danciu
  • Contributor(s):
  • Language: Romanian
  • Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Other Language Literature
  • Issue: 2/15/2024
  • Page Range: 106-148
  • No. of Pages: 43
  • Keywords: reality; fiction; imaginary; Mario Vargas Llosa; South American literature;
  • Summary/Abstract: The human condition within the context of social reality and history, and individual destiny in relation to moral and religious norms imposed at the collective level, are major themes that in Mario Vargas Llosa’s work become sources of intense narrative and interpersonal conflict. According to the Peruvian writer, an individual's happiness is perpetually constrained by the normative aspects of society, whose purpose is to prevent them from fully realizing their inner potential. This limitation leads to discontent, rebellion, and inevitable revolt aimed at overturning power structures. Literature, dreams (reverie), and eroticism represent some surreal dimensions through which individuals can escape and experience the pleasure of complete freedom.Reality and fiction are two coordinates that, within the tangible geography of Latin America and the creative imagination of its writers, cannot be easily distinguished. Since myth, legend, and history are indistinguishable in the human consciousness of referential reality, they are even less separable within the chronotope of fictional imagination. This article explores the intertwining of these spatio-temporal and existential coordinates by analysing several representative narratives by Mario Vargas Llosa, including Eulogy of the Stepmother, The Wanderings of the Reckless Girl, and The War of the End of the World. Although the characters in these novels may come from the realm of ordinary people, they are far from ordinary. Their exceptional destinies are marked by a profound interiority, characterized by fantastical, complex, and obsessive projections; an exacerbated desire to transcend their condition arbitrarily assigned at birth; an impulse to control others; and, conversely, a drive to overthrow externally imposed power or authority. These traits imbue the destinies of Vargas Llosa’s characters with a distinctly tragic dimension.
THE ALLOHISTORIES OF MAGIC REALISM FRANZ ROH AND THE MAGIC REALIST MODE

THE ALLOHISTORIES OF MAGIC REALISM FRANZ ROH AND THE MAGIC REALIST MODE
(THE ALLOHISTORIES OF MAGIC REALISM FRANZ ROH AND THE MAGIC REALIST MODE)

  • Publication: (2/15/2024)
  • Author(s): Maria Mureșan
  • Contributor(s):
  • Language: English
  • Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Other Language Literature
  • Issue: 2/15/2024
  • Page Range: 149-166
  • No. of Pages: 18
  • Keywords: magic realism; modern fiction; juxtaposition of the realistic and the fantastic; expressionistic, surrealistic description;
  • Summary/Abstract: History as narrative, turning away from the material universe and folding in upon itself in an act of language, is further understood as a matter of tropes by Hayden White (Metahistory, 1975) and of determinism by Ferguson, but not a determinism of causes and effects in the progress of mankind through time; this determinism is actually the set of rules and constraints governing the making of stories:” the teleology of the traditional narrative form” (Ferguson 1997: 65). Yet can we say that the fiction falling under the headings of historiographic metafiction or magical realism, where there is a historicist view of history as succession of styles rather than as organic development from one age to another, is characterized by a teleological design? The answer is no. The oxymoronic names suggest an uneasy blending of opposites. What was realistic and what was magic in the early twentieth century when Franz Roh, photographer, collagist and art historian coined the phrase? Magic realism-a kind of modern fiction in which fabulous and fantastical events are included in a narrative that otherwise maintains the ‘reliable’ tone of objective realistic report. Designating a tendency of the modern novel to reach beyond the confines of realism and draw upon the energies of fable, folk tale, and myth while maintaining a strong contemporary social relevance. The fantastic attributes given to characters in such novels-levitation, flight, telepathy, telekinesis-are among the means that magic realism adopts in order to encompass the often phantasmagoric political realities of the 20th century (The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms). Magic realism [is characterized by] the mingling and juxtaposition of the realistic and the fantastic, bizarre and skillful time shifts, convoluted and even labyrinthine narratives and plots, miscellaneous use of dreams, myths and fairy stories, expressionistic and even surrealistic description, arcane erudition, the elements of surprise or abrupt shock, the horrific and the inexplicable (A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory). Magic realism-the frame or surface of the work may be conventionally realistic, but contrasting elements-such as supernatural myth, dream fantasy-invade the realism and change the whole basis of the art (Handbook to Literature, Harmon ed.).Lo real maravilloso-for the practice of Latin American writers who mix everyday realities with imaginative extravaganzas drawn from the rich interplay of European and native cultures.[Writers] enlarge a reader’s ordinary sense of the real to include magic, myth, hallucination and miracles (Handbook to Literature, Harper ed.).Magic realism-the capacity to enrich our idea of what is ‘real’ by incorporating all dimensions of the imagination, particularly as expressed in magic, myth and religion (Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia).
EKPHRASIS IMAGINAIRE DANS L’ŒUVRE DE PIERRE MICHON

EKPHRASIS IMAGINAIRE DANS L’ŒUVRE DE PIERRE MICHON
(IMAGINARY EKPHRASIS IN THE WORK OF PIERRE MICHON)

  • Publication: (2/15/2024)
  • Author(s): Alina-Liana Pintican Petriș
  • Contributor(s):
  • Language: French
  • Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, French Literature
  • Issue: 2/15/2024
  • Page Range: 167-188
  • No. of Pages: 22
  • Keywords: description; ekphrasis; descriptive; erudition; art; hypotypose;
  • Summary/Abstract: Pierre Michon’s work is an illustration of the contemporary generation of French writers, representing an original work, a mixture of erudition and imaginaton. The problematic perspective of this paper focuses on description, in some of his filiation novels and biographical fictions: Vies Minuscules [Small lives], Vie de Joseph Roulin [The life of Joseph Roulin], Abbés [Abbots], La Grande Beune [The origin of the world], Roi du bois [The King Of The Wood]. If traditionally, in the realistic novel for example, the description was a detachable piece in the text and this sparked a criticism of this textual strategy, in the modern novel, including Michon’s, the description is involved in the narrative process. We studied the interaction between the narrative sequence and the description, ‘two structural types in continuous interaction’ as describer by Philippe Hamon (Hamon, 1981, p. 97).We shall have a look at the description as means of designating things, to ensure the presence of knowledge on the world in the texts of fiction. A theoretical course on the description and the descriptive is necessary before setting out the means by which this ‘figure’ is accurate in the spatial and chronological construction of Pierre Michon’s writing. We shall analyze the technique of hypotypose and its role in the above-mentioned works. A subcategory of the description is the landscape. The experience of rural landscape enables to reach the depth of the countryside, the intimacy of the recall and the memory of the people who inhabit it. The integration of the character in the world, his attachment to nature offers him identity. The term ‘landscape’ is the subject of ekphrasis or description and in Michon’s work it is a recall or a memory place rather than a geographic location. The landscape brings into existence the space where one can find his origin. In fact, his entire work turns out to be a journey, a return to the History and in the past through rural, apocalyptic, religious, serene landscapes that arise the misgivings of those living in the rhythm of the seasons. The rural area encompasses a community described by the writer as having a ‘rudimentary nature’, situated far from the urban world and living from farming and agriculture. Despite all this, they preserve their customs and the popular and religious values. The evolution of Michon’s characters takes place in the world and the description brings the painting to life. The elements of the world provide some surprising images where reality and fantasy meet. In Michon’s work we identify some themes and motifs that contribute to a specific elementarium for the novelistic space. The spatial configuration is based on elementary forms (earth, water, air, fire) which function in symbiosis to sustain life on earth. Returning to the central theme, description is not just about describing, it is also about the search for immemorial time and self-discovery. Using portraiture in his work, as a form of description, Pierre Michon wants to bring tiny, modest beings out of anonymity and give them life and visibility. It comes as a recognition on his part for the memory of people who have contributed, on the one hand, to its becoming.
AT THE CROSSROADS OF THE REAL AND THE FANTASTIC: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF IDENTITY, HISTORY, AND DESTINY IN SALMAN RUSHDIE'S MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN AND ANGELA CARTER'S WISE CHILDREN

AT THE CROSSROADS OF THE REAL AND THE FANTASTIC: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF IDENTITY, HISTORY, AND DESTINY IN SALMAN RUSHDIE'S MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN AND ANGELA CARTER'S WISE CHILDREN
(AT THE CROSSROADS OF THE REAL AND THE FANTASTIC: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF IDENTITY, HISTORY, AND DESTINY IN SALMAN RUSHDIE'S MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN AND ANGELA CARTER'S WISE CHILDREN)

  • Publication: (2/15/2024)
  • Author(s): Petru Ștefan Ionescu
  • Contributor(s):
  • Language: English
  • Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Other Language Literature
  • Issue: 2/15/2024
  • Page Range: 191-212
  • No. of Pages: 22
  • Keywords: magical realism; children; identity; history; destiny;
  • Summary/Abstract: This research paper provides an exploration of the complex and reciprocal relation between identity, history, and destiny in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children and Angela Carter's Wise Children. We regard these two works as exemplary in their use of magical realism, not merely as a stylistic device, but also as a powerful narrative tool that helps define the complexities of human existence. Through a comparative analysis, this paper examines how Rushdie and Carter blend the real with the fantastical to challenge conventional narratives, exploring the intricate nature of identity and the dynamic reciprocity between personal and collective histories.In Midnight's Children, Rushdie blends the life of his protagonist, Saleem Sinai, with the historical reality of postcolonial India, using magical realism to blur the boundaries between the personal and the national, the real and the imagined. The novel’s non-linear structure and fragmented narration reflect the tumultuous and often contradictory nature of postcolonial identity, illustrating how personal and national histories are intertwined and constantly evolving. The midnight's children, born at the exact moment of India’s independence, symbolize the nation’s future potential but also its inherent complexities, their supernatural abilities serving as metaphors for the highly diverse and complex nature of Indian identity.On the other hand, Angela Carter’s Wise Children explores identity using performance and theatricality, focusing on the lives of Dora and Nora Chance, the illegitimate daughters of a famous Shakespearean actor. Carter’s narrative style, characterized by its playfulness and subversive humor, uses magical realism to blur the lines between reality and performance, suggesting that identity is as much a construction and performance as any role played on stage. The Chance sisters’ improbable survival and their lives filled with theatrical performances and fantastical elements highlight the fluidity of identity and the artificiality of social constructs such as legitimacy and lineage.Children play an extremely important role in both novels, their symbolism lying at the core of both narratives. Opposing the reality of the adult world to the fantastic freedom of childhood, with its lack of imaginative boundaries, the novels question the nature of reality and our accepted worldview.This study draws on the primary literature, analyzing the two mentioned works, but also on a wide range of secondary literature, including postcolonial theory, feminist criticism, and narrative theory, to situate the analysis within broader cultural and literary contexts. Homi K. Bhabha's concept of hybridity is particularly relevant in understanding the fragmented identities in Midnight's Children, while Judith Butler's theory of performativity offers insights into the fluid identities portrayed in Wise Children. By examining the symbolic roles of children in both novels, the research highlights how Rushdie and Carter use magical realism to explore and critique the constructed nature of identity, history, and destiny.Ultimately, this study argues that magical realism in these novels is not simply a narrative style but a powerful tool for exploring the complexities of identity and history in postcolonial and feminist contexts. Midnight's Children and Wise Children both challenge the linear, teleological narratives of history and identity, offering instead a vision of reality that is many-sided, fluid, and constantly being rewritten. Through their use of magical realism, Rushdie and Carter create narratives that invite readers to question conventional understandings of the self, society, the present and the past, offering new possibilities for the ways in which we understand identity, history, and destiny.
REPREZENTAREA REALITĂȚII URBANE MOSCOVITE ÎN ROMANUL MAESTRUL ȘI MARGARETA DE MIHAIL BULGAKOV. MAGICUL CU ROL CORECTIV

REPREZENTAREA REALITĂȚII URBANE MOSCOVITE ÎN ROMANUL MAESTRUL ȘI MARGARETA DE MIHAIL BULGAKOV. MAGICUL CU ROL CORECTIV
(THE REPREZENTATION OF MOSCOW URBAN REALITY IN THE NOVEL THE MASTER AND MARGARITA ’BY MIHAIL BULGAKOV. THE MAGIC HAVIG A CORECTIVE ROL)

  • Publication: (2/15/2024)
  • Author(s): Maria Holhoș, Andra Gabriela Holhoş
  • Contributor(s):
  • Language: Romanian
  • Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Russian Literature
  • Issue: 2/15/2024
  • Page Range: 213-240
  • No. of Pages: 28
  • Keywords: supernatural; urban spaces; real; unreal; magic;
  • Summary/Abstract: The inclusion of the supernatural in Moscow's urban spaces (flats, restaurants, theater halls, the writer’s house, office) is meant to enhance the understanding of reality in its paradoxical nature. The boundary between the real and the unreal blurs due to the integration of opposing categories within the novel, aiming to reveal the complexity of the contemporary world. The inclusion of magic within real spaces, the sudden shifts between reality and imagination, and the metamorphosis of elements from one state to another support the syncretic nature of The Master and Margarita and Mikhail Bulgakov’s approach of maintaining a make-believe tone in recounting events through authorial reluctance. The text’s subtleties allow the author to express both personal and social critiques.
FAȚETE ALE UNOR NAUFRAGII: CIVILIZAȚIA SALVATOARE

FAȚETE ALE UNOR NAUFRAGII: CIVILIZAȚIA SALVATOARE
(FACETS OF SOME WRECKS: THE SAVING CIVILIZATION)

  • Publication: (2/15/2024)
  • Author(s): Lucian Vasile Bâgiu
  • Contributor(s):
  • Language: Romanian
  • Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Essay|Book Review |Scientific Life, Studies of Literature, Cultural Essay
  • Issue: 2/15/2024
  • Page Range: 243-270
  • No. of Pages: 28
  • Keywords: outcast; island; civilization; savagery; salvation;
  • Summary/Abstract: The essay is a comparative analysis of the way in which salvation is presented into three novels dealing with shipwrecks and outcasts: Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954), Tournier’s Friday, or The Other Island (1967), and Coetzee’s Foe (1986). Through the comparative analysis of three novels of the 20th century, the essay highlights how the shipwreck of the representatives of European civilization on an exotic, deserted and uninhabited island leads to a similar solution, of the impossibility of salvation in the framework of the same civilization. The difference in vision from the happy end feature of the Robinson myth established by Daniel Defoe is self-imposed and proves an acute crisis of modern man’s consciousness, but also an aesthetic awareness of the fact that, a few hundred years away from the establishment of the modern myth, European civilization can no longer feed on its own illusions.
INTERVIU/ DIALOG CU RODICA GABRIELA CHIRA, TRADUCATOAREA VOLUMULUI BILINGV DESPRE OAMENI ȘI COLIVII/ DES HOMMES ET DES CAGES

INTERVIU/ DIALOG CU RODICA GABRIELA CHIRA, TRADUCATOAREA VOLUMULUI BILINGV DESPRE OAMENI ȘI COLIVII/ DES HOMMES ET DES CAGES
(INTERVIEW/ DIALOG WITH RODICA GABRIELA CHIRA, TRANSLATOR OF THE BILINGUAL VOLUME DESPRE OAMENI ȘI COLIVII/ DES HOMMES ET DES CAGES)

  • Publication: (2/15/2024)
  • Author(s): Oana Benedicta Feher
  • Contributor(s):
  • Language: Romanian
  • Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature
  • Issue: 2/15/2024
  • Page Range: 271-281
  • No. of Pages: 11
  • Keywords: interview; translator; traductologist; self-translation Despre oameni și colivii/ Des hommes et des cages; the Covid-19 pandemic;
  • Summary/Abstract: The interview with Rodica Gabriela Chira, Associate Professor at 1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia, now retreated, translator of the bilingual volume Despre Oameni și Colivii/ Des Hommes et des Cages (Of men and cages, 2020) inscribes itself into a larger doctoral research focused on a psyco- and sociolinguistic perspective of the Covid-19 pandemic. The questions addressed by the interviewer refer to the historic of the volume, the working process, the quality of translator and traductologist, the steps followed in the elaboration of the volume, with the attention concentrated on answers capable of generating new questions. We thus discover that, through her professional activity, Rodica Gabriela Chira situates herself somewhere at the border between translator and traductologist, although this last quality is not justified by specialized books in the field of traductology. Stress is also put on the orientation of the poems included in the volume from a psycho- and sociolinguistic perspective: they belong to a culture of the present, dependent on circumstances, on the commonplace called the Covid-19 pandemic. The online interview was achieved on January 7, 2024, between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m.
SCURT DEMERS COMPARATIV ASUPRA FIGURII FEMININE ÎN DRAMATURGIA LUI LUCIAN BLAGA ȘI VALERIU ANANIA

SCURT DEMERS COMPARATIV ASUPRA FIGURII FEMININE ÎN DRAMATURGIA LUI LUCIAN BLAGA ȘI VALERIU ANANIA
(A BRIEF COMPARATIVE APPROACH ON THE FEMALE FIGURE IN THE DRAMATURGY OF LUCIAN BLAGA AND VALERIU ANANIA)

  • Publication: (2/15/2024)
  • Author(s): Raluca-Denisa Nicoară
  • Contributor(s):
  • Language: Romanian
  • Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature
  • Issue: 2/15/2024
  • Page Range: 282-297
  • No. of Pages: 16
  • Keywords: Lucian Blaga; Valeriu Anania; female characters; angel; demon;
  • Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to explore, from a comparative mytho-symbolic perspective, the ways in which the feminine figure is configured in the dramatic texts of Lucian Blaga and Valeriu Anania. The foundation of this approach lies in the classical symbolic opposition between angel and demon, as it highlights two distinct yet complementary faces of femininity: the angelic woman, a variation of the Eternal Feminine, and the demonic woman, perpetually dark, whose erotic fascination spills into the realm of destructive lunar power, reminiscent of malevolent mermaids. In this regard, the angelic figure of femininity will inevitably be associated with Mira from Lucian Blaga’s dramatic text Master Manole (1927). As an archetypal variation of the saviour woman, Mira, through her own death, manages to fulfil the creative destiny of the man, while also facilitating the re-signification of all existence by transforming the profane space into a sacred one once with the raising of the monastery in which she is embedded. In contrast, Iovanca from Valeriu Anania’s dramatic poem Master Manole (1968) embodies the demonic face of femininity. Resembling the mermaids who disturb a man’s peace, Iovanca succeeds in destabilizing the existence of the devout painter Safirin, becoming a death-bringing temptation. At the same time, the paper will also focus on Simina, the young wife whom Iovanca manages to inoculate, in the spirit of a Mephistophelian reminiscence, a sense of rebellion. This transformation will symbolically turn her into one of the “demonic women” which Manole believes demolish the walls of the monastery during the night.
THE WOMEN WHO LIVE IN CĂTĂLINA FLORINA FLORESCU’S CORP DE TEATRU ÎN CINCI ROCHII STRĂLUCITOARE (THEATER BODY IN FIVE SHINING GOWNS)

THE WOMEN WHO LIVE IN CĂTĂLINA FLORINA FLORESCU’S CORP DE TEATRU ÎN CINCI ROCHII STRĂLUCITOARE (THEATER BODY IN FIVE SHINING GOWNS)
(THE WOMEN WHO LIVE IN CĂTĂLINA FLORINA FLORESCU’S CORP DE TEATRU ÎN CINCI ROCHII STRĂLUCITOARE (THEATER BODY IN FIVE SHINING GOWNS))

  • Publication: (2/15/2024)
  • Author(s): Diana Alexandra AVRAM (ȘANDRU)
  • Contributor(s):
  • Language: English
  • Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Language and Literature Studies, Theory of Literature
  • Issue: 2/15/2024
  • Page Range: 301-305
  • No. of Pages: 5
  • Keywords: Cătălina Florina Florescu; Romanian contemporary dramaturgy; Romanian female playwriters; diaspora;
  • Summary/Abstract: Cătălina Florina Florescu, a Romanian scholar and professor at Pace University in New York, publishes her second volume of plays in Romanian in 2024, further establishing her presence as a diasporic writer in her native country. Continuously engaged with how the major themes of humanity and literature are reflected in Romanian society, Cătălina Florescu persists in writing in her mother tongue and seeking connections with the Romanian audience beyond geographical boundaries. Corp de Teatru (În Cinci Rochii Strălucitoare) [Theatre Body (In five shining gowns)] is yet another significant addition to the contemporary Romanian theatrical scene, featuring plays that have been nominated for and awarded in the field.
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The Aeternitas Publishing House of the "1 Decembrie 1918" University of Alba Iulia aims at promoting national and universal scientific and cultural values, contributing thus to the unimpeded circulation of ideas and information. Within the publishing house, accredited by CNCS in the C category, academic books are edited under professional conditions, all with the goal to stimulate the production of textbooks and academic books and to encourage the teaching staff and university researchers to capitalize on their own scientific activity and to engage in collective projects. Furthermore, the Aeternitas Publishing House wants to establish partnerships with similar institutions and increase the visibility of the publishing house among the academic community and institutions, by participating in exhibitions and book fairs. Last but not least, the Aeternitas Publishing House wants to maintain a certain level of prestige and improve the image of the university, both in an academic environment and outside of it.

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