“Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted”. Vladimir Bartol’s Novel “Alamut” – Belated Entry in the Modern Balkan Context

Author(s): Malamir Spasov / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2015

“Alamut” (1938) is a novel by Vladimir Bartol (1903 – 1967) – Slovene author from Trieste. It has been defined as both “marginal literature” and “brilliantly written work”. However, only in the 1980s and 1990s Bartol’s novel became the most internationally successful and bestselling work of Slovene literature, partly due to its strangely contemporary relevance. And yet there has been surprisingly little comparison between “one of the most original works of Slovene literature” and the modernistic literary creativity of contemporaries of Bartol’s generation elsewhere in Southeast Europe – for instance authors such as Bulgarian Boris Shivachev, Romanians Camil Petrescu, Anton Holban and Mircea Eliade, and even Serbian Miloš Crnjanski. Regrettably, “Alamut” is not translated in Bulgarian or Romanian yet. Apart from the fact that it is a gap which needs to be filled, such a juxtaposing seems to be quite alluring, loquacious and valuable. This study represents an attempt to commence similar comparison and to initiate a broader discussion between both extremities of the Balkans.

“I travel myself” – nomadic motives originating from the Balkans

Author(s): Darina Felonova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

The article examines the special role of the journey - spiritual and physical, in three novels by immigrant authors from the Balkans: Paris-Athens by Vassilis Alexakis, Hotel Europe by Dumitru Tsepeneag and Murder in Byzantium by Julia Kristeva. Represented is the idea that, by leaving his motherland, the immigrant could never attach himself the same way to any place and be fully accepted in the new community. Thus, his constant movement appears as a peculiar reaction to this specific ‘uprooting’ and becomes a way of life and thinking – i.e. a modern ‘nomadism’.

Salamone corse et Solomonar roumain : la magie pastorale et la figure de Salomon

Author(s): Olena Berezovska Picciocchi / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2016

This paper examines Corsican and Romanian traditions of mountainous shepherds in the context of the magic quest for milk. This quest is narrated in the tales and in the legends and it is embodied by the magic traditional characters as Corsican Salamone and Romanian Solomonar. Corsican Salamone would like to be the magic specialist of the brocciu’s creation and fabrication. But he can’t. Why? We will try to answer to this question. The brocciu is Corsican typical cheese. Solomonar is a Romanian weatherman who requests for the eggs and for the milk in his village. Why? We will try to answer to this second question. Finally, both characters Salamone and Solomonar are a re-appropriation of the famous mythical character in the Grimoires books, Solomon. This comparative research aims to understand his symbolical role in this ritual quest transformed in the popular narrative tradition.

Изследвания по световна литература 2. том 7, Изтъкнати румънски личности в световната литература и литературна наука. Редактори: Либуша Вайдова, Андрей Териан

Author(s): Ioana Slavcheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2016

Comments on the articles under the head-title Outstanding Romanian Personalities in World Literature and Literature Studies

Замфира Михаил на 75 години

Author(s): Vasilka Aleksova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 27/2013

Ève nouvelle. Observations sur le roman européen moderne de l’entre-deux-guerres

Author(s): Aglika Popova / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2017

Within the scope of this article, examples from Bulgarian and Romanian literature, which are representative of Balkan literatures, have been used as the subject of a comparative study alongside examples from French literature. The thematic framework of the Biblical creation myth, and in particular the figure of Eve, allow for the identification of common perspectives. Ever since the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, humankind has been following the preordained path of mortality. However, the Biblical narrative does not end with the fall of man. The Savior's birth atones for the first woman’s sin of disobedience, and the Virgin Mary becomes the New Eve, mother of the living. Modern representations of Eve require a change of scene as the common sacred time setting is reversed to actual reality, where the character building is done through the issue of assurance of salvation. The New Eve takes on the characteristics of a fugitive and a murderess. Based on the cited body of works by Tchavdar Moutafov, Anna Kamenova, Liviu Rebreanu, and Mircea Eliade, this is the point where we begin to single out the contemporary messages of the European novel. The French writers who have been selected as object of comparison are François Mauriac and Jean Giraudoux.

Stories of Suffering. Bodies and Illness in Post-communist Romanian Literature

Author(s): Adina Mocanu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

The fall of communism means liberty of expression, among other things. Contemporary writers tackle topics that were either considered taboo, or were censored under communism, and they portray an immediate reality that reflects everyday society. One important element is the depiction of disease in the works written after 1989, namely from a perspective that pays great attention to the body. Diseases such as AIDS and syphilis terrify people, even though they are treatable and being kept under control. Departing from Susan Sontag's main idea from her essay Illness as Metaphor, in this article I explore the role of disease in contemporary society as depicted in two recent novels: Cruciada copiilor by Florina Ilis and Lizoanca la 11 ani by Doina Ruşti. Romanian post-communist society still avoids speaking about disease, because it is considered taboo. This avoidance most often frustrates the people afflicted by disease. One of the novels discussed in the article observes the relation between the disease and its symbolical meaning in post-communist society, and this is indicative of the problems people run into in their everyday lives. Thus, I demonstrate why disease is an important element in the reality depicted in the aforementioned novels, and I also highlight how illness becomes more than a metaphor. It shows the institutionalized or structural arrangements in society.

Modalités d’imposer la critique marxiste dans les premières années du communisme roumain*

Author(s): Ioana (Andrei Grigor) Nicolae,Simona Marin / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2010

Beginning with the year 1948, the political and cultural Romanian newspapers display an ideological conflict held by the followers of the Soviet Marxist politics against the aesthetics of the decadent burgoisie. Such errors as formalism, cosmopolitism and impresionism which subversively guide the aesthetic criticism are banned by the new critics who plead for re-reading the classical text in an ideological mirror.

Eşti COOL şi dacă vorbeşti corect

Author(s): Gina Aurora Necula / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 3/2010

Începând din anul 2007, ACADEMIA ROMÂNĂ prin INSTITUTUL DE LINGVISTICĂ „IORGU IORDAN – AL. ROSETTI” s-a alăturat Consiliului Naţional al Audiovizualului în acţiunea de monitorizare a posturilor de radio şi televiziune privind calitatea limbii folosite în diverse emisiuni. Această colaborare a dus la alcătuirea Raportului de consultanţă care se face public anual şi care, în anul 2010, a stat la baza editării unei cărţi destinate elevilor, în principal. Din echipa de cercetători care a interpetat datele monitorizării fac parte: Blanca Croitor, Andreea Dinică, Adina Dragomirescu, AnaMaria Mihail, Carmen Mîrzea Vasile, Isabela Nedelcu, Alexandru Nicolae, Irina Nicula, coordonator Rodica Zafiu, iar monitorizarea a vizat 12 posturi de televiziune (TVR 1, Antena 1, Pro TV, Realitatea TV, Prima TV, TVR 2, TVR Cultural, Kanal D, Antena 3, B1 TV, OTV şi N24 Plus) şi două posturi de radio (Radio România Actualităţi şi Europa FM), alese în funcţie de: audienţă, acoperire naţională, pondere a emisiunilor informative şi de dezbatere, asumarea unui rol cultural şi educativ.

The French Feminine Pattern in the 19th Century Romanian Prose

Author(s): Ramona Mihăilă / Language(s): English Issue: 4-II/2010

Cet article essaie d’analyser les facteurs modeleurs de la construction de l’identité des personnages féminins dans la prose roumaine du XIXe à travers un modèle français qui apparaît dans plusieurs écrits. Je vais développer ce sujet à travers trois perspectives : une perspective socioculturelle et historique qui met en discussion la transition de la société rurale/agraire à la société urbaine/industrielle; une perspective qui met en discussion l’estompage des conventions et des stéréotypies dans la représentation de la féminité moyennant le passage du romantisme au réalisme et une perspective comparative entre la littérature et la culture roumaine et la littérature et la culture française : perspectives comparatives des sujets que les écrivains roumains et français ont choisis: stratégies du discours féministe, indépendance économique des femmes, conformité sociale et accomplissement personnel ou personnages féminins et milieu rural/urbaine.

ОТНОШЕНИЕТО ЦЕНТЪР – ПЕРИФЕРИЯ/ЕВРОПЕЙСКИ ЗАПАД – ЕВРОПЕЙСКИ (ЮГО)ИЗТОК КАТО МОТИВ В ПРОЗАТА НА АВТОРИ-МИГРАНТИ ОТ БАЛКАНИТЕ

Author(s): Darina Felonova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2017

The paper analyses the writing of three authors who emigrated from the Balkans and settled in France in 1960s and 1970s. – Vassilis Alexakis (of Greek descent), Dumitru Tsepeneag (of Romanian descent) and Julia Kristeva (of Bulgarian descent). It aims to present the intermediate position of these immigrant authors in Western European environment in regard to the constituent components of their new identity – an intermediate position that allows them to examine the processes simultaneously from the “outside” and the “inside” and to generate bidirectional interpretations and literary images. The issues are further compounded by the inherent “crossroad” and “transitory” geopolitical characteristics of the Balkans, often thought of as a border region between the East and the West. From this point of view, the immigrant authors from the Balkan region appear to have a very complex existence, in which two kinds of duality intertwine – the one imposed by migration, and the other imposed by the “marginalization” and “uncertainty” of the Balkans when it comes to their European status. Because of these peculiarities, the three writers construct in their novels a variety of models for imagining the “native” and the “foreign”, the centre (European West) and the periphery (European Southeast), and the Other.

Eugen Ionescu - the theatre of human psychology and social identity

Author(s): Iuliana Barna / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2011

Eugène Ionesco est l’auteur d’une écriture authentique, qui occupe une place importante dans l’histoire de la littérature roumaine, parce qu’elle peint des personnages liés à leur époque, mais qui, en fait, sont l’expression d’une humanité insufissante, limitée. C’est pourquoi on peut affirmer qu’une oeuvre littéraire de certe valeur esthétique se situe au carrefour du temps et de l’éternité.

„La Țigănci”, nuvela-parabolă a profetismului eliadesc

Author(s): Liliana Danciu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2018

The unprecedented experience of Gavrilescu, the main character in the La Țigănci short story, continues to arise various interpretations, proving the viability of this eliadesc writing. For some literary critics, he is the anti-hero by definition, which lives what Eliade understands by "level break", but without understanding anything of it. The ordinary man, with a banal existence, routinely in the profane becomes the Chosen One uselessly claimed by sacred, for ignorance prevents him from seeing beyond the Illusion. In the hut of the gypsies, he crosses a rite of passage, from life to death, proof being the shrouded curtain that will wrap his naked body, the terrible thirst for unpopularity, and the surprising encounter with the always young Hildegard, the beloved of his youth.In this article, I try to reveal another dimension of this eliadesc short story, linked to the name of the main character, which, in my opinion, refers to the name of the archangel Gabriel, the "pair" of the other, Michael. As it is known, the name of the archangel Michael is directly related to the Romanian legionary movement in the inter-warperiod, a nationalistic, violent and criminal political-ideological movement that has successfully manipulated local religious and cultural elements to gain followers and become strong. Up to a point, the Romanian legionary movement stood under the sign of both archangels, synthesizing both the intellectual and the political dimensions.In time, the two directions have broken apart, and the legion has remained exclusively under the warlike sign of the warrior archangel. The Romanian intellectuals, who originally sympathized with the nationalist ideals of the legionary movement, distanced themselves from it and remained under the soteriological mark of Archangel Gabriel. This is, in my opinion, the message hidden by Eliade in this unusual short story. Also, using allegory and symbol, the Romanian author turns out to be a man of vision and prophesies the future of Romania, which has been culturally and historically marked, in time, by Germany. The present does not contradict Eliade, because Germany is the engine of the European Union, of which Romania wants to be part.

Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Cultural Developments

Author(s): Felix Nicolau / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

Romulus Bucur is a renowned writer and literary critic. He is also faculty member at Transylvania University of Braşov, institution well-known for its courses of creative writing and translation studies. “Glosses” is a nimbly written theoretical book wherein many topics are analyzed. One of the most important is the work of Alexandru Muşina, editor, writer, professor, and mentor of the Group of Braşov (a fertile contingent of writers still holding sway in Romanian literature).The second part of the volume is dedicated to the Romanian translations from the classical and contemporary Chinese culture. Mention must be made about the semiotic approach to all literary works glossed about.

Spațiul trăit ca determinant al relațiilor umane în romanul „Dervișul si moartea” de Meša Selimović

Author(s): Gabriela Chiciudean / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 9/2018

The problematic of space and character has been of constant interest to us and, along the way, we have approached the subject of both space and literary character in different studies. Now we wish to underline the connection existing between the space of the text and the characters of Meša Selimović’s novel, “Death and the Dervish.The idea of proxemics, which deals with the study of the correlations between the two major categories of the literary text, namely the text and the characters, when applied to literature, such a privileged space of the imaginary, serves to prove that, within the text, the characters are self-constructed according to their available playing space, whereas the space has its own specific characteristics and is symbolic only if perceived as such by the same character. Space is a place of experiences, of encountering the other, both in a private and a social setting. Obviously, such an analysis is not exhaustive, it is only one step, but a step that offers possibilities and opens the way towards surprising analyses. We have always been tempted by this subject primarily because the issue of space and time continues to attract and provoke, as proven over the years by the multitude of published works and conferences on the chronotope.

Сравнителното балканско литературознание в Софийския университет. Основания за сравнението между литературите на Европейския югоизток.

Author(s): Roumiana L. Stantcheva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

This article presents the methodological grounds for teaching Comparative Literature of the Balkans as a subject within the syllabus of the Balkan Studies master’s degree programme at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. The examples borrowed from the reception of Romanian literature in Bulgaria show the absence of targeted interest in neighbouring countries’ literatures. The reasoning continues with the discussion of cases in which a hypotext from French literature acquires a unifying role and allows for finding grounds for comparative studies (around ideas expressed in Naturalism and Symbolism) of the otherwise indifferent to one another South-Eastern European literatures, and quotes examples from Romanian, Bulgarian, and Greek literatures.

LITERARY TRANSGRESSIONS: THE STRANGE, THE STRANGER, THE STRANGEST IN MODERNISTIC FICTION IN THE BALKANS

Author(s): Malamir Spasov / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2019

In “Homo viator” Gabriel Marcel says: “We cannot help seeing that there is the closest of connections between the soul and hope. I almost think that hope is for the soul what breathing is for the living organism. (…) It is precisely the soul that is the traveler; it is of the soul and of the soul alone that we can say with supreme truth that „being” necessarily means „being on the way” (en route)”1. And thus man on the way is precisely a man of hope, whether traveling in space, time, imagination, oneself, etc.Since the time of Modernism the so-called existential traveler turned into a preferred character in the vast literary field. He is so irresistibly attractive probably because the existential traveler is homo viator par excellence, most vividly expressing the idea of the modern mobility in a broader sense – as freedom and search through the world, but also into oneself – and expressing hope eventually. Regardless of how different existential travelers are within and among themselves, no matter how various they sound like and how we are accustomed to perceiving them, after all, they represent some expression of hope – an escape of the terrifying and insurmountable issues that weigh above the human situation. Furthermore, since hope is a knowing which outstrips the unknown2, in a way, hope represents an excess. Hence, by analogy, hope is deviation, hope is strange, hope is even bizarre. Man on the way, or the travelling man, is often a strange man, or at least he is a stranger. And then the strangest of the strange is perhaps the one who gives the most hope in his own way. It happened so that Modernism transformed the literary narrative into an institution of the modern society and artistic shape of time. The author, as a creator, turned into original paradigm of human being, respectively the existential traveler – into original paradigm of travelling man; into homo viator par excellence. He articulated his own cultural and civilizational code through writing. Modernist narrative was his transcendent achievement. And its strangest of the strange, its most bizarre manifestations, which we here refer as bizarrism, were often its highest efforts. Thus the most bizarre travels of the existential traveler turned into ultimate travels – travels par excellence – the furthest trips of hope.

Originea muncii reflectată în Biblie și în folclorul românesc

Author(s): Andrei Prohin / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 31/2019

The paper is dedicated to the traditional regard on labour, a regard based on two fundamental domains of the traditional society: the main book of Christianity (Bible) and the literary creation, both having a great age and a considerable impact on the social representations. The author analyses how labour is presented in the Holy Writ: as a duty that was assigned by God to the first humans, in Paradise. It later became a means for supporting life and a source of pain due to the original sin, committed by first humans, and their expulsion from Paradise. The author traces this biblical motif in several Romanian folk creations – wedding orations, Christmas carols, creation legends. In the traditional imaginary world, the episode of the original sin sometimes misses or it contains extra-biblical details. One of the frequent ideas is that God has taught Adam and Eve the main domestic occupations and has given them the necessary implements. Labour proves thus the Creator’s care for humans. The folk sources also support the idea that when humans, during their earthly life, had broken God’s commands, their labour became a tiresome occupation that does not always culminate with results corresponding to the invested effort.

Între rai și iad. Angelologie și demonologie hristică

Author(s): Petru Adrian Danciu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 11/2020

The Jewish demonology during Christ's coming corresponds to a warrior messianism, capable of defeating the Roman occupation, seen as a divine punishment for unbelief. Jewish monotheism is subject to a foreign and unwilling power, another world that overlaps any desired politics and religiosity superior to any type of paganism. The world is ruled by warrior angels. They know the ascent and descent according to the divine will, Israel cannot escape the magnetic force they exert on the politics and religiosity of their peoples. If in Babylon Judaism developed its demonological beliefs, under the domination of the Roman Empire, Messianism knows its staging by asserting several personalities, one of them being Jesus Christ, son of Mary. His prophecy revolves around the idea of the divine Kingdom descending to earth, as well as the inherent opposition of the devil, manifested by the presence of false Christs. This belief is almost foreign to the Jewish demonology of the time. The idea of the coming Kingdom creates a strong confusion, the theologians of the time (scribes and Pharisees) associating the event with an open conflict against the Roman occupation, the Jews being seconded by the power of God, respectively by angels. Christ must respond differently to the need for freedom, and the claim to bear the divine appellation (Son of God) does not make sense, moreover, it is a blasphemy. The need for a divine sign, often required from Jesus, has its logical basis on this messianic, warrior expectation. The confusion grows all the more because, of not understanding its message, the purpose of the antichrists appears inexplicable. The research follows exactly these aspects, of the split parallel worlds, from the perspective of the crisis of Jewish monotheism and a demonology that makes it impossible to frame the saving model of Jesus in the politico-religious reality of the time. Although Christian theology holds that the time of Christ's coming was well chosen, He being the divine answer to this very crisis, the Judaism’s demonological view of the world corresponded less and less to the biblical prophecy. If its beginnings were situated in Babylonian captivity, the effects are seen in the distance given by the model of theological interpretation of the deeds of Christ, accused of working with the devil. Perhaps the historical moment was well chosen, but it did not correspond to the demonological mentality of the Jewish theology. Thus the Judaism is abandoned by the divinity, through the interposition of the Roman presence, facing an always announced divine kingdom. Moreover, the forgiveness of the enemy, his love does not correspond to the existing reality. Therefore, the utopian Christ's message is perceived as a blasphemy rather than an exhortation, hence the unilateral rejection of the idea that Christ is the king of the Jews.

Ionesco and Rhinoceros: Personal and Political Backgrounds

Author(s): Matei Calinescu / Language(s): English Issue: 03/1995

Eugène Ionesco's conscious and unconscious memories of the Romanian 1930s and early 1940s accompanied him throughout his life and directly inspired one of his major plays, Rhinoceros, written in 1958. The rise in Romania of the extreme right-wing Iron Guard or Legionary movement and Ionesco's distressing experience of growing fanaticism among Romanian intellectuals, and even among his closest literary friends, was acknowledged by him as one of the sources of the play. [...]