REFLEXE ALE DISCURSULUI IDENTITAR ÎN PROZA LUI MIHAIL KOGĂLNICEANU
In a period dominated throughout the whole Europe by an increasing interestfor national identity, Moldavia and Muntenia try to integrate themselves in this trendby asserting their specific as a distinct people in the South-East of the continent.That is why literature becomes one of the most influent instruments in the attempt ofmaking the Occident aware of our existence. The present paper aims at identifyingsome of the main shades of this struggle, having as a starting point the mixture ofideology, identity and aesthetics in Mihail Kogălniceanu’s work. The hypothesis tobe defended here is that his “literary” texts are, first of all, ideological text and onlyby chance get an artistic value since the basic goal of this influential intellectual ispromoting Romanian specific, not making literature according to the Romanticprinciple “art for art’s sake.” In other words, his writings (as well as the writings ofhis contemporaries) are dominated by a militant, ideological intention which forcesas to a different approach, one having as a core national identity.
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