DE LA MITOLOGIE LA JOCURILE FICȚIUNII IN ROMANUL PREVESTIREA, DE IOANA PARVULESCU
From Mythology to the Fiction Games in the Novel Prevestirea [The Omen] by Ioana Parvulescu

Summary/Abstract: The novel The Omen is set within a time journey having as a starting point the eighth century BC and proves itself a captivating mythical drama. The main character is inspired by the biblical prophet Iona from the Old Testament. The biblical texts directly referring to this apparently insignificant prophet are scarce. What gives substance to the novel is the author’s effort to offer the reader the background and spirit of the epoch. The particularity of the novel is given by the sequencing of the events narrated by the story-tellers followers of the prophet, starting with his daughter Esther, and continuing with his granddaughter Hulda followed by other descendants for several centuries. The author’s ingenuity is proved by the use of those voices, vaguely sketched entities, by means of which the thread of the story is conveyed over ages. An artifice in the narrative strategy is the outlet from the time of the story and the time of the story-telling: some discretely mentioned details draw the reader’s attention to the fact that he left behind the ancient events and finds himself in the Middle Ages, then in the interwar period, and later even in the present technological era of internet and mobile cell phones. Dominated by the biblical myth with spiritual, philosophical, esthetic stakes, this novel can be considered a warning for the ever more desacralized society, often facing the struggle for survival, a fact illustrated even by the time of the publishing of the literary work, whose title gets an anticipatory value.

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