(IN)OSPITALITATE/ OSTILITATE ÎN SPAȚIUL URMUZIAN
(IN)HOSPITALITY / HOSTILITY IN URMUZ' LITERARY SPACE

Summary/Abstract: The characters imagined by Urmuz in "Pagini Bizare" (Weird Pages) are hybrid creatures resulting from the grafting of animal or robotic elements onto a structure that vaguely resembles a human being. As mechanical beings that operate under the rule of automatisms, they are captive in a never-ending present. The space in which they lead their larval existence is a reflection of their own corporeality: a place of perpetual imprisonment from which they can only escape through annihilation. This article aims to demonstrate, by applying Derrida's principle of hospitality, that beyond the overt hostility of display (grotesque beings, nightmare visions, thanatic obsession, to name just a few of the elements from Urmuz`s arsenal of hostility), the textual space can be extremely welcoming, thanks to the levers employed by the author. Such levers are : humor, which captivates the reader, parody that undermines from within, but above all, the fact that the (non-)heroes are, as Nicolae Balotă saw them, essential, permanent personas of human destiny, suffering from Freudian complexes, experiencing existential dramas, caught in the grip of a petty, limited universe. When the host swaps roles with the guest through a translation-like process, the paradigm of hospitality is modified.

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