“La tête pleine de poésie et de colère”: Liberté et émotion dans l’œuvre de Mihai Eminescu
A Mind Filled with Poetry and Anger: Freedom and Emotion in the Work of Mihai Eminescu

Summary/Abstract: The idea of freedom in Mihai Eminescu’s thinking was discussed in the context of his conservative ideology of the “organic state,” emphasizing in particular his opposition to the liberal concept of freedom. This article proposes a different perspective and revisits the debate with arguments based on the affective figures exploited in a sense of revolt and emancipation in the poet’s literary texts. Drawing on an anthropological concept of image (Aby Warburg), the study distinguishes between three areas of expression of this emerging political sensibility in the literary text: ornaments, gestures, and affective tonalities. Ultimately, what we are trying to explain is how Eminescu develops a representation of freedom that involves, in the very acts of revolt, tradition, processes of transmission, and the negative emotions of hatred and anger.

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