HEAVEN AND HELL IN ROMANIAN LITERATURE: BETWEEN RELIGIOUS IMAGINATION AND ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
HEAVEN AND HELL IN ROMANIAN LITERATURE: BETWEEN RELIGIOUS IMAGINATION AND ARTISTIC EXPRESSION

Summary/Abstract: This paper explores the representations of Heaven and Hell in Romanian literature, emphasizing their religious, symbolic, and moral significance. These two fundamental concepts of the Christian imagination have played an important role in shaping Romanian cultural and literary traditions. The study examines their presence both in Romanian folk literature and in the works of major Romanian writers.The first part of the paper analyzes Heaven and Hell as essential elements of the religious imagination, reflecting humanity’s concern with morality, salvation, and the afterlife. Special attention is given to their representation in Romanian folklore, where Heaven is depicted as a place of harmony, light, and eternal happiness, while Hell symbolizes punishment, suffering, and separation from the divine.The paper also investigates the literary interpretations of these themes in the works of Ion Creangă, Mihai Eminescu, Tudor Arghezi, and Lucian Blaga. Their writings transform traditional religious images into complex symbols of human existence, spiritual aspiration, doubt, suffering, and the search for meaning.The study concludes that Heaven and Hell are not merely theological concepts but powerful literary symbols that express fundamental aspects of the human condition. Through their diverse representations, Romanian literature offers profound insights into the relationship between humanity, morality, and transcendence.

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