COLD, A RECURRENT MOTIF IN LITERATURE
COLD, A RECURRENT MOTIF IN LITERATURE

Summary/Abstract: Cold has usually been associated by psychologists with loneliness or with the feeling of being excluded. A group of researchers from the University of Toronto discovered the fact that the connection between the feeling of loneliness and the sensation of cold is based on scientific grounds (Chen-Bo Zhong, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli 2008: Cold and Lonely: Does Social Exclusion Literally Feel Cold, in Press at Pychological Science, 19:838-842) and according to the tests made by the Canadian psychologists the feeling of social exclusion has connection with the one of cold. Thus, the feelings of acceptance or social exclusion can be associated with metaphors referring to temperature and in case of exclusion the most frequently used feelings are those of feverishness, sadness and loneliness. As the motif of cold is widely met in literature, we believe that it would be interesting to identify the factor which could determine an author`s propensity for creating such situations. The example chosen by us is Pavel Dan`s work where autumn, rain and cold fill the souls of the characters which populate his writings. Our starting point is the theory of the imaginary – a science devised during the second half of the century by the scholars Gaston Bachelard, Gilbert Durand, Jean-Jacques Wunenburger, A. Moles, B. Backzo, G. Peylet, M. Maffesoli. This theory enables us to make a multiperspective analysis on Pavel Dan`s imaginary and to identify the images generated by cold, one of the main motifs in the author`s work. Present in the characters`inner space, cold has two embodiments material and spiritual, it bebomes a space in itself, both of characters, as well as of the author. A first remark which comes to reinforce our study regarding the images created by the presence of cold is that in Pavel Dan`s work seasons play a well-established role. Each season renders a spiritual state with deep imprints on characters and they do not seem chosen at random. One cannot speak about the author`s propensity for the cold season, yet Pavel Dan`s characters hide inside their souls the disease of loneliness and seclusion, the feeling of cold which come to intensify the peasants` silence. The cold shiver of winter is present everywhere, the roles in which the author disguises himself bear the frozen stamp of loneliness and of death. Both material as well as spiritual cold is overwhelming leading to a feeling of physical and psychological exhaustion. Dark is also present, the atmosphere in which events take place is a gloomy one, everything seems covered with dust. Even light seems very close to dark, being glimmering and most of the times overcast. Despite this gloomy background characters dream, because one cannot live without dreams and hope, dream represents a way towards a more beautiful world. They dream a lot, even when they are sad and depressed, but their dream is most of the times violently interrupted by cold and poverty.

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