Amurgul trăirii, inceputul amăgirii (Jurnalul intim: O promisiune de sinceritate)
The Twilight of Living, the Dawn of Delusion (The Personal Diary: A Promise of Sincerity)

Summary/Abstract: The present paper attempts to identify the contiguities and the differences between Eugen Simion’s diary, Timpul trăirii, timpul mărturisirii (written after three years of living in Paris as lecturer of Romanian language and literature at Sorbona, between 1970 and 1973), and the autobiographical annotations of Emil Cioran (permanently settled in the capital of France since 1941). I present the Romanian cultural background, as well as the European political circumstances at the middle of the last century (especially the events related to the World War II, together with Emil Cioran’s attitude in regard to the contemporary ideologies). I also put forward the affiliation of the diary to the memoir genre – in as far as it ought to render the objective truth, the diary either delineates a perspectivist view (the subjective judgement passes for a matter of course) or it takes on a fictional quality, according to the author’s aims. The latter one is a hallmark for both Eugen Simion’s Jurnalul parizian and Emil Cioran’s autobiographical texts.

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