REVISITING THE PAST, RETHINKING THE PRESENT: IRONICAL ASPECTS OF REREADING ,,MINOR” FORERUNNERS IN MARIN SORESCU AND MIRCEA CĂTĂRESCU’S THEORETICAL, CRITICAL AND LITERARY TEXTS
REVISITING THE PAST, RETHINKING THE PRESENT: IRONICAL ASPECTS OF REREADING ,,MINOR” FORERUNNERS IN MARIN SORESCU AND MIRCEA CĂTĂRESCU’S THEORETICAL, CRITICAL AND LITERARY TEXTS

Summary/Abstract: The aim of my paper is to give a glance on how the purposes of novelty and delimitation from the current literary code (perceived as obsolete, restrictive, thus no longer appropriate) can be achieved by resorting to so-called “minor” literature made up by remote forerunners. Modern and Postmodern writers found delight and precious resources in the naïve, Premodern poetry of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century, illustrating their fascination both in theory (with critical texts and essays centered on old Romanian poetry) and in practice (the typical Postmodernist process of parodic intertextuality). The main authors I intend to discuss are Marin Sorescu and Mircea Cărtărescu, each of them having his particular manner of relating to Preromantic “minor” writers. What I shall try to highlight is the ironic dimension contained in this unexpected revival of the interest taken in the works of the modest pioneers of Modernity. Is this recollection of the “old ones” humorous and innocent? Is there a lasting distance which separates these inventive, anti-canon poets from their forerunners? The answer is expected to be affirmative, but there still are nuances to be enlightened, such as the distinction between innocent humor and blasé irony in reading the “fathers“of Romanian Modernism.

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