Incursiuni în imaginarul religios din literatura română contemporană (1). Iona, de la profet la artist
Insights into religious imaginary in contemporary Romanian literature (1). Jonah, from prophet to artist

Summary/Abstract: A dominant trait of Ioana Parvulescu’s writing is the use of fictional leaps in recent epochs/times (19th century, the interwar period and Romanian Communism). Her last novel, Prevestirea, proposes a fictional immersion into an immemorial time, starting from the Old Testament episode of the prophet Jonah. By returning to the “grand narratives”, a subverted trend of Postmodernism, the writer’s text is structured around the imperative of the conveyance of revelatory truths, one of the recurrent characteristics of Romanian religious literature. The novel not only re-tells the story of Jonah, but also follows the way in which it was conveyed, understood and interpreted by a retinue of feminine characters, who represent the genealogical tree established by the prophet. The fictional odyssey of the prophet Jonah showcases his sinuous development and his wavering relationship with the Divine. Thus, we are presented with multiple hermeneutic perspectives through which the biblical narrative and Jonah’s portrait can be re-read and reinterpreted.

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