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IN THE PURGATORY OF TWO DICTATORSHIPS. NATIONAL SOCIALIST AND COMMUNIST ASPECTS IN SELECTED WORKS BY HERTA MÜLLER

Author(s): Maria Sass / Language(s): German Issue: 39/2024

Born in 1953 in Banat, Romania, Nobel Prize winner Herta Müller is a Romanian-German author who spent her childhood and youth under the communist dictatorship until 1987, when she emigrated to the Federal Republic of Germany. In a reading organised by the Adenauer Foundation in 2009, Herta Müller spoke about her themes and explained that ‘her books are always about dictatorship, about the planned destruction of the individual, who doesn't count at all in a totalitarian society. ’In her early works in particular, the Romanian-German author deals with the effects of National Socialism on the German community from Romania, mainly on the Banat village community.’ In contrast, Müller's novels, which were written in Germany, thematise the communist dictatorship under which the author herself suffered. Her novels reflect experiences and traumas, mechanisms of oppression and violence from the Romanian dictatorship; she makes no reference to National Socialism in Germany. Dealing with the past is a necessity for the author, but it is not an easy undertaking. For in the dictatorship there are victims and perpetrators, victims who have become perpetrators, perpetrators who have become victims, witnesses and hangers-on, forming a system of entanglements. Herta Müller's work is known for its profound insights into topics such as oppression, persecution, isolation and memory. In this article, a thematic analysis of how both dictatorships were treated will be undertaken using a corpus of selected works. The text corpus comprises several stories from her early work - Niederungen (1982), Barfüßiger Februar (1987) - and the trilogy of novels: Der Fuchs war damals schon der Jäger (1992). Herztier (1994), Heute wär ich mir lieber nicht begegnet (1997). Herta Müller argues in favour of a literature that is existentially authenticated and formed from experience; she uses autofiction as a model of discourse.

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CHANGING IDENTITIES, DRIFTING INTELLECTUALS

Author(s): Iulian Boldea / Language(s): English Issue: 39/2024

Between the attachment to Romanianness and the virulently proclaimed rupture, the destiny of many intellectuals of the Generation '27, a representative generation for the Romanian cultural geography of the interwar period, is drawn. The ideological evolution of the three intellectuals we are dealing with in this study (Eliade, Cioran, Ionescu) was broadly similar, they had, as Marta Petreu observes, a "stereotypical or monotypical" identity trajectory. In fact, as stated above, the '27 Generation proposed, through its cultural initiatives and doctrinal manifestations, an alternative ideology to liberalism, in terms of the imperative of modernizing Romanian society. The problem for the three of them was their belonging to the ethnic - Romanian identity, as well as their political identity, because, after a period marked by apoliticism, they switched to criticizing the democratic system, and then (with the exception of Ionescu) converted to the ideology of right-wing totalitarianism.

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THE EVER-SURPRISING ELIF SHAFAK: “THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY”

Author(s): Anca Bădulescu / Language(s): English Issue: 39/2024

Elif Shafak’s new novel, the story of a lost poem, published in 2024, surprises the readers again. Not only does it focus on a host of historical-cultural issues, but it also creates a very subtle, complex narrative structure. The time span encapsulated in the novel astonishes by its vastness: the novel starts with Arthur’s birth on the banks of the River Thames during Queen Victoria’s reign. The other two narrative threads, closely interwoven with the former, jumps to our times, 2014 and 2018, by the River Tigris and the River Thames, unfolding Narin’s and Zaleekhah’s life stories, respectively. This article aims at following the intricate design of the three storylines, while trying to reveal the versatility and rich imagery of Shafak’s truly amazing prose.

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CHILDHOOD AND TRAUMA IN COMMUNISM - FROM DOCUMENT TO FICTION: "OUR DAILY LIFE", BY SANDA GOLOPENȚIA, AND "GOOD NIGHT, CHILDREN!", BY RADU PAVEL GHEO

Author(s): Iudit Calinescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 39/2024

This research proposes an analysis of childhood in communism, in two books that address this theme, "Good night, children!", by Radu Pavel Gheo, and "Our daily life", by Sanda Golopenția. The first is a work of fiction, a novel, and the second is based on documents from the Security archive, that are real, historical facts, that trigger the author's memories of her childhood. Although the books differ in general theme and style, they can be united by a basic idea, enunciated by both authors: beyond historical time, beyond concrete space, beyond the traumas of a social or political context, childhood represents that ideal, special place and time, in which everyone finds themselves, where they could overcome trauma. In both books, childhood is depicted from two points of view, that of the ideal childhood and that of the childhood traversed by a trauma, both filtered through the author's experiences. Sanda Golopenția recalls a childhood in Bucharest in the 1950s, at the beginning of Romanian communism, a gloomy world, full of shortages, but which the presence of parents illuminates, transforms, offering the child moments of delight and joy, in which the reader from any era can identify himself, therefore, a childhood taken towards universality. On the other hand, in the fictional world of Radu Pavel Gheo's novel, we find concrete descriptions of the communist universe of the 1980s, in the border area of Banat, as if the author wants to create an authentic map of the real atmosphere of those times and places, and on this background, the village of Teica, the only one that does not exist in reality, becomes a universal symbol of a happy childhood.

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THE OUTSIDER PERSPECTIVE IN THE NATIVE AMERICAN FICTION

Author(s): Oana-Andreea Pirnuta / Language(s): English Issue: 39/2024

The present paper aims at exploring the theme of the outsider, what is strange, weird, what makes us consider certain elements of life to be off and branded as on the ”outside” of what we think to be normal. By looking at a series of characters, Klaus, Rozin, Cally and Cecille, some of them having played a bigger role in the story than the others, we are able to draw some peculiarities that make us understand what led where and why. This study aims at providing a better understanding of the themes of the novel entitled ”The Antelope Wife” by Louise Erdrich aiding us to understand the fate and context of each of the previously mentioned characters.

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THE NATIVE AMERICAN FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS IN ERDRICH’S MULTILAYERED FICTION

Author(s): Oana-Andreea Pirnuta / Language(s): English Issue: 39/2024

The present paper focuses on family relationships of all types within the framework of Louise Erdrich’s novel entitled ”The Antelope Wife”, a complex, multilayered book conveying multiple messages about the Native American way of life and how relationships can evolve. Each family consists of individuals who interact with each other, develop feelings, and establish relationships, such as: sister and sister, mother and daughter, husband and wife, and so on. However, due to various factors, these relationships can undergo significant changes. This study presents the different types of family relationships and the meaning behind the lines. Being a family does not mean being connected by blood, but feeling like a family, even if it has just two members. The characters are interconnected, and their lives are influenced by others’ actions or feelings. Parents have a big impact on children, and this essay shows how their decisions affect the little ones. The relationships between the current generation, like Cally, and ancestors are important. Knowing your past and culture can help you understand yourself and even your family.

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C.S. LEWIS’ THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS. THE NOVEL AND ITS DRAMATIZATION

Author(s): Miruna Ciocoi-Pop / Language(s): English Issue: 39/2024

The history of literature shows that the text is almost always adaptable to stage. A perfect example in this sense is the epistolary novel. Its form needs next to no adaptation when rendered on stage. The following article focuses on C.S. Lewis’ famous epistolary novel, The Screwtape Letters, on its belletristic qualities and the features that are ideal instruments for a theatrical adaptation.

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NOBLE D’ESPRIT ET NOBLE DE NAISSANCE ‒ IMPOSSIBILITÉ ONTOLOGIQUE CHEZ STENDHAL

Author(s): Garofița Dincă / Language(s): French Issue: 39/2024

This study explores the distinction between the nobility of spirit and the nobility by birth in Stendhal (the pen name of Marie-Henri Beyle)’ s novelistic work. In this regard, we investigate vanity as a mean of conciliation between the social organisation and the natural hierarchy. We support our discussion mostly on the novels „Armance” et „Le Rouge et le Noir ” and we conclude that being loyal to one’s own beliefs and not giving in to social temptations is the exact definition of the nobility of spirit.

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THE MISFIT CHARACTER IN INTERWAR ROMANIAN PROSE. THE UPROOTED

Author(s): Galina Anițoi / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 39/2024

In this article, we aim to elucidate the drama of the uprooted misfit from interwar Romanian prose. The characters of Alexandru Vlahuță, Ioan Al. Brătescu-Voinești, Mihail Sadoveanu, Cezar Petrescu, Camil Petrescu, Nicolae Gh. Spătaru, descended from poor peasant families, but with a desire for education, leave their homeland and go to the city. We find that environmental change is destructive for these characters. The city, marked by the process of critical transition from one type of civilization to another, does not offer them the happiness they dreamed of, the possibilities to realize themselves in their condition as intellectuals. After several setbacks in the urban setting, the heroes regret leaving home. Returning to their native village, however, they discover that they feel alienated from their original environment.

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MYTHICAL GEOGRAPHY IN THE FRENCH NOVEL SUITE FRANÇAISE

Author(s): Adela Sava (Codreș) / Language(s): French Issue: 39/2024

According to the Petit Larousse Illustrated, geography is the science which aims to describe and explain the current, natural and human aspect of the Earth's surface. Therefore, geography can be considered as a writing of space, as its suffix attests, it is a mode of apprehension and appropriation of the world through language. Geocriticism represents a meeting place between geography and literature. Both talk about space but the difference consists in the fact that the referent of the first is real while that of the second is fictitious.

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THE SUBVERSIVE PACT IN ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET’S ROMANESQUES

Author(s): Alina-Cornelia Musat / Language(s): French Issue: 39/2024

Overturning the traditional literary space, Alain Robbe-Grillet left the image of a subversive and provocative writer, initiator of an original and ambitious attempt to renew the novel genre and autobiographical genre. This French author deeply marked the literary landscape of the last century, his innovative work giving rise to multiple debates and critics. After the New Roman, the "New Autobiography" represents an original approach to the autobiographical exercise.

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AUTOFICTION IN PROCESS: SERGE DOUBROVSKY'S APPROACH

Author(s): Alina-Cornelia Musat / Language(s): French Issue: 39/2024

This article offers a reflection on the issue of autofiction; this concept is arousing growing interest in the sphere of contemporary French literature. Critics struggle to accept a single definition while self-fiction writers have divergent practices. In this work, we propose to reflect on the writing of oneself as a staging of the (con)fusion between literature and life, in Doubrovsky’s the Broken Book. Serge Doubrovsky has always played with the mixture between autobiography and fiction through the lens of autofiction.

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THE ACT OF WRITING AS A MEANS OF SELF-ASSERTION IN THE WORK OF RAINER MARIA RILKE

Author(s): Evelina-Iulia Hreceniuc Cîrdei / Language(s): German Issue: 39/2024

Rilke's novel Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge explores the complexity of the act of writing in relation to the self, whilst attempting to connect the outer world and the inner world of the character, as being intrinsically bound to the self-reflective act of writing. The article intends to investigate the position of Malte - as Rilke's alter ego, who is struggling to understand life and the process of creating art in the overwhelming Parisian metropole.

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HUMAN DEGRADATION IN THE WORKS OF URMUZ AND F.M. DOSTOEVSKI

Author(s): Rebeca-Daniela Stănescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 39/2024

The work brings to analysis the human degradation, taking as an example the works of the writers Urmuz and F.M. Dostoevsky. The focus is on the causes that led to man's decay and loss of happiness. The work highlights the actuality of the works of the two writers Circumstances through which temptation occurs in the lives of the characters are presented. The great power of thought is presented, which can raise or destroy a man. The paper analyzes in turn the work ,,Funnel and Stamate" by Urmuz and ,,Crime and Punishment” by Dostoevsky mentioning the different elements. After specifying the causes of dehumanization, the work refers to the Bible, which describes how a man is truly happy in the Sermon on the Mount. The focus is on the evolution of the characters Raskolnikov Rodion Romanovich and Stamate. Raskolnikov Rodion Romanovich finally succeeds through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to find eternal happiness, and Stamate separated from God has a tragic end. In conclusion, Urmuz and F.M. Dostoevsky meticulously captures human decay, but also the channels through which the state of decrepitude is reached. If in Urmuz's writings the end is disastrous, in Dostoevsky the focus is precisely on the salvation of man, on the reconciliation between man and God, which brings with it happiness, eternal life and reward. Analyzed in parallel, the works of the two well-known writers are of real use to readers, who can learn from the lives of the characters and, seeing their purpose, be able to make an informed decision about their own life.

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THE HOLY LAND AND THE BURDEN OF COLLECTIVIZATION IN THE NOVEL “NIȘTE TĂRANI” BY DINU SĂRARU

Author(s): Ioana Cristina Pătrună / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 39/2024

The present work presents the historical events that occured after World War II. The human mentalities changes because the political regime enforces some rules that are not quite benevolent with the people, especially the peasants. Through the eyes of an ordinary peasant, these changes bring poverty, obedience and mainly an uncertain future. The communist period in Romania isn’t easy for the village life. The hardships of poor people aren’t taken into account by the Security. The peasant just should to obey and nothing more and to convince him, promises are made, whom he is forced to accept. Also, in Romanian literature we deal with different categories of peasants. One of the well-known characters whose greedy desire is to obtain land and not by honest means is Ion from the novel with the same name written by Liviu Rebreanu. In his novel, Dinu Săraru, imagined the life of some peasant, which were about to face the collectivization. Those peasants under no circumstances accept to let the land in the hands of the Security. They know that they have to fight if they want to keep the household safely. Also, they are strong characters, who were taught to face the danger and to work hard for what they wanted. With the price of keeping the land they must to make sacrifices. They could be beaten or expelled but at least the know that nobody took their land.

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REPRESENTATIONS OF THE URBAN SPACE IN CEZAR PETRESCU'S NOVELS

Author(s): Iulia Baciu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 39/2024

The present paper aims to examine the image of the city in Cezar Petrescu’s novels – Calea Victoriei and Oraș Patriarhal. We will focus on the powerful influence which the environment exerts on the characters. Once they enter the city's space, a negative transformation occurs. In Cezar Petrescu's novels, the urban space remains, due to the absence of moral values, a destructive monster.

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MORPHOLOGICAL AND LEXICAL PARTICULARITIES IN THE CORESIAN APOSTOL

Author(s): Andrei-Ionuț Popa / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 39/2024

The purpose of this article is to present the configuration of the aspect of the literary Romanian language in the Coresian Apostol, focusing on its morphology and vocabulary, the competition of analogical and etymological forms, the expansion of the southern dialect, the premises of the future supradialect norms.

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LÁADAN I EDAN - LÁADAN AND LINGUISTICS: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE CONSTRUCTED LANGUAGE LÁADAN THROUGH A FEMINIST LINGUISTICS PERSPECTIVE

Author(s): Ștefan Ghiran / Language(s): English Issue: 39/2024

Second wave feminism manifested in most things social and cultural. One of the domains fiercely debated was that of language, bringing into conversation the ways in which language is used to condition or even suppress one segment of the population or another. The intersection of two academic phenomena, namely the resurgence of the interest in the linguistic relativity theory and a peak in the social movement for women’s equality, became fertile ground for a new type of conversation as well as artistic expression of the topics investigated under the academic microscope. Among these expressions, science fiction author and linguist constructed a language meant to express the perceptions and life experience of women, Láadan. As a fictional mirror of reality, as literature often finds itself to be, the universe she created follows a small group of women as they create this language. Initially only women speak it for the majority of the story spanning a trilogy, but it is not designed exclusively for women as some men eventually learn it as well. This paper will briefly analyze the language and attempt to understand the thought experiment its author, Suzette Haden Elgin, proposes with the creation of Láadan and the universe to which it belongs.

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МАЧ ДУХОВНИ ГАВРИЛА СТЕФАНОВИЋА ВЕНЦЛОВИЋА: УПОТРЕБА ТУРЦИЗАМА У ПРЕВОДИМА БИБЛИЈСКИХ ЦИТАТА

Author(s): Sonja Đ. Manojlović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2024

The paper presents the Turkish loanwords used in biblical quotations in Venclović’s translation of Mech duhovniy (Mač duhovni, Sword of the Spirit). By comparing them with the source in Church Slavonic (of the Russian redaction), Turkish loanwords that are used as a direct translation of a Church Slavonic word (zejtin, krevet, misirski, hazina, haramija, hrsuzin, čak) were extracted, as well as those that change the translated real object (korkuluk, minđuša, tabandže), those that are part of more or less broader explications (adet, badava, bašča, dumen, durma, đubre, zanat, inatiti se, kavga, kadar, somun, tane) and those that appear both as a translation of a certain CSl. word and within an explication (ama, bak(a)rni). In addition, a comparison was made with Vuk’s translation of the New Testament and Daničić’s translation of the Old Testament, to detect possible overlaps, since Turkish loanwords were used in both translations. In the places where a single Church Slavonic word is translated with a Turkish loanword, all other translations of the same CSl. word were found in the entire analyzed part of the manuscript, to show in which cases Venclović used a Turkish loanword, even though he had other vernacular words at his disposal. For 15 Turkish words, we can claim that Venclović had another equivalent in his lexical stock, and in 11 cases a purely vernacular word (as an equivalent for the Turkish words ama, đubre, zanat, inatiti se, kavga, korkuluk, krevet, minđuša, somun, hazina, čak), and in three instances a common word for vernacular and Church Slavonic (as an equivalent for the Turkish loanwords adet, zejtin, haramija). In one case, he only used the Church Slavonic word as an equivalent for the Turkish word hrsuzin.

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ДЕСТРУКТИВИ У РУСКОМ И СРПСКОМ ЈЕЗИКУ

Author(s): Maja R. Krstić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2024

The semantic category of destructiveness is one of the most important components of the general semantic system, which manifests itself – either explicitly or implicitly – in a qualitative and quantitative change in the structure of an object at the macro- and/or micro level through various (direct or indirect) specific actions, processes, states or relationships with strong negative connotations. It has its own linguistic status and its own lexical base (lexis of destruction). This category and its lexical stock occupy a significant place in the general classifi cation of lexemes of the Russian and Serbian languages. The terms “destruction” and “destructiveness” almost always refer to negative, destructive actions, processes or phenomena. The main characteristics of destruction in the broadest sense include: change, deformation, disintegration of something; structural changes under the impact of various forces (physical, mechanical, spontaneous) or humans. The result of destruction is usually the destruction of something (partial or complete). The semantic fi eld of destructiveness contains verbs at its core, and the peripheral part consists of nouns, adjectives, adverbs and other terminological vocabulary with destructive semantics. The central unit of such a verb-centric fi eld is the verb destroy, which forms the semantic basis of many other lexemes in this category.

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