We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.

Download

NAMES OF (DEMI)GODDESSES AND (DEMI)GODS IN THE IDIOMS WE LIVE BY

Author(s): Floriana Popescu / Language(s): English Issue: 40/2025

The attitudes regarding the use of and the reference to names of (demi)goddesses and (demi)gods represent a matter of style, social convention(s) and personal choice. Over the centuries they have named cities, towns and burghs, beloved persons (sons and daughters), and popular festivals. Personal names in world mythologies have also been preserved in the public eye by means of diverse idiomatic structures also known as fixed expressions. This paper will describe the idiomatic patterns which are built around names of deities which are now part of both the English and Romanian lexicons. Although English and Romanian are two distant cultures, separated by almost a whole continent as well as the British Channel, many of the Greek and Roman fixed expressions which include mythonyms have now become part of their lexical heritages. This corpus-based research proves that even if two cultures, which are very distant both geographically and culturally, may as well be equally available to naturalizing a huge wealth of individual words and fixed expressions. As this paper will prove, such naturalizations are either fully or partially shared by the two hosting cultures or they may be language specific.

More...

Download

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ROMANIAN GULAG AND THE PRISON LITERATURE OF FORMER INMATES INCARCERATED IN AIUD PRISON

Author(s): Adriana Maria Călugăr (Cutean) / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 40/2025

In the article A brief history of the romanian Gulag and the prison literature of former inmates incarcerated in Aiud Prison, I provided a definition of the Gulag from Ruxandra Cesereanu's perspective, inspired by The Gulag Archipelago by Alexandr Soljenițîn, highlighting the shift of this term from a bureaucratic terminology to a symbolic one. The memories of detention possess a high degree of authenticity, and all the writings depicting the hell experienced in communist prisons, along with all the books belonging to the Romanian Gulag, have created a shock among readers. Numerous books have been written on this subject - essays, journals, prison memoirs, recollections, volumes of poetry, prose, novels, and studies. I emphasized that after the 1989 Revolution, fiction and literature were increasingly replaced by numerous memoirs, journals, autobiographical volumes, and that prison literature began to attract public interest and achieve real success. The testimonies of those who lived through the carceral experience bring forward journals and memoirs that facilitate our imaginary journey to understand the experiences endured by prisoners in communist dungeons. This type of memorialistic writing addresses a closed universe, aims to avoid fictionalization, holds testamentary value, and serves a therapeutic function, as through writing and confession, former detainees seek healing. The testimonies about the carceral experience are written in different styles, with each inmate presenting their experience through the lens of their own subjectivity. This study examines how the carceral imaginary is reflected in the works of writers imprisoned in the Aiud dungeon, as a result of the experiences lived within a space dictated by ideological, political, social, or cultural constraints.

More...

Download

KLARA AND THE SUN, AN UTOPIAN UNIVERSE

Author(s): Drug Elena / Language(s): English Issue: 40/2025

Klara and the sun is an allegorical story that depicts the truth of our contemporary world strongly influenced by the rise of technology and by its immersion in our daily life. Klara is an AF whose major duty is to become good friend for Josie, a little child who represents her generation of children who do not receive enough care from their families because they are too busy, AFs are tutors and protectors of children who live in a much technologized society where feelings are ignored until their human condition is doomed to loneliness. What the family cannot provide must be done by an AF who must be intelligent, able to anticipate the reactions and needs of the child he cares for and capable of love. Throughout the novel, the reader will discover that Klara is more than a sophisticated robot, she learns to understand the human feelings and she reproduces them, as if the feelings gain their own shapes or identifiable concrete structures.

More...

Download

REBELLION AND CONFORMITY IN JANE EYRE

Author(s): ANCA RUSU / Language(s): English Issue: 40/2025

The present paper explores the tension between rebellion and conformity as central themes that shape the protagonist’s development. Jane’s journey is one of self-discovery, where she frequently challenges societal norms that seek to limit her autonomy. From an early age, Jane defies the oppressive authority of her aunt and the cruel treatment at Lowood School, asserting her desire for justice and self-respect. Her resistance to the limitations imposed by her gender and social status becomes evident as she navigates her first relationship, where her internal conflict revolves around the clash between love and personal integrity. She rebels against becoming subjugated by the man’s power and chooses independence over a life of submission. Brontë also underscores the significance of conformity within a structured society. Jane learns to reconcile her individuality with her social roles, finding fulfillment through her marriage, where she can assert herself as an equal partner. Through this dual exploration, Brontë portrays the complexities of balancing rebellion with conformity in the pursuit of personal freedom, self-respect, and love. Ultimately, the paper will present Jane Eyre as a profound meditation on the role of personal autonomy within the constraints of societal expectations.

More...

Download

THE MUSICAL METAPHOR IN THE DRAMATIC WORK OF ION LUCA CARAGIALE

Author(s): Denisa Elena PETREHUŞ / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 40/2025

As a man of the theatre, Caragiale was almost that "impossible" exception that Craig dreamed of! A total theater man, as Victor Ion Popa tried to be later. He knew the theater as Shakespeare and Moliere knew it, as a man from the inside. "Born" in the theater, I.L. Caragiale succumbed to his family's passion for "dramatic art an absolute qualitative level" 1, as a breather and actor, director and dramatic chronicler, author and theoretician, director and passionate reformer of the theater.

More...

Download

HUMBLE HOSPITALITY IN CALLIMACHUS' HECALE

Author(s): Mirela Averikios / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 40/2025

This paper examines the representation of humble hospitality in Callimachus' Hecale, one of the most influential epyllia of antiquity. The poem presents the encounter between Theseus and the elderly Hecale, who offers him shelter in her modest dwelling during a storm. Through an analysis of the fragments, the study explores the poem’s thematic innovations, such as the anti-heroic perspective, the glorification of simple life, and the neoteric reconfiguration of epic motifs. Additionally, the paper highlights Callimachus' sophisticated poetic techniques, including intertextual references, stylistic contrast, and the reinterpretation of traditional epic conventions. By focusing on the central scene of hospitality, the study demonstrates how Hecale serves as both a literary innovation and a response to earlier epic traditions, particularly Homeric narratives. This analysis contributes to a deeper understanding of Callimachean aesthetics and the evolution of Hellenistic poetry.

More...

Download

LAYERS OF MEANING IN HILARY MANTEL’S “WINTER BREAK”

Author(s): Andra Irina Porumbeanu / Language(s): English Issue: 40/2025

It is not seldom that meaning is shaped by the emotional state and past experiences of a person. Any given event is construed through a lens of individual histories. This is artfully exploited by Hilary Mantel in the short story Winter Break. The present paper provides a discussion of the text with respect to the use of ambiguity and how different levels of interpretation can be achieved. Moreover, several examples are employed in order to argue that the story also constitutes a valuable resource for EFL classes.

More...

Download

ATMOSPHERE IN DRAMATIC TEXT AND THEATRICAL DISCOURSE

Author(s): Ana Ghilaş,Vera Mariancic-Cobzac / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 40/2025

In this article, the concept of atmosphere as an aesthetic category and the ways it is artistically realized in both the dramatic text and the theatrical performance are discussed. In each of these artistic forms, the subject and space-time, as well as the discursive and rhythmic-melodic organization of the action, represent the main aspects in creating atmosphere.In the dramaturgical text, the relationship between literariness and theatricality, dialogue as a mode of subjective exposition, and stage directions as the author’s presence are essential. When reading a dramatic text, the “beginning effect” plays a crucial role in perceiving the atmosphere of the artistic imaginary. Analyzing the specifics of dramatic language—its expressiveness generated phonetically, lexically, and melodically—and examining how space-time is constructed in the text are the first steps in the receiver’s immersion into the atmosphere of the action.In theatrical discourse, understood as a syncretic art form, atmosphere requires a more complex realization. We refer in particular to the views of M. Chekhov, director and actor, for whom atmosphere constitutes the “action, process, energy” that the performance emanates.

More...

Download

SECOLUL AL XX-LEA, INTRE ROSU SI NEGRU: A CRITICAL REFLECTION ON THE 20TH CENTURY

Author(s): Paul-Cristian Albu / Language(s): French Issue: 40/2025

Cătălin Ghiță's Secolul al XX-lea, între roșu și negru presents an in-depth exploration of the complexities and contradictions of the 20th century, blending history, culture, and philosophy in a thought-provoking way. Ghiță's work stands out for its ability to uncover the underlying tensions between ideologies and critically examine how these ideologies have shaped the modern world. Rather than following a simplistic, linear narrative, the author offers a nuanced analysis, encouraging readers to reflect on the evolution of these ideologies and their enduring impact on contemporary societies.Ghiță emphasizes the importance of considering the intersection between art, culture, and political upheavals, showing how transformations in the 20th century were not solely political but also reflected in literary and artistic works. The examples of Duchamp's Fountain and the writings of Beckett and Chomsky illustrate the inseparable link between historical events and cultural production, emphasizing that advances or ruptures in art and thought are responses to specific political and social contexts.Additionally, the book's structure follows a postmodern approach, dismantling traditional linear narratives and instead presenting a fragmented analysis that highlights the multiplicity of perspectives within the same historical moment. This method allows readers to better grasp the ideological and social tensions of the 20th century, while encouraging a more profound reflection on the complexities of history. Ultimately, Ghiță’s work is more than just a historical retrospective; it serves as a call to remain vigilant against contemporary extremisms and the persistence of ideologies in modern conflicts. Through its depth, rigor, and multidimensional approach, Secolul al XX-lea, între roșu și negru emerges as an essential contribution to understanding the past's political and cultural dynamics and their continued relevance today.

More...

Download

LOVE, FALL AND REDEMPTION: A THEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF FRANÇOIS MAURIAC’S WORKS THROUGH THE LENS OF MARIA-OTILIA OPREA

Author(s): Paul-Cristian Albu / Language(s): French Issue: 40/2025

François Mauriac, a deeply Christian writer, explores the complexities of love in his works, portraying it not just as a human emotion, but as a force tied to suffering, illusions, and, ultimately, spiritual redemption. For Mauriac, love is always entangled with the human condition and the fall from grace. In his novels, characters are often torn between earthly desires and the pursuit of divine love that can purify the soul. In François Mauriac şi fiinţa căzută în căutarea iubirii - Pentru o hermeneutică teologică a operei mauriaciene, Maria Otilia Oprea provides a theological interpretation of Mauriac's works, focusing on the interplay between human and divine love. Oprea highlights how Mauriac's characters, such as those in Thérèse Desqueyroux and Noeud de vipères, embody this search for love, marked by illusions but ultimately leading to spiritual awakening and redemption. Oprea argues that for Mauriac, love is both a source of torment and healing, and through embracing divine love, the characters find redemption and reconciliation, not just with others, but with God. Oprea’s analysis presents Mauriac's work as a reflection on the Christian concept of the fall and redemption, with human love, when disconnected from divine grace, leading to suffering. However, through accepting divine love, Mauriac’s characters experience spiritual renewal. This duality between human and divine love forms the core of Mauriac’s literary exploration of the human soul's journey toward redemption. By engaging with Oprea’s theological perspective, this study aims to deepen the understanding of Mauriac’s work, showing how love, for Mauriac, is not simply a worldly pursuit, but a spiritual journey—one that leads to redemption through divine love. Through this lens, Mauriac’s literature takes on a profound spiritual dimension that Oprea’s hermeneutic approach helps to unravel.

More...

Download

NORMAN MANEA & MIHAIL SEBASTIAN -THE ISSUE OF JEWISH IDENTITY

Author(s): Dana Maria Bendriș / Language(s): English Issue: 40/2025

Norman Manea is a writer who lived under the sign of two dictatorships: the Antonescu dictatorship and then the Communist one. The return of the hooligan (2003) is an „autobiographical novel”, which includes the avatars of the writer’s biography, from the pre-war period, to the Second World War, the communist period, to the present. The return of the hooligan is a document with the value of testimony and confession, a book in which is evoked, in an original style, the tragedy of the Jews in Romania from the two terror regimes, illustrating the drama of lack of identity and existential uncertainty, the title and content of Norman Manea’s autobiographical novel can be put in relation to Mihail Sebastian’s book How I became hooligan. At the same time, the book can also be considered as a reaction to the conduct of some intellectuals of the interwar period who adhered to the legionary ideology (Mircea Eliade, Petre Tutea, Constantin Noica etc.). The novel can also be interpreted as a response to Nae Ionescu’s famous preface to Sebastian’s novel of two thousand years. In this context, it can be seen that the return of the hooligan represents a search for his own identity, but also an attempt to understand the inner contradictions of Jewish writers in Romanian literature (Mihail Sebastian, Norman Manea etc.).

More...

Download

PLOTINIAN SYMBOLIC ELEMENTS IN SHAKESPEARE’S LAST FANCIED SONNETS IN V. VOICULESCU’S IMAGINARY TRANSLATION

Author(s): Sebastian Drăgulănescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 40/2025

Shakespeare's imagined last sonnets in imaginary translation concentrates in an almost hermetic micro-universe all the concentric energies found throughout the volume, configuring the cosmos of love and reflecting the diffuse religiosity of most Voiculescu’s stanzas. The book is, in a larger context, a polyphonic retort to the divine Brit, an antiphonal response to William Shakespeare, a good-quality pastiche of the Shakespearean sonnets. Beyond the inherent epigonism, it also signifies a singular artistic experience in the European litterature, through the maximum ideational cisellation through the formal optimization of the verses. We can notice, above all, the infusion of the verses with Neoplatonic symbolic elements, found in Plotinus' Enneades, and the originality of the Voiculesian volume consists in the fact that death itself is conceived as a mistress, up to the point of liberation from the contingent, life being, paradoxically, a simple vehicle of transcendence to the world beyond, in which a new kalokagathos containing the necessary good, beauty and truth, becomes the supreme motto.

More...

Download

QUEBEC THEATER – A CREATOR OF NATIONAL EMOTIONS

Author(s): Roxana Voichița Bobariu / Language(s): French Issue: 40/2025

This article examines the unique capacity of Quebec theatre to evoke and sustain a profound national emotion. Focusing on Michel Tremblay’s celebrated play Les Belles-Soeurs, the study demonstrates how the authentic use of joual and themes rooted in the everyday experiences of working-class women forge a strong emotional bond with audiences. Moreover, the paper explores the reception of Michel Tremblay’s works in Romania, examining how various translations and stage adaptations have enabled local audiences to connect with Quebec’s theatrical language and cultural identity. By tracing the evolution of Quebec theatre-from its early external influences to the emergence of a distinct voice during the Quiet Revolution-this work highlights the role of theatre as both a mirror of collective social experience and a catalyst for intercultural dialogue.

More...

Download

EMBODIED TRAUMA AND COMMUNICATION IN TITUS ANDRONICUS: A COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC APPROACH

Author(s): Zhina Dehghan / Language(s): English Issue: 40/2025

This essay analyzes Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus through one of the central theories of cognitive linguistics, embodied cognition, to establish how bodily experience determines communication, identity, and emotional resonance in the play. The research will focus on Lavinia's mutilation and how her body is a site of communication and meaning-making when her voice is silenced. Her inscription on the dust and body language are in collaboration responsible for an earning interchange of body presence and intellect that can be employed in knowing how trauma is represented and received. The essay also investigates dramatization of bodily torture-bodily maiming of Titus, sadistic savagery, and belly-tearing vengeance against Tamora-and its capacity to create a body response in the audience. By accessing cognitive and sensory dimensions of such motion, the analysis demonstrates how Shakespeare can regulate empathetic and moral assessment on the part of spectators. Extending embodied cognition accounts, including Lakoff and Johnson's embodied theories of body engagement in thinking, this essay adds to a picture of the manner in which Shakespearean tragedy functions cognitively and affectively. This essay concludes that Titus Andronicus utilizes embodied trauma as both a device of character depiction and of addressing the audience, infusing greater profundity in the play's tragic effect.

More...

Download

THE TRADITION OF JESTBOOKS IN THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES: FACETIOUS WRITING FROM ITALY TO ENGLAND

Author(s): Cătălin Bărbunță / Language(s): English Issue: 40/2025

The paper delves into the issues of the facetious transfer from Italy to the rest of Western Europe, particularly to England, in terms of publication of facetiae compilations and their usage in other literary genres, specifically in plays. While Italy is highly receptive to the tradition of facetious writing established during the Renaissance period by Poggio Bracciolini’s Liber facetiarum – a collection of unconventional brief texts characterised by their entertaining purpose and audacious style – England proves more reticent and only fully embraces the genre in the 17th century. The transfer is clearly demonstrated by the large number of English compilations published for the first time during the 17th century – thirty-five titles (Lavie,2020b: 135-136) – marking the emergence of a genre equivalent to the Italian facezia.

More...

Download

PASCAL’S INFLUENCE ON IONESCO: EXISTENTIAL ANGUISH AND THE INEVITABILITY OF DEATH

Author(s): Paul-Cristian Albu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 40/2025

Blaise Pascal’s influence on Eugène Ionesco is particularly visible in Exit the King (Le Roi se meurt), where the playwright explores existential themes reminiscent of Pascal’s Pensées. Both thinkers emphasize the fragility of human existence, the inevitability of death, and the inability of reason to provide ultimate salvation. Pascal viewed life as unstable and chaotic, marked by suffering and uncertainty, a vision that aligns with Ionesco’s absurdist perspective. In Exit the King, the protagonist, King Bérenger, refuses to accept his impending death, embodying humanity’s struggle against mortality. This echoes Pascal’s belief that humans distract themselves to avoid confronting their own finiteness. The play also reflects Pascal’s notion of the gouffre (abyss), symbolizing existential despair. As Bérenger gradually loses control over his kingdom and physical being, his decline illustrates Pascal’s idea that human grandeur is ultimately illusory. Furthermore, Ionesco, like Pascal, underscores the absurdity of life’s transience. The king’s desperate attempts to resist death mirror Pascal’s assertion that human efforts to find stability in a chaotic world are futile. The play serves as a meditation on the inevitability of death and the limits of human power, reinforcing Pascal’s view that reason alone cannot save mankind from existential anguish. In this sense, Ionesco transforms Pascalian thought into a theatrical experience, where the confrontation with mortality becomes an unavoidable and deeply human ordeal.

More...

5.00 €

Preview

Sound in Verse: Two Interpretations of Echo in Bulgarian Poetry

Author(s): Bogdana Paskaleva / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2025

This article examines the relationship between sound and meaning, addressing the questions of the arbitrariness or (partial) motivation of their connection, as well as the related problem of the specific value of linguistic sound in poetic texts. The analytical section of the article comments upon three poetic texts: an episode from the third book of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” (ca. AD 8), Ivan Vazov’s poem “Echoes” (1884), and Nadezhda Radulova’s poem “Echo” (2020). The article argues that these three texts share a common poetic strategy that functionalizes sound by combining the repetition of words or word fragments with a transformation of meaning. Thus, new meanings arise through the repetition of an already existing acoustic image.

More...

5.00 €

Preview

[Pseudo?]Demetrian thoughts on the Homeric phonetic idiom

Author(s): Hristo Hristov Todorov / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2025

The paper begins by criticizing, theoretically and practically, a view that may be termed “the picture−soundtrack dogma”: the view that the sound patterns of a text become expressive only on certain occasions. Then it turns to the analysis of dysphony of the grand style (essentially the substrate of the Homeric style) in [Pseudo?]Demetrius’ treatise “De elocutione” (Περὶ ἑρμενείας). The main argument is that dysphony is based on phonic density and also that it relates very closely to other levels of the text: metrical, syntactic, semantic etc.

More...

5.00 €

Preview

The Magic of Words in Incantations Against “Nezhit”

Author(s): Ekaterina Todorova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2025

This study examines several incantations against the disease known as “nezhit”, focusing on the pronunciation of sacred words as a primary method of healing the sick. The connection between these incantations and prayers against this disease, found mainly in various medieval books of both liturgical and apocryphal nature, is also explored.

More...

4.50 €

Preview

Ризата и смъртта

Author(s): Zdravko Dechev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2025

A good starting point for considering the connection between the shirt/clothing and the public presence of the human body is the pre-funeral care of the dead in Bulgarian folk culture. As an attribute of ritualized activity, the shirt can be perceived not only as a boundary, but also as a connection between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Research interests lie in how in death a person remains a person precisely through the shirt/clothing. The care put into the shirt/clothing is particularly indicative of the current context. For our people, the shirt becomes symbolic when it gleams white with purity. In this case, “whiteness” and “purity” transcend physical laws and become a moral and spiritual guide to the connection between the shirt and the human body – both living and dead. The peculiar fusion of the shirt with the body and its perception by our people as a “second skin” also stands out. This notion is tied to the violence against the slave body and the removal of its natural protective barrier. And this unimaginable nakedness of the dead slave's body is an example that the slave's body, even in its death, is deprived of any protection.

More...