Evelina-Mezalina GRAUR
Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava - evelina.graur@litere.usv.ro
Cultural Metaphors: A Mosaic of Perspectives
Although metaphors accompany us in all fields of activity, their pervasive presence can often make us overlook their significance. We may easily fail to recognize that metaphors presuppose a transfer of meaning and that they function as epistemological tools, assisting us in constructing, communicating, and expanding knowledge. According to Ștefan Avădanei (1994: 144-145), our endeavour to acquire knowledge implies creating bridges between the individual and the world, between the human and the non-human, between the known and the unknown, between the new and the old. Arising from our attempts to grasp and convey the essence of unfamiliar or complex ideas, metaphors take figurative, imaginative, representative, and discursive forms.
From a general perspective, metaphor can be understood as an act of indirect language. It is based on an analogy or a shared underlying implication that exists between the literal and the figurative term. Essentially, metaphor involves presenting an idea through the symbol of another idea, one that might be more unusual or striking, but which has nothing in common with the first one except a connection based on similarity.
Rodica ILIE
Universitatea Transilvania din Brașov - rodicamariailie@gmail.com
Aventuri suprarealiste: metafora revoluției și iluziile libertăţii / Surrealist Adventures: the Metaphor of Revolution and the Illusions of Liberty
Abstract: In the present article, I explore various aspects pertaining to the aesthetics, poetics, and ideological structures of André Breton’s surrealist manifesto. Breton’s work exemplifies the argumentation and legitimacy of the manifesto, establishing the defining characteristics of the metatheoretical genre. The narrative of liberty within the manifesto includes the metaphor of revolution, serving as a narrative that recovers modern forms of emancipation and frames both individual and collective liberty, which are characteristic of avant-garde literature.
Keywords: revolution, liberty, surrealist manifesto, narrative of emancipation.
Mariana BALOŞESCU
Universitatea „Ștefan cel Mare” din Suceava - mariana.balosescu@gmail.com
Povestea proorocului Iona – o metaforă culturală antică în modernitate / The Story of the Prophet Jonah: An Ancient Metaphor in Modernity
Abstract: The present study focuses on the biblical Jonah as a nuclear cultural metaphor that traverses several civilizations. Cultural metaphor is a motor of transgenerational thinking because it carries imperative memory, that memory that demands to be listened to and followed. The authority of cultural metaphor results from its capacity to be the vehicle of fundamental ideas, placed in the vibrant fabric of a story with initiatory value. Therefore, at the center of the allegorical story is a hero who goes through an initiatory experience. When cultural metaphor is expressed literaly, the reader’s consciousness is invited to repeat or duplicate the hero’s initiation path, to understand it and to receive, as his personal good, the teaching that the hero reaches. The reader’s consciousness thus becomes solidary with the hero’s consciousness, but also with his world and its civilizational memory, through cathartic participation. In other words, cultural metaphor means memory and truth or true memory, because it is the bearer of a vision with which its creator identifies. The evolution of the story of Jonah as a cultural metaphor describes extremely significantly both the evolution of the person’s consciousness and the resistance to change of human nature, from the ancient Hebrews to today. We have chosen in this study two significant moments: the original text (The Book of the Prophet Jonah) and a Romanian play, entitled Jonah, by Marin Sorescu (1933-1993), written in 1970. Between the biblical prophet Jonah and Marin Sorescu, the creator of the character Jonah, there is a distance of almost 2,800 years. The biblical Jonah goes through a dramatic initiation, through a spiritual transformation that leads him towards the truth, but also towards overcoming his own human condition. And his Teacher is God himself. Marin Sorescu invents another Jonah, in a postmodern play where the direct reference to the biblical text forces the reader to a comparative meditation on the two hypostases of Jonah. Sorescu’s story wants to show that (post)modern man is a tragic figure, because he denies the need to submit to a Teacher, breaks the connection with God, chooses solitude, refuses initiation and inner transformation. The association of the two Jonahs disjunctively and summarily unites the irreconcilable opposition between biblical thinking and modern thinking.
Keywords: cultural metaphor, Jonah, memory, biblical, postmodern.
Andrea MAXINIUC
Ștefan cel Mare Universität von Suceava - andrea.maxiniuc@usm.ro
Kulturelle Metaphern der Siebenbürger Sachsen / Cultural Metaphors of the Transylvanian Saxons
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to explore the key cultural metaphors representative of identity, traditions, and social structures of the Transylvanian Saxons, a German-speaking ethnic group that has lived in Transylvania, Romania, for centuries. By examining key metaphors such as the Siebenbürgen, the fortified church, and the guild this article aims to analyze their significance in the context of community cohesion, resilience and preservation of the group’s unity and cultural uniqueness amidst changing social conditions. The article explores how these metaphors have shaped and continue to shape the collective consciousness of Transylvanian Saxons through a multidisciplinary approach that combines historical, socio-cultural and anthropological perspectives, providing a comprehensive insight into the ways in which these metaphors impact on the survival of communities, solidarity and preservation of heritage.
Keywords: Transylvanian Saxons, Siebenbürgen, history, cultural metaphors, fortified churches, guilds.
Valerian Sergiu TOPALĂ
Universitatea „Ștefan cel Mare” din Suceava - sinttrinity@gmail.com
Gândirea politică a lui Platon cu privire la cenzura artelor, înțelese ca metafore culturale, în Republica 376 d – 403 c / Plato’s Political Thought on the Censorship of the Arts Understood as Cultural Metaphors in the Republic 376 d – 403 c
Abstract: In this article we will approach, from a philosophical perspective, Plato’s political thinking regarding the censorship of the arts, seen as cultural metaphors, in The Republic 376 d – 403 c. In this endeaavor, first, we will try to show both the connection between the art of the Muses and cultural metaphors, as well as to argue that regardless of the definitional traditions of metaphors, they are considered to have various effects on their recipients. This impact of metaphors, and implicitly of the arts, places them in the category of a social force, shaping opinions, which invites any responsible state administration to take a political position towards them. Censorship is the position suggested by Plato in The Republic. In the next two parts, we will focus on the philosophical framework of the text, and discuss the articulations of Platonic political philosophy regarding the censorship of the art of the Muses. In the concluding part we will consider a series of philosophical comments and criticisms regarding the Platonic approach to cultural metaphors and discuss several contemporary practical applications and implications regarding the subject.
Keywords: the art of the Muses, cultural metaphors, metaphor impact, political censorship, canons of censorship.
Elena Gabriela LUNG
Universitatea Transilvania din Brașov - elena.lung@student.unitbv.ro
Herta Müller: metafora și capcanele ei în tratarea problemei identității / Herta Müller: Metaphor and Its Traps in Adressing the Issue of Identity Loss
Abstract: Part of a more extensive study, the present article aims to analyze Herta Müller’s work through the lens of cultural metaphor. Over time, metaphor has been perceived as both a novel and an odious figure of speech. When viewed in a restrictive manner, it has been imbued with metaphysical meanings and associated with sophistication, thereby risking derision. In Romanian literature, particularly poetry, the 1980s and subsequent decades witnessed a decline in the use of metaphors, yielding to the “poetry of the real” (Popescu 2017: 187-188), characterized by transitivity and a tendency towards absolute fulfillment. However, in the unique case of Herta Müller, metaphor serves not as an escape from the disturbingly harsh reality, but rather as a catalyst for maximum awakening or a jolting anchor that grounds her in the concrete, cultural reality. This metaphorical jolt, a blow of grace, liberates her from the captivity of fear. More than ever in literature, metaphor is a “shield” that sensitizes the subject to the realities of the world and human culture.
Keywords: Herta Müller, cultural metaphor, metonymy, identity.
Simona BERCU
Ovidius University of Constanța - rusu.simona01@gmail.com
The Royal Family as a Cultural Metaphor in Contemporary Literature
Abstract: The present article investigates the British Royal Family as a cultural metaphor in modern literature, with particular reference to Julian Barnes’s England, England and Jonathan Coe’s Middle England. Understanding society values and identities depends on cultural metaphors, as theorists such as George Lakoff and Martin Gannon have argued. For the United Kingdom, the Royal Family represents historical continuity, social cohesion, and the harmony between modernism and tradition. Presenting the Royal Family as bought-in characters in a hyperreal amusement park, Barnes’s England, England questions the commercialization of national symbols. By contrast, Coe’s Middle England set during the Brexit period, shows the Royal Family as a rather superficial, yet stabilizing agent for the British society. The paper invites readers to evaluate the Royal Family’s changing cultural relevance in modern Britain, therefore stressing their complex role in reflecting and forming British identity.
Keywords: cultural metaphor, Royal Family; British national identity.
Ana-Maria BORDEA
Transilvania University of Brașov - anabordea77@gmail.com
Identitatea – ultima redută. Cetatea – metafora culturală a identității nestrămutate / Identity – The Last Refuge. The Fortress – The Cultural Metaphor of Unchanging Identity
Abstract: “The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (Lakoff & Johnson 1982: 5). Starting from this opinion, I will extend the understanding of its meaning, by proving that a person and a people, can be understood, in their complexity and mystery only in terms of another (whoever interacts and coexists with). Sometimes the Other can be their opposite, their enemy. In a world so complex, vast and picturesque, with a variety of individualities, the thing that probably unites us through a common feature is precisely our distinctiveness. The fortress is a metaphor of the soul that cannot be altered or borrowed, a symbol of the essence, of the authenticity of a people, that is unique and impossible to subdue. The Siege, by Albanian author Ismail Kadare, and The White Castle, by Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk illustrate this idea, although the nation that each author represents is at war. The metaphor is the synthesis of a people’s thinking, and when it coincides with the representation of other peoples, it can be deduced that it becomes a link between different cultures and between all people in general, proving that we are similar in essence and therefore, the fight for supremacy or for domination is unreasonable.
Keywords: metaphor, globalization, spirituality, Orient/ Occident, alterity.
Simona ANTOFI
Centrul de studii culturale central și sud-est europene, Universitatea „Dunărea de Jos” din Galați - simona.antofi@ugal.ro
O potențială enciclopedie a resurselor umorului din scrierile lui Ion Creangă. Argumente pentru o „metaforă culturală” clasic(izat)ă / A Potential Encyclopedia of Humour Resources in the Writings of Ion Creangă. Arguments for a Classical Cultural Metaphor
Abstract: In Ion Creangă’s writings humour represents a cultural asset assimilated as such in the entire Romanian space. Interestingly, critics such as Mircea A. Diaconu decide to disarticulate it in order to identify its mechanisms and elaboration strategies, and to highlight its relevance as a complex cultural metaphor, of great force and authority, forged as then restore it on two discursive levels: Creangă’s text and the critical discourse that constantly accompanies and recalibrates it.
Keywords: metadiscourse, discursive strategy, humor, cultural metaphor.
Prospère T. TIOFACK
Université de Dschang, Cameroun - tiayatiofack@yahoo.fr
LA MATRICE DU BLUES : Définition et contours d’une tradition littéraire / BLUES MATRIX: Definition and Contours of a Literary Tradition
Abstract: Blues is an African-American music, essentially an identity-related one, born in the fields of slavery in North America. Its force of attraction has become so powerful over the centuries that writers descended from slaves, in search of means of writing to depict their past and their present, have found in it and in its avatars the perfect pattern for writing their texts, giving birth to a great literary tradition which has transcended American borders. This article aims to outline the contours of this vast musical-literary epic by examining a range of texts from a diachronic and synchronic perspective and by taking a structuralist and comparative approach. The answer to the question regarding the sources of the writers’ fascination with this music that originated in slavery, to the point of making it the creative principle of their works is found in major elements pertaining to blues such as lyricism, syncopation, hybridization, improvisation. Their transposition in the development of the literary text from macrostructure to microstructures appears to be the only way to translate in different ways, depending on the context, the identity concerns of African and Afro-descendant peoples.
Keywords: Blues, litérature, tranposition, Africa, identity.
Mircea A. DIACONU
Universitatea „Ștefan cel Mare” din Suceava - mircea_a_diaconu@hotmail.com
Mircea Streinul. Ficțiune și adevăr, exasperare și ideologie (O analiză a romanului Prăvălia Diavolului) / Mircea Streinul Revisited. Fiction and Truth, Exasperation and Ideology in Prăvălia Diavolului
Abstract: Written in 1942, Prăvălia Diavolului [The Devil’s Den] is one of Mircea Streinul’s lesser-known novels. In this study we aim at re-examining the novel in order to uncover deeper insights and provide more nuanced interpretations that were not considered in our 2023 article1. At the same time, our previous analysis placed the novel in the proximity of Otto Weininger’s theories in Sex and Character and suggested its proximity to Viennese modernity. Far from being a mere realist and documentary novel, The Devil’s Shop is a novel about inter-war Chernivtsi (its last hundred pages deal with the Soviet occupation of the city in June 1941) and, in particular, a novel about a fantastical Chernivtsi, where, driven by exasperation, the writer transfers his imaginary alongside his obsessions, anguish and dreams. Death, love, women, and moral dilemmas give Mircea Streinul the opportunity to experiment with all kinds of narrative techniques, some of which bring the novel closer to the literature of the absurd, magic realism and even existentialism. Apart from previous novels such as Life in the Forest (1938) or The Wolf in the Land of the Hutsuls (1941), the present one is another example of ecoliterature. Ultimately, our study re-examines potential new intersections with ecoliterature and reappraises Mircea Streinul’s literary contributions during interwar Bucovina.
Keywords: Mircea Streinul, Bucovina, expressionism, existentialism, experimentalism, ecoliterature.
Ioan FĂRMUȘ
Universitatea „Ștefan cel Mare” din Suceava - farmusioan@yahoo.com
Un caz de „anxietate auctorială”: Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu / A case of “anxiety of authorship”: Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu
Abstract: The article below links the scriptural practice of Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, the first female writer in the history of Romanian literature to enter the interwar aesthetic canon, and the concept of “anxiety of authorship”, theorized by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar in their study The Madwoman in the Attic. The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. The concept proves useful in explaining the spectacular transformation of her prose. First of all, the transition from the first stage of creation, called “subjective,” to the second stage of her creation, called “objective”. Second of all, the break from the circle of the journal Viața românească, where she had been encouraged by G. Ibrăileanu to pursue a writing style that seemed to be the “expression of femininity”, and her orientation toward the journal and group Sburătorul, where her new mentor, E. Lovinescu, would allegedly impose on her to adopt a new scriptural practice out of a “need for validation” within his very demanding literary group. In reality, the process indicates rather a motivated reinvention of herself driven by the need to create a name for herself, to be taken seriously in a cultural environment burdened with sexist prejudices, and by the desire to articulate a narrative language that still stands under the auspices of feminine writing, which thus does not deny but subtly emphasizes her gender identity.t the water, the fire, the food.
Keywords: Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, woman writer, anxiety of authorship, the novel, interwar Romanian fiction.
Otilia UNGUREANU
Universitatea „Ștefan cel Mare” din Suceava - otiliaungureanu83@yahoo.com
Alexandru Vlad – de la mecanismele tăcerii la strigătul disperat al libertății / Alexandru Vlad – From the Mechanisms of Silence to the Desperate Cry of Freedom
Abstract: The present study analyzes the way in which the atmosphere of the communist and post-communist world in the novel Omul de la fereastră by Alexandru Vlad is reconstructed. The polyphonic perspective allows each of the novel’s two heroes, Adam and Monika, to turn to other remembrance rituals of the reality they have lived. From what kind of pieces is this reality reconstructed? What is the focus of each of the two perspectives and what are the points of convergence? The profile of the man that is crossing different periods of history is caught in a multidimensional frame, with diffuse experiences, fears and terrors, exasperation and helplessness, being marked by the transition from imposed order to the chaos of freedom. The obsessive search for the authentic self becomes a constant not only of the characters, but of the entire world. Alexandru Vlad appeals to this game of identities, “masculine” and “feminine”, through which he reshapes the consciousness of the two characters crushed, among other things, by an unnatural love. The personal truth dissolves here in a sea of contradictory experiences, becoming a metaphor for a sick world that, although out of the womb and freed from totalitarianism, cannot (re)find its coherence.
Keywords: Alexandru Vlad, communism, post-communism, identity, male perspective.
Daiana FELECAN & Roxana PAȘCA
Universitatea Tehnică din Cluj-Napoca, Centrul Universitar Nord Baia Mare - daiana18felecan@yahoo.com / Universitatea Tehnică din Cluj-Napoca, Centrul Universitar Nord Baia Mare - roxi.pasca@yahoo.com
Tabuul lingvistic, ca instrument al umorului în stand-up comedy / Linguistic Taboo as Humorous Device in Stand-Up Comedy
Abstract: In stand-up comedy, humour results from social jokes which emphasise a community’s values, faults, fears, and taboos. The paper focuses on the analysis of the psychosocial functions of taboo words (especially curse words) in stand-up comedy speech acts and their impact on the audience. The theoretical framework consists of socio-, pragma- and psycholinguistics. Starting from the idea that context plays a decisive role in determining the appropriateness or inappropriateness of a speech act, we identify and analyse five categories of swear words depending on their psychosocial and discursive behaviour: swearing as a form of address, cathartic swearing, aggressive/offensive swearing, emphatic swearing, and auxiliary swearing. These categories are illustrated by means of relevant examples taken from the video recordings of two shows performed by Cosmin Nedelcu.
Keywords: stand-up comedy, taboo words, humour, linguistic violence, linguistic politeness.
Alina-Mădălina COSMA
Universitatea „Transilvania”, Brașov - alina.cosma@student.unibtv.ro
Ecouri ale naturii: perspective ecocritice în proza lui Ah Cheng / Echoes of Nature: Ecocritical Perspectives in Ah Cheng’s Prose
Abstract: Through the ecocritical lens, this paper explores the metaphor of nature in Ah Cheng’s “The King of Trees”. It examines theories from both Western and Eastern philosophy. Chinese literature delves into the theme of ecology, emphasizing the intricate relationship between humans and nature, which in turn molds environmental perceptions based on cultural values and perspectives. The incorporation of theories by Timothy Morton, Bruno Latour, and the Chinese cultural perspective has contributed to the notable expansion of ecocriticism theory, attracting a growing number of writers and critics. Xiao Geda symbolizes the King of Trees, highlighting the metaphorical connection to nature. The article notes the solidification of cultural identity in relation to oneself and others and the metaphor of nature intertwined with the perception of our connection to nature.
Keywords: ecocriticism, Chinese literature, ecology, eastern philosophies, environment.
Alexandra OLTEANU
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași - olteanualexandra99@yahoo.com
Romantic Historicism and the Rise of the Historical Novel in the 19th-Century Romanian Literature
Abstract: This study explores the definitions and evolutionary trajectories of the novel and novella genres within Romanian literary theory and practice. It navigates through terminological overlaps and historical contexts, particularly focusing on the challenges inherent in defining the novella. Through an examination of Romanian literary history, the emergence of the novella is unraveled within the romantic historicist matrix and its successive transformation into a precursor of the novel during the 19th century. The thematic richness, stylistic diversity, and cultural significance of Romanian historical fiction are also explored, shedding light on their role in shaping cultural memory and historical consciousness. This research also describes the hybrid nature of Romanian historical novel, illustrating its evolution amidst socio-political and cultural upheavals, notably after the revolutionary period of 1848.
Keywords: novel, novella, historicism, romanticism, historical fiction.
Codruț ȘERBAN
Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava - codrutserban@litere.usv.ro
Historicizing the Horse (VI). The Dun Horse (Pawnee) (a Hegelian approach)
Abstract: The series of studies dedicated to analyzing the process of historicizing the horse in Native American cultures continues with The Dun Horse, a story told by the Pawnee. The action of the story happens at a time when the horse is already historicized and integrated into the life of the tribe and it focuses on the events experienced by an old woman and her grandson, whose poverty caused them to have a marginal position, socially speaking. It is the accidental discovery of a dun horse that shifts their social position: as the horse turns out to be a reservoir of Pawnee knowledge, on both the social and the historical level, it helps them ideologically and hierarchically navigate from the margin of the tribe’s historical system to its very center. The dun horse has foreknowledge of historical events and functions as the force that propels humans from the margin to the center of the historical system. It can initiate historical action, in the Hegelian sense, by placing itself in the service of the young boy, but can also launch reaction. Its support is conditioned by unquestionable acceptance of myth. Through the dun horse, obedience to myth entails historical progress. In the case of the young boy, the horse intervenes in the course of history as a result of a historical action undertaken by him and, in its turn, sets up a series of actions which help the boy depart from the margin and reposition himself at the very center of the Pawnee historical system.
Keywords: horse, mythicization, historicization, historical action and reaction.
Cristina BEZEA
Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iași - cristina_pupaza@yahoo.com
Particularități ale polemicii lui Alexandru Philippide / Peculiarities of Alexandru Philippide’s Polemics
Abstract: Determined to uncover scientific truth, Alexandru Philippide deemed it necessary to fight against imposture and superficiality through scientific polemic. This article focusses on the scientific polemic of the Iași linguist, Alexandru Philippide, and aims to highlight some of its characteristics: a predominantly critical attitude expressed through polemical language, often laced with irony, an alternation between specialized language and elements from popular speech (expressions, proverbs), the use of Latin and French quotations and expressions, and the use of exclamations and rhetorical questions.
Keywords: Alexandru Philippide, polemic style, history of language, discourse analysis, linguistics.
Monica TIMOFTE
Universitatea „Ştefan cel Mare” din Suceava - monica.timofte@litere.usv.ro
Tematizare semantico-pragmatică în Cartea Psalmilor / Topicalization in The Book of Psalms: Semantic and Pragmatic Considerations
Abstract: Our work aims to identify a semantic-pragmatic explanation for the manifestation of a type of syntactic discontinuity that appears in pragmatic/indexical language, consisting in the grammatical disagreement between the relative-subject of the attributive sentence and the predicate of the sentence it introduces. The analytical excursion has as factual material The Book of Psalms (Dumitru Cornilescu Version).
Keywords: syntactic discontinuity, semantic analisys, pragmatic meaning, theme vs. rheme, discourse analisys, topicalization.
Ioana-Crina PRODAN
Université « Ștefan cel Mare » de Suceava, Roumanie - crina.prodan@usm.ro
Quelques particularités sémiolinguistiques du discours scientifique / Some Semiolinguistic Features of Scientific Discourse
Abstract: This paper offers a partial exploration of scientific discourse, considering both linguistic and semiotic aspects. By integrating these two complementary approaches, we aim to provide a unified and coherent understanding of the intrinsic connection between linguistic forms and meaning-making in scientific communication. Our analysis delves into the unique characteristics of scientific discourse, highlighting the interplay between linguistic structures and semiotic systems.
Keywords: linguistics, semiotics, discourse analysis, scientific discourse, corpora.
Luminiţa HOARŢĂ CĂRĂUŞU
Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” Iaşi - lumicarausu@yahoo.com
Marca pragmatic-discursivă deci în româna vorbită / The Pragmatic-discursive Mark Therefore in Spoken Romanian
Abstract: Our study aims to demonstrate that the pragmatic-discursive marker deci can be characterized by the “polyfunctionality of expression” (GALR II 2005: 833). Drawing on examples excerpted from corpora of non-dialectal spoken Romanian, Luminița Hoarță Cărăușu (ed.), Limba română vorbită. Corpus și studii lingvistice, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Press, Iași, 2023, and Luminița Hoarță Cărăușu (ed.), Corpus de limbă română vorbită actuală nedialectală, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Press, Iași, 2013, we identify the following pragmatic-discursive functions and subfunctions of this marker: 1. pragmatic-discursive marker of discourse structuring, with the subfunctions: 1.1.marker of conversation initiation, 1.2. marker of maintaining dialogue, 1.3. marker of relating the current message to the preceding discourse; 2. turn-taking marker, with the subfunctions: 2.1. marker for requesting the speaker role and 2.2. marker for defending the speaker role.
Keywords: pragmatic-discursive marker, “polyfunctionality of expression”, corpora of non-dialectal spoken Romanian.
Emanuel COPILAȘ
Universitatea de Vest din Timișoara - copilasemanuel@yahoo.com
Cum discutăm despre discursurile politice astăzi? Arthur Suciu, Simulacru și război. Discursul politic în postistorie,
București, Editura Litera, ISBN 978-630-319-938-2,2024, 256 p.
Scriitura lui Arthur Suciu este una elegantă, ludică și totodată profundă. Ușurința exprimării, diversitatea temelor pe care le abordează în cărțile sale, metamorfoza livrească de la specialistul în comunicare și studii media la filosoful politic și teoreticianul cultural care nu are nici cea mai miză ezitare de a lua în răspăr toate problemele importante ale societății consumeriste de astăzi – toate acestea, deși pot părea, la o privire grăbită, superficiale, sunt de fapt diagnoze veridice, deși mai degrabă intuitive decât metodologice, ale diferitelor fațete din care se compune prezentul nostru cultural. Stilul eseistic și jovial al autorului, asumat de la bun început, nu trebuie să inducă în eroare în ceea ce privește calitatea conținuturilor intelectuale livrate. Dimpotrivă, apreciez chiar că o astfel de abordare poate avea mai mult succes în atragerea atenției asupra marilor probleme actuale decât prezentările stilistic rigide, care sacrifică „respirația” și „buna dispoziție” pe care un text le poate emana în favoarea unei precizii convolute, demnă, poate, de o cauză mai bună. De asemenea, sunt foarte utile și instructive, pe tot parcursul volumului, referințele la producții cinematografice recente.
Ioana-Crina PRODAN
Université « Ștefan cel Mare » de Suceava, Roumanie - crina.prodan@usm.ro
Alin-Gabriel GĂLEATĂ, Discursul media și comunicarea instituțională,
Cluj-Napoca, Casa Cărții de Știință, ISBN 978-606-17-2272-3, 2023, 312p.
Sous le même titre que sa thèse de doctorat, soutenue en roumain, en 2023, à l’Université « Ștefan cel Mare » de Suceava, l’ouvrage Discursul media și comunicarea instituțională, paru aux Editions Casa Cărții de Știință de Cluj-Napoca, représente un mélange réussi entre plusiers perspectives sociolinguistiques conceptuelles et pratiques. En tant qu’approche à caractère forcement interdisciplinaire, la démarche auctoriale d’Alin-Gabriel Găleată s’avère être fondée sur des perspectives axées sur un sérieux processus de documentation et de synthèse des informations existantes dans la littérature spécialisée actuelle. En plus, par la sélection et l’analyse discursive des échantillons de corpus et de sous-corpus extraits de documents authentiques de certaines institutions dans le domaine des situations d’urgence dans l’espace sociolinguistique roumain, toute la recherche est concentrée sur une progression thématique cohérente visant les deux concepts principaux énoncés dans le titre.
Anca TOMOIOAGĂ
Universitatea din Oradea - tomoioaga.anca@gmail.com
Gabriela Pohoață, Ontologie și creație în filosofia lui Eminescu, Ediție bilingvă / Ontology and Creation in Eminescu’s Philosophy, Bilingual edition, traducere în limba engleză de Mihaela Mocanu,
Editura Pro Universitaria, București, ISBN 978-606-26-1780-6, 2024, 337 p.
Preocuparea Gabrielei Pohoață pentru ideile filosofice ale lui Eminescu datează din timpul studenției când și-a elaborat lucrarea de licență, dedicată filosofiei poetului. Ulterior, a publicat o serie de articole în limba engleză în revista Cogito. Cartea de față reunește studii deja publicate, dar și studii noi despre filosofia lui Mihai Eminescu. Unul dintre meritele cărții constă în faptul că este o ediție bilingvă, română-engleză. Mihaela Mocanu nu numai că traduce capitolele scrise de autoare, ci și extrasele din manuscrisele lui Eminescu, din articolele sale publicate la Timpul, din proză, din unele poeme necuprinse în traducerile deja cunoscute, cum este cea a lui Cornelius M. Popescu. Mai trebuie adăugat că sunt traduse și opinii ale altor cercetători și critici literari preocupați de temă. Cartea, prin urmare, face un serviciu deosebit nu numai scrierilor poetului, ci și cercetătorilor în domeniu. Reprezintă, de asemenea, una dintre modalitățile cele mai eficiente pentru exportarea valorilor noastre culturale. Varianta aceasta bilingvă mi-aduce aminte de un volum scris tot de un critic literar înclinat spre filosofie. În 2000 apăruse la Cartea Românească cartea lui Nicolae Balotă, Eminescu, poet al inițierii, un studiu însoțit și de variantele în franceză și germană, dar și de traducerile poemului Memento mori în cele două limbi. Astfel de demersuri țin cont nu numai de lectorul român, ci și de deschiderea pe care cultura română trebuie să o aibă față de lectorul internațional. Iată-l pe Eminescu ca produs românesc de export, așa cum se exprima Ioana Bot (2012: 223), nu refuzat, ci relansat.
Ioana ROSTOŞ
Universitatea „Ştefan cel Mare” din Suceava - ioana.rostos@usm.ro
Anca-Elisabeta Turcu, Introducere în viața și opera lui Victor Wittner,
Editura Universităţii „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iași, ISBN 978-606-714-757-5, 2023, 290 p.
Beneficiind de susținerea financiară a Universității „Al. I. Cuza” și având girul a doi referenți științifici de prestigiu, prof. univ. dr. Andrei Corbea-Hoișie (Universitatea „Al.I. Cuza”) și prof. univ. dr. Amy-Diana Colin (Universitatea din Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, SUA), la editura universității ieșene a apărut o „carte dedicată scriitorului (întâmplător) bucovinean Victor Wittner de către un cercetător (întâmplător) bucovinean, care s-a aplecat cu reală reverență asupra unei cariere literar-culturale de excepție și a unui destin tragic și exemplar”. Este vorba despre jurnalistul, poetul, prozatorul, eseistul și dramaturgul Victor Wittner (n. 1896, la Herța; d. 1949, la Viena), respectiv despre asist. univ. dr. Anca-Elisabeta Turcu (n. 1990, la Fălticeni), căreia i s-a oferit, în calitate de doctorandă, șansa de a „răsfoi” – literalmente – „teancurile de manuscrise lăsate în urmă” de acesta.
Evelina-Mezalina GRAUR
Universitatea „Ştefan cel Mare” din Suceava - evelina.graur@litere.usv.ro
David Crystal, A Date with Language [La întâlnire cu limba],
Oxford, Bodleian Library Publishing, ISBN 978-185124-611-3, 2023, 392 p.
Fuelled by his unwavering passion for linguistic communication and his steadfast devotion to the study of English language, David Crystal (b. 1941) continues to write and publish extraordinary books. Although A date with Language (Publisher: Samuel Fanous; Managing Editor: Susie Foster; Editor: Janet Phillips; Picture Editor: Leandra Shrimpton; Cover design by Dot Little at the Bodleian Library) may not be the first choice for university librarians preparing purchase orders, its captivating title makes it an attractive resource for EFL teachers seeking to spice up their daily curriculum, and for language and communication studies lecturers looking for engaging and inspiring content for talks and presentations. The Horatian notion of prodesse et delectare (to be useful and delight) perfectly applies to this ingenious and diverse collection of daily doses of linguistic titbits and philological pleasures. Following a suggestion made by the Bodleian’s Head of Publishing, Samuel Fanous, and recognizing a gap in the book market, David Crystal sets out to create a unique ‘On This Day’ book that celebrates only language.