Monica Manolachi | University of Bucharest (original) (raw)

Uploads

Papers by Monica Manolachi

Research paper thumbnail of An overview on the 20th-century Central-European novel

Swedish journal of Romanian studies, May 15, 2024

Research paper thumbnail of Literary Translation as a Form of Social and Pedagogical Activism

Research paper thumbnail of "A Sign of Life": The Role of Food in Contemporary Prose by Romanian Women Writers

Food Cultures across Time: Flavours and Endeavours, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of The Image of the Danube in Contemporary Novels Associated with Hungarian Culture

Cultural Intertexts, vol. 13, 2023

The natural elements of inhabited areas often shape people’s lifestyles, psychology and worldview... more The natural elements of inhabited areas often shape people’s lifestyles, psychology and worldviews, influencing their moods, decisions and actions. Rivers in particular are often associated with the historical development of human relationships and the emergence of settlements and urban life. This paper explores the representations of the Danube in four contemporary novels by Hungarian authors or set in Hungary: The White King (2008) by György Dragomán, Train to Budapest (2008) by Dacia Maraini, Under Budapest (2013) by Ailsa Kay and Los Amantes Bajo el Danubio (2016) by Federico Andahazi. The aim of this analysis is to show how the river operates as a framework of “liquid modernity” (Bauman, 2000) in each of these works, it has a representative power of its own and determines people’s destinies and human relationships in heterogeneous cultural contexts. It functions both as a natural backdrop for historical events and as a means of expressing and conveying emotions, creating a transnational political identity that is both socio-cultural and deeply intimate.

Research paper thumbnail of To write or not to write: censorship in "The Woman in the Photo" by Tia Șerbănescu and "A Censor’s Notebook" by Liliana Corobca

Swedish journal of Romanian studies, May 15, 2018

Research paper thumbnail of Funciones simbólicas del cuerpo representadas en la literatura rumana contempóranea

Sabemos tanto sobre nuestros cuerpos y al mismo tiempo sabemos tan poco. Confiamos que hay sufici... more Sabemos tanto sobre nuestros cuerpos y al mismo tiempo sabemos tan poco. Confiamos que hay suficientes motivos para considerar la oportunidad de construir una verdadera cuerpo-logía, que analizaría la presencia social, filosófica, jurídica, artística, histórica o histórica de los cuerpos en la sociedad humana. Los cuerpos de las mujeres parece que son fáciles de configurar y encajar. Del cuerpo de la mujer hablan dos milenios de historia de la humanidad en distintas expresiones artísticas, a lo largo de los siglos, en todas las culturas, en todos los continentes. La literatura tiene que revindicar los cuerpos de sus mujeres, las obras, los autores, las per-sonajes, que, sin embargo, en todas las culturas y épocas, acompañan y decoran, de manera contumaz, la aventura humana. Sería interesante configurar un cuerpo literario filosófico de la mujer en la literatura, un cuerpo invariable, reducido a sus esencias. El volumen Habemus corpus acerca los cuerpos de las mujeres de la literatura universal a investigaciones que completan la mirada hacia la corporeidad femenina abarcando manifes-taciones literarias alejadas histórica y geográficamente: de la Edad Media a la literatura con-temporánea, de Argentina a Italia, Portugal y Rumanía, de Boccaccio a la narrativa de Doina Ruști, del misógino Ausiás March a las mujeres víctimas del destino en la literatura de Grazia Deledda, del protagonismo femenino en la obra de Jorge Volpi a las prostitutas y sus cuerpos mercenarios en los microrrelatos Ana María Shua.

Research paper thumbnail of War Tropes in Omeros by Derek Walcott

University of Bucharest Review, 2012

For his poetic endeavour, Derek Walcott was awarded the Nobel prize in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot p... more For his poetic endeavour, Derek Walcott was awarded the Nobel prize in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot prize in 2010. Postcolonial literary critic Jahan Ramazani appreciates his longest work, the narrative poem Omeros (1990), as being “perhaps the most ambitious English language poem of the decolonized Third World”. Although the critic believes it is based on the “radiant metaphor of the wound” as a “resonant site of interethnic connection”, the poet avoids advocating other Caribbean writers’ anchoring into a discourse of suffering. He proposes instead one of the most dramatic histories of the Caribbean by craftily employing war tropes from elsewhere – Europe, Africa, North America – to rewrite the inner war of the contemporary man who faces a multitude of cultural forces. His work was published when multiculturalism had already become a dominant paradigm in American universities and at the beginning of what James Hunter called the “culture wars” of the 1990s. Taking into consideration that the postcolonial concept of creolization proposed by the Barbadian poet and historian Edward K. Brathwaite was considered by Robert J. C. Young (1995) an unconscious, organic form of cultural hybridity, my argument is that Walcott’s epic poem has transformed the perspective upon creolization by revealing its intentionality. One of the reasons resides in the use of war tropes as sources of symbolic violence, which helps fleshing out a history predominantly characterized by plunder, absence and loss, a view which critics such as Paul Breslin hint at. This essay examines how some of these tropes appear in the poem and with what specific purposes.

Research paper thumbnail of Multiethnic Resonances in Derek Walcott’s Poetry

Research paper thumbnail of The Memory of Different Rhythms and Colours in E. K. Brathwaite’s the Arrivants

As a poet and a historian, the Barbadian author Edward Kamau Brathwaite contributed significantly... more As a poet and a historian, the Barbadian author Edward Kamau Brathwaite contributed significantly to the configuration of the contemporary multifarious Caribbean cultural identity worldwide. Published in late 1960s, his first poetic work, The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy, is one of the most innovative compositions, which has established him as a transnational griot, whose function has been to guard many of the specificities of the Afro-Caribbean cultural memory. Apart from his poetic work, Brathwaite’s research on folk culture, Creole society in Jamaica, cultural diversity and history of the voice in the Caribbean has demonstrated an increasing awareness regarding the multicultural phenomenon of hybridization in the region, often conflictual, yet in search of sublime balance. In this context, the poet’s experience of migration and his encounter with the image of the Other as Self in Western literature and history generated a particular feeling regarding prosody and subjectivity. This essay explores the novelty of Brathwaite’s trilogy in conjunction with his subsequent cultural theses developed in his nonpoetic works and their relevance for cultural memory. Following Renate Lachmann (1997), Lars Eckstein (2006) argues in ReMembering the Black Atlantic that “literature must also be reckoned as a special form of cultural memory in itself: as a complex lieu de mémoire with its very own forms and strategies of observation and writing from older memories and their diverse representations” (ix). When Caribbean literature is at stake, the truth of this statement lies in the numerous novels, short stories, books of poetry, plays and essays published after the Second World War, whose authors have gained international recognition towards the end of the century. Eckstein also takes over Lachmann’s argument that Mikhail Bakhtin’s traditional difference between the dialogic prose and the monologic poetry does not stand anymore. Indeed, Caribbean poets broke with tradition and managed to colour the English literary canon of the late twentieth century introducing new dialogic and polyglossic styles. Cultural memory is a central aspect in The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy1 by Edward Kamau Brathwaite2, a collection which particularly refers to * University of Bucharest; Romania University of Bucharest Review  Vol. III/2013, no. 1 (new series) Cultures of Memory, Memories of Culture

Research paper thumbnail of Humour, Colour and Religion in the Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

Research paper thumbnail of Cultural Hybridity in Radu Aldulescu's Novels

Research paper thumbnail of Donald W. Winnicott’s Theory, Literature, and Migration

Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory, Dec 17, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of December 1989 and the concept of revolution in the prose of Romanian women writers

Swedish journal of Romanian studies, Apr 17, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of The Other’s Poetry: Sufi Thought in Paul Sutherland’s Collections

DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Jun 1, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnicity and Gender Debates: Cross-Readings of American Literature and Culture in the New Millennium

Linguaculture, Dec 31, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Literary Translation as a Form of Social and Pedagogical Activism

Research paper thumbnail of Cultural Meanings of Figurative Speech in Contemporary Caribbean British Poetry

Abstract This essay combines close reading and contemporary cultural theories, in order to explor... more Abstract This essay combines close reading and contemporary cultural theories, in order to explore several figurative patterns in which individual and collective identity are shaped in contemporary Caribbean British poetry. In the context of the post-war multicultural Great Britain and of the transatlantic cultural traffic connected with the Caribbean, the poetic discourse has become a site of cultural negotiation and visionary expression. It will be shown that none of the values associated with multiculturalism, transculturalism or cosmopolitanism are taken as fixed, but they are rather options and positions on the continuum global-local, as well as facets of an emerging complex cultural reality. The authors included in the present analysis – three Guyanese poets, David Dabydeen, Grace Nichols and John Agard, and the Barbadian Dorothea Smartt – display a great awareness of contemporary cultural change, best rendered using a culturally hybrid poetic language.

Research paper thumbnail of Postcolonial Metamorphoses of Maternity in Contemporary Caribbean British Poetry

Research paper thumbnail of “‘Food Is Always a Sign of Life’: The Role of Food in Contemporary Prose by Romanian Women Writers

Food Cultures across Time: Flavours and Endeavours, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Contemporary Balkan Women Writers on the Art of Writing

Balkan Languages, Literatures and Cultures. Divergence and Convergence, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of An overview on the 20th-century Central-European novel

Swedish journal of Romanian studies, May 15, 2024

Research paper thumbnail of Literary Translation as a Form of Social and Pedagogical Activism

Research paper thumbnail of "A Sign of Life": The Role of Food in Contemporary Prose by Romanian Women Writers

Food Cultures across Time: Flavours and Endeavours, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of The Image of the Danube in Contemporary Novels Associated with Hungarian Culture

Cultural Intertexts, vol. 13, 2023

The natural elements of inhabited areas often shape people’s lifestyles, psychology and worldview... more The natural elements of inhabited areas often shape people’s lifestyles, psychology and worldviews, influencing their moods, decisions and actions. Rivers in particular are often associated with the historical development of human relationships and the emergence of settlements and urban life. This paper explores the representations of the Danube in four contemporary novels by Hungarian authors or set in Hungary: The White King (2008) by György Dragomán, Train to Budapest (2008) by Dacia Maraini, Under Budapest (2013) by Ailsa Kay and Los Amantes Bajo el Danubio (2016) by Federico Andahazi. The aim of this analysis is to show how the river operates as a framework of “liquid modernity” (Bauman, 2000) in each of these works, it has a representative power of its own and determines people’s destinies and human relationships in heterogeneous cultural contexts. It functions both as a natural backdrop for historical events and as a means of expressing and conveying emotions, creating a transnational political identity that is both socio-cultural and deeply intimate.

Research paper thumbnail of To write or not to write: censorship in "The Woman in the Photo" by Tia Șerbănescu and "A Censor’s Notebook" by Liliana Corobca

Swedish journal of Romanian studies, May 15, 2018

Research paper thumbnail of Funciones simbólicas del cuerpo representadas en la literatura rumana contempóranea

Sabemos tanto sobre nuestros cuerpos y al mismo tiempo sabemos tan poco. Confiamos que hay sufici... more Sabemos tanto sobre nuestros cuerpos y al mismo tiempo sabemos tan poco. Confiamos que hay suficientes motivos para considerar la oportunidad de construir una verdadera cuerpo-logía, que analizaría la presencia social, filosófica, jurídica, artística, histórica o histórica de los cuerpos en la sociedad humana. Los cuerpos de las mujeres parece que son fáciles de configurar y encajar. Del cuerpo de la mujer hablan dos milenios de historia de la humanidad en distintas expresiones artísticas, a lo largo de los siglos, en todas las culturas, en todos los continentes. La literatura tiene que revindicar los cuerpos de sus mujeres, las obras, los autores, las per-sonajes, que, sin embargo, en todas las culturas y épocas, acompañan y decoran, de manera contumaz, la aventura humana. Sería interesante configurar un cuerpo literario filosófico de la mujer en la literatura, un cuerpo invariable, reducido a sus esencias. El volumen Habemus corpus acerca los cuerpos de las mujeres de la literatura universal a investigaciones que completan la mirada hacia la corporeidad femenina abarcando manifes-taciones literarias alejadas histórica y geográficamente: de la Edad Media a la literatura con-temporánea, de Argentina a Italia, Portugal y Rumanía, de Boccaccio a la narrativa de Doina Ruști, del misógino Ausiás March a las mujeres víctimas del destino en la literatura de Grazia Deledda, del protagonismo femenino en la obra de Jorge Volpi a las prostitutas y sus cuerpos mercenarios en los microrrelatos Ana María Shua.

Research paper thumbnail of War Tropes in Omeros by Derek Walcott

University of Bucharest Review, 2012

For his poetic endeavour, Derek Walcott was awarded the Nobel prize in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot p... more For his poetic endeavour, Derek Walcott was awarded the Nobel prize in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot prize in 2010. Postcolonial literary critic Jahan Ramazani appreciates his longest work, the narrative poem Omeros (1990), as being “perhaps the most ambitious English language poem of the decolonized Third World”. Although the critic believes it is based on the “radiant metaphor of the wound” as a “resonant site of interethnic connection”, the poet avoids advocating other Caribbean writers’ anchoring into a discourse of suffering. He proposes instead one of the most dramatic histories of the Caribbean by craftily employing war tropes from elsewhere – Europe, Africa, North America – to rewrite the inner war of the contemporary man who faces a multitude of cultural forces. His work was published when multiculturalism had already become a dominant paradigm in American universities and at the beginning of what James Hunter called the “culture wars” of the 1990s. Taking into consideration that the postcolonial concept of creolization proposed by the Barbadian poet and historian Edward K. Brathwaite was considered by Robert J. C. Young (1995) an unconscious, organic form of cultural hybridity, my argument is that Walcott’s epic poem has transformed the perspective upon creolization by revealing its intentionality. One of the reasons resides in the use of war tropes as sources of symbolic violence, which helps fleshing out a history predominantly characterized by plunder, absence and loss, a view which critics such as Paul Breslin hint at. This essay examines how some of these tropes appear in the poem and with what specific purposes.

Research paper thumbnail of Multiethnic Resonances in Derek Walcott’s Poetry

Research paper thumbnail of The Memory of Different Rhythms and Colours in E. K. Brathwaite’s the Arrivants

As a poet and a historian, the Barbadian author Edward Kamau Brathwaite contributed significantly... more As a poet and a historian, the Barbadian author Edward Kamau Brathwaite contributed significantly to the configuration of the contemporary multifarious Caribbean cultural identity worldwide. Published in late 1960s, his first poetic work, The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy, is one of the most innovative compositions, which has established him as a transnational griot, whose function has been to guard many of the specificities of the Afro-Caribbean cultural memory. Apart from his poetic work, Brathwaite’s research on folk culture, Creole society in Jamaica, cultural diversity and history of the voice in the Caribbean has demonstrated an increasing awareness regarding the multicultural phenomenon of hybridization in the region, often conflictual, yet in search of sublime balance. In this context, the poet’s experience of migration and his encounter with the image of the Other as Self in Western literature and history generated a particular feeling regarding prosody and subjectivity. This essay explores the novelty of Brathwaite’s trilogy in conjunction with his subsequent cultural theses developed in his nonpoetic works and their relevance for cultural memory. Following Renate Lachmann (1997), Lars Eckstein (2006) argues in ReMembering the Black Atlantic that “literature must also be reckoned as a special form of cultural memory in itself: as a complex lieu de mémoire with its very own forms and strategies of observation and writing from older memories and their diverse representations” (ix). When Caribbean literature is at stake, the truth of this statement lies in the numerous novels, short stories, books of poetry, plays and essays published after the Second World War, whose authors have gained international recognition towards the end of the century. Eckstein also takes over Lachmann’s argument that Mikhail Bakhtin’s traditional difference between the dialogic prose and the monologic poetry does not stand anymore. Indeed, Caribbean poets broke with tradition and managed to colour the English literary canon of the late twentieth century introducing new dialogic and polyglossic styles. Cultural memory is a central aspect in The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy1 by Edward Kamau Brathwaite2, a collection which particularly refers to * University of Bucharest; Romania University of Bucharest Review  Vol. III/2013, no. 1 (new series) Cultures of Memory, Memories of Culture

Research paper thumbnail of Humour, Colour and Religion in the Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

Research paper thumbnail of Cultural Hybridity in Radu Aldulescu's Novels

Research paper thumbnail of Donald W. Winnicott’s Theory, Literature, and Migration

Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory, Dec 17, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of December 1989 and the concept of revolution in the prose of Romanian women writers

Swedish journal of Romanian studies, Apr 17, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of The Other’s Poetry: Sufi Thought in Paul Sutherland’s Collections

DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Jun 1, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnicity and Gender Debates: Cross-Readings of American Literature and Culture in the New Millennium

Linguaculture, Dec 31, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Literary Translation as a Form of Social and Pedagogical Activism

Research paper thumbnail of Cultural Meanings of Figurative Speech in Contemporary Caribbean British Poetry

Abstract This essay combines close reading and contemporary cultural theories, in order to explor... more Abstract This essay combines close reading and contemporary cultural theories, in order to explore several figurative patterns in which individual and collective identity are shaped in contemporary Caribbean British poetry. In the context of the post-war multicultural Great Britain and of the transatlantic cultural traffic connected with the Caribbean, the poetic discourse has become a site of cultural negotiation and visionary expression. It will be shown that none of the values associated with multiculturalism, transculturalism or cosmopolitanism are taken as fixed, but they are rather options and positions on the continuum global-local, as well as facets of an emerging complex cultural reality. The authors included in the present analysis – three Guyanese poets, David Dabydeen, Grace Nichols and John Agard, and the Barbadian Dorothea Smartt – display a great awareness of contemporary cultural change, best rendered using a culturally hybrid poetic language.

Research paper thumbnail of Postcolonial Metamorphoses of Maternity in Contemporary Caribbean British Poetry

Research paper thumbnail of “‘Food Is Always a Sign of Life’: The Role of Food in Contemporary Prose by Romanian Women Writers

Food Cultures across Time: Flavours and Endeavours, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Contemporary Balkan Women Writers on the Art of Writing

Balkan Languages, Literatures and Cultures. Divergence and Convergence, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of “A Sign of Life”: The Role of Food in Contemporary Prose by Romanian Women Writers

Food Cultures across Time, 2021

In the past, critics considered that literature and food had very little in common. Even today, s... more In the past, critics considered that literature and food had very little in common. Even today, some critics believe that the study of their relationship is strictly part of cultural studies and has nothing to do with aesthetic values. However, literary criticism has slowly been influenced by the field of food culture. What is food doing in novels, diaries or memoirs? Why has food garnered narrative attention? Among the reasons for the explosion of food culture, Carole M. Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (2013) list feminism and women’s studies, the politicization of food, the social movements linked to food, and its relevance for the scholarly mill. There may be other factors. The present article explores this relationship in contemporary Romanian fiction by women writers, with the purpose of identifying critical points of suture between the two fields, pertinent both to private and public spheres. By drawing on Romanian literary criticism, recent translation theory related to food culture and ecology, translation statistics as an expression of intercultural consumption, and theory about food culture, it suggests that contemporary women writers employ the force of direct or indirect confession to depart from resignation or denial, to create consciousness-raising literary experiences and to give examples of creative moral truths.

Research paper thumbnail of The Image of the Mayor in Communist and Postcommunist Romanian Filmography

The Odyssey of Communism, 2021

Although the pre-1989 Romanian film production was superiour to the post-1989 production, it has ... more Although the pre-1989 Romanian film production was superiour to the post-1989 production, it has been much less known abroad, especially because of the barriers imposed by the cultural politics of the epoch. Nowadays, when many films and film reviews of the past are available in online archives, contemporary audiences from across the world can access them, circulate them and assess their esthetic and ethical value. Emerged at the intersection of English language teaching, the domain of public administration and film studies, this interdisciplinary article charts the visual representation of mayors in twelve Romanian feature films, four short films and two series, released over the past six decades. The main aim is to track some of the conceptual changes and creative cinematic approaches from a thematic and historical perspective taking into consideration the mayor’s leadership style, attitude to conflict and the varied typologies provided by the corpus. A second aim is to produce an overview of the available films and to group them in clusters based on moral criteria, from the most corrupted to the most responsible.

Research paper thumbnail of How Multicultural is the History of Romanian Literature

Multicultural Discourses in Turbulent Times, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies Vol. 4 No. 1 (2021)

by Lucian Vasile Bagiu, Dan Horatiu Popescu, Virginia Popovic, Marinel Negru, Hermeziu Cristina, Andra Iulia, Annemarie Sorescu-Marinkovic, Ciortea Marcela, Mihai Gligor, Monica Manolachi, Marius Nica, Coralia Telea, Adrian Tudurachi, Ligia Tudurachi, and Bianca Tincu

Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies , 2021

Between the covers of the current fourth volume, there are fifteen articles and two book reviews ... more Between the covers of the current fourth volume, there are fifteen articles and two book reviews dedicated to first-hand inquiries examined against the backdrop of cogent evidence. An international team of contributors scrutinizes diversified instances, such as historical backgrounds of the Romanian language, the connection between language and mind, interlingual renditions, and the relation between language and society. Written in English, Romanian and French, these essays shape the contours of Romanian works of literature, translation studies, cultural studies, and linguistics.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies, Vol. 3 No 1 (2020)

by Lucian Vasile Bagiu, Monica Manolachi, Carmen Darabus, Gabriela Chiciudean, Felix Nicolau, Nicoleta Popa Blanariu, Adina Curta, Crina Herteg, Petru Stefan Ionescu, Corina Selejan, Vistras Ivona, Mihaela Muresanu, Ionuț Tomuș, Ligia Tudurachi, Andra Iulia, and Maricica Munteanu

Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies, Apr 30, 2020

The third volume of Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies encompasses a wide range of subjects rela... more The third volume of Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies encompasses a wide range of subjects related to Romanian literature, theatre, film, translation studies, and culture. Academics from famed universities situated in Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Bulgaria, and Romania, treat a variety of issues in English, Romanian, French and Spanish. In consequence, the collection of papers provided by this volume includes fourteen articles, a translation and two book reviews.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies, Vol. 2 No 1 (2019)

by Lucian Vasile Bagiu, Felix Nicolau, Simina Pîrvu, Carmen Dominte, Iosif Camara, Zabava Camelia, Adina Curta, Carmen Darabus, Jarmila Horakova, Monica Manolachi, SILVIU Mihaila, Antonio Patras, Dana Radler, Corina Selejan, Adrian Tudurachi, Rodica Chira, and Marius MIHEȚ

Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies, 2019

In the second volume of Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies we are delighted to welcome ten artic... more In the second volume of Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies we are delighted to welcome ten articles and four book reviews on Romanian language, literature, translation, culture and theatre, written in English, French or Romanian, by academics from various traditional universities.
Literature section is illustrated by authors with affiliation to The “A. Philippide” Institute of Romanian Philology, Iași, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, and West University of Timișoara. The articles advance novel insights when inquiring into enticing subjects such as: the bodily community and its representations in the common space of the members of Viața românească literary group, analysed through Roland Barthes’s and Marielle Macéʼs theories; the remix of hajduk fiction in the nineteenth and early twentieth-century Romanian literature, conveying a modern lifestyle; the exile and nostalgia for the native lands in a comparative reading of the works of two seemingly unrelated writers: Andreï Makine and Sorin Titel, both of whom revealed to undergo a pilgrimage to reinvent themselves.
Translation studies is a perfect ground for “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia to present a paper dealing with a view on the concept of fidelity in literary translation with an analysis of the Romanian poet Mircea Ivănescu’s work on the overture of episode eleven, “Sirens”, from James Joyce’s “Ulysses”. The paper is not intended to elicit the imperfections of the translation but rather to illustrate the intricacy of the task, the problems of non-equivalence that are difficult to avoid by any literary translator.
Theatre section benefits from the original intuitions of academics from National University of Music Bucharest and Military Technical Academy, Bucharest, concentrating on modernity: the importance of the Romanian theatrical project – DramAcum, as a new type of theatre and dramaturgy, within the larger European influence of the verbatim dramatic style performed in theatres under the slogan of the in-yer-face; staging O’Neill’s Hughie by Alexa Visarion makes way for an investigation of several drama reviews that discuss the play’s first night, revealing that the performance was a successful attempt at communicating and debating the conflicted values of American pragmatism and equally a crowning of the Romanian director’s effort to unfold the “anti-materialism” and the fatalistic approach to existence of the American playwright.
Owing to University of Bucharest in Cultural studies we witness the reconstruction of the attitudes of Romanian peasants towards the vestiges of prehistoric material culture, finding out what people thought about the origin of prehistoric artefacts and what meanings were associated to them.
In the Linguistics section thanks to Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, and Lund University we are introduced to three perspectives on Romanian language: the destiny of the Latin in the East is interpreted through the pastoral character of Romanity, which led to a population mobility that influenced the language at diatopic level, with a focus on the transhumant shepherds whose travels played a linguistic levelling role, despite the territorial spread of the language; the modern French impact on the Romanian language (the redefining of the neo-Latinic physiognomy of the Romanian language) is detailed from a chronological perspective, the influence of French language being considered from a linguistic perspective, but also with a view to the various social circumstances; last but not least, we are proposed a plea in favor of a linguistic updating, namely the acceptance into the literary language of feminized denominations of professions.
Due to University of Oradea, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, and University of Craiova the Book reviews section engages: a tome written by Paul Cernat, an essential study for those interested in the phenomenon of the Romanian avant-garde; a book by Carmen Mușat, which analyzes and systemizes the relational character of literature and the discourses on literature, a plea for the theorist and his presence in the world, retaining a valid purpose; a volume proposing multiple interpretations, in which Carmen Dărăbuş traces the (evolutionary) trajectory of male characters, by highlighting the permanent capabilities of metamorphosis of the primordial pattern; a literary magazine bringing into attention of the contemporary readers the cultural activity of the Romanian intellectuals from exile, with a focus on Camilian Demetrescu.
Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies is published in collaboration with “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia, Romania, and welcomes contributions from scholars all over the world.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies Vol. 1 No 1 / 2018

by Lucian Vasile Bagiu, Monica Manolachi, Dana Radler, Marina-Cristiana Rotaru, Danciu Petru Adrian, Magdalena Filary, Carmen Darabus, Chris Tanasescu (MARGENTO), Titela VILCEANU, Felix Nicolau, Felix Nicolau, and Simina Pîrvu

Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies, 2018

In the first volume of Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies (ISSN 2003-0924) we are happy to welco... more In the first volume of Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies (ISSN 2003-0924) we are happy to welcome ten articles and two book reviews on Romanian language, literature, culture and film, written either in English or Romanian, by academics from various established universities. Literature section is well represented by authors with affiliation to University of Bucharest, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, The “A. Philippide” Institute of Romanian Philology, Iași, West University of Timișoara and “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia. The articles explore alluring and sensitive issues such as censorship, identity, marginality, prophetism, adaptation or escape, casting innovative visions on the works of canonical Romanian writers (Mihail Sadoveanu, Ionel Teodorenu, Mircea Eliade, Gabriel Liiceanu) and on the creations of less explored artists (Tia Șerbănescu, Liliana Corobca, Henriette Yvonne Stahl, Cătălin Dorian Florescu). Film section benefits from the original insights of academics from Technical University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest and Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, centring mostly on contemporaneity, in interdisciplinary approaches: a documentary by Sorin Ilieșiu turns out a perfect ground for social semiotics and the Romanian New Wave is decoded through the psychological and social symbolism of colours. Thanks to “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia Cultural studies depict the realm of ethnology and sacred folk literature, dissecting the metamorphosis of a deity from a prehistoric totem, due to the masculine Dacian cults, into a demon with Semite elements, finally corrected by Christian syncretism by its transformation into a legend. The same university offers in the Linguistics section an interdisciplinary approach which combines historical linguistics, semantics, pragmatics, lexicology, lexicography, history and cultural studies in a suggestion for an alternate etymological approach to a few words used to depict the realm of the Dacians in a contemporary novel, a stylistic endeavour which may have actually voiced the little-known substratum idiom. Owing to University of Craiova and Lund University the Book reviews section approaches a Polish exegesis to the philosophical anthropology of Mircea Eliade and a presentation of a literary theory tome (comprising translation studies and semiotic tackling) by Romulus Bucur.

Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies is published in collaboration with “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia, Romania and welcomes contributions from scholars all over the world.

Research paper thumbnail of Book Review: An Overview on the 20th-Century Central-European Novel

Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies, 2024

Over the past century, the history of Romanian literature has been dominated by nationalist appro... more Over the past century, the history of Romanian literature has been dominated by nationalist approaches, necessary for the consolidation of a stable cultural identity. However, the concept of cultural identity involves changing and migratory components as well, many related to its links with other cultural identities, each of them with its own literature. This book review provides insights into the scholarly significance of Dicționarul Romanului Central-European din Secolul XX [The dictionary of Central European novel in the 20th century] coordinated by Adriana Babeți and edited by Oana Fotache, understood as a project that maps a transnational literary phenomenon. The study is examined for its uniqueness, specific linguistic diversity and multicultural scope: 250 entries about works initially published in one of the fourteen languages spoken in the region, including French and English as international languages, either part of the canon or more marginal and less known. Other reasons include its adequate combination of analysis and synthesis; the extensive team research carried out over three decades; and its socio-political relevance nowadays. The review highlights the historical, cultural, and academic contexts in which the dictionary was published, the avatars of the concept of Central Europe, several characteristics of the Central-European novel, and details about its structure, sections and features. The presentation mentions a few limitations about the availability of the titles in the languages of the region and the admitted gender imbalance and indicates several research audiences possibly interested in alternative ways of approaching novels in the context of globalization.

Research paper thumbnail of Book Review: A New Lease of Life for an Old Construction Myth