Vol. 5 No. 1 (2022): Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies
Editorial
Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies encompasses a wide variety of cultural and linguistic issues that explore different perspectives of the Romanian context. In consequence, the collection of papers gathered annually provides insights into questions of literature, theatre, film and translation. The collective work brought together in this issue was made possible by the generous support of the Centre for Languages and Literature of Lund University, the Centre for the Research of the Imaginary Speculum of 1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia, Complutense University of Madrid, and the Romanian Language Institute of Bucharest. The significant work of theoreticians and practitioners was reviewed by 27 external scholars, from Romania, Slovakia and Spain, who acted as anonymous reviewers of the material and whose investment is of the most significant importance in facilitating the exchange of knowledge.
This is the fifth in a series of volumes that wish to involve scholars not only from Romania, but also from the international academic community, and marks the first time SJRS publishes two issues in the same year. This shows that the journal is thriving and its objectives of providing inspiration and raising intercultural awareness are more successful every year. For this reason, we are indebted to those - too numerous to name here individually - who have contributed unstintingly in making it possible.
Half of this issue’s contributions focus on the field of Literature, scouring the Romanian literary realms and seeking to ground some theoretical and analytical approaches. The section opens with Alina Buzatu’s meta-theoretical research that wishes to reveal the specificity of cognitive cartography as enactivation. The author problematizes the methodology and some of the conceptual vocabulary of cognitive poetics in relation to the narrative (sub)genre(s). Diana Stroescu investigates the specificities of modernism by identifying several key moments in intellectual history that are responsible for setting up major tendencies in Western literature. Ligia Tudurachi delves into the formation of a literary affiliation by a family of writers, V.A. Urechia and his sons, Nestor and Alceu. This article aims at a comparative analysis of the form of family sociability that they developed in the summers spent at their villas in Câmpina and Sinaia, with expeditions in the Bucegi Mountains. Manuela-Gabriela Tican (Ursu) wishes to cast light on the mystery novel of the nineteenth-century Romanian literature, which stands out with its preoccupation and openness to illustrating the nineteenth-century social aspects. This section concludes with Cristina Hermeziu’s contribution on the issue of social network imaginary, with a focus on the narrative voice in Lavinia Braniște's novels. This study wishes to show to what extent, in the age of millennials and the virtualization of existence, owing to catharsis, literature is a subtle form of ontological resistance.
As part of the segment dedicated to the field of Film Studies, Carmen Dominte’s paper traces the link between Mircea Eliade’s novel Miss Christina and its cinematographic representation. Exceeding the narrative text, the analysis takes into consideration its cinematographic representations as means of visual expression of the same experience related to the labyrinthine pathway.
Cultural Studies is a segment that dynamically combines different disciplines and concerns inquiries of common understandings, practices and beliefs. As such, for the first part of this section, Marcela Ciortea reaches back in history to the life of Nicolae Milescu Spătarul, a scholar and diplomat from Moldova (born in 1636). The originality of this paper surges from the inclusion of a few pages of correspondence, integrally translated into Romanian, which illustrate, on the one hand, the bond with the French ambassador of Stockholm and on the other, the accreditation of Milescu at the Court of Sweden as a representative of the former prince, Gheorghe Ștefan. In the second and final part of this section, Gorun Manolescu presents a few essential features of Mihai Drăgănescu’s philosophical works, while looking for answers to questions related to the philosopher’s ontological-informational model.
Linguistics sets out to offer a critical assessment of the diary belonging to the Romanian king Carol II, Însemnări zilnice (Daily Notes). In his study, Felix Nicolau lies on rhetoric, oratory, and stylistics to provide a discourse analysis, with the intention, on the one hand, to delineate a sophistic royal portrait, to decipher and characterize people belonging to the high society, and on the other hand, to highlight the strategy used to tackle with a tumultuous decade.
The Translations section embodies the collective work of Daniel Citirigă and Cătălin Pavel. The two authors offer for consideration the English translation of some excerpts of an article written by Mihai Eminescu - The Austrian influence on the Romanians in the Principalities (1876), with a historical commentary. The translation aims to make Eminescu’s text available to an international audience of scholars, helping to write a more accurate social and cultural history of 19th century Europe. In turn, the commentary aims to show that Eminescu’s political vision, although substantially conservative, incorporated a number of tenets that were to become an inspiration for a number of politicians of highly diverse backgrounds, from the Iron Guard nationalists to the Socialists and Communists.
The Book reviews section concludes the first issue of this volume with two vigorous responses to some fresh Romanian writings. Marcela Ciortea presents the volume Graphic Art of Old Romanian Books Printed in Brașov (1805-1827), written by Anca Elisabeta Tatay and Cornel Tatai-Baltă. A part of this review focuses on the theoretical construct of the volume, while the other part considers the authors’ depiction of title sheets, vignettes, seals and engravings. Gabriela Chiciudean takes us back to the traditional Transylvanian rural life as presented by Lucian Domșa in the novel Măriuca. As Chiciudean points out, the uniqueness of this writing lies mainly in the representation of the profound history of a family that lives according to the old ways of the countryside and is portrayed using some of the most authentic vernacular language traits.
The issue, as a whole, aims to provide a snapshot of the current interdisciplinary research of Romanian studies and optimize its function as a forum for scholars of Romanian language, literature and film. As such, the collection of articles assembled in this issue explores the main theme from a wide range of perspectives and it is hoped they provide a helpful and reliable source of information and motivation for future studies.
Andra-Iulia Ursa
Advisory board for this issue
Andrei Achim, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, North Academic Centre of Baia Mare
Iulia Anghel, Ecological University of Bucharest
Alina Bako, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu
Monica Borș, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu
Diana Câmpan, 1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia
Alba Diz Villanueva, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Carmen Dominte, National University of Music Bucharest
Cristina Gherman, Technical University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest
Ana-Maria Gînsac, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași
Crina Herțeg, 1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia
Gabriela Iliuță, Technical University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest
Monica Manolachi, University of Bucharest
Doris Mironescu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași
Valentin Orga, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
Dana Radler, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania
Magdalena Răduță, University of Bucharest
Ioana Rustoiu, The National Museum of the Union, Alba Iulia
Dana Sala, University of Oradea
Delia Siliște, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu
Ingrid Tomonicska, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania
Mădălina Ungureanu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași
Dragoș Varga, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu
Iuliana Wainberg, 1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia
The cover photo was taken by Andra-Iulia Ursa on April, 21st, 2022 and represents Lucian Blaga Memorial House in Lancrăm, Alba County, Romania
