Vol. 7 No. 2 (2024): Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies
Editorial
Communication and intellectual freedom are two of the main aspects considered when engaging an audience in thought and meditation exercises. Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies aims to cultivate and encourage high-standard academic pursuits focused on an increasing range of topics meant to argue and develop this sense of critical thinking and freedom of thought. The current issue of the seventh volume includes the following fields of study: literature, cultural studies, anthropology, history, linguistics, research seminars and book reviews. The research studies are written in Romanian, Spanish, French and English. The Romanian culture is not only discussed and revealed within certain critical perspectives but it is constantly placed and related to the universal education environment as well. Multiculturalism develops due to such studies relevant in the present context of globalization and increasing uncertainty of identities and bonds.
The Literature section includes seven articles discussing Romanian writers in connection with themes such as irony, freedom, social outlaw, homeland, space and time. Alina Buzatu from the Faculty of Letters at the Ovidius University of Constanța, problematizes the (non)existence of fictional beings, framing her research within contemporary conceptual history. Mircea A. Diaconu, a PhD Professor at Ștefan cel Mare University of Suceava problematises the work of I. L. Caragiale through the lenses of reception theories, hermeneutics and textuality, and questions at the same time other essential aspects of the author’s oeuvre. Alexandra Olteanu, Assistant Professor at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, develops an argument regarding the judicial novel as a new subgenre of the Romanian historical novel. Alba Diz Villanueva, Assistant Professor PhD in the Department ERFITEI, from the Complutense University of Madrid, analyses the differences and similarities between the latest volume of stories and the previous literary production of Mircea Cărtărescu. She examines elements such as characters, motifs, symbols, metaphors, subjects, intertextuality, and metafiction in relation to the temporal and spatial framework between the late 1950s to the end of the 1980s. Cristina Sărăcuț, from the Department of Humanistic and Social Sciences, Babeș Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca, continue the section with a study about homeland in Romanian’s children literature written in Diaspora. She targets three contemporary writers, namely Ana Niculina Ursuleanu, Radu Flora and Slavco Almăjan. Antonio Patraș, Professor at the Faculty of Letters of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași and Roxana Patraș, Senior Researcher (I) at The Institute of Interdisciplinary Research of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași close the section with an inquiry into Nicolae Steinhardt’s literary criticism.
Cultural Studies follows the sequence, with two articles leading the reader’s attention from the 18th-century to 21st-century social practices. Alexandru Ofrim, an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, explores the topic of nocturnal representations and practices in Romanian society of the 18th-20th centuries. He applies and questions the authentication of Roger Ekirch’s results for the realities of the Romanian society of the previously mentioned time span. Anca Șerbănuță, PhD in Cultural Studies from the University of Bucharest, Doctoral School of Letters, uses visual analysis, grounded in Barthesian semiotics, to explore the changes in modes of representation of the peasant in popular media from the depository of national values to a marginal lower class. She makes references to a very successful and contemporary Romania TV series named “Las Fierbinți”.
The next three sections develop intercultural courses referring to the socio-economic, historical, and linguistic layers. Anthropology includes Gabriela Bodea’s research on social awareness and the main focus on heterochromy and socioeconomic heterochrony in relation to multiculturalism. Gabriela Bodea is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca. History launches the study of Attila Carol Varga, a researcher at the George Bariţiu History Institute of the Romanian Academy and an associate researcher at Oxford Brookes University (UK). He proposes an analysis centred around the topic of the contacts between Romanian and Swedish Freemasonry in the second half of the 19th century. Moving further with the Linguistics part, Boryana Emiliyanova Mihaylova and Silvia Mihăilescu, assistant professors at the University of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, dwell on the subject of the optative value of subjunctive in independent clauses. They target Romanian and Bulgarian languages. Denisa-Maria Bâlc, a doctoral student in the field of Philology and a Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Letters and Arts, at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, continues with a quantitative analysis concerning incident constructions with expressive function in I. L. Caragiale’s Moments and Sketches.
Research Seminars includes the research article of Andra Cozlean Bruciu, a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Letters, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Department of Romanian Literature and Literary Theory. She discusses several aspects related to the importance of a cinema course in foreign language teaching and focuses on the history of two Romanian movies: The Independence of Romania (1912) and The Rest is Silence (2007).
Book reviews, the closing section of the current volume, creates paths towards the rediscovery of the themes concerning the meaning/s of life and death as expressed in literature. Sorin Ciutacu, Associate Professor of English and Germanic Studies and Cultural History at the West University of Timisoara, Romania, offers an insight into Professor Thomas Cousineau’s book, The Séance of Reading: Uncanny Designs in Modernist Writing. He stresses the originality and the critical perspective readers encounter in Cousineau’s writing about literary modernist texts. Gabriela Chiciudean, Associate Professor and executive manager of Speculum Centre for the Study of Imaginary, 1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia, invites the readership to engage in meditation starting from Răzvan Brudiu’s novella, entitled “When you have no one to hug”, and to envision the image “of a hamlet in the Apuseni Mountains”.
Our gratitude and respect merge with limitless feelings of appreciation and admiration for all the contributors to this issue. The high-quality standards are continuously maintained due to the rigorous, careful and specialised work of our thirty-seven international reviewers for this issue coming from Spain, China, Turkey, Moldova and Romania. The openness and evolution of the journal towards worldwide academic institutions owe the same esteem to its authors, editors and reviewers alike. The close collaboration between the institutions of Romania, Sweden and Spain, makes the present issue not only a great scholarly achievement but another essential lifelong connection between nations united in education.
Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies is published in collaboration with Lund University, Complutense University of Madrid, 1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia, Romania, and the Romanian Language Institute, Bucharest, and welcomes contributions from scholars worldwide. Last but not least, we would like to thank our permanent members of the scientific advsory board coming from Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, the USA, China, Sweden and Romania, who oversee the process and the success of academic internationalisation.
Bianca-Maria Bucur
Reviewer Board for this issue
Iulia Anghel, Ecological University of Bucharest, Romania
Alina Bako, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania
Cezar Bălășoiu, University of Bucharest, Romania
Iulian Băicuș, University of Bucharest, Romania
Adriana Carolina Bulz, Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I”, Bucharest, Romania
Diana Câmpan, 1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia, Romania
Rodica Gabriela Chira, “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia, Romania
Marcela Ciortea, “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia, Romania
Laura Mariana Cismaș, West University of Timișoara, Romania
Ela Cosma, Romanian Academy, “George Barițiu” Institute of History, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Valer Simion Cosma, The Library of the “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Romania
Anca Otilia Dodescu, University of Oradea, Romania
Carmen Dominte, National University of Music, Bucharest, Romania
Roxana Elena Doncu, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”, Bucharest, Romania
Irina Ana Drobot, Technical University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest, Romania
Carmen Duțu, “Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University, Bucharest, Romania
Ioan Fărmuș, Ștefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania
Cristina Gherman, Technical University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest, Romania
Arleen Ionescu, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
Silviu Mihăilă, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania
Constantin-Ioan Mladin, “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia, Romania
Cristina Nicolaescu, Yozgat-Bozok University, Turkey
Cosmin Perța, Hyperion University, Bucharest, Romania
Daniela Petroșel, Ștefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania
Dana Radler, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania
Dragoș Sdrobiș, Art and Design University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Vasile Spiridon, “Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacău, Romania
Ingrid Tomonicska, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania
Ottmar Trașcă, Romanian Academy, “George Barițiu” Institute of History, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
The editorial activities undertaken by Associate Editor Lucian Vasile Bâgiu for this issue, which included visits to the University of Bucharest, the Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest, and the West University of Timișoara, were partially funded through Order no. 3721/22.02.2023 issued by the Romanian Ministry of Education.
