Proceedings of ISREIE 2010, Section

Transcription

“AUREL VLAICU“ UNIVERSITY OF ARAD
International Symposium
Research and Education in
an Innovation Era
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EDITORIAL BOARD
“AUREL VLAICU“ UNIVERSITY OF ARAD
International Symposium
Research and Education in
an Innovation Era
Editors-in-chief
Adriana Vizental
Cornelia Coşer
Associate chief editor
Toma Sava
ADVISORY BOARD
Lizica Mihuț, Acad. Prof., PhD, “Aurel Vlaicu” University of Arad,
Romania
I. Funeriu, Professor Ph.D., “Aurel Vlaicu” University, Arad,
Romania
Florea Lucaci, Professor “Aurel Vlaicu” University, Arad, Romania
Laura-Mihaela Mureşan, Professor Ph.D., Academy of Economic
Studies, Bucharest/ QUEST Romania/ EAQUALS
Corneliu Pădurean, Professor Ph.D., “Aurel Vlaicu” University,
Arad, Romania
Florica Bodiştean, Associate Professor Ph.D., “Aurel Vlaicu”
University, Arad, Romania
Ioan Galea, Associate Professor Ph.D., “Aurel Vlaicu” University,
Arad, Romania
Petru Tărchilă, Associate Professor Ph.D., “Aurel Vlaicu”
University, Arad, Romania
Radadiana-Beatrice Calciu, Lecturer Ph.D., Academy of Economic
Studies, Bucharest/ QUEST Romania/ EAQUALS
Onisim Colta, Lecturer Ph.D., “Aurel Vlaicu” University, Arad,
Romania
Mihai Handaric, Lecturer Ph.D., “Aurel Vlaicu” University, Arad,
Romania
Nicolae Selage, Lecturer Ph.D., “Aurel Vlaicu” University, Arad,
Romania
rd
3 Edition
November 11-12 , 2010
ISREIE 2010
Section: Cultural Identities and
Modern Discourses
(Linguistics, Fiction and Arts, Education and Public Health,
Physical Education and Sports, History and Society,
Earthly and Divine Legislation)
ISSN 2065 – 2569
Editura Universităţii „Aurel Vlaicu”
Arad, 2010
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Iconic rhetoric in advertising…………………………………………119
By Carmen NEAMŢU
CONTENT
LINGUISTICS……………………………………………………….13
Present-day tendencies in the Romanian language……………………..13
By Rodica ZAFIU
Subordination ratio. Linguistic tools and poetic expressivity…………...27
By Lizica MIHUŢ, Bianca MIUŢA
Surveys into the religious style (I)………………………………….......36
By Lizica MIHUŢ, Bianca MIUŢA
Romance linguistics vs. Indo-European linguistics. Theory and method of
research………………………………………………………………..49
By Voica RADU
Semantic and symbolic fields in George Bacovia’s poetry……………..56
By Voica RADU
On special uses of the present tense in literary texts. A Romanian-English
perspective…………………………………………………………….62
By Manuela MARGAN, Claudiu MARGAN
FICTION AND ARTS……………………………………………...131
The childhood world – Stevenson’s "Garden of Verses"…………....…..133
By Magdalena DUMITRANA
Don Quijote şi ficţiunea iubirii………………………………………..141
By Florica BODIŞTEAN
Woman’s morality and emancipation as reflected in the 19th century
Romanian prose……………………………………………………....155
By Alina SIMUŢ
Slavici’s ethos rendered through lexical units………………………....163
By Adela DRĂUCEAN
I.L. Caragiale’s folktales and the spirit of the Balkans………………...168
By Adela DRĂUCEAN
Value and compromise in Cella Serghi’s literary destiny……………..176
By Lavinia IONOAIA
Débâts sur la langue littéraire au XVIIE siècle et la politique linguistique
fondatrice du classicisme français……………………………………...67
By Nicolae SELAGE
The idea of a modern novel…………………………………………..186
By Călina PALICIUC
Analysing slang in prison movies – Rod Lurie’s The last castle………..75
By Gabriel BĂRBULEŢ
Leonard Cohen – The Dark Messiah of Canadian literature………….192
By Diana Otilia POP
Genus der nomen: eine Rumänisch – Deutsche kontrastive analyse……85
By Alina PĂDUREAN
Martin Amis, life and work. A tentative overview……………………200
By Odeta Manuela BELEI
Stylistic-pragmatic values of Romanian nonfinite verbal forms……......90
By Alina-Paula NEMŢUŢ
Ansätze zur literarischen Moderne in Österreich. Besonderheiten der
Jahrhundertwende 1900………………………………………………209
By Petra-Melitta ROŞU
Considerations regarding political cant……….………………………102
By Mariana-Florina BĂTRÂN
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Extra-conjugal love: Concubinage and adultery in the middle ages…..216
By Teodora ARTIMON
Games, mimics and practice seen through Pieter Bruegel…………….221
By Teodora ARTIMON
Identity in art. A hermeneutic perspective…………………………….227
By Călin LUCACI, Diana BOTA, Florea LUCACI
Aspects of the relationship between folk art and fine art………………256
By Diana BOTA
Nicolae Chirilovici (1910-1993). Biographical and artistic aspects…....263
By Onisim COLTA
Sculpture and architecture, category boundaries……………………....281
By Delia BRÂNDUŞESCU
Art, craft, tradition……………………………………………………288
By Claudiu Emil IONESCU
Advantages of a structuralist approach to teaching Romanian as a
foreign language…………………………………………………….338
Ada ILIESCU
Esthetic education – artistic education, essential component of the
multilateral personality……………………………………….……...351
Elisabeta Margareta LINGURAR, Mariana NAGY
Teaching, language and communication…………………………...357
Adriana VIZENTAL
The Notion of transversal psychology………….…………………...371
Gheorghe SCHWARTZ
Romanian education for health in the 21st century…………………...378
Mihaela GAVRILĂ-ARDELEAN
Screening and prevention of professional diseases…………………..384
Regional centre for consultancy and clothes design…………………...300
By Lacrimioara Simona IONESCU
Obesity in Arad county. prevalence and risk factors………………...387
Dana NEGRU, Gabriela TARLE, George RADULESCU,
Laura NICOLESCU, Daniela POPA
EDUCATION AND PUBLIC HEALTH…………………………..307
Quality Assurance & Teacher Development through Class Observation..309
Laura MUREŞAN, Radadiana CALCIU
PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORTS……………………395
General concepts relating to selection in bodybuilding……………...397
Viorel Petru ARDELEAN
Suggestopaedia – understandings and misunderstandings…………...317
Magdalena DUMITRANA
The fitness group activities instructor………………………………..405
Francisco José Ascenso CAMPOS, Ricardo José ESPÍRITO SANTO
DE MELO
Peer mediation. Conflict as an opportunity of change………....……..322
Catarina MORGADO, Isabel OLIVEIRA
Innovatory trends in Romanian education and research……………..330
Cornelia COŞER
The management of performance in sports by value analysis. an
ergonomic perspective………………………………………………412
Ioan GALEA
Study of the pilates technique effects over the body sculpture.............421
Gabriela ISTVAN
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The role of motivational factors in the development of basic training in
the game of football for children aged 7-12…………………………430
Gabriel Roberto MARCONI
Civil Law and changes made by the new Civil Code in the Civil Law
in their preliminary title……………………………………………...512
Petru TĂRCHILĂ
Development of coordination in masculine artistic gymnastics, junior
gymnasts IV, level 1 and 2…………………………………….……436
Lucian POPA
The Life and Its Story in the Old Testament……...…………………520
Mihai HANDARIC
Biological response of training in athletics sprints…………………...442
Sorin ROTARU
The Evil and the Christian theological discourse……………………533
Pavel RIVIS TIPEI, Iosif RIVIS TIPEI
System optimization and natural selection…………………………..448
Ovidiu ŞERBAN
Doping. A temptation of the present-day sports………………....…..455
Caius MIUŢA, Dan BANCIU, Ioan GALEA
HISTORY AND SOCIETY. EARTHLY AND DIVINE
LEGISLATION……………………………………………………..459
Mortality in Arad City in the first half of the 20th century………...….461
Corneliu PĂDUREAN
Lower Mureş Valley from the conquest of Dacia by the Romans to the
Marcomanic wars in the light of numismatic finds…………………..467
Daniela Aurelia BUDIHALA
Soviet 'patterns' for the serbs living in Romania 1948- 1950
Kulturny uputnik” (The Cultural Adviser)…………………………..487
Miodrag MILIN
The public servant. Challenging in the Court of Justice the evaluation
file of the employee’s professional performances and skills…………498
Eugenia IOVĂNAŞ
Case law, precedent, and law-making in the English legal system……..507
Nicoleta Florina MINCĂ
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Linguistics
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Research and Education in an Innovation Era, ISSN: 2065-2569, p. 13-26
Present-day tendencies in the Romanian language
Rodica ZAFIU
“Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” Institute of Linguistics,
Bucharest University
Abstract: The “condition of the language” is a subject of fairly
broad interest. In Romania, any discussion regarding some breaching of
the norms, or the massive presence of Anglicisms or vulgar terms, is likely
to stir passions.
Linguistic variation and change are natural phenomena, described
objectively by linguists, but perceived, in most cases, negatively by
ordinary speakers. Present-day tendencies in the Romanian language are,
to a large extent, manifestations of more general tendencies, common for
numerous languages. Today, three “global” factors have an impact on the
linguistic evolution of Romanian: (a) the influence of English; (b) the
influence of communication by electronic media; (c) a narrowing of the
gap between educated and popular language, between writing and
speaking.
In the dynamics of a living language, change is inevitable and,
basically, inoffensive. The concern of our contemporaries, nevertheless, is
important: attitudes and assessments balance out and moderate evolutions
that are too fast, preserving the natural dependence on cultural factors.
Keywords: language change, prescriptivism, globalization,
Anglicisms, electronic media
1. „Starea limbii” e o temă de interes destul de larg; cel puţin în
spaţiul românesc, orice discuţie despre nerespectarea normelor, despre
prezenţa masivă în comunicare a anglicismelor sau a termenilor vulgari
are şanse să trezească pasiuni şi să provoace judecăţi definitive. Domină,
mai ales, sentimentul de criză şi lamentaţiile despre decăderea limbii,
Linguistics
formulate în mai multe versiuni: degradare, boală, stricare1 etc. A
deplânge degradarea limbii e, însă, o temă pe care o găsim în diferite
culturi, în orice secol, la fel de frecventă şi de repetitivă ca tinerii din ziua
de azi şi evocând un mit al epocii de aur2. Ca tema să fie tratată raţional şi
întemeiată istoric, ar trebui stabilit dacă într-adevăr limba a fost, în trecut,
mai puţin degradată, mai sănătoasă. De cele mai multe ori, reperul e
înşelător: vorbitorii se raportează la o imagine idealizată sau parţială,
confruntă realitatea de azi cu un ideal sau cu un eşantion de limbă (propus
de şcoală, provenind din teatru, din autorii clasici etc.).
Variaţia şi schimbarea lingvistică sunt fenomene fireşti, descrise cu
obiectivitate de lingvişti, dar percepute în manieră preponderent negativă
de vorbitorii obişnuiţi. Atitudinea acestora faţă de limbă are explicaţii
psihologice: nimănui nu-i place să participe la un joc în care regulile se
schimbă pe parcurs. Pentru nevoia umană de stabilitate, este îngrijorătoare
în primul rând lipsa controlului: resimţită şi atunci când regulile sunt
schimbate, treptat, de câteva milioane de jucători (prin modă şi tendinţele
limbii vorbite), dar mai ales când sunt substituite – dintr-o dată – de arbitri
(prin modificarea explicită a normelor oficiale). E drept, există şi viziunea
opusă, conform căreia o limbă evoluează, devine tot mai bogată, subtilă,
complexă etc.: această poziţie poate fi asumată la un moment dat de cei
care normează limba (în numele unui ideal proiectat în viitor), dar e mai
greu de găsit în atitudinile spontane ale vorbitorilor.
Evaluarea limbii – atitudinile vorbitorilor faţă de limba lor:
evaluările, preferinţele, ceea ce ei consideră bun sau rău, frumos sau urât,
oportun sau inoportun – contribuie la schimbarea lingvistică, încurajând
sau îngrădind tendinţe deja iniţiate.
Atunci când se vorbeşte despre inovaţii şi tendinţe în evoluţia unei
limbi, referentul nu este totdeauna evident. Pentru mulţi vorbitori, există
doar o limbă „adevărată”: cea cultivată, supusă normelor, relativ stabilă şi
1
Numeroase metafore ale decăderii lingvistice, comune mai multor culturi şi
folosite ca argumente în sprijinul unor programe puriste, au fost trecute în revistă
de Thomas 1991.
2
„As a general rule in language matters, the past is believed to be pure and
innovation is often suspected of corruption” (Spolsky 2004: 22); „This morbid
concern for the health of English is not new” (Aitchinson 1998: 15); cf. Bailey
1991, Battistella 2005 etc.
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Linguistics
unitară. Restul – limba populară, vorbită, spontană – nu contează (chiar
dacă ei înşişi o utilizează, în diferite grade şi în anumite circumstanţe): e o
„non-limbă”, o succesiune de greşeli. În disputele pe teme lingvistice, se
susţine uneori că anumite cuvinte, sensuri sau construcţii gramaticale nu
există – pentru că nu sunt cuprinse în dicţionare şi gramatici.
Lingviştii, în schimb, se interesează în mod special de ceea ce se
plasează în afara normei: de limba vie, în schimbare, dinamică. Pentru
specialişti, toate varietăţile limbii sunt la fel de justificate, iar abaterile faţă
de limba standard pot fi, de fapt, norme interne, neexplicite, ale uzului
popular. În polemică deschisă cu excesele normative ale „cultivatorilor
limbii”, lingvistica descriptivă modernă a exagerat uneori în direcţia
contrară, negând orice valoare tradiţiei normative3. Limba de cultură nu e un
scop în sine, nu e singura ipostază validă a unei limbi, ceea ce nu înseamnă
că i se poate nega necesitatea, justificată atât în plan practic (ca instrument
stabil de comunicare, ca zonă de intersecţie a diferitelor variante ale limbii),
cât şi în plan simbolic: pentru că oferă, ca şi sistemul politeţii sau codul
vestimentar, diferenţierea care conferă prestigiu, prin practici plasate
deasupra uzului cotidian şi uneori chiar în dezacord cu acesta.
2. Starea actuală a limbii române nu poate fi înţeleasă în absenţa unei
perspective istorice. Româna e o limbă care a primit mai multe straturi de
influenţe – slavă, greacă, turcă etc. –, normată târziu, începând cu sfârşitul
secolului al XVIII-lea, având variaţii regionale, percepute acut inclusiv după
unirea din 1918. Româna a suferit, în secolul al XIX-lea, o transformare
radicală a variantei sale literare (limba de cultură), prin împrumut masiv
latino-romanic; normele sale ortografice s-au schimbat de zeci de ori, în cei
150 de ani care ne despart de scrierea chirilică (multe variaţii lingvistice sunt
mascate de ediţiile care actualizează în permanenţă ortografia, punctuaţia,
uneori şi gramatica). Unitatea şi stabilitatea sunt achiziţii relativ recente şi
adesea e de ajuns o rapidă cercetare istorică pentru a descoperi că abaterea
de azi nu e totdeauna o inovaţie, ci mai curând rezultatul faptului că norma
3
„One can choose to obsess over prescriptive rules, but they have no more to do
with human language then the criteria for judging cats at a cat show have to do
with mamalian biology” (Pinker 1994: 372).
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nu s-a impus niciodată cu adevărat4. În aspectul actual al limbii române,
unele note specifice ţin mai ales de vechi tensiuni (prea puţin conştientizate
şi rezolvate) între registrul popular şi cel cult.
3. În ultimele decenii s-a petrecut, insesizabil, o schimbare în sistemul
de codificare a limbii (cf. Gavin 1993): în perioada regimului comunist, a
funcţionat un sistem centralizat de normare unică, instituţionalizată şi
autoritară; cenzura, controlul integral al comunicării publice au creat
impresia unei limbi perfecte, corecte, unitare. După 1989, instituţiile
normative (Academia, în primul rând) au continuat să se comporte ca şi
când această autoritate ar fi fost neştirbită, deşi în prezent norma reală se
stabileşte mai curând prin confruntarea şi concurenţa dintre mai multe centre
de prestigiu şi de acţiune culturală (editurile, de exemplu, reflectând adesea
şi identităţi regionale).
Tendinţele actuale ale limbii române5 sunt în parte manifestări ale unor
tendinţe mai generale, comune mai multor limbi. Trei factori „globali” au în
prezent incidenţă asupra evoluţiei lingvistice a limbii române: (a) influenţa
englezei; (b) influenţa comunicării prin mijloacele electronice; (c)
apropierea dintre cult şi popular, dintre scris şi vorbit.
4. Influenţa englezei – ca limbă a globalizării, a comunicării
internaţionale, a ştiinţelor şi deopotrivă a divertismentului –, e un fenomen
general, care s-a manifestat în ultimele două decenii cu mai mare intensitate
în ţările din Estul Europei (în măsura în care acestea nu trecuseră prin
valul de anglicizare al ţarilor din Vest, de după al doilea război mondial)6.
Influenţa engleză e foarte mare în anumite zone ale limbii – în
limbajul informatic, economic, politic, în industria divertismentului,
4
V., de exemplu, Zafiu 2009.
În lingvistica românească, descrierea raportului dintre normă şi uz şi a tendinţelor
limbii are o tradiţie prestigioasă, care permite raportarea datelor actuale la
constatările din trecut: Iordan 1948, Graur 1968, Guţu Romalo 1972 (reeditare în
2008). În ultimii ani, rezultatele unor cercetări extinse şi detaliate asupra dinamicii
limbii au fost cuprinse în Pană Dindelegan 2002, 2003, 2009. V. şi Avram 2003.
6
Dintr-o bibliografie extrem de bogată a problemei, menţionăm volumele de
referinţă (dicţionar, culegere de studii şi bibliografie) coordonate de Görlach
(2001, 2002a, b).
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precum şi în limbajul colocvial al tinerilor – dar destul de redusă în altele
(literatură, arte plastice, filozofie etc.). Reacţia la această influenţă e relativ
moderată: atât specialiştii, cât şi vorbitorii obişnuiţi critică excesul, dar
acceptă componenta necesară a fenomenului, reprezentată mai ales de
împrumutul termenilor tehnici, care denumesc noţiuni noi sau prin care se
evită perifraze complicate. Încercările de restrângere a influenţei engleze
prin traducere, prin căutarea de echivalente (calc semantic) nu au avut
succes nici la nivel oficial, nici în rândurile publicului mai larg, stârnind
mai curând reacţii ironice. Această atitudine are o întemeiere istorică –
adesea adusă în discuţie, conştient, chiar de vorbitori – în experienţa
istorică a perioadelor de împrumuturi masive, care au fost asimilate pe
rând, fără a schimba în mod esenţial sistemul limbii: influenţa turcească şi
grecească din secolele al XVII-lea-al XVIII-lea, ori cea franceză din
secolul al XIX-lea, comparabile cu anglicizarea actuală, au sfârşit prin a
îmbogăţi limba mai ales din punct de vedere lexical, fără a-i afecta
structura gramaticală. De altfel, de multe ori anglicismul de azi substituie
tot un împrumut, mai vechi şi asimilat între timp: nu se mai cere bere la
halbă, ci la draught – înlocuindu-se un germanism mai vechi cu un
anglicism recent; banii peşin (turcism intrat în uzul popular) devin cash.
Valoarea simbolică a anglicizării este inevitabilă: mulţi termeni sunt
dublaţi de echivalentele lor semantice, diferenţiate doar prin conotaţiile
„modern”, „actual”, „occidental” (de exemplu, seriei sinonimice din care
fac parte serviciu şi slujbă i se adaugă job).
Între grefarea unui sens nou pe un termen preexistent sau
transpunerea elementelor componente în echivalente româneşti (calcul
semantic sau de structură) şi preluarea cât mai fidelă din engleză,
vorbitorii preferă de obicei a doua soluţie: de exemplu, termenul
informatic site este păstrat ca atare, puţini preferând extinderea semantică
a mai vechiului împrumut din franceză, sit; împrumutul consumerism
(neanalizabil în română, în care nu există baza consumer) este preferat de
mulţi unui termen remotivat şi transparent, consumism (consum + -ism).
Există totuşi contraexemple faţă de tendinţa de a prefera împrumutul
lexical ca atare: circulă astăzi şi un număr mare de calcuri după engleză,
care trec neobservate de majoritatea vorbitorilor. Ipostaza cea mai
răspândită a acestui fenomen este un fel de re-împrumut, constând în
adăugarea de sensuri din engleză unor cuvinte (cultisme de origine latină)
care pătrunseseră în română, în urmă cu aproximativ un secol, cu forma şi
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sensurile din franceză. S-au grefat sensuri noi din engleză asupra unor
termeni ca expertiză (sensul vechi: „investigare, cercetare”; sensul nou:
„experienţă”), locaţie (sensul vechi, foarte limitat: „chirie”; sensul nou:
„plasare, poziţie, loc”), a aplica, a abuza, patetic etc.7 Deşi produc
sentimentul inconfortabil al instabilităţii semantice (percepute de vorbitorii
cultivaţi ca „abateri de la logică”), asemenea modificări nu sunt
inacceptabile şi iritarea faţă de ele este excesivă: se deplânge lipsa de
fidelitate faţă de sensurile tradiţionale – deşi tradiţia nu e mai veche de un
secol şi jumătate. Inovaţiile de acest tip reflectă în primul rând o ruptură,
mai profundă, între generaţii: de la francofonia şi francofilia culturală de
acum două decenii, s-a trecut la o aproape totală ignorare a limbii
franceze, la un viraj brusc spre anglofonie.
Calcul funcţionează şi în sintaxă – strident pentru lingvişti, care
constată schimbări de regim, construcţii noi – dar neobservat de
majoritatea vorbitorilor (pe cât de vizibil e lexicul, care trezeşte mari
pasiuni, pe atât de discretă e sintaxa). Provin din engleză construcţii
actuale de tipul a oferta pe cineva cu ceva (la pasiv: X a fost ofertat de Y),
probleme adresate, copii abuzaţi etc.
S-a observat, totuşi, că răspândirea englezei poate fi interpretată şi ca
instrument al unei globalizări în care persistă originile latine ale culturii
europene8: o ilustrează, printre altele, marca de superlativ super – de
origine latină şi devenită, prin limbajul tinerilor, o formă de acord şi
aprobare comună (în pronunţii diferite) multor limbi actuale.
Sintetizând într-o formă inevitabil simplificatoare un fenomen foarte
complex9, putem spune că anglicismele actuale trec printr-un proces de
adaptare morfologică extrem de rapid: substantivele capătă desinenţe de
plural (pluralul bodyguarzi, de exemplu, a fost acceptat de DOOM2),
verbele intră în tiparul cult cu infinitivul în -a şi sufixul de prezent -ez (a
7
În cazul lui confort şi confortabil, presiunea englezei nu modifică doar structura
semantică (adăugând semnificaţia „sprijin, încurajare, consolare”) ci şi, pentru unii
vorbitori, ortografia: termenii apar uneori în forma (neconformă regulilor
româneşti) comfort şi comfortabil.
8
Ideea a fost lansată la noi, cu mulţi ani în urmă, de Alexandru Graur (1972: 181-182).
9
Despre influenţa engleză s-a scris foarte mult în ultimii ani; vezi Avram 1997,
Ştefănescu 2001, Stoichiţoiu Ichim 2006 etc.
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Linguistics
downloada-downloadez, cf. a focusa, a prioritiza, a emfaza, a accesa, a
posta) sau în cel popular-familiar, cu infinitivul în -(u)i: a brandui (<
brand), a cetui (< chat), a şerui (< share). Asemenea schimbări se produc
spontan şi inevitabil, impuse de morfologia românei; fără ele, cuvintele nu
ar putea fi utilizate în enunţ. Unele cuvinte, mai puţine, rămân invariabile
şi tind chiar să fixeze un tipar al juxtapunerii (situaţie horror). Spontană şi
inevitabilă e şi adaptarea fonetică minimală şi parţială, care transpune
sunetele foarte apropiate în echivalentele lor din română, păstrându-le
ceva mai fidel pe cele mai îndepărtate. Aspectul ortografic al
anglicismelor este conservat chiar atunci când transcrierea în sistemul
ortografic românesc nu ar ridica nicio problemă. Respingerea adaptării
ortografice e o atitudine şi o opţiune culturală: transpunerile sunt percepute
ca inculte şi comice (fiind tocmai de aceea utilizate în registrul colocvial
scris: luzăr < engl. loser). Astfel, într-o limbă care a asimilat grafic (şi
fonetic) multe franţuzisme – abajur, voiaj, şofer – şi chiar anglicismele
mai vechi – meci, gem –, se păstrează astăzi formele de origine: cool, look,
leadership etc.
Unele anglicisme sunt deja pragmaticizate, au devenit instrumente
conversaţionale (aşa cum s-a întâmplat, în trecut, cu turcisme ca barem,
taman, sadea, sau cu franţuzisme ca deja, apropo, mersi): acordul e
marcat prin forma OK, o greşeală – prin interjecţia ups, circumstanţialele
pe loc (imediat) şi tot timpul (permanent) sunt substituite obsesiv de
instant şi nonstop etc.
Dovada cea mai clară a asimilării anglicismelor, a integrării lor în
sistemul limbii, e, pe lângă adaptarea morfologică (prin integrarea în
tiparele dominante de flexiune), productivitatea lor lexicală, capacitatea de
a-şi dezvolta familii lexicale. Cele mai multe cuvinte intră în procese
derivaţionale accelerate, ca în cazul substantivului blog (a cărui familie
lexicală cuprinde termeni ca a bloga, a blogui, a blogări, bloguire, blogist,
blogherist, blogistic, bloggeristic, blogism, bloggerism, bloguţ, bloguşor,
blogărel, blogărime, blogăreală etc.).
În fine, există şi un reglaj intern: fără impuneri oficiale, termenii
împrumutaţi pot fi înlocuiţi spontan, după o vreme, de echivalentele lor
româneşti: verbul a downloada e concurat de un neutru a descărca şi de o
semitraducere glumeaţă: a da jos; developper e adesea substituit de
dezvoltator, e-mail de poşta electronică etc.
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5. A doua sursă majoră de schimbări în limba contemporană este
comunicarea în mediul electronic. Aparent, aceasta s-ar subsuma primei
direcţii evocate: s-a crezut, la începuturi, că spaţiul virtual va fi unul de
globalizare şi de impunere a englezei. Evoluţia fenomenului a dovedit,
dimpotrivă, că internetul poate spori afirmarea diversităţii: oferă spaţiu de
cunoaştere pentru limbi pe cale de dispariţie, pentru variante regionale,
chiar argotice – tot aşa cum asigură accesul la texte clasice, la dicţionare
academice, ediţii princeps etc. Într-un mediu extrem de extins, internetul
face posibilă comunicarea transversală, la mare distanţă, dar se pare că
majoritatea schimburilor verbale se petrec în continuare în micile
comunităţi, în limba sau dialectul locului. Contribuţia la anglicizare este
deci doar o parte, nici măcar cea mai importantă, a influenţei noilor medii.
Celelalte efecte ale internetului ar fi legate de (a) depozitul uriaş de
informaţie; (b) tipul nou de lectură – în salt, superficială dar cu mai multe
conexiuni; (c) accesul larg la exprimarea în scris, persistentă; (d) tipul nou
de comunicare scrisă, în condiţii apropiate de ale dialogului oral, dar şi cu
constrângeri tehnice suplimentare.
Mediul virtual asigură tuturor accesul la informaţii pe care cei mai
mulţi nu aveau cum sau nu erau obişnuiţi să le caute. Numărul
utilizatorilor care accesează site-urile româneşti cu dicţionare on-line
(general, de sinonime, de neologisme, etimologic etc.) este mult mai mare
decât al persoanelor care ar fi deschis înainte un dicţionar. Tot aşa,
numărul celor care scriu – pe bloguri, forumuri, liste de discuţii,
comentarii la articole – este mult mai mare decât al indivizilor care ar fi
avut acces la spaţiul public (prin poşta redacţiei, eventual, sau prin
tipărirea unui volum autofinanţat) cu câteva decenii în urmă. În procesul
de redactare, creşte posibilitatea verificării, a corectării, dar scade nevoia
interioară de a o face (în măsura în care textele se pot publica oricum).
Scrisul rapid, fără recitire, aşa numitul oral-scris al chatului, al
messengerului sau al sms-urilor (Crystal, 2006: 31-52) influenţează
practicile curente ale comunicării, având o serie de consecinţe, mai ales
ortografice şi sintactice, asupra limbii actuale. În ortografie, neglijarea
diacriticelor sau încercarea de recuperare a lor prin alte mijloace, precum
şi un sistem de abrevieri, stabilit prin uz, trec tot mai mult în afara spaţiului
virtual, pătrunzând chiar în scrisul de mână (shi = şi, tzine = ţine, dak =
dacă). Inovaţiile ortografice nu sunt doar funcţionale, ci – mai ales –
simbolice, expresive şi ludice: e cazul abrevierilor rebusistice (k = ka, d =
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de etc., dar şi al scrierii cu k în loc de c sau j în loc de ş (kum = cum,
jmeker = şmecher). Regulile de ortografie şi de punctuaţie sunt încălcate,
dar ar fi greşit să credem că în comunicarea electronică spontană s-a
instalat aleatoriul absolut. Se renunţă la virgulă, de multe ori, nu însă la
punct, iar punctele de suspensie devin mult mai frecvente, pentru a nota
fragmente incomplete de enunţ, o sintaxă bazată pe suspensie. Primii
observatori ai acestei forme de comunicare au fost impresionaţi şi de
încercarea de a recupera contextul unei conversaţii faţă în faţă,
transmiterea emoţiilor de către mimică, gest şi intonaţie – prin aşanumitele emoticoane; rolul acestora nu este însă atât de mare pe cât s-ar
putea crede şi nu dispensează de recursul la formele tradiţionale de
indicare a componentei afective a mesajului.
Riscul cel mai mare al acestor forme de comunicare e că separă
scrisul de practica recitirii şi a revizuirii, transformă regulile de punctuaţie
în recomandări opţionale şi, mai ales, răspândesc un model de text
destructurat, fragmentar. Deschiderea către oralitate permite amestecul
stilistic destul de şocant – specific celei de-a treia mari direcţii
contemporane.
6. Apropierea dintre scris şi vorbit este legată de o evidentă
democratizare a comunicării publice în general şi a scrisului în particular,
consecinţă mai veche a alfabetizării de masă, mai nouă a mijloacelor
electronice – dar şi a extinderii mass-mediei către o accesibilitate tot mai
mare (către un public tot mai numeros). E o mişcare de du-te-vino, în care
discursul public coboară în zona colocvialului, chiar a vulgarului, iar
vorbitorii îşi inserează fără reglare de registru propria voce în polifonia
generală.
Nivelarea registrelor face ca termeni iniţial argotici – tun, şpagă,
ţeapă – să intre în uzul curent, iar structuri populare să fie prezenţe
constante (care neprecedat de pe) sau să se extindă contagios (decât în
construcţii afirmative) în discursul public. Interferenţa limbajelor nu
conduce totuşi la omogenizare, pentru că i se opun anumite tendinţe de
sens contrar, care accentuează diferenţele de registru. De fapt, în perioada
actuală există două direcţii ale variaţiei lingvistice, două tipuri de tendinţe:
populare (spontane, vechi sau inovatoare) şi culte (excese de
„hipercorectitudine”, provocate tocmai de refuzul tendinţelor populare).
Uneori, cele două tipuri de tendinţe sunt chiar simetric contrare: limbajul
popular înlocuieşte formele de genitiv-dativ flexionar prin construcţii cu la
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(scriu la o prietenă, din cauza la o vecină), în vreme ce limbajul cult
extinde folosirea dativului chiar în situaţiile în care normală este
construcţia prepoziţională (de exemplu: indiferent situaţiei). Şi în acest
caz, constatăm că imaginea pe care o au vorbitorii despre limbă şi normă
are consecinţe asupra schimbării lingvistice. E destul de stranie
sensibilitatea excesivă a vorbitorilor actuali (culţi) faţă de componenta
estetică a limbajului, manifestată în oroarea faţă de presupuse cacofonii.
De la an la an, lista situaţiilor în care se percep cacofonii creşte; teama de
cacofonie provoacă distorsionări ale enunţului, apariţia de combinaţii
nemotivate sintactic, dar care se răspândesc rapid – secvenţa ca şi –,
readucerea în uz a unor forme învechite (precum).
Conflictul dintre tendinţe se poate urmări, în mod tipic, în statutul
diminutivelor, mai exact în extinderea actuală a diminutivării. Structural,
româna – ca şi alte limbi romanice (italiana, spaniola) permite foarte uşor
diminutivarea, care nu e limitată la substantiv şi nici la valoarea denotativă
„mai mic”; mijloc de transmitere a conotaţiilor afectuoase sau ironicdepreciative, dar şi mijloc de gradare şi de atenuare discursivă,
diminutivarea e foarte prezentă în româna populară. A fost respinsă de
norma cultă – cu argumente raţionaliste şi estetice, dar probabil şi sub
influenţa modelului francez (Zafiu, 2010); astăzi revine în forţă, fie prin
derivate care pătrund în registrul standard (mămică, filmuleţ, animăluţ), fie
ca marcă pragmatică de atenuare şi politeţe (minuţel, bonuleţ, facturică).
Se petrec şi schimbări sociolingvistice în codul politeţii: de altfel,
acesta nu e foarte stabil, oscilând permanent între un pol cult şi unul
popular, fiecare cu norme şi formule proprii. Acestora li se adaugă astăzi
alte modele, sub influenţe exterioare sau produse de evoluţii interne,
difuzate de mass-media şi în mod special de mesajele publicitare:
schimbările privesc, de exemplu, raportul dintre adresarea cu tu şi cea cu
dumneavoastră sau încercarea de transformare a colocvialului bună!
într-o formulă neutră de salut10. O serie de tensiuni apar şi în
„feminizarea” numelor de profesii: sistemul limbii le permite, cu mare
uşurinţă (profesoară, directoare, preşedintă); norma cultă le respinge,
10
Într-un clip publicitar recent, personajul masculin îi salută prin formula Bună!, la
prima întâlnire, pe presupuşii socri; unele e-mailuri informative folosesc acelaşi
dumneavoastră ş.a.m.d.
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asociind mai departe prestigiul cu forma masculină (doamna
profesor/director/preşedinte).
O serie de tendinţe morfosintactice ilustrează latura socială a
raportării la limbă – ca factor de promovare sau stigmatizare.
Tendinţele populare se manifestă în marcarea puternică a categoriilor
gramaticale prin modificarea formei cuvântului şi prin redundanţă;
tendinţele culte reduc la minimum modificările formale (dovedind
fidelitate etimologică) şi preferă non-redundanţa („raţionalizarea”
mijloacelor). În româna actuală, se manifestă pe de o parte tendinţa de
adaptare, analogie şi acord (de exemplu, a substantivului comun massmedia, a cărui încadrare în uz ca feminin singular a fost validată de
DOOM2: mass-media românească), pe de alta, tendinţa de menţinere,
chiar împotriva normei, a diferenţierii etimologice (statutul de neutru
plural: mass-media româneşti).
7. Previziunile în domeniul evoluţiei limbii sunt foarte riscante; sar putea chiar alcătui o colecţie de umor lingvistic din profeţiile care sau dovedit total greşite asupra succesului sau insuccesului unei forme
sau a unei tendinţe. În măsura în care sunt preluate şi răspândite de mai
mulţi vorbitori, inovaţiile din limbă, chiar cele considerate greşeli şi
criticate aspru de instanţele normative, sunt explicabile şi, de fapt,
necesare. Moda însăşi e o necesitate psihologică, aşa cum sunt şi
clişeizarea sau redundanţa. Jocul social al utilizării limbii presupune
totuşi şi necesitatea rezistenţei, a opoziţiei faţă de inovaţii.
Complexitatea situaţiei a fost revelată, acum câţiva ani, de un
episod semnificativ al confruntării dintre normă şi uz. Dicţionarul
normativ apărut în 2005 sub egida Academiei (DOOM2) a făcut,
printre altele, anumite concesii uzului popular, acceptând în limba
standard câteva variante morfologice considerate înainte simple
greşeli. În ciuda tendinţei actuale de apropiere dintre registrul popular
şi cel cult, reacţia vorbitorilor faţă de reglementările permisive a fost
preponderent negativă (cf. Vintilă-Rădulescu 2006).
În dinamica unei limbi vii, al cărei sistem nu poate să nu rămână
funcţional şi adaptat la necesităţile comunicative ale vorbitorilor,
schimbările sunt inevitabile şi, în fond, inofensive.
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Îngrijorările contemporanilor au totuşi rostul lor, pentru că
atitudinile şi evaluările moderează şi echilibrează evoluţiile prea
rapide, menţinând limba în dependenţa ei firească de factorii culturali.
Bibliografie:
Aitchison, Jean, 1998: „The media are ruining English”, în Laurie
Bauer, Peter Trudgill (eds.), Language Myths, London, Penguin
Books, p. 15-22.
Avram, Mioara, 1993: „La créativité e l'«hospitalité» du roumain”,
Revue Roumaine de Linguistique, XXXVIII, nr. 1-3, p. 23-26.
Avram, Mioara, 1997, Anglicismele în limba română actuală,
Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române.
Avram, Mioara, 2003, „Consideraţii asupra dinamicii limbii şi asupra
studierii ei în româna actuală”, în Gabriela Pană Dindelegan 2003,
p. 15-22.
Bailey, Richard W., 1991, Images of English. A Cultural History of the
Language, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press.
Battistella, Edwin L., 2005, Bad Language: Are Some Words Better
than Others? Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Ciobanu, Georgeta, 1996, Anglicisme în limba română, Timişoara,
Amphora.
Crystal, David, 2006, Language and the Internet, ed. a II-a,
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
D’Achille, Paolo, 2010, L’Italiano contemporaneo, ed. a III-a,
Bologna, Il Mulino.
Garvin, Paul L., 1993, “Styles of codification”, în Brno Studies in
English, 20, p. 17-22.
Görlach, Manfred (ed.), 2001: A Dictionary of European Anglicisms. A
Usage Dictionary of Anglicisms in Sixteen European Languages
(DEA), Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Görlach, Manfred (ed.), 2002a, English in Europe, Oxford, Oxford
University Press.
Görlach, Manfred (ed.), 2002b, An Annotated Bibliography of
European Anglicisms, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
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Linguistics
Graur, Alexandru, 1972, Lingvistica pe înţelesul tuturor, Bucureşti,
Editura Enciclopedică Română.
Graur, Alexandru, 1968, Tendinţele actuale ale limbii române,
Bucureşti, Editura Ştiinţifică.
Guţu Romalo, Valeria, 2008 [1972], Corectitudine şi greşeală. Limba
română de azi, ediţia a III-a, revăzută şi adăugită, Bucureşti,
Humanitas (ediţia I: 1972).
Iordan, Iorgu, 1943, Limba română actuală. O gramatică a
„greşelilor”, Iaşi, Institutul de Arte Grafice „ Alexandru A. Terek”,
1943 (ediţia a II-a: 1948).
Leech, Geoffrey, Marianne Hundt, Christian Mair, Nicholas Smith,
2009, Change in Contemporary English: A Grammatical Study,
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Niculescu, Alexandru, 1978, Individualitatea limbii române între
limbile romanice. Contribuţii socioculturale, Bucureşti, Editura
Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică.
Pană Dindelegan, Gabriela (coord.), 2002, 2003, Aspecte ale dinamicii
limbii române actuale [I-]II, Bucureşti, Editura Universităţii din
Bucureşti.
Pană Dindelegan, Gabriela (coord.), 2009, Dinamica limbii române
actuale – Aspecte gramaticale şi discursive, Bucureşti, Editura
Academiei Române.
Pinker, Steven, 1994, The Language Instinct, New York, Harper
Collins.
Spolsky Bernard, 2004, Language Policy, Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press.
Stoichiţoiu Ichim, Adriana, 2006, Aspecte ale influenţei engleze în
româna actuală, Bucureşti, Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti.
Ştefănescu, Ariadna, 2001, „Cultural and linguistic English influence
in Romania(n)”, Verbum, nr. 2, p. 267-294.
Thomas, George, 1991, Linguistic Purism, London& New York,,
Longman.
Vintilă-Rădulescu, Ioana, 2006, „Primele reacţii la noul DOOM”, în
Gabriela Pană Dindelegan (coord.), Limba română, aspecte
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sincronice şi diacronice, Bucureşti, Editura Universităţii din
Bucureşti, 2006, p. 39-47.
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care”, Limba română, LVIII, 2, p. 285-296.
Zafiu, Rodica, 2010, „Evaluarea diminutivelor”, în Gheorghe Chivu,
Oana Uţă Bărbulescu (ed.), Studii de limba română. Omagiu
profesorului Grigore Brâncuş, Bucureşti, Editura Universităţii din
Bucureşti, 2010, p. 291-297.
* DOOM2 = Dicţionarul ortografic, ortoepic şi morfologic al limbii
române, ediţia a II-a revăzută şi adăugită, coord. Ioana VintilăRădulescu, Bucureşti, Univers Enciclopedic.
26
Subordination ratio.
Linguistic tools and poetic expressivity
Lizica MIHUŢ
Bianca MIUŢA
“Aurel Vlaicu” University, Arad, Romania
Abstract: If we compare traditional poetry to modern poetry from
the perspective of the syntactic ratio, and particularly from that of the
subordination ratio, we find that modern poetry seems to be clear and
transparent. The examples used to illustrate this assertion show that
relational elements are well represented, but they are not specific for their
inherent and developed ratios. This does not deprive modern poetry of
expressivity; on the contrary, it highlights the fact that the substratum
carries stylistic load as well as a pragmatic attitude.
Keywords: connectors, junctives, poetic discourse, style, the
subordination ratio, relationship of cause-effect.
Connectors and junctives have a special place within the poetic
discourse which is the maximum of use liberties of the linguistic tool. Its
specific discourse appears on the background of scientific language which
becomes, under these circumstances, the only touchable standardillustration of a preliminary reference communication or a threshold
language from which one can find and evaluate the exceptions. Such a
position was expressed by Tudor Vianu in Double Intention of the
Language and the Problem of Style where, following Charles Bally’s
approach, the Romanian aesthetician concludes the definition of style as
addition, respectively as addition of an affective content to the logical core
of communication. Tudor Vianu speaks about of simultaneous orientation
of language facts towards the outside and the social (transitivity) and to the
inside and individual (reflexivity). Under these circumstances “who
speaks communicates and communicates himself/herself”. He/she does it
for himself/herself. The language contains an individual spiritual mood
and it organizes a social ratio.” (Vianu, 1981:13). The two tendencies
cooperate within the same message and they have an inverse
Linguistics
proportionality ratio: dominant in literature, reflexivity goes towards zero
in conventional manifestations of language- and it even completely
cancels in math equations and scientific laws- in opposition to the
activation of the referential capacity of the language. Also, the more
subjective a language fact is, the narrower the sphere of receptors is, the
more the reflex of interior life of the communication decreases, the more
people understand it. The common language is subject to this tendency of
reflexivity diminish, the rule saying that you have to make yourself
understood covering a social area as wide as possible. Thus the result is
conventionality of these manifestations. Poetry, as an example of
reflexivity needs a particular audience, considered traditionally elitist, cult,
refined, while prose was seen for many centuries as a genre less noble,
destined to vulg. Tudor Vianu states in his previously mentioned study
that every particularly reflexive communication has its risks. Defining the
style of a writer as “assembly of notions that he adds to his transitive
expressions and through which communication gets a subjective way of
being together with its artistic interest” (Vianu, 1981: 17), the Romanian
esthetician mentions that the styled writer is the one who makes the right
balanced mixture of language tendencies, as the abuse of reflexivity leads
to obscurity in literature, and the abuse of transitivity leads to superficiality
and conventionalism.
Considering style as a sum of subjective adjacent contents leads to an
opposition between poetic language- specific, firstly, for poetry but also
for artistic prose-scientific language, secondly, and last but not least
common language. Insinuating in saying something else than the message
about an external object represents the example of esthetic use of the
linguistic tool.
Solomon Marcus has a radical position related to this matter and he
considers that the real opposition of poetic language, within scientific
language, is the mathematical language. In Mathematical Poetry, the
remarkable linguist mathematician makes an opposition between rational
and affective use of language, using some series of attributes:
-logical density/density of suggestion;
-infinite synonymy (an infinity of equivalent clauses)/ absent
synonymy (exclusive expression, non-equivalent to another one);
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-absent homonymy (closing, significance independent of the person
that receives it)/infinite homonymy (opening, ambiguity, variability of
significance from one reader to another);
-artificial/natural (admitting also constructions intentionally semigrammatical);
-general, conventional, standard, objective/singular, subjective,
creative language;
-translatable/untranslatable due to motivation of linguistic sign;
-unique significance-more expressions that are theoretically
possible/unique expression-infinite significances;
-transparent (language-communication)/opaque (language material);
-transitive/reflexive, denotation/connotation;
-logical oppositions (true-false)/except for the opposition true-false;
-explainable/ unutterable.
In literature, obviously, the problem of enunciations validation as
true or false is not a matter to be discussed neither in prose nor in poetry
since it is a well known and accepted fact that, in any of these two types of
languages we do not speak about an instrumental use of language, but
about its artistic function. But prose remains an opposition to poetry
because of its way of discursive construction that it suggests. Thus, if from
the syntactic point of view, which is the aim of our work, poetry lies
within the sphere of logical relationships, prose, related mainly to the
rational exercise of linguistic expression and thus close to naturalness of
instrumental language, admits rational relationships as inherent to
discursive display. We refer here to the relationship of CAUSE-EFFECT,
expressed at the syntactic level through structures such as causality,
consecution, finality, concession and conditioning.
Before the generation of the 80’s, poetry, especially the traditional
one, used to reject the idea of explicit in expressing causality and not only,
rejecting specific junctives, hiding them, as our great poets did and
Eminescu particularly considered this procedure as inexpressive. Their
absence offers some determinations an isolated character, apparently
syntactically independent, even if nouns are included with their meaning
in the whole of the clause:
Un arc de aur pe-al ei umăr,
Ea trece mîndră la vînat...
(Mihai Eminescu, Poezii, p. 224)
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As we have noticed, in most of the cases the prepositions cu and
deasupra are removed and thus, the noun determiner gets an apparent
syntactic independence.
It’s very interesting the fact that one cannot find in Eminescu’s
poems any conjunction or conjunctional locution specific for the causal
ratio, căci, the least causal conjunction, appears a couple of times but
deoarece, întrucât, de vreme ce etc appear never.
Causality or the ratio cause-effect is a ratio specific for sciences and
theoretically it should not be used in poetry. However, their frequency is
pretty delicate and the poets avoid them using cum, unde and even
juxtaposition.
Cum izvorând îl înconjor
Ca nişte mări, de—a' notul...
El sboară, gând purtat de dor,
Pân' piere totul, totul;
From the perspective of linguistic tools usage within the
subordination ratio at the level of both sentence and clause, Mircea
Cartarescu stands against the trend, as căci is predominant and it replaces
almost always din cauză că and fiindcă appears rather frequent.
nu mă părăsi, căci n-aş mai suporta înc-o ruptură.
(Mircea Cărtărescu, Când ai nevoie de dragoste, Disc 1, p.7)
ghivece cu asparagus şi cactuşi, rafuri de cornier înţesate de carcase
de televizor, casete AGFA şi cabluri
lucesc tulbure, îmi populează singurătatea.
căci mă simt singură.
(Mircea Cărtărescu, O motocicletă parcată sub stele, Disc 1, p.77)
dar, vai! Steaua galbenă nu a răspuns acestei chemări
căci ea iubea o strecurătoare de supă
(Mircea Cărtărescu, Poema chiuvetei, Disc 2, p.26)
We notice, among the relational elements used to an analysis of
subordination, the preference of Mircea Cartarescu to use să, ca, ca să, când,
pe când, de când and much more rarely cum, dacă, chiar dacă, de şi etc.
Ca să te pup uneori pe pleoape şi pe gene
Îmi dereglasem ritmurile circadiene
Îmi sfidam horoscopul
Ca să-mi ating iubita şi scopul...
(Mircea Cărtărescu, Esmé, Disc 2, p.72—73)
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Linguistics
deşi cea mai slabă, tu parcă distribui petrol şi celule solare cu
fiecare rictus de blazare şi grabă
deşi cea mai rece, deşi cea mai colocvială, tu bei cel mai mult...
(Mircea Cărtărescu, Sonet (tu parcă eşi făcută din celofan), Disc 1,
p.62)
The relative pronoun care is often used for introducing attributive
clauses but also preceded by the preposition pe.
Cine and ce are used, especially, for building rhetorical
interrogations and for introducing subjective and predicative subordinate
clauses. Cine appears 46 times in the poem femeie, femeie, femeie…..
cine sclipeşte, cine e orbitoare, cine mişcă o botină după alta iar
părul său fluturător îşi schimbă culoarea după fiecare dintre cele o sută
de miliarde de anotimpuri...
(Mircea Cărtărescu, femeie, femeie, femeie, Disc 1, p.33)
The coordination ratio is done, especially, copulatively using the
specific conjunction si which appears 101 times but also adversatively
using iar and dar.
ah, cade soarele pe Bucureşti
şi razele lui sunt şosele
şi razele lui sunt degete de om
şi razele lui sunt portiere de Skodă
şi razele lui sunt depourile Colentina, Niţu Vasle şi Vatra
Luminoasă
The dominant emphasize of all mentioned above is the fact that the
presence of the relational elements in poetry differs, visibly, between the
two directions of the Romanian lyricism chosen for exemplification in
our PhD theses, namely Mihai Eminescu and Mircea Cartărescu.
In the classical poetry, Mihai Eminescu prefers “concentration of
expression through “the lack of relational elements or the replacement of
elements, specific for a certain type of dependence with some other
unspecific, polyvalent ones” (ibidem), which makes more difficult the
process of syntactic analysis, the correct identification of the type of part
of sentence or subordinate clause. This fact generates a liberty of possible
literary interpretations:
Eu pe-un fir de romaniţă
Voi cerca de mă iubeşti…
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Linguistics
Când vezi piatra ce nu simte nici durere şi nici milă
De ai inimă şi minte, feri în lături, e Dalila.
(Mihai Eminescu, Poezii, p.291)
The presence of connectors is very important from the perspective of
the subordination ratio, as they make it easy to notice, but in poetic works
the authors prefer to disguise them as the subordination ratio mainly
attracts the tendency of explicit and, in the same time, as a consequence it
deepens the mystery of words and constructions. From the contemporary
Romanian language and, in particular, the subordination ratio point of
view this tendency makes the syntactic analysis and the clear
understanding of the poetic idea transmitted difficult.
But, modern poetry uses all the language resources including the
relational elements, as Mircea Cărtărescu, one of its most important
representatives, states in Postmodernismul romanesc: “The wing of the
generation is, as compared to the textual one, pragmatically oriented not
towards the text but reality. Numerous statements of the main
representatives prove the effort of getting out of the sphere of abstractions
and modernist objectivity, for a more pragmatic, more direct attitude as
compared to a reality at the human scale. The new poetry is descriptive, it
is successful to reality, it enumerates never endingly objects and surfaces
in oral, poetic torrential works. The poems are long, disorderly,
overwhelmed by images…”
From the grammatical perspective, Cărtărescu’s poems reveals easily
the syntactic ratios developed in contemporary Romanian language and
because of this, compared to Eminescu poems, they seem, at least at the
syntactic level, much more obvious as message sent.
As compared to traditional poem, modern poem is a clear poem from
the syntactic ratio point of view and, particularly, from the subordination
ratio perspective, fact proved in the examples given above where the
relational elements are well represented, specific for the ratios that they
present and develop, few of them being used without their specific
touches. This fact does not cancel the expressivity of modern poetry, on
the contrary, it emphasizes the fact that not only the substratum has a
stylistic load but also a pragmatic attitude in language creates artistic
attitudes.
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Linguistics
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1997.
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excelsior art, Timişoara, 2002.
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Pedagogică, Bucureşti, 1968.
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Drincu, Sergiu, Ghid ortografic, ortoepic şi morfologic, ediţia a II-a
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dans le roumain littéraire contemporain, Paris, 1962.
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Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti, 1972.
Iordan, Iorgu, Stilistica limbii române, Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti, 1975.
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Sintaxa, editura Junimea, Iaşi, 1983
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Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti, 1991.
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București, 1966.
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Exerciții, Editura Palimpsest, București, 2008.
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Bucureşti, 2003.
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şi Pedagogică, Bucureşti, 1970.
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București, 2001.
35
Research and Education in an Innovation Era, ISSN: 2065-2569, p. 36- 48
Surveys into the religious style (I)
Lizica MIHUŢ
Bianca MIUŢA
“Aurel Vlaicu” University, Arad, Romania
Abstract: If style represents a collection of specific linguistic
practices for a certain field of human activity, it results that in the original
ecclesiastic texts and in the translations, as well as in the performance of
the Holy Liturgy, there are linguistic and stylistic acts that entitle us to
plead in favour of positioning the religious styles in line with the other
four functional styles of Romanian language.
Keywords: style, word, living word, the language of ecclesiastic
translations, the language of ecclesiastic books, ecclesiastic Romanian
language, conservative, religious style, functional style.
If style represents a collection of expression particularities, both oral
and written, of a speaker or category of speakers, it ensues that its
specificity relies on an individual level ― thence an individual style ― or
by the convergence of some common features, it comes to characterize
categories of individuals ― thence the so-called group, collective or
supra-individual styles.
As early as 1941, in The Double Intention of Language and the Issue
of Style (Stylistic Studies: 1968: 33), Tudor Vianu considered style as “the
expression of an individuality”, in the tradition of Vossler, who believed
that “style is the individual use of the language”.
If idiostyles (individual styles) are the specific modality of using
linguistic means by individual producers, supra-individual or socio-styles
are classified according to the category (or group) of speakers they refer
to, in the presence of complex criteria, consistent with the environment
where communication is produced, as well as its object and purpose and
the effect engendered by its reception.
According to I. Coteanu (1961: 53), the style of a language is the
“comprehensiveness of language methods, meant to express the content of
ideas in a certain field of human activity.
Linguistics
In the sphere of literary language the functional stylistic structure
comprises four styles: 1. belletristic or artistic; 2. scientific or technicalscientific; 3. formal-administrative or judicial-administrative; 4. publicistic
or journalistic. Some linguists argue in favour of a fifth style, namely the
current conversational style, while other specialists emphasise the
existence of informal, sports, epistolary styles, along with a middlestandard style, a neutral style that can be considered a reference for all
other styles, described hereafter as “deviations”.
The idea of the existence of more than four styles is comprised in
their very definition: “the totality of particularities exhibited by the
language used by a social group, a professional category, a literary or
scientific genre” (Iorgu Iordan: 1956: 23). Iorgu Iordan adds to the literary
or artistic; scientific and technical; journalistic styles three other styles,
namely the formal, oratorical and familiar styles.
Referring to the study of styles, Gheorghe Ivănescu considers that, as
far as linguistic stylistics is concerned, there must be a re-evaluation of the
stylistic concepts of Antiquity and of the 17th and 18th centuries as, the
linguist says, antiquity and classicism stylistics “has identified and defined
the fundamental styles that remain valid for all ages, valid because they
are determined by the fundamental intellectual-emotional attitudes of the
humans towards the reality they are conveying through the work of art”
(1989: 230-232).
To the extent to which the functional styles represent the aspects
endorsed by common language according to the speakers and the purpose
of communication, we may identify a religious style characteristic to
religious communication, with its own rules of organizing the utterance,
with distinct words and phrases and fixed constructions.
Mihai Eminescu wrote as early as October 10th, 1881 in “Timpul”:
“The Church have created the literary language, have consecrated it and
gave it the standing of a hieratic and national language” (Gh. Bulgăr:
1976: 142). With the advent of extensive translation of sacred books into
Romanian, our language joined the company of sacred languages such as
Latin, Slavic and Greek.
The language and cultural unity, the unity by blood were
complemented in the religious life by the unity of faith expressed by the
Logos. But the authority of a word lies not in itself but in the incarnated
Logos, in God’s Word, in the tribute paid to God through the Word.
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Constantin Noica used to consider words not only as conventional
signs but also a means of expressing the Romanian existence. Let us not
forget that before everything else there was the Logos: the Logos that
emphasises the originality of the Romanian perspective on the world. The
Logos referred to by Father Dumitru Stăniloae means spirituality and
communion in the Romanian Liturgy. That is why for Constantin Noica
“though buried into forgetfulness, words are alive” (1987: 8).
Referring to the word in orthodox spirituality, Dumitru Stăniloae
identifies the word-prayer, the greeting-prayer, the word as foundation of
the liturgical language, but not as information. A word-communication. A
living word that builds up.
Romanian has the value of a liturgical language. The divine
revelation is conveyed, preached and kept through the Logos. The
emphasis made by Father Stăniloae is enlightening in this respect: “I
believe that Orthodoxy has supported the beauty of the humankind. I
believe that Romanian, like no other language, has an impressive spiritual
sweetness. Slavic languages do not have something similar as Slavic
remained a unifying language for all the peoples that used to live
separately. Greeks too, were left with a Liturgy in old language, an idiom
that has not kept pace with people’s language. Something miraculous and
unique happened in our case: Orthodoxy was translated in all services of
the Church into the people’s language and entered, along with the
spirituality of these words, their everyday lives” (quoted in Maria Ivănuş:
1996: 66).
As Marcu Mihail Deleanu points out in a recent study, the authors of
literary language treatises do not account for the existence of a religious
style, not even for the time when the literary language “was reduced to the
language of ecclesiastic translations or the language of documents, private
or formal letters” (1999: 14-15). Phrases such as the language of
ecclesiastic translations were used when the emergence of the scientific
style is invoked, along with the language of ecclesiastic books and
ecclesiastic Romanian language.
If style represents a collection of specific linguistic practices for a
certain field of human activity, it ensues that in the original ecclesiastic
texts (Psaltery, Homilies, Canons, Sermons etc.) and in translations, as
well as in the performance of the Holy Liturgy there are language and
style acts that entitle us to plead in favour of the positioning of the
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religious styles in line with the other four functional styles of Romanian
language.
Thirty-five years ago, in a study published in “The Mitropoly of
Banat”, a priest pleaded for the freshening of the ecclesiastic language as
“the ecclesiastic language is a time-honoured document and speech act of
our people in a certain period” and “not an object in a literary museum,
something consigned to the chancery or a fetish…” but “the linguistic
progress must be acknowledged”, so that “every single edition of any
ecclesiastic or ritual book should thereby represent a step forward” (Petru
Bogdan: 1964: 547-561).
Without doubt, the ecclesiastic language must be accessible to the
followers, but archaisms grant colour to the biblical text and a certain
magic atmosphere, underpinning the idea of continuity, of sacred, devout
keeping of faith, as conveyed in the holy books. That is why we cannot
fully accept this plea of the aforementioned father, since the language of
ancient homilies is not outdated or impenetrable, as language cannot be
considered obsolete, nor should its archaism be deemed maniacal.
Melchisedec’s ― the bishop of Roman ― opinion is also arguable,
as in his Molitvelnic (prayer book) named The Oratory he emphasises that
“time has come that progress in language culture should apply to
ecclesiastic literature as well, ridding it of unaesthetic and barbarian
archaisms” and suggesting the introduction of neologisms. The same
bishop of Roman, Melchisedec, properly recommends in his Project for
the Review of the Ecclesiastic Language presented to the Holy Synod in
1880 “plenty of moderation” in order “not to sink into extremism both
regarding old and new terms” (Petru Bogdan: 1964: 547-561).
We should also mention the fundamental contribution to religious
literature of Nicolae Cartojan in The History of Old Romanian Literature
(1980), but we shall not insist on it for obvious reasons, as we are
interested in issues connected to language and biblical texts.
With reference to the theological language (1981: 140-145), Ion
Coteanu emphasises that it represents an exegesis of the biblical text,
revealing its presence in homilies or the interpretation of the Gospels, in
liturgies, prayer books, octoihs (chant book, from Gr. oktoihos or “eight
tones”). We should mention that until the 8th century, when Antim
Ivireanul produced original sermons, the text of the Homily was almost
completely observed. Gradually, the present (in its generic sense) grows
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Linguistics
distant, obviously, not dramatically, to the text of the Homily, acquiring an
ecclesiastic rhetoric capable of revealing the theological and moral
meaning of the Bible, where comparisons are present in abundance (see
Antim Ivireanul: “as the Sun does not abandon Earth out of love, God
does the same with humans” quoted in Ion Coteanu: 141), the symbols
suggested through allegories, the rhetorical imprecations (“O, ye mad and
shallow mind…”; Alas, flattering world…” in Ion Coteanu: 142-143),
and, sometimes, even a polemic register.
The lexis of the religious text is conservative ― as Onisifor Ghibu
notes ― because Church itself is “mainly conservative”, and “preserving
over the ages a specific terminology, from one edition to the other, is the
result of the humbleness before the word, here the Word of the Lord”
(M.M. Deleanu: 1997: 36).
Coresi’s efforts – whose books “circulated in all areas where
Romanians lived and meant a new stage in the confirmation of the unity of
the Romanian language” and later the efforts of other translators of
ecclesiastic texts “to clear the constructions and vocabulary” (Gh. Bulgăr:
1966: 11) did not spoil the pious and humble spirit, on the contrary, they
have kept the ineffable “flame” of the Word burning. We therefore
consider that it is safe to speak of a religious style, with specific
vocabulary, morphology and syntax.
As far as the vocabulary of Romanian language is concerned, we
should emphasise that the fundamental, intellectual vocabulary of
Romanian language, i.e. the semantic core of any minimal intellectual
activity presents both lexical structures of biblical origin and a theological
terminology made up semantic-lexical units originating in the Holy Bible.
Generally speaking, we should bear in mind that the Romanian language
owes a great deal to the Christian semantic universe. Words such as:
biserică (church), duminică (Sunday), Dumnezeu (God), Rusalii
(Pentecost), altar (altar), credinţă (faith), creştin (Christian), cruce (cross),
Sfânt (Holy) are reputed for their Latin origin. As far as the name of the
Saviour is concerned, it was probably preserved for a while as Gésu
Cristu, which was later on replaced, under the Slavic influence, by the
current name of Iisus Hristos. The author of the Biblical Lexicology,
Eugen Munteanu refers to the “inconsistency between orthography and
the confessional motivation” (2008: 487-494) of the name of the Son of
God, Iisus Cristos, occuring with a single or double “I” (Iisus/Isus), with
40
Linguistics
an “H” or “Ch” (Hristos/Christos) or even with a double “I” and “Ch”
instead of “H” (Iisus Christos). Eugen Munteanu’s plea is in favour of
Iisus Hristos, an orthography in line with the etymological and traditional
criteria (Greek-Slavic etymon and therefore, under no circumstance
should hybrid combinations such as Iisus Cristos, Iisus Cristos, Isus
Hristos be accepted. It is commonplace that proper nouns of foreign origin
are written in current Romanian orthography as in the language of origin
only when in the Romanian usage there is no accepted form (Molière,
Racine etc. instead of Molier, Rasin etc.). The renown linguist Alexandru
Rosetti in his History of the Romanian Language. From the Beginnings
to the 17th Century (1978), when referring to the influence of southern
Slavic languages upon Romanian, identifies a Christian and ecclesiastic
terminology of Slavic origin, which we shall only mention here and
deepen in a future study. As well, we should also acknowledge here the
presence of Christian terms in Romanian onomatology. (see Simona
Goicu: 1999).
Florica Dumitrescu, in Contributions to the History of Old Romanian
Language (38-47), when considering pre in the Accusative and the
language of the texts translated from Slavic in the 16th century, mentions
that translators have not provided a “servile” translation, but conveyed the
meaning through a preposition inexistent in the Slavic text (some
examples from the Psalms: că sfârşimu-ne cu mânia ta…(for we breathe
our last with your anger); cu spatele sa umbri-te-va…(with his back shall
he give you shade)” sau “cu arme cungiură-ne…(surround us with
weaponry)”. As far as the Accusative case is concerned, this was either
translated in a synthetic manner, as in Slavic, or with a preposition (e.g.:
…era(u) veniţi cătră Marta şi Maria să mângâe ale de fratele ei (they had
come closer to Martha and Mary to embrace her brother) – the absence of
the preposition pe; Iară de va huli pre duhu sfânt (And if one shall commit
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit); izbăveşte pre noi…(deliver us); Da-va
frate pre frate pre moarte (man shall give death to his brother). We bring
up the opinions of Sextil Puşcariu, Liviu Onu and Florica Dimitrescu on
the preposition pre, emphasising that this preposition is not to be found in
the most recent translation of the Bible (2008), where pe is preferred
instead: Cercetat-ai pământul şi l-ai adăpat pe el, bogăţiile lui le-ai
înmulţit…(Thou visitest the earth and waterest it; Thou greatly enrichest it
with the river of God) (Psalm 64: 594); Să nu-i omori pe ei, ca nu cumva
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Linguistics
să uite legea Ta şi Risipeşte-i pe ei cu puterea Ta şi doboară-i pe ei,
apărătorul meu, Doamne (Slay them not, lest my people forget; scatter
them by Thy power and bring them down, O Lord our shield.) (Psalm 58:
592). The same preposition pe instead of pre can be found in The Bible or
The Holy Scripture (Biblical Institute Publishing House: 1988) and in The
Bible or The Divine Scripture of the Old and New Testament in the
translation of Gala Galaction and Vasile Radu (1988). However, if we
“google” Orthodox Bible on the internet, without a clear publishing date
we will come up with a version that uses the preposition pre. There are
numerous examples, to mention only two of them: Învăţa-voi pre cei fără
de lege căile tale…( Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways) (Psalm 50:
14) and Striga-va către Mine şi-l voi auzi pre el… (He shall call upon Me,
and I will answer him…) (Psalm 90: 15).
The translators of The Bible and The New Testament vacillate
between pe and pre, probably due to their endeavour to have a language of
the biblical text that should come closer to the spoken language, probably
in order to make the message accessible and to convey it in an unmediated
manner to the contemporary follower.
The religious vocabulary comprises an impressive number of Greek
origin words, which pervaded into Romanian through Slavic (Bulgarian),
such as: anafură (host), arhimandrit (archimandrite), a blagoslovi (to
sain), catapeteasmă (iconostasis), cădelniţă (incensory), călugăr (monk),
chilie (sanctum), chivot (tabernacle), colivă (kollyva), cristelniţă
(baptistery), crâsnic (sacristan), duhovnic (confessor), evanghelie
(Gospel), hram (titular saint), icoană (icon), iconostas (iconostasis), a
ispăşi (expiate), liturghie (liturgy), maslu (holy oil), mănăstire
(monastery), mitră (mitre), mitropolie (mitropoly), mitropolit
(metropolitan), molitvă (prayer), molitvelnic (prayer book), monah
(monk), naos (nave ), odăjdii (vestments), epitrahil (stole/epitrachelion),
patriarh (patriarch) and patriarhie (patriarchy), potir (chalice), pravilă
(canon), praznic (feast day/repast), prohod (dead office), pronaos
(narthex), protopop (protopope), psalm (psalm), psaltire (Psaltery), rai
(heaven), schit (skete), sfânt (saint), slavă (praise), smirnă (myrrh), stareţ
(prior), strană (lectern/stall), taină (mistery), troiţă (crucifix), ţârcovnic
(cantor/vicar choral), utrenie (matins), vecernie (vespers), vlădică
(sovereign/bishop) (Goicu, 1995: 223-232).
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Linguistics
The religious style is characterized by the particular frequency of
verbs, occurring in ante-position, at the beginning of the communication:
Lăuda-Te-voi, Doamne, din toată inima, spune-voi toate minunile Tale (I
will praise Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all Thy
marvelous works); Veseli-mă-voi şi mă voi bucura de tine; cânta-voi
numele Tău, Preaînalte (I will be glad and rejoice in Thee; I will sing
praise to Thy name, O Thou Most High) (Psalm 9: 1-2).
We should also point out the post-position of the personal pronoun in
other psalms as well, but we shall mention only a few examples here: Zisa cel nebun în inima sa: Nu este Dumnezeu. Stricat-s-au oamenii şi urâţi
s-au făcut întru îndeletnicirile lor. Nu este cel ce face bunătate, nu este
până la unul (The fool hath said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are
corrupt; they have done abominable works; there is none that doeth good.)
(Psalm13: 1) sau Scoate-mă-vei din cursa aceasta pe care mi-au ascuns-o
mie, că Tu eşti apărătorul meu (Pull me out of the net that they have laid
privily for me, for Thou art my strength.) (Psalm 30: 4) or Mântui-va
Domnul sufletele robilor Săi şi nu vor greşi toţi cei ce nădăjduiesc în El
(The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants, and none of them that trust
in Him shall be desolate.) (Psalm 33: 21).
From a morphological perspective we should also mention the
massive presence of the Vocative, sometimes correlated to an Imperative:
Dumnezeule, auzi rugăciunea mea, ia aminte cuvintele gurii mele (Hear
my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth) (Psalm 53: 2) or
Judecă, Doamne, pe cei ce-mi fac strâmbătate (Plead my cause, O Lord,
with them that strive with me) (Psalm 34: 1) or Doamne, Dumnezeul
nostru, cât de minunat este numele Tău, în tot pământul! Că s-a înălţat
slava Ta, mai presus de ceruri (O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy
name in all the earth, who hast set Thy glory above the heavens!) (Psalm
8: 1), or Miluieşte-mă, Doamne, că neputincios sunt: vindecă-mă,
Doamne, că s-au tulburat oasele mele (Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for
I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed) (Psalm 6: 2) or
Doamne, Dumnezeul meu, în Tine am nădăjduit. Mântuieşte-mă de toţi ce
mă prigonesc şi mă izbăveşte (O LORD my God, in Thee do I put my
trust. Save me from all them that persecute me; and deliver me) (Psalm 7:
1) (Ion Coteanu: 1981: 53).
We may also call attention to the frequency of conjunctions in initial
position, especially the copulative conjunction şi (and), the adversative
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Linguistics
conjunctions dar (but), iar (as for), as well as the subordinating
conjunctions căci (as), că (that), fiindcă (for=because), pentru că
(because): Şi fericită este aceea carea crezut că se vor împlini cele spuse
ei de la Domnul (And blessed [is] she that believed: for there shall be a
performance of those things which were told her from the Lord) (Luke 1:
45) or Şi l-a întrebat Pilat: Tu eşti regele iudeilor? (And Pilate asked him,
Art thou the King of the Jews?) (Mark 15: 2) or Şi se va propovădui
această Evanghelie a împărăţiei în toată lumea spre mărturie în toate
neamurile; şi atunci va veni sfârşitul (And this gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then
shall the end come) (Matthew 24:14) or Dar cu cine voi asemăna neamul
acesta? Este asemenea copiilor care şed în pieţi şi strigă către alţii (But
whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the
markets, and calling unto their fellows) (Matthew 11: 16) or Dar Iisus
răpunzând a zis: Lăsaţi până aici. Şi atinzându-se de urechea lui l-a
vindecat (And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched
his ear, and healed him) (Luke 22: 51) or Iar acum vin la tine şi astea le
grăiesc în lume ca să fie deplină bucuria mea în ei (And now come I to
thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy
fulfilled in themselves) (John 17: 13) or Că ea, turnând mirul acesta pe
trupul meu, a făcut-o spre îngroparea Mea (For in that she hath poured
this ointment on my body, she did [it] for my burial) (Matthew 26: 12) or
Căci eu ştiu aceasta, că după plecarea mea vor intra între voi lupi
îngrozitori, care nu vor cruţa turma (For I know this, that after my
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock)
(Acts 20: 29) or Pentru că suntem lui Dumnezeu bună mireasmă a lui
Hristos între cei ce se mântuiesc şi între cei ce pier (For we are unto God a
sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish) (2
Corinthians 2: 15) or Findcă pe muntele Meu, cel Sfânt, pe muntele cel
înalt al lui Israel - zice Domnul Dumnezeu... (For in mine holy mountain,
in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God…) (Ezekiel 20:
39).
From the examples above, one may easily notice the frequency of
personal pronouns, in particular, but also the occurrence of possessive and
demonstrative pronouns. As far as personal pronouns are concerned,
besides the stressed forms: tu (you), eu (I/me), el (he/him), we should also
mention the presence of numerous unstressed forms: mi, mă (me), te
44
Linguistics
(you), le, li (them). In the case of possessive pronouns and adjectives,
preference is exhibited for meu, mea (my), ta, tău (your), nostru (our), as
well as the demonstratives acesta/aceasta (this), aceea (that), usually in
the singular.
From the class of interjections, frequent occurrence is apparent in the
case of iată (behold), specific for the Greek and Hebrew narrative style.
Thus, in the book of Job it occurs several times: Iată, tot ce are el este în
puterea ta (Behold, all that he hath is in thy power) (Job 1: 12) or Şi iată
că un vânt puternic s-a stârnit dinspre pustiu şi a izbit în cele patru colţuri
ale casei… (And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness,
and smote the four corners of the house…) (Job 1: 19) or Iată, tu dădeai
învăţătură multora şi întăreai multe mâini slăbite (Behold, thou hast
instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands) (Job 4: 3, see
also Matthew 28 etc.)
The religious style as a functional style of Romanian language is
maintained not only by lexis and morphology, but also through syntax and
its spoken aspect, particularly through reverence formulae, cultic and
chancellery terminology etc., but such issues shall be discussed on some
other occasion.
Gh. Chivu wonders if the style called biblical by Lidia Sfârlea in her
study On the Discrimination of Romanian Literary Styles is similar in rank
and position to the “informal”, “telegraphic” or “epistolary” speech and
can be subscribed to the ecclesiastic language, to its informal version, and
by that to the non-artistic register of contemporary Romanian language
(Gh. Chivu: 1995: 445-453).
We shall not put an end to these modest contributions before
insisting on the protection of the purity of our language, because, as father
Arsenie Boca said “through the language we address God in our prayers,
we also talk to people” (in Maria Ivănuş: 70), therefore our words will
need the power and devoutness of faith.
Either called religious or ecclesiastic style, the style of the religious
communication cannot be eluded, and we therefore advise an act that is
one of linguistic justice, to place it among the functional styles of the
Romanian language.
45
Linguistics
Translation notes:
1. The English translation of biblical verses was based on the 21st
Century King James Version.
2. The numbering of the Psalms is different in Romanian and
English tradition, as they are numbered and divided differently according
to the Septuagint, respectively to the Masoretic text.
Bibliography :
Biblia, Ed. Institutului Biblic şi de misiune ortodoxă, Bucureşti, 2008
Biblia sau Sfânta Scriptură, published under the supervision and by the
care of His Holiness Father Teoctist, with the approval of the Holy Synod,
Bucureşti 1991
Bogdan, Petru, Limba noastră bisericească, in „Mitropolia Banatului“, An
IV, Nr.9-10, 1964
Bulgăr, Gh., Problemele limbii literare în concepţia scriitorilor români,
EDP, Bucureşti, 1966
Bulgăr, Gh., Scriitori români despre limbă şi stil, Ed. Albatros, Bucureşti,
1976
Cartojan, N., Istoria literaturii române vechi, Ed. Minerva, Bucureşti,
1980
Chivu, Gh. O variantă ignorată a românei literare moderne – limbajul
bisericesc in ”Limba română”, XLIV, 9-12/1995, pp. 445-453).
Coteanu, Ion, Româna literară şi problemele ei principale, Ed. Ştiinţifică,
Bucureşti 1961
Coteanu, Ion, Stilistica funcţională a limbii române, Ed. Academiei,
Bucureşti, 1978
Deleanu, Marcu, Mihail, Studii de stilistică, Colecţia „Studii“, Ed.
„Timpul“, Reşiţa, 1999
Deleanu, Marcu, Mihail, Stilul religios al limbii române, in “Limbă şi
literatură“, vol.II, Bucureşti, 1997
Dudaş, Florin, Vechile tipărituri româneşti în Bisericile Bihorului, Oradea,
1979
Dudaş, Florin, Memoria vechilor cărţi româneşti, Ed. Episcopiei
Ortodoxe Române a Oradiei, Oradea, 1990
Dumitrescu, Florica, Contribuţii la istoria limbii române vechi, Ed.
Didactică şi Pedagogică, Bucureşti
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Linguistics
Galdi, Ladislau, Introducere în stilistica literară a limbii române, Ed.
Minerva, Bucureşti, 1976
Goicu, Simona, Termeni creştini în onomastica românească, Ed.
Amphora, Timişoara, 1999
Goicu Viorica, Elemente creştine în lexicul şi onomastica românească, in
G.I.Tohăneanu, Editura Amphora, Timişoara, 1995a
Goicu Viorica, Termeni creştini în limba română, in „Altarul Banatului“,
An. VI, iulie-septembrie, 1995b
Iordan, Iorgu, Limba română contemporană, Ed. Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti,
1986
Iordan, Iorgu, Stilistica limbii române, Ed. Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti, 1975
Ivăniş-Frenţiu, Maria, Limba română şi limbajul rugăciunii. Limba
română ca limbă liturgică, Ed. Anastasia, Bucureşti, 2001
Ivăniş, Maria, Consideraţii teologice cu privire la limba română, in
„Mitropolia Banatului“, An.VII, Nr.4-6, aprilie-iunie 1996
Macrea, D., Probleme de lingvistică română, Ed. Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti,
1961
Munteanu, Eugen, Lexicologie biblică românească, Ed. Humanitas,
Bucureşti, 2008
Munteanu, Ştefan, Stil şi expresivitate poetică, Ed. Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti
1972
Noica, Constantin, Cuvânt împreună despre rostirea românească, Ed.
Eminescu, Bucureşti, 1987
Păcurariu, Mircea, Legăturile Bisericii Ortodoxe din Transilvania cu Ţara
Românească şi Moldova în secolele XVI-XVIII, Sibiu, 1968
Piccillo, Giuseppe, Evangheliarul de la Kaloksa, in „Altarul
Banatului“,VIII, 4-6, aprilie-iunie,1997
Plămădeală, Antonie, Clerici ortodocşi, ctitori de limbă şi cultură
românească, Ed. Institutului Biblic şi de Misiune al Bisericii
Ortodoxe Române, Bucureşti, 1977
Plămădeală, Antonie, Dascăli de cuget şi simţire românească, Ed.
Institutului Biblic şi de Misiune al Bisericii Ortodoxe Române,
Bucureşti, 1981
Plămădeală, Antonie, Romanitate, continuitate, unitate, Sibiu, 1988
Plămădeală, Antonie, De la Cazania lui Varlaam la Ion Creangă, Sibiu,
1997
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Plămădeală, Antonie, De la Alecu Russo la Nicolae de la Rohia, Sibiu,
1997
Plămădeală, Antonie, De la Filotei al Buzăului la Andrei Şaguna, Sibiu,
1997
Rosetti, Alexandru, Istoria limbii române. De la origini până în secolul al
XVII-lea, Ed. Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică, Bucureşti, 1978
Rosetti, Al., Cazacu, B., Istoria limbii române literare, Ed. Ştiinţifică,
Bucureşti, 1961
Rezuş, P., Teologia creştină contemporană şi cuprinsul Revelaţiei divine,
in „Mitropolia Banantului“, XV, Nr.10-12, Timişoara, 1965
Simonescu, Dan, Istoria literaturii române vechi, postfaţă şi Bibliografii
finale, Ed. Minerva, Bucureşti, 1980
Staicu, Constantin, Pagini de elocinţă creştină, în „Studii Teologice“,
Seria a II-a, XLIV, Nr.3-4, mai-august, 1992
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1968.
48
Romance linguistics vs. Indo-European linguistics.
Theory and method of research
Voica RADU
“Aurel Vlaicu” University, Arad
Abstract: The study focuses on the relationship between IndoEuropean linguistics and the linguistics of Romance languages from a
theoretical standpoint and from a methodological perspective. In doing so,
it points out the constant interaction of the two fields. The strong
interrelatedness of the two linguistics branches triggered a great variety of
approaches to language research in the 19th and 20th century.
Keywords: the comparative-historical method, Romance
linguistics, epistemology, Indo-European linguistics, theoretical
interference
The Romance languages, born from Latin, took over the written
language ideals of the institutionalization from the Antiquity Linguistics
(the classical linguistics) and these new linguistic realities coped with the
necessities of a new culture, getting through the same stages as the Latin
language. The precomparative period represents the upward and difficult
way of the Romance languages to get in the position of competitors with
the Latin and, then, to become languages that could reach the literary
language status.
The entire precomparative Romance linguistics, as linguistics of the
literary languages, is dominated by the major tasks of the classical
linguistics: to accomplish the grammatical norms and the aesthetic ones.
The 19th century is dominated by the idea that the man is a historical
product, that everything that depends on man has a certain historicity, so
the language has its own history, a history that doesn’t reflect only the
reason, because the language develops in the same way as man does,
along the time. The discover of the Sanskrit language revealed to the
European intelligentsia the existence of striking similarities between this
one, Greek and Latin, similarities that cannot be explained genetically.
Linguistics
The Indo-European linguistics is being formed and inside this, as a branch,
the Romance linguistics. Thus, the 19th century is the age of comparative
and historical study of the languages. The year in which the comparativehistorical linguistics was born is considered to be 1816, the date when
Bopp’s work, Sanskritsprache in Vergleichung mit jenem der
Griechischen, Lateinischen, Persischen und Germanischen Sprache was
published, a comparative grammar study that inspired the Romance
linguists later. Bopp proved the relation between these languages and he
founded the comparative grammar of the Indo-European languages. He
also transposed the evolutionary theory of the époque at the analysis level
of the concrete linguistic forms, being one of the method “technicians”,
the method that created a new linguistics: the comparative-historical
method [Oancea, 1999:25].
Jakob Grimm (Deutsche Grammatik, vol. I, 1819) introduced the
historical perspective of the research, focusing in his work on the
chronological evolution of a single language. Grimm studied the
Germanic languages sounds, insisting upon the historical connections
between these and the sound of the classical languages. Meanwhile, he
demonstrated that the phonetic changes are not random, but they are made
according to certain laws.
August Wilhelm Schleicher is taking part from the second
generation of linguists who continued the comparative study, being as his
predecessors marked by the specific methods of the natural sciences.
Schleicher’s historical linguistic theory was in accordance with Darwin’s
theory, which dominated the second half of the century. The language was
seen as a living body that had to be approached and treated by the natural
sciences methods. These sciences become the epistemological pattern and,
as a consequence, the Linguistics loses, for a while, its status of
Humanities, being considered a natural science, because its main purpose
is to reveal the laws that dominate the becoming of the languages. It is
well-known that these laws – exerting their action at the phonetic level –
are the clue for reconstructing the common Indo-European. The
outstanding Indo-European grammar work Compendium der Vergleichen
den Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen, Weimar (1861-1862)
ends the first stage in the history of the Indo-European linguistics.
Schleicher is important for the history of linguistics because he creates the
first explanatory model of Indo-European languages genesis starting from
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Linguistics
a hypothetical common primitive Indo-European that was obtained by
reconstruction. It’s about the family-tree theory which illustrates the
separation of the different languages from the Indo-European common
trunk.
The Indo-Europeanist Johannes Schmidt proposes another theory,
sustaining that the linguistic innovations are spreading like the waves,
radiating from different spots or, often, crossing each other. Schmidt made
known his wave theory in 1872, but Schuchardt had already expressed a
similar idea before. This theory founded the birth of the Indo-European
dialectology. It is present, basically, at the foundation of the Romance
linguistic geography. A new well-defined field was set – the IndoEuropean linguistics – and a specific method of research– the
comparative-historical method.
The Neogrammarians showed up from the natural vs. conventional
conflict. Their opinions were first exposed by Hermann Osthoff and Karl
Brugmann in the preface of the work Morphologische Untersuchungen,
Leipzig, 1878. Their theories represent a real progress against the previous
status of the linguistic studies, because they assert principles such as: the
research of the living language; the contribution of the psychological
factor to the linguistic changes, the existence of the language in and by the
people who are speaking it.
The Indo-European linguistics is set as a territory of concentrated
forces that has as aim to clarify the matters of linguistic approach and
method. Its accomplishments have a remarkable impact that generates the
birth and the evolution of a new linguistic branch: the Romance
linguistics.
All these names, mentioned above, by their research and discoveries,
contributed in a way or another to create linguistics founded on new
theoretical and scientific basis. The new method of research gathers the
two important perspectives of the époque: the comparative approach and
the historical one. We can notice that the methods are born naturally along
the history, from the relations that occurred between sciences, on one
hand, and from the connection between the evolution of the general
thinking and knowledge, on the other hand.
So, the importance of the Indo-European linguistics consists not only
in creating a new method, but in a more profound reality that of the
Romance linguistics birth, founded on the start offered by the Indo51
Linguistics
European linguistics. In the same time, the Romance linguistics is
tributary to the Indo-European linguistics concerning the method, too,
which is partially taken from it.
The Romance linguistics is created as a distinct discipline by
Friedrich Diez contribution who, starting from Bopp and Grimm works,
publishes in 1836-1843, in Bonn, the three volumes of Grammatik der
romanischen Sprachen where he applies both the comparative method of
the former and the historical method of the later.
The Neogrammarians theory found numerous disciples within the
Romance linguists. One of the most enthusiastic followers of the new
school became in a short time the real leader of the Romance linguistics in
this research direction. It is Meyer-Lübke. Grammatik der romanischen
Sprachen considers the phonetic level being more important against the
semantic one in establishing the etymologies. By this work, as well as by
many others, like Italienische Grammatik, Leipzig, 1890, Einführung in
das Studium der romanischen Sprachwissenschaft, Heidelberg, 1901,
Historiche Grammatik der französischen Sprache, Romanisches
etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, 1911-1920, Das Katalanische,
Heidelberg, 1925, Meyer-Lübke impressed a lot all the specialists in the
field. Meyer-Lübke’s attitude towards the linguistic matters can be
understood following the way in which he assimilated Gröber theory that
refers to the comparative study of the Romance languages in order to
reconstruct the Vulgar Latin [Iordan, 1932:27]. With particular focus on
the phonetic factor, Meyer-Lübke’s research insists excessively on the
Romance languages comparison – one of the “indirect” sources of the
Vulgar Latin – that abounds in Vulgar Latin forms reconstructed by him.
The “abuse” of the reconstructed forms will be criticized by A. Meillet just
because the mother language of the Romance languages is known (Vulgar
Latin that is another hypostasis of Latin), unlike the Indo-European
linguistics, the Slavonic studies, the Germanic linguistics in which the
only way to get to the common language is its reconstruction by
comparing the related languages. This aspect of the Romance linguistics is
of great importance for the historical linguistics and, in the same time, for
the general linguistics. This was the perfect framework to check the
efficiency of the fundamental method: the comparative-historical method
[Oancea,1992:97].
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Linguistics
Concerning the theory and the method, the Indo-European linguistics
brings in addition the two explanatory models of the language genesis, by
Schleicher and Schmidt, who have different visions: the first of them
elaborates the family-tree theory and the second one uses the image of the
troubled water hit by a stone, in order to represent his wave theory.
A generally accepted contribution of the Romance linguistics is
represented by the birth of the linguistic geography that has premises in
Neogrammarians theory. Though the linguistic geography was at the
beginning hostile to the historical method, it brought a great contribution
due to the various forms that assured the possibility to rebuild the
intermediary stages. The words have their own story that has to be
revealed, they are parts of the whole, not separate entities. The linguistic
geography represents, in fact, the optimized form of the comparativehistorical linguistics which is not dethroned, but enriched. It is a
transposition at the method level of the evolution that was marking the
linguistic field. There is no study of linguistic geography, that does not
mention Jules Gilliéron contribution, who, together with Edmond Edmont,
was not only the author of the outstanding work Atlas linguistique de la
France (1902-1910), but, also, the one who succeeded to select and to
formulate from the rich mapped data a series of principles meant to
enlightened and to put in order the facts of language evolution. He took
into account the diachronic perspective, because the horizontal language
structure is the result of a stratification that implies the research from a
historical point of view. The linguistic geography is initially designed as
synchronous research method when the documentation stage is taken into
account, stage which is followed by the elaboration of the linguistic
atlases. As a paradox, the method becomes diachronic when the
synchronous investigation data has to be interpreted. So, a method meant
to bring a more thorough knowledge of the language sustained just the
historical direction of the Romance linguistics.
The linguistic geography changed radically the methodology of the
Romance linguistics. By shifting attention from the study of phonetics to
the vocabulary, in fact to the semantic aspect of the etymological study,
were created the premises for Wörten und Sachen movement that was
separately initiated by Hugo Schuchardt and Rudolf Meringer. The main
idea of this theory is that the research of the words origin implies a real
knowing of the referent designated by them (of material or spiritual
53
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nature), that assumed an etymological study from the perspective of
civilization, ethnography and folklore. Combining this method with that of
the linguistic geography led to the writing of an important work Sprach
und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz, published between 1929-1940
by Karl Jaberg and Jacob Jud.
Underlining the extremely important factor of words migration, the
linguistic geography studied thoroughly the vision contained in the wave
theory elaborated by the Indo-Europeanist Schmidt. This was developed,
in its turn, by the Romance linguist Matteo Bartoli, by applying it to the
entire Romance field through a series of principles. Matteo Bartoli,
together with Giulio Bertoni, founded the neolinguistic school.
The linguistic school created within the Romance linguistics, the
Romance neolinguistic school – that brings the linguistic stratification,
the existence of layers in the base language, fact unfulfilled by the
comparative-historical method – and Gilliéron proved that language
develops as a tree with branches. It is the scientific conclusion reached
both the Indo-European linguistics (with the comparative-historical
method) and the Romance linguistics that brings its contribution and
innovation, building by the same method, fact that established strong
connections between the theoretical and methodological structure of the
two linguistic fields.
The 20th century confirmed even by the Romance linguistics that
there is a necessity of comparative study, a study that has to be done not
only genetically, but also from a typological point of view. In the same
time, the 20th century Romance linguistics showed that the comparative
study has not to remain the only research interest of the language.
Developing new methods of studying the Romance languages, the
Romance linguistics will separate itself from the Indo-European
linguistics, getting autonomy and becoming the most advanced linguistic
discipline at the beginning of the 20th century. New dimensions of the
linguistic phenomenon will be opened, such as the aesthetic or the
emotional one, by Vossler and Bally, both of them students of IndoEuropeanist linguists (Lübke was a neogrammarian and Saussure an
Indo-Europeanist). Linguistics widens its object of study, a fact that led
to Romance linguistics separation from the realities which generated its
birth. The Romance comparative-historical linguistics cannot be
54
Linguistics
conceived besides its theoretical and methodological relationship with the
Indo-European Linguistics.
Bibliography:
Iordan, Iorgu, 1932, Introducere în studiul limbilor romanice. Evoluţia şi
starea actuală a lingvisticii romanice, Ed. Institutului de Filologie
Română, Iaşi.
Idem, 1962, Lingvistica romanică. Evoluţie. Curente. Metode, Editura
Academiei, Bucureşti.
Oancea, Ileana, 1992, Romanitate şi istorie, Tipografia Universităţii de
Vest, Timişoara.
Idem, 1999, Lingvistică romanică şi lingvistică generală (Interferenţe),
Amarcord, Timişoara.
Robin, Robins, Henry, 2003, Scurtă istorie a lingvisticii, Polirom, Iaşi.
Reinheimer, Rîpeanu, Sanda, 2001, Lingvistica romanică, Editura All,
Bucureşti.
Sala, Marius, 1988, Vocabularul reprezentativ al limbilor romanice, Ed.
Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti,.
Tagliavini, Carlo, 1977, Originile limbilor neolatine, Editura Ştiinţifică,
Bucureşti.
Semantic and symbolic fields
in George Bacovia’s poetry
Voica RADU
Abstract: The paper aims to analyze the usage of colors in
Bacovia’s poetry taking into account the symbolism and the semantic
fields generated by the poems. The dominant colors in the writer’s poetry
– grey, violet, red and yellow – are discussed from a lexical and semantic
point of view, but also from the perspective of the subjective symbolic
perception of the reality they generate. The most important themes of
Bacovia’s poetry – death, solitude and love – are in correspondence with
the semantic fields created by the significance of each color. The symbol
carried by the color generates wide semantic fields at the level of the entire
poetic discourse. The statistical method used brings new data concerning
the general view of the poems discussed by identifying the predominance
of the colors that correspond to a certain semantic field.
Keywords: color, symbol, word, semantic fields, poetry, statistics
“The painting of the words, or coloured audition, takes it as you
want. Synesthesias represent the linguistic correspondent of the mixtures
of substances in a magician’s pot, in an alchemist’s alembic or in the
chemist’s retorts: amalgam of semantic features, result of interference,
overlapping, dislocation and recreation of some semantic and symbolic
fields: triumph of mutual contamination” [George Bacovia in Alexandra
Indrieş, 1984:190].
Bacovia represents the highest peak of the Romanian Symbolism,
being placed, by his real value, above the Symbolism and above any
literary current, in universality.
Şerban Cioculescu states about Bacovia that he is a playful artist, a
poet of a great artistic force, of a huge power of composition, the single
poet with mastery in transposing the message in color and sound. We tried
to describe this alchemy of Bacovia’s poetry in a study which is placed
mainly at the word level: the semantic analysis opened the stylistic and the
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Linguistics
symbolic perspective. Bacovia’s chromatic is vivid, the poet being
influenced by Impressionist painters like Renoir or Degas.
Nicolae Manolescu notices an obsession of the color in Bacovia’s
poetry: “The color is becoming more persistent and obsessive, but of a
great materiality, like in the Expressionists works. Any representation is
destroyed, disfigured like a face with an elapsed make-up. Violet, black,
white and pink invade the things like some physical presences [Nicolae
Manolescu, 1966:63].
Rather poor, the poet’s color range suggests the ugliness, the spleen
and the awful monotony. Black expresses the exhausting state, the
carbonization and the pass through inorganic. White is meant to suggest
the impression of unreal, of emptiness and of inexistence. Combined,
white and black become the chromatic expression of absolute mourning:
“Copacii albi, copacii negri/Stau goi în parcul solitar:/Decor de doliu
funerar…”
Violet suggests hallucinations, alienation state; yellow the illness, the
physical degradation, death and grey the mineral creation, the inorganic.
Red is chosen not to express life or vitality, but the sight of death:
“Ninge grozav pe câmp la abator/Şi sânge cald se scurge pe canal…”
There is a vampire insisting on a single dominant color which is
squeezed of all its creeps. The monochromic images create the atmosphere
of mental tension.
The theme of Red:
Cu lacrimi mari de sânge
Curg frunze de pe ramuri,
Şi-nsângerat, amurgul
Pătrunde-ncet prin geamuri.
Pe dealurile-albastre,
De sânge urcă luna,
De sânge pare lacul,
Mai roş ca-ntotdeauna.
La geam tuşeşte-o fată
În bolnavul amurg;
Şi s-a făcut batista
Ca frunzele ce curg. (Amurg)
And for the chromatic dictatorship of Violet:
Amurg de toamnă violet...
Din plopi, în fund, apar în siluete:
- Apostoli în odăjdii violete –
Oraşul tot e violet.
Amurg de toamnă violet...
Pe drum e-o lume leneşă, cochetă;
Mulţimea toată pare violetă,
Oraşul tot e violet.
The theme of Black:
Carbonizate flori, noian de negru...
Sicrie negre, arse, de metal.
Vestminte funerare de mangal,
Negru profund, noian de negru...
Amurg de toamă violet...
Din turn, pe câmp, văd voievozi cu plete;
Străbunii trec în pâlcuri violete,
Oraşul tot e violet.”
(Amurg violet)
The semantic fields are observed in connection to the symbol of each
color from the rainbow of Bacovia’s poetry. The universe of the discussed
poetry, expressing the existential anguish of the modern poet, is founded
on a thematic that will be discovered not only in the symbolist symbol, not
only in the specific synesthesias, but in rich semantic fields full of
significances.
Vibrau scântei de vis...noian de negru,
Carbonizat, amorul fumega –
Parfum de pene arse, şi ploua...
Negru, numai noian de negru... (Negru)
57
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Linguistics
Analyzing George Bacovia’s poetry at the lexical level, we started
from the symbol which can be found in color, too and this led us to
establish some semantic fields that are extended at the entire poetic text.
The dominant semantic fields in Bacovia’s poetry are the following:
death, solitude and the one of love. We have focused our attention on 160
poems included in George Bacovia, Plumb, the 1975 edition and on
several creations like Pastel, Igienă, Nocturnă, Veritas which are included
in a distinct edition of the same volume. Death is the best represented
semantic field (57%), followed by the one of solitude (30%), while love
(13%), suffocated by anguish and death, has a more discreet
representation, taking into account the presence of sickness, the lack of
vitality. The percentage was established after counting, in the mentioned
texts, 160 words and structures for death, 84 for solitude and 35 for love.
Our investigation took into account the color that is found, of course,
in symbol and in the semantic fields, too. On the same set of poems, we
identified the degree in which each Bacovia’s color contributes to the
created universe and we noticed that the units’ frequency (words and
structures) is represented by the following data: white (87), black (60),
grey (28), violet (36), red (39) and yellow (37). In percentages these data
mean the following: white (29%), black (21%), red (14%), violet (13%),
yellow (13%) and grey (10%).
The overlapping of the data that we obtained by the statistics method
surprised us, because, as it is the general perception of Bacovia’s poetry,
we would have expected (being influenced by prejudices, superficial
approaching and general clichés) that the 57%, representing the death
semantic field, to be found in the percentage got for black or grey, for
instance. Paradoxically, the correspondences (as dominant percentages)
between colors and semantic fields are the following: white (29%), black
(21%), red (14%), violet (13%), yellow (13%), grey (10%) ↔ the
semantic field of death (57%), the semantic field of solitude (30%) and the
semantic field of love (13%). So, the dominant chromatic is sublimated in
white and black non-colors that are highly expressing death and solitude.
So, in Bacovia’s poetry the light is decomposing only in red, violet, yellow
and grey and to these colors are corresponding the semantic fields of
solitude and love. White and black cover the whole universe of despair:
white + black = 50% that corresponds to that 57% of the death semantic
field. Red, violet and grey own similar positions, but violet, obsessively
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Linguistics
used in his poetry, is so well-balanced, compared with the famous
Bacovia’s grey that is found only 10%. The ontological solitude (30%) is
found in red (14%) + violet (13%) =
27%. Love (13%) is found in that 10% represented by grey, as it may
be noticed from Plumb ars poetica where grey is the dominant color:
“Dormea întors amorul meu de plumb”, because it isn’t about a love of
joy, but about a love turned from death.
We consider that such a linguistic investigation – correlated with
the symbolic level perspective – can open a way of analysis completing
the stylistic one and establishing these semantic fields and their
correspondences with the Bacovia’poetry colors succeeds to clarify and to
get closer the mysterious universe of his creation. The attentive
observation of these aspects revealed us an unexpected symmetry of
Bacovia’s poetry, which, due to precision, that is specific for all the perfect
universes, was transposed by us inclusively in figures, with no intention of
suppressing the ineffable of a world that is inaccessible for the profane.
The percentage of the semantic fields in Bacovia’s poetry,
obtained by analyzing 160 poems included in the mentioned editions of
the volume Plumb, can be represented in the following diagram:
13%
Death
30%
The semantic field of death: 57%
The semantic field of solitude: 30%
The semantic field of love: 13%
60
Solitude
57%
Love
Linguistics
Bibliography:
Bacovia, George, 1965, Plumb, Editura pentru Literatură, colecţia
Biblioteca pentru toţi, nr. 288, Bucureşti.
Bacovia, George, 1995, Plumb, Colecţia Pagini alese Literatura română,
Editura 100 + 1 GRAMAR, Bucureşti.
Bidu-Vrănceanu Angela, 2008, Câmpuri lexicale din limba română.
Probleme teoretice şi aplicaţii practice, Editura Universităţii,
Bucureşti.
Gheerbrant, Alain, Jean, 1993, Dicţionar de simboluri, vol. 1, Ed.
Artemis, Bucureşti.
Manolescu, Nicolae, 1978, G. Bacovia, Dicţionarul Scriitorilor Români,
Ed. Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică, Bucureşti.
Manolescu, Nicolae, 1966, George Bacovia, în vol. Lecturi infidele,
Editura pentru Literatură, Bucureşti.
Vasiluţă, Livia, 1995, W. Porzig şi câmpul semantic: câteva note
marginale, în „Analele Universităţii din Timişoara”, XXXIII.
On special uses of the present tense
in literary texts.
A Romanian-English perspective
Manuela MARGAN
Claudiu MARGAN
Abstract: Present tense occurs in literary texts not only with a
present moment reference, but also with past or future reference. Though
not restricted to narrative discourse, such special uses of present tense can
be better identified and emphasised through literary contexts. Our
approach here is a comparative one, addressing issues such as the gnomic
present, historical/narrative present or future time reference in Romanian
and English.
Keywords: time reference, gnomic present, historical present,
narrative discourse, dramatic discourse
Introduction
A treatment of the present tenses in Romanian and English begs
many questions regarding the grammatical structures and categories
involved, but also establishes interesting semantic correlations between the
tense systems of the two languages under scrutiny here. We shall not focus
on the variations of tense and aspect which complicate the comparative
approach as our purpose here is to exemplify only the past and future
referentiality of the Present in Romanian, on the one hand, and of the
Present Simple and Present Progressive in English on the other hand.
Present Tense with past reference
Present simple tense may occur in the narrative discourse with a past
reference, a situation commonly described by grammars as the ‘historical
present’. This particular usage is common in both Romanian and English
languages, providing more dynamism to the narrative. ‘Some novelists’,
Howard Jackson states, ‘use simple present verb forms instead of simple
past forms at climaxes in their story, as a way of marking a sequence of
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events as climactic’ (1990: 90). Thus the reader is involved to a greater
extent and feels that the events narrated are placed in an obvious
immediacy. Let us exemplify this situation with an extract from Salman
Rushdie, East, West and one from Dora Pavel, The Captive:
He [Columbus] walks beyond fatique, beyond the limits of
endurance and the frontiers of self, and somewhere along this path he
loses his balance, he falls off the edge of his sanity, and out here beyond
his mind’s rim he sees, for the first and only time in his life, a vision. (East,
West: 129)
El [Columb] umblă dincolo de limitele oboselii, dincolo de limitele
rezistenţei şi ale frontierelor sinelui, şi, undeva, în drumul său, îşi pierde
echilibrul, pierde contactul cu limitele raţiunii, şi acolo, dincolo de
puterea minţii sale are, pentru prima şi singura dată în viaţa sa, o viziune.
Îmi fac loc într-un grup de pacienţi postaţi dinaintea unei uşi
întredeschise, observ că nici unul nu-ndrăzneşte să privească înăuntru,
nu îndrăznesc să se privească nici între ei, şi, dintr-o dată, în comparaţie
cu necazul lor, al meu îmi pare cu totul neînsemnat. (Captivul: 188)
I’m wedging myself in a group of patients stationed before a halfopen door, I notice that none of them dares look inside, they wouldn’t dare
look at each other, and, all of a sudden, as compared to theirs, my
troubles seem trifling.
The historical present means ‘using the present in order to express
actions, events occurring before the moment of speaking, i.e. situations
where a past tense should normally occur’, which can be explained by the
permanentization of certain events in the past or the intention of the
speaker to provide more dynamism to the communication, giving ‘the
impression that the respective action could happen right before our eyes, at
the moment of speaking’ (Iordan et al.: 228) and therefore this particular
usage of the present is called by some linguists the dramatic present or
narrative present:
Acum, când scriu, dacă încerc să mă concentrez asupra chipului ei
(...), îl văd numai cum apare într-un diapozitiv color, pe care şi-l făcuse
vara trecută la mare. Acolo e uimitor de frumoasă. Poartă o cămaşă
subţire, bărbătească, în carouri, şi părul lung, drept, doar uşor buclat, de
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Linguistics
culoarea stejarului, îl are pieptănat cu cărare într-o parte. (Nostalgia:
106)
Now, when I’m writing, if I’m trying to focus on her face (...), I can
only see it as shown in a colour transparency that she had been taken the
summer before at the seaside. She’s amazingly beautiful in it. She wears a
men’s light checked shirt, and her long straight hair, only slightly wavy
and oak-tinted is side-parted.
A further usage of the present is called in certain grammars the
gnomic present, being characteristic for those situations where ‘the forms
of the present express a fact that is generally valid for all times, including
the moment of speaking (Iordan et al.: 227):
ELEVA: Zăpada cade iarna. Iarna e unul dintre cele patru
anotimpuri. (Cântăreaţa cheală: 57)
THE STUDENT: Snow falls in the winter. Winter is one of the four
seasons.
The present may be also contextualised as an eternal present,
describing a ‘permanent periodicity’ and being told apart from the gnomic
present ‘through the fact that within this periodicity the moment of
speaking is only incidentally included: the particular significance of “the
eternal present” does not necessarily imply the co-occurrence with the
moment of speaking’ (Iordan et al.: 227):
DL. MARTIN: Tavanul e sus, podeaua e jos. (Cântăreaţa cheală:
43)
DL. MARTIN: The ceiling is up, the floor’s down.
Present Tense with future reference
Using the present with future reference is a characteristic of the
spoken language, but obviously this usage is not restricted to oral
production. The dissolution of the temporal boundaries in this case can be
explained by ‘an anticipation: the readiness to perform the action, the
absolute conviction that the action will take place etc. determine the
speaker to present it not as something about to happen henceforth, but as
happening at the very moment of speaking’ (Iordan et al.: 228):
Lord Warburton is coming tomorrow. (The Portrait of A Lady: 113)
Lordul Warburton soseşte mâine.
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Linguistics
As we have stated before, a future event may be conveyed both in
Romanian and English through a present tense. This usage involves a
higher degree of certainty attached to the future action, be it a present tense
simple in English for scheduled actions in the future, which are often
independent of the intention of the speaker, or a present progressive for
planned actions in the near future; both could be conveyed in Romanian
by a present tense:
She’s coming down to dinner – at eight o’clock. (The Portrait of A
Lady: 28)
Ea vine/va veni la cină – la ora opt.
Conclusions
The present may express an event which is not necessarily connected
to the present of the moment of speaking, but can establish past or future
relations, referring ‘not only to a situation placed outside the concept of
time, but to a regular or durative activity placed in a recent or remote past,
to a contemporary or simultaneous present, or to an immediate or remote
future’ (Mircea Mihai Zdrenghea: 1978: 53). The literary texts may help,
in our opinion, the foreign language teacher to emphasise grammatical
structures in a situational context that is most often self-explanatory.
Linguistics
Irimia, Dumitru 1997. Gramatica limbii române, Iaşi, Ed. Polirom.
Jackson, Howard 1990. Grammar and Meaning. A Semantic Approach to
English Grammar. London and New York, Longman.
Leech, G. and Svartvik, J. 1994. A Communicative Grammar of English,
Second Edition. London and New York, Longman.
Zdrenghea, Mihai Mircea 1978. Towards a Semantic Interpretation of the
Present Tense in „Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai”, Philologia,
Vol. XXIII, No. 1, p. 53-61.
Zdrenghea, Mihai Mircea 1979. Some Observations on Tense Contrast in
English and Romanian in „Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai”,
Philologia, Vol. XXIV, No. 2, p. 48-55.
Zdrenghea, Mihai Mircea 1985. Values of the Present Tense in
Collocations with Definite Time Adverbials in „Studia Universitatis
Babeş-Bolyai”, Philologia, Vol. XXX, p. 54-60.
Cărtărescu, Mircea 2000. Nostalgia. Bucureşti, Humanitas.
Ionescu, Eugen 1970. Teatru, vol. I, Cântăreaţa cheală. Bucureşti, Ed.
Minerva.
James, Henry 1995. The Portrait of a Lady. New York, W.W. Norton &
Co.
Pavel, Dora 2006. Captivul. Iaşi, Ed. Polirom.
Rushdie, Salman 2002. East, West. Stuttgart, Philipp Reclam.
Bibliography:
Comrie, Bernard 1993. Tense. Cambridge University Press.
Constantinescu Dobridor, Gh. 1996. Morfologia limbii române. Bucureşti,
Ed. Vox.
Cornilescu, Alexandra 1995. Concepts of Modern Grammar. A
Generative Grammar Perspective. Ed. Universităţii Bucureşti.
Cowper, Elizabeth 1998. The Simple Present Tense in English: A Unified
Treament. in „Studia Linguistica”, Vol. 52, No. 1, Oxford, Blackwell
Publishers, p. 1-18.
Gălăţeanu-Fârnoagă, Georgiana and Comişel, Ecaterina 1998. Gramatica
limbii engleze. Bucureşti, Ed. Lucman,.
Housen, Alex 2000. Verb Semantics and the Acquisition of Tense-Aspect
in L2 English. in „Studia Linguistica”, Vol. 54, No. 2, Blackwell
Publishers, Oxford, p. 249-259.
Iordan, Iorgu et al. 1967. Structura morfologică a limbii române
contemporane. Bucureşti, Ed. Ştiinţifică.
65
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E
Débâts sur la langue littéraire au XVII siècle
et la politique linguistique fondatrice du
classicisme français
Nicolae SELAGE
Universitatea „Aurel Vlaicu” Arad
Abstract : In the second half of the 17th century, France –
consolidated internally and increasingly influential externally – pursued a
policy of active linguistic purification aimed at eradicating from the
language all popular elements. The rigorous social order is thus mirrored
not only in the perfect symmetries of the Versailles gardens, but also in the
elevated language canons, the exemplary literature and the meticulous
Cartesian thinking. The results of this policy are doubtlessly spectacular.
Nevertheless, by ignoring deliberately the natural laws of evolution and
tendencies of manifestation of the language, they deprived writing, for
over two centuries, of essential segments of the language spoken inside the
Hexagon. The task of rehabilitating those segments will fall upon the
shoulders of the Romantics, the Realists, and of engaged journalism.
Keywords: language, policy, romanticism
Le point de vue habituel que la postérité a porté sur l'oeuvre poétique
de Malherbe (Brunetière : « Ce n'est pas un poète, mais un versificateur …
Il n'est pas question de l'admirer ») n'est pas en mesure de nous expliquer
l'influence considérable qu'il a eue sur l'évolution de la langue cultivée et
de la littérature française au XVIIe siècle. Ses goûts, sa curiosité
intellectuelle sont plus étroits que ceux de Ronsard, mais il a mis toute son
énergie à formuler une doctrine poétique et à l'illustrer par son oeuvre. En
imposant au travail poétique une discipline fondée sur la clarté et la
logique, il transmet à la langue française ce qui, dans l'héritage humaniste,
va permettre l'épanouissement de l'époque classique (DELF, 2001 : 10701071).
Avant Richelieu et l'Académie française, Malherbe devient le
législateur des lettres : il inaugure « le siècle des règles » et pour ce faire, il
n'a pas eu besoin de rédiger une grammaire ou un art poétique. À
Linguistics
l'exemple de Montaigne, il a forgé sa doctrine en marge des textes qu'il lit
ou écrit. Il y est guidé par un souci de correction et de pureté linguistique
qu'il partage, en accord avec l'évolution littéraire et philosophique du
temps, avec les deux élites du royaume : le magistrats érudits et la
noblesse formée par les jésuites. L'époque était propice : dégoûtée de
l'esprit d'aventure et soucieuse d'équilibre – y compris dans le domaine
littéraire – la société cultivée était prête la rigueur adoucie par les
amusements élégants. La révolution que Malherbe propose est d'ordre
rhétorique : l'invention cède le pas à la disposition et à l'élocution.
L'inspiration ne livre qu'un matériau (« les belles feuilles toujours
vertes »); or « en faire des couronnes » (Ode à la reine) nécessite une
technique, un développement ordonné, l'élégance et la justesse des termes.
La doctrine de Malherbe est un stoїcisme littéraire qui, par un effort
ascétique entend discipliner la création. Le premier effort porte sur la
langue : Malherbe rejette l'aristocratisme de la Pléiade et fait de l'usage de
la Cour mais aussi de la Ville la règle. La poésie nationale doit être
comprise par les gens du peuple, non pas vulgaire, mais simple. D'où la
suppression des archaїsmes, des néologismes, des provincialismes; le
refus des omissions de l'article, du pronom sujet, la précision des termes,
l'adoption d'un ordre naturel des mots, évitant l'anacoluthe et les
ambiguїtés. L'effort porte sur le style : images brèves et motivées; sur la
distinction du propre et du figuré; sur le refus de l'hermétisme
mythologique et le respect des bienséances. Un dernier effort porte sur la
versification, où la difficulté devient principe euristique : la recherche
d'une rime rare est de nature à faire naître une nouvelle pensée. En
prosodie aussi, la rigueur est à l'ordre du jour : refus du hiatus visuel et
phonique, d'où le rejet des cacophonies. Pour le rythme, Malherbe
préconise la stricte réglementation des pauses, le refus de l'enjambement,
l'exigence d'une césure nette, refus des rimes intérieures et des vers
léonins. Pour la rime enfin, refus des rimes plates et refus de l'identité
lexicale ou grammaticale des termes (les noms propres, le simple, le
composé, les mots de même suffixe, tels pire et empire). Le primat
accordé à la logique apparente la poésie à un art du discours : à une
expression précise correspond une syntaxe rigoureuse, dont la strophe est
le cadre général et le vers l'unité sémantique de base. Les particules
logiques doivent exhiber les articulations d'une pensée dont les
68
Linguistics
mouvements (objections, réfutations, interrogations) sont nettement
soulignés.
Ronsard et, avec lui, toute la Pléiade pensent que la poésie n'est
rien si un dieu ne l'anime, que le poète n'est rien si un enthousiasme, si une
« fureur » divine ne l'a saisi. Certains de ses contemporains font de cette
fureur le gage d'une véritable condition de la connaissance et du poète un
privilégié du savoir et de la découverte spirituelle, d'où le statut particulier
qu'il réclame pour le poète dans la société, seul capable de mobiliser les
énergies de la cité et de conseiller les rois, par son sens de l'Histoire et par
les mythes collectifs qu'il est capable de retrouver ou de créer. Mais pour
cela il fallait encore forger l'outil, la langue, et ne rien négliger des
ressources présentes ou des possibilités encore cachées de celle-ci. On fait
appel aux dialectes, aux vieux mots pleins de sève qu'il ne faut pas laisser
se perdre; pour combler les lacunes du français, on fait appel sans réserve
à la dérivation mais aussi aux emprunts et aux imitations tirées des langues
techniques, des langues anciennes. Pour la syntaxe et le style, il enjoint ses
contemporains à puiser chez les anciens les tours, les figures, tout ce qui
peut enrichir et assouplir le français, et ne prendre pour limite que les
exigences de l'harmonie et de l'expressivité (Du Bellay, 1974 : 16-17).
Contre cette doctrine de l'inspiration enthousiaste, Malherbe
prône un esprit d'artisanat méthodique; tandis que Ronsard raillait
l'ignorant versificateur attaché, selon Régnier, à « proser de la rime et
rimer de la prose », Malherbe se veut tout juste un excellent « arrangeur
de syllabes », un artisan comme un autre, sans rien de mystique en lui; sa
poésie – produit plutôt de l'art et du labeur que de l'inspiration.
Malherbe va plus loin encore et se range du côté des modernes, en
essayant de libérer la langue et la poésie de la tutelle des anciens ou des
modèles espagnols et italiens. En cela il participe aux mouvements
d'affirmation et de cohésion nationale qui se forment autour de Henri IV et
se raffermissent sous Richelieu.
L'oeuvre de Malherbe illustre bien le lent progrès des tendances
nouvelles qui se font jour dans la poésie du début du siècle classique. Il ne
peut se libérer d'un coup des vestiges du passé, d'une certaine esthétique
baroque dans ses premiers vers, de l'emploi des adjectifs ou des symboles
érudits qui effleurent la Pléiade, de certains thèmes galants inévitables
dans les poèmes dédiés à ses protecteurs. Mais peu à peu l'harmonie et la
rigueur voulues s'instaurent dans la poésie officielle, amoureuse ou
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Linguistics
religieuse qu'il écrit. Quel qu'en soit le registre, sa poésie a une ambition :
la grandeur. Le ton, le style et les thèmes convergent pour produire une
commune impression de dignité, réalisée en premier lieu par un
mouvement de généralisation et d'abstraction qui confère à l'évènement
(exploit guerrier ou mort d'un être) sa valeur intemporelle. L'usage
métaphorique, proche du symbole, de la mythologie, confère noblesse
antique et dignité culturelle; l'intervention des personnages mythologiques
donne à l'action une grandeur épique et sa parole a la solennité du lyrisme
collectif, capable de prêter voix à la nation qui apostrophe son roi ou
s'adresse à Dieu. Exaltant l'idéal de paix et de prospérité, la poésie de
Malherbe coїncide avec les aspirations nationales et la politique royale.
Ainsi, tout en annonçant l'avènement d'un age d'or, la solennité de ses
paroles, renforcée par des arguments stoїciens, invite à la résignation et à
l'effort, car la menace des troubles appelle la lutte et la paix est une
conquête qui se renouvelle constamment. Toute sa poésie dégage une
dynamique vigoureuse, une poétique de la tension, les articulations d'un
discours oratoire autant dans sa forme que dans sa visée didactique. Pour
la clarté et la vigueur, l'antithèse devient une figure clé, tandis que
l'hyperbole, forte par sa densité même et tendue vers l'éloge, exprime
l'essence suprême des êtres. La vigueur rythmique vient appuyer la rigueur
démonstrative, l'élan initial est suivi d'élans de reprise. À cette scansion
s'ajoute souvent la contrainte musicale : le rythme de la strophe et du vers
doivent alors coїncider avec la mélodie, d'où de nouvelles exigences de
régularité et de symétrie. Ainsi Malherbe joue en expert des rythmes et des
vers mêlés qui peuvent surprendre aujourd'hui encore.
Globalement, son oeuvre semble avoir tout sacrifié dans son
souci d'illustrer une doctrine. Nombre de ses contemporains et surtout les
romantiques ont porté des jugements sévères sur une poésie marquée au
plus haut degré par la pauvreté des sentiments, son artifice méthodique et
la froide lucidité dont elle procède : « un beau bouillon d'eau claire »
(Mlle de Gournay). Mais c'est précisément l'idée de poésie qui oppose
Malherbe et ses émules ou ses critiques, au sens où Valéry oppose le
classique au romantique. Face à certaines logorrhées poétiques assez
communes en son siècle mais aussi, plus tard, chez Voltaire et ses
contemporains, Malherbe prône l'ordre et la patience. Au-delà du
classicisme historique, il incarne une tentation permanente de la poésie
française : la séduction de la perfection formelle, d'où l'hommage de
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Linguistics
Chénier, de Baudelaire, de Valéry, de Ponge. Ce fou de la raison a sa
grandeur et on ne peut pas ridiculiser son éclat, sa violence, sa haute tenue,
sa plénitude formelle et la parfaite architecture de ses vers (DELF, 2001 :
1073).
On peut comprendre maintenant pourquoi Corneille et Racine,
pour n'en citer que les plus illustres de ses jeunes contemporains, ont revus
soigneusement leurs ouvrages pour en faire les chef-d'oeuvres bien
connus, et Nicolas Boileau ait fixé ainsi les règles classiques qui vont
dominer deux siècles de littérature et de rhétorique poétique en France.
Une juste situation de l'oeuvre de Malherbe dans un contexte
ainsi élargi aux exigences non seulement artistiques mais également
sociales et nationales de son époque est seule de nature à nous permettre
une meilleure compréhension des raisons qui ont fait échouer les prises de
positions hostiles à sa poétique. Car il en a connues des plus virulentes
parfois, et de la part de poètes se réclamant de la Pléiade (Mathurin
Régnier surtout) ou d'autres tendances artistiques, et de la part de lecteurs
avisés ou attachés à la poésie de Marot et de Ronsard. Nous nous
proposons justement de signaler une prise de position qui surprend pour
une double raison. D'abord parce qu'elle vient de la part d'une femme
contemporaine de Malherbe, ensuite parce que les objections qu'elle
oppose au poète officiel de la cour royale constituent une véritable
révélation de vision et de modernité aux yeux des critiques et des
linguistes français actuels. Il s'agit de Mlle de Gournay qui jusque
récemment jouissait d'une considérable renommée uniquement pour avoir
été « la fille d'alliance » et l'éditrice de l'oeuvre de Michel de Montaigne.
Rappelons les faits : issue d'une famille noble mais sans fortune,
Marie Le Jars de Gournay (1566-1645) est une autodidacte qui, en dépit
de sa condition féminine, assume sa passion pour la culture et l'érudition
avec un courage bien rare à son époque. Très jeune encore, elle découvre
avec enthousiasme les Essais de Montaigne, lui écrit et veut le connaître.
De cet attachement spirituel il en résulte une amitié qui remplit les
dernières années de la vie du philosophe d'un bonheur inespéré à son âge
et d'une admiration sans bornes pour les qualités intellectuelles de cette
jeune femme. Il n'hésite pas à confier à Mlle de Gournay la préparation
des futures éditions des Essais et elle jouera un rôle important dans la
postérité du philosophe et dans la diffusion d'une oeuvre dont la valeur n'a
cessé d'étonner et de grandir au fil des siècles. Férue des auteurs grecs et
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Linguistics
latins mais aussi de la langue et de la poésie française, elle s'engage sans
complexes dans les disputes artistiques de son temps, écrit des poésies, des
traités de morale, de langue et de poétique, des recueils de souvenirs et de
réflexions centrées sur les questions littéraires (DELF, 2001 : 1237). Après
trente pages novatrices intitulées Égalité des hommes et des femmes,
parues en 1622, et qui font aujourd'hui l'étonnement et l'admiration, en
1626, en pleine querelle des Lettres, elle fait paraître sa somme de plus de
mille pages, L'Ombre, qu'elle a consacrée à la langue française. Si l'on
ajoute les traités qui font suite, sur la traduction et la poésie, Marie de
Gournay devient une véritable théoricienne de la langue, aux propos
ambitieux et synthétiques. Un long chapitre de cet ouvrage s'appelle « La
défense de la Poésie et des Poètes », faisant suite à un autre, intitulé « Du
langage français ». Mentionnant l'étroit « cousinage » de la Poésie, du
Langage et de la Grammaire, elle élabore une véritable théorie du langage
qui intéresse particulièrement aujourd'hui.
À une époque où l'attention était focalisée sur les questions de la
langue, Mlle de Gournay est capable d'une hauteur de vue suffisante pour
intégrer à sa vision la dimension dynamique du langage, une dimension
qui va disparaître progressivement du paysage intellectuel français durant
le XVIIe siècle. Elle sait que c'est avant tout un rapport au langage, et non
à la langue, qui fait la poésie. Qu'est-ce que parler français? « Celui-la seul
le sait faire, qui peut rendre la langue sienne » dit-elle. Autrement dit, il
est vain de chercher dans la poésie une image de la langue. On ne lit pas
Tasse ou Arioste pour connaître l'usage ordinaire, la propriété, les articles,
les particules et les superstitions de la langue italienne, nous assure-t-elle.
Il est vain de vouloir « emblématiser » la langue poétique pour en faire un
symbole de la langue en général. La vraie poésie, pour elle, est « fureur
apollinique » . Elle rappelle qu'Horace déniait le nom de poète à celui qui
ne s'exprime qu'en langage commun. La poésie est une autre langue,
séparée de l'usage. Et ce genre de poésie grammaticale, que l'on
commence à promouvoir en son temps (lisez : Malherbe), ne peut donc
avoir aucun rapport avec la vraie poésie.
Ce qui devient insupportable à ses yeux c'est la prétention
affichée par la nouvelle école de vouloir isoler, par le biais de la poésie,
une « essence » de la langue qui serait sa vérité dans l'usage. Le plus grave
lui semble la prétention de ces poètes grammairiens, autoproclamés
savants en langue, de faire une synthèse de la langue de la poésie et de la
langue de la prose. En choisissant un mauvais prototype de langage, ils
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Linguistics
espèrent attacher l'élocution du poème au joug de la prose triviale. La
ruine de la poésie est alors garantie. Mlle de Gournay observe que tout ce
qui fait le sel de la poésie, sa vigueur, sa capacité à transcender le langage
ordinaire, les métaphores, les proverbes, les traits comiques, les emprunts,
tout devient suspect. Au « dialecte mou et miellé », qui est en train de se
mettre en place, cette farouche protectrice de la poésie voudrait une langue
violente, une « énonciation forte et puissante » « Que d'autres y cherchent
s'ils veulent le lait et le miel, nous y cherchons ce qui s'appelle l'esprit et la
vie ». La vie, ajoute-t-elle, car « toute langue qui manque en son débit de
ce rayon céleste, qu'on appelle puissante dextérité, souple, agile, affilée,
est morte ». (citations apud Rey, 2007: 626-627)
Pour elle, il en va du salut du français à une époque de tentation
puriste. Du salut de la poésie surtout, langage des Muses, qu'elle décrit en
termes grandioses et inspirés. Évoquant ce qu'elle appelle la langue, elle y
voit comme une sédimentation indéfinie des discours qu'elle a pu former,
comme la somme de ce qu'en ont fait les esprits puissants. Cette somme
n'est jamais un tout arrêté, identifiable : elle est toujours en mouvement,
toujours tendue vers l'avant par le mouvement même de l'esprit humain.
C'est pourquoi il n'y a de langue que dans le présent, qu'aucune langue
n'est stable et que la force du langage est précisément dans cette l'invention
permanente. Ce qu'elle reproche aux nouveaux grammairiens c'est bien de
chercher à interrompre ce mouvement, à l'immobiliser, pour en faire un
objet séparé, ce qui sera l'objectif des classiques et de leurs partisans
jusqu'au XXe siècle.
La poésie contient précisément l'essence du langage en ce que
celui-ci est force, mouvement, expression, perpétuel dépassement de luimême. C'est sur une philosophie profonde du langage que Marie de
Gournay fonde sa vision de la langue, philosophie que ses adversaires
n'ont absolument pas perçue. Il est vain de vouloir faire en sorte que la
langue s'autoreprésente en littérature : c'est sa relation à l'expression qui
fonde le langage. Ainsi, le rapport entre la littérature et la langue est mis en
question en des termes étonnamment modernes, riches de résonances,
tandis que la continuatrice de Montaigne passe pour ridicule et vétuste.
Quelle force, quelle profondeur de vues, quel anti-conformisme résolu
dans ses thèses qui tiennent cette femme qui se croit avoir une obligation
religieuse de protéger la langue française, à l'écart de toute mesquinerie
dans les débats ! C'est la plus belle voix qui se soit opposée aux puristes au
tournant décisif de la langue française, où l'on va privilégier la langue et la
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Linguistics
grammaire par rapport au langage. Pour le moment, elle est perdante, mais
pas inconnue ni ignorée de ses contemporains. Elle reste associée, à
distance, aux travaux de la nouvelle Académie Française, mais son
influence va diminuant.
Un demi siècle plus tard, Pierre Bayle, l'auteur du Dictionnaire
historique et critique, paru à Rotterdam en 1697, rend justice sans réserve
à Mlle de Gournay et à son combat acharné contre l'appauvrissement de la
langue française : « Tout bien considéré, cette demoiselle n'avait pas
autant de tort que l'on s'imagine, et il serait à souhaiter que les auteurs les
plus illustres de ce temps-là se fussent vigoureusement opposés à la
proscription de plusieurs mots qui n'ont rien de rude et qui serviraient à
varier l'expression, à éviter les consonances et les équivoques. La fausse
délicatesse, à qui on lâcha trop la bride, a appauvri notre langue »
(Bayle, 1820 : 190).
Mais la récupération intégrale de son admirable héritage spirituel ne
fait que commencer.
Bibliographie :
Bayle, Pierre, Dictionnaire historique et critique, Nouvelle édition, tome
VII, Paris, Desoer, Libraire, 1820. Source http://gallica.bnf.fr/
Brunot, Ferdinand, La doctrine de Malherbe d'après ses commentaires sur
Desportes, G. Masson, Libraire-Éditeur, Paris, 1891.
Source http://gallica.bnf.fr/
DELF = Dictionnaire des écrivains de langue française, (sous la direction
de JeanPierre de BEAUMARCHAIS, Daniel COUTY, Alain
REY), Larousse/ VUEF, 2001.
Du Bellay, Joachim, La défense et illustration de la langue française,
Librairie Larousse, Paris, 1972.
Desplantes F. , Pouthier, P., Les femmes de lettres en France, Slatkine
Reprints, Genève, 1970. Source http://gallica.bnf.fr/
DHLF = Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, (sous la direction
d'Alain
REY), Le Robert, Paris, 1998.
Rey, Alain, Duval, Frédéric, Siouffi, Gilles, Mille ans de langue française.
Histoire d'une passion, Perrin, 2007.
74
Analysing slang in prison movies – Rod Lurie’s
The Last Castle
Gabriel BĂRBULEŢ
”1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia, Romania
Abstract: The present paper deals with the way slang is used in
prison movies, with a particular focus on Rod Lurie's “The Last Castle”
(2001). This essay discusses slang from the perspective of issues related to
the literature that focuses on Pragmatics with an emphasis on
Conversational Analysis elements. My work is structured according to the
following landmarks: Summary of the movie, Context of the slang
expression that is to be analyzed, The slang expression(s) – divided into
the original quote with slang and the meaning, Slang usage and
Conversational Analysis & Power & Politeness Strategies.
Keywords: conversational analysis, slang, politeness, context,
power
1. Introduction. Slang in prison movies
Starting from the assumption that slang is an utterly important
linguistic tool that plays a very important part in movies dealing with
prison life, I have structured my paper according to the following basic
parts: Summary of the movie, Context of the slang expression that is to be
analyzed, The slang expression(s) – divided into the original quote with
slang and the meaning, The Slang usage and Conversational Analysis &
Power & Politeness Strategies.
It is natural that the analysis should start from a general presentation
of the movie. This is due to the fact that one may find it utterly difficult to
understand the general context of the/a movie unless one has a frame
where he/she may place the body of language that is to be analyzed and
focused on. Moreover, apart from the summary, one also needs to be
given the context of the slang expression in order to understand it.
Linguistics
A very important issue in my analysis is represented by the original
quote with slang and its meaning. Further on, I have tried to explain why
the conversational interactans used slang in the particular situation, what
made them resort to slang and not to informal, formal or standard
language. Thus, I have started from the assumption that people use slang
either to induce friendliness or intimacy. They might be also determined to
use slang in order to show that they belong to the same group. Slang also
serves social functions, setting and proclaiming social boundaries. It also
permits speakers to assert membership of identity. It also rejects the power
dimensions associated with formal language. More than that, sometimes
the very situation requires the usage of slang as the conversationalists
purposely diminish the formality of the conversation. The use of slang
renders a formal conversation informal.
The part dealing with the Conversational Analysis & Power &
Politeness Strategies has been devised taking into account the following
linguistic features: The Conversational Analysis perspective, the type of
power involved and the Pragmatic perspective and the Politeness
strategies.
Viewers all over the world have the impression that slang and the
way slang is used in movies, in our case a prison movie is the same with
the real slang used in a prison environment. This was my starting research
point. Consequently, I have tried to see whether slang and movie slang are
identical. The conclusion has been obvious: slang in movies is different
from the slang used in prisons. And the explanation is quite simple. I have
showed that context, the socio-cultural context plays a very important part
in shaping the way people communicate. Thus, without having a very
deep knowledge of the environment of the prison, it will be impossible to
decode the message when the people use slang.
My possible analysis grid aimed at showing that movie viewers
would not be able to understand anything that goes on on the screen, they
would not be able to feel the thrill of the movie, of the action when the
characters would choose to use real slang. Accordingly, the slang
language that directors choose to use in their movies is slang that is to be
found in everyday conversation, and not real slang, slang used by real
inmates in real prisons.
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Linguistics
2. Analysing slang in Prison movies
2.1. The Last Castle – release data
Directed by Rod Lurie
Produced by Robert Lawrence
Written by David Scarpa
Starring Robert Redford, James
Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Steve
Burton
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography Shelly Johnson
Editing by Michael Jablow
Distributed by DreamWorks SKG
Release date(s) North
America:October 19, 2001
Running time 132 mins
[available online at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last
_Castle]
2.2. Summary of the movie – The Last Castle
When three star General Irwin is transferred to a maximum security
military prison, its warden, Colonel Winter, can't hide his admiration
towards the highly decorated and experienced soldier. Irwin has been
stripped of his rank for disobedience in a mission, but not of fame. Colonel
Winter, who runs the prison with an iron fist, deeply admires the General,
but works with completely different methods in order to keep up
discipline. After a short while, Irwin can feel Winter's unjust treatment of
the inmates. He decides to teach Winter a lesson by taking over command
of the facility and thus depriving him of his smug attitude. When Winter
decides to participate in what he still thinks of as a game, it may already be
too late to win.
[available online at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272020/plotsummary]
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Linguistics
2.3. Analysing slang
CONTEXT 1
2.3.1. Moviescript
Cutbush, you believe this kid?
Yeah, he seems
to know his shit, you know?
All right, Aguilar. I'll bite.
- Bring me the right rock.
- O-Okay.
You need a rock
with a flat edge,
because-because
that one's jagged.
[available online at http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/l/lastcastle-script-transcript.html]
2.3.2. Slang expression
► to know one’s shit – to know shit (from Shinola) and tell shit
from Shinola tv. to know what’s what; to be intelligent and aware.
(Always in the negative. Shinola is a brand of shoe polish. A person who
doesn’t know shit from Shinola is very stupid. See also No Shinola!) _
Poor Tom doesn’t know shit from Shinola. _ Fred can’t tell shit from
Shinola, and he’s been made my boss.[Spears, 2000:242]
2.3.3. The original quote with slang – the meaning
The Original Quote with slang
Yeah, he seems
to know his shit, you know?
The meaning
Yeah, he seems
to know what’s what/ he seems
intelligent and aware you know?
2.3.4. Slang usage:
The interactants use slang in this context either to induce friendliness
or intimacy. They might be also determined to use slang in order to show
that they belong to the same group. Slang here serves social functions,
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Linguistics
setting and proclaiming social boundaries. It also permits speakers to
assert membership of identity. It also rejects the power dimensions
associated with formal language. Moreover, one needs to take into account
both the context the conversation takes place and the conversationalists.
The very situation requires the usage of slang as the conversationalists
purposely diminish the formality of the conversation. The use of slang
renders a formal conversation informal
2.3.5. Conversational analysis & power & politeness strategies:
Linguistic features
1. CA Perspective
- turn-taking
TRP1
Comment
- the current speaker selects the next
speaker. This is done by asking his
interlocutor a question. The selected
speaker has the right and obligation to
speak.
- the next speaker self-selects
- adjacency pair
- question-answer
Linguistics
CONTEXT 2
2.3.1.
Man On P.A.] Chow call.
All inmates report to the mess hall.
Chow call. All inmates
report to the mess hall.
So, tell me again.
Why is it
Aguilar had to die?
- [Enriquez] Believe us now?
- [Irwin] I believe you now.
Very good.
► chow - Any meal is referred to as chow. Meal time is referred to
as chow time. At http://members.tripod.com/afscmelocal3963/f_y_i_.htm
[Cf. The Correctional Officers Guide to Prison Slang]
- conversation end
- all participants have received
enough information
2. Type of Power
- legitimate power
3.PragmaticPerspective/Politeness
strategies
- positive politeness strategy
- it is in the hands of the person who
has the right to prescribe or request
certain things by virtue of his role and
status.
The original quote with slang
[Man On P.A.] Chow call.
- the speaker recognizes that his
hearers have a desire to be respected.
He also confirms that the relationship
is friendly and expresses group
reciprocity. By using a Speech act of
directing, the speaker tries to make
the hearers do something, that is vote
for what he proposes.
2.3.4. Slang usage:
The speakers use slang in this context to reduce, perhaps to disperse
the solemnity, the pomposity and a possible excessiveness of the
conversation. They may also be aiming at easing the social intercourse.
Thus, the formality of the conversation is diminished and the conversation
flows naturally. Once the conversation becomes marked [+informality],
the speakers may transmit their messages freely, without any constraints.
79
80
The meaning
[Man On P.A. Meal time call.
Linguistics
They might also use slang as an opposition to authority. But one may
be sure that the usage of slang in this context is generated by the speakers’
intention to be as informal as possible.
2.3.5 Conversational analysis & power & politeness strategies:
Linguistic features
1. CA Perspective
- turn-taking
Comment
- the next speaker is selected by
the current speaker. Thus he has
the right and obligation to speak
and hold the floor for as long as it
is necessary.
- conversation end
- both interactants have received
enough information.
1.
Type of Power
- reward power
strategies
- negative politeness strategy
- we might assume we are dealing
with a reward power as we have a
person’s control over another due
to his ability to offer his partner
things he might want.
- the speaker recognizes the
hearer’s face. But the latter also
recognizes that in some way, the
speaker is imposing on him.
CONTEXT 3
2.3.1.
I'm afraid
that's not possible.
Look, when this thing explodes,
everyone's gonna know
it's me who yakked.
Linguistics
And then my life's
worth nothing.
So, either you get me out
of here immediately…
or you find another guy
who knows as much as I do...
and who's willing to spill it.
Good luck.
► yakked - yak and yack [jAk] 1. in. to talk. _ Stop yakking for a
minute. _ I need to yack with you about something. 2. n. a chat. _ We had a
nice little yack and then left for work. _ Drop by for a yak sometime. 3. n. a
joke. _ That was a lousy yak. _ Don’t tell that yack again. It’s not a
winner. 4. n. a laugh from a joke. _ We had a good yack over it. _ The
audience produced a feeble yak that was mostly from embarrassment. 5.
in. to vomit. (Onomatopoetic.) _ Hank was in the john yakking all night. _
Who yakked on the carpet? [Spears, 2000:476]
The original quote with slang
I'm afraid
The Meaning
I'm afraid
it's me who yakked.
it's me who talked.
2.3.4. Slang usage:
Slang is used in this context to disperse the solemnity, the pomposity
and the excessive seriousness of the conversation. By using slang the
speakers also make an exercise either in wit or in humor. The interactants
may also want to escape from clichés and to be brief and concise.
Moreover they are aiming at inducing friendliness or intimacy of a durable
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Linguistics
kind. Once the speakers use slang, the conversation becomes marked
[+informality]. Consequently, they may continue without any strains.
2.3.5. Conversational analysis & power & politeness strategies:
Linguistic features
1. CA Perspective
- turn-taking
Comment
- conversation end
- the speakers have received
enough information
2. Type of Power
- legitimate power
strategies
- positive politeness strategy
- the next speaker self-selects
- the speaker has to request certain
things/ask some questions by
virtue of his role and status.
- the speaker shows he recognizes
that his hearer has a desire to be
respected. He also confirms that
the relationship is friendly and
expresses group reciprocity.
3. Conclusion
Everybody smiles condescendingly when hearing the term “slang”.
This means thatpeople assume that whenever one resorts to slang this
necessarily implies that one uses underground language, language that
would not be suitable in a formal context. They sometimes are right but
there are certain instances when this is not the case.
Moreover, if we take into account the slang used in prisons,
people will have the certainty that we are talking about very “bad”
language.
In the present paper we aimed at investigating whether the type of
slang used in prison movies is the same with the real slang used in prisons.
Moreover, my possible analysis grid aimed at showing that movie viewers
would not be able to understand anything that goes on on the screen, they
would not be able to feel the thrill of the movie, of the action when the
83
Linguistics
characters would choose to use real slang. Accordingly, the slang
language that directors choose to use in their movies is slang that is to be
found in everyday conversation, and not real slang, slang used by real
inmates in real prisons.
Bibliography:
Brown, P. & Levinson, S. 1987Politeness: some universals in language
usage. Cambridge University Press
Downes, W. 1984 Language and Society, Fontana, London.
Fairclough, N. 1989 Language and power. London: Longman.
Fasold, R. 1990 Sociolinguistics of language, Basil Blackwell Ltd,
Cambridge.
Halliday, M. A. K. & Hasan, R. (1985) Language, context and text:
aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective. Victoria,
Australia: Deakin University Press.
Leech, G. (1983) – Principles of Pragmatics, Longman, London.
Richard A. Spears (2000) NTC’s Dictionary of American Slang and
Colloquial Expressions third edition, NTC Publishing Group, The
McGraw-Hills Companies.
Internet resources
The Correctional Officers Guide to Prison Slang available at
http://members.tripod.com/afscmelocal3963/f_y_i_.htm
THE LAST CASTLE – summary of the movie available online at
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272020/plotsummary
THE LAST CASTLE – general information available online at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Castle
THE LAST CASTLE – the script available online at http://www.scripto-rama.com/movie_scripts/l/last-castle-script-transcript.html
84
Genus der nomen: eine Rumänisch – Deutsche
kontrastive analyse
Alina PĂDUREAN
„Aurel Vlaicu” University of Arad
Abstract: The paper deals with a contrastive analysis of
grammatical gender in Romanian and German. Though of different origin,
Romanian and German share some similarities on a grammatical gender
level but also many differences that favour errors. We have tried to
identify both similarities and differences in order to make learners aware
of these mistakes and help them in their attempt to use German in a
grammatically proper manner.
Keywords: contrastive analysis, gender, natural and grammatical
gender
Heutzutage, wenn immer mehr Rumäner Deutsch lernen möchten,
haben wir uns entschieden eine kontrastive Analyse des Genus zu
machen. Das Genus der Substantive erhebt viele Schwierigkeiten für
Rumänische Muttersprachler, weil die Unterschiede zwischen Rumänisch
und Deutsch sehr gross sind. Wir haben uns gefragt, ob diese Analyse
nützlich ist und ob sie den Lernenden helfen kann. Wir glauben, dass es
viel leichter ist eine Fremdsprache zu erwerben, wenn man bewusst ist,
sowohl von den Unterschieden als auch von den Ähnlichkeiten.
Man kann die grammatische Kategorie des Genus von einer
grammatischen und von einer semantischen Perspektive analysieren. In
dieser Studie haben wir vor, das Genus auf einer semantischen Ebene zu
analysieren.
Wir haben verschiedene semantischen Kategorien in beiden
Sprachen besprochen. Obwohl Deutsch und Rumänische aus zwei
verschiedenen Sprachfamilien stammen, haben wir mehrere
Gemeinsamkeiten als Unterschiede gefunden. Der Form nach, müssen wir
anerkennen, dass die Unterschiede im Vordergrund stehen. Deutsch
unterteilt Genus in zwei Kategorien: der grammatische Geschlecht und der
Linguistics
natürliche Geschlecht. Diese Unterteilung gibt es in der rumänischen
Grammatik nicht.
Die Analyse aus dieser Perspektive macht nicht den Gegenstand
dieser Arbeit.
Wir wollen die Ergebnise unserer Analyse vorstellen.
Gemeinsame semantische Kategorien für Maskulina sind:
a) Namen der Ländern und Gebiete. Ausnahmen sind die
rumänischen Landernamen auf –a, und auf Deutsch nur einige sind
Maskulina: Egipt, Chile, Vietnam, der Irak, der Iran, der Sudan, der
Balkan
b) Flussnamen. Auf Rumänisch nur die Flüsse auf rumänischer
Ebene und auf Deutsch, die Flüsse ausserhalb Deutscher Grenze: Olt,
Prut, Mureş, der Nil, der Rhein, der Neckar.
c) Bergnamen: Caraiman, Negoiul, Bucegi, der Versuv, der mount
Everest
d) Namen der politischen und spirituellen Strömungen: absolutism,
ateism, liberalism, der Absolutismus, der Atheismus, der Liberalismus
e) Namen der Weine und Spirtuosen: Riesling, Cotnari, rom, der
Riesling, der Burgunder, der Rum
f) Namen der Automarken. Ausnahme auf Rumänisch machen die
Namen auf -a: Oltcit, Fiat, ARO, der Mercedes, der Volkswagen, der Fiat
g) Namen der Himmelsrichtungen: est, vest, der Osten, der Westen
h) Namen der Winde: crivăţul, musonul, der Föhn, der Monsun
i) Namen der Monate: ianuarie, martie, der Januar, der März
j) Namen von Mineralien und Gesteine: cărbune, granit, der Quarz,
der Basalt
Beispiele:
„[...] care strică legea, îmbolnăviţi de spurcăciunea ateismului.”
(George Călinescu, Enigma Otiliei, p.419)
„[...] stark erwachte Lust, auch mal den Süden zu sehen [...]”
([...] dorinţa puternică de a vedea şi sudul [...].)
(Theodor Fontane, Effi Briest, p.291)
Nur auf Rumänisch finden wir folgende semantischen Gruppen für
Maskulina:
a) Namen der Bäume: fag, stejar
b) Namen der Pflanzen und Blumen: ardei, bostan, crin, nufăr
c) Namne der Währungen: leu, yen, euro
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d) Namen der Buchstaben: a, b, c
e) Namen der musikalischen Noten: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si
„Biroul avea o masă simplă de stejar [...].”
Nur auf Deutsch finden wir folgende semantischen Gruppen für
Maskulina:
a) Namen der Niederschläge: der Reif-brumă, der Regen-ploaia
b) Namen der Jahreszeiten und Wochentagen: der Sommer-vara,
der Herbst-toamna, der Montag-luni, der Samstag-sâmbăta
„Wie schön dieser Sommer!”
(Ce frumoasă această vară!)
(Theodor Fontane, Effie Briest, p.300)
Semantische Gruppen für Feminina in beiden Sprachen sind:
a) Namen der Länder und Kontinente. Auf Rumänisch, die jenigen
auf -a: Germania, Franţa, România, Europa, Africa, die Schweiz, die
Slowakei, die Europa, die Afrika
b) Namen der Flüsse. Auf Rumänisch, die jenigen Rumänischen
Herkunft oder die Namen auf –a und auf Deutsch, die von Deutschen
Herkunft und Namen auf -a, -e: Dunărea, Sena, Tamisa, die Oder, die
Seine, die Themse
c) Namen der Gefühle und Verhaltensweisen: emoţie, frică, iubire,
die Angst, die Liebe
d) Namen der Handlungen: bătaie, eliberare, die Schlägerei, die
Befreiung
e) Namen der Zigarettensorten: o Carpaţi, die Kent
f) Namen vieler Blumen: garoafă, narcisă, pansea, die Rose, die
Dahlie, die Nelke
„[...] încât teama lui Felix de a face o gafă crescu.”
„Ich habe solche Angst.”
(Simt o astfel de teamă.)
Nur auf Rumänisch haben wir folgende semantischen Klassen für
Feminina:
Namen der Gegenstände: casă, masă
a) Namen der Früchte: alună, cireasă, prună
b) Namen der Jahreszeiten und Wochentage: vara, toamna, luni,
miercuri
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Linguistics
c) Namen von Handlungen, die aus langen Infinitiven stammen:
cântare, fugă, joacă
d) Namen der Sprachen: germana, engleza, franceza
e) Namen der Getränke: palincă, bere, şampanie
f) Namen der Niederschläge: brumă, ploaie, zăpadă
„[...] gustând suplimentar câte un bob de strugure şi câte o prună.”
Nur auf Deutsch treffen wir folgende semantischen Gruppen für
Feminina:
a) Namen der Schiffs- und Flugzeugnamen: die Boeing, die Titanic,
die Leipzig
Die Titanic sank bei ihrer ersten Reise in 1912.
Semantische Gruppen für Neutra in beiden Sprachen sind:
a) Substantivierte Infinitive: hrănitul, fluieratul, das Rauchen, das
Schreiben
b) Namen der Sportarten: fotbal, bridge, das Fussball, das Bridge
c) Namen der Hotels, Restaurtante, Cafes, Kinos: Astoria, Lido, das
Ritz, das Sacher
d) Namen Denumirile unor simţuri: auz, văz, das Sehen, das Hören
e) Namen mancher chemischen Elemente: granit, fier, das Kupfercupru, das Waserstoff – hidrogen
f) Namen der Kollektiva: bănet, das Geschwätz-pălăvrăgeală
„[...] îi e frică să nu-i ardă bănetul ascuns prin apropiere.”
(George Călinescu, Enigma Otilia, p.271)
„Überhaupt all das Zuhören, es ist nicht das Rechte.”
(Tot acest ascultat nu este corect.)
Nur auf Rumänisch finden wir folgende semantische Gruppen für
Neutra:
a) Namen der Gegenstände: geam, scaun
b) Namen der Flugzeuge und Züge: Orient Express
c) Nemen der Winde: alizeu, ciclon
d) Namen mancher Fische: macrou, tist
„Bătrânul merse şi ocupă scaunul rămas gol lângă ceilalţi [...].”
(George Călinescu, Effie Briest, p.31)
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Linguistics
Nur auf Deutsch finden wir folgende semantische Gruppen für
Neutra:
a) Namen der Länder mit einem Atributt: das wunderbare Europaminunata Europa
Das wunderbare Deutschland hat viele Sehenswürdigkeiten.
(Minunata Germanie are multe obiective turistice)
Von was wir oben dargestellt haben, sehen wir dass zwischen
Rumänisch und Deutsch viele Übereinstimmungen auf semantischer
Ebene gibt. Wir müssen aber aufmerksam sein, denn das Genus eines
Nomens kann nicht dem natürlichen Genus nach, erkannt werden.
Die Studie, mit allen Ähnlichkeiten und Unterschiede hat den Zweck
das Lernen zu erleichtern. Der Studierende, der Deutsch lernt kann diese
Kriterien folgen um besser und leichter das Genus zu lernen.
Verschiedene Studien haben gezeigt, dass kontrastive Studien zwischen
Muttersprache und Fremdsprache das Lern prozess erleichtern, denn
meistens machen die Lernende eine Parallele zwischen Muttersprache und
Fremdsprache.
Bibliographie:
***Academia Română, Institutul de lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan-Al. Rosetti”,
Gramatica limbii române, vol. I, Cuvântul, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei,
2005
***Duden, Gramatica, ediţia a VII-a, vol. 4, Editura Duden, 2003, p.147
Avram, Mioara, Gramatica pentru toţi, Editura Republicii Socialiste
România, 1986
Diaconescu, Paula, Structură şi evoluţie în morfologia substantivului
românesc, Editura Academiei, Bucureşti, 1970
Dimitriu, Corneliu, Tratat de gramatică a Limbii Române, Editura
Institutul European, 1999
Engel, Ulrich, Deutsche Grammatik, Editura Julius Groos, Heidelberg,
1988
Helbig, Gerhard, Buscha Joachim, Deutsche Grammatik, Ein Handbuch
für den Ausländerunterricht, Editura Langenscheidt, 2001.
Weinrich, Harald, Textgrammatik der deutschen Sprache, Editura Duden,
1993
89
Stylistic-pragmatic values of Romanian
nonfinite verbal forms
Alina-Paula NEMŢUŢ
University of Oradea
Abstract: As essential element of any utterance, the verb may be
used to convey different stylistic effects, either morphologically by its very
form or syntactically by the relationships established with other parts of
speech. In this article we shall describe some expressive values of
Romanian nonfinite verbal forms.
Keywords: stylistic devices, Infinitive, Gerund, Participle, Supine.
1. Introduction
The use of nonfinite verbal forms has the advantage of concentrating
expression as they reduce different subordinates. They occur in various
syntactic patterns (modifying verbs, adjectives, adverbs, nouns or noun
substitutes) either as heads, attracting their complements/ adjuncts or as
dependent terms. The infinitive, the gerund, the participle and the supine
are both stylistically and pragmatically relevant, creating suggestive
devices. We shall provide a few interesting contexts for each of them,
likely to be complemented with other examples as well.
2. The Infinitive
The conversion of the infinitive is extremely spectacular in
Romanian poetry and prose. The verbal turns into noun not only by
applying morphosyntactic means (assignment of definite article, adjectives
or prepositions) but also by using graphic markers (inverted commas
suggest autonymy). The two means can be sometimes encountered
together; the short infinitive intermingles with the long one, discharging
mostly the function of subject, attribute or prepositional object.
Nichita Stănescu, a modern writer known for his poetic playfulness,
frequently substantivizes the existential infinitive (be): “îmbrăţişat cu o
viaţă/ a lui „a fi” şi a lui „fire”.” (“Ensitteren”); “o stea scrisă „A FI”.”
(“Steaua scrisă”); “suave trigonometrii/ ale divinului „a fi”.” (“Laţ”)
Linguistics
The substantivized infinitive may occur in explanatory contexts
where different states are defined:
“A nu fi, chiar şi această absenţă/ poate fi pedepsită la viaţă/ şi ca
atare, condamnată la moarte,/ adică la a nu fi./ A nu fi, este condamnat prin
a fi,/ la a nu fi.” (“Cele patru coerenţe fundamentale”)
An innovative association is the coordination of three substantivized
verbals, the supine, the short and the long infinitive:
“Ni se face foame, mi se face de băut,/ mi se face de a fi, de o fire.”
(“Fel”)
The accidental conversion of the infinitive is also encountered in
Emil Cioran’s Amurgul gândurilor:
“„A omorî timpul”, aşa se exprimă banal şi profund neprielnicia
plictiselii.”; “Şi lipsa aceasta de popas, numită „a trăi”...”; “A face este
antipodul lui a şti.”
The infinitive conveys expressive values by repetition, the verb
usually having the role of subject, subject complement or attribute.
Repeating a noun phrase which includes an infinitival adjunct betrays
inner tension:
“… un copil i se ducea atât de departe încât speranţe de-a-l vedea
curând nu-şi prea putea face. Speranţe de-a-şi vedea fetele doar pe banii
lor…” (Ileana Vulpescu, “Arta compromisului”)
Sometimes verses containing identical infinitives are repeated either
in the same order or conversely, creating a sort of theme song/ leit-motif:
“Şi groaza de-a fi primii, de-a fi singurii,/ de a ne inventa mereu//
...Neliniştea, groaza de a fi primii şi singurii/ de a fi hymene ale
universului.// Şi spaima de a fi singuri, de a fi primii,/ de a fi hymene.// Şi
nevoia de a inventa stăpâni/ zei şi flori// A inventa un râu curgând liber/
prin aerul fără maluri.../ A inventa o floare/ al cărei miros/ suntem.”
(Nichita Stănescu, “A inventa o floare”)
In other contexts, repetition may turn into a polyptoton, i.e.
combining different forms of the same word:
“Puterea de-a fi, dar mai ales puterea/ de a fi fost – fiind./ Puterea de
a nu fi,/ dar mai ales puterea de-a nu fi fost – fiind.// A fi, e ca şi cum/ nici
n-ai fi fost.” (Nichita Stănescu, “Care este puterea supremă ce animă
universul şi creează viaţa?”)
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The infinitival subject or direct object can sometimes develop into an
anaphora by reiterating the same verb at the beginning of a metrical or
syntactical unit:
“A mirosi o floare este/ un fapt de mare ruşine...// A mirosi o floare e
ca şi cum/ în necunoştinţă de cauză ai viola/ însăşi cauza.” (Nichita
Stănescu, “A mirosi o floare”)
When the subject or direct object is a multiple one and occupies a
frontal position, it is repeated by a demonstrative pronoun from the series
asta, aceasta, acestea (this, these) or even by a noun and represents a type
of cumulative (compendious/ globalizing) anaphora, the anaphoric
substitute with neuter meaning reproducing by a unique expression several
different referents [GALR, II, 2005: 658, 659]. When multiplicity is
achieved by coordinating the infinitives of the same verb, each with its
direct object, the demonstrative actually reproduces more referents not
only one:
“A te sui, în adevăr, deasupra nourilor şi a nu te alege, mai la urmă,
decât cu un zâmbet de milă din partea capetelor rotunde […] a te
entuziasma înaintea unei flori răsărite pe margini de prăpăstii, a rămânea
petrificat sub farmecul melodiilor văzduhului şi a codrilor frământaţi de
vânturi; a plânge cu roua care murmură – toate acestea sunt, desigur,
lucruri de mare preţ.”; “A repeta în gând un întreg capitol de gramatică
înaintea lunii pline, care plutea visătoare în adâncimile albastre ale
spaţiului; a atârna câte un punct de exclamaţie de fiecare stea
tremurătoare, a-ţi lărgi, ca o pasăre de noapte, pupilele […] şi a nu te
alege, mai la urmă, decât cu ce se alege o bufniţă – iată, desigur, starea cea
mai de plâns, în care se poate afla cineva.” (Calistrat Hogaş, “Pe drumuri
de munte”); “A înţelege oamenii, apoi a înţelege lucrurile, pe urmă a
înţelege ideile, aceasta e, de sus în jos, scara înţelegerii.” (Nicolae Iorga,
“Cugetări”); “A rămâne singur cu întreaga iubire, cu povara infinitului
erotic – iată sensul spiritual al nefericirii în dragoste.” (Emil Cioran,
“Amurgul gândurilor”)
The infinitive is also used with stylistic function of anadiplosis,
being repeated at the end of a metrical or syntactical unit and at the
beginning of the next one, creating thus symmetry:
“A trăi făr-a iubi/ Mă mir ce trai o mai fi!/ A iubi făr-a simţi/ Mă mir
ce dragoste-o fi!/ A simţi făr-a dori,/ Mă mir ce simţire-o fi/ A dori făr-a
jertfi,/ Mă mir ce dor o mai fi!” (Nicolae Văcărescu, “A trăi făr-a iubi”);
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Linguistics
“A iubi înseamnă tot aşa de puţin a dori, precum a dori înseamnă tot aşa
de puţin a iubi.” (Nicolae Iorga, “Cugetări”)
When a certain structure recurs at the end of a sentence it becomes
an epiphora. In some relative constructions the infinitive is omitted
expressing inner tension, translatable into despair:
“Aş săruta, credeţi-mă, aş săruta,/ dar nu am cu ce,/ credeţi-mă,/ nu
am cu ce!” (Nichita Stănescu, “Fără de metamorfoză”)
Another hypostasis of repetition is chiasmus, a form of reversed
parallelism, in which the infinitives behave as adverbial modifiers of
opposition, expressing an antithesis:
“Căci toţi se nasc spre a muri/ Şi mor spre a se naşte.” (Mihai
Eminescu, “Luceafărul”)
With antithetic meaning occur the infinitives of purpose in the
following dictum:
“Dac-am aşteptat pentru a ne naşte o eternitate, trebuie s-aşteptăm
alta pentru a muri.” (Emil Cioran, “Amurgul gândurilor”)
Based on enumeration, infinitival coordination may appear in almost
any syntactic position (subject, complement, attribute, object, relative
construction or adverbial), marked by parataxis or binding:
“A trăi şi a muri: două semne pentru aceeaşi închipuire.”; “A avea
„adâncime” înseamnă a nu mai fi amăgit de separaţii, a nu mai fi rob
„planurilor”, a nu mai dezarticula viaţa de moarte.”; “În ultimă analiză,
scepticismul nu izvorăşte decât din imposibilitatea de a te împlini în extaz,
de a-l atinge, de-a-l trăi.”; “Dar pentru a te purifica de moştenirea
omenescului tău, învaţă a obosi, a dizolva, a corupe moartea din tine, de la
răspântiile tale.” (Emil Cioran, “Amurgul gândurilor”); “Şi n-ai ştiut a-i
scoate-n cale/ şi-a-l prăvăli de moarte, ura.” (Tudor Arghezi, “Psalmul de
taină”); “Stau, Doamne, cu o sabie în mâna dreaptă/ şi în mâna stângă
stau, Doamne/ cu un bici./ Dar nu mai am ce tăia/ şi nici ce bate.” (Nichita
Stănescu, “Singură vedere”); “Totul pentru a îmbrăţişa,/ amănunţit, totul,/
pentru a pipăi nenăscutele privelişti/ şi a le zgâria/ până la sânge/ cu o
prezenţă.” (Nichita Stănescu, “A şaptea elegie”)
Enumeration of suspended (independent) predicative infinitives
generates a true lyrical scene. With Adrian Păunescu, an entire poem
unfolds over 25 verbals; almost every verse begins with an infinitive, the
poetry itself turning into a manifesto. The advantage of using them is
given by their general character, the action being relatable to anyone,
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Linguistics
unlike the use of the subjunctive, the infinitive’s optional variant, which
would point to an agent known by the speaker:
“A nu mai vedea femeia iubită/ Când tonuri de mov se-amestecă-n
cer,/ A fi un copac, când frunze se-agită/ Şi dreptul la somn prin moarte şi-l
cer.// A trage-n perdea cu ochii, privire,/ A fi vinovat de suflet prea mult,/
A nu-ngădui ca toţi să se mire/ Că nu ţi-a rămas nimic din tumult.// A da
telefon cu fise de gheaţă,/ Să-ntrebi la spital de nu eşti în el,/ A fi consternat
că eşti încă-n viaţă,/ A râde-ntr-un fel şi-a plânge la fel.// A face-n neant
cetate de pază/ Şi-a pune-n fereşti anunţ că o vinzi;/ A crede în lămpi ce
veşnic filează,/ A crede-n argint că zace-n oglinzi.// A fi călător pe unde
nu-i voie,/ A fi amendat pe sens interzis,/ A-i da un ocean de lacrimi lui
Noe,/ A trece şi a rămâne în vis.// A nici nu păstra nimic pentru tine,/
Decât un racord la tot ce a fost./ A spune mereu, mi-e bine, mi-e bine,/ Şi
rău doar atât, că n-am nici un rost.// A nu şti de fapt pe unde ţi-e casa,/ A fi
peste tot fiind nicăieri,/ A reîntrupa pe Cenuşăreasa./ A şti că nimic din cea fost să ardă/ Nu arde acum, la vreme de ploi,/ În somn a striga chirurgul
de gardă.” (“Moment de cumpănă”)
The infinitive from compound verbal forms (future and present
conditional) may occur in inversion, especially in poetry, giving the
impression of an archaic prayer:
“Cârpi-voi pe-ntuneric mantaua vieţii mele./ Drept mulţumire şti-voi
că cerurile reci/ Vor strecura prin găuri lumina unei stele.” (Tudor
Arghezi, “Nehotărâre”)
Inverted conditionals are encountered in main clauses with
injunctive-optative value (expressing curses and imprecations), the short
infinitive being separated from the auxiliary by a clitic. Caragiale’s
sketches are full of oaths like “trăsni-te-ar Dumnezeu” (confound him!) or
“fir-ar a dracului” (damn it!).
“Defilam, defilându-ne în minte toate înjurăturile şi blestemele
posibile... sări-i-ar şi trăsni-i-ar şi arde-i-ar, usca-i-ar şi rămâne-i-ar
picioarele şontoroage...” (Petru Popescu, “Supleantul”)
Thematization is a pragmatic mechanism by which infinitives may
be placed at the beginning of an utterance, though they usually follow the
head, in order to focus on them as conveying some new information. Any
part of sentence can be therefore topicalized, being often situated at a
significant distance from the word it determines:
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“De-a fi-nflorit numai cu focuri sfinte/ Şi de-a rodi metale doar,
pătruns/ De grelele porunci şi-nvăţăminte,/ Poate că, Doamne, mi-este de
ajuns.” (Tudor Arghezi, “Psalm”); “Ce mânca văd eu bine că ai...” (Ion
Creangă, “Povestea lui Harap-Alb”); “Însă aripele-i albe lumea-a le vedea
nu poate...” (Mihai Eminescu, “Înger şi demon”); “Şi sânge din sângele ei
şi carne din carnea ei am împrumutat, şi a vorbi de la dânsa am învăţat.”
(Ion Creangă, “Amintiri din copilărie”); “Că cu pohtă şi voinţă/ A răbda
este dator.” (Alecu Văcărescu, “Cine are piept să poarte”)
In some situations, the verbal head of the infinitival construction is
omitted, being contextually inferable, “which gives the relatives a special
use” [Diaconescu, 1977: 154]. Accordingly, it is the speaker’s choice to
recover a subjunctive or an infinitive, the two of them being in free
variation:
“Da nu se poate să se culce în odaie, n-are unde, nu se poate... Cum
n-are unde? Dacă n-a avea loc jos, o culc alăturea cu mine; ei, cum n-are
unde?” (Calistrat Hogaş, “Pe drumuri de munte”); “Smaranda, care nu
ducea o viaţă mondenă, fiindcă n-avea cu ce, şi nici tragere de inimă
pentru aşa ceva, îl poftea la masă cu ea...” (Ileana Vulpescu, “Arta
compromisului”)
In utterances containing the negative modal a avea (have) and a
relative pronoun/ adverb one deals with lexical/ lexicalized ellipses
[GALR, II, 2005: 751] whose result is to obtain some fixed, “frozen”
expressions, independently used in spoken language: N-aveţi cum/ cu ce/
încotro/ pentru ce.
3. The Gerund
Expressing the action in progress, the gerund is broadly used not
only in literature but also in scientific writing for its dynamism. Modern
poetry and prose granted this verbal a privileged position. It can be easily
proved by such poets like Nichita Stănescu or Mircea Cărtărescu and by
novelists like Mircea Nedelciu in whose short stories there is an
abundance of gerunds. It is widely known that Eminescu’s youth poetry is
full of gerundial adjectives, which color the things, objects or human
beings described. Here are some gerundial personifying epithets:
“Noaptea vine-ncetişor/ Cu-a ei umbre suspinânde/ Cu-a ei silfe
şopotinde/ Cu-a ei vise de amor// Iar doi îngeri cântă-n plângeri,/ Plâng în
noapte dureros/ Şi se sting ca două stele/ Care-n nuntă, uşurele,/ Se cunun
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căzânde jos.// Când pe stele aurie/ Noaptea doarme uşurel/ Câte inime
râzânde,/ Dar pe câte suspinânde/ Le delasă-ncetinel.” (“Misterele
nopţii”); “Plai râzând cu iarbă verde,/ Ce se leagănă, se pierde/ Undoind
încetişor,/ Şoptind şoapte de amor. (“De-aş avea”)
Nichita Stănescu, a reformer of language and word by excellence,
makes use of adjectivized gerunds in unusual combinations, incarnating
abstractions:
“tălpi tropăie ce m-aleargă zâmbinde, către moarte.” (“Autoportret de
sâmbătă seara”); “Această lumină plângândă/ haide, să-i dăm lapte de
capră.” (“Cireşar”)
The attributive gerunds from Stănescu’s poetical titles are quite
suggestive, as they succeed in capturing a human being or object moving:
“Pasăre trecând printr-un nor” (bird flying), “Andru plângând” (Andru
crying), “Prinţul căzând de pe cal” (prince falling down the horse),
“Tânără fată mergând” (walking lass). The associations between the noun
and the gerund are many times unexpected as in “Inimă văzând” (seeing
heart), in which a personifying epiphet is created by selecting a sentiendi
verb. In Ana Blandiana’s poetry certain titles contain associative gerunds:
“Oh, râzând” (oh, laughing), “Făcând lumină” (lighting). In Mircea
Cărtărescu’s poems, seemingly endless enchainment of attributive gerunds
placed at the beginning of each verse is very frequent. They get to
correlate in units of two, three or even four verbals. Other while, the
gerund multiplies itself, occurring as a leit-motif by repetition, each time
having a direct object different from the previous one:
“o stea gigantică arzând1 peste bucureşti ca peste un arici de cristal/
vărsând2 şuruburi de foc pe taxiuri de şal/ luminând3 şi străluminând4
fiecare pală de loc, odaie şi hală/ văzând5 prin locatari ca prin feliile de
portocală/ vânturând6 troleibuze, răscolind7 sertare şi şifoniere/ disecând8
păianjenii surprinşi pe sub tablouri/ trecând9 prin flăcări bicicletele fără
roţi din vitrine, întorcând10 pe partea/ cealaltă/ viscolind11 bule lungi de
lumină de-a lungul bordurilor/ trepanând12 fiecare craniu, scotocind13,
smotocind14 prin cerebele, băgând15/ un deget prin măduva spinală,
ramificându-şi16 focul prin/ alveole şi intestine,/ ridicând17 asfaltul cu tot
cu maşini. (“Măreţia Kitschului”); “că în vid apare Regele Soare/ cu aripi
de mărgăritar/ aruncând foc/ aruncând raze/ aruncând văpăi/ aruncând
trotil/ aruncând flăcări/ aruncând sclipiri/ aruncând gutapercă/ aruncând
terebentină/ aruncând hipercortizon.” (“Regele Soare”)
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An interesting phenomenon is the sequence of gerunds functioning
as predicative adjuncts and corresponding to distinct relations. It generates
an effect of concatenation and ambiguation owing to the lack of
punctuation marks:
“de când te tot văd mişcându-te vorbind râzând fără rost” (Gabriela
Adameşteanu, “Dialog”)
The first gerund is required by the sentiendi verb a vedea (see) and
comes from subordination, reducing a direct object clause; the other two
have different heads and express an action simultaneous to the verb they
accompany, corresponding to copulative coordination: “te tot văd
mişcându-te”, “mişcându-te vorbind”, “vorbind râzând”. If vorbind and
râzând had been isolated by comma, their relation with the verb would
have changed: “mişcându-te râzând, vorbind”. Gerunds reducing
copulative sentences, i.e. associative gerunds, are encountered in modern
literature rendering “a sequence of actions (typical for the narrative
foreground), subordinating them to a durative process (typical for the
background)”. The role of the gerund is to place the action represented in
the background [Zafiu, 2000: 222–223]. These verbal forms often
coordinate leading by accumulation to a stylistic effect of digression; the
more powerful the more insistence is given to some of them by repetition:
“Oh, râzând şi plângând şi plângând şi plângând/ Ne ivim nentâlnim ne-nmulţim ne-amintim// Dar nimeni nu poate şti când izbucnim/
Brusc râzând şi plângând şi plângând şi plângând.// Ne salvăm ne
cunoaştem ne-nălţăm ne numim/ Doar râzând şi plângând şi plângând.”
(Ana Blandiana, “Oh, râzând”); “Chiar trupul meu de-atunci, rezemânduse/ pe fluturătorul aer al acestui pământ/ cutremurându-se, îndepărtânduse, schimbându-se,/ trecea neliniştit în gând. (Nichita Stănescu,
“Invocare”); “... se strâng mereu laolaltă în fabrici, în birouri, în familii, în
cârciumi, în parcuri, pe stadioane, ţinându-se de vorbă şi ţinându-se de
mâini şi făcându-şi tot felul de servicii şi contraservicii, certându-se şi
împăcându-se şi punând la cale plini de speranţă viitorul lor şi-al celor
cărora le poartă de grijă.” (Radu Aldulescu, “Amantul colivăresei”)
In prose, due to the great number of gerunds, coordination is
fragmented, being used without any attachment to a predicative verb
(which occurs in a previous sentence). The chain of gerunds makes the
clause develop an accelerated rhythm, especially when the provenient
verbs express movement, hence the economy of expression. The distance
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from the predicative support grants them a certain independence. Making
use of gerunds without relating them to another verb can be riskful and
generate laborious statements, but this may be explainable as long as it has
poetical or narrative role, that of enhancing tension and suggesting the
approach to a climax.
Here’s an example: the young Murivale, moved by Nichita
Stănescu’s death, hurries to the Writers’ Union where the lifeless body
was exhibited for the public. The images alternate with an incredible
speed, the character having no other purpose than seeing the matchless
poet once again. To suggest this, the writer uses many gerunds crowded
on a relatively reduced space:
“Apoi îşi continuă drumul şi el rămâne nemişcat în viscol, privind în
urma ei cum se depărtează şi dispare. Revenindu-şi apoi şi pornind abătut
în direcţia opusă. Intrând undeva să cumpere flori (număr par) şi
continuând să meargă prin zăpadă. Traversând micul parc din faţa
Ateneului, aruncând o privire statuii lui Eminescu, înaintând de-a
curmezişul peluzei înzăpezite din faţa statuii, cu capul plecat, cu vântul în
faţă. Ieşind la stradă şi fiind brusc întâmpinat de patrula garnizoanei.”
(Mircea Nedelciu, “Probleme cu identitatea”)
The gerund may be part of a poetic licence when its relation to
transitivity is opposed to the real one, i.e. the poet turns some intransitive
verbs into transitive ones, attaching a clitic where it isn’t normally
compulsory. Such is the case of a zbura (fly), encountered as transitive
verb only in expressions with figurative meaning: a zbura cuiva capul (kill
smb.), a-şi zbura creierii (blow out one’s brains). The reflexive gerund
zburându-se expresses a sort of demiurgical power of the birds, able to act
upon themselves and their flight, as if they had been born out of their own
will:
“ Deasupra mea păsările se ouă/ zburându-se pentru întâia oară.”
(Nichita Stănescu, “Cireşar”)
4. The Participle
Among qualifying determiners, adjectives proper and participial
adjectives have a greater degree of expressiveness. The variable participle
denotes a characteristic, but there is still a difference between it and the
adjective proper: while the latter contains an inherent characteristic:
frumos, prost, sărac (beautiful, fool, poor), the former acquired it from a
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completed process: înfrumuseţat, prostit, sărăcit (embellished, fooled,
impoverished) [Gruiţă, 2006: 155]. Some speakers point explicitly the
difference between the two kinds of characteristics:
“Având în vedere faima mirilor […] te-ai fi aşteptat ca mariajul lor
religios să se înscrie în nota grotesc-feliniană a evenimentelor mondene ce
bucură ştirb şi poleit cu viplă acest Bucureşti sărac şi sărăcit.”
(www.qmagazine.ro); “Tânărul jurnalist din Caracal a avut ambiţia să
demonstreze că românii sunt proşti şi aşteaptă să fie prostiţi.”
(codrinscutaru.blogspot.com)
The participle occurs mainly as noun determiner, being specific to
descriptions of nature, objects, and persons:
“cărămizi reieşite din cele şapte sute săptămânale, frământate,
modelate, uscate la umbră şi la soare, arse şi stropite şi aranjate în stivă”
(Radu Aldulescu, “Amantul colivăresei”)
The concentration of adjectival participles suggests complex states of
mind in Ana Blandiana’s poems. Speaking about poetry, metaphorically
called house, the poetess describes it by using many passive participles,
some of them accompanied by an agent, suggesting the creation itself:
“Casă împletită din ramuri de salcie/ Şi cioplită apoi ca Adam din
pământ,/ Casă acoperită cu-o orgă de papură// Casă spălată de rouă şi
ştearsă de soare,/ Casă-nvelită, ca un zeu mic, într-un nor.// Casă apărată
de pomi şi de viţe cu struguri/ Şi vegheată de albine, de licurici, de
lăstuni.// Casă zidită din litere şi stâlpi de silabe,/ Sprijinită-n cuvinte,
suspendată de stele.” (“Definiţie”)
Adjectival participles functioning as attributes or predicative
adjuncts, both of them occurring very frequently, along with adverbial
participles, become very fertile in creating epithets. Extremely suggestive
are the participles of ergative verbs:
“Carbonizat, amorul fumega.” (George Bacovia, “Negru”);
“Scârţâie toamna din crengi ostenite/ Şi frunzele cad ca un sinistru semn/
În liniştea grădinii adormite.” (George Bacovia, “În grădină”); “Lasă norii
lui molateci înfoiaţi în pat ceresc.” (Mihai Eminescu, “Memento mori”);
“Îi foşnea uscat pe frunze poala lung-a albei rochii.” (Mihai Eminescu,
“Călin”)
Playing with language, Nichita Stănescu challenges the limits of the
word often using non-adjectivizable participles. A merge (walk) is an
intransitive verb of movement and its participle would be probably
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translated as “which didn’t take any turn” (care n-a mers), a foot not yet
caught into the existential turmoil. A ploua (rain) is also intransitive, the
participle’s adjectival use occurring only in phrases like “om plouat” “a
rain-out man”, “a looking blue man”. The verb a râgâi (belch) is an
unaccusative verb which cannot be adjectivized (and neither do verbs
which reproduce animals’ sounds):
“La toamnă, plin de peşti şi de nămol/ voi curge pe sub pasul tău
nemers” (“La toamnă”); “Frumuseţea trebuie apărată cu dinţii,/ cu păsările
plouate din nori.” (“Cireşar”); “când zeii cei halindu-mă/ stau râgâiţi cu
stele dalbe” (“La plecarea îngerului”)
Typical for Stănescu’s poetry are the so called false participles, i.e.
participles likely to derive from negative verbs which, in fact, don’t exist
[Coteanu, 1985: 129]. By enumeration, participles combine with other
adjectives marked as [+ Negative]:
“Este surd, este şchiop,/ este nemâncat, este nebăut./ Este nedus, este
nenăscut./ Este nebun, este neînţelept,/ este nefericit,/ este neapărat, este
nenăscut./ Este netrebnic, este neghiob,/ este nefericit, este nedemn,/ este
nevăzut, este neauzit,/ este negustat, este nepipăit,/ este nenăscut./ Este
nemaipomenit, este neînchipuit,/ este nevisat, este neadormit./ Este
necugetat, este nevolnic,/ este nenăscut.” (“Transparentele aripi”)
5. The Supine
Many adverbialized supines with negative form express comparison
(maximum extent of a quantity: “bunătate nemărginit de mare”, “ochi
neasemuit de limpezi”, “accident nespus de grav” or exceeding a limit:
“recoltă nemăsurat de bogată”, “ajutoare nepreţuit de valoroase”, “grâu
nespus de rodnic”, “motive nenumărat de multe”, “fată neruşinat de
frumoasă”) and become markers of the superlative degree. The supine
from this type of constructions may also cover the semantic field of the
disagreeable: “durere nesuferit de mare”, “comportament nepermis de
grosolan”, “moarte neomenesc de absurdă”, “tupeu neruşinat de mare”,
“temperaturi nesuferit de scăzute”. It functions adverbially, conveying
alethic modality, i.e. the characteristic is beyond man’s imagination:
neajuns, neasemuit, neaşteptat, nebănuit, neclintit, necrezut, nedescris,
nefiresc, negrăit, neiertat, neînchipuit, neîntrecut, neînţeles, nenumărat,
nemărginit, nemăsurat, neobişnuit, neomenesc, nepermis, nepreţuit,
neruşinat, nesfârşit, nesperat, nespus, nesuferit + de.
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The supine is frequently used in thematization, placing itself in
frontal position. It usually reiterates a previous predication, either from a
partial or a total interrogative and contributes to discoursive cohesion:
“– Da’ ce-ai uitat, dragul tatei, de te-ai întors înapoi? De uitat, n-am
uitat nimica, tată, dar ia, prin dreptul unui pod, mi-a ieşit înainte un urs
grozav.” (Ion Creangă, “Povestea lui Harap-Alb”); “Vine el să doboare
copacii? Nu – zic –, de doborât o să-i doborâm noi, dar poate de mâine
încolo.” (Mircea Nedelciu, “Dansul cocoşului”)
References:
“Gramatica limbii române” [GALR] 2005. 2nd edition, Bucharest,
Academy Publishing.
Coteanu, I. 1985. Stilistica funcţională a limbii române, II. Bucharest,
Academy Publishing.
Diaconescu, I. 1977. Infinitivul în limba română. Bucharest, Scientific and
Encyclopaedic Publishing.
Gruiţă, G. 2006. Moda lingvistică 2007. Norma, uzul şi abuzul. Piteşti,
Paralela 45.
Zafiu, R. 2000. Naraţiune şi poezie. Bucharest, Bic ALL.
Literary Sources
Adameşteanu, G. 1989. Vară – Primăvară. Bucharest, Cartea Românească.
Aldulescu, R. 1994. Amantul colivăresei. Bucharest, Nemira.
Arghezi, T. 1998. Versuri. Bucharest, 100+1 Gramar.
Bacovia, G. 2009. Plumb. Bucharest, Litera.
Blandiana, A. 1997. La cules îngeri. Chişinău, Litera.
Cărtărescu, M. 2003. Plurivers 2. Bucharest, Humanitas.
Cioran, E. 1998. Amurgul gândurilor. Bucharest, Humanitas.
Creangă, I. 2009. Amintiri din copilărie. Bucharest, Curtea Veche.
Eminescu, M. 1999. Opera poetică. Chişinău, Cartier.
Hogaş, C. 1998. Pe drumuri de munte, Chişinău, Litera.
Iorga, N. s.a. Cugetări, Bucharest, Tineretului Publishing.
Nedelciu, M. 1989. Şi ieri va fi o zi. Bucharest, Cartea Românească.
Popescu, P. 2009. Supleantul, Bucharest, Jurnalul Publishing.
Stănescu, N. 1985. Ordinea cuvintelor, Bucharest, Cartea Românească.
Stănescu, N. 2009. Necuvintele, Bucharest, Curtea Veche.
Stănescu, N. 2010. Noduri şi semne, Bucharest, Curtea Veche.
Vulpescu, I. 2002. Arta compromisului. Ploieşti, Tempus.
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Considerations regarding political cant
Mariana-Florina BĂTRÂN
„Aurel Vlaicu” University, Arad
Abstract: The paper discusses some characteristics of the formal
language typical for the Romanian totalitarian political regime.
This type of communication, known as “wooden language” or “langue
de bois” (political cant), imposed itself in the second half of last century,
simultaneously covering various linguistic and extra linguistic features.
Some of the linguistic features characteristic of political cant are: the
emergence of new words, changing the meaning of existing words, a
prohibition of certain categories of words, the use of abbreviations, a high
density of nouns accompanied by adjectives, an avoidance the first person
singular personal pronoun, preference for euphemism, using clichés. Some
of the extra linguistic particularities are: the presence of a totalitarian
political regime, the existence of censorship, of state monopoly, of a
perverted and false report of reality, but above all, the presence of coercion
and terror. As a conclusion, it can be said that wooden language/political
cant is anti-language.
Keywords: communication, wooden language/political cant,
totalitarian, discourse
În perioada regimului comunist-totalitar, toate discursurile oficiale
urmau acelaşi tipar ideologic al limbii de lemn (lb l). Deoarece sursele pe
care se poate baza o analiză a discursului lemnos românesc sunt extrem de
variate (discurs politic, articole, literatura), mă voi opri asupra analizei
manualelor de Limba şi literatura română din acea perioadă, identificând
câteva elemente specifice, atât lingvistice, cât şi exralingvistice.
1. Trăsături extralingvistice
1.1. Regimul politic. Rodica Zafiu consideră că specificul limbii de
lemn e dat, în ultimă instanţă, de contextul politic, în care discursurile
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alternative nu se mai pot manifesta şi ideologia oficială se impune prin
constrângere1.
În spaţiul românesc, lb l apare odată cu schimbarea conducerii
politice. Intrarea în sfera de influenţă a blocului sovietic comunist a
provocat schimbări majore în societatea românească, mai ales după
abdicarea Regelui Mihai, la 30 decembrie 1947, puteau fi puse, şi din
punct de vedere legal, bazele sistemului totalitar2. În 1947 sunt publicate
primele programe conforme cu noua ideologie. Modificările constau în
inserţii ideologice care se referă la încadrarea socială a autorilor, a textelor,
la importanţa care trebuie acordată curentelor realiste şi constructive, la
reducerea la justa valoare a curentelor conservatoare şi decadente, dar şi la
acordarea unei atenţii deosebite literaturilor contemporane şi progresiste,
unde ca exemplu este dată literatura sovietică3. Debutul lb l este marcat de
un filosovietism artificios. „O deosebită atenţie trebuie să se dea educaţiei
elevilor în spiritul dragostei faţă de clasa muncitoare, de Partidul ei, în
spiritul patriotismului şi internaţionalismului proletar, în spiritul dragostei
neţărmuite faţă de Uniunea Sovietică, eliberatoarea şi sprijinitoarea
noastră, bastionul păcii şi al independenţei popoarelor, în spiritul dragostei
fierbinte faţă de marele Stalin, cel mai bun prieten al poporului nostru”4.
Dragostea pentru Uniunea Sovietică, abandonată odată cu
derusificarea5, a fost înlocuită la scurt timp cu dragostea pentru
conducătorul ţării. În ultimii ani ai comunismului identificăm o focalizare
1
Dincolo de monotonie: coduri de lectură ale limbii de lemn, în Limba de lemn în
presă, Editura Tritonic, Bucureşti, 2009, vol. coord. de I. Rad, p. 151.
2
Hannah Arendt în Originile totalitarismului, Ed. Humanitas, Bucureşti, 1994,
trad. Ion Dur şi Mircea Ivănescu, p. 526 face deosebirea între dominaţia autoritară,
care presupune limitarea libertăţii şi dominaţia totalitară, în care libertatea este
abolită şi chiar eliminarea oricărei spontaneităţi umane în general.
3
Programa analitică pentru liceele teoretice, 1947. Introducere la disciplinele
literare, în Alina Pamfil şi Ioana Tămâian, Studiul limbii şi literaturii române în
secolul XX. Paradigme didactice, p. 208.
4
Limba română, programa şcolară 1950-1951, Clasele V-VII. Lectură literară.
Introducere, Alina Pamfil şi Ioana Tămâian, Op. cit., p. 211.
5
Pentru mai multe detalii, vezi Dan Ciachir, Derusificarea, în “Convorbiri
literare”, nr. 9, 10 şi 11, 2009.
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culturală naţionalistă şi grandomană. Cum graniţele ţării erau închise,
singura posibilitatea de evadare era în propriul naţionalism grandoman.
1.2. Monopolul. Dacă în perioada interbelică exista o pluralitate de
programe şcolare şi de manuale, odată cu schimbarea regimului politic,
sarcina de a elabora documentele necesare studierii limbii române erau
exlusiv emise de o singură şi unică instanţă. Ministrul Învăţământului a
interzis folosirea unor materiale didactice mai vechi şi a autorizat doar
manuale încorporând precepte marxist-leniniste6. Astfel, statul preia
controlul total asupra manualelor şi materialelor didactice.
1.3. Cenzura. În foarte scurt timp, în manuale apar doar autori care se
încadrează în tiparele ideologiei. Autorii consacraţi sunt prezenţi doar cu
texte din care pot fi speculate trăsăturile „omului nou”, tendinţele
reacţionare ori dragostea faţă de „prietenii” sovietici. Pe de altă parte,
opere de valoare sunt citite strict în cheie ideologică; însă prin aceată
lectură nu numai că este deformat mesajul operei, dar este invalidată şi
lectura elevului. Sunt incluşi în paginile manualelor unice şi autorii
contemporani care se conformează acestor teme specifice. Bibliotecile şi
librăriile au fost epurate de titlurile necorespunzătoare din punct de vedere
politic. Nimic nu putea fi publicat, judecat sau interpretat fără aprobare7.
Cenzura, prin sita căreia se cern doar textele favorabile regimului şi sunt
interzise cele considerate a fi periculoase, şi-a îndeplinit sarcinile, cu mai
multă sau mai puţină sârguinţă, până la Revoluţie.
1.4. Raportul cu realitatea. Minciuna. Deşi se dorea a fi prezentată în
manualele şcolare o literatură a realismului socialist, aceasta era de fapt
doar o oglindă cosmetizată, o faţă purtând un strat gros de machiaj strident
pentru a putea masca ceea ce exista în realitate. Mai ales în anii '50 apar o
mulţime de „cântăreţi” ai regimului comunist, în textele cărora întâlnim:
ţărani fericiţi că au scăpat de jugul burgheziei (şi mai ales că au scăpat de
responsabilitatea terenurilor şi a bunurilor proprii, confiscate pentru
colectiv), oameni care luptă pentru pace (rămân un mister detaliile acestei
incredibile lupte), muncitori înflăcăraţi de patriotism (când de fapt erau
obligaţi a se înscrie în partid pentru a-şi păstra locul de muncă) ori tineri
6
Dennis Deletant, România sub regim comunist, Editura Fundaţia Academia
Civică, Bucureşti, 2006, p. 93.
7
Ibidem., p. 92.
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care muncesc cu drag şi înflăcărare la practica agricolă (când în realitate
era o obligaţie detestată). „Termenii, sintagmele, clişeele, orientările,
oamenii înşişi s-au mai schimbat (...), ceea ce a rămas însă neschimbat a
fost minciuna care a stat la fundamentul sistemului de la naşterea sa până
la moarte: căci comunismul s-a născut proclamând libertatea, adevărul şi
fericirea, dar n-a putut supravieţui decât trăgând în ele cu puşca”8. Lb l
este un instrument al edificării unei uriaşe minciuni generalizate9. În acest
sistem minciuna este perpetuată.
În majoritatea studiilor de specialitate, manipularea este
considerată a fi o trăsătură fundamentală a lb l. Cu toate acestea, consider
că nu este o caracteristică a lb l din mai multe motive. Manipularea
reprezintă acţiunea prin care un actor social (persoană, grup, colectivitate)
este determinat să gândească şi/sau să acţioneze într-un mod compatibil
cu interesele iniţiatorului, şi nu cu interesele sale, prin utilizarea unor
tehnici de persuasiune şi distorsionând intenţionat adevărul, lăsând însă
impresia libertăţii de gândire şi de decizie10. Pentru ca oamenii să
acţioneze conform intereselor disimulate11 ale ideologiei nu s-a apelat la
manipulare, ci la teroare, la şantaj. Dovadă clară în acest sent este existenţa
Securităţii. Faptul că gândirea şi dorinţa de exprimare liberă nu puteau fi
controlate este susţinut prin însăşi existenţa cenzurii. Manipularea nu se
poate susţine deoarece era exclusă din cauza obligativităţii, a absenţei
libertăţii12. Oamenii erau conştienţi de neadevărul discursurilor în lb l, care
era acceptat ca atare doar pentru că nu exista o altă alternativă.
1.5. Coerciţia. Temele care puteau fi abordate, care s-au încadrat
reţetei ideologice şi au trecut de cenzură, trebuiau să respecte şi limbajul
8
Ionel Funeriu, Eseuri lingvistice antitotalitare, Ed. Marineasa, Timişoara, 1998,
p. 62.
9
Dan Anghelescu, Limba de lemn şi distrugerea morală, în Op.cit., vol. coord. de
Ilie Rad, p. 83.
10
Ştefan Buzărnescu, Sociologia opiniei publice, Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică,
Buc., 1996, p. 102.
11
Majoritatea intereselor ideologice exprimate în lb l erau bine precizate, pentru ca
oamenii să se comporte conform tiparului dinainte stabilit (al “omului nou”,
evident). Singurul interes, de fapt scopul adevărat al ideologiei, de nedivulgat este
de a distruge demnitatea umană.
12
Ioana Vintilă-Rădulescu, Op. cit., vol. coord. de Ilie Rad, p. 334.
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Linguistics
specific, impus la rândul său. Coerciţia face parte din resorturile intime ale
statului represiv totalitar. Ea este exercitată inclusiv în vederea impunerii,
de sus în jos, a obligativităţii lb l, instaurată de puterea politică prin forţă
sau cel puţin prin presiune sau adoptată din teamă ori supunere şi
servilism13. Puterea impusă prin teroare şi mecanismele terorii au
dezarmat toate redutele care susţineau libertatea individului.
1.6. Teroarea. Au fost distruse atât partidele de opoziţie, împreună
cu membrii, cât şi presa liberă. S-au închis şcolile străine, inclusiv cele
administrate de culte. S-au făcut epurări în rândurile profesorilor şi
studenţilor. Eminenţi profesori au fost scoşi din facultăţi, iar locurile lor au
fost luate de îndoctrinatori stalinişti14. A nu fi cu „noi” însemna a fi
împotriva „noastră”. Motiv pentru care, până la urmă, şi studenţii şi
profesorii au fost nevoiţi să devină membri de partid. Majoritatea celor
recrutaţi considerau caliatea de membru de partid fie ca o cheie pentru
avansare şi privilegii, fie ca o asigurare că nu vor fi dezavantajaţi sau chiar
arestaţi15. Scopul ascuns, pe termen mediu şi lung, al coerciţiei impuse
prin teroare era de a anihila gândirea maselor16.
2. Trăsături lingvistice
2.1. Vocabularul.
2.1.1. Apar cuvinte noi. Majoritatea cuvintelor noi incluse în
vocabularul uzual la limbii sunt împrumutate ori reprezintă calcuri
lingvistice din limba rusă: „stahanovist”, „în lumina”, „Agitprop” (Secţia
de agitaţie şi propagandă), „colhoz”, „proletar” („O deosebită atenţie
trebuie să se dea educaţiei elevilor în spiritul dragostei faţă de Partidul ei,
în spiritul patriotismului şi internaţionalismului proletar...”17),
„proletcultist”, „UTC”, ş.a. Deoarece aceste cuvinte proveneau de la
„prietenii” noştri, aveau o semnificaţie strict pozitivă.
13
Ibidem., p. 332.
Dennis Deletant, Op. cit., pp. 92-93.
15
Ibidem., p. 89.
16
Tatiana Slama-Cazacu, Stratageme comunicaţionale şi manipularea, Editura
Polirom, Iaşi, 2000, p.72.
17
Programa şcolară 1950-1951, Clasele V-VII, Op. cit., Alina Pamfil, Ioana
Tămâian, p.210.
14
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Linguistics
2.1.2. Cuvinte evitate şi cuvinte interzise. Apelativul cel mai frecvent
„domn”, „doamnă” a fost interzis, fiind înlocuit cu cel de „tovarăş”. Alţi
termeni „persecutaţi” sunt: semantica, kibernetica, Dumnezeu (în anii '50),
biserică, cruce18. Interdicţia de a utiliza anumite cuvinte reflectă tabuul
politic. Spre sfârşitul deceniului al nouălea exista şi o listă de cuvinte
interzise care circula prin redacţii şi edituri19. Unele cuvinte au fost
asociate cu ideea de exploatare (burghez, imperialist). „Folosite adesea şi
în contexte explicit evaluative, generatoare de conotaţii negative, fixate
prin repetare, asociate în sloganuri, aceste modificări tematice ajung să
afecteze, remodelând-o, mentalitatea indivizilor”20. Consecinţele pe
termen lung a acestui tabu lingvistic s-au reflectat în autocenzura impusă
de fiecare individ.
2.1.3. Cuvinte care suferă mutaţii de sens. Anumite cuvinte
dobândesc în lb l o valoare opusă celei pe care o posedă în limba
naturală21. Majoritatea cuvintelor, chiar dacă nu sunt total opuse, au un
sens pervertit22. Unul dintre cele mai uzuale cuvinte căruia i se schimbă
sensul, menţionat şi în secvenţa anterioară, este „tovarăş”. „Termenul a
pătruns în lexicul fundamental al limbii române abia după război, când a
fost impus cu forţa de ideologia comunistă. Formal, «tovarăş» a ajuns o
găselniţă lexicală care, pasămite, reflecta, în planul limbii, egalitatea din
planul social dintre cetăţenii ţării”23. Spre exemplu cuvântul „ură” a primit
o conotaţie pozitivă24. Alte cuvinte compromise de „propaganda roşie”
sunt: adeziune, cârmaci, chiabur, colectiv, constructiv, erou, glie,
multilateral, neabătut, omagiu, progres, străbun25. Aceste cuvinte şi multe
18
Tatiana Slama-Cazacu, Op. cit., p.82.
Valeria Guţu Romalo, Aspecte ale evoluţiei limbii române, Ed. Humanitas
Educaţional, Buc., 2005, p. 219.
20
Ibidem., p. 232.
21
Un bogat inventar de cuvinte şi expresii ale lb l a fost întocmit de T. SlamaCazacu (vezi Stratageme comunicaţionale şi manipularea pp. 63-70 sau în vol.
Limba de lemn în presă pp. 23-29.)
22
Françoise Thom, Limba de lemn , Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2005, p. 67.
23
I. Funeriu, Op. cit., p. 22.
24
Françoise Thom, Op. cit., p. 67.
25
I. Funeriu, Op. cit., p. 20
19
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Linguistics
altele26 au fost introduse în Dicţionarul limbii române de lemn. Spre
exemplu, programa şcolară pentru clasele V-VII prevede următoarele : „În
aceste opere (ale creaţiei populare) se reflectă (...) ura împotriva
exploatatorilor şi a aliaţilor lor”27
Unele cuvinte, precum „Partidul”, din substantive comune,
primesc statutul de substantive unicat. Poezia „Partidului iubit” de
Gheorghe Tomozei28 are următorul final: „Partid iubit, tot ţie-ţi
mulţumim.” Tema pe care elevii trebuiau să o rezolve la această lecţie era
de a memora poezia. Un text în care autorul îşi exprimă sentimentele de
dragoste faţă de „Partid” nu este nici analizat, nici interogat în vre-un fel.
Semn că acesată „dragoste” trebuie învăţată, şi nu simţită.
Toate modificările privind schimbarea de sens a cuvintelor au fost
impuse. Astfel, nu poate fi cazul unei schimbări fireşti, dezvoltate în timp,
în mod natural. Aceste intervenţii sunt de natură estetico-ideologică,
deoarece cuvintele trebuiau să ascundă jalnica realitate şi să reflecte lumea
fictivă, mai bună a „omului nou”. Datorită faptului că o serie de cuvinte au
fost pătrunse de veninul ideologiei, în răspăr cu realitatea care se dorea a o
reflecta, se observă cu uşurinţă artificialitatea şi minciuna lb l.
2.1.4. Abrevierile. Abrevierea, ca specific al lb l, a fost intuită de
Orwell. „Cuvintele şi expresiile trunchiate au devenit una dintre trăsăturile
specifice ale limbajului politic; s-a observat chiar că tendinţa de a folosi
asemenea abrevieri era mai accentuată în societăţile totalitare. De
exemplu, cuvinte ca Nazi, Gestapo, Comintern, Inprecorr, Agitprop.
Iniţial, această practică a fost adoptată, dacă se poate spune aşa, în mod
instinctiv, dar Nouvorba face uz de ea cu un scop bine stabilit. S-a
observat că, printr-o asemenea abreviere, un cuvânt îşi îngustează şi-şi
modifică subtil aria de semnificaţie, pentru că majoritatea asociaţiilor
mentale pe care altmiteri le-ar genera sunt eliminate”29. Prin utilizarea
abrevierilor se face o economie de efort în exprimare, deci implicit şi în
26
O altă listă a cuvintelor cu sensul pervertit se găseşte în Stratageme
comunicaţionale şi manipularea, T. Slama Cazacu, pp. 63-69
27
Programa Şcolară 1950-1951, Clasele V-VII, în A. Pamfil, I. Tămâian, Op. cit.,
p. 211.
28
În Limba română. Manual pentru clasa a-II-a, E. Constantinescu, M. Vărzaru,
E. Zarescu, E. Sachelarie, Ed. Didactică şi Pedagogică, Buc. 1983, p. 132.
29
G. Orwell, O mie nouă sute optzeci şi patru, Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2002, p. 375.
108
Linguistics
gândire (scopul avut în vedere fiind anihilarea gândirii maselor)30. În
manualul de clasa a VI-a din 1989, la lecţia despre mijloacele de
îmbogăţire a vocabularului, la compunerea prin abreviere se oferă, printre
altele, următoarele exemple: O.N.T. (Oficiul Naţional de Turism),
AGERPRES (Agenţia Română de Presă), ADAS (Administraţia
Asigurărilor de Stat), M.A.N. (Marea Adunare naţională), tov. (tovarăşa,
tovarăşul)31. Acelaşi manual de clasa a VI-a, cu aceeaşi autori, dar din anul
1997, păstrează exact aceeaşi stuctură a lecţiei, cu omiterea unor exemple
care făceau referire la realităţile comuniste; nu mai apar cuvintele de mai
sus, ci: ROMPRES (Presa Română), ASIROM (Asigurarea Românească).
2.2. Lexicul
2.2.1. Substantivul. Densitatea mare de substantive în propoziţie
influenţează dinamica enunţurilor. Acestea dezvoltă un caracter descriptiv,
stagnant. Spre exemplu, iată un fragment din introducerea-comentariulrezumat la textul „Şoseaua Nordului”, de Eugen Barbu: „În această lectură
este înfăţişată activitatea comuniştilor în ilegalitate pentru pregătirea
insurecţiei naţionale armate antifasciste şi antiimperialiste din August
1944, când armata română a întors armele împotriva trupelor germane
cotropitoare.”32 Acelaşi text se pare că este studiat şi în clasa a X-a. În
acest caz, comentariile sunt oferite la sfârşitul fragmentului: „Datorită
calităţilor sale artistice, romanul Şoseaua Nordului ocupă un loc important
în cadrul literaturii inspirate din lupta comuniştilor români, desfăşurată în
ilegalitate, împotriva armatelor hitleriste şi pentru organizarea insurecţiei
populare de la 23 August 1944.”33 Încheierea comentariului este
următoarea: „În concluzie, romanul Şoseua Nordului este o evocare plină
de nerv dramatic, emoţionantă a luptei poporului nostru, în frunte cu
comuniştii, pentru libertate şi dreptate socială, pentru eliberarea de sub
dominaţia fascistă.”34
30
Tatiana Slama-Cazacu, Op. cit., p. 72.
M. Butoi, Gh. Constantinescu-Dobridor, Limba română. Manual pentru clasa a
VI-a, Ed. Didactică şi Pedagogică, Buc., 1989, pp. 48-51.
32
Fragment din Cartea de citire. Manual pentru clasa a VI-a, Lucia Atanasescu,
Ed. didactică şi pedagogică, Buc., 1977, p. 74.
33
Fragment din Limba şi literatura română. Manual pentru clasa a X-a, Emil
Leahu, Constantin Parfene, Ed. Didactică şi pedagogică, Buc., 1985, 259.
34
Ibidem., p. 262.
31
109
Linguistics
Propoziţie/
frază
1
2
3
Substantive
Adjective
Verbe/Predicate
8
10
11
8
7
6
1 p.n şi 1 p.v.
1 p.v.
1 p.n.
Total
cuvinte
30
35
32
Putem observa numărul relativ mare de substantive; acestea sunt
grupate în jurul a doi poli: „noi”, comuniştii şi „ei”, imperialiştii, în regim
dihotomic. Toate substantivele sunt infuzate de miasma ideologică.
2.2.2 Adjectivul. Aproape fiecare substantiv este determinat de cel
puţin un adjectiv. Polaritatea instituită de substantive este accentuată de
determinanţi: dominaţia este întotdeuna „fascistă”, trupele germane sunt
întotdeuna „cotropitoare”, iar armata comunistă este întotdeauna
„antiimperialistă, antifascistă”. Calificativele se aşează parcă singure,
urmând o schemă rigidă, lângă substantivele de rigoare. Practic, era
imposibil să existe o expresie precum „comunist cotropitor”, deoarece era
imposibil de trecut dincolo de graniţele ideologiei. Dezertorii au plătit
scump neascultarea lor. Caracterul antitetic (pozitiv-negativ) al
adjectivelor este evidenţiat şi prin prefixul „anti”, pentru a nu lăsa pradă
incertitudinilor poziţia oficială, ideologică. O altă particularitate a
adjectivelor este frecvenţa cu care se folosesc gradele de comparaţie, cu
deosebire superlativul. „«Portretul» de Alfred Margul-Sperber este unul
dintre cele mai frumoase elogii lirice aduse măreţiei omului”35.
Superlativul împreună cu alte adjective, prin folosire curentă şi prin
referirea la orice şi oricine, îşi pierd din forţă; „înălţător”, „desăvârşit”,
„înalt”, „impetuos”, „strălucitor” sunt cuvinte care se devalorizează astfel
ca semnificaţie, iar calificativele abundente devin previzibile prin
repetabilitate36.
2.2.3. Pronumele. Prin dispariţia pronumelor la persoana întâi şi a
doua plural, concomitent cu răspândirea pronumelor (adjectivelor
pronominale) la persoana întâi plural se dorea să se accentueze unitatea
35
E. Leahu, Constantin Parfene, Limba şi literatura română. Manual pentru clasa
a X-a, Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, Bucureşti, 1985, p. 218.
36
Mihaela Albu, Realismul socialist şi limba de lemn în critica literară a anilor
'50, în Op. cit., vol. coord. de I. Rad, p. 168.
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Linguistics
poporului, a partidului37. Participarea unanimă, prin pronumele de
persoana întâi plural, este remarcată şi de Monica Chiva38: „ne învăluie”,
„ne întâmpină”, „vom observa”. Efectul cel mai important al absenţei
pronumelor la persoana întâi singular este anularea individualităţii, a
responsabilităţii. Când nu există posibilitatea ca cineva să-ţi exprime
gândurile personale, înseamnă că acestea trebuie reprimate. Un elev model
era figura ştearsă care se pierde în generalitatea lui „noi”. Adică „omul
nou” era o fiinţă fără indiviualitate, în ciuda falsului umanism afişat.
Absenţa persoanei întâi singular reprezintă uciderea în efigie a raţiunii şi a
demnităţii omului, datorită anulării individualităţii.
2.2.4. Verbul. În fragmentele citate anterior verbele predicative sunt
relativ puţine. Practic, comentariul aferent textelor literare pendulează între
pasivitatea-descriptivă sugerată prin verbe copulative ori verbe la moduri
nepredicative (există o preferinţă aparte pentru infinitivul lung, care prin
schimbarea valorii gramaticale devine substantiv) şi vebele predicative, de
cele mai multe ori mobilizatoare. Iată câteva exemple de verbe la moduri
nepersonale: „înlăcrimat”, „părăsită”, „răvăşit” (participiu, care prin
schimbarea valorii gramaticale devine adjectiv), „jeluind”, „nedumerind”
(gerunziu). Specific lb l este folosirea construcţiilor impersonale, însă în
manuale se regăsesc mai puţin, deoarece există întotdeauna un autor, un
text la care se face referinţă, de exemplu: „se ştie”, „se constată”, „se poate
vorbi”. Modul imperativ este cel mai des folosit în cerinţele adiacente
textelor. Aceste exerciţii, puţine dealtfel, în comparaţie cu comentariul
alăturat fiecărui text, cer memorarea poeziilor sau identificarea
elementelor realiste. Prin aceste strategii se urmărea depersonalizarea
intenţionată a elevului.
2.3. Figuri stilistice.
Datorită faptului că figurile de stil sunt puse strict în slujba
ideologiei, scopul lor estetic este subminat şi diluat. Utilizarea lor are un
scop practic, cu o triplă funcţie: persuasivă (încearcă să obţină aderenţa
receptorului), pedagogică (permit ilustrarea ideologiei pentru a fi mai bine
37
38
Françoise Thom, Op.cit., p. 43.
Tatiana Slama-Cazacu, Op. cit., p.81.
111
Linguistics
reţinută) şi lexicală (contribuie la îmbogăţirea vocabularului şi la mascarea
lacunelor de limbaj)39.
2.3.1. Epitetul. Ariditatea de substanţă a comentariilor necesită
condimente specifice; unul dintre cele mai la îndemână este epitetul.
Deoarece textele din manual sunt alese după criterii ideologice şi doar mai
apoi estetice, comentariul textului este îndulcit, aproape până la
îngreţoşare, cu epitete: „o generaţie excepţională de poeţi”, „cămin fericit
şi paşnic”, „ritual secret şi fascinant”, „sărutul cast”, „senzualitate
aprinsă”, „trecutul e ... reinterpretat creator”, „descriere învăpăiată”,
„poetul vizionar”.
2.3.2. Inversiunea. De obicei, inversiunea se foloseşte pentru a
sublinia anumite calităţi, trăsături. Ca orice lucru, folosit prea des, îşi
pierde semnificaţia de insolit, pe care ar fi avut-o iniţial. Iată câteva
exemple: „mare poet”, „o poezie a marilor întrebări”, „mare evocator”, „o
înaltă idee”, „frumoasa poemă”, „frumoase versuri”, „neaşteptate împletiri
lexicale”, „mari personalităţi”. Observăm că predomină calităţi precum:
frumosul, măreţul. Prin aceste expresii, devenite locuri comune prin
repetare, se ilustrează de fapt dorinţa de grandilocvenţă; ascunzând însă
acelaşi conţinut ideologic.
2.3.3. Metafora. Paul Cernat40 remarcă abundenţa metaforelor
organice şi naturiste. Obsesia germinaţiei şi a naşterii indică un fond
arhetipal de tip rural şi păgân, gata să se lase fecundat de „sămânţa”
mitologiei comuniste. Acelaşi autor susţine că avem de-a face cu un tip de
poezie în care orfismul capătă funcţie „patriotică şi revoluţionară”. Din
prea mult zel, uneori se ajunge la comic involuntar: „Explicaţia constă în
faptul că, în broaştele poeziei lui Arghezi, se potrivesc cele mai diferite
chei, fără ca vreuna să descuie toate uşile”, Datorită folosirii frecvente,
anumite metafore sunt catalogate ca fiind „muribunde”41, devenind în
timp simple clişee. Două exemple concludente sunt: „Luceafărul poeziei
româneşti” şi „Ceahlăul literaturii noastre”. „Figuri de stil remarcabile în
39
Nicoleta Mihai, Limba de lemn a lui Gheorghiu-Dej, în Op. cit., vol. coord. de
Ilie Rad, p. 218.
40
Op.cit., p. 322.
41
Françoise Thom, Op. cit., p.77.
112
Linguistics
textele critice în care au apărut prima dată, exprimând aprecierea (...), ele
devin, prin abuz, nişte formule stereotipe, uscate, chiar ridicole uneori”42.
Printre reminiscenţele greu de înlăturat se găsesc metaforele cu care este
supranumit Eminescu.
2.3.4. Hiperbola. „Măreaţa” societate comunistă preferă elogiile în
descrierea realizărilor sale, deşi în discursul de întâmpinare adresat elevilor
de clasa a X-a, Ceauşescu afirmă: „Sîntem revoluţionari şi nu dorim opere
care să înfrumuseţeze realitatea (...) Dimpotrivă, considerăm că o astfel de
prezentare idilică este dăunătoare pentru dezvoltarea spiritului şi a
combativităţii revoluţionare a omului socialist”43. Gigantismul e
cosubstanţial imaginarului comunist44. Se observă în toate manualele din
perioada comunistă preferinţa pentru calificative hiperbolizante: „cea mai
masivă operă de «recuperare» a urâtului”, „poemul social cel mai de
seamă ... este Cântare omului”, „granioasa adunare populară”,
2.3.5. Antiteza. Acest procedeu este intens folosit în special în prima
parte a dominaţiei totalitare, când se dorea o diferenţiere clară faţă de
trecut şi în plan discursiv. Se face astfel o diferenţiere clară între scriitorii
progresişti şi scriitorii reacţionari. Iată o retrospectivă asupra perioadei
interbelice:„Tendinţelor umaniste, democratice, dominante în epocă, li se
opun forme de ideologie rasiste, fasciste, reacţionare.”
Datorită folosirii în exces a figurilor stilistice, acestea îşi pierd
vitalitatea în cadrul lb l. Din acest motiv se observă un fenomen de
ştergere a diferenţelor din limbaj, de tăvălugire stilistică45.
2.4. Alte aspecte lingvistice
2.4.1. Maniheismul. Opoziţia fundamentală care stă la baza
ideologiei comuniste este cuplul reacţionar- progresist. Citatele discutate
anterior (4.2.1.) reflectă fidel poziţiile divergente ale celor două tabere. O
serie de alte cupluri antitetice, precum: formă-conţinut, obiectiv-subiectiv,
Linguistics
întreg-parte, formează maxilarele idologiei46. Dumitru Irimia deosebeşte
două variante ale lb l: o variantă de expresie pozitivă, în funcţie
encomiastică şi una de expresie negativă, în funcţie distructivă47. Oricare
cele două variante de expresie sunt însă purtătoare a miasmei ideologice.
Aceste două opţiuni ilustrează registrul maniheist la discursului în lb l.
Textul despre literatura postbelică are următorul titlu: „LITERATURA
ROMÂNĂ DE DUPĂ REVOLUŢIA DE ELIBERARE SOCIALĂ ŞI
NAŢIONALĂ, ANTIFASCISTĂ ŞI ANTIIMPERIALISTĂ DIN
AUGUST 1944”48. Delimitarea între cele două tabere este clară.
Posibilitatea unei opţiuni de mijloc nu este posibilă. Scindarea între cele
două lumi (şi opţiuni) este definitivă şi irevocabilă.
2.4.2. Eufemismul este procedeul prin care era denaturată realitatea,
pe lângă miciunile propriu-zise. În exemplul „Tudor Arghezi a continuat
să scrie, cu rară conştiinţă de artist cetăţean, până când a închis ochii”49 se
observă faptul că în momentul respectiv, Arghezi era într-un con de
lumină favorabil. Eufemizarea devine o caracteristică a lb l doar în
momentul în care este impusă şi nu există alte variante ale aceluiaşi
discurs.
2.4.3. Monologul. Solilocviul este forma de discurs specifică lb l,
specifică mentalităţii totalitare. Voga dialogului, în schimb, care
promovează tratativele reprezintă modul de gândire propriu societăţilor
democratice50.
Toate manualele din perioada comunistă reprezintă un adevărat
monolog. Orice text este escortat de prezentarea generală asupra epocii, de
biografia autorului, împreună cu întreaga sa creaţie, dar mai ales de
comentariul complet. Astfel, elevul nu are nici o şansă de a spune părerea
sa. Datorită faptului că reprezenta poziţia oficială, comentariul era însuşit
ca atare de elevii sârguincioşi şi doritori de note bune.
46
42
Valeria Guţu Romalo, Corectitudine şi greşeală. Limba română de azi, Ed.
Humanitas, Buc., 2008, p. 215.
43
în Limba şi literatura română. Manual pentru clasa a X-a, Nicolae Manolescu,
Nicolae I. Nicolae, Ed. didactică şi pedagogică, Buc., 1982, p. 3.
44
P. Cernat, Op. cit., p. 329.
45
Tatiana Slama-Cazacu, Op.cit., p.72.
113
Françoise Thom, Op. cit., pp. 109-110.
În Panait Istrati faţă cu limba de lemn, Op. cit., vol. coord. de Ilie Rad, p. 206.
48
N. Manolescu, N. I. Nicolae, Limba şi literatura română. Manual pentru clasa
a XII-a, Ed. Didactică şi pedagogică, Buc., 1985, p.107.
49
E. Leahu, C. Parfene, Limba şi literatura română. Manual pentru clasa a X-a,
Ed. Didactică şi Pedagogică, Buc., 1985, p.126.
50
Valeria Guţu Romalo, Op. cit., p. 229.
47
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Linguistics
La sfârşitul lecţiilor, puţinele cerinţe se referă a a identifica
anumite idei din comentariul adiacent. Chiar şi atunci când se cer a fi
comentate unele fragmente din operele literare, există îndrumări care să
ghideze gândirea elevului, nu cumva acesta să poată înţelege altceva,
diferit de ideile formulate deja. „Alcătuiţi o compunere, după preferinţă,
dezvoltând unul din următoarele enunţuri, pe care vi le propunem: Satul şi
ţăranul în viziunea poetică a lui G. Coşbuc şi O. Goga sau Aspecte ale
patriotismului în poezia lui G. Coşbuc şi O. Goga”. Este de remarcat
generozitatea autorilor, care lasă la libera opţiune a elevilor subiectul
compunerii (când, de fapt, ambele teme au fost atinse în comentarii
anterioare).
2.4.4. Clişeul. O caracteristică a lb l este utilizarea în mod excesiv a
unor cuvinte şi expresii, care în timp îşi pierd mobilitatea, devin rigide,
asemeni ideologiei al cărui sens îl poartă. O serie de automatisme verbale
au fost identificate de Monica Chiva, în 1994, în manualele şcolare (atât în
cele din perioada comunistă, cât şi în cele postdecembriste): a lupta, a
milita, a înfrunta (cuvinte care aparţin unui registru de „luptă”), activism,
neîncetat, înflăcărat (redau voluntarismul şi înflăcărarea), să amintim, să
afirmăm, vom observa (ilustrează participarea colectivă), adjectivele la
superlativ, termeni din domeniul biologiei, ş.a51. Motivul pentru care
aceleaşi clişee se regăsesc şi în manualele de după 1989 este faptul că
structura şi conţinutul au rămas aceleaşi (s-au eliminat strict cuvintele care
făceau referire la ideologie). În prezent, când există o paletă largă de
manuale alternative, şi implicit de abordări ale materiei, nu mai putem
vorbi de existenţa clişeelor în manuale. Cu toate acestea, mai există
exprimări lemnoase atât în exprimarea profesorilor, cât şi a elevilor. Acest
fapt consider că se datorează nu manualelor, ci comentariilor aferente
textelor literare. După apariţia manualelor alternative, care nu mai ofereau
un suport de interpretare elevului, au apărut o mulţime de cărţi52 în care
51
Apud. T. Slama-Cazacu, Op. cit., pp. 77-78.
De exemplu: M. Boatrcă, S. Boatcă, G. Şovu, Limba şi literatura română.
Antologie de texte comentate clasa a VII-a, Ed. Cartea Şcolii, Buc., 1997 (cu
echivalente şi pentru celelalte clase), C. Stoleru, Literatura română. Comentarii
literare şi teste pe baza textelor din 20 de manuale alternative (Bacalaureat 2003),
Ed. Pestalozzi, Buc. 2002, M. H. Columban, I. Pop, C. Radu, Limba şi literatura
română. Modele de rezolvare a subiectelor pentru examenul de Bacalaureat
2008, Ed. Art Grup Editorial, Buc., 2008.
52
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erau analizate după acelaşi tipar, operele literare. Comoditatea profesorului
de a preda după un tipar prestabilit acelaşi lucru, dar şi comoditatea
elevului de a nu gândi el singur înţelesul unui text, şi în consecinţă, să se
exprime liber, au făcut ca aceste clişee lingvistice, dar şi de structură să se
perpetueze până în prezent.
Importanţa exagerată care se atribuie clişeelor împreună cu o
definiţie trunchiată duce, de multe ori, la interpretări eronate. Studiul
Daianei Felecan, Structuri clişeizate în redactarea horoscopului53, deşi
este perfect valabil ca analiză, este eronat ca interpretare, deoarece susţine
existenţa lb l în textele de horoscop. În aceeaşi capcană, întinsă de o
definiţei parţială a lb l, se avântă, cu mult entuziasm şi Oliviu Felecan,
susţinând Limba de lemn în mesajele funerare de la mica publicitate54.
Deşi are la bază observaţia asupra clişeelor din proiectele de cercetare
filologică, interpretarea55 lui Ionel Funeriu se fundamentează pe o definiţie
cuprinzătoare şi coerentă (lb l deţine monopolul discursiv, este omipotentă
într-un sistem opresiv, a reprezentat triumful ideologiei asupra spiritului).
Astfel, demersul său iese din tiparele exempelor menţionate anterior.
Trăsături axiologice
Miza adevărată pentru care s-a impus lb l era de fapt crearea „omului
nou”, programat să gândească, să simtă şi să se comporte conform
ideologiei. Însă, în ciuda tuturor măsurilor luate, omul nu a putut fi
programat să gândească şi să simtă aşa cum i se comanda. A putut, şi a
fost obligat să se comporte într-un anumit fel şi să vorbească în lb l.
„Omul nou”, pionul model al lumii totalitare, era creat printr-o violentă
pedagogie concentraţionară, în care individul este controlat, determinat,
prăbuşit (prin educaţie, propagandă, represiune, cenzură şi teroare) în
bolgiile unei condiţii infra-umane56. Prin această discrepanţă între esenţa şi
aparenţa limbajului se conturează caracterul baroc al lb l. Faptul că
individul nu a contat niciodată într-un sistem totalitar este susţinut la nivel
53
Op. cit., vol. coord. de Ilie Rad , pp.263-276.
Ibidem., pp. 280-292.
55
Ibidem., pp. 294-302.
56
Dan Anghelescu, Limba de lemn şi distrugerea morală, în Op. cit., vol. coord.
de Ilie Rad, p. 86.
54
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Linguistics
discursiv prin eliminarea persoanei întâi singular. Adevărata esenţă a
„omului nou” ar fi trebuit să fie docilitatea, ascultarea oarbă. Cum acest
lucru era greu de obţinut altfel decât prin lobotomizare, s-a apelat la
mecanismul pervers al umilirii, al îngenunchierii fiinţei interioare prin
teroare, şantaj şi prin obligativitatea de a vorbi în lb l. Consider că
impunerea lb l este varianta „soft” a experimentului Piteşti, a
mecanismelor opresive ale sistemului totalitar. Lb l este cel mai monstruos
instrument de distrugere interioară, în primul rând fiind vorba de o
distrugere morală, deoarece sunt mai discrete şi mai greu de reperat
ravagiile produse astfel, prin deliberata distrugere a minţilor şi a
sufeltelor57. Sinceritatea discursului în lb l era anulată. Astfel, cuvântul nu
mai este vitaminizant, ci dimpotrivă, toxic. Lb l este un instrument de
parazitare a conştiinţelor, un logocid58. Lb l tratată ca un simplu fenomen
de deviaţie stilistică ar eluda esenţialul59, şi anume că mizele sunt mult mai
profunde; ele se întrevăd dincolo de aspectele descriptive, în distorsionarea
axei verticale pe care ar trebui să o aibă orice limbă, orice cuvânt.
Astfel, atât trăsătuile lingvistice, cât şi cele extralingvistice, ale
limbii de lemn conturează un univers lingvistic sărac, previzibil, în
opoziţie cu rolul constuctiv al limbajului. Scopurile finale ale impunerii
unui asemenea mod de a vorbi, prin interzicerea exprimării libere, deci a
individualităţii, contribuie la răspândirea unui antilimbaj, al alienării şi al
terorii.
Linguistics
Funeriu, Ionel, Eseuri lingvistice antitotalitare, Editura Marineasa,
Timişoara, 1998;
Guţu Romalo, Valeria, Aspecte ale evoluţiei limbii române, Editura
Humanitas Educaţional, Bucureşti, 2005;
Guţu Romalo, Valeria, Corectitudine şi greşeală. Limba română de azi,
Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2008;
Orwell, George, O mie nouă sute optzeci şi patru, Editura Polirom, Iaşi,
2002;
Pamfil Alina, Tămâian Ioana, Studiul limbii şi literaturii române în secolul
XX. Paradigme didactice, Editura Casa Cărţii de Ştiinţă, Cluj-Napoca,
2005;
Rad, Ilie (coordonator), Limba de lemn în presă, Editura Tritonic,
Bucureşti, 2009;
Slama-Cazacu, Tatiana, Stratageme comunicaţionale şi manipularea,
Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2000;
Thom, Françoise, Limba de lemn, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2005.
Bibliografie:
Arendt, Hannah, Originile totalitarismului, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti,
1994;
Buzărnescu, Ştefan, Sociologia opiniei publice, Editura Didactică şi
Pedagogică, Bucureşti, 1996;
Ciachir, Dan, Derusificarea, în “Convorbiri literare”, nr. 9, 10 şi 11, 2009;
Deletant, Dennis, România sub regim comunist, Editura Fundaţia
Academia Civică, Bucureşti, 2006;
57
Ibidem., pp. 86-87.
Ibidem., p. 77.
59
Ibidem., p. 77.
58
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118
Iconic rhetoric in advertising
Carmen NEAMŢU
„Aurel Vlaicu” University, Arad
Abstract: The chief endevaour of advertisers is to make their
product easily noticed and remebered. Thus using images becomes the
solution because, compared to verbal communication, our mind can
analyze images much more easily, in fractions of a second.
Because few of the newspaper readers actually go through the entire
text of an advertisement, the design of an advertisement is of a different
nature, preparing the reader for a visual reading experience. This implies a
visual design for the copy, too, which should support the argumentation.
This paper discusses patterns used in magazines (optimal frame,
chromatic code, mood, graphics, visual metaphors etc.), analyzing first
level iconic signifiers or connotations carried by the second level image
reading.
Finally, some considerations are made regarding images used in
perfume advertisements (ads that in most cases exploit communication via
image, rather than via persuasive linguistic message), as well as the
“image” of the type face (font size, height, type).
Keywords: advertising discourse, iconic rhetoric
“Word and image are like chair and table: if you want to sit at the
table, you need both” – said Jean-Luc Godard, in Anisi parlait Jean-Luc ,
Fragments du discours d’un amoreaux des mots, “Telerama”, nr. 2278,
8/9/93, referring to the relation word-image, which complete one another,
interact in a happy way. What is seen more often and better is overrated,
acting on our sensibility. [Jean – Luc Godart, Legibility studies show that
only 3-5% from the readers of a newspaper or magazines integrally go
over the text of an advertisement. This outcome develops a series of
characteristics of the construction of the advertising text, preparing for the
reader, as J.M. Adam and M. Bonhomme noticed a visual path of reading.
This approach involves an organization or a visual construction of the
statement, which emphasizes the argument. Thus, what it is shown to us
Linguistics
becomes credible, according to the well-known dictum: “I only believe
what I see with my eyes”. The visualizing of an idea is very important for
the advertisement creator, truth that makes François Brune [F. Brune,
1996, 151] to cry out: “envision, envision, it still remains something”.
W. Kroeber-Riel thinks that only 5% from the advertisement
information are caught and remarks the image tendency [See also
Emmanuel Pedler, Communication sociology Bucharest Cartea Romana
Press, 2001, p. 157: “For its different characteristics, the image can “say”
many things in the same time, being capable of triggering variable
interpretive and contradictory emotions”] to replace almost completely the
oral elements. The major concern of the advertisement creators is to make
their advertisement product to be (quickly) noticed and (easily) caught.
The use of the image becomes, hereby, the solution. In comparison with
the orally manifestation, our mind can analyse the images much easier, in
fractions of seconds. A second would be enough only for getting over one
word, whereas from 1.5 to 2.5 seconds you need for getting over and
memorize an image. Therefore, images have been called “cannon balls
training the brain” [W. Kroeber-Riel, 1993, 107] and, like the words, “they
can argue, rise questions or create fictions”.[Linda M Scott, 260].The
global significance of a visual message is built through the interaction of
different types of signs: plastic, iconic, linguistic. The image plays an
important role in the economy of the advertising speech, if we take into
account also the statistics, which tell us that we catch only 20% from what
we hear, 30% from what we see and 50% from what we see and hear at
the same time. In the written press – Michael Schudson notices - bigger
advertisements have a bigger effect on consumers than those of smaller
dimensions; coloured advertisements are more easily caught than those in
black and white: those with images or short texts have an advantage
towards those without illustration and a very long message. [Michael
Schudson, 1993, 84.]
The emancipation era of the visual field labelled the advertising
speech too, from the exclusive dominance of the word, to an imperialism
of image in the linguistic speech, through the obsessive option for the
chromatic codes (see the colours which give the brand to products, like the
Shell yellow, pink for Wizz Air, light blue for Air France company, red
for McDonald’s, red-green for Moll gas stations etc.), typographical codes
(with emphasis rhetorical effects of the object, of dimensions’ operation,
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of volumes) and of morphologic codes (in joking and semiotic sense of
appropriation of objects and of their service, by minimizing the human
component, reduced at the simple role of spectator). Clifford G.
Christians, Mark Fackler, Kim B. Rotzol and Kathy B. McKee [2001,
174] stick at some of the common dimensions of orally advertising
expression. Chosen models - must be memorable: they are usually
beautiful, muscular, graceful, lovely, just good for you to wish to be
like them; Framework - it’s splendid or less attractive, on how the
argumentation for sale requests. It’s thick enough, just fanciful, exotic
or with sand; elegant or classic and flat; Well-chosen to awake the
consumer’s mood; Colours - present the unclean face in dull colours,
whereas the revitalized hair shows up in vivid colours: In the
advertisement, there are preferred colours that stir emotion, stirring
colours; Mood - exuberant/thought-provoking or sad/dull (at least until
the use of product from the advertisement); It must be artistically
harmonized with the music and framework; Graphical image - photos,
images aspire to a superlatively achievement; The assembly must be
clear, the retouching insightful; Furthermore, there must be an
sensitive affinity of the chosen type of music with the required mood.
In Rhétorique de l’image [Roland Bathes, 1993, 1417-1429.]
Roland Barthes speaks about the existence of three advertisement
levels where there is an interference between: the linguistic message
(the brand name, in the example given by Barthes, Panzani pasta and
the verbal comment), the denotative iconic message (the photographic
image of the object, redundant when reported with the real object; in
Barthes’ example, the box with pasta in a fishing net next to various
fresh, juicy vegetables) and the connotative iconic message (symbolic,
of all the associations that make the image of the product). The
advertising image is a system made of two sub-system perceived
simultaneously: the denotation level and the connotation level. “Here it
is – Barthes explains – a Panzani advertisement: packs of pasta, a box,
a bag, tomatoes, onions, hot peppers, a mushroom, everything coming
out of a half-opened bag, in shades of yellow and green on a red
background.”
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Linguistics
The dominant connotation
is that of Italianisation, deriving
from the sound structure of the
name Panzani, but also from the
option for the red, white and green,
the colours of the Italian flag. The
fresh
vegetables
and
the
“traditional” way of going to the
market add the naturalness
connotation, while the pagination of
the consecutive elements of the
advertisement adds the pictorial
aesthetic connotation. Barthes
considers these systems of
connotation as the ideology of the
society, associated with the rhetoric
field of expression. In other words,
“beyond the literal or denoted
message emphasised by description,
there is a symbolic or connoted message linked to the pre-existent
knowledge that is shared by the one who make the announcement and the
reader (...). In the visual message we will distinguish figurative or iconic
signs that in a coded way, give the impression of resemblance with reality,
juggling with the perceptive analogy and the representation codes
inherited from the representative western tradition.” [Martine Joly, 1998,
57]
We could understand the term “rhetoric” as a way of persuasion
and argumentation (like “inventio” and like “elocutio” – style or
adaptation of the image’s figures. “Regarding rhetoric, as inventio,
Barthes admits the image’s specificity of the connotation: rhetoric of
the connotation meaning the ability of provoking a secondary meaning
starting from a primary meaning, from a full sign”. [Martine Joly,
1998, 14]
Umberto Eco [Umberto Eco, 1998, 57] distinguishes five
levels of codification of the advertisement message: iconic (similar to
the Barthesian iconic), iconographic (based on cultural traditions and
genre conventions, similar to the Brathesian connotative iconic),
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Linguistics
topologic (of the visual style figures), topical (of the premises and
themes of argumentation, such as the one of quality in the variant –
Everybody uses product X – and the theme of unique quality of the
product – Only X removes any spot), entimematic (the actualized
narrative structure, eventually based on a mystery or theatrical coup for
emphasizing the argumentative efficiency). Jacques Durand [Jacques
Durand, 1970] notices how the publicity uses the entire panoply of the
rhetorical figures which were before considered appropriate only to the
spoken language: collocation figures and paradigm figures. We can
distinguish visual metaphors in the advertising speech, consisting in
the replacement of the commercial subject – cigarettes for example –
with a cowboy, in a sunset (see the advertisement at Marlboro), two
alpinists reaching the top of the mountain (Camel), a man possessing a
grain, in the middle of winter (Hollywood) or a eagle flying over New
York’s high buildings (Winston). Through implicit comparison, the
cigarettes are attributed the qualities of the objects (force, life pleasure,
friendship, joy, self control, freedom, freshness, energy, etc.). We can
remark visual motives which represent the needs and wishes of the
consumers, the images “translating” concepts such as freedom,
adventure, sensuality, security, harmony, fulfilled family, youth, social
status, luxury etc. The maximum exploitation of the image in the
advertisement, to the detriment of the linguistic message, can be
interpreted as means which gives force to the product. It is gambled on
what is not told, on the implicit. Instead of developing an argument
through explicit affirmation, the image will develop it in secret,
gambling on the knowledge of the public purchaser, creating, in this
way, a feeling of complicity between initiates. The argumentative
demarche in the construction of the advertisement is not reducible to
the following text: “I tell you that X is the best detergent or Y is the
best drink and Z is the best perfume”. On the contrary, an
argumentation is as more successful, as more indirect it seems, as more
it leaves the impression of a free choice from the interlocutor. In other
words, paraphrasing Tadeusz Kotarbinski from Treaty about well done
thing, we could say: “What is well done in the advertisement is
indirectly done”. We encounter rhetoric of the obliquity, in which the
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Linguistics
indirect approach is preferred in order to avoid the imposition in front
of the other, aggressing his subjectivity.
“The publicity has to delete the boredom of daily purchases
dressing in dream products which, without it, wouldn’t be but what
they are. Look at MARLBORO, it is a cigarette which at the first
smoke transforms you into a cowboy. Here is the magic of our art. In
every consumer there is a poet who sleeps. The publicity must wake
him up. Our job is to make the smoke enter through one side of the
tunnel and see a locomotive coming out on the other side”. [J. Seguela,
1985, 254-255] In the case of the well known commercial at Marlboro
we could find a series of iconic significations, to which significations
at a first level correspond, as well as connotations at a second level.
The commercial to Marlboro cigarettes is not one gambling on the
power of persuasion of words. The Marlboro man himself is one of
few words. “He shows neither sophistication, nor wisdom, but he is
rather strong, the quiet type with confidence in his own resources (…)
Like a Zen master, he speaks only when it is absolutely necessary (…)
Marlboro isn’t a game for kids. It’s a tough cigarette, for strong men,
confidents in themselves”. [Simon Chapman and Garry Egger, 1983,
176-177.] The table below synthetically presents the iconic
significations and the codification levels which we encounter in the
commercial to Marlboro cigarettes.
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Linguistics
Iconic significations First level significations Connotations to the
second level
Horseback riding, nature mastery, manhood
The figure of a man at sunset man, cowboy force, firmness
Sombrero man piece of clothing adventure
Boards forming a fence part of a reservation the west
Empty fence animals, transhumance freedom
Smokers can confirm: Marlboro cigarettes have nothing in
common with raising cattle or riding in the sunset. The cowboy serves as
an icon for a commercial concept, the Wild West, which represents the
adventure, freedom, strength. So, the Marlboro cigarettes consumer and
the advertisement don’t have in common the form, the cowboy lifestyle,
but the pretext of freedom, independence, adventure.
The "smell" of the image
The perfumes advertisements gamble in most cases on the
communication through image and less on a linguistic, persuasive
message. Being a luxury product, the motivation of its purchase must be
more complex symbolized than any other product of stringent necessity
and due to the need to materialise an invisible concept, the smell. Thus, the
brand image will give personality to the product, which being olfactory
impossible to represent, will be present, together with the bottle, near the
potential buyers. The public adherence is born trough a narrative
procedure [Einstein would have replied to a mother who wished to guide
her son towards the scientific career that the fairy tale must be a text
approached. The affirmation does nothing more than to confirm the value
of accelerator of the imagination which this form of narration assumes.]
through the presence of a history (story or histoire) perceived mostly
visual, in which the receptors are presented a STORY [“How to inform the
consumers about a new perfume, a new dish, a new drink, a new fabric,
when the information must pass a sensible experience which no message
can communicate? In all the cases, the message will have to be mostly
metaphorically rather than argumentative, more suggestive than
explanatory” It is exactly the charm and quality of the story that will open
someone’s appetite to try the product in order to learn, to know it. In this
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Linguistics
scheme a must have must be respected: the pretty story must be thought,
built in such a case that it will entirely be attributed to the product”, Claude
Bonnange, Chantal Thomas, 1999, 42]
In this way we are invited to belong to a group and to adopt a
particular life style. In “L’image publicitaire des parfums”, M. Julien [M.
Julien, 1997, 38-48] stablishes some types of characters present in the
advertising communication in the case of perfumes: the sensual, the elitist,
the romantic and the eccentric. We could say that in the case of perfumes
advertising, the creators fully exploit the erotic and sexuality classes,
preferring images with women and men in sensual postures, straight
glances, bared shoulders, half-opened lips. The colours from the images
are warm, the creators preferring images with sexual connotations (see the
presented images, in which the characters appear with the eyes opened,
suggesting the ecstasy). The commercial creators who prefer the image of
the bottle are doing anything else but to explain visually the perfume, the
bottle being the first element that tries to transmit an olfactory concept. A
sober bottle, without any other design adds, place the product beyond the
time. The colour contrasts (bottle- content), offer the wordless image,
distinction and elegance. A repetitive image from the commercials for
perfumes is also what sends to sensuality, to the couple passion. The
attraction between the man and the woman, the body position, one of
visible pleasure, the dressing details (lingerie or nude) are percussive
images for the commercial creators and the purchaser public.
Not even the visual hyperbole is overlooked by the commercial
creators, who want to emphasize the product, by always valuing it
positively. The rhetoric of the advertisement image is considered by
Jacques Durand, one of pleasure research:” The function of the rhetoric
figures in the advertisement image is to stir the viewer’s pleasure: on one
hand to relieve, for a glance, of the physical effort demanded by “the
inhibition or a rejection “and on the other hand, allowing him to dream of
a world where everything is possible. In the image, the rules are the ones
of the physical reality…the image which is rhetoricized by an immediate
reading, is related to fantastic, the repetition- doubling, the hyperbolegigantism, ellipsis- levitation, etc”. [“Any advertisement which is created
ad recorded in a professional studio, conceived, elaborated and produced
under a rigorous control in order to be broadcasted, in a repetitive manner,
within some advertisement programs, at one or more radio stations, TV,
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and so on”, Marian Odangiu, Daniela Ficart, Violeta Avram, 236] The
great advantage of the image in the commercials is that the image has the
power to “stock” the reality of our wishes much better than the words. We
could call the images “stores of emotions”. With a proper image, the
experiences, the desires come to your mind, making a connection with the
product from the commercial. The experts in marketing have discovered
that the first impression of the reader is always an emotional one and only
a positive impression will convince the reader to search for rational
information. The commercials don’t have to convince the receptor that the
product is useful but more to transmit an emotion, to impress him,
showing him a new design or selling him a new lifestyle [See also: David
Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising New York, Vintage Books, 1985, p.15,:
“Give the people samples of Old Crow. Then give them Old Crow, but tell
them it’s Jack Daniels. Afterwards ask them what drink they prefer. They
will think that the two drinks are different because they “feed” with
images.”]: free time, a happy family, a nice house, luxury, a healthy
environment. Rarely, the information about the product shows up
“between the lines”. The detergents’ commercials rely heavily on the
modern, happy families, having fun in a luxurious house, with a beautiful
view. The fact that all the members of the family have so much free time
available should persuade us that the X product, the dirt enemy, does the
entire cleaning job and it does it quick. Then, the stereotype views, always
green, the house yard, all make a reference to the ecological standards and
to the economical efficiency of the promoted product.
The commercial speech has its images organized on well
established rules, so that the message reaches efficiently and convincing
its target. Georges Peninou [Peninou, 1970] speaks about privileged
configurations that can be found in the commercial image, like: the
focalizing construction, the axial construction, the inside construction, and
the sequential construction. The focalizing construction consists in force
lines (colour, lighting, shapes) which converge to a certain point of the
commercial, the place of the commercialized product. The sight is
attracted by a strategic point of the commercial where the commercialized
product lies.
The axial construction distributes the product in the sight axe, in
general right in the center of the commercial. We are speaking about the
insight construction, when the product is integrated in a scene of a
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perspective décor and lies in the top of the scene in the foreground. The
sequential construction makes that the view go through the commercial,
reaching eventually the product, often situated for the reading from left to
right, down, on the right.(see the Z graphical construction, the most often
used).
Letters with signification
Like the speaker, who long time ago, would use the gestures and the
mimics for his speech, the commercials make use not only of words, but
also of images, page settings, colour etc. These additional elements carry
out significations that can strengthen or contradict the meaning given by
the commercial words. In this way, connected with the image’s rhetoric is
also the words’ image or the way they are presented in the commercial.
The colour, and the words set up in the page, the height, and the thickness
of the letters (they often appear big and bold for the brand, and with thick
capital letters for the notes; with thick and smaller capital letters for the
addresses, etc), all these elements create a visual attraction that organizes
the path of the look which leaving a certain point is then directed to come
back at the same point. The choice of the type of the letters has also a
plastically importance. The words have an immediate understandable
signification, this signification being completed, colored, and shaded right
before being perceived by the plastically aspect of the letters (orientation,
shape, colour). Greg Myers compared the choice of the messages from the
commercials with scrabble (where if you make up words with the letters
Q, Z, X, Y you receive 4,8 or 10 points, whereas for the words made up
with E, A, S or T, the number of the points is smaller, reaching even one
point). In the commercials, the unusual letters draw the attention more
quickly, that is why it is preferred name of products like: Biotex, Ajax,
Radox, Dulux, Lux, Lucozade, Edulcolax, Jazz(software), etc. Names that
are difficult to pronounce in Romanian are not a good choice for the
products. Tnuva is just one of them.
Perhaps the most appropriate example of commercial text in
which only the type of the letters expresses the exactly message of the
commercial is the following: It is. Are you? Independent. This is the
commercial with the most troubling decoding if we think about the
reaction that the ellipsis aroused in this case. The text was advertising for
the “The Independent” daily newspaper, the letter’s bodies for the word
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independent being the same with the ones from the title of the English
newspaper. Greg Myers [Myers, 38; The teacher of applied linguistics,
Guy Cook, cites the published results from the Campaign magazine (from
21 December 1990) A graphologist analyses some important
advertisements form the current journals. The conclusion of the study is
that the advertisements translate sentiments, the ones from Coca Cola, for
example, transmit warmth, affection, and those from Ford enterprise, and
speak about the respect of tradition. Of course, such an approach is very
questionable because it implies much subjectivity. It may be true or not,
admits Guy Cook, but the literary dimension of the advertisement remains
an open issue.] tells how the Londoner homosexual communities have
ordered special buttons on which it was written the commercial text,
without any connection with the newspaper that they read. In this case, the
commercial has been assimilated exclusively as a text, loosing it initial
function for which it had been created. (Translation: Narcisa Ţirban,
Ph.D.)
Linguistics
Odangiu, Marian, Ficart, Daniela, Avram, Violeta, Publicitatea audio.
Curs practic de strategii creative, Timişoara, Ed.Hestia, 1997.
Ogilvy, David, Ogilvy on Advertising New York, Vintage Books, 1985.
Peninou, Georges, Physique et metaphisyque de l’image publicitaire, in
Communications, 15, Seuil, 1970.
Scott, Linda M, Images in Advertising. The need for a Theory of Visual
Rhetoric, in “Journal of Consumer Research”, nr.21 (September).
Schudson, Michael, Advertising, the Uneasy Presuasion. Its Dubious
Impact on American Society, London, Routledge, 1993.
Seguela, J., Le Saut creatif, Ed. J. – C. Latters, Paris, 1985.
References :
Bathes, Roland, Rethoric de l’image, in Eric Marty, (Ed.), Roland Barthes
– oeuvres completes, Editions du Seuil, 1993.
Bonnange, Claude, Thomas, Chantal, Don Juan or Pavlov. Essay on
advertisement communication, Bucuresti, Ed. Trei, 1999.
Brune, F., Happiness as a must, Bucharest, Trei Press, 1996.
Chapman, Simon and Egger, Garry, Language, image, media, edited by
Howard Davis & Paul Walton, Basil Blackwell Publisher Limited,
1983.
Cook, Guy, The Discourse of Advertising, London and New York,
Routledge, 1994.
Durand, Jacques, Rethorique et publicite, in “Communications” 15,
L’analyse des images, Seuils, 1970.
Eco, Umberto, Semiologie de l’image dans la publicite, in
Communications, 1998.
Joly Martine, Introduction in image analysis, Bucuresti, All Press, 1998.
Julien, M., L’image publicitaire des parfums, Paris, Ed. Harmaton, 1997.
Kroeber W.-Riel, Strategie und Technik der Werbung, Stuttgart, 1993.
Myers, Greg, Words in Ads, Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc., 1994.
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132
The childhood world – Stevenson’s "Garden of Verses"
Magdalena DUMITRANA
University of Pitesti
Abstract: This paper focuses on a less known part of L.S.
Stevenson’s writings, the one containing childhood verses. Considered to
be verses for children, addressed to children, therefore not very important,
these little poems actually reveal a whole world of sensibility and love
within which Stevenson places the most authentic part of his personality.
Apart from this, by directing his attention towards children, through these
verses Stevenson displays a deep psychological and educational intuition.
Keywords: childhood, poetry, memory, Stevenson
1. Who is Stevenson?
In the world literature, Robert Louis Stevenson is the symbol of the
adventurer-writer: travel novels, adventures novels and even a sciencefiction book are the writings characterizing Stevenson in the anyone’s
mind. The most known titles, Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, seem to constitute the essence of the Scottish writer’s
work That is why the surprise is quite big when we find ourselves in front
of his poems for children and this surprise could be double when we find
out that the author of the playful verses did not have children of his own.
Therefore, who was? How many facets of his personality are
expressed in a type of another of his literature, for not speaking about his
fundamental restlessness, urging him to travel continuously and which
brought him an early end on one of the Samoan islands. Amazing enough,
one could find an almost satisfactorily answer in his volume, A Child’s
Garden of Verses.
2. What is the Garden of Verses?
At the first sight, this is a book containing sprightly poems for
children. At the “second sight”, one can notice that it is a book written at
the first person: all the verses express directly, what the child sees, what he
feels, what he knows and tells. One could think that Stevenson, even if he
did not have his own children, proves a special intuition of a child’s inner
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life. Or, to accept a more logical affirmation, that the child from these
verses is Stevenson himself.
The question has its importance, because the final message of the
volume depends on this answer. Perhaps many of the small poems were
written for or about a certain child, known by Stevenson; there is no doubt
that he liked the children, a testimony being his marriage, his wife having
three children from a previous marriage. But the volume, in its integrality,
offers another answer also, that enlightens many of the adventurer writer’s
emotional experiences.
The childhood poems are gathered in four groups, each of them
having a certain specificity: A Child’s Garden of Verses, The Child Alone,
Garden Days şi Envoys. Out of these, the first group seems to be interested
in child, his/her games, the world seen through a child’s eye. The “small”
joys of the childhood (the psychologists understand how important they are
for a child’s normal development) are noticed with acuity and with
understanding and are expressed in simple verses, of a full of love humor:
It is very nice to think
The world is full of meat and drink (A Thought)
.................................................................................................
Every night my prayers I say,
And get my dinner every day;
And every day that I’ve been good,
I get an orange after food. (System)
................................................................................................
The friendly cow all red and white,
I love with all my heart:
She gives me cream with all her might,
To eat with apple-tart. (The Cow)
Other lines express the observations that children make in the small
world of their experiences:
Whenever Auntie moves around,
Her dresses make a curious sound;
They trail behind her up the floor,
And trundle after through the door. (Auntie’s Skirts)
......................................................................................................................
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The world is so full of a number of things,
I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings. (Happy Thought)
......................................................................................................................
Up into the cherry tree
Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad on foreign lands. (Foreign Lands)
Play is a constant presence, obviously, in the whole this sequence, as
well as the relation of the young child with the other children, in the play..
We are in the role play phase and of the “fight” for the:
We built a ship upon the stairs
All made of the back-bedroom chairs,
And filled it full of sofa pillows
To go a-sailing on the billows.
[.............................................]
We sailed along for days and days,
And had the very best of plays;
But Tom fell out and hurt his knee,
So there was no one left but me. (A Good Play)
......................................................................................................................
When I am grown to man’s estate
I shall be very proud and great,
And tell the other girls and boys
Not to meddle with my toys. (Looking Forward)
It is interesting as affectionate and paternal he establishes the social
rules that a child ought to observe:
A child should always say what’s true
And speak when he is spoken to,
And behave mannerly at table;
At least as far as he is able. (Whole Duty of Children)
Also, as the child grows, there are poems announcing the entrance
into a fantastic world, personages marching in the front of the eyes, images
of some other lands, the animism- as the shadow lives its independent life.
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In this collection of the poems, usually the writer conserves his adult
status; an adult who loves children, observes them attentively and play with
them, convinced that childhood must be the kingdom of the happiness.
However, from time to time the impression that the child from the poems is
the writer himself makes noticeable its presence.
But only in the second collection of verses, The Child Alone, the
impression gets stronger as the reader notices a slipping toward the fantasy
of the inner world. It is significant the fact that the first poem of this second
cycle is called The Unseen Playmate:
When children are playing alone on the green,
In comes the playmate that never was seen,
When children are happy and lonely and good,
The Friend of the Children comes out of the wood (The unseen
playmate)
The child’s activities are sources for the stimulation of the
imagination:
The picture-book for the younger ones:
All the pretty things put by,
Wait upon the children’s eye,
Sheep and shepherds, trees and crooks
In the picture story-books. (Picture-Books in the Winter)
and the story book within which the older children’s fantasy plunge:
These are the hills, these are the woods,
These are my starry solitudes;
And there the river by whose brink
The roaring lions come to drink. ( (The Land of Story-books)
The symbolic play and the construction play in which the things get a
different shape and a different name:
I call the little pool a sea;
The little hills were big to me;
For I am very small.
I made a boat, I made a town,
I searched the caverns up and down,
And named them one and all. (My Kingdom)
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Again, in a significant way, the cycle of the verses is ended with a
poetry of a pure fantasy, generated only by the child’s imagination:
I have just to shut my eyes
To go sailing through the skiesTo go sailing far away
To the pleasant Land of Play;
To the fairy land afar
Where the little People are; (The Little Land)
The next cycle of the poems seems rather an intermezzo than a
continuation in the same poetical disposition. The child grew-up a little;
among the games-more seldom now, he looks at the world around, watches
the flowers, the trees, insects and birds. Adults are only a few (the gardener
in the poem with the same name and Uncle Jim from Historical
Associations) and their role is one of guidance and of construction –
guiding the child in the World and in the construction of the World.
With this cycle, actually we came out from childhood. We should
expect that the next sequence to be one of the adult, of the grown-up. But it
does not happen that way- for Stevenson has leapt from childhood, directly
to the world he had been imagining for such a long time.
3. Envoys
This is the title of the cycle of small poems of the childhood. It
contains “letters” of the childhood memories. They are addressed to his two
cousins, Willie and Henrieta, to Minnie, all of them former playmates; they
are addressed to Auntie, „chief of our aunts” (To Auntie), who is present
also in the other cycles. His mother receives a small poem of four lines in
which his son offers his poetry together his entire childhood:
You too, my mother, read my rhymes
For love of unforgotten times,
And you may chance to hear once more
The little feet along the floor. (To My Mother)
No doubt, these verses are farewells addressed to the shadows of his
childhood. But it is not only that, not even far, just a simple regret for a
period of the innocence. It is a definitive farewell before a no return
journey.
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The last two poems are strange but explanatory. The first one, To My
Name-Child, is the will which the child Louis has left to all the children of
which name is and who will discover surprisingly when finally will learn to
read, that their name is already written. And even if the small Louis
children from England will be to young to understand the words, still, many
other children from all over the world, will know the little Louis from the
book:
Ay, and while you slept, a baby, over all the
English lands
Other little children took the volume in their
hands;
Other children questioned, in their homes across
the seas:
Who was little Louis, won’t you tell us,
Mother, please?
It is as the adult Louis, declining his body and name of grown-up,
seems to spread himself embodying his child soul in every child as he
offers his own childhood, the body of his childhood as an object of
sacrament to every child of the world. The reward that he asks for is small:
And that while you thought of no one, nearly
Half the world away
Some one thought of Louis on the beach of
Monterey!
The same perpetuation of his childhood, the same longing to be kept
in the memory, not in the adults’ memory but in the children’s one, is
extended in the last poetry of the volume, To Any Reader:
As from the house your mother sees
You playing round the garden trees
So you may see, if you will look
Through the windows of this book,
Another child, far, far away,
And in another garden, play.
More than any of his writings, this book is what Stevenson wishes to
leave after him, it is his will. Its beneficiaries are the children, all Louischildren and all the children with other names, from anywhere. They are the
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only ones which have the capacity to know him, they are the only ones in
the memory of which he wishes to remain because the children’s memories
are the only receipt of the life continuity.
Let’s not misunderstand this. Stevenson was not an infantile, an adult
who does not want to “grow-up” and who tries to escape from the
inexorable process of aging by living in an ideal construct of childhood.
No, he even specifies- the child from this book there is no more:
He does not hear; he will not look,
Nor yet be lured out of this book.
For long ago, the truth to say,
He has grown up and gone away,
And it is but a child of air
That lingers in the garden there.
To Stevenson, the image of the childhood is not an eye back but one
up. A child of air, a metaphor of the spirit, a metaphor of the fantasy, but
interesting, it is not a phantasm of escaping but always is the Creator’s
fantasy. The child’s imagination in the stevensonian poetry is one of the
construction of the world, in its objects but mainly, in its accompanying
emotional experiences.
The farewell from the final of the collection is addressed not only to
the childhood, but to the earthly life in what it has more beautiful-the happy
child. At that moment, Stevenson had less than ten years of life ahead and
very likely, he cast intuitively a look at the landscape of his life.
Significantly, in these last years he wrote poetry mainly.
Another essential element in Stevenson’s writings that cannot be
discussed extensively here, is the motive of the island; the island as such,
appears in many texts, with a more or less important role. In the cycles of
the poetry dedicated to the childhood, the island, the miraculous land, takes
another content and another name than in other pieces of writing – here it is
the Garden. A close place, isolated but at the same time open to all the
beneficial experiences, the place of the child’s safety, more specific, the
place of the emotional security.
The garden, as a last and blessed refuge, takes the place of the island.
The island is the place of the adventure, the garden is the place of the
pleasant rest. Conscious or not, metaphorical or in the concrete reality,
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Stevenson’s world, with its child/adult interplay, takes finally, the shape of
a garden.
And the salute brought to the garden constitutes the opening of the
next volume of poetry, the one of the adult world:
Go, little book, and wish to all
Flowers in the garden, meat in the hall,
A bin of wine, a spice of wit,
A house with lawns enclosing it,
A living river by the door,
A nightingale in the sycamore! (Envoy, from Underwoods)
4. Closing
It is amazing how the reader’s perception about an author can be
changed on the basis of a “minor” work, a writing that passes usually,
unnoticed. The writer of the adventure and travel novels, a restlessness man
who finds the garden of his life very far from his birth land the one, on an
island, can be suddenly seen as the poet of the sensibility, naivety and
imagination of the childhood. But let’s not mislead ourselves. The world of
the childhood as appears in Stevenson’s verses is not the world of a child as
such. It is a metaphor of the aspiration and wish to realize at least in an
imaginary world, the return in the Garden of Eden.
Let’s close therefore wit the same question from the beginning: who
was Stevenson?
But the answer, is it really so important? Finally, as he says, what is
left is the child of air.
References:
Stevenson, R.L.,A Child’s Garden of Verses, Reading: Penguin Books,
1994
Stevenson, R.L., Underwoods,
http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/stevenson/collections/underwoods.
http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/stevenson/envoy.html
140
Don Quijote şi ficţiunea iubirii
Florica BODIŞTEAN
"Aurel Vlaicu" University, Arad
Abstract: This study deals with the role the fiction of love plays in
Cervantes's anti-chivalric romance, Don Quixote. The most complex
character of the work, Dulcinea, appears as a great absence. In a
Renaissance spirit, the novel denounces through her one of the most
significant breaches in knightly literature, i.e. the heroes’ inability to
experience erotic love; at the same time, it illustrates the force of the ideal in
the construction of the hero's being.
Keywords: chivalric romance, parody, eros, the imagined woman
Despre rostul „închipuirilor”
Odată cu literatura Renașterii cade și ultimul meterez al eroicului și al
gravității epice sub asaltul manifestărilor spiritului burlesc, ce induce o
atitudine sceptică exprimată în forme ironice, comice, caricaturale,
parodice. Toate acestea, semnalele unei viziuni aflate într-un proces de
laicizare, ale unui sistem de valori ce caută transcendentul în imanent,
fundamentând o religie a omului. Un spirit care-i însuflețește pe
intelectualii epocii, unanim apreciat drept consecință a sentimentului
„superiorității sigure a omului asupra tuturor manifestărilor vieții pe care le
domină ca un stăpân” [Dumitrescu-Buşulenga, 1975: 85]. Epicureismul e
filosofia subterană a acestei burle generice, ce înlocuiește sobrietatea prin
râsul sănătos, afirmând valorile vieții, iar l’uomo piacevole, pe care Dante
l-ar fi hărăzit Infernului, e cel mai mare înțelept în materie de știință a
trăirii, una violent senzuală.
Pulci, Boiardo și Ariosto, prin poemele lor eroi-comice zdruncină
teribil imaginea lumii consacrate de Cântarea lui Roland, pentru ca, odată
cu Don Quijote eroismul şi literatura eroică medievală să îşi exhibe
mecanismul de funcţionare, maşinăria, tehnicitatea, ca o planşă de anatomie
cu un trup deschis şi pielea atârnând pe alături. Romanul lui Cervantes
dezvăluie un drum înfundat și cere epicului de după el alte căi de acces. De
aceea, supratema va fi convenţia literară sau despre pericolele şi avantajele
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ei, despre cum te poate înnebuni o asemenea convenţie, dar şi despre cum
poate da ea unei vieţi banale un sens înalt. Sigur, ne gândim la faptul că
romanul cavaleresc e combătut în forme, nu în fond, că formele prea
vehiculate se perimează şi devin şabloane, dar spiritul ce le-a însufleţit e
fără moarte. „Don Quijote – spune unul dintre cei mai profunzi cunoscători
ai operei lui Cervantes, Martin de Riquer – satirizează cărțile de cavaleríi,
nu cavalería; neverosimilul eroism din romanele fabuloase, nu eroismul real
ca acela dovedit de Cervantes la Lepanto” [2007: LXX]. În aceste condiții,
ar fi de aşteptat ca şi imaginea femeii să penduleze undeva între formele
acestea caduce şi o esenţă supraumană, supratemporală, ce poate înrâuri
însă manifestările umanului în sens ascendent.
Don Quijote oferă imaginea unei vieţi construite prin imitaţie, dar
numai aspectele exterioare sunt imitate, conținutul lor este, evident,
autentic, ca orice esență. El face ce ştie că trebuie să facă, ce făceau toţi
cavalerii rătăcitori, între care modelul imbatabil e Amadis de Gaula, dar
acest „ce trebuie” se suprapune paradoxal peste „ce simte”, încât distincţia
dintre formă şi fond se anulează în capul său şi rămâne de demontat doar
pentru narator/cititor ca teorie a inadecvării la realitate. Căci chiar formele
sunt cele ce trebuie schimbate, adică percepția fenomenalului, nu viziunea
de ansamblu proiectată asupra lui. Tot paradoxal, în acest personaj iluzia şi
conştiinţa convenţiei coexistă, însăși luciditatea alimentează voit
fantasmele. Nebunia lui don Quijote a fost considerată drept un joc acceptat
pentru a face suportabilă existenţa. Pe marginea convertirii înțelepciunii în
nebunie, ca expresie panculturală a unui spirit carnavalesc, glosează
strălucit Anton Dumitriu în Cartea întâlnirilor admirabile. De asemenea,
Cervantes datorează mult lui Erasmus, care făcea elogiul nebuniei, adică al
pasiunii exaltate ce te dedică unor scopuri mai înalte decât clipa de față,
cum datorează și ideii recurente în Spania „secolului de aur” despre visul
trăit ca viaţă şi viaţa luată ca vis. S-a mai spus despre jocul lui don Quijote
că se află în afara antitezei nebunie - înțelepciune și s-a argumentat că
reproduce toate reperele depistate de Huizinga în comportamentul lui homo
ludens: liber, dezinteresat, cu durată limitată, cu o ordine prestabilită
[Bloom, 1998: 108]. Secretul jocului stă în mediere, spune René Girard în
cartea sa Minciună romantică și adevăr romanesc, adică în existența unei a
treia instanțe, ce se așază între subiect și obiectul dorinței sale, în cazul de
față modelul cavaleresc, care se impune spre imitare pentru ca el, subiectul,
don Quijote, să acceadă la ținta transcendentă, idealul afirmat răspicat de
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atâtea ori: „eu m-am născut pe lume să înlătur nedreptatea”. Efectul acestei
dorințe triunghiulare, o dorință potrivit Altuia, este că, de îndată ce
intermedierea modelului se face simțită, „sensul realului e pierdut, judecata
e paralizată” [Girard, 1972: 25]. Avem aici un caz de mediere externă, ce se
va regăsi ulterior și la Flaubert, Doamna Bovary fiind asocierea constantă,
don Quijotele feminin. E vorba, în ambele, despre un mediator ce rămâne
exterior universului eroului, un mediator livresc, la distanță apreciabilă de
subiect pentru ca cele două sfere de posibile să nu fie în contact, dar invers
decât la Stendhal, Dostoievski sau Proust, unde imitările urmează modele
proxime. Într-o atare mediere care își declară modelul, subiectul păstrează
față de el o admirație reverențioasă, se declară vasalul lui fidel.
Resentimentul, ura, rivalitatea nu încap în această relație nonconcurențială.
În amândouă cazurile, efectul medierii este acela că ea conferă obiectului o
valoare iluzorie, suscitând dorința de a-l poseda. Diferențele dintre
quijotism și bovarism sunt însă un argument mult mai tare pentru a
desființa funciar o asemenea apropiere vehiculată enorm și trebuie invocată
aici în primul rând opoziția dintre un fenomen individualist și unul complet
dezinteresat, ca și aceea dintre slăbiciune și tărie interioară.
Are nevoie don Quijote de acest mediator? Da, el, mediatorul, e mai
mult decât un simplu impuls, e motorul propriei vieți. În lipsa lui Amadis,
resorturile interioare se prăbușesc și fostul cavaler moare din… melancolie.
Nu dintr-o cauză exterioară. Pentru că binevoitorii săi prieteni au voit să
extirpe quijotismul, în loc să-i corecteze erorile și să-l îndrepte, spre
eficacitate, spre folosul vieții. Afirmația lui Girard cum că mediatorul,
Cavalerul, figură epică a imaginației, prezentă exclusiv înăuntrul conștiinței
personajului, mărturisește indirect că autonomia metafizică a ființei e
imposibilă, ternă, nesemnificativă, se adeverește în acest caz, fără să
autorizeze însă generalizările pe care autorul studiului le face. Se adeverește
pentru că suntem unei fața unei vieți construite exclusiv pe imitație. Viața
cavalerească însăși, a arătat Huizinga în Amurgul Evului Mediu, se
constituie pe imitație, o imitație a eroilor din ciclul lui Artur sau a eroilor
antici, aici însă ea merge până la copierea fidelă. Când imaginea
Cavalerului se clatină sub lovitura imparabilă a altui cavaler, bacalaureatul
Sansón Carrasco, viața revine la linia orizontului și declină spre moarte. O
fabulă despre condiționarea dintre a trăi și a aspira.
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E nevoie de o Doamnă
Iat-o pe Dulcineea, personajul feminin de prim rang în scenariu
devreme ce nu poţi fi autentic cavaler rătăcitor fără o Doamnă, fără să fii
îndrăgostit. Altfel, zice don Quijote, el n-ar fi decât un bastard care a intrat
în fortăreaţa cavaleríei nu pe poartă, ci pe creasta zidurilor. Rangul ei social
nu există în nomenclatorul cavaleresc, ţăranca fiind doar obiect de glume
licenţioase şi de manifestări instinctuale, cum ne spun, printre altele,
nuvelele lui Boccaccio sau ale lui Chaucer. Nu ştie să scrie, nici să citească
şi toată relaţia ei cu Cavalerul Tristei Figuri se rezumă la priviri
cuviincioase din partea lui, în cele maxim patru întâlniri, în doisprezece ani,
pe care le-au avut. Aceasta, pentru că Aldonza Lorenzo, pe numele ei
adevărat, merită o atare atitudine reverenţioasă, merită să fie „stăpâna
întregului univers”, crescută fiind de către mama şi tatăl ei ca o floare de
seră, în mare „grijă şi izolare”. Aşa o recomandă don Quijote lui Sancho,
care replică cu o anume admirație neascunsă:
– O cunosc prea bine – zise Sancho – şi pot zice că zvârle drugii la fel
de bine ca ăl mai voinic flăcău din tot satul. Pe Dădătorul cel viu, e-o fată
pe cinste, vânoasă şi vârtoasă şi bărbată, de-l poate scoate din noroi până-n
barbă pe orice cavaler rătăcitor sau gata s-o ia razna şi care şi-ar lua-o drept
stăpână! Oh, pui de lele, ce tare-n vână îmi este şi ce glas are! Pot spune căntr-o zi s-a urcat în clopotniţa satului ca să-i strige pe nişte argaţi de-ai ei
care munceau pe-o pârloagă de-a lui taică-său şi, cu toate că erau la mai
bine de juma’ de leghe de-acolo, au auzit-o de parcă ar fi fost la poalele
turnului. Şi partea ei cea mai bună e că nu-i deloc sclifosită, ba are chiar
porniri de tălaniţă: cu toţii se hârjoneşte şi de toate face nebuneli şi haz. […]
Şi ard de nerăbdare s-o pornesc la drum fie şi numai ca s-o văd, că de multă
vreme n-am mai văzut-o şi s-o mai fi schimbat, fiindcă boiul femeilor se
strică din prea mult mers la câmp, în soare şi-n aer liber.
Robustă, prea înaltă („mă întrece cu peste o șchioapă”, spune
Sancho), forţă fizică bărbătească, grosolănie, uşurătate. O fiinţă funcţională,
bună de muncă, eficientă, nicidecum decorativă sau grațioasă, doar strict
naturală și mult prea concretă pentru a putea inspira chiar şi pe cel mai
puţin pretenţios pretendent.
La toate acestea, el, cavalerul, răspunde cumva pocăit că „pentru ce
vrea el”, Dulcineea din Toboso valorează „cât cea mai înaltă prinţesă de pe
pământ”, căci nu pe ea o vede în ea, ci o fiinţă imaginară aşa cum imaginare
sunt toate Amarilisele, Filisele, Silviile, Dianele, Galateele, Filidele care
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populează cărţile vremii. Că este ea sau alta, totuna, căci, spune el, „mi-o
reprezint în închipuire aşa cum o doresc, atât în privinţa frumuseţii, cât şi a
nobleţei, şi nici Elena nu i se apropie, şi nici Lucreţia n-o ajunge din urmă”.
Imaginarul se dovedește a fi fără limită, dacă bate detaşat modelele
consacrate de frumuseţe şi de virtute. Suntem în plină iluzie conştientă, în
plină substituţie voită între viaţă şi ficţiune. O ficţiune compensatoare, atât
de necesară, încât ea are dreptul să compună o nouă mitografie. Căci lumea
lui don Quijote e exclusiv în alb şi negru, ori aşa, ori invers, nu există
toleranţă, doar lucruri înălţătoare sau de repudiat şi de corectat pe loc. Din
cotidianul gri se trece brusc la idealitatea înaripată, ca în această descriere a
Dulcineei pe care cavalerul i-o face lui Vivaldo, gentilomul venit să asiste
la înmormântarea lui Grisóstomo. Fiinţa pe care i-o va prezenta don Quijote
ca Doamnă a inimii sale aduce, prin efervescenţa comparaţiilor, nici mai
mult nici mai puţin, cu descrierea miresei din Cântarea Cântărilor: „părul
îi e de aur, fruntea câmpii elizee, sprâncenele curcubee, ochii sori, obrajii
trandafiri, buzele corali, perle dinţii, alabastru gâtul, marmură pieptul, fildeş
mâinile, albimea ei zăpadă, iar părţile pe care cinstea le-a ascuns vederii
omeneşti sunt astfel, după cum gândesc şi îmi închipui, încât consideraţia
discernătoare le poate doar proslăvi, nicidecum compara”. Deci frumuseţe
vizibilă desăvârşită, de-a dreptul imposibil de reperat în realitate
(„supraomenească, de vreme ce-n ea ajung să se adeverească toate
atributele imposibile şi himerice pe care poeţii le dau doamnelor lor”),
mister și virtute – calitate obligatorie, proclamată de don Quijote de câte ori
are ocazia. S-ar mai adăuga exigenţa de neam bun, discutabil în acest caz,
dar pe care eroul nostru îl „cosmetizează” senin: neamul Toboso din La
Mancha este unul modern, ce poate dărui obârşie generoasă celor mai
ilustre familii din veacurile viitoare. Portret ideal, făcut, ca și picturile lui
Arcimboldo, din ingredientele livrești de cel mai mare preț, portret standard
care merge până la emacierea și dispariția fizicului în alegorie pură. Un
procedeu de altfel specific literaturii cavalerești care, prin excluderea
oricăror note individualizante, tinde către dematerializarea personajelor și
transformarea lor in simbol.
Ar mai fi adăugat ceva despre funcţia Doamnei ca să se vadă exact
rolul ei dublu, nu numai de ideal cast, ci şi de înger păzitor în viaţa unui
cavaler rătăcitor. În aceeaşi discuţie, la observaţia lui Vivaldo, cum că prea
se încredinţează cavalerii iubitelor lor înaintea luptei, în loc să se
încredinţeze lui Dumnezeu, de parcă ele le-ar fi chiar Dumnezeul lor, don
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Quijote nu are alt argument decât obiceiul; tot el spune că, încredințându-se
iubitei, nu înseamnă că renunţă să se încredinţeze lui Dumnezeu, doar
amână asta pentru un alt moment al luptei. Iar când Sancho, obsedat de
fantasma unei vieţi de lux, îl somează să se însoare cu pretinsa prințesă
Moimițomițona – Doroteea, Cavalerul înfuriat îi vorbeşte despre „vitejia”
Dulcineei care se foloseşte de braţul lui pentru faptele ei de vitejie: „Ea
luptă în mine şi învinge în mine, iar eu în ea trăiesc şi respir şi am viaţă şi
fiinţă”. Transfer spiritual total într-un qui pro quo al perechii desăvârşite.
Personajul romanului cavaleresc, spune de fapt don Quijote, nu e unul
singur, cavalerul, ci e perechea. În volumul al doilea, el va mărturisi ducesei
că e îndrăgostit cumva „din obligație” și că nici nu contează dacă
„obiectul” dorinței există sau nu și în afara lui. Doamna – o condiție
derivată din nebunia cavalerească, pe care „nu el a inventat-o”, ci alții
înaintea lui:
Dumnezeu știe dacă Dulcineea există sau nu pe lume sau dacă este
imaginară sau nu e imaginară; acestea nu sunt lucruri a căror cercetare să
trebuiască a fi dusă până la capăt. Nu eu am zămislit-o și nici nu am născuto pe doamna mea, deși o contemplu așa cum i se cuvine unei doamne
înzestrate cu toate însușirile ce o pot face faimoasă în toate colțurile lumii,
cum ar fi frumoasă fără pată, gravă fără trufie, îndrăgostită cu virtute,
recunoscătoare din curtenie, curtenitoare din bună creștere și, în sfârșit,
înaltă prin neam, deoarece asupra sângelui nobil strălucește și tronează
frumusețea cu mai multe trepte de perfecțiune decât în frumoasele de
obârșie umilă.
Ce e Doamna? Un stindard obligatoriu, purtat cu mândrie. Ce e
iubirea? O simplă formă declarativă. Uzul, atât e tot ce a rămas din vechile
structuri erotice şi agonistice ale cavalerismului. Iubirea stagnează la nivelul
retoricii măiestrite, nici vorbă de sentiment, nici vorbă să-l putem bănui pe
don Quijote cum că ar fi îndrăgostit. Deci şi Doamna poate fi oricine, poate
arăta şi se poate purta oricum. „Despre cavalería rătăcitoare se poate spune
la fel ca despre dragoste. Ea face toate lucrurile egale”, zice don Quijote. Îl
face pe el egal lui Sancho, pe care-l îmbie la masa lui, altfel sărăcăcioasă, o
face pe Dulcineea egală oricărei precedenţe ilustre. Nu înfăţişările, nu
conjuncturile, nu formele contează, ci spiritul care le animă. Aparenţele
sunt rezultatul unei vrăjitorii pe care cineva o pune la cale ca să-şi râdă de
oamenii bine intenţionaţi, vrea cavalerul să creadă. Simple avataruri
ignobile ale unei realităţi eterne, ce stă în mintea lui pe muchie de cuţit, gata
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să cadă când pe o faţă, când pe cealaltă. Trebuie doar să vezi ce vrei să vezi
şi treci rapid de la profan la sacru printr-un simplu exerciţiu de imaginaţie.
Asta izbutește şi imaginaţia, face ca lucrurile să fie egale, egalizează
realitatea cu fantezia, întinzând-o, după plac, pe un pat al lui Procust care
reflectă măsura propriilor visuri. Tema realității oscilante este tema
nivelului de profunzime al operei, tema în care aparența și esența se
luminează pe rând în funcție de fusul orar al imaginației. De aceea
personajul are „crize ale noțiunii de real”, cum spune Călinescu, și, evident,
din punctul lui de vedere, crize ale noțiunii de „irealitate”, cum este marea
dramă a vieții sale, descoperirea Dulcineei în persoana unei rudimentare
țărănci.
Spuneam mai înainte că de jocul acesta dintre forme și fond nu scapă
nici imaginea femeii construită undeva la intersecția dintre ce este și ce
semnifică, dintre uman și etern, dintre imanent și transcendent, dintre
poemul înaripat și proza burlescă. Și da, într-adevăr, o astfel de femeie e
Dulcineea, o idee, un spirit, o imagine, care poate căpăta orice aparență
profană și, de vreme ce esența ei e dinainte lămurită, poate să nici nu existe
în realitate, important e că există în mintea eroului și joacă rolul pe care
trebuie să-l joace: Marea Doamnă a Inimii, cea „prin care eu trăiesc”.
Dulcineea e marele personaj absent în roman, nimeni nu o întâlnește în
prezentul narativ, tot ce știm despre ea e relatat, colportat, inventat,
idealizat. Sau, când întâlnirea nu mai poate fi amânată, cum se întâmplă
înainte de cea de-a treia plecare a lui don Quijote, atunci se apelează la
substituția ei cu o țărancă întâlnită întâmplător. Dacă don Quijote nu ar
accepta sugestia lui Sancho, cum că Dulcineea e vrăjită, tot restul
romanului ar fi anulat, căci anulată ar fi însăși motivația acțiunilor lui. Cum
observă Auerbach [1967: 372], cumplita decepție datorată pierderii brutale
a iluziei ar fi în stare să înnebunească un om până la patologicul pur, ceea
ce ar însemna o teribilă deturnare a sensului învestit în personaj, sau ar
putea să-l trezească definitiv. Nu se întâmplă nici una, nici alta. Motivul
vrăjii îi permite lui don Quijote să rămână Don Quijote și reprezintă soluția
narativă a continuității romanului. Vraja este, de altfel, procedeul constant
al ambelor volume, folosit însă în scopuri diferite: în primul, ea servește
transfigurării realității profane în direcția dorită, spre sacru, în cel de-al
doilea e o formă de apărare a iluziei sacralizate de invazia profanului nud
[Ivanovici, 1980: 78]. Maleficiile vrăjitorilor sunt invocate dintr-o astfel de
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reacție de apărare, pentru ca personajul să evite măcar eșecul idealului,
dacă eșecul realului e total.
Castitatea lui don Quijote – merit sau neputință?
Iubirea pentru Dulcineea e, dintre toate sloganurile cavaleríei, cel mai
trâmbițat. Iubirea de Dulcineea sau iubirea de iubire? Căci nu poți iubi ceea
ce nu există și ceea ce nu cunoști și, mai ales, nu poți iubi fără motiv. Don
Quijote crede că are un astfel de motiv, esența și mobilul sentimentului
declarat fiind excelența Dulcineei în materie de frumusețe. Numai că
frumusețea neobiectivată nu poate fi iubită, e ca și cum ai iubi concepte.
Ele nu pot răscoli ființa. Marea limită a personajului rămâne neputința de ași trăi iubirea, ceea ce vine din neputința de a-și concretiza obiectul iubirii.
O rigiditate sufletească ce a fost interpretată drept „semnul limpede al
decadenței, mărturie revelatoare pentru o epocă secătuită de valorile umane
[epoca medievală, n.m.], în care formalismul și convenționalismul pătrund
până și în cele mai intime planuri ale omului” [Mustaţă, 1991: 45].
Sterilitatea și asceza medievale, propovăduite de biserică merg aici până la
consecințele lor ultime, imaginând sublimarea erosului fizic într-unul
metafizic prin negarea unuia dintre parteneri. Or o atare situație presupune
infirmitate, nicidecum sfințenie, așa cum nu lipsa adversarului, ci numai
prezența lui efectivă poate da cuiva certitudinea forței sale. Don Quijote e
nu numai emblema imposibilității de a trăi iubirea, ci și aceea a neputinței
de a trăi în limitele naturii umane înseși, de a-și accepta fireasca pornire
spre împlinirea individuală.
De două ori, pe tot parcursul aventurilor sale, cavalerul ia viața în
piept și vrea să stabilească punți reale între el și aleasa inimii. Aflat în
Sierra Morena îl trimite pe Sancho cu o scrisoare la Dulcineea, prin care îi
transmite cât pătimește de dragul ei. Dă indicații clare cu privire la loc, la
familia ei și promite recompense lui Sancho numai să se achite cu bine de
această însărcinare. Fragmentul iese din sfera fictivului, nu pare deloc
ilustrarea unui topos literar, ci expresia unei dorințe foarte precizate. Acum
don Quijote e obligat să deschidă o paranteză în propria ficțiune și să
recunoască în fața lui Sancho că Dulcineea e de fapt Aldonza Lorenzo pe
care scutierul o cunoaște prea bine. Secvența o pregătește pe cea a întâlnirii
efective: înainte de plecarea în cea de-a treia călătorie, don Quijote vrea s-o
vadă, cu propriii ochi, pe Dulcineea, inițiativă uimitoare pentru un om care
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concede că Doamna poate să nici nu existe în realitate. Dedublarea sa
ontologică, „om inventat, cu nervii și venele hrănite de culturi foarte
diferite, de la cea medievală, cavalerească, până la cultura Renașterii”, dar,
în același timp, „om real și autentic” cu identitate, vârstă, fizionomie
[Cabas, 1971: 223], generează firesc dedublarea Dulcineea – Aldonza
Lorenzo, femeia livrescă și cea reală. Surpriza cea mare apare atunci când
don Quijote, nu Alonso Quijano, merge să-și întâlnească iubita, care nu
poate fi decât Aldonza Lorenzo, nicidecum Dulcineea. Inserție gravă a
imaginarului în real, curaj smintit și aducător de dezastre dacă n-ar fi fost
intervenția salutară a lui Sancho care îi prezintă o țărancă întâmplătoare
drept Dulcineea și îi sugerează ideea vrăjii. Secvența e totuși bizară în
ansamblul romanului și ne întrebăm firește care-i este rostul. De ce simte
eroul nevoia binecuvântării efective a Dulcineei dacă binecuvântarea
aceasta oricum exista în planul imaginar, singurul care contează pentru el?
Se pare că are dreptate Călinescu când vorbește despre crizele noțiunii de
real pe care le trăiește Cavalerul. Iluzionarea sa, ca să funcționeze, are
nevoie de un minim suport real, de un minim combustibil, după care se
dezvoltă de la sine, prin înmuguriri succesive. Ne putem întreba de
asemenea dacă iubirea lui declarată pentru Dulcineea, al cărei prototip real
este o țărancă „de care fusese cândva îndrăgostit, deși, de bună seamă, ea
niciodată nu știuse și nu bănuise”, nu e un produs de compensație, o
publicitate extremă a unui sentiment condamnat să rămână ascuns, ignorat.
Când o caută însă pe aleasa inimii în Toboso, rămânem stupefiați, căci don
Quijote declară ca n-a văzut-o în viața lui și că s-a îndrăgostit de ea doar
„din auzite”, datorită marii faime de care se bucură. Aceasta din urmă e
însă, clar, Dulcineea, nu Aldonza, e adică produsul literaturii, al poeziei
trubadurești.
Don Quijote nu iubește pentru că nici o mișcare nu vine să tulbure
vreodată apele calme ale sufletului său. Chinul îndrăgostitului îi este cu
totul străin, incandescența nu există în acest sentiment pur teoretic și, de
aceea, egal cu sine. Nu există oscilație, pentru că nu există viață în această
iubire-formalitate. Un personaj complet lipsit de vreun conflict interior, fără
psihologie, fără dileme, fără crize de conștiință. Dialogul cu sine e
desființat, reflexia anulată, pentru că a fost premergătoare deciziei de a
îmbrățișa o astfel de viață. Pornit cu toată energia ființei sale spre o țintă
prestabilită, care nu admite nuanțe, reformulări sau ajustări, e sortit
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dezastrului când verdictul realității nu mai poate fi amânat. Libertate totală
versus supunere totală, semn clar de automatism și într-o direcție, și în
cealaltă. Lui don Quijote îi lipsește știința negocierii. Ori vârsta de aur, ori
cea de fier, ori viața, ori moartea. Iar aprehensiunea pentru vârsta de aur se
corelează – spune Marthe Robert, care citește romanul printr-o grilă
psihanalitică, – cu sentimentul paradisiac al copilului, dat de posesiunea
unei lumi unitare, necivilizate în sens mitic, adică inocente, nescindate în
nici un fel, „când posedă încă în exclusivitate o mamă fără soț, un pământ
«cu sacru trup», pe care brăzdarul viril încă nu l-a «silit»” [1983: 194]. O
explicație posibilă pentru inapetența sexuală a personajului și pentru
refuzul de a trăi iubirea individuală – ca inițiativă a Tatălui creator și ca un
mod de a intra în Istorie și în Civilizație – în favoarea unei iubiri universale,
singura lege capabilă sa apere armonia și unitatea desăvârșită a mitului.
Altfel, iubirea sa, atât de etalată și doar etalată, iese de sub toate
„condițiile” stabilite de analiștii sentimentului. Iată câteva „puncte capitale”
care ar fi mărcile inconturnabile ale recunoașterii adevăratei iubiri, după
Ortega y Gasset: legea iubirii e nu doar „a fi”, cum lui îi este suficient, ci „a
acționa” către obiectul dorit, a fi alături de el „într-un contact și o
proximitate mai profunde decât cele spațiale” [Ortega y Gasset: 26]. Astfel,
„nu există iubire fără instinct sexual” [Ortega y Gasset: 26]. Iubirea e un
fenomen de esențială alegere, aici e fixație instantanee asupra singurului
obiect cunoscut, nici un examen al calităților nu intervine în selecția lui,
doar amintirea firavă a unei aspiraţii nemărturisite. Iubirea, mai spune
eseistul spaniol, se naște nu din frumusețea teoretică, perfectă, ci din grația
expresivă a unui mod de a fi, din întruparea a ceea ce fiecare dintre noi
credem că e frumusețe, în sensul platonician de optimitate, și înseamnă a te
pronunța răspicat pentru un anume tip de umanitate. Și pentru a se naște, ea
are nevoie să se fixeze în prealabil asupra obiectului, punct în care se
deosebește radical de pura voluptate, care îi poate preexista. Dulcineea însă
se naște din spuma mării și, dacă e și ea o formă de voluptate, atunci e
voluptatea iluziei. Apoi, iubirea are nevoie de o permanentă confirmare din
partea celuilalt; nu și pentru don Quijote care cere confirmări doar
învinșilor, absolut formale, cum că Doamna inimii lui e singura făptură
desăvârșită de pe pământ. Mai important decât toate, verdictul că „tipul
uman pe care-l preferăm în celălalt schițează profilul propriei noastre
inimi” [Ortega y Gasset: 62], că în alegerea amoroasă se reflectă fondul
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nostru cel mai autentic. Or Alonso Quijano o preferă pe Aldonza Lorenzo,
o figură atât de banală din universul cunoscut, de aceea don Quijote trebuie
să o creeze pe înalta Dulcineea, evadarea lui din normal, vulgar, cotidian,
rutinier. Numai procesul imaginației ne poate spune ceva pozitiv despre
acest personaj, alegerea lui rămâne dezolantă.
În concluzie, spune Ortega y Gasset, în ciuda a ceea ce se crede în
mod obișnuit, iubirea e un sentiment foarte rar, nicidecum demotic, dacă e
separat de formele de pseudoiubire, precum ardoarea senzuală sau
afecțiunea, cu care se confundă adesea. E de-a dreptul un talent, ca talentul
artistic, ca bravura. „Nu oricine se îndrăgostește, iar cel capabil nici nu se
îndrăgostește de oricine” [Ortega y Gasset: 146], căci pentru un proces
complet e nevoie de cumularea a trei componente. Întâi sunt condițiile de
percepție, adică a fi capabil de a o vedea pe ființa care urmează a fi iubită,
ceea ce e propriu doar sufletelor „poroase”, cu o curiozitate existențială și o
dorință arzătoare de viață (le petit bourgeois nu se poate îndrăgosti
autentic). Apoi, condiții de emoție, prin care răspundem noi înșine din
punct de vedere sentimental la acea viziune a obiectului iubirii în virtutea
unor calități care-l fac vrednic de a fi iubit. În fine, și decisiv, condiții de
constituție, inerente sufletului nostru, singurele care-i dau măsura întreagă,
căci „chiar dacă celelalte două operații ce țin de percepție și de sensibilitate
se desfășoară corect, tot se poate întâmpla ca sentimentul respectiv să nu ne
smulgă sau să ne invadeze sau să ne structureze întreaga persoană, întrucât
ea este puțin solidă și elastică, dispersată sau fără resorturi viguroase”
[Ortega y Gasset: 147]. Abia această din urmă condiție dă iubirii
capacitatea să crească și să devină plenară, îi conferă calitatea sa specifică,
pentru că ține de complexitatea și de acuitatea intelectuală a celui ce
iubește. E calitatea de talent sui generis care admite toate gradațiile până la
genialitate, calitatea de creație, de trăire „logoidă”, înzestrată cu sens, cu
nous, tocmai pentru că este profund fundamentată în adevărul ființei celui
ce iubește.
Trebuie să recunoaștem că Dulcineea, poate cel mai dificil de înțeles
personaj al romanului, e preluată ca mit, dar recreată mereu și mereu, cu
concursul fanteziei și al reveriei, de mintea acestui nou Pygmalion. Un
proces care vorbește nu numai despre voința personajului de a-și asigura
scenariul cavaleresc perfect, ci și despre voința de îndrăgostire sau, cum
spune eseistul spaniol, despre deschiderea spre existență, pe care o dețin
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doar anumite ființe. Numai strict la acest prim nivel al condiționărilor îl
putem pune în relație pe don Quijote cu Dulcineea ca expresie a iubirii.
Căci emoția nu poate fi suscitată de niște calități-concepte, iar când acestea
capătă întruchipare, când pretextul real al Dulcineei îi apare în față în
persoana unei țărănci, dezamăgirea e totală. De asemenea, complexitatea
sufletească a personajului a devenit univocitate decisă sub impactul
lecturilor, iar obiectul alegerii amoroase, prototip convențional. Iubirea lui
don Quijote, de care critica a făcut atât de mult caz, atribuindu-i merite
nebănuite, nu e iubire autentică, nu e nici sublimarea iubirii, e o formă
goală, o ficțiune frumoasă ca și iubirea cavalerească de altfel, dar nici
măcar atât, pentru că îi lipsește chiar și realitatea obiectului.
Dulcineea este Gloria, spune Unamuno [1973: 132], setea de
nemurire ca sublimare a instinctului erotic, pentru a se putea zămisli astfel
fii spirituali. Așa se explică înfrânarea și neprihănirea cavalerului pe care
fiii trupești l-ar fi abătut de la isprăvile lui vitejești. Lașitatea în fața oricărei
inițiative de a o cuceri pe Dulcineea (nu pentru acest scop merge el în El
Toboso, înaintea celei de-a treia expediții) se convertește într-un curaj
nebun în lumea exterioară. El crede că o cucerește cucerind lumea pentru
ea. Scenariu cavaleresc, în care numai iubirile nefericite dau roade în spirit,
sugerează Unamuno. Numai că, interpretarea transcendentă a iubirii
rămâne, în eseul său, în limitele donquijotismului constant, care împrumută
perspectiva personajului central. În afara lui, în cervantism, nu-l vedem pe
don Quijote nici fericit, nici nefericit din pricina absenței Dulcineei.
Nefericit doar din pricina vrăjirii ei, pentru că elementul necesar scenariului
s-a alterat.
Și Harold Bloom vede în don Quijote „un caz tipic de viață netrăită”
[1998: 108-109], un individ cast, care și-a petrecut, până la cincizeci de ani,
viața între zidurile casei, înconjurat de o menajeră, o nepoată, un ajutor la
câmp și doi prieteni, preotul și bărbierul satului. Eroismul său absolut,
curajul său nebun, care depășește în mod convingător curajul oricărui erou
din literatura occidentală, n-ar fi altceva decât o sublimare a energiei
sexuale, iar încântătoarea Dulcineea „emblema gloriei ce trebuie atinsă în și
prin violență” [Bloom, 1998: 111]. În numele ei își păstrează cu îndârjire
castitatea, pentru că dragostea este numai un mijloc de transcendere, nu un
scop, nici măcar o trăire în sine. Importante sunt armele, nu literele, nici
femeile. Dar femeia lui, ca și Beatrice a lui Dante, e nu doar pilonul lumii
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sale, ci și oglinda în care îi poate fi citit propriul chip. Ea ne revelează
profilul unui om pentru care iubirea e stare a ființei, e iubirea de ideal, de
tot ceea ce este înalt, frumos și nobil.
Bibliografie:
Auerbach, Erich, Mimesis. Reprezentarea realității în literatura
occidentală, în românește de I. Negoițescu, Prefață de Romul
Munteanu, București, Editura pentru Literatură Universală, 1967.
Battaglia, Salvatore, Mitografia personajului, traducere de Alexandru
George, București, Editura Univers, 1976. Dumitriu, Anton, Cartea
întâlnirilor admirabile, București, Editura Eminescu, 1981.
Bloom, Harold, Canonul occidental. Cărțile și școala epocilor, traducere
de Diana Stancu, Postfață de Mihaela Anghelescu Irimia, București,
Editura Univers, 1998.
Cabas, Juan, Istoria literaturii spaniole, traducere, studiu introductiv, note
și O privire asupra literaturii spaniole actuale de Doina Maria
Păcurariu, București, Editura Univers, 1971.
Călinescu, George, Scriitori străini, antologie și text îngrijit de Vasile
Nicolescu și Adrian Marino, prefață de Adrian Marino, București,
Editura pentru Literatură Universală, 1967.
Cervantes, Miguel de, Don Quijote de la Mancha, traducere din spaniolă,
cuvânt înainte, cronologie, note și comentarii de Sorin Mărculescu,
studiu introductiv de Martin de Riquer, Pitești, Editura Paralela 45,
2007.
Dumitrescu-Bușulenga, Zoe, Renașterea, Umanismul și destinul artelor,
ediție integral revăzută și adăugită, București, Editura Univers, 1975.
Dumitriu, Anton, Cartea întâlnirilor admirabile, Bucureşti, Editura
Eminescu, 1981.
Girard, René, Minciună romantică și adevăr romanesc, în românește de
Alexandru Baciu, Prefață de Paul Cornea, București, Editura Univers,
1972.
Huizinga, Johan, Amurgul Evului Mediu. Studiu despre formele de viață și
de gândire din secolele al XIV-lea și al XV-lea în Franța și în Țările
de Jos, traducere din olandeză de H. R. Radian, București, Humanitas,
2002.
Ivanovici, Victor, Formă și deschidere, București, Editura Eminescu, 1980.
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King, Margaret L., Femeia Renașterii, în Omul renascentist, vol. coordonat
de Eugenio Garin, traducere de Dragoș Cojocaru, prefață de Maria
Carpov, Iași, Polirom, 2000.
Martin de Riquer, Cervantes și Don Quijote, studiu introductiv la Miguel
de Cervantes, Don Quijote de la Mancha, traducere din spaniolă,
cuvânt înainte, cronologie, note și comentarii de Sorin Mărculescu,
Pitești, Editura Paralela 45, 2007.
Mustață, Ioana, În preajma lui Don Quijote, București, Editura Roza
Vânturilor, 1991, p. 45.
Ortega y Gasset, José, Studii despre iubire, traducere de Sorin Mărculescu,
București, Humanitas, [s.a.].
Pavel, Toma, Gândirea romanului, traducere din franceză de Mihaela
Mancaș, București, Humanitas, 2008.
Răileanu, Petre, Corabia lui Ghilgameș. Eseuri, București, Editura
Militară, 1990.
Robert, Marthe, Romanul începuturilor și începuturile romanului,
traducere de Paula Voicu-Dohotaru, Prefață de Angela Ion, București,
Editura Univers, 1983.
Roznoveanu, Mirela, Civilizația romanului. Arhitecturi epice, București,
Editura Cartea Românească, 1991.
Unamuno, Miguel de, Viața lui don Quijote și Sancho, în românește de
Ileana Bucurenciu și Grigore Dima, Prefață de Andrei Ionescu
București, Editura Univers, 1973.
Vianu, Tudor, Studii de literatură universală și comparată, ediția a II-a
revăzută și adăugită, București, Editura Academiei Republicii Populare
Române, 1963.
154
Woman’s morality and emancipation as reflected
in the 19th century Romanian prose
Alina SIMUŢ
University of Oradea
Abstract: Even if studies related to 19th century Romanian prose are
sometimes eclectic, the female character benefited from a much greater
focus, equaled maybe only by that granted to the historical character.
Generally, these studies describe the relationship between the female
character and the environment she lives in, woman’s social role in the
patriarchal society, the winning of independence, woman as individuality in
relation with two major family events: marriage and divorce, the right to
education, political and judicial freedom. Then the female character is
analyzed in relation with the public space and the private one. In the 19th
century she is seen at the ball, the theatre, walking or on a trip, at church,
playing cards or on the hippodrome, in the garden or in the imperious
setting of a library.
Keywords: female character, vernacular prose, Romanticism,
melodramatics, morality, emancipation
Romanticism manifested itself in its rather mild, domestic, even
intimate aspects in the Romanian literature of the 19th century. Developing
its Biedermeier phase, it displayed characters from the exterior, with their
manifestations, gestures, reactions, exclamations, against the social
background, all in the virtue of pure melodramatics. Women are
spectacular figures, Romantic characters caught in the games of love,
dominated by one state of mind only, or by antithetical ones. Their
psychology is often deficient, the writings in prose do not insist on the
internal mechanism of the characters.
Woman is seen from myriad perspectives in the Romanian 19th
century prose. There are no major differences between the Romanian
women and those in Western Europe. All of them have relatively the same
status, social differences being clearly preserved. Most times they dwell in
suffering, lack of consideration, both at the level of their professional life,
and their family and social life. This leveling of the European woman’s
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condition has been world-wide noticed: “The 19th century exiled women in
their private environment, brutally, as it had never happened before.
Woman, having become the symbol of frailty which needed to be protected
from the exterior world (the public) will gradually become the symbol of
the private. Women had to be isolated in private spaces given exactly their
biological weakness; the private itself, privacy, in itself, had revealed its
frailty when facing politics and the public transformation of the
revolutionary process.” Man had the care of public life; woman, on the
other hand, was the centre of her home and family. It was firmly believed
that man and woman were created to occupy different realms of activity. “It
was a law of nature, confirmed by habit and conveniences. Each sex,
naturally different, had its own qualities and every attempt to escape from
its sphere was doomed to failure”. (Aries, Duby, 1995: 45-49)
Many female characters were created especially to illustrate, slightly
anticipatively, the immense power of women’s desire for emancipation.
There are some “voices of the future”, like the character Zoe from one of
Bolintineanu’s novel, who, directly, but temperately, in a controlled and
rational manner, completely motivated, present the actual situation of the
women at those times. Other voices, obedient, stay anchored in the habits
of the past.
Woman manifests herself in numerous spaces, where she can express
her personality or she can stage her machinations. The theatre hall serves to
create love connections. The ball serves for the same purpose; it is the huge
scene of mask games, travesty, and sentimental intrigues. The loge, the
room, the parlour, the garden are spaces of seclusion, spaces of mystery, of
the secrets told on the quiet. The writers of the 19th century were closely
preoccupied with the description of those spaces in their writings, they
themselves having frequented or admired such realms of life.
A reputed man of culture, Mihail Kogălniceanu also wrote about the
art of the parlours. It is evoked in rich details, sometimes with slight irony,
bonhomie, a certain reconciliation of the author with the human nature.
Here women find a good realm to take their purposes a step further, to plan
their machinations attentively. The lady of the house, the hostess, who is
also an entertainer, has a special power, trying to control and impose her
ideas upon the guests. Avoiding upsetting the lady of the parlour is an art.
Alecu Russo attributes the development of the society, the movement
of the world itself to women. From his perspective, they are in all countries
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the mobile of the revolutions, especially as concerns fashion. That is why,
in our case too, ladies have changed the Greek costume, beautiful, rich and
grand. This is valid for all walks of life, for societies who are in favour of
progress, are willing to evolve again, but also for those who are traditional,
who keep the old habits alive.
Woman is vividly portrayed in the so much controversial prose
Duduca Mamuca. It is B. P. Haşdeu’s short story that was later turned into
a rather mild writing, called Micuţa. In both cases, the female character at
those times shocked from several perspectives. She is depicted as the
ingenuous young woman, who falls into a man’s romantic trap. A
commoner named Toderiţă, he seduces the young lady and has her fall into
another man’s arms. He often proves to be a misogynist, women being
presented in frivolous, erotic, bourgeois hypostases, voluptuously
practicing the games of seduction. Haşdeu cultivates the figure of the young
lady, of the child who allows to be easily taken into the games of seduction.
She often goes beyond the imposed laws of morality, as perceived at those
times. Micuţa, Miss Maria, the sixteen-year-old girl is an actress to be,
recently appeared on the theatre stages, waiting for the applause of the
public that favours young ladies. She is an artist in her early years, enjoying
the exuberance of youth.
Costache Negruzzi’s prose abounds in female characters that strive
between the urges of their hearts and morality. A young woman falls in
love with a cynical Don Juan, her love is deceived, and there comes
revenge, which fails lamentably, then suicide. It is an epic pattern that
characterizes most of the romantic writings of the 19th century, not only in
The Romanian Countries, but also in the European literature of the time. In
fact, Romanian writers are fascinated with the European poetry and prose,
so much as to translate their books, or sometimes to copy from them
extensively, or to use their narrative patterns into local writings with
vernacular themes. A high sense of melodramatics pervades those writings.
In the short story entitled Zoe we find a frail girl, possessive in the
games of love. She does not restrain herself from repeatedly expressing her
feelings towards Iancu, she indulges in the “love smoke” as she indulges in
the smoke of the cigarette “among which Zoe could be seen like a goddess
among clouds”. The narrator’s commentary is subtly inserted, having a
double role: that of oversizing the image, but also that of granting a slightly
comical touch to the scene depicted. The pathos of love comes from vivid
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dialogues at the beginning of the short story. The characters are dominated
by theatrical gestures. Zoe is the young lady in love, capable of doing
everything for genuine feelings. The scene where she appears for the first
time in the novel is imperious, rich in details: the clothes, the hair, “the idle
position” urges the narrator to say: “She was a really beautiful girl, the
young lady!”
In the development of the short story, the character reveals itself under
the same domineering umbrella, that of sentimentalism. Zoe is not a
character, described in her dynamics; she is rather a theatrical individual,
dominated by gestures, reactions, professions of love. The young lady’s
allusion to marriage is promptly rejected by Iancu, a moment which
unleashes love’s crisis and the wish for suicide. The female character is
predictable. For the author, the moral traits are of no interest, but the
exuberance and the despair of individual feelings. In Negruzzi’s prose there
can be noticed the passage from indirect exposition to the direct one
through dialogues, monologues, indirect address towards a fictional speaker
or interior monologue. The technique of the counterpoint also intensifies
the effect.
The author’s insertion in the text is very frequent; it starts with a
retrospective look on the young lady’s life, occasion on which the narrator
does not forget to say that “this is a very true story”. Thus, the narrator
wants his writing to be real, lifelike, and liable to be taken seriously,
capable to circulate in different environments and to stir reactions.
Women do not represent only important characters in the 19th century
prose, but also faithful readers of the novels and short stories. The
development of the prose itself is stimulated by a public who used to read
with much interest, a public “slightly bourgeois, lacking solid education, a
little bit grandiose, wherein women represent a high-percentage”. (Cornea,
1980: 270) In the short story called O alergare de cai, unwilling to lose the
so-called sympathy of the female readers, the narrator confesses:
“Undoubtedly I praise all the young women and I do grace to the old ones,
in remembrance of their old beauty; but with all obeisance I ask the ladies
who are not going to be that slim, to forgive me if I prefer the tall and thin
ones. This is a mistake that my taste makes itself guilty of”. There is much
sycophancy in the Biedermeier prose, wherefrom the mark of artificiality.
Soon Zoe finds another man to comfort herself. His promises are
easily believed, thus the young lady fantasizes about a future marriage. But
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she remains gullible in her dreams, hence an air of melancholy makes her
more interesting, but her heart can not live without love. She becomes the
pray of some unbearable nightmares: “a fantastic fear surrounded her with
fierce projections. The poor girl felt the blood in her veins”. Imaginary
projections, counterbalanced by states pf passing out are part of the
romantic scenery. Zoe ends up tragically, shooting herself, leaving the guilt
of betrayal in love to Iancu B., who goes mad. We can naturally discuss
about types, characters created beforehand. Zoe belongs to the category of
girls who commit suicide out of love, but she is not easily classifiable, put
into a hierarchy.
In Dimitrie Bolintineanu’s novels the female character is much more
complex. Woman is the key element through whom the rise and fall of the
male character occurs. But she is not a replica of him; she is a genuine force
in the novel. Despite that, Dimitrie Păcurariu maintains that the characters
are antithetically created, “the author works, we could say, with two
colours: white and black, without ever combining them to get intermediary
nuances. Characterizations, especially of women, are flat, uniform, using
general and almost identical epithets”. (Păcurariu, 1969: p. 118)
In the novel Elena we notice a predilection towards the analysis of the
states of mind, of the love psychology, towards the detailed depiction of the
female soul. Elena, as Nicolae Manolescu puts it, is one of the superior
beings who prove aristocratic discretion: “There was in Bucharest a girl, a
marvel, perfection in all aspects. Youth, beauty, spirit, upbringing, delicate
feelings, she possessed them all in the highest point, she was one of those
rare beings, maybe unique, whom God makes from time to time to be born
in certain societies”.
Elena is the landlady of the manor house in Făneşti and the hostess of
mixed-up society. She allows time and patience for the people
sentimentally and intellectually inferior to her, she listens with pleasure to
the contradictions between Alexandru and the others, and his courageous
answers agree with the young woman’s principles: “There was a soul who
understood him: Elena. His words touched the heart of this woman”. The
relationship is subtly contoured in the atmosphere dominated by piano
music and lectures from Balzac. But what on the inside is love,
commitment becomes adultery and lack of morality on the exterior. Elena’s
guilt as a mother and wife easily slide into her soul. Gradually, the
woman’s drama is unleashing. Although she divorces, she does not get rid
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of the guilt imposed by social norms. Illness becomes a means of
redeeming inner tension.
Another character who ends tragically in the 19th century Romanian
prose but remains a feminine model through the outlook she develops at the
end of the novel is Aglaia, the main character in an anonymous novel
recently discovered. Although she faced the enclosure of freedom as
concerns taking decisions, Aglaia is a character full of force. She needs to
face the upbringing imposed by a foster parent, the death of her loved one,
the material shortage which follows the death of her parents. In the dialogue
she has in the last chapter with a woman who was simply passing by, she
reveals her moral integrity and the nobility of character. Her conviction is
that “woman, if she has fallen once, then nothing, it seems to me, is capable
to wake her up to her most sacred duties, because woman is almost always
governed by feeling, which attracts, often, bad consequences on her head.”
This woman does not appear without a reason at the end of the novel. She
is indicative of the feminine side of society, ever more emancipated, who
fights for her own rights and for the equality of chances.
The woman of low morals is a very widely spread figure in the
Romantic prose of the 19th century. Sometimes she has the contours of a
full character, other times she is only mentioned descriptively.
There are other writings which depict a real show of coquetry and
seduction games. Women gravitate around men, trying to win their favours
through various tricks. Two popular, anonymous novels present such webs
of masquerade: Catastihul amorului and La gura sobei. There is a main
character George, around whom gravitate a series of women trying to win
his grace. Two sisters, Elisabeta and Elena compete for his love, setting all
sorts of tricks to gain the man’s love. Elisabeta seems to be a master of
manipulation, as she herself confesses: “Aren’t people always what we
want them to be?” There is a game of dissimulation between the two sisters,
Elena pretends that she does not want to win George, and her sister pokes
into her affairs with lots of questions. The narrator remarks ironically:
“women are always two perils: the peril itself and that of not being able to
see it”. Elena manifest maternal solicitude in the dialogue with George, she
pretends to be responsible about him, and wants to make him “her
prisoner”, offering him, as jail, the most beautiful room – her room. In
expressing such favour, she does not forget the technical convincing details:
“she took care to soften her voice and to turn her cheeks red by
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pronouncing the last word.” Later on, she projects a real show: she “sacks”
her sister, and plans George’s seduction with great attention, but fails
because George, in his turn, has his own mechanisms of relating to women,
of playing with them.
Maria from La gura sobei is the type of the coquette, who masters the
art of making men believe that she will give up coquetry for one man only.
Her role exists as long as she can manifest socially, otherwise the whole
attempt of the female character is useless. A woman is a coquette because
she wants others to like her. Therefore, we may say that she herself is
overwhelmed by the illness called at those times “the hidden malice”. It is
wishful thinking that transforms the individual in a puppet on the social
scale and takes him away from his/her real identity.
The woman enjoys being in fashion, in the centre of attention, she is
“as beautiful as an icon, but has the spirit of a devil”. Later on, the author
puts down: “Well, with such women you cannot deal with them at all”. The
Romantic woman is a trap; she manifests her seduction power through
weapons and tricks known only by her. Women are often associated with
devils, narrators recurring to the old biblical story of Adam and Eve.
Elegance and the need of emancipation are the major coordinates of
the women’s behaviour in society. They are the first who have taken the
foreign customs, the Parisian and the Viennese models; they are thus the
factors of cultural change in the epoch. Their role is that of catalysts. They
determine the change; they set it into motion, but after that the role of
society itself comes, of social and cultural movement to turn those models
into genuine literary and cultural products.
Fiction and arts
Bodiu, Andrei, (2002), Seven Themes of the mid19th Century Novel,
Paralela 45 Publishing House. (In Romanian)
Bujoreanu, Ioan, (1984), The Mysteries of Bucharest, Minerva Publishing
House. (In Romanian)
Cazimir, Ştefan, (1973), The Pioneers of the Romanian Novel, Bucharest,
Minerva Publishing House. (In Romanian)
Cornea, Paul, (1980), The Rule of the Game, Bucharest, Eminescu
Publishing House. (In Romanian)
Ionescu, Radu, (1974), Distinguished Writings, Minerva Publishing House.
(In Romanian)
Păcurariu, Dimitrie, (1969), D. Bolintineanu, Bucharest, Tineretului
Vârgolici, Teodor, (1985), Aspects of the Romanian Novel in the 19th
Century, Eminescu Publishing House. (In Romanian)
Bibliography:
***, (1968), History of Romanian Literature, The Second Volume, From
The Western School to Junimea, Academia Publishing House. (In
Romanian)
***, (1980), Catastihul amorului. La gura sobei. Dacia Publishing House
(In Romanian)
Aries, Philippe, Duby, George, (1995), The History of Private Life, Vol.
VII, Meridiane Publishing House. (In Romanian)
Bălăeţ, Dumitru, (1986), Radu Ionescu. A Son of Imagination, Minerva
161
162
Slavici’s ethos rendered through lexical units
Adela DRĂUCEAN
Abstract: Being formed under the influence of the German school of
thought, Slavici does not emphasize style, but rather substance, the clarity
of communication. One can remark a permanent preoccupation in grasping
a concept of life specific to the countryside by using simple words,
understood by all the Romanians. A specific feature for Slavici is the
moralizing nature of his works illustrated through general expressions such
as: it is good – it is not good, it can be – it can’t be, it is appropriate – it is
not appropriate, it is right – it is not right, to do – not to do, to be satisfied –
to be unsatisfied; these phrases show the right way which is to be followed,
or they can suggest an impending disaster for the protagonists in case they
are not respected.
All these lexical units seem antithetical due to negation, but they all
comprise the verb must. This is the verb which contains all the lexical units
with ethical meaning, but at the same time it involves man’s will.
Keywords: style, moralizing nature, will, lexical unit, must
Being formed at the German school Slavici doesn’t put the accent on
style, but more on the substance, on the clarity of communication. The
writer thinks that only by expressing himself simply and naturally he can be
understood: “by writing I was straining every effort to be adequate both in
creation and in form with the way of seeing things and according to the
tastes of those whom I had in view. What followed naturally was that I
worked slowly, I wanted a correct form to the smallest detail and I was
struggling to choose the words and use them according to the manners of
most Romanians, not only for the cultivated people who made up step by
step a new language, more diverse and unfamiliar for the ordinary
Romanian”[SLAVICI, 2001, VI: 284].
Perhaps this attention in choosing words in his works determined
some critics such as Duiliu Zamfirescu, Eugen Lovinescu or Pompiliu
Constantinescu to consider Slavici’s style as being of a poor quality or
“uncouth” like N. Xenopol thinks.
Fiction and arts
In spite of all the negative critics about his style, one can remark a
permanent preoccupation in surprising a conception of life specific to
countryside, using simple words understood by all the Romanians.
The personal note which puts a mark on his creations is the
moralizing nature illustrated in phrases such as: it is good – it is not good, it
can be – it cannot be, it is appropriate – it is not appropriate, it is right – it
is not right, to do – not to do, to be satisfied – to be unsatisfied: “There were
also the seven buckets with golden coins which they had to give but the
dragons weren’t just some people who didn’t kept their word and eat dirty
puddings but they really had to give them away.” (Spaima zmeilor), “There
was nothing in the world to grow quiet the strong will, so Lia kept going
on”, “There is nothing in the world which can hold on someone who wants
by all means to go forward” (Limir-împărat), “Well! Didn’t I tell you! It is
not right when the lucky ones don’t take wise people’s advice” (Ioanea
mamei).
Not only have the heroes from fairy tales guided themselves by these
lexical units, but also those from novels and novellas: “One should be
contented living in poverty because not richness but the welfare of your
home makes you happy” (Moara cu noroc), “I don’t know how it came to
me some kind of charm and I had to be like that all the time. I had fifty
golden coins and I was satisfied. I wanted to come back. But I had fifty one
and I couldn’t come back, because I had to groan for one hundred” (O viaţă
pierdută), “One needs the other in this world because no one is so rich and
powerful not to need others and no one is so poor and weak not to be able
to help others” (Vecinii, I), “Don’t turn day into night because you are not
like that” (Pădureanca) “When you don’t have anything to live from,
nobody wants to know how you ended up there, but they all despise you”
(Din păcat în păcat).
The frequency of these lexical units has to be explained through the
moralizing spirit in which the writer was raised, being educated at the
Western schools and having taken the simple’s people advice.
The beginning of his prose, but also that of his maturity is based on
stereotypes as moral dogma rendered through lexical units. These phrases
contain an entire life experience due to the writer’s wish to improve the
society. This desire was due most part to Eminescu, the one who watched
over his work, made him a time table and taught him Romanian, a fact
admitted by the writer himself: “You – he told me once – have to start with
Schopenhauer, pass on to Confucius, then to Buddha and then you have to
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read something from Plato’s Dialogues and that’s enough”. Thus Slavici
gets to know the Asian ideas, but also the Western ones which lay emphasis
on morality that can be found in his work. Therefore he will consider
Confucius “above all those who gave people advice in what concerns good
living” [SLAVICI, 2001, VI: 658)]. In the Oriental philosopher’s writings
he finds moral principles similar to the ones that his mother told him in his
childhood: “Reading China’s history I understood better Confucius’ visions
which matched so well with what I had learned at home…” [SLAVICI,
2001, VI: 659]. First of all it is all about kindness, truth, beauty, justice and
other virtues which are important in the society. Confucius’ moral
philosophy started from the principle that man is a small part from the
entire nature, a microcosm, having inside the general features of Tao: order,
justice, kindness, honesty. That’s why man has to be educated, trained to
attain perfection, to be “superior” (Junzi). This perfection can be achieved
only through our forerunners’ example. According to their example
children must have a perfect respect for their parents, the individuals must
respect the state, those who are alive must respect those who are dead, the
emperor must respect his forerunners and he must obey to Divinity. From
the little one to the bigger one they have to respect the duties according the
hierarchy [ELIADE, 1999: 251–253]. In other words the fundamental idea
in his ethics is comprised in “kindness” (Jen), namely “respect to man in
man”. In his work Ioan Slavici makes use of the main moral virtues
expressed by Confucius’ philosophy – goodness, justice, sincerity, dignity,
truthfulness, frankness, honesty and the love of truth – being able to affirm
that the writer’s prose makes a panorama of mores, it builds a world in
which win out those moral standards that people should respect.
Being influenced by Confucius’ ideas, Ioan Slavici wanted to leave
through his writings something important for the community. He wanted to
show that the morality of people and society is the foundation which
assures progress and stability for community. The world of his work is one
that models. Often in his work we encounter lexical units that indicate the
right way which has to be followed by the heroes or suggest the disaster to
which the protagonists can end up if they don’t respect them. No matter if it
is good – it is not good, it can be – it cannot be, it is appropriate – it is not
appropriate, it is right – it is not right, all these lexical units seem
antithetically due to negation, but they all comprise the verb must. Cornel
Ungureanu says that “this verb is fundamental in Slavici’s work”, around it
“everything is being made” [UNGUREANU, 2007: 122]. It is the verb
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which contains all the lexical units with ethical meaning, but in the same
time it involves human’s will, about which talked the other leading of the
writer – Schopenhauer. Therefore, Slavici’s work is being made around
must, that verb which unites two philosophical ideas – the right measure
and balance (the Asian thinking) and will (Schopenhauer’s philosophy). In
other words, Slavici sets upon a traditionalist thinking, a preserver of
existential values (Confucius) and the problematic perspective over life
given by the German philosopher. Although these directions might seem
conflicting, they become complementary in the writer’s case as Mircea
Muthu thinks: “the complex relation between Eastern and Western is an
opposition, a synthesis and in the same time a complementarity’s dialogue”
[MUTHU, 2002: 128]. Must is the lexeme of choice, it stands for what is
moral but in the same time it gives people the possibility of choosing from
the opportunities which are offered and it shows the right way that people
follow only if they want to. In Slavici’s creation the heroes that take into
account this thing know how to control themselves; they know how to
resist temptations because they are virtuous.
The notion of virtue identifies with the permanent wakeful state
against the temptations that lead you to sin. Explanatory in this way is the
story called Omul cel adevărat (1923), which can demonstrate and
conclude our attempt to surprise a specific feature to Slavici, meaning the
lexical units that act as guidelines for man. On his way of sharing gifts on
Christmas Day, Santa Claus meets an old lady who gives him a wreath for
“the true man”. But he wanted to see what understood the old woman, who
was in fact Mary Magdalene and from these words he found out that: “most
of the people are some kind of deformed man after time and circumstances.
The true man is the one who remained such as God created him”. The
deformed man is that one who cannot resist temptations and the true man is
that person who is full of virtues, the one who longs for perfection by
killing all the pleasures. Accompanying Santa Claus in finding the true man
Mary Magdalene will impersonate the temptation. In order to find the
moral person, which is worthy to receive the gift – the wreath, the two will
go first to a notorious captain, to a famous judge, to an old scientist and
then to a good hearted man known for his passion “to make other ones
happy”. But these people prove themselves to be the deformed men, they
don’t fight against temptation and they violate the moral principles on
seeing the beautiful Mary Magdalene. Finally they arrive at the house of a
poor widow stonemason who has three children and who proves to be the
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true man. Being seduced by the beautiful woman through words like: “I
truly ask you to come with me and take me in a place where we can delight
our lives eating and drinking a few glasses, to feel that this night is not like
all the others, but arranged for cheering up our hearts”, the stonemason is in
a permanent wakeful state, he is guided by the lexeme must. Although
inside him there is a struggle “the stonemason looked again at her. He
would have torn apart if he could do that, one that left with her and other
that stayed”, he has the power and will to refuse pleasure. “Forgive me
please but I cannot leave my children alone at night”. This refusal makes
the travelers to say “He is the one!” the man who deserves the wreath. The
stonemason is the one who fought against temptation, a moral man who
realized that a pleasure gives birth to the others.
By all his writings Slavici proves himself to be an educator, a teacher
for his people, one that offers the right way to achieve the wreath of virtue,
like the stonemason, but in the same time he gives examples of careless
individuals to the values recognized by the entire community which are
discovered in the lexeme must (the verb which comprises all the lexical
units with moral value such as it is good – it is not good, it can be – it
cannot be, it is appropriate – it is not appropriate, it is right – it is not right,
but the will too).
References:
Slavici, Ioan, Opere, vol. I–VI, ediţie îngrijită, studiu introductiv şi
cronologie de Dimitrie Vatamaniuc, Bucureşti, Editura Naţional, 2001;
Cubleşan, Constantin, Ioan Slavici, Bucureşti, Editura Recif, 1994;
Dumitrescu, Adriana, Introducere în opera lui Ioan Slavici, Bucureşti,
Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, 1998;
Eliade, Mircea, Istoria credinţelor şi ideilor religioase, Bucureşti, Editura
Univers Enciclopedic, 1999;
Marcea, Pompiliu, Slavici, Timişoara, Editura Facla, 1978;
Muthu, Mircea, Balcanismul literar românesc, vol. II, Editura Dacia, ClujNapoca, 2002;
Popescu, Magdalena, Slavici, Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, 1977;
Ungureanu, Cornel, Istoria secretă a literaturii române, Braşov, Editura
Aula, 2007;
Vighi, Daniel, Onoarea şi onorariul, Bucureşti, Editura Cartea
Românească, 2007.
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I.L. Caragiale’s folktales and the spirit of the Balkans
Adela DRĂUCEAN
Abstract: Having Anton Pann`s anecdotes and fairy tales, as well as
foreign collections of folktales, as a model, I.L. Caragiale gazed into the
depths and delights of folk literature. These stories have eased the writer a
passage from the petty world that surrounded him and, for this fact alone,
towards the end of his literary career, he dedicated himself to stories of
folkloric inspiration. Although he reveals with honesty his sources of
inspiration and the archetypes of his tales, we cannot consider him a mere
translator or writer. His characters' traits offer him the opportunity to unveil
his penmanship and the vision of his unique approach. He achieved this
superb development of folktales disguising folkloric archetypes with
sarcasm, humor, subtle words, grandeur of a certain age and fantasy from
southeastern Europe.
Keywords: fairytale, fantasy from southeastern Europe, anecdote,
adapted characters.
Having Anton Pann as a predecessor, the creator and storyteller of
oriental anecdotes and native fairytales, I.L. Caragiale went deep in the
captivating folklore literature. In time, he won`t be content anymore with
just his role model, but look into the foreign collections of folk literature as
well. These stories have eased the writer a passage from the petty world that
surrounded him, and for this fact alone, towards the end of his literary
career, he dedicated himself to stories of folkloric inspiration. Although he
reveals with honesty the sources of inspiration and the archetypes of his
tales, we cannot consider him a mere translator or writer. The traits of his
characters offer him the opportunity to unveil his penmanship and the
vision of his unique approach. He achieved this superb development of
folktales disguising folkloric archetypes with sarcasm, humor, subtle
words, grandeur of a certain age and fantasy from southeastern Europe.
In those few fairytales: Poveste. Imitaţie; Mamă; Calul dracului;
Poveste (neterminată); Făt-Frumos cu moţ în frunte; Lungul nasului. Basm
oriental; Olga şi Spiriduş. Basm, just like Ion Creangă, Caragiale brings the
Fiction and arts
bizarre into our human world, only, with an oriental flavor “when meeting
with devils, saints and God at a crossroad is a regular sight and where the
profane converges with the sacred, not from the desire to have a mythical
becoming but to satisfy a healthy vigilante spirit” [F. MANOLESCU,
1983: 181]. At I.L. Caragiale, the taste for the oriental is manifested just as
Pompiliu Constantinescu says:” in the shape of anecdotes, morality is
involved in the narration and the oriental wisdom takes the picturesque of
that age and language, when he`s not sneaking in allegories or the allure of
1001 Nights” [P. CONSTANTINESCU, 1967: 159]. Nevertheless, in an
oriental story, we can see more than just geography or typical morals, we
can interpret a certain view of life that puts first caprice and worldly
cravings. Thus, the mother of the two royal brothers from Poveste
(neterminată) has the whim of marrying them to certain girls, only to find
that the irony of fate makes her to mistake the names of the boys and switch
their roles: Ler takes as a wife the daughter of the Black Emperor and
Mezin the daughter of the White Emperor. Just like the emperor’s son from
Lungul nasului. Basm oriental who has the humor of not seeing his nose
after he`s being jinxed by a witch.
Caragiale takes from folklore certain motifs, episodes, mystical
characters, names and the style of speech. His stories and fairytales are full
of emperors, empresses, ladies, many Prince Charmings, fairies and also
lesser devils that walk “wobbling, wabbling” or hide their riches under rags.
Even their names are borrowed from folklore archetypes: Red Emperor,
Green Chieftain, White Emperor, Black Emperor, Ler, Mezin, Bujor
(Peony), Crin (Lily), Mugur-Voevod (Bud Chieftain), FloareaDoamna(Lady Flower), Mugurel (Little Bud), Viorica-Doamna (Lady
Violet) (Poveste (neterminată), Florea-Voievod (Flower Chieftain)
(Mamă), Ileana, Prâslea (Poveste. Imitaţie), Prichindel (Calul dracului),
names most often inspired by flora and colors. Caragiale uses his motifs
and stereotypical scenes: three young men, sons of the emperor travel
trough the world to do great deeds in order to win the heart of Ileana, the
child found by the emperor during a hunting party, ending with Ileana
choosing Prâslea. The parents oppose to such an unfitted marriage with
someone of a lesser rank, forcing the youngsters to use miraculous objects:
a charmed mirror, a magical flying carpet or a life-giving holy icon
(Poveste. Imitaţie); a greedy, evil sister betrays her brother while the
emperor is gone at war; a childless empress threatened “she would not eat
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bread and salt” with the emperor, now gone at war, raises the child of a
gypsy (Mamă). Prince Charming proves to be wise at an early age: “FătFrumos cu moţ în frunte” hasn`t even began to mumble that he already
spoke wise and heart-warming words”.
The initial, middle and ending formulae find their place in Caragiale`s
stories, but are reduces to minimum to avoid clichés, or are completely
removed (Lungul nasului. Basm oriental). Even when used, there are
changes so as to differ from those that appear in folktales. The initial
formula from the beginning lifts you into the world of the story with a glibtongued tone and ceremonial embroideries becoming an introduction
phrase: “once upon a time” (Poveste (neterminată)), “it used to be
once”(Calul dracului), “it was once” (Mamă, Poveste. Imitaţie). These
connecting sequences sparkle the interest and the ending formula has been,
most times, removed. Stories either end suddenly or return to the initial
moment, such as Calul dracului when the fairy resumes her beggar’s
appearance, or using some character`s words: “That`s it, my Floric! that`s
how I see it!… Each with his match!... it should be so! (Mamă), either with
a dialogue between the storyteller and the reader like in Poveste. Imitaţie:
“So? asks the listener , which of the lads got Ileana?”
“Don`t you know, says the storyteller, how all this Prince Charming
stories end? Who did she love?... Prâslea, of course.”
When he works on a foreign model, Caragiale adapts it to our
Christian spirituality. For example, the fairytale Făt-Frumos cu moţ în
frunte is a loose and personal interpretation of Charles Perrault`s Riquet à la
houppe, bearing the Romanian writer`s distinct hallmark. Although the
motif of “metamorphosis trough love” is kept, the fairytale is rewritten for
the enjoyment of the Romanian people. Trough transfer, the fairytale
becomes rich with southeastern Europe`s phantasm, where humor, savory
and colloquial speech bond together. Unlike the original, the beginning of
Caragiale`s story puts accent on physical ugliness rather than ill-nature
morals: “ and that empress, when she was due to give birth, she bared such
a horrid child at look and form, that none could reckon him a human soul”.
Pretending to have forgotten, the author completes this Prince Charming`s
physical traits:” I forgot to tell you this little one was borne with a strand of
hair on his head.”
Not just the motif of physical unattractiveness is present in the
fairytale, but also that of the mind. If ugliness takes the embodiment of a
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young lad, the intellectual flaw has to be that of an emperor`s daughter.
Thus, trough the joining of the two, a Yin-Yang unity is created. The
appearance of the girl, before her meeting with Prince Charming, is defined
in a line from Scrisoarea V: “Do not forget that the woman has a short mind
and a long dress”. Caragiale sees the foolishness of the girl in a comical
way. The empress, seeing the awkwardness of her oldest daughter, has the
reaction of a wench: “Alas, my child, you`re a simpleton.” The writer`s text
has a jester`s tone. The encounter of Prince Charming and the princess
takes place in a forest, but looks like the meeting between an educated
nobleman and beautiful but naïve peasant girl-like. The amusing part is
given especially by the girls attitude:” Alack!”,” Ah fie, forsooth! And
how?”. The proposal of the wise but hideous lad to change her status
rejoices the beautiful but dull girl.
In the beginning, the girl`s transformation takes place only at the level
of speech. From silent, she turns talkative: “After promising her hand in
marriage in exactly one year, she changes completely, becoming glibtongued, and anything that crosses her mind she would speak fast, with
ease and mirth. Thus, they began a long talk – like any clever girl towards
the man that courts her – a battle of wits, he`d say a word, she`d answer
two, he`d say two words, she`d answer four, and so forth.”
The only fantasy-like scene of the fairy tale comes last, when the girl
strolls in the garden and ”she reckons a noise from abyssal depths,
underneath her feet”, reminding her of the marriage promise. If, until now,
the writer led us to believe the story is happening between neighbouring
countries, the “noise from abyssal depths” indicates that Prince Charming`s
ugliness is a consequence of his origins. Folk traditions speak of this land,
inhabited by sully spirits, with tails, horns and a limping leg. Only now can
we understand that the deal between the two was in fact a pact with the
devil and that, at their wedding day, he will come to take his payment – her
soul. However, this day proves to be the true moment of her transformation.
She realizes that the deal can be advantageous and the princess ends up
changing the “one from the depths”.
Charles Perrault`s fairytale has a moral lesson; what makes love last is
not physical attraction. Adding to that, the Romanian folktale brings a light
raillery: “Some say it wasn`t the hands of Fate but love alone that caused
such wondrous transformations. And they say the Lady, thinking well of
the man`s status, dowry and demeanor, forsook his hideousness and
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ugliness.” The supernatural works only as a motivational element. It looks
slightly curious, but that has a rational explanation. Caragiale transfers the
supernatural into human reality.
The same aspect we can see in Calul dracului fairytale, where the
initial formula “once upon a time” introduces us to the world of stories.
More than that, it has a disguising role to hide the author`s real intentions,
that has to be found in the pleasure of storytelling and everything that
comes with it: ambiance, local flavor, colloquial language. Besides this
fairytale cliché, the beginning of the story has a motif deceivingly built in: a
beggar crone sits next to a fountain, on the edge of a country road and a late
traveler seeks a place to sleep at night. We must follow how the author
builds his narrative plot in the first part, with subtle hints: a full moon, the
hag “is a poor soul with no strength” with “green eyes”. These allusions are
impossible to be deciphered by the reader, for the code is missing. It
quickly creates a merry scene, in which the writer integrates again the
fairytale formula:”once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom…”. Until now,
the whole plot seems to have had the purpose of distracting the reader`s
mind from the author`s real intention, because what comes next is really
surprising. The events, gradually and unnoticeable, take in an eroticgrotesque feeling, although the game of the old woman keeps the same
tone, at the border between serious and curious. The dialogue that takes
place between the emperor`s daughter, hexed into a crone, and Prichindel,
hosted under her cloth, is full of subtle meanings, much like the one
between Moş Nechifor and Malca, from Ion Creangă`s story. The old
woman wants to walk and the traveler wants to ride a horse:
“Alas, you are a bit half-baked, methinks…But I`ll find`ya a horse in
two shakes of a lamb`s tail. Ah, hither are your father`s stables, methinks
you want to clap your hands and get the barbary under your nose?... I pity
your master..!”
“Nay, did I say horse? I meant horseback…”
“Alas, whatever do you mean by that?”
“I feel sorry for you, more so that you said you know and understand
many things. And this much, meseems, you can`t grasp.
Next is the journey of the two. The crone lays low while Prichindel
jumps on her back, suggested only by onomatopoeia, just like in Creangă`s
stories.
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Unlike the folklore literature, where the cursed characters are set free
if they fulfill certain requirements, in Caragiale`s tale, where the devil is
deceived during the night, the girls becomes an old woman. Caragiale is not
interested in saving the girl. What puzzles him is the idea to fool the devil,
the possibility to interpret the curse in another way, as an alibi (to live a life
of two aspects). The girl doesn`t consider herself a victim of the curse. She
knows she can only redeem her former appearance “by deceiving the devil,
and even more so, at night time”. The tale`s originality is also given by Old
Nick`s elevating emotions towards nature, to be able to feel human, to
admire beautiful sceneries: “They had a long walk and many meadows
with as many flowers did they see! and so many birdsongs, some more
pleasant than others, did they hear”. The fact that Prichindel doesn`t want to
repeat his walk with the emperor`s daughter comes as a regret for having
lost some of his impish attributes, and for the weakness he showed towards
the crone.
In actual fairytales and folktales like Mamă, Poveste. Imitaţie, Calul
draculu, Poveste (neterminată) the supernatural remains second as
importance. Caragiale is here, foremost, a passionate observer of this world
of emperors, Prince Charmings, devils seduced by ordinary lives; turning
emperors into regular folks, hardworking peasants, and attentive parents;
out of empresses, making tireless housewives, witty and sharp-tongued; out
of princes – lads in love; out of witches – cunning crones. However, their
behavior is observed carefully and quite close. The emperor from Mamă
reminds us of the usual concerns of the author`s Momente şi Schiţe heroes,
concerns such as politics. Exasperated by the empress, the nanny and their
hysterical fits, he cries like a buffoon “I`m losing my time trying to talk
politics with such insane women”. Not even the empress gets away
unchecked. She gets witty with the nanny, switches from chat to insults,
ending with a fistfight, until she drops tired. In addition, the nanny,
ambitious, wants for her son (who became an emperor’s son) more than a
noble girl, maybe even a princess; laments genuinely “hitting with her fists
over her naked bosom: “It cannot be! I will not accept it, dead and buried! I
will not give you, Florică, to anyone but a princess of your own standing!
Don`t embarrass me, Florică, or I will kill myself!” and Florea-Voievod,
who became Florică, mourns striking his fists against his head: “It killed
nanny!…. Alack!”. The emperor from the tale Poveste. Imitaţie, pestered in
his matrimonial plans for his three sons, passes, progressively, trough all
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the shades of anger, showed by Caragiale with humor and short phrases:
first, “he turned really murky”, then shouts back frowning and finally gets
up ablaze with anger and snap! smacks Prâslea so hard the entire palace
heard it: “get out of my sight, you snotty-nosed!”. After a manifestation of
such fatherly authority, fuming still, the emperor sends for his advisors. All
these examples demonstrate that, in the writer`s attitude, there is a
continuous swing between seriousness and comical.
Beyond the immediate folkloric appearance of these tales, we find the
author of Schiţe şi Momente, the one who was so attracted to the life around
him. Imitating folklore literature is one of his best ways to mirror reality. In
this creation of fairytales, less approached by critics, we can recognize that
subtle analyst of the human heart, the lucid observer of social and moral
conduit. Sometimes, the charm and ambiance of the tale is cut short by an
ironic comment. Thus, about the emperor from the tale Mamă, we find out
he had to go to war, “just like any other emperor from a story”; and in
Poveste (neterminată) the ending is a humorous theory of the work`s
literary esthetics: “Or maybe I should do as other storytellers? Instead of
telling, shortly, what misfortune befalls the empress, I should tell you what
bad luck meant for an empress at that time? However, the heart of that
mother, maybe resembled a high tower that a great earthquake shakes in a
split of a second – the great tower that until that moment lifted his golden
peak above the bluish heights – leaving nothing but a desolate pile of
broken rocks, scattered round with but the madness of the event […]. I
could do it to please you; if to please words I searched around to bring you
such a story. If not for the story`s only sake do I pursue words to tell you
the way I imagined it, as quickly and clearly I can.”
References:
Caragiale, Ion Luca, Opere, vol. I–IV, ediţie îngrijită şi cronologie de
Stancu Ilin, Nicolae Bârna, Constantin Hîrlav, prefaţă de Eugen
Simion, Bucureşti, Editura Univers Enciclopedic, 2000, 2001, 2002;
Cioculescu, Şerban, Caragialiana, Bucureşti, Editura Eminescu, 1987;
Constantinescu, Pompiliu, Scrieri, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1967;
Derşidan, Ioan, Nordul caragialian, Bucureşti, Editura Univers
Enciclopedic, 2003;
Iosifescu, Silvian, Dimensiuni caragialiene, Bucureşti, Editura Eminescu,
1972;
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Negrea, Gelu, Dicţionar subiectiv al personajelor lui I. L. Caragiale (A–Z),
Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, 2005;
Manolescu, Florin, Caragiale şi Caragiale. Jocuri cu mai multe strategii,
Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, 1983;
Muthu, Mircea, Balcanismul literar românesc, vol. I–III, Editura Dacia,
Cluj-Napoca, 2002;
Oprea, Ştefan, Caragiale, orator politic sau Caragiale, personaj
caragialean, în „Dacia literară”, nr. 72 (3/2007), mai 2007, p. 23–24;
Tomuş, Mircea, Opera lui I. L. Caragiale, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva,
1977;
Zalis, Henri, I. L. Caragiale, Bucureşti, Editura Recif, 1995.
Value and compromise in Cella Serghi’s
literary destiny
Lavinia IONOAIA
“University of the West,” Timişoara
Abstract: Cella Serghi is one of the women writers who had their
debut between the two world wars and were encouraged to write and
express culturally themselves by Eugen Lovinescu, the leader of the
“Sburătorul” literary circle. Her literary destiny started when she met Camil
Petrescu. Other important names in Romanian literature (Mihail Sebastian,
Liviu Rebreanu) stood by her side, recommending to the public her first
novel, “The Cobweb” (1938). This novel is Cella Serghi’s most popular
work.
After World War II, Cella Serghi had an intense and controversial
activity as a loyal servant of the communist regime. In her late years she
became nostalgic and revisited her youth through memorialist writings and
through the novel “Youth, This Sweet Burden”.
The critics did not view Cella Serghi’s work in terms of aesthetics and
references to her books consist mostly of gender stereotypes of female
literature.
Keywords: women writers, inter-war, value, metanovel, failed
literature.
1. Introduction. The context of the Literary Beginning
Cella Serghi belongs to the interwar generation of prose writers,
known after 1935, in a period that begins to feel the pressure of a new
world war imminence. The author’s literary destiny bounds to the same
difficulty of inserting in the Romanian literary landscape that writers such
as Ioana Postelnicu, Lucia Demetrius, Anişoara Odeanu, Sorana Gurian,
Henriette Yvonne Sthall, Ticu Archip etc confronted. Among the group of
writers who wrote and published in this period, only Hortensia PapadatBengescu got a constant atention and it was applied differently to the
proportion of the work, from the literary reviewers. The other women
writer’s writing were subordinated to the same limited syntagms of
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”feminine literature”, which significance (instinct, chastity, feminine
mistery, feelings, lyricism and subjectivity, feminism) were described one
after the other by Eugen Lovinescu in ”Critice” and have just been
combated by arguments against them by Elena Zaharia-Filipaş [2004: p.514], in a trial of getting back the Romanian women-writer’s literature and
of re-arranging them on aesthetical value criteria.
Without slipping in the area of the gender issues, we can still talk
about a tolerant attitude at most, towards the inter-war women-writer’s
literature in our country, begining with the simple remark that none of them
is mentioned of belonging to the first valuable line of the Romanian
literature or that no woman-writer’s writing is studied in schools (except
Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, whose writing can be tackled facultatively).
Going back in time, to the inter-war literary climate, it is well-known
that this one was dominated by traditionalists and modern writers,
according to the direction of the Romanian culture that had to be followed:
the East or the West.
The centre where the expressions of modern orientation emerge is
Eugen Lovinescu’s literary circle, ”Sburătorul”, which is a real mentor of
the inter-war literature, who imposed the urban literature, the type of
intellectual as a human model and objectivity in prose writing in our
country.
Cella Serghi, born in Constanţa, goes to high-school in Bucureşti, gets
closer to Camil Petrescu for the first time in 1924 and only after her literary
debut in 1938 (The Cobweb) knows Eugen Lovinescu and starts going to
the literary circle organised in his house.
2. Cella Serghi’s novels. Value and compromise
2.1. Characteristics of the prose-writing
Cella Serghi tackles the authenticity formula, in her writing, on a
Gidian way, as she confesses. The author’s books are real existence files,
writen in the first person, confessions of a problematic and clear ego, the
same as Camil Petrescu’s, the writer who, at the time, changes ”lots of
trajectories, polarizes interests, curiosities and intelligences”, as Cornel
Ungureanu says. Yet, Cella Serghi sustains her differences over this quoted
model, confessing [The Romanian Novel in Interviews, 1988: pp.431-437]:
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”I was influnced by the writers who wrote autobiographical novels.
Among them were not Camil Petrescu and Mihail Sebastian and in no way
Rebreanu, who was a too big writer for mea t that time, but Panait Istrati.
Prost belonging to the foreign literature was fashionable at the time. I
couldn’t say that he influenced me. Gide did so, because hei s a great
writer who begins some of his books in a simple way, with this idea, « look
what I was given to live at»”.
In some other part, the author refers to the structural difference
between her characters and Camil Petrescu’s, telling that while his
characters live and breathe culture, for her heroines this is only an aspiration
which needs a search full of obstacles and sacrifices. Then, Camil Petrescu
places his women in a inferior position towards men (except Madam T, a
character for whom Cella Serghi represented the real model, as some critics
say). In Cella Serghi’s case, the situation is vice versa.
Beyond these differences of placing the stress , the substance of two
authors’ novels is claimed through by the same formula of authenticity and
by the literature of the experience.
Another characteristic of the woman writer’s prose writing is
confirmed again by the writer herself. Honesty is the premiss of each
writing, including those realistic-socialistes (Cella Serghi believed in
communism). The relationship with the reader is open and alive, her
characters are complicated and deeply human and today we have acces,
through virtual chat, to proofs of emerging in the writer’s books, of some
readers (especially women readers).
The introspective intelligence and the subtlety of the analysis are
constant in Cella Serghi’s literature. At the end of a road, marked by the
intensity of feeling, by anxiety states, by moral and emotional torture, the
character achieves the independence and stands out for himself, as a person
capable of living for other people, altruistically. Women of the author’s
literature illustrates such a destiny.
The metanovel convention, la mise en abîme de Gide, is present in
Cella Serghi’s works, too. Ilinca, the character from The Cobweb receives
her friend’s notebooks and she exposes them to the reader. That’s how, the
substance of novel forms. Seldom, this narratar expresses her opinion
regarding certain aspects from these files of existence.
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Mirona also writes a novel, as well as Victor from Parallel Love and
the narrative solutions regarding the characters are decided after his
discussions with the author, who insinuates herself in other novels, too.
2.2. ”The Cobweb”, the book of a life experience
As the author confessed herself, the one who lighten the destiny to
her, was Camil Petrescu. It was him that advised her to write, the one who
realised, by talking to her on different subjects, she was gifted. Cella Serghi
didn’t imagine herself as being a writer ( she practiced law), because
writing prooved to be something difficult for her. Her pride, but the belief
too, that she had something to say, made her to wish to write ”only one
book, where to say everything I have lived”. [The Romanian Novel in
Interviews, 1988: pp. 436-437].
The closeness to Camil Petrescu (whom she confesses she loved) and
to Mihail Sebastian stimulated her to tell her life experience till the age of
30 in the autobiografical fiction The Cobweb, a novel that was firstly
enthusiastically got, by the public. The critical reception was conditioned
after the author’s confession, by the fact that she belonged to Camil
Petrescu’s group, who had many enemies in literature. The first novel was
still encouraged by Eugen Lovinescu and Pompiliu Constantinescu o none
hand, but, on the other hand it was totaly ignored by George Călinescu,
whose novel, Otilia’s Mistery, appeared in the same year, as The Cobweb.
This ignoring by the great critic is explained by the writer through the fact
that George Călinescu felt there was a competition between their novels, by
going every day to Alcalay book-shop, where the books were being sold, to
ask which one was selling better. [Interviews, 2005].
The strip on the cover of The cobweb where it was writen ”Liviu
Rebreanu, Camil Petrescu and Mihail Sebastian recommended the novel to
the publishing house” illustrates clearly the acceptance given to the author,
by the three writers, which determined on one hand, the succes of the novel
at public, but also some attacs of these writers’ ennemies too, as the author
confesses again [The Romanian Novel in Interviews, 1988: pp. 431-437].
Beyond these appearances, the dense substance of the novel
reccomands cella Serghi as an already formed writer.
Diana Slavu’s destiny, another ego of the author is knitted in a prose
of the experience, genuine and subtle, by having as a centre of making up
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the sense, love. A theme intensely literary exploited, the feeling is not
turned to account on its erotic aspect, but it is dued to a close analyses, it is
described by being a step by step accumulation of relevant living,
disappointments and reinterpretations painfully, conformably to reality.
The women in Cella Serghi’s prose project is an ideal plan, always
atomized by the raw concrete, cowardice and unwellingness of the other.
On the love level, the characters’s speech becomes a resigned one, which
has to be replaced by an involvement in the social level, an approach to the
sufference of the people around. Besides these, the pages of pure poetry in
the author’s novels are those dedicated to love.
Diana Slavu’s love stories are shaded descriptions of unwillingness.
Love as an aspiration is lived by the teenager in a relationship with the
painter Petre Barbu, whose presentation will guide her for the rest of her
life. The mediocre marriage with Michi is compensated in the emotional
level by Alex’s tempestuous love. The feminine mingles through all these
experiences that quizz the character’s whole capacity of relating to the other
through love.
The Cobweb is a network of determination on different levels and
tonalities of a woman’s life who confirms her independence at the end of
the novel.
2.3. The realistic-socialist Literature
For the reader who wants to understand today a time in the past
marked by compromise and pacts with the communist demon, a turning
back to the context of the setting up of this form of government in
Romania, is necessary.
The fenomenon has to be understood and explained in its complexity
and keeping the account of the existence inner determination.
After 1944 the romanian literature entered in a black period, talking
by its historical perspective, of which only a few writings can be retrieved
today. Great names of the Romanian writing, such as Mihail Sadoveanu
and Camil Petrescu got involved in building the new regime.
Cella Serghi got involved also in it, through her work: The song of the
Factory (1950), The Walls are Falling Down (1950), Uncle Ilie finally
understood (1950), The sisters (1951), The Cantemirs (1954) and through
her job in the public service, too: a juridical reader at Public Working
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Ministry (1945), a literary reviewer at Arts Ministry (1945-1947), inspector
at the General Direction of the Theatres (1947), vicemanager at Ministry of
Culture – The Protection of the artistic and literary level (1948-1949), by
getting involved in the setting up of the creating houses Bălceşti, Pelişor. In
the same period she belonged to the secretary of Free Democratic
University.
Reediting of her novels, The Cobweb (the second one appeared in
1946 and another one in 1971), The Walls are Falling Down (the novel was
rebuilt in 1965 under the name Mirona’s Book and in 1972 under the name
Mirona), Barotă’s Daughters in 1958, renamed in 1974 edition, Parallel
Love express the wish of adapting the literature in the ideological context
and the understanding of the aesthetical limits that emerged over such
enslaving of literature, too. The stress falls in these writings on the part that
the woman must have in the construction of socialism. The social theme is
present in her successfull novels too. These novels’ heroines, Diana Slavu
and Mirona realise, at the end of their novelistic route, they are useless after
years of individual struggle and somehow, the direction of many people
who suffer, to a noble cause, is suggested. Here are the last phrases in The
Cobweb [2009: p.395]:
” I’m ashamed that I’ve been away of everything happens in the
world for such a long time. It seems I’ve lived alone, in a room with all the
walls made of mirror and I’ve seen myself over and over againin thousands
of coppies. Meanwhile people were tortured in jails, for generous ideas, for
an unchained world, by humility and needs. It has been worked in factories,
laboratories, hospitals, day and night, to go further with a quarter of a step
in boundlessness of life”.
The envolvement is more obvious in Mirona’s books, the character
being built up to a moment, contrary to Lisandra, a convinced socialist. In
this way, mirona is preocupied by her own affirmation as a novel writer and
her friend fights for a cause and she is able of supreme sacrifice in behalf of
its name. After returning from Paris and the beginning of the War, Mirona’s
conscience can see the horrible conflagration and the devastating effects of
the Nazi regime. The character prepares to get involved in the construction
of the communist society, in an active way, through an honest openness
actually, to the sufference of the masses.
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By talking about this part of the servitude to her literature, and being
asked by Ilie rad if she had done many concessions to the political
communist regime, the author said [Interviews, 2005]:
”Concessions? I told you I had been honest in everything I had
written. But there were some commandments of time which we had to take
into account. There was, for instance, a thematical plan of each publishing
house, that was restrictive, somehow. You had to write about
cooperativization or about school. But I had nothing in commun with
agriculture! How could I write about agriculture, I, who was running if any
harmless turkey was looking at me? Because the only thing I was good at
was school ( I had done school and not agriculture!), I accepted to write a
book about school. I was then asked to write a book about a military school
in Predeal where the best pupils in the country were coming. I went to
research and I was truly impressed by the conditions the children were
having there, children who hadn’t been allowed to go to school before and
had been obliged to become sheppards. They were having a piano, they
were having skis! Well, what did they expect more? And I prayed to write
The Cantemirs (which appeared in 1954)”.
The premisses of honesty in her entire writing involves to a certain
moment the ideological commitement of the author on honest basis, on her
human authentical structure, willing to put herself in the masses’ will. As
many ideologies, the fascination that the communism could release in
theory degenerated in practice, as the hard years of communism proved. In
the same trap of ideology, but of another kind, fell Cioran and eliade, in the
inter-war period.
No matter what the inner will belonging to Cella Serghi would be, the
entire opinion of the critics is that the aesthetical value of the prose-writing
of the beginning of the communist regime was sacrificed on the socialist
realism shrine and became through it a failed literature.
2.4. Getting back of the youth, the reaffirming of the feminine
ego, equal with herself
The author’s enthusiasm of the obsessed decade is calmed down in
time, Cella Serghi changing her mind about the social effects of the regime,
step by step and looking for getting back in her writing portraits of people
who marked her literary course in a happy way.
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In the 70’s the writer tackles more narrative formula (bildungsnovel in
Gentians, 1970, metanovel in Parralel Love, 1974, a formula found in
Mirona’s Book, confession in On the Gossamer of the Memory, 1977).
The feminism reflected in Getians reveals his potential of fighting for
existence; to fulfill his dream of a successfull artistical career, Rada Ionac
has to make numerous sacrifices and renunciations. Not being encouraged
by her parents – Olga and Manole Ionac – neither financialy, nor moraly,
the girl has to continue her studies on her own.
The author’s memoirs are represented by the volume On the
Gossamer of the Memory, where inter-war personalities are taken in front
of the reader, personalities who put a print on the author’s destiny: Camil
Petrescu, Mihail Sebastian, Felix Aderca, Liviu Rebreanu, E. Lovinescu,
Magdalena Rădulescu. Besides the biographical aspects, the writer reveals
aspects of the creation laboratory of her most important work: The Cobweb
and Mirona’s Book.
These years, Cella Serghi writes the book for the adolescents, Looking
for the Great Sheat Fish, which appeared in 1980 and whose genesis can be
found in her autobiography, too [Interviews, 2005]:
„ I was in a pioneer camp, at the sea, in 1970. I had promised the
children a story and I had, in a way, the chance to meet there a relative of
my husband who was working at the construction of a road. He was a very
interesting man, a former landowner, a former pilot... He told me, partly, of
course, the story in ”The Great Fish”. I rebuilt it many times and it
appeared only after ten years”.
This continuing willingness of the author to rewrite finds
justification in her vision towards literature writing. Many times, the
confessions in this way underline the desperate agony the creation needs.
The polishing of the artistical material can be found in cella Serghi’s
conception, every time when the writer needs it. An example of exigence
towards her texts stylistics is found in her debut novel. That’s how a
paragraph from the edition of 1938, p.193-194, looks like:
” The houses were solitary shelters, shorter than a man and
crooked as some left-handed drawings belonging to children, to whom a
house means a square badly made, with two small windows, whose glass
was shaped into four, with a door and a chimney. Some of them were made
of reed, not being painted, some others painted in yellow or that tipical
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gipsy pink,but most of them were white, that they hurted the eyes. The
windows were the size of a pelargonium pot”.
The same text became, in the 1971 edition:
” The houses were solitary shelters, shorter than a man and
rudimentary as some left-handed drawings belonging to children, a sort of
crooked cubes, with two small windows, whose glass was shaped into four,
with a door and a chimney. Some of them were made of reed, not being
painted, some others violently painted in yellow, others in gaudy pink, but
most of them were so white that they hurted the eyes. You almost wanted to
scream: Enough, that’s too much white! The small windows were the size
of a pelargonium pot, a flower which did not miss in the mended or briken
windows” (p.222).
The variation of the adjective, the detailing of the elementsof making
an atmosphere can be remarked.
The author’s last novel publishing during her life, This Sweet Burden,
the Youth, appears in a first edition in 1983. the second edition, published
after the author’s death, appears in 1993. Dedicated to Eugen Lovinescu,
the novel is made of four parts (At a Quiet Meal, Love Letters, The Proof of
the Fire and The Diary) and it represents a synthesis of all the literature
constant values belonging to Cella Serghi: the love theme as a failed
experience in the level of fulfilling in reality, the metanovel convention, the
sea motif. The epic plot is translated here in a rich existence file in the shape
of letters between the two lovers – Cita and Berezeni. The same as in The
Cobweb and Mirona or Gentians, the author’s biography had a significant
part, the real correspondance between Cella Serghi and Ion Biberi being at
the basement of the book.
The novel Post-Scriptum, where only a chapter, named The Movie is
Performed Tomorrow, Too, was published in the „Literary Talks” in
November 1985, got lost, and today nothing is known about the
manuscript.
3. Conclusion
Cella Serghi’s literary creation spanned over eight decades, while her
writing knew maximum and minimum points of aesthetic value. She was
an author of an admirable dignity, who was able to stand for her communist
past, with the assumption of honesty, which sustained all her literary and
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social works. Still, some of these were and might be today controversial
topics.
The fact is that nowadays the books that have established Cella
Serghi’s status as a writer are being republished and the author remakes her
way in the value circuit of the Romanian literary landscape.
References:
***
„Chronological Dictionary of the Romanian Novel”, 2004, Romanian
Academy Publishing House.
Cozea, Liliana, 1994, „Women-writers of the Romanian Modern
Literature”, Oradea, The library of the „Family” magazine.
Micu, Dumitru, „General Dictionary of the Romanian Literature”, 2008,
Bucureşti, Encyclopedic Universe Publishing House.
Sasu, Aurel, Vartic, Mariana, 1988, „Romanian Novel in Interviews. An
Autobiographic History”, Bucureşti, Minerva, Publishing House.
Serghi, Cella, 2005, „Interviews: including twelve letters to Ilie Rad”, 2005,
Cluj-Napoca, Limes.
Serghi, Cella, „Mirona’s Book”, 2009, Bucureşti, International Letter.
Serghi, Cella, „The Cobweb”, 2009, Bucureşti, International Letter.
Ungureanu, Cornel, 1983, Anişoara Odeanu, „The Context of Some
Novels”, introductory study to Anişoara Odeanu, „In a ladies’s Hostel.
The traveler from the Night Before”, Timişoara, Facla.
Zaharia-Filipaş, Elena, „Feminine Literature Studies”, 2004, Bucureşti,
Paideia.
The idea of a modern novel
Călina PALICIUC
Abstract: The modern novel distinguishes between the objective
and the subjective time. The voluntary memory operates chronologically
with time and the involuntary one intercepts only the moment. Temporal
dislocations go together with a multiplication of the points of view and the
richness of the moment is more important than the narration of the events.
Keywords: modern novel, time, technical procedure, genius and
disorder.
1. Introduction. The evolution of the novel.
The evolution of the novel in the 20 th century proved that the
novel-essay was very successful. The new novelists become themselves the
theoreticians of their own works and they practice some kind of ”self
reflection” which is the itself of the novel.
Many modern novelists broke away from traditional linear
narrative form; others chose to adapt it to their own ends, often to represent
an individual subject struggling against ideological system.
Later on, after having known all their work, we understood how
profound their removal was. In the interwar period, this game with time
was deeply understood.
2. The perception of the English novel
Melania Livada tries to find out ”the secret” of Ch.Morgan’s art and
brings back the issue of ”philosophy” in the novel, showing that the
philosophical novel is the most difficult. And she says:
”If its ideology, artificial and dead, floats alone above live and events,
if it does not have deep and organic adherences with the characters, then the
novel is fade and valueless. But if the ideas and philosophy live like vivid
flames in the heroes’souls and only if the characters are not pretence only,
this is a real novel. Meditations could degenerate in dissertations, Morgan is
too much of an artist and his imagination springs from thought to dream
and from dream to live and people. The author is all the time thinking like a
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great poet and he is preoccupied by the mystery of creation and
transcendence.”
[„ Universul literar’’,1944 :5]
After he had written about ”cinematographic technique”, the young
Eugen Ionescu discussed about the report between literature and philosophy
and he did not agree with the novel where the life of ideas is not ”colored
with emotion”.
”Demotion of philosopher in literature or a philosopher in literature or
a philosopher in critique is a dilettante. It is as bad as a literate in
philosophy is. If I made a hierarchy of values, I would place art higher than
philosophy. The art contains life and philosophy, all the spiritual roads. In
Contrapunct, the heroes are very formal, ”disintegrated” and
representatives of the problem that sets free from the individual content and
any kind of emotion so it gets farther and farther from the aesthetic plan. It
would be ridiculous to pretend to a hero of a novel not to have intellectual
preoccupations and it would be nonsense to take the ideas’ life out of the
content of life. But they have to be subsumed to emotion and colored in
emotion: life is emotion!”
[Eugen Ionescu, Lateral, in ”Romania literara”,1932:33]
Another question seems to appear, the time starting with
Sparkenbroke by Ch.Morgan. May a genius be the hero of a novel? The
answer comes from Mihail Sebastian in 1938 and Doina Petean in an article
in 1944:
”Sparkenbroke- Mihail Sebastian says- is the novel of a genius. The
subject takes great risks. There are all kinds of exterior signs of the genius
and they make up the theatrical and false side of an extraordinary existence.
There is something messy and puerile in a great man when he has the
constience of his own greatness. ”Genius and disorder”, ”genius and
madness” – who can say where the borders between humbug and sincerity
are?
When it brings up the matter of genius, the literature remembers
especially the visible signs, the exterior manifestations of a genius and it
stays in the most unusual zone, the one where the exceptional man is able to
simulate. Lord Spakenbroke also has this theatrical side. What makes his
genius real – namely what makes this genius not only a simple assertion but
something vivid is the fact that we are introduced to the hero’s creative
intimacy. We know his poetry. We know even more: the hidden, intimate,
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genuine process that gives birth to poetry, the mysterious act that leads us
from thought to expression, from emotion to word. Art cannot find itself in
a bigger difficulty than this turn towards itself, towards its own
contemplation in order to be at the same time an instrument and an object.
[Mihail Sebastian, Nota la Sparkenbroke, in ”Revista Fundatiilor
Regale”,1938:428]
Doina Peteanu makes a parallel between Morgan and Maugham’s
novels emphasizing the genius theme and she writes:
”...the genius must be measured with other instruments than the
common ones. If you try to apply the common pattern to a genius, it means
that you do not understand anything, that you may consider him either mad
or immoral and simply ridiculous.
The genius is a world in itself, with perfect logics and complete
consistency, a harmonic, well-organized universe. A genius is not a freak of
the human beings like so many vulgar authors pretend”.
[Doin a Peteanu, Doua carti si cititorii lor, in ”Viaţa”,1943:629]
The way the coordinates of the narrations – time and space – were
conceived will be significantly changed in the first half of the 20 th century.
The physical and social space is decisive for the character of the realist
novel but it is obvious that it is a fictional space and there always is a
”diversion” from the so much claimed precision , for instance Thomas
Hardy draws attention that ”his Wassex” is not the district corresponding to
Victorian England.
In the realist novel, time means chronology of facts. Even when they
are retrospective, their narration is still chronological. This chronology does
not satisfy Proust anymore who goes ”searching for the wasted time” and
gives the impression that that he lets himself carried away by the
involuntary memory. Virginia Woolf writes down in her diary ”The
procedure that linearly relates the even may not be the best” .
The modern novel distinguishes between the objective time (the one
that we see on a clock) and the subjective time. The voluntary memory
operates with time chronologically and the involuntary one intercepts the
moment only. The modern novelist ”plays” with time in various ways and
with different effects. The temporal dislocations go together with a
multiplication of the points of view and the richness of the moment is more
important than the narration of the events.The complexity and the depth of
the moment circumvent it from the narration and ”classical” analysis. The
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reality’s impression on the conscience becomes the criterion and from here
the ”disorder” that confused the readers used to a nice flowing of facts.
Even a novelist and a relevant analyst found that this literature was
”chaotic, badly, built”. [E.M.Forster, Aspecte ale romanului]
How do these aspects in the evolution of the novel appear in the
publications in Romania between the two wars? The ”capricious” dating of
the chapters in the novel Orb in Gaza have as a consequence a turbid
chronology which is important for defining the characters. Many texts that
discuss this novel bring up the matter of these narrative techniques which is
confusing for the readers nowadays. In an article in one of the volumes
called Teme, Nicolae Manolescu remembered the engineer who,
exasperated by the Huxley’s skips in time, rearranged the chapters
chronologically.
Silvian Iosifescu wonders too about this ”temporal disorder” but he
also refers to Virginia Woolf and Proust’s new technique:
”For Virginia Woolf, the matter of time and the order overturn is
related to its impressionist vision. All the associations that the mechanical
memory brings back in the memory of Proust’s hero concerning the taste of
a cake come in a varied temporal order objectively and arbitrary. The time
overturn is psychological and it is related to the literary perspective of the
two writers. We cannot talk about impressionism at Huxley The apparent
disorientation of the dates contrasts with clearness of the narration. It is an
intercession of the moments in construction. The reason is the searching of
a superior expressivity and the wish to explain the role of certain events in
the hero’s life and transformation”.
[Silvian Iosifescu, Aldous Huxley si caile inteligentei, in ”Viaţa
Romaneasca”, 1940:7]
L.Sereanu tries to understand the effects the wtriter expected by using
”this unusual technical artifice”:
”Maybe this criss cross of events is not a simple technical procedure
but it is psychological. Might it be a formal symbol of soul’s anxiety? Isn’t
time disorder representative for mental disturbances? The technique in art
and literature is a sign of progress and subtlety and it externalizes a certain
state of mind. Huixley’s work occludes a huge anxiety”.
[L.Sereanu, Aldous Huxley, in ”Adevarul”, 1937:16.249]
This procedure finds understanding at D.Trost but with new nuances:
„What strikes us at the first sight in Huxley’s a last novel is the narration
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without chronology. The reader who does not expect this would consider it
an author’s fad. In reality, this technique allows a short novel to contain a
long period in the heros’ lives because only the most important events are
narrated. Huxley’s skips in time give the novel a cohesion that would have
been impossible in othetr conditions.
[D. Trost, Huxley si ultimul sau roman, in ”Lumea
Romaneasca”,1937:118]
On the contrary, Dan Petrasnicu considers the technique valueless and
the novel is a failure. He talks about the way a writer in the middle of the
20 th century regards literature:
”Huxley’s new novel was born under bad auspices: the writer’s
impetrfectiopns created it and here they were amplified to the maximum.
La paix des profoundeurs wants to be erevolutionary through a new
technique. Who might have thought about such a clever technique but
Huxley who is a refined intellectual? In fact, this technique is so puerile.
After you have seen all the pictures, after you have gone through the heros’
lives, with comical skips forward and backwards, the novel is ready! New
ways of expression-this is the greatest farce of our century”.
[Dan Petrasnicu, Huxley si omul modern, in ”Adevarul”, 1937 :
16.463 ]
The writer who sweeps away with a sentence all the new ways of
expression forgets that when we think about our own life we fragmentary
bottom it not chronologically...
Before Huxley (whom she did not appreciate), Virginia Woolf played
a different ”game”: The narration stzarts in Orlando in the 16 th century but
immediately afterwards we find ourselves in the 17 th and 18 th century and
the hero, already old, had turned into a woman.Trying to understand these
skips in time, an anonymous annalist wrote in ”Dreptatea”:
”Orlando is above the genre through the power of the symbol not
through the perfection of the style or the grace of the humor, not even
through the mystery that charms the reader. V.Woolf suppressed time not
because she wanted to give a new shape to some ordinary events but
because she wanted to reproduce better the image of the spirit that lives
outside time and enlivens for a moment a doll that is left after the purpose
was accomplished: Poetry.”
[Orlando, in ”Dreptatea”, 1929:437]
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3. Conclusions
Some of the novel’s commentators realized that in the new novel we
do not deal any more with every little detail brought up by the narrator, buit
with the emotional disorder of life. Thus, it is understood that the novelist
belonging to the new generation is an artist preoccupied with the technique
of the novel.
When the critics wanted to intercept the evolution from the "classical"
realist novel to the modern one, they spotted the essay – novel that contains
in its texture something of the writer’s erudition, ideology and his
concepcion in art. The comment put the novel in the neighborhood of the
essay. This kind of writer is also present in the inter-war period and it is the
expression of the modernization of literature, especially of the novel.
Bibliography:
Bălu, Andi, O perspectiva românească asupra literaturii engleze, Editura
Fundaţiei Culturale Române, Bucureşti, 2002
Ciocoi-Pop, Dumitru, Notes on modern British literature, vol.I, II, Editura
Societăţii academice anglofone din România, Sibiu, 1999
Dragoş, Clara-Liliana, Conexiuni româno-engleze şi ideea de Europa, Casa
Cărţii de Ştiinţă, Cluj-Napoca, 2002
Galea, Ileana, A History of English literature: the Victorian novel, ClujNapoca, 1985
Hangiu, I., Dicţionarul presei literare româneşti, 1790-1990, Editura
Fundaţiei Culturale Române, ed.II, Bucureşti, 1996
Stanciu, Virgil, A History of English Literature(the last decades of the
19 th century, vol.I), Cluj-Napoca, 1981
191
Leonard Cohen – The Dark Messiah of
Canadian literature
Diana Otilia POP
"Mihai Veliciu" Highschool, Chişineu-Criş
Abstract: Although unknown to many readers or music-lovers,
Leonard Cohen is a Canadian literary icon, with a career spanning over the
last five decades. His poetry, songs and prose represent a secular
combination of spirituality, history, sly humor and beautiful imagery,
deeply involving the reader and revealing an array of sometimes ambiguous
feelings. His highly acclaimed collections of poems Let Us Compare
Mythologies or The Spice Box of Earth, his innovative novels The Favorite
Game and Beautiful Losers and his famous albums The Future or Ten New
Songs approach complex themes and have consecrated him as a true master
of the word and an unmistakable voice in contemporary Canadian
literature.
Keywords: music, love, depression, politics, lust, religious
experiences, history, interpersonal relationships.
Biography
Leonard Cohen was born on September 21st1934 in Montreal in a
middle class Jewish family. While attending McGill University, he formed
a country-western trio and published his first book of poems, Let Us
Compare Mythologies (1956), which drew local attention. However, it was
only his second collection, The Spice Box of Earth (1961) that brought him
international recognition, followed by the controversial Flowers for Hitler
(1964) and Parasites of Heaven (1966). He then briefly attended Columbia
University and spent a lot of his time on the Greek island of Hydra, where
he was romantically involved with Marianne Jensen.
The 1960s, apart from the publication of his two novels, The
Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers, also witnessed Cohen’s knock at the
doors of the American music industry. The way to success wasn’t an easy
one, since he was already 30 and didn’t own, as it was said, a sufficiently
commercial voice. However, the song Suzanne from his first album, Songs
of Leonard Cohen (1967), had huge success and was only an introduction
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to his following albums and successful hits. Regardless of how difficult the
process of writing a song was, Cohen’s albums sold millions of copies and
turned him into one of the stars of his age. He got married to (and
eventually divorced) Suzanne Elrod and had two children: a son, Adam,
born in 1972 and a daughter, Lorca, born in 1974. However, by the late
1980’s, he was almost forgotten by the public and went through a few years
of painful depression, but Famous Blue Raincoat, his collaboration with
Jennifer Warnes got him back to the top and paved the way to his classical
and ever-known albums I’m Your Man (1988) and The Future (1992),
which gave birth to hits such as Everybody Knows, I’m Your Man, Take
This Waltz, Tower of Song, Democracy or Closing Time.
Reaching the age of 60 and possessing sufficient money so as not to
worry about anything else, Cohen takes a few years of break from song
writing and eventually joins the Mt. Baldy Zen Centre near Los Angeles,
where he becomes a monk and takes the Dharma name Jikan, meaning
“silence”. He returns from his seclusion in 2001 with Ten New Songs, a
“startlingly contemporary” collaboration with Sharon Robinson, featuring
the great hits In My Secret Life and Alexandra Leaving. 2004 saw the
release of Dear Heather, a recapitulative album expressing Cohen’s frail
old age (he turned 70 that same year) recorded with the participation of
Anjani Thomas.
In 2008 Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and
it was also the year that brought him back to the stage, performing in front
of audiences in Canada for the first time in 15 years. His 84 date concert
tour led him from Halifax to Bucharest and from Dublin to Auckland, to
the delight of his millions of fans around the world.
Poetry and prose
Despite his renowned accomplishments, Cohen is a humble man who
confesses that writing isn’t an easy process for him. “Most of the time I
detest it”, he says, and credits his many successes to self discipline rather
than talent.
While attending McGill University and later on as well, his literary
influences were Yeats, Irving Layton, Walt Whitman, Henry Miller and,
most importantly, Federico Garcia Lorca. “He was the first poet that ever
touched me. And I remember the first lines of his that I ever read that
moved me into this delicious racket called poetry. It was: "I want to pass
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through the arches of Elvira, to see your thighs and begin weeping". That
line burned itself into my heart and I’ve written it over and over again in a
hundred songs. There is a song of his, called "Little Viennese Waltz" that I
had the great honor to translate and set to music. The translation took 150
hours, just to get it into English that resembled - I would never presume to
say duplicated - the greatness of Lorca's poem. It was a long, drawn-out
affair, and the only reason I would even attempt it is my love for Lorca.
I loved him as a kid; I named my daughter Lorca, so you can see this
is not a casual figure in my life”.
Immediately accessible and simultaneously mysterious, Let Us
Compare Mythologies, his first collection of poems published in 1956, is
filled with personal and public legends presented in simple, elegant
language, in the rhythms of a person whispering confessions into the
reader’s ear: “His blood on my arm is warm as a bird/ his heart in my hand
is heavy as lead/ his eyes through my eyes shine brighter than love/ O send
out the raven ahead of the dove” (Prayer for Messiah). “The poems are
mainly in free verse with a conversational or singing rhythm, but also
include prose, rhymes, half-rhymes and other techniques. (…) it is a
brilliantly accomplished, moving and intriguing collection of poems, whose
mythological threads develop a sweetly melancholic atmosphere you can
enter into at any time”.
Published in 1961, The Spice-Box of Earth was the volume which
established Leonard Cohen’s reputation as a lyric poet and remains the
most popular single volume of his verse. Expressed in rich, sensuous and
beautiful language, and approaching dark themes - victimization, loss,
cruelty - the poems deal with the role of the poet, with his inheritance of the
Jewish tradition, and of course with love. Among the best-known poems
are As the Mist Leaves No Scar and the lovely For Anne, which Cohen
nominates as his own favorite poem: “With Annie gone/ Whose eyes to
compare/ With the morning sun?// Not that I did compare,/ But I do
compare/ Now that she’s gone”. However, the most searching poem in the
volume is the darkly symbolic You Have the Lovers, which anticipates the
themes later explored in Cohen's novel Beautiful Losers.
In his third volume of poetry, the 1964 Flowers for Hitler, Cohen is
taking a more searching and uncompromising look at the poetic substance
that he exists on, at all the things that he can remember, imagine, absorb,
separate, or forget. “Awhile ago – Cohen writes - this book would have
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been called SUNSHINE FOR NAPOLEON, and earlier still it would have
been called WALLS FOR GENGHIS KHAN”.
The Book of Mercy (1984) is a collection of contemporary psalms that
utter the passionate human cry of a man to his maker. “They are brimming
with praise, despair, anger, doubt, trust - spoken from the heart of the
modern world, yet in tones which resonate with an older devotional
tradition. For many readers, these psalms will give voice to their deepest,
most powerful intuitions”.
Stranger Music (1993) is a collection of songs and poems, “a massive
record of the poet’s journey through beauty, through horror, through the
extremes of love and despair”. “Love is fire – the poet says – It burns
everyone/ It disfigures everyone/ It is the world’s excuse/ for being ugly”.
The Book of Longing (2006), a composite of lyrics, poems, prose
passages and line drawings, brings together Cohen’s poems from the
1970’s through 2005. The book is dedicated to Irving Layton, fellow
Canadian poet and Cohen’s mentor, and displays the typical attitude
reflected in Beautiful Losers. Many traditional Cohen themes are covered in
this book, but new wrinkles are introduced with the poet’s recognition of
his own aging and impending death, and his sabbatical as a monk in the
Zen monastery on Mt. Baldy, near Los Angeles. The Book of Longing has
the intimate feel of a poet’s working notebook or journal: “My page was
too white/ My ink was too thin/ The day wouldn’t write/ What the night
penciled in”. Some of the most interesting poems offer a glimpse of
Cohen’s life as a monk, a lifestyle which seems so contrary to his nature.
The tension between spiritual matters and physical longings, between the
desires of youth and the memories of old age give this book much of its
energy and propel it along.
Cohen’s first novel, The Favourite Game, was published in 1963 and
was initially called Beauty at Close Quarters; the ultimate choice for the
title is taken from the last sequence of the novel, an image of childhood
innocence featured on the background of a violent, selfish and ugly world.
Awarded Le Prix Litteraire du Quebec, the most important Canadian
literary prize, The Favourite Game is a classic bildungsroman, written in
the tradition of Victorian realism, with intense biographical undertones.
Centered on the protagonist Lawrence Breavman, the novel is an erotic
account and a careful depiction of the relationships between the characters,
focusing on the cognitive process and on the contradiction between the
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anxiety of the searching quest and the shock of the discovery. “Alternately
depressed about the past that perished with his father's death and manic
about all the young women he wants to bed, Breavman's story brims with
the delightful incongruities and twisted harmonies of American Beauty.
Like Lester in Mendes's movie, Breavman strives for distance from himself
but can't help constantly imploding. He is both a self-mocking hero and a
self-inflated villain in a story whose effect is nearly as cinematic as
American Beauty”. Canada’s own coming-of-age novel, The Favourite
Game is a praise brought to memories and also to the pain conserved by
them”.
Regarding the literary value of Cohen’s second novel, Beautiful
Losers (1966), the Polirom edition that I own quotes the Boston Sunday
Herald Review: "James Joyce is not dead.... He lives in Montreal under the
name of Cohen and sees the world through the eyes of Henry Miller." This
highly experimental novel approaches the typical themes of its age –
history, religion, politics, sex and drugs – and is a complex mixture of
writing styles (letters, journals, ads) and languages (English, French,
Spanish, Greek). Beautiful Losers carries two major burdens: the spiritual
legacy of the first Native American saint, the Iroquois Catherine
Tekakwitha, and the pan-Occidental question of how secular history relates
to the divine realities we still know. The novel is sometimes coarse,
rhapsodic and bitingly witty, as it explores each character’s selfabandonment, whereby the sensualist becomes indistinguishable from the
saint. This cosmic discourse on the fall of traditional values is noted as
being perhaps Cohen's most defiant and uninhibited work, and is also one
of the best-known experimental novels to be published during the 1960s.
Recording career
“I was born with the gift of a golden voice”, Leonard Cohen says,
self-ironically, in one of his songs, only to admit plainly afterwards that he
was never able to sing a single note correctly. However, his lack of a unique
and strong voice never hindered his musical career.
In the 1960s, Leonard Cohen moved to the USA to pursue a career as
a folk music singer and songwriter. He befriended Judy Collins, Joni
Mitchell, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan and, after performing at a few folk
festivals, he came to the attention of Columbia Records producer John H.
Hammond.
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Leonard Cohen’s first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967) made
him famous all over the US and the UK and brought him positive critical
reviews. The importance of this album is “double: it is a collection of
wonderful documents of depression and resignation, but also the well from
which all his important accomplishments would emerge”. In the years that
followed, he toured the US, Canada and Europe and released other highly
acclaimed albums: the course and emotional Songs from a Room (1969),
the confessional Songs of Love and Hate (1971) and the sensual New Skin
for the Old Ceremony (1974). In 1974, he also started his collaboration with
the producer Phil Spector and, in 1977, he released Death of a Ladies’
Man, an album that approached a new musical style and more complex
layers of instrumentation; the 1979 Recent Songs returned to a more
traditional sound with a jazz-fusion band and oriental instruments. 1984
saw the release of Various Positions, an album which included the famous
and frequently covered songs Hallelujah and Dance Me to the End of Love,
while the next two albums, Famous Blue Raincoat (1987) and I’m Your
Man (1988) marked a new and more modern sound in Cohen’s music and
brought his songs to the attention of a younger audience. They were
followed by The Future (1992), a complex album used by Cohen to
criticize the American society and to prophesize on its grim future: “I’ve
seen the future, brother:/ it is murder (…) The blizzard of the world/ has
crossed the threshold/ and it has overturned/ the order of the soul”.
In 2001, he retuned to the music stage with the release of Ten New
Songs, an innovative album heavily influenced by co-composer Sharon
Robinson and featuring the song Alexandra Leaving, a transformation of
the poem The God Abandons Antony, by the Greek poet Konstantine
Kavafis. Although sung with his typical magnetic monotony, this album
represents a discreet turning point in Cohen’s music: the artist relies more
and more on other singers’ voices, resigning himself bitterly with his old
age “I am not the light of my generation, but a composer living in Los
Angeles”. Dear Heather (2004) is a musical collaboration with jazz singer
Anjani Thomas, while the 2009 compilation Live in London is a live album
of Cohen’s performance at London’s O2 Arena in July 2008. Last but not
least, Songs from the Road (2010) is a celebration of his longeval career as
a Columbia artist, containing his most famous songs from the most recent
tours performances: Lover, lover, lover, Heart with no companion, Bird on
a wire, Waiting for the miracle and Chelsea Hotel.
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The portrait of a Canadian artist
The singer and song writer Leonard Cohen was never a trend setter or
a music idol like his contemporaries Bob Dylan, Elvis Priestley or John
Lennon. However, “for four decades, Leonard Cohen has been one of the
most important and influential songwriters of our time, a figure whose body
of work achieves greater depths of mystery and meaning as time goes on.
His songs – repeatedly covered by artists such as Nick Cave, Ian
McCulloch, Johnny Cash, The House of Love, Roberta Flack and Jeff
Buckley - have set a virtually unmatched standard in their seriousness and
range”. They move the hearts and minds of many music lovers; they aren’t
musical compositions, but sounding paintings that have to be treated just as
a painter treats his colours: slowly and carefully binding them, highlighting
the semitones and the harmony.
His writing, a mixture of hushed sacred tones and offhand vulgarity
expressed with occasionally breathtaking beautiful imagery and humor,
managed to be both critically acclaimed and accessible to the public,
especially to the young, who took it to their hearts. His songs, poems and
novels celebrate the play between the spiritual, profound and historical on
the one hand and the profane, petty and personal on the other hand, often
within a single image.
Exploring complex themes such as love and lust, ecstasy, religious
orientations, sexuality and raw human emotion, Leonard Cohen can make
the deepest concepts become as clear as water. Nicknamed the Dark
Messiah of Canadian contemporary literature, he is one of the world’s
greatest performing poets of the past century, a gifted bard who can capture
our strongest emotions with his sarcasm, his cunning manipulation of
words, his humour and his passion.
“And I missed you since the place got wrecked
And I just don't care what happens next
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess
it's CLOSING TIME”
(Leonard Cohen – Closing Time)
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Bibliography:
Cohen, L., 2003, Frumoşii învinşi, Iaşi, Editura Polirom;
Cohen, L., 2003, Joaca preferată, Iaşi, Editura Polirom;
Cohen, L., 1993, Stranger Music – Selected Poems and Songs, Canada,
McClelland & Strewart Inc.;
Mihăieş, M., 2005, Viaţa, patimile şi cântecele lui LEONARD COHEN,
Iaşi, Editura Polirom;
Doss, J., 2007, Review of The Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen, Loch
Raven Review;
Nadel, Ira B., Various Positions. A Life of Leonard Cohen, Vintage,
Toronto, 1996.
Martin Amis, life and work. A tentative overview
Odeta Manuela BELEI
Abstract: Experience confirms Martin Amis’s continued engagement
in the process of personally revaluing his father’s example. Whereas he had
earlier employed parts of his novels to do so, he now utilizes a non-fiction
format, which allowed new ways of expressing the tones and themes that
had yet to appear in his fiction. Using the memoir format to speak candidly
about relationship, reconciliation, and realignment, Martin Amis provides
an insider’s glimpse into his personal maturation, his literary genealogy and
his acclimation to the new role of father, rather than child.
Keywords: literary paternity, postmodernism, memoir, postmodernism
Martin’s father died on 22 October 1995. “For the rest of us, the
surprise comes from the recognition that the death of one’s father is a
beginning as much as a conclusion. We rebel against our fathers, we argue
with them, we deliberately misunderstand them; we proceed from the firm
assumption that their opinions must be wrong and their advice bad; we do
everything in our power to assert our generational difference and our
personal distinctness. Then, when our fathers die, we begin to see not only
how alike we were but how well we understood each other all along. For a
writer, this realization will sooner or later form itself into what Wordsworth
called ‘a timely utterance.’”[Powell, 2008: 358] Kingsley Amis registered
his father’s death in 1963; four years later he memorialised William Amis
both in verse “In Memoriam W.R.A” [Amis, 1979: 102-103] and in prose
“A Memoir of my Father.”[Amis, 1970: 204-211]In 1973 he used him as
the basis for the character of Captain Furneaux in The Riverside Villas
Murder and in 1994 he returned to him for Tom Davies in You Can’t Do
Both. Martin’s response to Kingsley Amis’s death was Experience (2000)
Personal Realignment: Experience
At the turn of the millennium, Martin Amis surprised his readership
by writing Experience: A Memoir. The book includes a series of shocks and
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losses he experienced in the 1990s, culminating in the 1995 death of his
novelist father, Kingsley Amis. Before his father died, Amis’s ten-year
marriage to Antonia Phillips had broken up; in part due to his relationship
with Isabel Fonseca (whom he married in 1998); at about the same time he
discovered that his beloved cousin, Lucy Partington (who had been missing
since Christmas 1973) was a victim of the serial murder Frederick West. He
met for the first time with his daughter, Delilah, born in 1976, who had
been raised by his stepfather and only informed of her relation to Amis in
1995; and he served ties with his long-time agent, Pat Kavanagh, over the
much publicized negotiations for a large advance on his novel The
Information, in the process ending his close friendship with Kavanagh‘s
husband, the novelist Julian Barnes. All of these events are treated in
Experience. Just as Kingsley invoked children as a triumphant, stabilizing
force at the end of The Old Devils, so too, Martin focuses on his own
children in Experience, and establishes a continuity of paternal succession,
materialized in symmetry of father and son. Meditating on how his children
will one day have to confront the Amis’s family burden –fame and
publicity - Martin supposes that “in the arts, when the parent invites the
child to follow”, it is “a complicated offer, and there will always be a
suspicious of egotism in it. Is the child’s promise a tribute to the
superabundance of the father’s gift? And historically what long odds you
face: there’s a Mrs Trollope as well as Anthony, and Dumas père et files
and that’s about it. What usually happens is that the child is productive for a
while, and then the filial rivalrousness plays itself out. [Amis, 2000: 23]
Experience is a “stark testament to the continued presence of filial rivalry in
Martin’s life and work. It is a meditation upon the loss of control, both in
literature and in life, and an attempt to reassert control - to restrain chaos
and contingency, the very thing that energize Martin’s novels.”[Keulks,
2003: 219] Death and absence are the existential themes upon which
Experience rests. “Someone is no longer here”, Martin remarks in the
book’s opening pages. “The intercessionary figure, the father, the man who
stands between the son and death, is no longer here; and it won’t ever be the
same. He is missing.”[Amis, 2000: 7] Later, in between discussions of
Kingsley’s last words and his passing, the idea reappears with significant
elaboration: “It is 1995 and he has been there since 1949. The
intercessionary figure is now being effaced, and there is nobody between
you and the extinction. Death is nearer, reminding you that there is much to
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be done. There are children to be raised and books to be written. You have
work to do.”[ Amis, 2000: 345] Much of the most important material in
Experience emerges out of the collision between these two dynamics of
children and work, and in the process of recording his impressions of his
father; Martin uncovers important lessons about life and literature.
In an important formulation that occurs twice in the book, Martin
asserts that a writer is chiefly three things: literary being, innocent, and
everyman.[Amis, 2000: 260] He relates how he discovered the unconscious
psychology of his novels while reading a retrospective of his work by
Maureen Freely, which noted “a stream of lost or wandering daughters and
putative or fugitive fathers.”[Amis, 2000: 220] Along with this question,
Martin’s definition of authorial identity summarizes all psychological
dynamics of the Amis family. The first criterion, -author as litterateursummons the themes of talent and fame, the oscillation between decline
and renaissance. The second one–author as innocent-evokes the theme of
the unconscious, the nature of fate, and the passage from innocence to
experience. The final criterion – author as Everyman – suggests numerous
heightened continuities, including succession, maturity, love and death. All
these continuities to create the perspective “polyphony” of his memoir.
[Keulks, 2003: 220]
Martin devotes a large part of Experience to annotate Kingsley’s
professional rejuvenation of spirit, his reaffirmed correspondence with love,
which Martin labels the “supreme value’. After The Old Devils, Kingsley
continued producing such works as The Folks that Live on the Hill (1990)
and The Russian Girl (1992), in which love, Martin notes, is ‘exalted not
only above politics and–far more surprisingly–above poetry: it is also
exalted above truth.”[Amis, 2000: 29] Prior to this reconciliation,
Kingsley’s professional decline sent Martin in search of a spiritual guide.
As Kingsley had found in Larkin, so too did Martin discover a similar
spiritual affinity in Saul Bellow. He links the first and the third criteria of
Martin’s authorial analogy, assuming the dual roles of litterateur and
Everyman. Martin functions as the innocent in this formulation, the student
in search of a mentor or guide who can mediate his negotiations with death
and loss. Despite Martin’s warning that “there was of course no fathervacancy to be filled, just as Saul Bellow, with three of his own, had no
opening for a son.”[Amis, 2000: 258] Martin craved an emotional
connection with Bellow, a supplement to Martin’s strained relationship
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with Kingsley: “Filial anxiety, I now perceive, was metastasising within me
when I went to [visit Bellow in] Chicago in 1983, I wasn’t prospecting for a
new father, but I wasn’t prospecting for a new father, but I was seriously
worried about the incumbent. His life was now steady enough, in its
external dispositions. It was the state of the talent that bothered me.”[Amis,
2000: 178]
Twelve years later, in the midst of facing Kingsley’s death, Martin
turned to Bellow, in search of an assured wisdom that could dispel
confusion. At the end of Experience, Martin recollects their conversation
after Kingsley’s death:
-You’ve changed since your father died, [Bellow] said.
-In what way?
-More gravitas, not the kid anymore.
-God, no. The kid?...
In the dinner I had said, as I had been meaning to say.
-Do you remember I called you on the day my father died? And you
were great. You said the only thing that could have possibly been any use
to me. The only thing that would help me through to the other side. And I
said dully, ‘You’ll have to be my father now.’ It worked, and still works.
As long as you’re alive I’ll never feel entirely fatherless. [Amis, 2000: 360]
Experience paints a portrait of a man attempting to live without
masks, willing to speak about the importance of forgiveness, love and
family life. Throughout Experience, Martin elevates children to the status of
redeemers: “At the birth of your child, you forgive your parents everything,
without a second thought, like a velvet revolution.” As in The Old Devils,
children play a crucial role in Martin’s personal realignment. As the title of
his memoir expresses, Experience is haunted by the loss of youthful
innocence, a necessary part of maturation, or by physical loss, as in the
disappearance of his cousin and the death of his father. In 1990, five years
after the birth of his first son Louis and three years after the birth of his
second son Jacob, Martin told Susan Morrison that children seem to operate
as symbolic magicians, freeing their parents from the shackles of the self.
Parenthood “changes you so completely that you lose your point of
comparison”, he explained. “You get out of the self a bit…What’s so great
about having children are that it’s the ordinary miracle; it’s the miracle that
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happens to everyone”. In another interview, Martin proclaimed that
“children redefine everything for you. A lot of the self is lost, thank God,
the internal gibber of wants and needs dies down.”[Morrison, 1990: 190]
In Experience, Martin continued to associate children with the
dynamics of personal evolution, but given the fate of Lucy Partington, he
portrays a war between the orderly cycles of generation and the
discontinuous cycles of loss. Speaking figuratively about his father’s death,
Martin imagines Kingsley “positioned at the centre of a great circular
vacancy” devoid of patterns and form: “When a new child is born you reel
in the apparent emptiness of the street, because the world has showed up,
making way for the new one, and the world has overdone it, and there is all
this space to reel it. Death does not act symmetrically here. Death too
creates space but isolates you and cuts you off within it.”[Amis, 2000: 359]
Besides the loss of his cousin and father, numerous other variations of loss
appear frequently in Experience, including divorces, several relationships,
political oppression, and artistic decline. Although death can never be
repaid in full, in his book Martin receives psychological compensation for
his losses through the discovery of his new daughter, Delilah Seale, from an
earlier affair with Lamorna Heath Seale. In the midst of a memoir that
begins with Martin discussing fame with his sons and concludes with
journalistic irresponsibility, the dominant patterns remain those of
reconciliation and recompense. Towards the end of Experience, Martin’s
tone becomes insistent and serious, as he struggles to elucidate the moral
humanism that flows as an undercurrent through the tumults of his life. He
criticizes the media for breaking the story of his newfound daughter before
he had the chance to explain the situation to his sons, and he turns his
attention to Eric Jacobs, settling an old score by recollecting a dream about
Kingsley. Martin’s words regarding the triumph over death appeared in his
memoirs:
He gave me to understand that I had all his trust - in the prosecution of
his wishes, and in everything else. Because my wishes were his wishes and
the other way around. Then he left, he briskly absented himself, returning
not to death but to an intermediate vantage. He was resolute. This dream
was all business. He came not as shade but as manager.
A manger from my own unconscious, naturally. But that’s all right.
Because my mind is his mind and the other way around…
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So it was incredibly warming to see you, Dad. And why don’t you
come more often like that? As a manager, and not just as a shade whom I
swamp and harass and bore with obeisances.
It was incredibly warming to see you, but I didn’t really need the
reassurance about your wishes. Because my wishes are your wishes and I
am you and you are me. [Amis, 2000: 363-64]
Martin Amis’s Evolution as a Writer
From the very beginning Martin Amis’s literary sensibility was
shaped by his father’s career. Martin was born on August 25, 1949, five
years before Lucky Jim brought transatlantic fame to Kingsley. During the
nine years he lived in South Wales; his father’s friend, the poet Philip
Larkin, made frequent visits to the Amis’s household and served as
godfather to Martin’s elder brother Philip. In 1960 he spent a year in
America when his father was hired to teach creative writing at Princeton.
Two years later Kingsley abandoned his wife Hilly and his family for the
novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard. When Martin Amis divorced his wife a
generation later, also leaving behind two boys, Hilly says that she relived
the misery: “If anyone talks to me about divorce, I say it is the worst thing
that can happen, it is horrendous, don’t do it.” Martin and his second wife
had two daughters, but Hilly noticed that Martin looked increasingly like
his father and was more easygoing and adventurous than the latter had ever
been. She recalls in an article that Martin, in spite of his tumultuous life was
a wonderful father, far more interested in his children than Kingsley had
been. [Sands, 2006:38]
This was not the first time Kingsley’s abandoning his family made a
formative impression on young Martin. In Experience he recounts a parentchild role-reversal:
When I was a child I would sometimes hear my father in the nighthis horrified gasps, steadily climbing in pitch and power. My mother would
lead him to my room. The light came on. My parents approached and sat. I
was asked to talk about my day, school, and the games I had played. He
listened feebly but lovingly, admiringly, his mouth open and tremulous, as
if contemplating a smile. In the morning I talked to my mother and she was
very straight. ‘It calms him down because he knows he can’t be frightened
in front of you.’
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‘Frightened of what?’ ‘He dreams he is leaving his body.’ It made me
feel-up late, holding the floor, curing a grown man: my father. It bonded
us.’[Amis, 2000: 180]
During his adult life, much of Martin Amis’s imaginative energy was
developed in order to emerge from his father’s shadow and to become a
writer in his own right. It was Elizabeth Jane Howard, not Kingsley, who
persuaded Martin to turn from comic books and video games to serious
reading, introducing him to the novels of Jane Austen and helping him to
prepare for the university entrance exams. Once, she asked him what he
wanted to be and he replied: “A writer”, “But you never read anything”, she
told him. “If you are so interested in writing, why don’t you read?” She
gave him Pride and Prejudice: a somewhat risky choice, but he ended it.
“That was when he started to read properly” she says, “with justifiable
pride.”[Howard, 2002:358] Martin recalls in Experience that he wrote
Howard to thank for her “quite literary getting me into Oxford. Had you not
favoured my education with your interest sagacity, I would now be 3-Olevelled wretch with little to commend me.”[Amis, 2000:150] Later in
Experience he writes of Howard: “She was generous, affectionate, and
resourceful: she salvaged my schooling and I owe her an unknowable debt
for that…As far as I am concerned she is, with Iris Murdoch, the most
interesting female writer of her generation.” [Amis, 2000: 215]
From 1968-1971 he attended Exeter College at Oxford University,
where his tutors included Jonathan Wordsworth, a direct descendent of the
poet William Wordsworth, and Craig Raine, whose poetry gave rise to an
influential literary movement known as the Martian School. Like his father,
he graduated with first-class honours in literature. Three months out of
Oxford, he was hired to write a book review for the Observer, where he
appeared alongside names such as Anthony Burgess and W.H. Auden. He
was hired by the paper’s literary editor Terence Kilmartin, “I gave him a
book to review, a tryout, and I showed it around. People thought it was the
work of someone who’d been reviewing for twenty years.” [Michener,
1987:110]
In 1973 Amis joined two other prestigious British journals. He
became an editorial assistant at the Times Literary Supplement, and he
began reviewing books for the New Statesman, where literary editor Claire
Tomalin hired him as her assistant. She remembers his great agility with
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words: “It was great fun to work with that. Martin could so easily have
stayed on Oxford and had an academic career…He is very, very clever and
a terrific intellectual arrogance.” Amis remained with New Statesman for
seven years. He was named assistant literary editor in 1975 and literary
editor in 1977, but in 1979 resigned to write full time. His association with
The New Statesman was the most significant part of his journalistic career.
It secured his reputation as a member of London’s literary intelligentsia and
solidified his left-liberal political credentials. Amis’s friendship with two of
The New Statesman’s most committed “Trotskysts”, James Fenton and
Christopher Hitchens, formed what they called the 26 Club’s. When he left
Oxford, Jonathan Wordsworth had challenged him to either produce a
novel within the year or return to Oxford for an advanced degree and a
career as a university don. The result was The Rachel Papers, published in
November 1973, which won the Somerset Maugham Prize for the best first
novel (as Kingsley’s first novel, Lucky Jim, had done before it) and
launched Amis’s career as a fiction writer. Recalling this, Martin said: “I
had a huge amount of intellectual energy when I came down…My head
was full of literature, and loving to write. I wrote that novel in a year of
evenings and mornings, while writing quite a number of reviews and
keeping a full-time job.” [Synaverson, 1995: 160] In 1980 Amis resigned
from his editorial position at the New Statesman to write full time, although
he continued to publish non-fiction in England and America, including
essays and reviews in The Observer, The Guardian, The Times, The
Independent, The London Review of Books, The New York Times Book
Review, The Atlantic, Esquire, Vanity Fair, New York.
Martin himself later acknowledged that his family name guaranteed
that he would get at least one novel in print: “Any London house would
have published my first novel out of vulgar curiosity.” [Amis, 2000:25]
“His mixture of precocity, great intelligence, and wide sexual success is
bound to provoke envy,” Julian Barnes said in 1990. “People try to write
like Martin. There’s something very infectious and competitive about it.”
[Stout, 1990: 48] Between 1981 and 1994, Amis published four novels,
four volumes of non fiction, and a collection of short stories on the theme
of nuclear terror. In 1984 he married the American philosophy professor
Antonia Philips, and they had two sons: Louis, born the same year, and
Jacob, born in 1986.
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The Letters of Kingsley Amis, published in 2000, amply document
Kingsley’s resentment and envy in the face of his son’s literary ascent. In a
1979 letter to Philip Larkin, Kingsley asks, “Did I tell you Martin is
spending a year abroad as a TAX EXILE? Last years he earned 38,000 £.
Little shit. He is. Little shit.” Earlier letters refer to “lazy Martin” or
“Savage little Martin.” One reports that “Scoundrelly Mart has sold his
novel to the Yanks for 3000$ advance. Pretty good, eh?” And in 1984, the
year Money was published, he told Larkin “of course Martin Amis is more
famous than I am now.” [Leader, 2000: 871] Even if Kingsley Amis won
the Booker Prize for his 1986 novel The Old Devils, his son‘s reputation
eclipsed his own for the remainder of his life. Martin Amis has won the
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Experience and the Books Critics
Circle Award for his collection The War against Cliché.
References:
Amis, Martin. Experience, London: Jonathan Cape, 2000
Diedrick, James. Understanding Martin Amis, Columbia: University of
South Carolina Press, 1995.
Howard, Jane Elizabeth. Slipstream: A Memoir, London: Macmillan, 2002.
Jacobs, Eric. Kingsley Amis. A Biography, London: Hodder and Stoughton,
1995
Keulks, Gavin. Father and Son. Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis and the
British Novel since 1950, USA: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003
Leader, Zachary. The Letters of Kingsley Amis, HarperCollins Publisher,
2000.
Michener, Charles. “Britain’s Brat of Letters”, Esquire, January 1987.
Morrison, Susan. “The Wit and Fury of Martin Amis”, Rolling Stone, 17
May 1990.
Powell, Neil. Amis and Son Two Literary Generations, Macmillan, 2008
Sands, Sarah. “My Life An Unfaithful Old Devil”, The Daily Mail, October
7, 2006.
Stout, Mira. “Down London’s Mean Streets”, New York Times Magazine, 4
February 1990.
Synaverson, Michael. “Famous Amis”, Vanity Fair, May 1995.
208
Ansätze zur literarischen Moderne in Österreich.
Besonderheiten der Jahrhundertwende 1900
Petra-Melitta ROŞU
„Aurel Vlaicu“ University, Arad
Abstract: When the Austro-Hungarian Empire approached its
dissolution, its cultural life was booming. Vienna was not only a multiethnic, polyglot capital, but also the birthplace of enduring literary
masterpieces. It is this special environment (the nationality question, the
problem of centre and periphery, the authors’ friendship with Freud), that
makes the “Wiener Moderne” or Viennese Modern Age so memorable and
influential.
Keywords: Wiener Moderne, Innenorientierung, Dissoziationsvorgänge
1. Einführung
Die literarische Moderne ist von der gesellschaftlichen
Modernisierung zu unterscheiden. Dennoch kann die ästhetische Moderne
durchaus als kritische Reflexion der zivilisatorischen Moderne betrachtet
werden. Grob gesagt, gilt die Moderne als Epochenbegriff für literarische
Tendenzen um 1900. Becker und Kiesel sprechen vom Ästhetizismus der
Jahrhundertwende, der durch kritische Distanz und einem
Spannungsverhältnis zur modernen Lebenswelt und zum modernen
Lebensstil gekennzeichnet ist. Ab 1910 sprechen die beiden Autoren von
einer avantgardistischen Moderne, welche mit dem Einsatz des
Expressionismus übereinstimmt, und die ihrer Meinung nach, vor allem
Formexperimente fordert. Die 1920er Jahre gelten als klassische Moderne,
klassisch in dem Sinne, dass das „traditionelle Mimesisprinzip“ fortgeführt
wird. Hierfür werden Musil und Broch als Beispiele genannt, da sie das
„essayistische Schreiben“ nicht nur fortsetzen, sondern auch weiterführen
[vgl. Becker 2007: 18-19]. Es entsteht eine neue Romantradition, welche
den Reflexionen den Weg öffnet. Bei der sogenannten Spätmoderne der
1950er und 1960er Jahre stellt man sich die Frage, ob es sich um eine
direkte Fortführung der Vorkriegstendenzen oder um eine neu erfundene
Moderne handelt.
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Die literarische Moderne setzt einen Wunsch nach Erneuerung voraus
und ist durch Innovation, Bereitschaft zu experimentieren und Verleugnung
der Tradition gekennzeichnet. Von Silvio Viettas fünf Geschichtsmodellen
ist es das dritte Modell, welches den Modernismus mit der Moderne
gleichsetzt und in der Wende des 19. zum 20. Jahrhundert wurzelt, das im
Mittelpunkt unseres Interesses steht. Wie Kiesel in seiner Geschichte der
literarischen Moderne festhält, orientiert sich die Moderne an den „naturund sozialwissenschaftlichen Konzepten (Darwin, Taine, Marx), an
Nietzsche und an der modernen ausländischen Literatur“ [Kiesel 2004: 22].
Vom Leser wird Offenheit erwartet, die Bereitschaft zu einer neuen, wenn
auch befremdenden Weltwahrnehmung. Hermann Bahr spricht von der
Moderne als „Qual und Krankheit des Jahrhunderts“, entstanden in Folge
des Glaubens daran, „dass aus dem Leide das Heil kommen wird und die
Gnade aus der Verzweiflung, dass es tagen wird nach dieser entsetzlichen
Finsternis und dass die Kunst einkehren wird bei den Menschen [...]“ [Bahr
1890: 13].
2. Die Jahrhundertwende 1900
Eugen Wolffs 1888 erschienener Artikel Die jüngste deutsche
Literaturströmung und das Prinzip der Moderne gilt als theoretische
Grundlage und somit als Proklamation der Moderne im deutschsprachigen
Raum. Hinzu kommt die um dieselbe Zeit entstandene literarische
Vereinigung „Durch“. Arno Holz schreibt bereits 1885 in seinem Buch der
Zeit, Lieder eines Modernen: „Kein rückwärts schauender Prophet /
geblendet durch unfassliche Idole, / modern sei der Poet, / modern vom
Scheitel bis zur Sohle!“ [In: Kiesel 2004: 16]. Kennzeichnende Leitideen
sind die Abwendung von dem „harmonischen Schönheitsideal der Antike“
und den traditionellen Werten zu Gunsten der Dynamik und der
„wissenschaftlich begründeten Erkenntnissen“ [Kiesel 2004: 19]. Dieselbe
vorwärts blickende Haltung vertritt auch Bahr, wenn er feststellt, dass „in
[seinen Zeitgenossen] [...] die Vergangenheit noch immer [wuchert] und
um [sie] wächst die Zukunft“ [Bahr: 1890: 13].
Vorläufer dafür findet man bereits Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts in
Frankreich. Baudelaire setzt dem banalen Dasein „das Böse, Hässliche,
Schockierende als befremdende Schönheit“ gegenüber [Weigmann 2003:
27]. Diese Negation des Schönen, der konventionellen Ästhetik führt zu
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einer regelrechten Ästhetik des Hässlichen und Bösen. Zudem erscheint
bereits bei ihm eine Entpersönlichung der Lyrik.
Gegen Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts gewinnt die österreichischungarische Monarchie an Ansehen. Besonders die Hauptstadt Wien wird
zum kulturellen Zentrum des Vielvölkerreiches. Michael Pollack
[1998:106-107] sieht in der Explosion des kulturellen Lebens im Wien der
Jahrhundertwende den Versuch, ein Gefühl von Bindung und
Standhaftigkeit zu vermitteln.
Alle Künste blühen auf, bringen auch später anerkannte Namen und
Werke hervor. Die Freundschaft zwischen Gustav Mahler, in seiner
Funktion als Operndirektor, Max Burckhardt als Direktor des Hoftheaters,
und den Repräsentanten Jung-Wiens trägt wesentlich dazu bei. Pollack
sieht sie sogar als „Alliierte“ [Pollack, 1998: 141]. So kommt es auch zur
Mitarbeit zwischen Hugo von Hofmannsthal und Richard Strauss. So sind
zum Beispiel Elektra oder Der Rosenkavalier vertont worden.
Hofmannsthal erlangt Ruhm im gesamten deutschsprachigen Raum, da er
sich auf Ästhetik, auf die Problematik des Künstlers und dessen Identität
konzentriert, und nicht so sehr auf jene der nationalen Identität. Somit
entzieht er sich einer Einordnung in eine periphere Literatur.
Pollack [1998: 107] stellt fest, dass es Autoren wie Arthur Schnitzler,
Beer-Hofmann oder Hermann Bahr gelingt, sich eine Existenz als
Schriftsteller aufzubauen und von ihren Veröffentlichungen allein zu leben.
Dies ist auch dank des Aufschwungs der Fachpresse möglich. Bereits 1885
erscheint eine Wochenbeilage der Presse, An der schönen blauen Donau –
Musikalische und literarische Zeitschrift. 1891 wird das „Junge Wien“
gegründet. Zwar können sich die Mitglieder zuerst nicht genau einordnen
und so vereinigen sie sich 1892, nach der kurzen Existenz der Modernen
Rundschau, mit der Berliner Freien Bühne für modernes Leben. Die neue
Zeitschrift nennt sich nun Freie Bühne für den Entwicklungskampf der Zeit
und soll den österreichischen Schriftstellern das ermöglichen, was der
Modernen Rundschau nicht gelungen ist, eine breite Leserschaft
anzusprechen [vgl. Dagmar Lorenz, 1995: 48]. Die Großstadt erscheint als
wesentliches Thema und trägt dazu bei, dass diese, Ende des 19.
Jahrhunderts aus Berlin ausgehende Bewegung, eine „naturalistische“
Moderne ist.
Erst jetzt merken die österreichischen Autoren, dass sie in der neuen
Zeitschrift kaum etwas Passendes publizieren können, dass sie sich trotz
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eines ähnlichen Programms wesentlich von den Deutschen unterscheiden.
Die Literaturforschung sieht darin den entscheidenden Augenblick, in dem
sich die österreichische Literatur sichtlich von der deutschen entfernt und
einem eigenen Entwicklungsstrang folgt. Einige Kritiker sehen in der
Unfähigkeit österreichischer Schriftsteller sich an die Richtlinien der Freien
Bühne anzupassen, ein Zeichen für das eigentliche Nichtvorhandensein des
Naturalismus als literarische Strömung in der österreichischen Literatur
[vgl. Paetzke 1992: 8]. Andere sind der Ansicht, dass Züge des
Naturalismus als Ausgangspunkt zur Entdeckung des Ich als Motiv gedient
haben [vgl. Lorenz 1995: 45].
Man neigt dazu, besonders die frühe literarische Moderne eher mit
Wien, als mit Berlin, in Verbindung zu bringen. Kiesel sieht den Grund
dafür im Zusammentreffen innovativer Schriftsteller in Wien. Seiner
Meinung nach wirkt „schon im Bewusstsein vieler Zeitgenossen der frühen
Moderne, erst recht aber im Bewusstsein vieler Nachgeborener [...] Wien
als Ursprungsort der Moderne“ [Kiesel 2004: 23].
Die österreichischen Schriftsteller wenden sich der Innenwelt zu und
entdecken die Seelenwelt. Das Café Griensteidl wird zum Treffpunkt der
Autoren, zur neuen Kulturstätte. Hier werden Gedanken ausgetauscht und
man äußert sich zum jeweiligen Werk der anderen. Dagmar Lorenz
[Lorenz 1995: 88] spricht von einer regelrechten „Clique“. Tatsächlich
zeugt auch der später veröffentlichte Briefwechsel von einer engen
Freundschaft unter den Schriftstellern.
Hermann Bahr versucht, die Zugehörigkeit dieser österreichischen
`modernen Autoren` zum gehobenen Bildungsbürgertum und teils sogar
zum Adel, sowie ihren Kosmopolitismus, das heißt die Prägung durch eine
Mischung mehrerer verschiedenen Kulturtraditionen und Sprachen, als
„Kennzeichen der österreichischen Moderne“ darzustellen [Lorenz 1998:
49]. Die Schriftsteller selbst fühlen sich dadurch jedoch isoliert. Dieser
Faktor verstärkt die Tendenz zur Innenorientierung.
Der Begriff Fin de siècle als Bezeichnung für die Jahrhundertwende
bekommt gerade in der Donaumonarchie eine besondere Bedeutung.
Europaweit ist die Epoche durch eine Isolation des Individuums in Folge
der starken Technologisierung und Kommerzialisierung gekennzeichnet.
Selbstverständlich beeinflussen diese gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen
auch die Literatur. Nirgends wird der baldige Untergang so verspürt wie in
der habsburgischen Monarchie. Der stark ausgeprägte Charakter der
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Wiener Moderne erscheint auf Grund des Missens eines „starken sozialen
Rahmens“ [Nubert 2008: 72], was das innere Exil hervorruft. Das führt uns
zurück zu Nietzsches Kunstauffassung als „Befreiung vom Leiden an der
Entfremdung“, als „eine der Möglichkeiten, sich vom Bann des
unbefriedigten Willens […] zu befreien [Weigmann 2003: 20].
In dieser Zeit entdecken Schnitzler, Hofmannsthal und die anderen
Autoren die Arbeiten Ernst Machs und Sigmund Freuds. Was sie an der
Traumdeutung des Psychoanalytikers, Studium das von der damaligen
Fachwelt eher ignoriert wird, so fasziniert, ist, wie Pollack feststellt, der
subjektive, selbstanalytische Charakter [Pollack 1998: 123]. Benveniste
erkennt Freuds Einfluss auf die Literatur in seiner neuen Art, Sprache und
vor allem Sprache im Kontext zu analysieren. Er habe nämlich
„entscheidendes Licht auf die sprachliche Tätigkeit geworfen […] in ihren
Fehlleistungen, in ihren extremen Artikulationen, Verdrängungen,
Kompensierungen, […]. Auch die normalisierte Sprache verdecke oft nur
mühsam ihren Ursprung im Unbewussten und im Tagtraum“ [In:
Weigmann 2003: 24]. Die Autoren der Wiener Moderne nehmen einen
Gedanken auf, den bereits Freud von Schopenhauer übernommen hatte,
demzufolge die menschliche Vernunft nur zur Analyse und Orientierung
beiträgt, das Handeln jedoch meist von Trieben bestimmt wird.
Dadurch, dass das Interesse auf das problematische Ich gelenkt wird,
verstärkt sich das Krisenbewusstsein. Roxana Nubert erkennt in Machs
Auffassungen vom „unrettbaren Ich“ „einen labilen Komplex
unbeständiger Empfindungen, Erfahrungen, Assoziationen, Stimmungen,
Gefühle und Erinnerungen“. Des Weiteren hält sie die Auflösung des Ichs
in „eine Vielzahl von [wechselhaften] Sinneseindrücken und
Empfindungen“ [Nubert 2008: 81] fest. Das Disparate des modernen
Menschen hat bereits in Baudelaires Werk eingesetzt.
Im europäischen Kontext betrachtet, unterscheidet sich dadurch die
Wiener Moderne nicht von der französischen oder Berliner Moderne. Die
Dissoziationsvorgänge werden hier jedoch stärker wahrgenommen und
dadurch radikalisieren sich die Merkmale. Dagmar Lorenz [1995: 50] ist
ebenfalls der Meinung, dass die bereits erwähnten Kennzeichen keineswegs
nur auf die österreichische Literatur begrenzt werden können, sondern
gesamt europäisch gültig sind. Für Iris Paetzke stellen einige spezifische
Züge das Gesamtbild der literarischen Wiener Moderne zusammen. Sie
erkennt in den Werken Verstörung, eingeschränkte Selbstsicherheit,
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Wirklichkeitsverlust, Ich-Spaltung und Verdrängung, Vernunftsversagen,
unbewusste „Wünsche und Träume“, „nicht begriffene Normen oder
soziale Strukturen“ [Paetzke 1992: 10-11].
3. Schlussfolgerung
Die kosmopolite österreichische Kunst wird somit ins Leben gerufen,
in einem Augenblick, in dem die Donaumonarchie sich aus politischer
Sicht ihrem Ende nähert. Dadurch werden die Spuren und Folgen des
Ersten Weltkrieges umso stärker wahrgenommen und literarisch
verarbeitet. Die Kaffeehauskultur Wiens, welche die Jahrhundertwende
geprägt hat, leidet in den Nachkriegsjahren auf Grund des Zeitmangels der
Gäste. Diese sind jetzt beschäftigt, ständig in Eile und stehen unter Stress.
Esther Saletta [2006: 24]. spricht von einer „modernen, chaotischen und
nervösen Atmosphäre.“
Ebenso wie sich in der Vorkriegszeit Zukunftsangst,
Hoffnungslosigkeit und Pessimismus mit einem starken Gefühl von
Vaterlandliebe paaren, vermischen sich jetzt Nachkriegsdesaster und Bilder
der Zerstörung mit einer illusorischen Positivität. Der Verlust des Krieges
und der Zerfall der Donaumonarchie lassen die Österreicher vereinsamt
dastehen. Die neugegründete Republik Österreich muss die Notwendigkeit
ein Zugehörigkeitsgefühl zu verspüren, überwinden.
Literaturverzeichnis:
Bahr, Hermann 1890. „Die Moderne“ in Moderne Dichtung. Monatsschrift
für Literatur und Kritik unter
http://www.uni-due.de/lyriktheorie/scans/1890_bahr.pdf [25.08.2010].
Becker, S. / Kiesel, H. / Krause R. (Hg.) 2007. Literarische Moderne:
Begriff und Phänomen, Berlin:
Walter de Gruyter.
Lorenz, Dagmar 1995. Wiener Moderne, Weimar: Metzler.
Müller-Funk, W. 2001. Über das Verhältnis von Herrschaft und Kultur
unter
http://www.kakanien.ac.at/beitr/theorie/WMueller-Funk1.pdf
Nubert, Roxana 2008. Einführung in die literarische Moderne –
Naturalismus und Jahrhundertwende
1900, Temeswar: Mirton.
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Paetzke, Iris 1992. Erzählen in der Wiener Moderne, Tübingen: Francke
Verlag.
Saletta, Ester 2006. Die Imagination des Weiblichen. Schnitzlers Fräulein
Else in der österreichischen
Literatur der Nachkriegszeit, Wien: Böhlau.
Weigmann, H. 2003. Die deutsche Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts,
Würzburg: Königshausen und
Neumann.
Extra-conjugal love. Concubinage and adultery
in the middle ages
Teodora ARTIMON
Central European University, Budapest
Abstract: The following paper discusses medieval love outside the
legal frames, dealing with a period roughly located between the eleventh
and the fifteenth centuries, and it also offers glimpses into the concubinage
of Late Antiquity and the adultery of tenth-century Byzantium. Focusing on
the practice of adultery and concubinage, the paper points to the way
sexuality seems to gain priority outside marriage, while inside marriage it
has the sole purpose of procreation.
Keywords: Middle Ages, love, concubinage, adultery
1. Concubinage and Saint Augustine
In Book I of his On Marriage and Concupiscence, Saint Augustine
says that “chastity in the married state is God’s gift” [S. Augustine,
www.fordham.edu]. Two chapters afterwards, discussing the nature of
marriage, he gives a definition to it that is representative for the Medieval
mentality: “The union, then, of male and female for the purpose of
procreation is the natural good of marriage” [S. Augustine,
www.fordham.edu]. Therefore, while chastity is more desirable than
marriage, marriage is preferred to any type of sexual union outside the legal
body. Then what is the situation with concubinage? Can it be called a
pseudo-married state or is it a practice surpassing any legal boundaries?
The fact that Augustine argues so thoroughly for the canons of
marriage may seem somewhat curious as he was characterized as the
perfect example of a man living in a concubinage relationship [Verdon,
2009: 238], thus being an example of a person breaking the laws of
marriage. In the Late Roman period, when Augustine was writing,
“concubinatus” was, in legal terms, a monogamous, semi-permanent
relationship, an alternative rather than a supplement to legal marriage
[Brown, 1999: 388]. Peter Brown in Late Antiquity: A Guide to the
Postclassical World defines the status of two people living is such a
relationship: he says that the male partner usually had a substantially higher
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social and legal status then the female therefore the concubinage was more
socially appropriate than marriage. Moreover, as concubinage was not a
legal act, any child born within such a relationship was considered
illegitimate and would not inherit from his father [Brown, 1999: 388].
Returning to the life of Augustine, his early life was marked by an
almost fifteen-year relationship with a concubine, generally regarded as a
slave or a lower class woman. Later on, when he spiritually matured, he
condemned that period, arguing for marriage in works such as De Bono
Coniugali. In his Confessions, Augustine tells us how desire was that drew
them together, while also desire was what kept them in a faithful
relationship [Fitzgerald, 1999: 228]. Also in the Confessions, he makes a
statement which has good relevance for the purpose of this paper: “I in my
own case experienced what difference there betwixt the self-restraint of the
marriage-covenant, for the sake of issue, and the bargain of a lustful love,
where children are born against their parents’ will, although, once born,
they constrain love” [S. Augustine, 1953 (latest ed.): 57]. The comparative
definition given here by Augustine is universal for the Middle Ages and is
also applied to Late Medieval examples of concubinage as it will be
presented in the following.
2. Types of concubinage relationships
Therefore, as also argued by Augustine, concubinage is characterized
by two people living together, having children and having affection for one
another, but not getting married for various reasons. The term “concubine”,
referring to women, defined several cases of concubinage. The classical
meaning of “concubine” was that of “woman with whom one sleeps with”
[Karras, 2005: 100] or simply “girlfriend”. Although in this case a
concubine of a single man could be a potential marriage partner, the couple
did not necessarily envision marriage especially if they came from different
social layers. A different type of concubine is what Karras defined as “a
woman living in a domestic partnership with a man who was for some
reason unable to marry her” [Karras, 2005: 100]. This was usually the
example of separated couples. As divorce was so problematic, many people
unofficially separated from their spouse, not being able to remarry. A
woman separated in this way from her husband would be called an
adulteress if found out; however, an unmarried woman who lived with a
separated man was called a “concubine”.
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A third intriguing type of concubine is the so called “priest’s
concubine.” Karras illustrates how preachers like the English exemplum
collector John of Bromyard, blamed these concubines for attracting priests
with the sole purpose of despoiling the goods of the church. Preachers
attacked them for greed, but most importantly, they attacked them for lust
in an effort to displace on to women the priests’ guilt of sexual desires
[Karras, 2005: 101]. However, it is important to note that most of the
women entering in such a relationship with members of the clergy were
married women. Therefore the sin of was aggravated by adultery. Jean
Verdon tried to answer the question of why married women would engage
in relationships with priests. Doing so, he hypothesized that women, being
disgusted with their husbands’ brutality, were attracted by the clerical
tenderness which might have evolved into these types of relationships
[Verdon, 2009: 248]. J. Verdon also discusses friedelehe. He describes the
woman living in friedelehe: a woman whose status was above that of a
concubine, but who did not have the legal protection of a formal marriage
because she had contracted marriage on her own without the family and
property arrangements that usually accompanied it [Verdon, 2009: 243].
Being a quasi-marriage, James A. Brundage confirmed that she continued
in fact to be a member of her family of birth, even though she lived with a
man who belonged to another family [Brundage, 1990: 129].
Lothair II and Carolingian prices offer another example of
concubinage: living with a wife of youth. Before they legitimately married,
the Carolingian princes received a wife of youth, usually of noble origin
with whom they lived and even had children. Verdon also explains this
practice: while young princes reached their sexual maturity at the age of 1516, because of political reasons, the legitimate marriage did not take place
until they reached the age of 30 or even 40 [Verdon, 2009: 243]. Lothair I
gave his son one such youth wife, Waldrada. However, when his father
died, Lothair II had to legally marry Theutberga thus breaking up with his
youth wife. Even so, in a short while, he wanted to divorce Theutberga and
legitimately marry Waldrada. The fact that Lothair’s reign was chiefly
occupied by his efforts to obtain a divorce from his legal wife demonstrates
the supposition that the Carolingian princes did not only involve a simple
carnal relationship with these concubines, but they were also romantically
engaged with them.
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3. Adultery
“Thou shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14) said the Seventh
Commandment. Accordingly, Saint Augustine, among many others, argued
for a clean marriage: “I do firmly believe and I call upon all peoples and
nations to believe that adultery is wrong” [S. Augustine, 1968 (latest ed.):
76].
Although a condemned act, adultery was still very often
encountered in the Medieval environment. Whether the partners were lower
class, nobles or royalty, this type of attraction was present, most often
including romantic feelings. The Ecologa on sexual crimes of the
Byzantine emperor Leo III gives a glimpse at the frequency of adultery.
Out of nine sentences for sexual crimes, three were reserved to adultery: the
first sentence deals with men committing adultery; the third one deals with
committing a rather “spiritual” adultery with a nun; and the fifth one
discusses the case of a man aware of his wife’s adultery [Geanokoplos,
1984: 78]. Reaching all the layers of the society, examples of adultery are
various. However, the most alluring ones are those which took place in
royal sceneries. In the following, I will present a short example of a
Byzantine empress of the Macedonian dynasty not being loyal to her
husband. At the end of the year 956, the beautiful Theophano marries
Romanos, the only son of Constantine VII. After Constantine dies in
October 959, Theophano becomes at the age of 18, the empress of
Romanos II. However, only four years later, she remains widow but soon
remarries. Nikephoros Phokas, now the new emperor, is a military
commander and is often away in military campaigns. He takes Theophano
with him in the first campaigns after marrying her, but afterwards the
circumstances force him to leave her back in Constantinople. It is thus not
long until the empress takes as her lover John Tzimiskes, the very nephew
of Nikephoros Phokas. Hiding their relationship in various ways, they plan
to murder the emperor. Accordingly, the murder takes place when
Nikephoros returns to the Palace, on the night of 10 December 969.
Nikephoros was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles, while John
Tzimiskes became Emperor John I. The most concluding element of the
adulterous relationship between Theophano and John I was carved on the
side of the tomb of Nikephoros Phokas: You conquered all but a woman
[www.mlahanas.de].
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4. Conclusion
Concubinage and adultery: two engagements disapproved by church
and secular law, but so widely practiced. It may seem that the more they
were judged, the more the couples rebelled. Saint Augustine with his
unnamed concubine and Theophano with John I both are both examples of
people caring for each other outside the legal limits, but living together as in
a matrimonial commitment.
References:
Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia. 1999. Eds. Fitzgerald, A.
and Cavadini, J.
C. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Saint Augustine: The Teacher, the Free Choice of the Will, Grace and Free
Will. 1968. Russell, R. P., trans. CUA Press: 1968.
Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World. 1990. Eds. Bowersock,
G. W., Brown, P. and Grabar, O. Harvard University Press.
Brundage, J. A. 1990. Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe.
University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Freshfied, E. trans, 1926. Manual of Roman Law: The "Ecloga",
Cambridge. Reprinted in Deno
Geanokoplos,
D.
1984.
Byzantium.
Chicago.
Available:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/ecloga1.html (October 10,
2010).
Karras, R. M. 2005. Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others.
Routledge.
Saint Augustine. Confessions of Saint Augustine. Plain Label Books: 1953.
Available:
http://books.google.ro/books?id=dKNU1B1PSugC&hl=en&source=gbs_n
avlinks_s (October 10, 2010).
Saint Augustine. On Marriage and Concupiscence. Available:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aug-marr.html (October 10, 2010).
Verdon, J. 2009. Dragostea in Evul Mediu [Love in the Middle Ages].
Bucharest, Humanitas.
The Biography of Nikephoros Phokas. Available:
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Medieval/Bio/NicephorusII.html (October
10, 2010).
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Games, mimics and practice
seen through Pieter Bruegel
Teodora ARTIMON
Central European University, Budapest
Abstract: One of the misconceptions about the Middle Ages is that
there existed little time for recreation and leisure, and when it did exist, it
was mainly reserved to the nobility. Without entering into details regarding
the adult’s spare time, this paper focuses on the various types of games and
recreational activities that children – both of the lower and the upper class –
engaged in. In order to do this, Pieter Bruegel’s Children’s Games is used
as a support for the description of specific games.
Keywords: Middle Ages, Games, Everyday Life, Bruegel
1. Introduction
It is a common known fact that children engaged in different ways of
education like school or apprenticeship. Those children who were not
involved in such educational activities, were most likely working.
However, although some learned and others worked, just about all children
played. In this very perspective, Nicholas Orme [2005: 63] argues that there
was no question that children were allowed the opportunity to play because,
just like today, play was characteristic to Medieval childhood. Moreover, he
maintains that play itself was a way of education, helping children from
their interests and attitudes. In the following I will thus discuss Medieval
outdoor group-games, games played with natural objects and materials and
toys.
2. Children’s Games
Children’s Games, one of the famous paintings of Bruegel of 1560
now located in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, is a narrative
describing a variety of leisure activities for children. An accurate
representation of life as Bruegel saw it, the painting gives the opportunity to
learn a great deal about village life in the Low Countries during the
sixteenth-century [Corrain, 2008: 48]. The painting includes depictions of
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about 250 children involved in eighty-four actual games that were popular
during the time of Bruegel.
Sandra Hindman, in her article Pieter Bruegel’s Children’s
Games, Folly and Chance, describes the diverse interpretations that modern
scholarship has proposed for this painting. In this sense, there are four main
perspectives. The first one, and the most simplistic one, infers that the
painting only represents a visual encyclopaedia of games thus considerable
literature addressing the identification of these games. A second perspective
is represented by an allegorical interpretation, hinting that the painting
presents a calendar of the year in which specific games are related to
identifiable folk celebrations. A third category put the painting in the Age
of Man interpretation, asserting that it represents Infantia, while a fourth
interpretation pointed out that Children’s Games can represent man’s
inherent folly. In this paper, because of it’s purpose of commenting on
different Medieval games, I will mainly discuss the first and the fourth
interpretational trends.
Before going on to the games themselves, it is first worth seeing
who the “actors” of the painting (and of the paper) are: from the very
beginning it is worth dismissing the claims that Bruegel’s children are in
fact miniature adults as their clothing can clearly categorize them as preadolescents wearing characteristic sixteenth-century clothing. A clear
example of how the children’s ages
can be differentiated is given by the
two boys playing in the foreground
on a barrel – the boy on the left side
is aged between five and eleven
because of the characteristic
costume for this age consisting of a
frock open at the front and
extending below the knees with
pants underneath it; while the boy
on the right is aged above eleven as
after this age boys adopted the adult
costume that can be seen in this case: a short jacket with trousers.
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3. Toys
Toys are some of the rarest artefacts of Medieval living, only a few
metal toys surviving up to our days. This reflects the perishable material
they were made of like wood or fabric, and, just as important, it reflects the
hard use they had in the hands of children playing with them [Newman,
2001: 187].
As children grew, they toy repertoire also grew. Medieval children,
as Shulamith Shahar points out, are known to have played with rattles,
hobby-horses, rocking-horses, bones, balls, hoops, dolls, spinning tops,
small windmills, clay birds, miniature cooking utensils, marionettes and
others [Shahar, 1990: 104]. Also, there were musical toys such as drums or
cymbals or jewellery-like toys, like glass rings. Bruegel indicates a variety
of these toys on his elaborate painting: one could see dolls and doll houses,
masks and hobby horses, balls and stilts. It is interesting to note, based on
the painting, how a child would transform everyday objects into objects to
play with. Shahar also describes how children use their imagination for this
purpose, explaining how a stick could
become a white horse or a sword and
how a chip could become a castle
[Shahar, 1990: 103]. In the same
manner, the girl in the right forefront of
Bruegel’s painting is running with a
pig’s bladder. One can thus see here
how a child uses his imagination to
transform a relatively elongated-shaped
material object into a doll to play with.
Imagination was used in all child play:
the boy masking himself in the upper
room of the building in the left side, the
boy in the forefront on the hobbyhorse, the girls playing with dolls in a
motherly nature and so on. However, there is another important aspect
related to toys in which imagination plays an important role: girls imagine
themselves cooking and taking care of babies and the household (such as
the two girls playing inside the house on the left corner) and boys imagine
themselves in warlike situations where bravery was needed. The typical
toys that are used for this playing “exercise” and the difference between
them help reinforce the convention that men should be active and warlike,
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while women should be caring and domestic. That is, from the very early
stages of life, children learned the difference between men’s space and
women’s space.
4. Games and active play
Games, as material and written sources describe them, were most
likely very common among both children and adults. Children games were
of two types: some were sedentary pursuits with small objects such as
cherry stones, while others were lively activities such as running, chasing or
archery [Orme, 2005: 76].
The Children’s Games presents some typical games for the
sixteenth-century. Bruegel represents in the forefront of the painting the
game of leapfrog, he twice represents children on stilts, several times
playing with balls, playing hide and seek and knucklebones, just to mention
the most representative. Returning to the subject of imagination, other
authors also emphasize it. Singman
highlights how playing involved
transforming the objects in the world
around them, like soil, wood, scraps
of fabric and how they used these to
make dams, boats or mills [Singman,
1999, 23]. Bruegel also represents this
type of playing on the lower right side
of the painting where two boys are
bricklaying, creating a solid structure
for their game.
The male-female space is
also emphasized by games. Some games are more active, or even violent
(such as hair-pulling represented next to the central building in the
background), while other games are more tender. To give an example, in
the right lower corner the viewer can see a girl quietly playing store, while
in the middle forefront two groups of boys play tug of war. These
differentiated games, just like the differentiated toys describe above,
unconsciously teach children the appropriate male and female behaviour.
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5. Imitative play: representing practice
Just like it happens today, there was a mimetic element in many of the
children’s games [Shahar, 1990, 103]. Children initiate games that recall
adult actions, this type of activity being both a recreational one and an
educational one.
The Children’s Games of Bruegel in the forefront a distinction
between episodes of mimicry and other games. These episodes emphasize
playing out courtship, marriage and baptism as focal events. As Hindman
highlights, the children of Bruegel engage in activities that relate to
marriage. Therefore, the painting implies that marriage is a sure sequel to
courtship, while birth follows marriage as suggested by the baptismal
procession next to the bridal party [Hindman, 1981: 452].
The sequel thus starts with courtship which is represented by the
game of blindman’s buff. As described in Medieval Celebrations, the game
implies that a person is chosen to be “it” and is blindfolded either by having
a bag or a hood pulled over the head. The player is then spun around
several times and seeks to find his tormentors who pull his clothes and
strike at him [Diehl and Donnelly, 2001, 73]. As played in Antwerp, the
girl, blinded by a hood, tagged a boy who in turn became her mock
bridegroom [Hindman, 1981: 452]. Therefore, this was a type of courtship
game, which however also represented the theme of folly – the blue cloak
was interpreted as referring to the Flemish proverb “To put a blue cloak on
someone”, describing the action of an unfaithful wife. This proverb
suggesting the theme of folly in general, it may be inferred that the entire
scene of blindman’s buff stand for folly.
The bridal procession is a clear indicator of marriage and its imitation.
Located near the blindman’s buff, it suggests the continuity from courtship
to marriage. The bridal ceremony includes folk elements: the bride wears
her long hair loose over a black dress; escorts surround her in a way to avert
misfortune during the procession; and children holding flowers precede her
[Hindman, 1981: 451].
The position of the baptismal procession once more suggests
continuation. The baptismal procession also follows closely folk customs:
the participants advance single-file on a main road, preceded by a midwife
carrying a baby who is completely swaddled to prevent the entrance of evil
spirits [Hindman, 1981: 452]. The procession is heading towards the
building on the lower right side, where a mock altar is presumably set up
the baptism itself which is presided over by a doll dressed as a clergyman
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[Hindman, 1981: 452]. Also, it is important to notice that the last male in
the baptismal procession is wearing a blue cloak, which may also
symbolize deceit.
In fact, besides Bruegel presenting the practice of most important
moments in early adult life, the painter, by juxtaposing the representations
of marriage and baptism to that of blindmans’s buff and by including the
blue cloak, may have wanted to suggest that folly accompanies life’s major
events.
6. Conclusion
A first glimpse at Pieter Bruegel’s Children’s Games may give the
impression of a chaotic variety of games. I would argue that this first
impression is representative for the huge number of games practiced in the
Middle Ages, many of which are still preserved up until today. Medieval
games may be categorised in different ways: from indoors to outdoors
games, from single games to group games, from boys’ games to girls’
games. Disregarding the category or their purpose – educational,
recreational, or both – the games described by Bruegel are all representative
for the Medieval period.
References:
Corrain, L. 2008. The Art of the Renaissance. The Oliver Press, Inc..
Diehl, D. and Donnelly, M. 2001. Medieval Celebrations: How to Plan
Holidays, Weddings, and
Reenactments with Recipes, Customs, Costumes, Decorations, Songs,
Dances, and Games. Stackpole Books.
Orme, N. 2005. “Education and Recreation” in Gentry Culture in Late
Medieval England, eds.
Radulescu R., Truelove A. Manchester University Press.
Hindman, S. 1981. “Pieter Bruegel’s Children’s Games, Folly and Chance”
in The Art Bulletin 21, No. 3.
Newman, P. B. 2001. Daily Life in the Middle Ages. McFarland.
Singman, J. 1999. Daily Life in Medieval Europe. Greenwood Publishing
Group.
Shahar, S. 1990. Childhood in the Middle Ages. Taylor & Francis.
Snow, E. 1983. “Bruegel on the Sexes: A Detail from Children's Games” in
The Threepenny Review, No. 14.
226
Identity in art. A hermeneutic perspective
Călin LUCACI, Diana BOTA, Florea LUCACI
Abstract. The present paper focuses on the problem of determining
identity in art. What I am suggesting is that, by approaching the subject
from the perspective of formal logic, of hermeneutics especially, numerous
phenomena labeled generically as “art’s crisis” can be clarified and
understood. The issue at hand is both ontological and logical by nature.
Consequently, I settled on an analysis of the relation between the concept of
identity and the concept of difference. At the same time, the nature of
esthetic assessment has also imposed an analysis of the logical system of
pragmatic and axiological propositions. It results that an absence of
neutrality of propositions and of reasonings triggers, first of all, the intersubjectivity of a culture, and secondly, the subjectivity of the art interpreter.
The identity of art is a relation, as the hermeneutic perspective clearly
demonstrates. The hermeneutic circle and the properties of identity as a
relation reveal the role of the subject, of the homo aestheticus, in the
intentional construction of the world.
Keywords: ontology, identity, difference, logic, hermeneutics
1. Identity and ontology
Approaching the problem of art’s identity crisis requires, by necessity,
the open conceptual framework of human ontology. From this perspective
we can see clearly the sense of the determinations that artists embrace in the
concrete form of creation, or of those that aestheticians, philosophers or art
historians opt for in the vision of their theories.
Thesis I, which represents the premise of this paper, can be
formulated as: Art is a specific mode of existence, which presupposes the
emergence of the homo aestheticus. To homo aestheticus, existence means
creation of a world ordered axio-centrically.
An art work – for example, Brâncuşi’s Table of Silence – exists
perceptibly in the form of stone cylinders and truncated pyramids. By
hermeneutic exercise, the physical existence of the art work is doubled by
existential and axiological significances. In this case, creation involves the
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artist’s intentionality, reference to a cultural-historical context, the pretext
suggested by the tradition of celebrating the nation’s heroes, and the subtext
that encodes Brâncuşi’s identity. Symmetrically, hermeneutics establishes
the world in which homo aestheticus – whether a philosopher, an
esthetician, an art critic or historian, or merely a lover of arts – discovers his
identity as cultural being.
Thesis II, which establishes the need for reflection, can be
formulated: An art work is a work-function, since the values that are
unveiled by hermeneutic exercise are values of the argument to exist as
man.
Concretely, the “reading” of an art work of art obliges man “to
attempt, to try out schemes of understanding, to adopt – as hypothesis, at
least – pieces of philosophy of history.”1 As a result, with each “reading”,
with each interrogation, the art work expands. At the same time, by
hermeneutic exercise, homo aestheticus assumes the world of the art work
as his own existential project. Consequently, interpretation “means spelling
out the kind of being-in-world,” i.e. man legitimate his identity “by the
great detour of signs of humanity sedimented in the works of culture.”2
1.1. Identity and logico-ontological description
Although ontology has logical foundations, skillful logicians today
still contest the possibility of an ontological discourse. From an analytical
perspective, an understanding of the foundations of ontology presupposes
the problem of abstract objects, such as identity as a relation (R. Carnap). It
is not hard to notice that the issue has language as point of reference.
Present day philosophical discourse is marked by limitations: a) the
epistemological problems related to the theory of being, and b) the
hermeneutic reconstruction of ontology.
As working hypothesis, we admit that identity constitutes itself in the
core of the verb to be. But this verb functions as copula in cognitive
propositions of the type SP. Examining the linking function of the verb to
be, the Kneale spouses emphasize: “The copula can be perceived as
1
Paul Ricoeur, Istorie şi adevăr, Editura Anastasia, Bucureşti, 1996, p. 109.
Paul Ricoeur, Eseuri de hermeneutică, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 1995, p.
105-107.
2
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expressing identity, while the terms subject and predicate refer to
individuals, as they express properties.”3 Thus, identity provides for the
logical image of the world, for the relation between thought and the given.
The relational function of identity is clearly established by Aristotle in the
matrix of extremely general propositions. “Saying that what is is not, or that
what is not is, represents a false proposition; conversely, a true utterance is
one which says what is is and what is not is not.”4 This shows clearly that
Aristotle has in mind the logic of the relation which controls thinking and
the linguistic expression of thought. Ignoring identity generates serious
logical errors. At the level of language, there appear homonymy and
synonymy, phenomena which can only be perceived by linguistic analysis.
This triggers the need for analyzing ideational relations, too.
Let us see what happens in cases of homonymy and synonymy:
(i) When the same word expresses different notions.
Be the word classicism, and the derived classical5, classical art. We
have the reasoning (poly-syllogism):
Classical art expresses a value, being a model of creation.
Phidias is one of the founders of classical art.
Poussin, too, created works according to the cannons of classical art.
Both artists cultivated ideal beauty.
⇒ Phidias and Poussin are exponents of classicism.
Error: The terms classicism and classical art are homonyms that
express different notions. Although all the premises are true, the conclusion
is false, because Phidias is a representative of the classicism of the 5th and
4th century BC Greek literature and art, while Poussin is an exponent of
17th-18th French classicism.
The phrase classical art in the major premise is ambiguous, as it can
designate: a) works produced during the classicism of Greek antiquity; b)
works of the 17th-18th century French classicism; c) works, irrespective of
3
W. Kneale; M. Kneale, Dezvoltarea logicii, vol. I, Editura Dacia, Cluj-Napoca,
1974, p. 75.
4
Aristotel, Metafizica, Editura Academiei, Bucureşti, 1965, p. 155 (IV, 7, 1011b).
5
In Romanian, the opposition classic – classical does not exist.
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historical age, which cultivate the ideal of beauty, a metaphysical
idealization of reason, canons of harmony, etc.
Words and phrases, such as: absolute, academism, artistic vanguard,
artistic canon, art criticism, esthetics, expressionism, iconography, manner,
primitivism, realism, talent, unity of art, vision, etc. – can trigger similar
homonymy-based errors.
(ii) When the same notion is expressed by different words.
Be the words creation, invention, discovery and the reasoning:
Culture is the means by which man’s creative spirit is put to value.
Artists and scientists are agents of cultural creations.
Art is creation aimed at inventing works of cultural value.
Science is creation aimed at discovering ideas of cultural value.
⇒Creation, invention, discovery are identical means of putting
culture to value.
Error: Indeed, the words creation, invention, discovery are
synonymous in terms of the denoted, i.e. production and putting to value of
what is new in art. If we consider this aspect alone, we note that the
premises are all true propositions.
And yet, if we analyze the definitions for the terms creation,
invention, discovery, we come across mismatches. Thus, invention is a form
of creation which presupposes a practically unlimited freedom, a freedom
by which any and all contribution in the service of art is allowed.
Conversely, discovery is a form of cultural creation that imposes constraints
in terms of objectivity and the scientific idea must be tested. Since
invention is related to subjectivity, while discovery to objectivity, the risk of
paralogisms arises.
Using synonyms which describe existence and artistic creation also
trigger possible breachings of the principle of identity. It is the case of
synonymic sets such as: Criterion – principle – norm; Form – figure –
model; Harmony – accord – concord; Art – mastery – craft; Illusion –
imagination – chimera – fantasy; Icon – picture – image; Perspective –
panorama – plan – scenery, etc.
This brief analysis shows clearly that identity can be disrupted by
phenomena such as homonymy and synonymy.
For an ontological interpretation of identity, the time factor must also
be taken into account. Changes occur, as for example: ruin – in the case of
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architectural works; chromatic degradation – in painting; deterioration – in
the case of sculptures, etc. The principle of invariation is relativized.
Identity in time. Identity in time is a form of art’s identity crises, it is a
fall into oblivion of certain authors, i.e. their works become anonymous, or
they may borrow some other identity by their membership to a certain
cultural paradigm. In other words, the existence of art work x is legitimated
by its membership, not by its act creation.
The mechanism by which an art work loses its original identity given
by creation, and acquires a borrowed identity, can be rendered as follows
(poly-syllogism):
x is an art work created by A
x is identified as A(x) – (read: x has property A, being created by A)
x becomes, in time, an art work in the tradition T
Tradition T consists of the works x, y, z ...
Collection (x, y, z ...) becomes work identified as T (x, y, z...)
If x belongs to tradition T, then T(x) – (read: x has property T,
because it belongs to tradition T)
Thus, membership can also come in the form of tradition, i.e. the
work’s identity by creation is cancelled out, as it happened in the case of
Byzantine art, for example. In this case, the identity of a work as authentic
Byzantine painting is legitimated by its fidelity to the given canons.
Identity in space. Existential reference in art and the properties of art
works require that we should also consider what is called identity in space.
In this case, too, we have a form of identity crisis: a work’s mark of identity
is given by a certain space whose geography is delineated ethnically, or by
the authority of a certain creator. Although art works that belong to the
same style or artistic trend (e.g. classicism, romanticism, symbolism,
cubism, etc.) may pertain to different genres, if those works are confined
within a national space, then we get, for example, Romanian painting,
French painting, German painting, etc. It would be correct to identify them
as Romanian symbolist painting, French cubist painters, etc. In this case,
too, a skeptical attitude is required, because some artists are identified not
by their ethnic origin, but according to the country in which they produced
their works. The idea is very well illustrated by Brâncuşi, who is considered
to be both a Romanian and a French artist.
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The principle of equivalence is dominant in contemporary art. In the
work of one and the same artist we can identify influences of African art, of
Oriental art, of European art. Picasso is a good example in this respect.
Another thought-challenging example – among many others – is Rubens’
workshop. The master’s signature was enough to give identity to works
made exclusively by his apprentices and hired underlings. Following
Rubens’ example, industrial designers today take on the identity of
acknowledged brands, the ultimate aim being the firm’s status on the
market.
Schematically, the phenomenon can be presented as follows:
X is art work created by A
Y is art work created by B
Y is identified as B (y)
A and B belong to the set of authors identified as M
Thus M is equivalent with (A(x); B(y)...N(n))
⇒ (by abuse) M ≡ (x, y ...n)
Membership is defined as a relation that exists between the element
and the set, i.e. a non-transitive relation. Buy the example tells us that the
membership relation is sometimes intransitive (a property conferred upon x
by A is not transitive, i.e. it cannot become a property conferred upon it by
M, merely by virtue of A’s belonging to set M), while at other times it is
transitive (the property conferred to y by B is transitive, y assuming the
property as deriving from B’s membership to M).
The considerations and examples above trigger the conclusion that an
ontological interpretation of identity needs to be judged on a case-to-case
basis, in accordance with the individuality, the species and genre of the art
work considered. In short, applied thinking – and hence the order and
knowledge required by arts – would be impossible without the principle of
identity.
Validity of the law of identity, its operational function, can be
deduced by reduction to absurdity:
We have:
(1)Art work x, creation of A, has the same identity as y, also created
by A, i.e. the resulting relation is: A(x) ≡ A(y). (Membership nontransitive).
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Art work y has properties identical with those of art work z, created
by B, both abiding, for example, by the norms of the supra-realist esthetic
program. But art work x, being influenced by cubism, for example, does
not have the identity of art work z, which is an expression of supra-realism.
Consequently, since membership relation is non-transitive, we have
two situations: a) although x ≡ y and y ≡ z, transitivity is still not possible x
≠ z (x belongs to cubism, while z to supra-realism); b) x ≡ y and y ≡ z,
transitivity is however possible, x ≡ z (x belongs to cubism, and z belongs
to supra-realism, i.e. they are both vanguard, experimental esthetic
programs).
Note: Identity is justified here by the membership of works x, y and z
to a program of artistic experiments. But it is undoubtedly absurd to equate
a supra-realist art work with a cubist one, because in that case we would
admit that all their features are accidental, depending exclusively on
inspiration and on artistic experiment. As a result, there would be chaos, the
essential features vanishing.
Note: Identity is justified by the membership of works x, y and z to a
program of artistic experiments. But it is undoubtedly absurd to equivalate
a supra-realist art work with a cubist one, because in that case we would
admit that all their features are accidental, depending exclusively on
inspiration and on artistic experiment. In conclusion, there would be chaos,
since the essential features are no longer there.
(2)At rigor, if x ∈ cubism ≡ y ∈ surrealism, then x ≡ non-x.
If x ≡ non-x, then it is also non-y and non-z.
Note: The principle of identity is sacrificed, as everything would be
reduced to one, respectively to the absolute identity of x, neither y nor ∽ y,
neither z nor ∽ z, having a specificity.
(3)At rigor, if we admit that x ≡ y, then the statement:
“x is an art work established by the features imposed by the cubist
program”
is in a relation of identity with the statement:
“x is not an art work established by the exigencies of cubism”
Because:
x ≡ y, where y can be described by the statement
“y is an art work determined by the ideas of surrealism”
Note: The principle of identity is sacrificed here, because its truth
could not be distinguishable from its falsehood.
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Ontological interpretation of identity shows clearly that the logicallinguistic relation implies some extra-propositional features. If we have in
view a simple proposition of the form S is P, then the statement is merely
an interface between thinking and an object submitted to thinking. The
visible relation between S and P is copulative, syntactically analyzable, i.e.
P expresses what is said about S. But the syntactic relation triggers
implicitly two further formal identity-based relations between the objects
and their logical-linguistic images, as one of Quine’s thesis asserts.
Be the proposition of the form S is P:
(i) “The Wisdom of the Earth” was created by Brâncuşi in 1907.
What can we remark? S is the expression “The Wisdom of the Earth.”
A strictly syntactic approach tells us that Brâncuşi created this metaphoric
phrase in the year 1907. But Brâncuşi is not a poet, a molder of words, he is
a sculptor.
Consequently, the phrase “The Wisdom of the Earth” is a name, a
sign of an art work’s existence, of which we can say, “created by Brâncuşi
in 1907” – its extra-propositional extension. Călin Candiescu elucidates the
predicational mechanism with the help of a “predicational triangle.” From
this scheme we understand that “the predication is not a direct relation
between P and Sp, but an indirect one, mediated by S”.6
Legend: S = logico-grammatical subject
S
Rc
P
Rc
S
Rp
Rs
Rp
Sp
Rs
Sp
Sp = predicational subject (the real Subject)
Rp = predicational relation
6
Călin Candiescu, „O interpretare logico-semantică a predicaţiei, descripţiilor şi
numelor proprii”, in Probleme de logică, vol. IX, Editura Academiei, 1986, p. 27.
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Rc = copulative relation (internal, for the propositional context)
Rs = supposition relation.
The truth of proposition (i) derives from its relation of correspondence
with reality. If the description (predication) is appropriate for the object
described (i.e. it expresses reality), then the proposition is true; if it does not
express reality, then it is false. Fulfillment of the true or false
characteristics, however, depends on the supposition of existence. If the
relation of supposition is a void relation, then the proposition is absurd.
If proposition (i) is true, which would be the forms for false and
absurd?
Thus, be:
(ii) “The Wisdom of the Earth” was not created by Brâncuşi in 1907
(false).
(iii) “The Wisdom of the Earth” was the nickname of Zalmoxe
(absurd).
The falsehood of proposition (ii) results from the chronological
analysis of Brâncuşi’s work, while the specification “absurd” of statement
(iii) is triggered by the feature “imaginary” of Zalmoxis, i.e. the relation of
supposition is void.
In the case of art, we are dealing with concrete, empirically
perceptible, objects which can be submitted to hermeneutic exercise.
Identity, we already know, provides for order and the possibility of
thinking. But the kind of identity which provides for a unitary description –
as species or genre – of art works cannot eliminate the difference that exists
among them. If we admit that art has a specific existence, which has an
axiological dimension, then research implies by necessity an analysis of the
identity-difference relation.
1.2. The esthetic subject and the identity-difference relation
Thematizing the esthetic subject – in the forms of artist-creator and
receiver-interpreter, and allowing for concrete identification in living
individuals (e.g. Picasso and W. Biemel) – is a problematic issue. This is
clearly highlighted by an analysis of opposite cases:
(i) Confrontation with Aristotelic essentialism. It would seem that we
are implicitly contradicting the thesis that art object have certain essential
features on the basis of which we predict their identity.
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Note to (i): If we adopt the essentialist doctrine, we might end up in
the absurd. We come across the absurd if we eliminate from the research
the artist, as accidental in the act of creation, as no art work can be
described as self-generated.
And yet, existentialists can argument rhetorically: Is the author
present in the definition and classification of art works? No, he is not. No,
because, for example, in the class of cubist art works we encounter works
by Picasso, Braque, Juan Gris, etc. Reference to the author would induce
confusion, since Picasso also has works that belong to Dadaism, to
surrealism, etc.
(ii) Confrontation with the nihilism of Nietzsche’s postmodernist
followers. With his paradoxical radicalism, Michel Foucault asserts that
man “is a mere breach in the order of things,” an accident and “a simple
crease in our knowledge, that will disappear as soon as this knowledge
gains a new shape... .”7 Relativism turned into doctrine and legitimated by
the principle of difference excludes identity altogether, since it “decrees
Man’s death in the name of a man who is different.”8
Note to (ii): Approaching the issue from a postmodernist nihilist
perspective would also lead us to an absurd situation: it would result that
we must accept a world determined exclusively by distributive notions.
Since distributive notions have an ontological function, it would mean that
art works and their creators find themselves within a certain artistic trend by
mere adjoining position.
And yet, in the interpretation of the artistic phenomenon we operate
with collective terms. Are stylistic unity, or the inter-subjectivity that gives
cohesion to a culture, mere speculative constructions? No, they are not. No,
because every artist embraces the image of his age.
The ideas discussed here trigger the conclusion that the visible face of
the identity crisis is a crisis of reason. But can we abandon reason as a
theoretical principle? Of course not! Is there third possible way? If from a
problem-questioning of reality we exclude what Richard Rorty used to call
“wrong questions,” then we may discover the reasoning of hermeneutic
discourse. That is to say, we discover that “ontology (an expression of this
7
8
Michel Foucault, Cuvintele şi lucrurile, Editura Univers, București, 1996, p. 15.
Alain Finkielkraut, Înfrângerea gândirii, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 1991, p. 56.
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kind of problem-questioning) is accepted as a tacit dimension of the rational
discourse. In other words, as Gheorghe Clitan suggests, comprehension –
hermeneutic in character – established itself as a self-standing level of
discourse (together with description and explanation, but superordinated to
the other two)...”.9 The action of comprehending ontologically involves an
individual determined both distributively and collectively. By operating
with concepts and with linguistic or iconic signs, man builds up a logical or
a symbolic image.
Hermeneutics is a philosophy which has a pragmatic dimension and
an axiological dimension. The action that makes possible understanding in
a cultural-historical context is interpretation. Although pertaining to a
different debate context (i.e. that of the problem of truth in the ethical
discourse), one of Habermas’ remarks is perfectly applicable in this
context: “The moment we understand that history and culture represent the
sources of both a multitude of symbolic forms and of the singularity of
individual and collective identities, by this very fact we also become aware
of the content of the challenge represented by this epistemic plurality.”10
Universality presupposes that, in the framework of practical philosophy we
should admit that the relation One-multiple is a form of human
manifestation. A culture constituted historically represents the environment
in which the relation One-multiple camouflages itself within the relation
intersubjectivity-subjectivity. More concretely, individuals assume for
themselves a certain identity, putting to use their potentialities in relation
with the beliefs and ideals that configure the cultural paradigm.
The dialectics of identity and difference is not a speculation. It would
be a speculation if either identity or difference were reified, i.e. if it were
given the status of property.
Identity is involved in various constructive operations: defining an
object, joining classes into genres, intersecting and determining species, etc.
But this logical modeling applied to the domain of art is problematic. The
origin of this problem can be intuited in art’s existential condition, which is
9
Gheorghe Clitan, Pragmatică şi postmodernism, Editura Solness, Timişoara,
2002, p. 147.
10
Jürgen Habermas, Etica discursului şi problema adevărului, Editura Art,
Bucureşti, 2008, p. 17.
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not a given, but rather man’s creative work. Art presupposes a twofold
basic relation, i.e. creator – work, on the one hand, and art work – receiver,
on the other. This state of facts, or more precisely, a combination between a
work’s fact of creation and its fact of interpretation which makes the art
work actual, imposes an ontological exigency. The idea of this requirement
– asserts Cornel Hărănguş – presumes that ontology should “be directed, in
a ‘natural’ way, towards the world and towards the kind of colorful
existence that is in direct contact with our senses and in direct contact with
our reason.” Thus, ontology cannot stay exclusively on the logical level; “to
be able to judge identities of this kind of world or existence,” reference to
an “authentic actualism,”11 to a spatio-temporal world, is required.
A simple exercise can show clearly that the world of art is
ontologically describable in the spirit of the exigencies stated here. It is not
hard to understand that, between an oak tree and Constantin Brâncuşi’s
Prodigal Son made of the wood of an oak tree, there is an ontological
difference. The situation can be described as follows:
(i) The oak tree
(1) The oak is a tree.
(2) The oak tree belongs to the species of hardwood trees.
(3) Hardwood trees have broad and falling leaves.
(4) Etc. (Other propositions can be inserted here, describing the
species and genus of the tree).
(ii) Brâncuşi’s work “The Prodigal Son”
A. Propositions which describe the non-mediated relation
(1) The sculpture “The Prodigal Son” is carved in oak wood.
(2) The sculpture’s dimensions are x, y and z.
(3) The sculpture is exposed in collection A.
(4) Etc.
B Propositions which describe the mediated relation
(1) The name of the sculpture recalls a parable from the New
Testament.
(2) The theme of the biblical parable is universal in European art.
(3) Brâncuşi’s work “The Prodigal Son” incites to reflection.
11
Cornel Hărănguş, Eseu de ontologie descriptivă, Editura „Augusta”, Timişoara,
2002, p. 153.
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Consequently, those who watch the sculpture ask themselves:
(3.1.) What does this art work signify?
(3.2.) Who is it addressed to?
(3.3.) What does it tell me?
(3.4.) Etc. (The questions regard the context, the pretext and the
subtext “hidden” by Brâncuşi in his work, or “uncovered” by various
receivers, from specialists to simple art lovers).
The act of interpretation is the means by which the work of art
becomes actual and timely. The timeliness required by a hermeneutical
exercise does not refer to the object of “work of art,” but rather, the state in
which the receiver assesses the “truth” of the work’s message. This truth is
not axiologically neutral, because “hermeneutics credits what is consciously
interpreted.”12
Hermeneutics no longer discards the subject. Ever since Dilthey and
ending with our contemporaries, hermeneutics has taken upon itself the task
of accounting for philosophy and science, for history and man’s complex
life. This kind of undertaking looks very much like the historical obsession
for totality, manifested since Plato to the present day. Obviously, arguments
can be both pro and con. Counting on man’s weakness for assuming ideals,
hermeneutics stands under the sign of totality and “takes the form of
historicism and of multiple perspectives of interpretation and
exploitation.”13
As a sui-generis way of thinking (assumed via Heidegger, Gadamer,
Ricoeur, Vattimo and others), the hermeneutic exercise is, in fact and by
right, a hypostasis of the third form of philosophic thematization, i.e. of
communication. Since in its essence communication involves the human
community itself, then we can intuit its existential dimension. Hence –
Gadamer suggests – can derive philosophy’s mission. Sharing Heidegger’s
idea regarding the status of language, of the “soul’s den” and also of “man’s
home,” he argues – along a similar concept-metaphoric line – that art and
poetic creation are to be found in “one of the most comfortable rooms in
that house.” It is here that man gets together with himself and with the
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other. Art, poetic creation, requires that “one should listen to everything that
has something to say, and to act in such a way that one should be told
things. To remember this for oneself is one’s specific duty.” From the
perspective of hermeneutics, there is a principle which further specifies:
“To do so for everybody, and to do so convincingly – this is philosophy’s
mission.”14
Implicitly, Gadamer raises a problem here, namely that of art as a
means for a dialogue on the scale of history. This does not refer exclusively
to the function of the art work of mediator between the artist and the
knowledgeable receiver with; it also refers to the successful encounter
between the artist and himself, on the one hand, and of the receiver and
himself, on the other. From a hermeneutic perspective, the term interpreter
denotes here both the artist – who translates beauty into artistic language,
particularizing it in the form of an object (drawing, painting, sculpture,
etc.), and the receiver – who submits the art work to prospective
interrogation and to value judgements.
How can we equate the act of artistic creation with the hermeneutic
exercise? Can creation be perceived as technical execution, can a work’s
artistic space-image organization be viewed as the artist’s dialogue with
himself and the premise of his encounter with the other, the receiver, who
in his turn initiates a symmetrical dialogue? What are, from the perspective
of logico-ontological description, the properties of the relation between the
creator and the work of art, between the art work and the receiver? Etc.
In philosophic projection, the answer can be found in the dialogue
Hippias Maior, i.e. it finds its place somewhere between Socrates’ irony
and Hippias’ answers marked by severe logical errors. The exercise in
which Socrates engages makes Hippias identify beauty with a beautiful pot,
a beautiful horse, a beautiful maiden, etc. In rhetorical irony, Socrates
answers: “The most beautiful of pots is ugly compared to the maidens’
gathering, is that what wise Hippias would say?”; to which Hippias replies:
“Right you are, Socrates, that’s the correct answer.” Socrates then specifies,
“And being asked what beauty is (...) you replied, to quote your words, that
12
Aurel Codoban, Semn şi interpretare, Editura Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 2001, p. 76.
Alexandru Boboc, Hermeneutică şi ontologie, Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică,
13
239
14
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Elogiul teoriei. Moştenirea Europei, Polirom, Iaşi, 1999,
p. 218.
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it is something both beautiful and ugly at the same time, didn’t you?”15 But
the expression “something both beautiful and ugly” expresses a void
notion, of the type square-circle. Obviously, the dialogue highlights the
issue of the relation notion – denoted object. Hence the final specifications,
which relativizes the interrogation: “And if you don’t know what beauty is,
then how could you say whether a discourse, or some other thing of the
kind, is well made or not?” Referring to himself, Socrates concludes: “It
looks like I’m beginning to understand the meaning of the saying ‘beautiful
things are so difficult;.”16
The dialogue focuses on a search. By analogy, the theme of the search
is what defines the artist.
Attempt – failure – self-punishment, or attempt – success – illusion of
reward, are routes for whose analysis psychology is responsible. And yet,
this state of search generates an authentic philosophical problem, i.e. that of
the paradoxical relation One – multiple. In the strict limits of Aristotelic
logic, a particular statement of the form Some S are P is true only for part of
the individuals belonging to the subject-class targeted by the proposition.
Conversely, in his creative activity, the artist seems to adopt this kind of
logic. What can be done? If the artistic creation does not follow the
standards of formal logic, then shall we accept the act of creation as either
mystical (Plato), or as a pre-logical spiritual activity (Croce), as a
sublimated manifestation of instinctual repressions (Freud), or as a
simultaneously conscious and unconscious form of objectifying volition
(Schopenhauer)? If artistic creation is a hypostasis of freedom (Kant’s
theory of the genius), then can the definition still be operational? We seems
to end up with a subjective option which cannot be legitimated by the logic
of preference.
If we embrace Heidegger’s ideas, then we accept the existential
condition of art, in its function of historical capitalization. It seems that, in
the case of creation, the artist comes to understand himself via his work,
just like the hermeneutician comes to understand himself by prospectively
interrogating the art work. Shall we accredit the idea that art is
15
Platon, Hippias Maior, în Opere, vol. II, Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică,
Bucureşti, 1976, p. 81-82 (288a-289d).
16
Ibidem, p. 104 (304 d-e).
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hermeneutics sui generis, that it is ontology incognito? Can art be viewed
as a generator of existence and of values? I do not know whether these
questions have a definite answer or not, but at least their truth can be
assessed by analyzing the scheme of the four operations – perception,
mental representation, figurative representation and symbolization – i.e. the
scheme of the constitutive structure of the human world:17
Object x
Mental image of object x
Figurative image of object x (image
of the mental image of object x)
Symbolic image of object x
(conventional image of object x)
What results from this scheme? We find that:
1. In the infinite diversity of nature, object x exists only as individual
object;
2. The mental image of object x depends exclusively on the person
who perceives object x;
3. Object x figurative can be: a) an image dependent mainly on the
artist who draws, paints, etc. object x – which points to the artist’s freedom
of creation; and b) a typical image, dependent mainly on certain
philosophical, religious, moral, etc. ideals – which shows that the artist
acknowledges and adopts certain rules or canons;
4. Object x symbolized tends to irrevocably escape the realm of the
individual and, on the basis of certain rules, to represent the general, i.e. the
symbolic image tends to become a notion, or the name of object x;
5. Object x figurative and object x symbolized are independent of
object x, having become objects by themselves, i.e. cultural objects;
6. If rules are applied to figurative reality (class of figurative objects x,
sense 3b above), a synthesis with symbolic reality (class of objects x
symbolized) becomes possible. What results are models of object x, i.e. a
form of scientific creation by which object x is analyzed and understood;
17
Florea Lucaci, Creaţie şi fiinţare, Editura Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 2002, p. 222-223.
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7. Figurative reality and symbolic reality reveal truth by means of a
hermeneutic program;
8. Objective reality cannot be fundamented on the individual
existence of object x, but rather on its symbolic existence, an existence that
is, by logical acception, invariant and definite.
If we admit that the artist presents himself as absolute subject (a Godlike stance), then we must also allow for an absolute autonomy of the work
of art. But if we admit that art is a human phenomenon, then the artist is
doubled by the hermeneut and, as a result, the idea becomes legitimate of
an original historicity which concludes the cultural tradition, the style, the
ideal of experiencing a unique cultural event. In the perspective of a cultural
becoming, we find that the artist plays the part of the hermeneut, and that
the philosopher (the hermeneut) takes on the image of the artist. The idea is
wonderfully illustrated by Heideggerian philosophy. “The historicity of
human existence (Dasein, of the being who asks questions, or of the being
of existence) results from the moment’s uniqueness and, in its uniqueness,
this human existence (Dasein) forever takes upon itself the mission of
clarification of its own factuality,.”18
2. The hermeneutic perspective
The art work has a paradoxical existence. Paraphrasing Albert the
Great’s word of wisdom regarding the Bible, we can say: The art work
grows with those who create and interpret it. The growth of a work takes
the form of an accomplishment, and this process becomes intuitive and, at
the same time, explicit – if we have in view Hegel’s model of
understanding the Spirit’s adventure. Emile Bréhiér interprets the system of
Hegel’s philosophy as the expression of “a vast epic of the spirit, ‘an
experience,’ as Hegel himself puts it; in his effort to know itself, the spirit
produces successively all the forms of the real, first of all the frameworks of
its own thinking, then nature and history, since it is impossible to
understand any of these forms in isolation; they need to be considered in the
evolution or deployment in which they occur.”19 A model of the world, of
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the Spirit’s movement of generating the world, philosophy as a science
“appears as a circle closed in itself, to whose beginning – simple basis of
the process – mediation weaves its ending; at the same time, this circle is a
circle of circles.”20 Hence we can deduce that hermeneutics represents a
new beginning, a sublimated form of the idea’s becoming. What is going
on?
a. The first hermeneutic circle. In authentic Hegelian spirit,
Heidegger asserts that “The artist is the origin of the art work. The work of
art is the origin of the artist.”21 The two propositions describe a novel
hermeneutic circle, configured by the relation artist – work of art. The artist
can only attest his foundation function through his art, which is an
exemplary expression of freedom. Analogically, the artist’s condition is
shared by the genius, i.e. every creator assumes the freedom of “prescribing
rules for art”. The rules prescribed by the genius cannot be reduced to
logical formulae and operations. Since they are not determined or invariant,
the rules assert that the first characteristic of the genius is his originality, his
tireless capacity to renew his creative undertaking. And yet, although they
are unique and exemplary, the products the genius puts forth “serve to
others as models to be imitated, i.e. as standard or rule of assessment,”22 –
as Kant puts it. The genius can be captured only partially in the concept and
in the propositions of a scientific analysis, because he manifests himself as
an principle generator of existence.
b. The second hermeneutic circle. Art confers identity to the artist,
because in his case the civil status register is replaced by the art work. But
the work of art records neither births nor deaths, but rather a continuous
form of being. The artist’s existence is doubled in the specialist’s
interpretations, in the hermeneutic circuit art work – interpreter, which
gradually acquires historical dimensions.
Returning to Kant, we note a fundamental distinction, namely “a
conceptual separation between the creative freedom of the genius and the
evaluative assessment of fine arts as product of the genius, i.e. we are
20
18
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Heidegger și grecii, Biblioteca Apostrof, Cluj, 1999, p. 15.
19
Emile Bréhiér, Histoire de la philosophie, tome II/3, Le XIXe siecle. Periode des
systemes, Libraire Felix Alcan, Paris, 1932, p. 738-739.
243
G.W.F.Hegel, Ştiinţa logicii, Editura Academiei, Bucureşti, 1966, p. 843.
Martin Heidegger, Originea operie de artă, Editura Univers, Bucureşti, 1982, p. 31.
22
Immanuel Kant, Critica facultăţii de judecare, Editura Ştiinţifică şi
Enciclopedică, Bucureşti, 1981, p. 202-203.
21
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Fiction and arts
Fiction and arts
talking here of a category-pair in opposition: the productive faculty – the
evaluative faculty.”23 This distinction suggests that the relation artist – art
work presupposes inscription within a wider circle, generated by the
relation art work – interpreter. In this sense, the multitude of art critics and
historians acquire their identity from recognition of the art work as value,
and of the artist as creator who lays the foundations of art. But
interpretation is also a form of creation, as it acknowledges the work and
establishes its value by esthetic judgment. The fact that interpretation is
complementary to creation, that these acts presuppose each other, becomes
clear if we consider Heidegger’s syntagma. Thus, the term “origin” does
not designate a cause in the Aristotelic sense, although it obviously
expresses something that accounts for the genesis of the world of art. “The
origin of an art work’s essence is precisely what represents the object of
interrogation”24 – Walter Biemel notes. In other words, art provides its
determiners both via the artist’s genius, and via the skill and art of those
who interrogate the work, uncovering its esthetic, cognitive, spiritual etc.
significances.
Still on the level of the second circle, two directions are configured,
one with a pronounced theoretic character, which develops interrogations
along the relations art –human existence, art – beauty, art – theory of art,
etc., and another which punctually mediates the relation object of art –
public, emotional experience – critical attitude, etc.
The artist, the art theoretician and the art critic are the protagonists
who account for the way a world for man’s sake is constituted.
c. The third hermeneutic circle. Although art is autonomous,
representing the reality of a specific world, it comes into full existence only
to the measure in which it enters the world of the social and is assumed as
cultural-spiritual necessity. But beauty, in the form of artistic object, does
not related itself singly to the stable intersubjectivity that manifests itself in
a certain historical culture, but is also challenged by the variable
subjectivity of men.
This circle circumscribes real history, it is an existential circle,
irrespective of its mode of perception and representation. This is where we
encounter the elites, the snobs, the lovers of art, but also those whose taste
is satisfied by the multitude of objects known as kitsch. At this point, the
two circles may remain closed, or they may open up. This is where tradition
is conserved, while renewal can be accepted in the form of experiment or of
fashion.
Art and the artist, the language of theoreticians and of art critics, as
well as the art-loving public, represent what Hegel called the circle o
circles, i.e. they make up a dialectic system. The principles of identity and
of difference control the historical life of art, its relations with the manartist, the man-interpreter, the man-lover of art.
Application to the hermeneutic perspective
The idea was emphasized here that art is a specific form of creation,
i.e. “art’s existence cannot be reduced to the relation artist – work of art, but
presupposes a complexity of relations which engage the critics, historians,
estheticians, philosophers,” and of course, the art loving public. These
aspects can be suggested intuitively with the help of the scheme:25
1. Artists
2. Works of art and their historical establishment
3. Art critics, estheticians, philosophers
4. Human communities in their historical and geographical
determination
23
25
24
Florea Lucaci, Op. cit., p.142.
Walter Biemel, Heidegger, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti 1996, p. 106.
Artiştii
Opere şi
constituirea
lor istorică
Critici de artă,
esteticieni, filosofi
Comunităţi umane
în determinare istorică
şi geografică
If we ask ourselves the question How is art possible?, we note that the
answer inevitably requires a series of interrogations aimed at developing the
three circles described above, as well as questions regarding the set contextCălin Lucaci, Spaţiul-imagine. Ontologia spaţiului în arta plastică, Editura
Provopress, Cluj-Napoca, 2008, p14.
245
246
Fiction and arts
pretext-subtext. As exercise, I suggest that we should reflect upon a set of
Constantin Brâncuşi’s works, namely the series Birds.
The context. Briefly, the context is that of Paris, early 20th century.
Experimenting was an obsession, artists having seemingly adopted as
creative program a form of deconstruction of the idea of art. William
Fleming describes the artist of those times as an agent of defiance of the
notions of order and harmony established in the history of Europe for
thousands of years. Relinquishing its status of embodiment of beauty, art
becomes an expression of aggressiveness: “The painter makes his painting
look like a ‘slap in the eyes,’ the composer makes his music sound like an
‘outrage’ for the ears.”26
Brâncuşi, too, was experimenting, but for him abstraction meant
harmonizing the simplicity of Romanian folk art with certain ideas of the
vanguard regarding the search for the essence of things. His quest was
never controlled by some artistic formula, such as cubism, Dadaism,
futurism, suprematism, etc.
Obviously, the context has in view Brâncuşi’s land of origin in
Gorj, too. In plastic expression, the Magic Bird appears on rugs, in clay, on
the threshold of peasant houses – as it was believed that it could chase away
bad spirits.
The pretext. The pretext is the search for the archaic origins, for a
time described beautifully by Eminescu’s metaphor:
Ideal lost in the night of a world that is no more,
A world that thought in fairytales and spoke in poems.
In other words, artistic thematisation of the bird targets the universal,
the archetype. Under this theme, Brâncuşi produced 43 Birds, beginning
with the period 1908-1910; the theme of the magic birds seems to have
obsessed him.
Thus, the pretext can be summarized as a search for the world’s unity.
The subtext. What the series of Birds conceals in its subtext, i.e. the
sense given to it by the author’s de intention, is actually encoded in the
metaphoric names of the sculptures: The Magic One (Măiastra), Golden
Bird, Bird in Space, etc.
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Magic Bird is not just the title of several of Brâncuşi’s works; it is also
a character in Romanian folk tales. Analyzing a series of folk tales dealing
with the magic bird, Lazăr Şăineanu notes that it is a being which connects
“this land” to “the other land,” reveals truth, turns people young again,
cures blindness, etc. The motive is not exclusively Romanian, it can also be
encountered in the folklore of other nations. Thus, in the French Lorène
version, it is called the Bird of Truth; in the Florentine variant, it is the
Andilandi Bird – “a magical bird whose song outshines all music on Earth
and which has the gift of devining the past and the future and of reading
people’s souls; she can be found in the Land of Rising Sun, living in the
Fairies’ palace in the kingdom of dryads.”27 Romulus Vulcănescu describes
the Magic Bird as a being that never grows old, because “every 30 years it
bathes in the fountain of living water, which preserves youth without old
age.”28
Brâncuşi develops and continuously remodels the theme of the Magic
Bird, from the shape of a carafe in which living water is kept, to Bird in
Space, where the song of the Magic One turns into flight.
The Birds in Space have the mystical consistency of the world. Their
flight embodies a universe that existed at the world’s beginnings. Flight and
ascension stand for man’s ideal of physical and spiritual rise.
But the bird is also a universal cultural symbol, which explains why
the image of Brâncuşi’s Bird in Space was engraved upon the spaceship
Voyager who, wandering throughout the Galactic space, might be
intercepted by possible extraterrestrial civilizations.
From this simple exercise we may conclude that a work’s “reading”
and interpretation trigger a richer configuration in the direction of
experiencing truth.
3. The perspective of hermeneutic logic
Theoretically, there arises the issue of the validity of the statements
regarding art. Implicitly, a comparative analysis is required regarding the
esthetic judgment, or more precisely, the judgment applied in art. The
27
26
William Fleming, Arte şi idei, vol.2, Editura Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1983, p.277.
247
28
Lazăr Şăineanu, Basmele române, Editura Minerva, Bucureşti,1978, p. 277.
Romulus Vulcănescu, Mitologie română, Editura Academiei, Bucureşti, 1985, p. 538.
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“science” of the art critic differs, for example, form that of the physicist.
Concretely, we have in view:
(a) Constantin Prut defines Brâncuşi’s art, with relation to the series
“Birds”, in the following way: “Brâncuşi manages to cancel out
gravitational effects, dematerializing volumes by his prolonged
polishing.”29
(b) Isaac Newton defines the Law of Universal Attraction (gravity) as
follows: “Every point mass attracts every single other point mass by a force
pointing along the line intersecting both points. The force is directly
proportional to the product of the two masses and inversely proportional to
the square of the distance between the point masses.”30
Mathematically and graphically, Newton’s Law appears as:
What do we remark? Both statements have gravity as referential.
Proposition (b) is explicit, and the mathematical formula and graphical
scheme tautologically reiterate what is said in natural language. Conversely,
proposition (a) is not a definition, but rather a superb metaphor which
suggests the magic of Brâncuşi’s art. In this case, Constantin Prut’s
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definition is not controlled by scientific assessment tests, but rather by some
form of hermeneutic validation.
Reflecting upon proposition (a), we see that it needs to be analyzed
both in relation with the series Birds, and with myself as receiver of the
statement. In this case, the esthetic judgments follow a different logical
system than that of cognitive propositions.
3.1. The logical system of pragmatic and axiological propositions
Theoretical reasoning acquires explicit manifestation in cognitive
propositions, which assess the information in terms of its truth or falsehood.
Practical reasoning takes the form of pragmatic and axiological
propositions, which are assessed in terms of correctness or incorrectness,
and which have significances such as: admiration, emotion, satisfaction, joy
induced by some artistic representation, etc. The two types of propositions
abide by different logical systems. Pragmatic and axiological propositions
are conditioned by the context of expression and by the status of the
subjects involved in the act of communication. “The correctness of a
pragmatic proposition, Gheorghe Enescu argues, involves: a) a certain
logical position of the fact itself; b) a certain logical position of the sender;
c) a certain logical position of the receiver.” The phrase “logical position”
points to a conversion of exactness, suggested by the disjunction true –
false, into the possible, with regards to a state of facts, i.e. “the fact is
accomplishable,” the sender has reason to utter interrogations, imperatives,
etc., and the “receiver is able to respond.”31
Summing up the formal-symbolic structure of the two types of
propositions, we get:
(a) the cognitive proposition – F(x)
(b) the pragmatic proposition – (F(x))st
Let us illustrate this in natural language, using standard
formulations, either axiologically neutral ones (propositions a1 and a2), or
taken from Constantin Brâncuşi’s Aphorisms (propositions b1 and b2).
29
Constantin Prut, Dicţionar de artă modernă şi contemporană, Editura Univers
enciclopedic, Bucureşti, 2002, p.72.
30
Isaac Newton, Law of Universal Attraction,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_law_of_universal_gravitation, Aug. 19,
2010
249
31
Gheorghe Enescu, Fundamentele logice ale gândirii, Editura Ştiinţifică şi
Enciclopedică, Bucureşti, 1980, p. 201.
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Thus, we have:
(a1) Constantin Brâncuşi is the artist who put to value the archaic
motive of the bird.
(a2). Constantin Brâncuşi is the author of the series of 43 Birds
(b1). In all my life, the only thing I’ve been looking for is the essence
of flight. Flight – what bliss! (Constantin Brâncuşi)
(b2) Magical bird!... She struggles fiercely, like everything I’ve
accomplished to this day, to rise to the skies. (Constantin Brâncuşi)
To any knowledgeable person, propositions (a1) and (a2) are true, and
they convey information that is clear and verifiable.
Propositions (b1) and (b2) have metaforical structures, which generate
esthetic and spiritual significances. In (b1) we have the confession of a
lifetime’s search. The expression Flight – what bliss! Does not express an
extasy of a mystical type, but rather, it points to the spiritual overflow of
things well done. In (b2), Brâncuşi gives voice to the existential unity
between himself and the Magical One. In the genesis of the Birds series is
embodied the turmoil of the artist who gives life to his creation.
By applying the requirements of logical conditioning to the analysis
of any statement, or in this case, to any of the propositions (b1) or (b2), we
note:
(i) The sender’s logical position. In the case of Brâncuşi, we remark
that (b1) and (b2) are the artist’s reflections upon his own work. Although
they have a secondary character, they express in retrospect the intense
illumination and emotion of creation, the thorough joy of an idea’s
accomplishment in a work of art. The artist feels the need to meditate both
during the act of creation and after it, when the work has the final image of
a bird.
(ii) The logical position of the message. If we have in view thinking,
the metaphorical suggestions, the exclamations which express emotional
experience and admiration, i.e. elements which compose propositions (b1)
and (b2), then we note: 1) when thoughts and emotions are justified by a
finished work of art, then the content of the message is correct or true; 2)
the situation is confirmed in which the artist is the work’s origin, conferring
identity both upon himself and upon his work;
(iii) The receiver’s logical position. In the case of the person looking
at Brâncuşi’s Birds, we have two situations: 1) if he has prepared for the
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encounter, then on seeing the work of art, and on thinking about it, he will
experience a revelation as a member of the elite; in that case, propositions
(b1) and (b2) are credited as true; 2) if the requirements presupposed for (1)
are not fulfilled, then there occurs a false encounter with the art work, and
propositions (b1) and (b2) void of meaning.
3.2. On the relativism of esthetic judgment
In interpreting art there arises a problem, visible especially in the
relation object de art – art critic. The act of criticism takes the form of value
judgments formulated in relation with certain aspects and properties of the
object of art. These judgments make the passage from emotion
(experienced at the unmediated contact with the art object) to theoretical
reflection. The critic’s function is that of mediator between art and the wide
public, predisposed to exercises of admiration. To illustrate this, we may
quote Andrei Pleşu, who metaphorically defines the art critic as “janitor”
and “humble hero,” and in describing him he insists on the latter’s
judgments, which can bounce back from their target.32
Hence derives the need of discussing the so-called esthetic relativism.
It was already mentioned that pragmatic and axiological propositions are
different from purely theoretical ones, mainly by their lack of neutrality. It
results that the subject who utters those evaluative propositions on an art
object must also be taken into account. The art critic has the responsibility
of the object’s identity and, just like a judge and taking on the risk of being
wrong, he must make pronouncements, specifying whether a work is art or
non-art.
We admit the relativism of art judgments, as well as their necessity.
The complexity of the evaluative context implies certain presuppositions,
whose force is that of arguments. Namely:
a.) The art judgment, specified and formulated conceptually, cannot
be isolated or taken out of the context of the work’s evaluation. Why?
Because an art object pertains to an order conventionally accepted and
established by the tradition of a culture. Or, hence derives the problematic
character of producing definitions and, implicitly, of making predications in
32
Andrei Pleşu, Ochiul şi lucrurile, Editura Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1986, p. 97.
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an esthetic judgment. We can clarify this with the help of a simple
syllogistic exercise. Fie:
Art is an expression of beauty (by definition)
Symbolized: MP
Painting is a species of art (result of intersection) SM
Painting is an expression of beauty (conclusion deduced) SP
Although we have operated here along the lines of perfect
syllogism, we are contradicted by empirical evidence. For example,
Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Breugel, Francisco Goya, Honoré Daumier, etc.,
created value under the sign of the ugly. In their case, we perceive creation
as a paradox. Taking this aspect into consideration, Tudor Vianu argues:
“To embrace, by repulsion, an intellectual, esthetic or moral inferiority,
means to assert, by desire, the value of correlative superiority. Axiological
conscience moves thus in a bipolar universe and in a continuous circuit
within it.”33 Validating a historical practice in European art, Karl
Rozenkranz proposes an esthetic of the ugly and asserts the existence of a
negative beauty. The syntagm involves an annihilation of the contradiction
beautiful – ugly. Subtly, the ugly frees itself from its “hybrid and selfish
nature” and “becomes comical.” Then there occurs another transformation,
namely, the comical “frees itself again of its negative character.”34 This
relationing of beauty with the ugly in the form of the comic produces a
purging of the esthetic “hell” of the diabolic significations of the monstrous.
It results that the syllogism must be corrected taking into
consideration: 1) the evidence of the ugly established in valuable artistic
creations; 2) the thesis of convertibility of esthetic values into their
opposite. Namely:
Art is an expression of beauty.
Painting is a species of art
A painting is an expression of beauty, or it is an expression of the
ugly.
33
Tudor Vianu, Introducere în teoria valorilor, Editura Albatros, Bucureşti, 1987,
p. 55-56.
34
Karl Rozenkranz, O estetică a urâtului, Editura Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1984, p.
35-36.
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Fiction and arts
Do we have here a sophism? No, we do not. No, because painting
takes concrete shape in unique items. An art work of the species painting
has the consistency of a class, but it does not bear comparison, for example,
with the class of three-legged chairs. To the species of painting belong
Leonardo da Vinci’s works, in which “beauty” is an exemplary presence, as
well as those of Hieronymus Bosch, in which “the ugly” dominates.
Submitted to an esthetic judgment can be both the unique item, and those
unique items which have common features. The conclusion imposes itself
in Kantian spirit, namely, that value judgments cannot be detached and
isolated from the esthetic experience acquired in the cultural-historical
context. Consequently, the idea of relativity of esthetic judgments excludes
neither the empirical, nor the logical reference.
b) The esthetic judgment must not be confused with the judgment of
taste. The phrase de gustibus non est disputandum does not refer to a
skeptical attitude, but rather, to the experience of a well individualized
subject. We are dealing here with an emotional state which mimics a
conceptual purpose. Imagination and feelings fundament neither the notion
of art, nor that of beauty. If the same art work appears to the same person
sometimes beautiful and at other times ugly, we can say that we are dealing
with an experience based exclusively on the properties of the emotional
experience and of the perceptive capacity of the given individual. And since
this view changes on a case-to-case basis, then it is obvious that the
syntagm de gustibus non est disputandum does not express a value
judgment.
Esthetic judgment is not a determinative judgment, but its range “goes
beyond the limits of the particular,” in the sense that “the amount of esthetic
judgment is greater than that of the logical judgment of the same kind,
which can only be singular (of affirmation or negation of the property –
beauty, for example).” Universality, as a property of the judgment, is
replaced by “the generally human property of receptiveness to a certain
kind of stimuli.”35
A clarification: Identification of an esthetic judgment with a judgment
of taste is not allowed, although such equivalence is made in certain works.
35
Rodica Croitoru, Judecată între estetic şi metafizic, Editura Ştiintifică şi
Enciclopedică, Bucureşti, 1982, p. 29 – 30.
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Fiction and arts
The rvaluation judgment of a work of art must be submitted to hermeneutic
logic, i.e. interpretation does not dependent on the interpreter’s subjectivity,
but on the intersubjectivity constituted as cultural referential.
Works of art are intentional creations endowed with a dual structure,
i.e. they have a physical support that matches the “soul” intuited in the
subsidiary. With their specific features, indicates by the term soul, art works
surpass the status of objects. In the interpretation of an art work, its in re
existence is taken into consideration, as it represents the object of esthetic
evaluation, but what is important is its extra-physical and extra-psychic
existence, i.e. in mente and in voce. Artistic beauty este represents a value,
an esthetic value. But esthetic value is not confused with the work of art.
An object (painting, sculpture, engraving) becomes esthetical only when
receivers perceive it as belonging to the sphere of esthetic value. The same
object, for example, Brâncuşi’s Table of Silence, can, by an act of thinking,
be presented as belonging to the sphere of other values, e.g. of moral or
religious values, because esthetic, moral or religious values are spiritual
values and, at the same time, values-purpose on the level of human
existence
255
Aspects of the relationship between folk art
and fine art
Diana BOTA
Abstract: This article focuses on the relationship between folk art
and cultured art. The following questions naturally arise: a) To what extent
do artists get their inspiration from and reclaim folk art? b) Can Constantin
Brâncusi's example be shared by contemporary artists? c) Are personal
exhibitions relevant in turning to account the motifs and symbols of folk
art?
I think the answer is affirmative – a conclusion supported by the
inexhaustible character of art, whether folk or cultured.
Keywords: folk art, cultured art, symbol, Brâncuşi
1. Preliminaries
I’ve found that the tracked issue is generated by a certain historical
delay of the Romanian people. Sociological studies of the interwar period
have described the existence of some large rural areas that were
characterized by Traian Herseni as ethnographic societies or delayed ones.
To name them: Ţara Moţilor, Ţara Maramureşului, Ţara Oaşului etc. and
other regions of Oltenia and Moldova. This aspect of the historical delay is
also reflected as an echo in the second half of the twentieth century, when
industrialization has caused massive population displacements from the
rural areas. Farmers brought to town and turned into workers have lost
their identity but did not really become city dwellers. Evidence for this is
the arrangement of the household space and the establishment of various
ceremonies such as baptism and marriage.
In another order of ideas, it was stressed in the various theories of
romantic origin that it was the folk genius which would give a community
its identity. I consider here the studies of cultural morphology of the West
such as those of Leo Frobenius and Oswald Spengler. To some extent,
these studies have influenced the Romanian philosopher Lucian Blaga.
The idea of the genius of the people is understand today, obviously, as a
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metaphor to suggest that inner voice that guides the existential trajectory
of a nation. By semantic transfer, the genius can also be creative authority,
that particular skill of the artist to symbolically reconstruct the world. For
example, I’d like to consider the case of Constantin Brâncuşi. He was able
to explore the depths of the folk art to the extent that he met the universal
element that epitomized beauty. The reference of the archaic folk art for
Brâncuşi was not always properly understood in the West. In this respect,
Mircea Eliade writes: "Some people are trying to limit the artist to the
universe of values and forms of the Parisian avant-garde of the time;
while others are chaining him to the peasant and archaic environment
from where he emerged."1 Obviously, Brâncuşi’s creation cannot be
exclusively linked to the avant-garde environment or to the Romanian folk
art. His creations are clearly a form of radical transfiguration of themes
and symbolic motives of the folk art and the association of those to the
Parisian avant-garde ideas. For example, I want to point out that the
inspiration from folklore should not be assumed uncritically. The folklore
is just "a bridge to understanding the national constants.” Therefore - Ion
Vlasiu considers - "we cannot understand the Column, comparing it with
a porch pillar...." 2
The example of Brâncuşi's art clearly shows what the sublimation of
elements from the folk art in the fine art can mean. Of course, we can also
consider other examples, particularly in decorative arts and the art of
tapestry. Decorative arts have assumed a dominant function in the folk art,
namely the humanization of social and domestic space. As we see in the
works of various contemporary artists, decorative arts and the art of
tapestry create an environment that ensures the presence of beauty within
the human life. It is sufficient to refer to the works of Ileana TeodoriniDan, Ana Lupaş, Ariana Nicodim, Rodica Regep-Banciu etc. in order to
perceive the exemplary way of a modern recovery of some symbolic
structures from the folk art. I can say that Giuseppe Machiori was right
when talking about folk art being present in ”the elements still active in
Fiction and arts
the formation of an original artistic language." The same Machiori was
considering that ”in Romania, folk art can be the true source - even
subterranean and secret - of the modern art.” 3
In the art of tapestry we find the ancient, local background which
was capitalized and sublimated without ostentation in the well-known and
established works. Like the predominantly abstract nature of the various
motifs and ornaments of the folk art (spiral, diamond, circle etc.). I also
consider the lyrical nature suggested by the chromatics of the wall
hangings, wall rugs, wall carpets etc. I choose to repeat within the context
an appreciation of the art critic Constantin Prut about Rodica RegepBanciu: "A source of purity and originality that the artist finds, along with
other representatives of the genus, is identified in the careful reading of
the cultural heritage, in which Brâncuşi himself discovered a way to
innovate modern art; the effort of the generation which includes Rodica
Banciu meets the global search of the tapestry worldwide on the road to
”sculpture-likezation”, the acquisition of the third dimension
(Abakanovicz, Buic). In her case, the result is the development of a formal
system that preserves the experimental tension within the working
conditions of a decorative and symbolic alphabet.”4
By outstanding achievements in the last decades, decorative arts and
the art of tapestry deny the bias and prejudice on their character as minor
arts. Following my research I found that the Romanian artists have given a
new dimension to the decorative arts and especially to the art of tapestry. I
take into consideration the structural concepts and progress within the
techniques and the means of expression. Representative artists of the art of
tapestry have created works characterized by a wide diversity of visions.
Olga Buşneag saw an exemplary synthesis of folk art and the art of
tapestry visible in the transfiguration of the ancient ornaments and motifs
in the structures of fine art. In this sense she shows that "the contemporary
Romanian tapestry is evolving in a space loaded with memory, while
maintaining a direct and live contact with the folk art. The richness of
materials (wool - which remains the preferred, goat hair, hemp, cotton,
1
Mircea Eliade, Briser le toit de la maison. La créativité et ses symboles,
Gallimard Paris, 1986, apud Monica Spiridon, Să spargi acoperişul..., in România
literară, March 12, 1987, p. 21.
2
Ion Vlasiu, Cartea de toate zilele, Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1984, p. 206.
257
3
Giuseppe Machiori, Revista Arta, nr. 8, 1969.
Constantin Prut in Rodica Banciu, Tendinţe în arta textilă timişoreană, Artpress
Timişoara, 2009, p 5
4
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Fiction and arts
Manilla rope, raffia, silk, corn husk etc.) is added to the stylistic variety
and the techniques used (haute-lisse, Persian, patch-work etc.) from the
designs that fit into the context of tradition, which respect the need for
morality, but with a modern understanding, to those who reflected a
universal thought and feeling, a spatial awareness of a contemporary
artist while developing suggestions of ideas and that expressions that
<<the matrix>> contains - is a very broad scale." 5.
Art is an existential mode. Like other art forms, Romanian folk art
conveys spiritual values that are "values that originate from our general
human sympathies and interests, or even values that come from our
subconscious life." 6 The fantasy element was perhaps best capitalized in
the fine art. Regarding this matter I took into consideration the
observations of Constantin Prut, who considers that Romanian folk art is
not part of a closed culture, having provided a filter in the way of many
cultural pressures that were exerted in time. I refer here to the mythology
of the Orient, to the Biblical stories, to the elements of Western medieval
civilizations. In his book “Fantasticul în arta populară românească”
(“The Fantastic within the Romanian Folk Art” t.n.), Constantin Prut gives
many examples i.e. icons, iconostasis decorations, murals, and ceramic
pitchers and vases, shepherd sticks, ornamental discs. From the folk art the
fantastic passed into the fine art. Regarding this we can mention
Paciurea’s Chimeras or some of Brancusi's works.
I believe that art - whether popular or cultured - is an element of the
human world, contributing to the reality of this world. The term “reality”
has a certain ambiguity in art. Of course, the term does not actually refer to
how an artistic image resembles the image offered by the natural world.
When speaking of the relationship between art and reality we have to
consider both visual and emotional impact, given by the direct contact
with the work of art, but also its theoretical reflection. Only then can we
see the true reality of art, specifically how it transforms the human cultural
space. When we speak about art and reality, we inevitably must admit
relationship with beauty, as art allows us a certain sense of beauty and a
5
Olga Buşneag, Artă decorativă românească, Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1976, p. 910;
6
Herbert Read, Semnificaţia artei, Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1969, p. 45;
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Fiction and arts
specific experience. Art also causes us to think, to define it as object, as
value, as presence required in a human habitat. Beauty is therefore present
both emotional and thoughtful, so, in the human world, the work of artists
and architects becomes a necessity; namely of those dealing with the
living space, the public space, the sacred space etc.
2. Personal contributions
The questions concerning the relationship between the Romanian
folk art and the fine art can be traced in each of my own works. In these
works I used various techniques in which I have processed and have given
a different meaning to a series of signs and symbols. In particular, I’ve
started from the decorative arts, i.e. from carpets, stitches, carvings on
various architectural elements, from ceramics etc. I also tried to reclaim
the chromatics from the folk art.
I consider necessary to say that the relationship between volume and
color is analogous to the relationship between thought and spiritual
sensitivity. This relationship is the hidden stand in every work of art, both
in folk or fine form.
I should say that during my creative approach, materialized in the
exhibition „Semne şi semnificaţii plastice” ("Plastic Signs and Meanings"
t.n.), I had to consider not only the Romanian folk art but also the cultured
creation. In this sense I considered as reference all those works for which
the creators were inspired and harnessed - in a personal manner - themes,
motifs, symbols and decorative signs of the peasant creation. Here, in this
context I consider that my own works can be categorized as follows:
a) Textile collage – the works in which I merged different fabrics
such as linen, wool, etc. into a unified composition;
b) Print kerchief - the works of this type are made by what is called
headscarf technique;
c) Mixed technique - the works were initially made by hand, then
they were processed by the computer, then printed on textile backing, and
finally I intervened on the chromatics and various graphic details;
d) Digital art – the works in which drawing and color were made
exclusively by computer in Photoshop.
Certainly, the collage is not specific to Romanian folk art. I
deliberately used the collage to highlight the central idea of my research,
that I do not mimic or simulate the folk creation or the crafts. In my
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Fiction and arts
artwork Perspective arhaice (“Archaic Perspectives” t.n.), done in collage
technique I’ve used the spiral’s
motif.
Perspective arhaice, textile
collage, dim. 83 x 123 cm
Specifically,
for
the
creation of this composition I’ve
started from the spiral that
adorns the cuffs and chests of the
shirts of men and women in the
Hălmagiu – Vârfurile area. In
this ethnographic region this
kind of spiral is called the
snake’s motif. Beyond the
particular aspect, I want to
mention that the spiral is an archaic element found in nearly all world
cultures. The symbolism of the spiral is related to life, to the cyclical
nature of evolution, but also to the transient of becoming, of life. The
unfathomable age of this ornamental item entitles us to recover it also in
the current cultural context.
In my artwork I relied on a composition created out of rhythms and
forms which sometimes are repeated. So the idea of rhythm, repetition and
also opening strongly suggests that Perspective arhaice piece is not just a
collage of space, but one of time also. Past time is recovered and used in
the contemporary art context.
As another example, Compoziţie cu triunghi roşu (”Composition
with red triangle” t.n.) is a piece in mixed technique, which is thematically
focused on the symbolism of the triangle. This symbol has many
meanings, and in the same time has almost a universal feature, being
found in almost all world cultures.
For this artwork I was aiming for the idea of a complementary
harmony, achieved in a uniform composition. The triangle, in this case,
refers to the male-female unity, and the four triangles of the composition
seem to unite in a rhythm of hora (a traditional Romanian folk dance t.n.). The red color intensifies the idea of celebration and of a tribute to
life.
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Fiction and arts
Compoziţie cu triunghi
roşu, mixed technique, dim.
100 x 154 cm
Bibliography:
Mircea Eliade, Briser le toit de la maison. La créativité et ses symboles,
Gallimard Paris, 1986, apud Monica Spiridon, Să spargi acoperişul...,
in România literară, March 12, 1987
Ion Vlasiu, Cartea de toate zilele, Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1984
Giuseppe Machiori, Revista Arta, nr. 8, 1969.
Constantin Prut in Rodica Banciu, Tendinţe în arta textilă timişoreană,
Artpress Timişoara, 2009
Olga Buşneag, Artă decorativă românească, Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1976
Herbert Read, Semnificaţia artei, Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1969
262
Nicolae Chirilovici (1910-1993).
Biographical and artistic aspects
Onisim COLTA
Abstract: In this study the author proposes to relate the biographical
data with the artistic events and background circumstances that had a
decisive role in shaping Nicolae Chirilovici’s artistic pesonality.
The decisive role to structure the painter’s artistic personality was
played by the years of study spent in the Colony and Painting School of
Baia Mare, with its specific atmosphere and artistic climate, with the
contacts it facilitated among various artists and working styles.
An essential contribution in this respect was played by the painter’s
(indirect) contacts with the Western European vanguard, specifically with
the post-impressionism, the Fauvism and the expressionism, by mediation
of artists such as Ziffer Sándor or Czobel, Perolt Csaba, Körmendi Frim
Erwin, Mikola András or Tihany.
Keywords: artistic climate, working style, Western European
influences, stylistic options.
Paradoxical as it may seem, although Nicolae Chirilovici lived in
Arad until recently (1993), it is genuinely difficult to give even an
approximate account which can bring together a good number of details of
his life story. And this is primarily a consequence of the individual
character of this artist who, as Horia Medeleanu says in a commemorative
booklet, “was an extremely modest, withdrawn and silent man. He did not
enjoy talking either about himself or about others” (Medeleanu, 1994, ).
Not even the members of his family, his wife and his daughter Ghizela,
succeeded in fully unravelling this biographical thread. Nicolae steadfastly
refused to talk about the subject, thus thwarting all attempts to persist in
discussing the matter even on the part of his closest relatives. Regarding
the date and place of his birth he recounted laconically: “I was born on 8th
July 1910 in a place which must have meant nothing to me, since I no
longer have any memory of it” (Medeleanu, 1994, 2). It was in fact
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Ujgorod in sub-Carpathian Ukraine, where his father and mother obtained
jobs after taking a course to train as postal workers – a place similar to
many others dotted throughout the vast expanse of the then AustroHungarian Empire.
His mother, Ana Pausits, had spent two years at the School of Fine
Arts in Budapest before her marriage to Mihai Chirilovici, the artist’s
father. We can infer from this where Nicolae’s exceptional talent came
from.
Historical developments caused the artist’s family to settle in
Şepreuş, Arad county, after the union of Transylvania with Romania in
1918. The political situation brought about by the event of the Great
Union and by Béla Kún’s 1919 bolshevik revolution in Hungary meant
that the artist’s mother and her three children (among them the future
artist) had to remain with their relations in Penc until 1921 when the
family was reunited by their repatriation to Şepreuş, in Arad county,
where the artist’s father, Mihai Chirilovici, had succeeded by competitive
examination in obtaining a government position as chief tax cashier. As a
result, the first few years of Nicolae Chirilovici’s schooling took place in a
Hungarian-medium school in Pencs, after which he continued his
education in a Romanian-medium school in Şepreuş.
At the age of 17, probably with his mother’s encouragement but
above all from his own determination to unlock the mysteries of painting,
he was to be found in the company of Frederich Balla, one of the local
artists, who through his works (together with Wolf Károly Pâncota and
Havas Béla, both originally from Pâncota, Arad) was giving shape to the
artistic climate of the region, which developed “according to the patterns
of the classically conventional painting of Munich and Budapest, in the
spirit of which almost all our older artists received their training”
(Medeleanu. 1994. 3).
Nicolae Chirilovici certainly assimilated Balla’s teaching, but this
did not have a decisive influence on him. Its main effect was to give him
the foundations of good draughtsmanship.
The two works of his that survive from this period are a small
landscape in oils showing thatched country houses in shades of ochre and
burnt ochre, and a self-portrait of the artist standing before his easel. They
reveal that he had a good mastery of realism, but we by no means see the
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Fiction and arts
repristinisation of fine-art techniques that was to follow his Baia Mare
period.
In 1927 (it becomes clearer and clearer that Nicolae Chirilovici was
being guided by Providence towards an authentic artistic future) he came
into contact with the painter, sculptor and graphic artist Marcel Olinescu,
who opened a school and workshop on the upper floor of the Commercial
High School in Arad. His first pupil was Peter Feier, who, as a friend and
later a relative by marriage of Nicolae, persuaded him to enrol in this
school as well. This was a great opportunity for him, since Marcel
Olinescu was “a complex artist, trained under the great masters of the
Bucharest School of Belles-Arts (...)” ( Medeleanu.1994. 4). The unity of
spirit that instantly sprang up between the two apprentices and Olinescu
saved them from the Academy-style atmosphere that dominated the
accepted art of that period.
The emphases and advances of Impressionism and especially of
Post-Impressionism that the young art teacher had brought with him from
the capital were assimilated by his two pupils with the receptivity so
characteristic of youth. One must remember that Marcel Olinescu had
been one of the 54 plein-air artists who were at Baia Mare in 1920.
A certificate issued on 14th April 1955 and signed by the master
Andrei Mikola tells us that Nicolae Chirilovici “attended courses regularly
in the years 1928-1931 as a pupil at the Baia Mare School of Belles-Arts
and displayed exceptional ability in fine art”.
For Chirilovici (as also for Feier) this uninterrupted period of three
years (1928-1931) spent at Baia Mare was decisive in determining the
fundamental lines of his artistic career. His attendance there (unofficial at
first) is confirmed in Réti István’s official lists (in his book A Nagybányai
Müvésztelep) only for 1931. In 1932 he was there alongside Peter Feier of
Arad.
Chirilovici’s boldness and his burning desire to become “a painter
artist”, as he liked to say with a certain pride, overcame all the obstacles
that appeared in his way, beginning with the open hostility of his father
towards such a life choice and his refusal to pay for him to study art, and
continuing with the privations that life was to bring him during a difficult
period of history.
Thus, at the age of 18, Nicolae was at Baia Mare, after the painting
school there had been through a number of stages. It had had the status of
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Fiction and arts
a temporary painting colony (1896-1901) started by Hollosy Simon, then
of a Free Academy (school) of painting (1902-1911), and finally, with the
founding of the Society of Painters of Baia Mare (N.F.T), (1911-1935),
“the initial order of values was established” (Boros Judith). Here we are
dealing with a return, after repeated conflicts between the “neo-ists”
(neomoderns) who had come from Paris and Munich “infected” with
avant-garde ideas and appetites regarding form, and the traditionalist
leaders (Krizsán and Thorma) who were staunch upholders of maintaining
the plein-air character of the school. Thus 1911 also saw the exodus of the
Grünwald group to Kecskemét.
Within this school we can identify a number of factors which had a
decisive influence on the vision that was to manifest itself later and over
time in Nicolae Chirilovici’s painting. Among these it is appropriate to
make especial mention of the group of painters who came to Baia Mare
after having direct contact with the French or German avant-garde. Of
these, Ziffer was to prove to be the closest to the spirit of the young man
from Arad, and we will therefore dwell on him at somewhat greater
length.
It was in the spring of 1906 that Sándor Ziffer (1880-1962) and Béla
Czobel (1883-1977) arrived at Baia Mare. The latter brought with him a
series of works painted in Paris which “provoked a certain degree of stir in
the colony” (Medeleanu.1994.) Czobel was joined by Körmendi Frim
Erwin, Perlott Csaba, Bornemisza Géza, Boromisza Tibor, Mikola András
and Tihanyi as well as Ziffer.
As a parenthesis, after 1906, when Ziffer left for Paris, he had the
opportunity to see the Gauguin retrospective exhibition and the Matisse
exhibition. It was then, on the initiative of Perlott Csaba and others, that
Matisse’s private school was opened there.
In the same year, 1906, Ziffer submitted a self-portrait to the
Independents’ Salon, and Matisse “valued the work highly and gave it a
special place among the five thousand five hundred paintings” (Borghida
1980. 90). “In this self-portrait Ziffer summed up all he had experienced
over a whole summer at Baia Mare and what he had assimilated during his
stay in Paris. The body and the background are defined by large patches of
colour. He omits details and emphasis on the third dimension (...). The
surface of the face is achieved almost in (geometrical) planes, and scarcely
perceptible variations of warm and cold reflexes are concealed in its
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Fiction and arts
colours. This work marks a turning-point in Ziffer’s artistic development”
(Borghida. 1980.22).
In 1907 Ziffer encountered another large-scale exhibition, this one at
the National Salon in Budapest, with works by Gauguin, Van Gogh,
Cézanne, Monet, Seurat, Matisse and Signac.
The influence of these exhibitions on his vision made itself felt
without delay. It was to Ziffer that Lucian Blaga was referring in his
aphorism “God has given Gauguin a second birth at Baia Mare”. He was
talking about the use made of flat coloration and the juxtaposition of
patches of unblended colour on the screen formed by the canvas that
characterise Gauguin’s work after his time in Tahiti. Assuredly, with
agreements and contrasts that are less calm than those of Gauguin.
It would be somewhat of an exaggeration, yet in the right direction,
for us to say of what took place two decades later, after Chirilovici came
home, that God was giving Ziffer a second birth at Arad. But of course the
truth contains far more nuances.
From 1910 onwards, when he married the painter Kathe Beckhaus,
Ziffer’s contacts with the German art scene increased “to such an extent
that in 1913 he tried to open a painting school of his own in Munich”
(Boros .1992.132).
In the meantime he had made a longer stay in Paris (1910-11) and
had exhibited at the Independents’ Salon. Ziffer called this stage of his
painting career “decorative Impressionism, referring to its obvious links
with Nabi-style [our note] Post-Impressionism. Up until this point,
different influences had dissolved themselves in his art, but now what he
had learned from Hollosy, Gauguin and Matisse became his own, and it
was now that he reached the point at which he could learn from Cézanne
(...). He assumed his inclination towards the decorative, his passionate
temperament, and knew how to express all this while not forgetting the
subject (the thematic) of the picture. He worked freely, joyfully and yet in a
disciplined way” [italics our] (Boros .1992.132.)
But “after his encounter with German Expressionism, his work, for
example Still Life (1910), can be unusually impersonal. It is a classically
balanced composition which could be bounded by a triangle, a clear
indication of the influence of Cézanne (...) As a result of the strong patches
of colour, the atmosphere of the painting is dramatic, but this is not the
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Fiction and arts
passionate, sensual drama (...) of Expressionism but a disciplined,
rational, ontological drama (Boros .1992.132.).
We are allotting additional space to these points connected with the
development of the artistic climate of Baia Mare for the reason that this –
in its most fundamental aspects – had a determining influence on Nicolae
Chirilovici’s artistic vision (and on that of Peter Feier).
To return to Ziffer. In 1913 he spent a somewhat longer period of
time in Munich, where he exhibited “successfully” ‘at the Secession’.
Somogyi Miklós wrote in the Műveszet journal (Somogyi 1914): “In terms
of skilful use of colour, Ziffer Sándor is the most impressive artist in the
whole exhibition. Only in his works, among pictures painted in a different
temper, can we see how much strength there is in colours, and besides this,
how much delicacy, how simple the drawing is, and in spite of this how
intelligible the forms are”.
Because of the outbreak of the (First World) War, Ziffer and his wife
were unable to leave Germany. In 1915 Ziffer made a desperate plea for
(financial) help from Budapest.
The Baia Mare Artistic Centre Art Museum still has two works
dating from this period: Berlin Station and Baia Mare Landscape (1916),
probably painted from memory. Before his return to Baia Mare he
mounted two personal exhibitions in Berlin, at the Cassirer and Casper
Galleries. Judith Boros, in Ziffer Sándor (1880-1962), emphasises the fact
that “His encounter with Expressionism transformed Ziffer’s art. It was
then that his talent found its most congenial channel, which it was only to
depart from (to a certain extent) in his old age. The Ziffer whom we are
accustomed to remember as a Baia Mare painter was born in those years.
The Expressionism of the ‘Die Brücke’ and ‘Blau Reiter’ groups, the
rhythm and colours of Franz Marc and August Macke, those nuances
(tones) of interpenetrating blue, define all his later painting”.
Let us not forget that in 1911 the catalogue of the Berlin ‘New
Secession’ exhibition was circulating in Germany. Here we can find
epitomised the ideas of the ‘Die Brücke’ group. To quote a few lines:
“Planes of colour do not do away with the fundamental lines of the
coloured objects but rather create a new function, which is neither to
represent nor to give form but rather to delineate emotional expression in
order to indicate and pin down figurative life on a surface.” ( ‘New
Secession’ exhibition, 1911.)
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Likewise, we find the following statement by Franz Marc in an
article that appeared in the March 7th 1912 issue of the journal Pan:
“Today we are seeking – beyond the veil of external appearances – hidden
things that seem to us to be more important than the discoveries of the
Impressionists (...). Nature shines through in our paintings, as she does in
all art forms. Nature is everywhere, within us and outside us; there is only
one thing that is not entirely in Nature, but rather (in) the mastering and
interpretation of Nature: art.Art has always and in its ultimate essence
been the activity of boldly separating Nature from ‘naturalness’. It is what
links us with the world of the spirit.” (quoted by Jean Casson, An
Overview of the Fine Arts Today, Meridiane, Bucharest, 1971, p.35) And
August Macke said on 12th February 1914: “Our finest aim is to find the
spatial energies of colour instead of being satisfied with lifeless
chiaroscuro” (Seuphor, 1949).
It is certain that avant-garde ideas such as these “infected” Ziffer too
and that he then brought them to Baia Mare and transmitted them to the
atmosphere of the place and to his friends and pupils, among them Nicolae
Chirilovici.
We learn that “at the beginning of the thirties he agreed to teach
some young men who had been excluded from the school on account of
left-wing ideas”, i.e. Szolnany Sándor, Pittner Oliver, Mohi Sándor, Incze
János and even the sculptor Vida Géza.
We find, without a shadow of doubt, that the central strength of Baia
Mare in painting, to which Nicolae Chirilovici was most evidently
receptive, was the expression of a happy union between two great Western
European conceptions regarding painting: that of the French/Parisian
school (Post-Impressionism, Cézanne, Nabism, Fauvism) and that of the
German/Munich and Berlin school, strongly influenced by Expressionism.
To be sure, Réti accepts these facts, but he does so somewhat halfheartedly, up to a point, discreetly minimising the contribution made by
the “new-ists” (even this term he invents for the “angry young men” has a
pejorative connotation) to the enrichment, refreshing and reinvigoration of
the means of expression in the artistic climate of Baia Mare.
He says that “The artists of Baia Mare acquainted themselves from
the beginning with schools in other countries, with Paris and Munich, and
there, with the instinct of first youth, they felt what was bubbling in the
cauldron of living art, and the spirit of the age began to work like yeast
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within them. They returned home to Baia Mare group by group with
sincere belief and with a burning but uncertain desire to do that
“something” which had inspired them abroad” (Réti ,1994).
Let us not forget that Nicolae Chirilovici came to Baia Mare after
this harmonisation between the two great conceptions had been achieved,
when Ziffer was at his zenith and when one of the acknowledged masters
of European expressionism, Matiss Teutsch, had already come to the
colony (as he did in 1928 and in the three succeeding years). Chirilovici’s
works of this period are so bold in their formal and chromatic approach
that they could hang on the walls of any museum of modern art in the
world alongside those of Franz Marc or Macke. Painting convention is
much more strongly emphasised in its autonomy as an expressive
language. One landscape with trees from this period has an unusual plastic
strength and emanates a mystical, even elemental air.
Sadly, we have little information about Nicolae Chirilovici in the
years immediately following his return from Baia Mare. We do know that
he made his artistic debut in Arad in 1932, with his friend Peter Feier and
Margareta Lasker, on the occasion of an exhibition at the Palace of
Culture.
Then, in April 1937, Teodor T. Ţiucra, writing in the Arad journal
Hotarul, contributed an art chronicle (in fact one of a series that had begun
in the sixth issue, in 1936) about an exhibition that included works by the
young Nicolae Chirilovici, some six years after his return from Baia Mare.
At that time the artist was signing his works N. Chiriloviciu. The
exhibition also included works by Marcel Olinescu, Silviu Costin, F.
Păcăţianu, Ştefan Soós, Iulian Toader, Andrei Virányi and Petru Feier.
Ţiucra drew attention to the fact that “The canvases of Peter Feier,
Nicolae Chiriloviciu and Andrei Virányi reflect developments that are
taking place in contemporary art. Their spontaneous youthful sincerity,
extraordinary simplicity and lifelike drawing place them among the most
intense of the moderns” (Réti ,1994 .24).
Writing of Chirilovici’s drawing, the author of the chronicle says that
it “is penetrating and expressive (...). Chiriloviciu’s depiction of social
settings shows very penetrating handling”. Whereas previously the artist
had exhibited “canvases whose execution would rather have placed him
among the classics [probably before Baia Mare – our note], the artistic
influence of his friend Feier has set him on a new road and brought
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freedom to his art, of whose originality I am now convinced. Today he has
come into full possession of this new trend in art (...). We find here a new
aesthetic born of the combination of lines, among which forms are not
mentioned except through an extremely subtle tonality” (Réti , 1994. 25)
In 1939 the Arad painter Iulian Toader made a brief written
statement to the effect that Nicolae Chirilovici had worked with him on
the Orthodox churches “of Sebiş, Vărşand and Ilteu, carrying out
decorative and mural painting”.
In 1941 Chirilovici was sent to the front, but before this he married
Ghizela Elena Rostas, who was to be at his side for the remainder of his
life and with whom he would have a daughter, Ghizela, who became a
musician.
This marriage also led to Nicolae Chirilovici settling permanently in
Arad. (Since 1928 he had been living in rented accommodation.) He was
always active in Arad art circles and was one of the founder members of
the local branch of the Romanian Union of Fine Artists. His membership
of this dated from 1st January 1951.
It was in the years 1943-44 that the way Nicolae Chirilovici was
executing his paintings came closest to that characteristic of the “Blaue
Reiter” group, both at the drawing level and in terms of use of colour.
But what was happening here was not merely the slavish borrowing
of a ready-made formula but rather a successful blending of the execution
of the painted image in a Fauvist manner, in the style of Matisse, for
example, and the German, Expressionist approach that recalls Franz Marc.
While for the latter horses were a favourite subject, because through their
lines, colours and the shapes of their bodies they express energies that are
latent or in the course of being manifested, for Nicolae Chirilovici it is the
trunks of trees that occupy this position – because of their vigorous
outline, because of the curves or counter-curves that they or their branches
have, because of the sturdiness of their shapes and the purely pictorial
animation of their chromatics. Trees, in spite of their connection with the
earth, become the vehicle of energies that multiply their vectors on the
vertical axis; their boughs are like the powerful arms of figures which
spring up from the “flesh” of the earth in order to force their way up, as if
in a vitalist dance, towards the blue sky. They cross the successive stages
of the painting/landscape: stone dykes, green or reddish meadows, tracks
and fences, rows of red roofs and distant blue hills.
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Chirilovici’s inner power converts a fact of nature into an active
fact/truth of painting. His former points of reference – trees, houses, hills
etc. – become the elements/letters of an autonomous artistic language, line,
patch of colour, geometrical figure, articulated on the basis of laws of his
own.
Nicolae Chirilovici’s mastery of drawing and of the use of colour
gave him the freedom to express himself in a direct and striking way. The
fundamental organisational principle of his paintings is contrast: between
warm and cold and/or between complementary qualities. A tree trunk is
brick red, almost orange, in the light but blue or violet in the shade. To this
may be added the greenish reflections that come from grass when the sun
is on it, or the light blue ones that mirror the azure of the sky.
There is a striking community of spirit here – the extent to which
Nicolae Chirilovici’s way of treating his subject, trees, resonates with
Franz Marc’s way of painting horses. The art critic Constantin Prut writes
of the painting of the great German Expressionist: “There is a certain
tension in his paintings – the horses are represented in motion, their shapes
are enclosed within curves, like springs with potential energy – an
agitation that invigorates the landscape as well, but the dominant
impression remains that of a space of innocence – a romantic return to the
charm of simple things” (Prut, 1992. 313-314).
Something similar might be said of Chirilovici’s painting during the
1940s. His assimilation of Cubist teaching is implicit in the way he
structures his images and geometrising planes that juxtapose areas of
almost unmixed colour – a sure sign that he was au courant with advances
in art made by the avant-garde in the West. It was the good hand of Fate
that had sent young Nicolae to study in Baia Mare precisely in the years
1928-31, the period in which one of the artists who came to paint there
was Matiss Teutsch. Teutsch’s boldness in the area of artistic expression
and the new German avant-garde ideas he brought with him had a
beneficial impact on Chirilovici’s vision of painting. It is clear that the
paintings he produced between his stay in Baia Mare and the year of the
“great liberation” are his boldest, the ones closest to what has come down
to us as most significant from the Fauvist and Expressionist periods of
avant-garde art in Europe.
Chirilovici’s works of the ’Fifties still have a surprising amount of
this boldness, but two important factors were to intervene – factors that
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cannot be ignored when we are considering how his approach developed.
The first was the institution of censorship that came with the ideology that
arrived from the East, along with Soviet commissars, and the second was
Nicolae’s adoption of freelance status. Two powerful factors that crushed
other young artists. Their only effect on Chirilovici was to cause him to
tone down his style a little.
The degree of independence we see in his artistic language becomes
less radical, but it is still surprisingly powerful in its expression, when we
consider how difficult a period the 1950s were for art. Thus he needed to
look for employment that would guarantee him a more or less regular
income in order to safeguard his creative work from concessions to public
taste.
In his work dating from 1960 to 1965 we may observe new
emphases in his manner of configuring the image. He makes use of
valencies of two-dimensionality, using a deliberate device of foldingdown, as, for example, a panel or leaf of a table bearing objects on it, thus
putting aside European rules and conventions regarding linear perspective
and adopting the flattening of the image of objects that belongs to the
Oriental style of painting. This rediscovery was frequently employed in
Romanian art of that period by artists ranging from Dimitrie Ghiaţa to
Paul Sima; Arad artists who used it were Nicolae Bicfalvi, Sever Frenţiu
and Eva Györffy.
Between 7th and 22nd July 1975 (of which four days were spent in the
surroundings of Baia Mare and Baia Sprie), nostalgia for that blessed
region in the north, in Baia Mare, where he had served his apprenticeship
in 1928-31, resurfaced and made him resolve to look a few more times at
the hills and houses of Baia Sprie and Mine Hill and the streets of Baia
Mare with their rows of low miners’ dwellings, with their chromatic
contrasts, their accentuated light and shade, that called to mind Ziffer,
Balla Jozsef and Nagy Oszkár.
From that visit we have, for example, House in Baia Sprie, Street in
Baia Mare and Mine Hill, Baia Sprie. The blue-painted houses found both
in the region of Maramureş and in Oaşu serve as excellent pretexts and
challenges for the orchestration of the play of warm-cold contrasts that
Chirilovici employs when building up a picture.
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The great and complex lesson of Baia Mare had been assimilated
through every pore of his artist’s soul. His youthful energy, matched by
his thirst to be fully included within the ranks of those artists who
benefited from the new breath of air brought by advances in the language
of painting that had been made in Paris, Munich, Berlin, Budapest and
also Bucharest, were determining factors.
But all these impulses, gains in knowledge, formal advances and
new attitudes were passed through a personal filter generated by a set of
propensities that belonged to a unique inner structure. When we look at a
post-Baia Mare Chirilovici painting, we see that on the one hand it
receives its structure from vigorous drawing, through strong brushwork (in
Prussian Blue or cobalt, in general, but also sometimes in warmer shades
of English red) which organises the component elements in terms of
composition – leafy trees or houses, roads, hayricks, hills,
threads/mirrorlike pools of water, footbridges or bridges etc. – but at the
same time, within these “quasi-Cartesian” limits, the free but energetic
movement of the brush joyfully and with vitality scatters fresh colours, in
vibrant Indian inks, complementary chromatic juxtapositions, now using
paint in its pure state, now with a measure of combination. Colour
perspective “outdoes” linear perspective in importance. There is a strong
tendency for the painted space to be reduced to two dimensions.
Pierre Francastel once said of the Impressionist formula in painting
that it was not merely “an isolated episode in the history of European art,
but the expression of a type of vision and a language with a validity of its
own, as in the case of any stylistic discovery. This type of language (...)
may be used at any time, without risk of anachronism” (Pleşu, 1986.140).
We have a fine example of this in the Romanian group Prolog in
which widely-known artists such as Paul Gherasim, Constantin Flondor,
Horia Bernea, Vasile Varga and Horia Paştina and also younger ones such
as George Mircea, Sorin Neamţu and Andrei Rosetti make use of this
stylistic formula, but rather than standing on its own it becomes the
vehicle, the material basis for a spiritual charge. When the artist stands in
front of a corner of nature he does not confine himself to portraying the
physical character of the chromatic dynamic; rather, this is converted into
the action of bearing witness to a belief, through an act of painting whose
motivation runs deep. What interests these artists is not novelty of form in
itself but its capacity to mediate the expression of a delight that is charged
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with the thrill of becoming conscious of the existence of a presence that
has to do with ultimate reality, beyond the outer crust/shell of things and
the flickering of the moment.
Something similar happens in the case of Nicolae Chirilovici, with
the difference that here the artistic formula does not have the same
emphases. But for him too the formula is not an end in itself but a “type of
vision and a language with a validity of its own, as in the case of any
stylistic discovery” that can be used at any time without fear of its being
passé and outmoded.
This happy meeting between the way an artist’s manner of
conceiving of forms was constructed and a particular way of articulating
the elements of the image in painting, such as that assimilated and
appropriated by Chirilovici at Baia Mare, led to the birth of a profoundly
personal oeuvre, with its own emotional and stylistic overtones that
defined it and remained with it through the course of many decades.
However, this “thread”, this stylistic constant in Chirilovici, took on
distinct emphases that gave it particularity – now preponderantly PostImpressionist or Fauvist ones along the lines of the Paris school, and now
Expressionist ones in line with the formal advances introduced by the
Berlin or Munich avant-garde. It is ultimately a matter of which of the two
components of the synthetic Baia Mare vision had the greater influence on
him at any one time.
These variations in emphasis, in the tipping of the scales, sometimes
towards underlining impression, at other times towards expression, came
about as a consequence of the artist’s inner state on the day or at the time
when he began this or that landscape, still life or even portrait.
This explains why some of his landscapes from the ’Fifties have
something of the inner loneliness/isolation of Hopper’s pictures in their
manner of configuration, of the synthesis of form and of their chromatic
vibration, while others, from the ’Sixties, possess a vibrancy and a
multidirectional verve in the brushwork that stimulate the gaze.
It is a commonplace that an authentic act of artistic creation is an
elevated way of projecting your wealth of spirit, your delight in living
before the universe, on to a canvas, through lines and/or areas of colour.
Nicolae Chirilovici expresses his inner states by constructing a picture,
structuring it in terms of doses of impression and expression in proportions
that can vary but are fixed by the inner needs of the moment. Here we may
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observe a resemblance to Kandinsky’s “inner necessity”, of course
without making a complete break with a referent as he does.
“A painting” – as René Huyghe would say – “is a creation modelled
by the artist, it is a work. It brings into play our sensibilities, our intellect
and our practical abilities, which are conscious of the effort they are
making, by synthesising them and retaining their essence. But however
much solidarity it has with us, it detaches itself from us; from now on it is
fixed in an independent appearance, immutable and offered to the rest of
humanity” ( Huyghe, 1981, .374).
A picture takes on a scale of values. It “bears the indelible seal of the
end we have assigned to it; that which man conceives after he has passed
beyond the stage of being Homo faber in order to attain to that of Homo
esteticus.”
From now on it answers to a need for beauty and “justifies, line by
line, the different ways in which the act of its making has been attempted”:
the psychological point of view, to the extent to which it is an image, the
formal and artistic one to the extent to which it is a work, and inevitably
the aesthetic one to the extent to which we are speaking about the quest for
the beautiful. Only through synthesising these will we be able to arrive at
an all-encompassing understanding of its being.
The same great writer on the theory of art likens a picture to a kind of
“strange plant (...) which draws the nourishment it needs from two distinct
areas, separated, let us say, by a wall that cannot be climbed; nevertheless,
via its roots it succeeds in combining two kinds of sap in an imperceptible
proportion that gives birth to something new: a flower, which is perfume
and colour” ( Huyghe, 1981, .374).
Thus the painted image “is representation and symbol at the same
time. We may read in it a likeness to a model, but also an analogy with a
being with whom it has solidarity: it has undergone its [that it, the being’s,
the artist’s – our note] action, but once this is completed it will in its turn
act upon that being” ( Huyghe, 1981, .374).. The image has solidarity with
the external world right from the beginning, but still also “solidarity with
the inner world, and while being shaped by it, it will shape it in its turn.”
There is an undefined dialectic operating here. “The painter, the
interpreter of his own thought or of the thinking of his group, believes that
he is projecting his own ‘thesis’ in his painting; but the moment the
painting has separated itself from him and fixed itself in an immutable
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appearance, he perceives it as an ‘antithesis’. Then there is a need to reach
an agreement, a ‘synthesis’ between what it is, what he believes it is, and
the unforeseen relationship brought into the work by what he has put into
it without knowing he was doing so, what he was ignorant of with regard
to himself and finds himself suddenly confronted with” ( Huyghe, 1981
.374).
That which is valid and true in the case of a person is likewise valid
in the case of a people too. Both for the one and for the other, art has a
primordial importance.
Nicolae Chirilovici’s painting is emblematic in this regard. It is the
expression of a spirit which was both sensitive enough and also vigorous
and decided enough to breathe the Zeitgeist of its generation in art, to
express its emotions and moods through fresh means, a spirit which
circumscribes art through a painting, as an organism with its own laws,
rather than by using it to pay a tribute of faithfulness to any exterior
referent.
To quote René Huyghe once more: “A work of art, however
individualised its creator may have wanted it to be – so that sometimes it is
obviously a confession of what differentiates him from all the rest –
always allows us to make out the stamp/impression of the time of its
creation, which is imprinted in it like a watermark” (( Huyghe, 1981, . 13).
Negoiţă Lăptoiu values Nicolae Chirilovici as a “master of colour
whose fervour and delicacy in asserting agreements, for preference on a
Post-Impressionist scale, puts him in the same category as Aurel Ciupe of
Cluj, Victor Mihăilescu-Craiu of Iasi and Vasile Popescu of Bucharest”
and also says that “this Arad painter was an early (from the 1930s)
exponent of the trends that renewed art in Romania”. It is he again who
rightly emphasises that by “disciplining (with Cézanne-like vision) the
rhythmic use of planes that promote coloured sensations, with
characteristic, tonic clarities, he maintained his position among productive
painters who were significant representatives of Romanian art in a
particular time and space” (Lăptoiu, 2000.43).
A picture, for Nicolae Chirilovici, is a kind of window-mirror that
gives on to a corner of the world, generally one that is humble and
unspectacular in itself but which has, above all, the gift of reflecting the
painter’s inner image, his deep expression before the chosen motif.
Nicolae Chirilovici’s painting is the transfigured image of a man, the son
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of a time and of a people with all the associated range of ways of living
and personal propensities.
But this transformation takes place in the domain of a specific order
and on the basis of rules of his own. As René Berger said, “by choosing a
particular organ, each art predisposes our body toward the kind of
attentiveness and expectation that are specific to it. (...) To look at a picture
does not mean merely to take in an image. The eye explores it, runs over
it, occupies it (...), the retina does not simply limit itself to registering it but
goes on to meet the work with its own exigencies” (Berger, 1975.121).
Some Nicolae Chirilovici landscapes are realised in a harsher,
rougher style, with use of the knife and of thick layers of oils, thus
underlining the virile, expressive aspect of his art; others, in their weavingtogether of warm and cold Indian inks, contain impressions and feelings of
delight that are akin to reverie. The degree of intensity of impression in his
work fluctuates widely from period to period, with a range of nuances,
precisely because this is an artist who did not confine himself within a
comfortable formal recipe that he could continue to employ ad infinitum in
a detached and stereotypical way.
One detail worthy of notice is that Chirilovici, for reasons that have
never been discovered, took particular pleasure in preparing his paints
himself, using formulae that he kept secret all his life, from powder
colours combined with emulsions that contained egg white and linseed oil
in proportions known only to him. The blending was carried out in an
almost ritualistic way, as with the master painters of old.
It is also fitting to mention the fact that Nicolae Chirilovici was
perhaps the only genuine artist in this part of the country to have taken on
the risks involved in the status of a freelance, someone who lived
exclusively by his own art production. The miracle lies in the fact that he
never “let his guard drop”, did not descend subserviently to the level of
popular taste in order to be sure of succeeding with the public. As his
younger colleague, the sculptor Emil Vitroel, said at the opening of his
1995 retrospective at the Delta Gallery in Arad, “...in his creative work,
Nicolae Chirilovici never sold himself (...) He did not try to paint ‘syrupy
pictures’ or certain subjects that would probably have been easier for him
to sell. He continued to be the same modern painter that he had become at
Baia Mare. Expression and artistic means were more important to him
than money.” Collectors had to accept him as he was, with his sincere
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beliefs expressed in nuanced and various ways that accorded with his
private moods.
These personal exigencies, specific to the art of painting, were
something Nicolae Chirilovici understood and defended all his life in a
period in which ideological pressures were forcing artists to dissimulate
them and to be obedient in the face of a falsified reality, in which artists
were driven to betray the true purpose of painting as a specific language.
In a Nicolae Chirilovici painting we will find, alongside each other,
the desire to structure, to articulate in a flexible and robust way the data of
the image of some corner of the world, with feeling and pure joy,
expressed vigorously but also with gentleness. An implicit geometry gives
order and cosmic significance to the energies of exuberance and joie de
vivre. Design and colour, geometry and sensibility become one and sing
the same song, composing in a synergistic way the healing balsam for the
ever-open “wound” in the spirit of a great artist.
Fiction and arts
Muradin Jenö,Nagybánya.A festőtelep művészei, Miskolc, 1994
Pleşu Andrei, Ochiul şi lucrurile [The Eye and Things], Meridiane,
Bucharest, 1986.
Prut Constantin, Dicţionar de Artă Modernă şi Contemporană [A
Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art], Univers Enciclopedic,
Bucharest, 2002
Réti István A Nagybányai Művésztelep[The Artists`Colony at Baia
Mare],,Kulturtrade Kiadó, Budapest, 1994
Réti István, Aradart 2001, Mirador, Arad, 2001
Réti István, Aradart 2007 - 50 de ani de artă vizuală arădeană [Fifty
Years of the Visual Arts in Arad], Mirador, Arad, 2007
Bibliography:
Alexa Tiberiu, Moldovan Traian and Muscă Mihai, Centrul Artistic Baia
Mare 1896 – 1996 [The Baia Mare Artistic Centre 1896 – 1996]
County Museum, Maramureş, Baia Mare, 1996
Berger René, Descoperirea picturii [The Discovery of Painting],
Meridiane, Bucharest, 1975
Borghida István, Ziffer Sándor, Kriterion, Bucharest, 1980
Boros Judith, ’’Ziffer Sándor(1880-1962)’’; NAGYBÁNYA-Nagybányai
festészet a neósok fellésétől’’ 1944, Mission Art Galéria, Miskolc,
1992
Cassou Jean, Panorama artelor plastice contemporane [An Overview of
the Fine Arts Today], Meridiane, Bucharest, 1971
Catalogul Expoziţiei Neue Secession, Berlin, februarie-aprilie 1911
Huyghe René, Dialog cu vizibilul [Dialogue with the Visible], Meridiane,
Bucharest, 1981
Medeleanu Horia, Profiluri plastice [Profiles in the Fine Arts], Facla,
Timişoara, 1979
Medeleanu Horia, Nicolae Chirilovici, 1910-1993, Arad County Museum,
1994
Medeleanu Horia, Culoare şi formă [Colour and Form], Mirador, Arad,
1996
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280
Sculpture and architecture, category boundaries
Delia BRÂNDUŞESCU
Abstract: Modern sculpture is released by illusion, imitation and
literary signification and behaves like architecture, with the essential issue
of its personal territory. Per Kirkeby’s great contribution consists in the
fact that he opened up this territory for the work of art by combining
architectural ideas with modern sculpture, on the basis of a powerful antianecdote, towards a permanent and accessible work of art.
Keywords: sculpture, architecture, konnubiums, mobile art, sitesensitive
The Fine Arts have preserved their unity and identity until the 19th
century, architecture, sculpture and painting having a close connection and
interdependency. The term of collective masterpiece has been introduced
by Richard Wagner in the 19th century, insisting on re-bonding the arts’
long lost unity. Nowadays, we acknowledge the fact that the idea of
collective arts has had a more or less happy role. In what concerns the art
for constructions, Kunst am Bau, both in architecture and sculpture, the
idea is rather related to space. More and more often, the places and
positions established beforehand will prove that these demarcation lines
between arts shall be diminished. These places, where architecture and
sculpture shall have a symbiotic unity, a Konnubium, term used by Hans
Sedlmayr1, at the moment when the tectonic sculpture takes over the
functionality or when the representation of a masterpiece of construction1
Hans Sedlmayr, apud, K.J. Philipp, Architektur Skulptur – Die Geschichte einer
fruchtbaren bezieung, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart Munchen, 2002, p.11
2
Carola Giedion-Welcker, Plastik des XX Jahrhunderts Volumen und
Raumgestaltung, Ed. Stuttgart, 1955, apud, K.J. Philipp, Architektur Skulptur –
Die Geschichte einer fruchtbaren bezieung, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart
Munchen, 2002, p.11
Fiction and arts
sculpture shall emerge as a great sculpture. Whether they belong to one
category or another are questions to be answered. Sculpture and
architecture are interested about the category boundaries, that is,
architectural sculpture or sculptural architecture. Losing the unity may
lead both architecture and sculpture to a conscious autonomy and to a
personal language. This change towards emancipation, separation,
integration shall found the modern architectural development and the
abstract sculpture. The above-mentioned process shall prove how narrow
this Konnubiums, which belongs to them, shall be. Carola GiedionWelcker2 describes this emancipation process of the two opposing parties,
summing up the emergence of sculpture development, beginning with the
19th century, as a focus on the clean form in the area of sculpture,
characterized by the representation “in and through the space”. Thus, on
one hand, there is a close connection with “the essential problem of
architecture” and on the other hand there is the success of sculpture,
eventually “the final answer regarding the role of sub-alternity,
decorativism and theatrality” which had an impact upon architecture. This
connection with architecture is characterized by the fact that modern
sculpture is released or determined by illusion, imitation and literary
signification. There is a tendency towards an independence of plastic
reality; it behaves like architecture, with the essential problem of its
personal territory.
Michel Senphor, adopting a different stance, claims that the two arts
must remain faithful to their own nature and function “if the masterpiece
of an architect and of an artist are the same, there is a nonsense, because a
sculpture that reminds us of a dwelling place is by no means inferior to
it”3. He brings opposing examples - the Notre Dame-du-Haut Ronchanp
church, built between 1950-1954 by Le Corbusier which has a sculptural
character, but nevertheless, the church is a functional architecture. There
are slight chances for obtaining a fortunate solution and classification of
the categories’ problem because the sculptors have been constantly trying
to get closer to architecture or, at the same time, their masterpieces have
been considered as architectures.
3
M. Seuphor, Die Plastik unseres Jahrhunderts, Ed. Neuchatel, 1959, p. 210
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Constantin Brancusi, often uses the formula: “sculpture is the real
architecture”. The construction sculptures from Targu-Jiu, The Endless
Column, Kiss Gate, Table of Silence (image 27), have architectural bases,
remaining in close connection with architecture, through a clean surface,
due to their architecture and tectonics; but however, they do not represent
architectures with a constructional functionality. Therefore, we cannot
consider architectural sculptures the ones built by Grank O. Gehry, the
Guggenheim Museum from Bilbao or the brick masterpieces belonging to
Per Kirkeby – which are not architectures but sculptures.
These two extreme positions do not represent unsolved histories;
they shall be settled in the future, through the epochs and the European art
critics. The new approach shall allow us to examine the past things
differently. Both the del Monte Castle (image 28) belonging to Emperor
Federich the Second, and F. O. Gehry’s Museum may be analyzed as
architectural sculptures. Both constructions are, in fact, thermic covers,
with a practical functionality, complying with the architectural
requirements.
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Like the architectural sculpture of Per Kirkeby (image 29), from
Ikast Jutland Denmark 1973, a Gothic canopy is an abbreviation of
architecture. These requirements are neither complied with by P.
Kirkeby’s sculptures nor by the Gothic canopies, which do not represent
architectural models or patterns. They are free creations, made up of
architectonic elements typical for the 13th century. They resemble only in
terms of material, pedestal, plaster, burnt brick, reminding us of the real
architecture, being situated at the boundary between categories. In Middle
Ages, the artists did not raise questions related to these boundaries
between architecture and sculpture, but beginning with the 20th century the
problem of this cataloguing is more and more stringent.
Fig. 28 Castelul del Monte, Apulien, Italia, construit pentru Frederic II,
1240-1250
Fig. 29 Per Kirkeby, Huset, cărămidă, în Ikast Jutland Danemarca, 1973
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Fiction and arts
Per Kirkeby, with his masterpiece Huset, Ikast, the first brick
sculpture (1973), in Jylland in Denmark, makes emphatic references to the
Maya temples and to the petty burgeois Danish masonry and handicraft
architecture of the 19th century. The Gothic accuracy is a distinctive mark
of Danish architecture. Bricks are more than a material necessary for
buildings; at the same time, walls do not strictly represent a division of the
space by building distinct walls but their decoration with sober
geometrical models as well, adding sculptural relieves on houses, churches
and other public buildings. In fact, Per Kirkeby assimilates the typical
architectural language according to the personal artistic view, representing
a radical point of view and being opposed to the sculptor architect Erwin
Heerich who assimilates the sculptural language in architecture (image 30,
31).
Fig. 30 Erwin Heerich, Muzeul insula Hombroich
Fig. 31 Erwin Heerich, Muzeul insula Hombroich
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Fiction and arts
Designing and carrying out brick sculptures, the artist dialectically
opposes the utilitarian functions with the building itself. Besides this
conception, the artist rejects the forms of mobile art, opting for their
establishment in the site and preserving a permanent character of the
masterpiece. These things do not only trigger heated arguments about
the exhibition manner but it also influences the speculative aspects of the
value and judgement of masterpieces. Per Kirkeby visualizes the
reception of brick sculptures as a mixture between the safety feeling of
the protected area of museums with white walls and the feeling of
freedom of the sites, that is, the open space of the masterpiece. He also
says that when speaking about masterpieces situated in the closed area of
a museum, their existence is considerably limited to their exhibition
period. The immobile and the site-sensitive character requires an intense
preparation, for a longer period of time, in order to research the form and
position of the sculpture in the specific spatial context.
From the very beginning, Per Kirkeby uses in his masterpieces
regular bricks, enlivening them with local elements. The brick is a
simple derivative of soil denoting his preoccupation for geological
forms. His sculptures become signs or symbols between museum, art
and reinvented nature. The dialectical impulse or approach of Per
Kirkeby’s sculptural discourse, the construction’s brick is a reference to
a recognizable sign of collectivity: “Belgians have been born with bricks
inside their stomachs”, asserts the artist. Simultaneously, he allows an
original and singular approach of the concept of autonomous art. In what
concerns the amplitude of his sculpture he does not provide narrative
clues: the building is an empty theatre which forces the spectator to play
the actor’s part who, depending on his own cultural background, may reread the work in contrast with the general cultural frame of reference.
His masterpieces from Middelheim are extremely paradoxical. His
contribution is the fact that he opened this territory of the works of art by
combining architectural ideas with the modern sculpture based on a
powerful anti-anecdote, towards a permanent and accessible work of art.
Per Kirkeby conceived a sculpture detached for Middleheim: this
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construction which, in the grandeur of the familiar red bricks, raises
indeed, diverging, philosophical and intellectual spheres, inspiring
reflection.4
Bibliography:
Giedion-Welcker, C. Plastik des XX Jahrhunderts Volumen und
Raumgestaltung, Ed. Stuttgart, 1955, apud, K.J. Philipp, Architektur
Skulptur – Die Geschichte einer fruchtbaren bezieung, Deutsche
Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart Munchen, 2002, p.11
Kostof, S., Die anatomie der Stadt, Ed. Campus, Frankfurt a M., New
York, 1994
Lambrecht, Luc. New Sculptures, The Architect is Absent, Open air
Museum of Sculpture Middelheim, Kunst und Museumjournaal, nr.1,
1990
Lefebvre H., La production de l’espace, Ed. Anthropos, Paris, 1974
Norberg-Schulz, C., L’art du lieu. Architecture et paysage, permanence et
mutations, Moniteur, Paris, 1997
Seuphor, M. Die Plastik unseres Jahrhunderts, Ed. Neuchatel, 1959, p.
210
Sedlmayr, Hans apud, K.J. Philipp, Architektur Skulptur – Die Geschichte
einer fruchtbaren bezieung, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart
Munchen, 2002, p.11
Art, craft, tradition
Claudiu Emil IONESCU
University of Timişoara
Abstract: Talking about art, craft and tradition bring to mind
instantly words or images which take us to ceramics, wood, clothes or
religious icons, musical instruments, painted eggs, or other folkloric
elements. They represent an actual part of the area where the artisans live:
the village, where he sings his joy, happiness, faith and pains, i.e. feelings
that he blends into the finished product. The product is designed to serve
not only pragmatic, but also and aesthetic needs, and what has resulted in
this way is the wonderful world of folk art.
Today, sustainable design proposes to blend tradition and innovation.
Revolutions succeed through creative media, resulting from a power
understanding and genuine regard for tradition, united by the power of
acceptance of the need for change and the cultivation and use of critical
imaginative power.
Keywords: art, craft, traditions, costumes, design, words, images,
pragmatic, aesthetic, imaginative, communication, change, character,
critical.
When we talk about art, craft and tradition appear to us instantly to
mind words or images that refer directly to objects in ceramic, wood, cloth
or face icons, musical instruments, painted eggs, elements of folk, and
they with greater certainty is only part of the huge area where the artisan
village, managed by an absolutely amazing to sing joy, happiness, faith
and pain, feelings that they blended into the finished product and finally
was going to not only serve the pragmatic needs1 but also the aesthetic
needs, resulting in these conditions the wonderful world of folk art.
1
4
Luc Lambrecht, New Sculptures, The Architect is Absent, Open air Museun of
Sculpture Middelheim, Kunst und Museumjournaal, nr.1, 1990, p.23-24
287
Craftsmen created a wide variety of products, among which, gourd, barrel, bottle,
candlestick candle, lamp, curing, lantern, pots of all shapes and sizes, cups, jugs,
bowls, made of clay from the land of Bukovina e.g. has acquired the art of creating
Fiction and arts
Fiction and arts
Folk art is the area in which popular culture has generated creations
in history, the Romanian people have produced remarkable creative
values. It is sufficient to point out that here, in all different kinds of objects
made for actual needs, is intertwined with the aesthetic utility. Making a
repeated application of consistent natural laws, decorative folk art pieces
on the surface results in the creation of wonderful art objects, which favors
the transformation of numerous works of folk art in the unique values of
our popular culture gems.
The practice of crafts in the area inhabited by the Romanian people
is immemorial, going back to the Neolithic age. Some of these were
generated by domestic needs: tows for spinning, weaving, pottery, wood,
bone, stone, continuing later in the Bronze Age with blacksmithing. These
crafts were to develop in early medieval times, in direct connection with
agriculture. Then there appeared craftsmen engaged in carpentry,
woodwork, barrel making, leather work, tanning, shoemaking,
blacksmithing, pottery or masonry. In the following centuries, the villages
are already specialized in the production of certain types of objects, which
they sold at fairs or in the villages.
Masons and carpenters working in the nineteenth century made up
the Masons’ and Carpenters’ Guild. They made not only houses but also
gates, bridges, wooden objects, chairs, wooden handles, barrow, swings,
saws, baskets fountains, slides, stands, as well as the so-called oloiniţă (a
primitive oil mill). Woodwork has emerged and developed as one can
imagine in the vicinity of towns and cities, then moved to the countryside.
The furniture to be found in an old house consisted of blidar (a cupboard),
corner shelf, laiţă (or laviţă, i.e. a wide plank fixed on stakes along a wall
in the peasant homes that are sitting), beldia (a long slender pole), bed,
wardrobe, table. Carpenters had to carry around, in their own carts, their
products to trade fairs, where they showed dowry chests, chairs, swings
for children pegs, door frames and windows.
Origin craft objects formed as a result of craftsmen who were as
guidance in their use of traditional Transylvanian villages, are found in
rural artisan village, or in rural crafts2 town. If village craftsmen guilds
were determined by the establishment of law meant to limit the use of
materials in the area and traditional techniques, archaic site-specific, have
cultivated a Transylvanian craftsmen guildsmen constant contact
throughout the period of the Middle Ages, with related to the professional
sphere in Central Europe, enjoying all the technical innovations of the
period.
It is the defining feature of craftsmen in Transylvanian villages that
they practiced various crafts while farming on a regular basis, thus
boosting their families’ income; on the other hand, whole communities
were specialized in the completion of certain crafts, such as clay work,
wood, iron or fur processing.
Barrel-making experienced a certain development thanks to the
many needs of the population. Thus, for vessels went to the fair, instead of
asking coopers mostly agricultural products. Barrel-makers were artisans
who produced two categories of objects carved from one piece of wood
and staves, such as: tuns, wooden pails, vats, barrels, tubs, wooden
spoons, etc. Roof-makers made wooden tiles for the roofs of houses,
stables, gates. Lime-making was a specific craft uplands. Blacksmiths
made useful products and processes necessary to achieve the jobs and
cutting tools, knives, pocket knives, components in construction, but also
horse-shoeing yoke of horses and oxen. Pottery was a pottery craft
processing, essential in some uses, such as cooking, keeping food or
dishes, which are only decorative. Weaving and other crafts are sewing,
which have seen a variety of styles. The variety, originality and specificity
eggs decorated with beads, which are made of wood encased in a layer of
beeswax, which is applied over the beads, in Campulung Muscel, Arges, we can
mention among others the achievement of icons painted on wood, the carved bark
or bark made masks, costumes, beads and ornaments of silver or ginger, are
elements that are eloquent proof that folk art is the result of artistic creation
anonymous people learned each part.
2
289
For guilds that have acquired an absolute monopoly of the field activities, the
two groups of craftsmen have split into a non-formal expression, it is implied and
accepted as such, the space of rural markets, rural artisans by providing farmers
greater part of everyday products with a low nominal value, while the guild
members have been imposed in the iron tools and the pieces of social prestige, in
the latter area, the special quality of interest occupies the foreground.
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Fiction and arts
of weaving and sewing finds form in a wide range of items necessary
interiors, such as rugs and carpets, hemp ropes, folk costume, household
objects, towels, pillowcases, woolen wall rugs, blankets, pouches, bags.
In several countries of the world, netting is present and passed
special developments in each of them, thus developing different
techniques and modalities for the application. Rope-making is one of the
most ancient techniques to create natural objects, light and durable,
designed to make contribution in facilitating the daily activities in different
eras.
The foundation of this art is found in Hungarian folk tradition as any
folk art throughout a whole has a positive function primarily by addressing
direct-realist pragmatism. Craftsman made rush baskets, hats, slippers, all
braids which correspond to the idea of simultaneously and fairly good,
healthy and aesthetically. The presence of human settlements in areas with
standing water, cattail growth made possible in good conditions, a
phenomenon that has generated the presence of this kind of craftsmanship,
mature reed is cut in a certain time of year that is autumn, and after drying
it, could be used. The essential feature of a water plant that is resistant to
rush any type of moisture, being a water plant. Mace becomes great
flexibility in hot water following the action after some soaking and drying
processes, it retains its form received after the desired product. In the
north-east of the country, in Transylvania County Mureş Partium and rush
basketry tradition, is known for more than three hundred years.
Transylvanians they could acquire pottery from the two places where
it is produced ie potters in rural villages grouped in specialized fairs that
sell the usual especially pottery, tiles, and the scope of trading activity and
guildsmen potters, who worked largely glazed ceramic, decorative and
typical character. Some forms, techniques, motifs and colors have been
able to acquire appreciation for rural populations, so that over time have
been devoted to certain styles of potteries, guild or village, and their
personality became separate guilds survived suppression.
Speaking of red clay plain tiles should be noted that this process has
its appearance in the sequence organization has just established by a
continuous string of capacity gained through the experience of usages over
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Fiction and arts
time from the Roman period.3 And red ceramic,4 non-glazed,5 polished
stone, in accordance with certain archaic techniques, distinguishing Săcel
polishing clay jar, above the combustion process, determine the closed
pores, thus reducing the permeability of the wall, thereby creating a
decorative effect than shown.
Household ceramics,6 mixed with ceramic tiles match the
effectiveness of glazed ceramics with a higher durability, impermeability
and obviously with more aesthetic expression; remembered that ceramics
was generated guildsmen pottery centers. Byzantine influence, pottery
store sgraphitated,7 not only the specific color range, consisting of green
and yellow on a white field and an organization with more space, more
clearly that simple arrangement of scenery. In the Custom setting
sgrafitated, even if it has been appropriated retained a red color gamut that
has an important task.8
The research specialists have been established and detailed the
various functions of glazed pottery, with common functions in
Transylvania.9 As a succession of means, which occurred in the Saxon
settlements and development, arrived in Transylvania, items such as mugs
3
Specifies Romanian citadels, mention here Leheceni, Leleşti, Biniş.
Cahle mounted, made in the Hungarian centers of Huedin and Almaş, patterns of
cahle of wood, cahle glazed and without glazed of centres Huedin and Secuime
and cahle Saxon, the center of Bistriţa, all dating from the nineteenth century.
5
In the area Vadu-Crişului, in the center of potters mixed Hungarian-Romanian
ceramic tiles decoration technique, achieved through a process of Angobare is
represented by a piece representing a drinking vessel, the Josenii Bârgăului, black
ceramic tiles, polished stone, the technical process of prehistoric tradition, was the
color obtained by using a special process of burning ships, which consists of filling
openings in oven the last stage of the combustion process that occurs in the
absence of oxygen.
6
From Baia-Mare, Baia-Sprie, Târnăviţa, Obârşa, Josenii Bârgăului.
7
In the center area Iza Valley and Baia Mare.
8
We recall here with ceramic Vama and glazed ceramics area Târgu-Lăpuş.
9
Represented by certain items such as high milk carafes, colander, bowl to carry
food to the field, cooking pot, frying pans with legs, open hearth, wine funnel,
etc.., Ceramic glazed was identified in the Hungarian guild areas Zalău, Turda and
Iara, Trei Scaune, Satu Nou, Ocna Sibiului, Odorhei.
4
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Fiction and arts
high, currently used as decoration and only in certain special situations for
drinking wine, like pitchers edges bilaterally after being taken here, the
realization extreme aspect of the piece gradually enlarged in the neck area
then forms a connection with Eastern Balkan brass vessels. Tankards of
metal, often ornamented by vegetal and floral motifs, zoomorphic and
anthropomorphic and on a white background and blue background
ceramic, cobalt and specific forms cylindrical central Europe.
Characteristics of these components are avimorphous motifs, a Baroque
decor marking the influence manifested in the central and Western
Europe, obviously a matter of fact and specific decorative motifs
overpopulation. Experts have identified Habana pottery10 17th-18th
centuries, proclaimed the period referred to completion of its exceptional
quality and elegance of the figurative element of decor.
Without having a similar structure and common origin of the term
guild in ceramics, pitchers with narrative scenes have led to the
appearance of cancee, which consists of terms of style, decorative ceramic
element subsequent to link to them. Perfect traditional pottery forms and
colors of nature, continued to be a great gift and vocation nonims
generated by craftsmen for centuries patriarchal civilization from ancient
times, when many pots, gone, carafes, embellish different pitchers, parts of
houses and fences surrounding farms.
As a divine imposition, very subtle and secret revealed, canon
purification forms and nuances that have transferred excess generating
ceramics in the register of expressions simplified lines, essential for
decorative, like a metamorphosis gives unceasing flow imposed by the
travel time since record start development of various trades, knowing us
10
Type of fine pottery glazed, with white, decorated with hunting grounds, made
by potters from Transylvania sec. seventeenth century, Habana potters, from an
Anabaptist sect, who colonized parts of Transylvania, from Moravia During the
period between 1621-1629, established and Vinţul de Jos; brought with them
superior technology and ceramic ornaments and a specific central and western
Europe, they have generated a considerable stimulus pottery guilds from
Transylvania, putting their mark on the repertoire of forms, decorative styles and
colors.
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Fiction and arts
today a more or less altered, the technology evolving it yourself,
consciously or not manifested at all levels of the traditional art allows.
Country Zarand lies on the western slope of the Apuseni
Mountains,11 on both sides of the White Cris and is one of the largest
holders of archaic traditions across Romania. Craftsmen of the Apuseni
Mountains, Moti Mocanii differ fundamentally by two life events like the
way of construction of houses and stables hand and economic,12
occupation, namely cattle.
Their houses were built in a special way, which is made of wood.
Wood house used by shepherds long ago was that of beech or pine, beech,
but gradually was abandoned to be replaced with carved pine planks. For
their coverage using only straw craftsmanship was later adopted shingle
and tile in some cases. The house of the shepherd was fitted with a târnaţ
(an outside corridor) with sosi, then the porch with a camniţă (a chamber
where the fire was laid and where they stored the family heirlooms. In the
area occupied by cattle and fodder, mountain people built wooden
buildings, their place being even in the middle field in the mirişte (stubble)
or doştină. The interest of these craftsmen was oriented so as to produce
machinery that keep out the cattle from frost and snow of winter winds,
which could be very harsh.
Village craftsmen from the area were required in rural areas for
woodwork. One of the reasons this was favored by the generosity of
nature, offering quality local raw material. Another reason was that by
which individuals among community members had the ability to
substitute, through all the accumulated knowledge in the business which
involved working with wood, assets acquired in the process of practice,
which regions washed centuries without particular skills exclude such as
the state of the art equipment, more advanced than those that were
organized into guilds.
11
Mountains have mild forms, but are rough stone, slide the coast mountains to
the west and smoothing to be confused with the plain Arad; Zarand country is a
country like Maramureş such as stretching, but little known.
12
For the inhabitants of the Apuseni Mountains, sheep shepherds and hence
represent a main occupation which has focused interest in this job, as were skilled
in the art achievement of sheep wool famous ţoale and popular in the nearby area.
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Fiction and arts
Integrally, some villages were established carpentry, perfecting his
skills in this area of work with wood, making furniture, wooden vessels,
shingles, wickerwork. They could however be isolated experience and
craftsmen, selling products work in the restricted area of the village where
they lived. Objects made by them, illustrating the art of woodworking,
were presented with the following tools, firezul,13 ţapina,14 securea,15
scaunul de mezdrit,16 multifunction compass, măsura,17 dinătoarea,18
cârligul,19 sfredelul,20 horjul,21 tesla22 şi jilăul.23
The researchers, who used to work in this area have been identified
in rural Transylvania nineteenth century, the presence of two different
techniques of decorative wood. This was seen on the one hand, the
existence of Maramures gate, made of oak, craftsmen, peasants who had
carved the integrated ground rope, held in an archaic24 geometric structure.
On the other hand, was reported presence cupboards used in Saxon
villages, in peasant interiors made of fir, guildsmen carpenters. They were
decorated using the technique of painting, containing reasons figurative art
inspired by the city register, which was the beneficiary of a certain degree
of training.
Remarkable diversity of ingenious solutions for facilities, provide the
Romanian people, a place between the creators of the first factories in the
world and here we recall that water mill, which meant the history of
human civilization, an important step and across our country since ancient
times were built water mills, windmills, mills riding. Because many rivers
were present in numbers large enough force of water driven mills, as is a
13
Used for cutting wood.
Necessary element, handling the whole tree trunks.
15
Carved beams and rope necessary for their lining and carved surfaces polished ax.
16
Pieces of wood used for immobilization of wooden items under work.
17
What specific use for vessels of wood staves.
18
What is used to smooth the inner part of the wooden vessels.
19
Required for the shooting circles.
20
Used for drilling.
21
Used for grooving.
22
Required for concave shapes.
23
What is used for smoothing flat surfaces.
24
Form of X's or circles.
14
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Fiction and arts
certainty that the people of this country were able to take advantage of
these courses, to submit and convert the force of mountain water, adopting
a and employing a personal purposes.
These mills were common in small waterways and a simple
construction, reduced to a single room, built on a foundation stone on the
water. Inside depth is found on half of the room, high floor like a podium,
some of it was used as storage bags full, and the other side of the mill
stones were found and the gutter that flowed from under stones, flour. The
floor was passed down the spindle through floor was pass vertical spindle
moving stone, which was caught in a spinning horizontal axis mill wheel
made of wood in the form of two parallel circles, fastened together with
pieces of plank, which in effect pallets over the water fall, generating
rotation of the stones to grind the grains. The wheel was sitting down
under a stream of water that gathered in a trough of water running from
the main course, and when the mill was at rest, the gutter was reoriented to
allow the water to not fall on pallets. A thick, long time, claimed the
wheel, he had two beams at each end, one died and the other on the
outside, inside the mill the same time have a wheel with tooths which she
in turn engage another gear wheel of reduced dimensions. It also engages
wave movement, which act through a vertical shaft of the runner stone
mill. A second stone was fixed, could be close or distant stones using a
device called a mare, and this mill to grind away the slightest cause or
greater. The stones have a basket over them, the beans that were
introduced, and the cart was fitted with a box that with a wooden bar was
activated when the runner touched the stone so that it passed over the
movement. The basket, beans arrived in the box, then into a bag after
falling from rocks. Through this process flour reached a trough and then
fall into a wooden crate, was finally transferred to the bag owner.
There were punches into oil pumpkin seed and walnut kernels. For
such a process is using a beam with a length of between ten and twelve
meters, which made a dent. In it sat the pumpkin seeds, then beat with a
wooden tamper, after which seeds were ground thoroughly with lukewarm
water, kneaded, and then put the trays to be roasted in the oven. They were
placed in the press of roasted consisting of a hub and a wheel, for
squeezed, after which oil was achieved in these oil mills which operated
from October to May.
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Fiction and arts
Brandy boiler is also counted among numerous other technical
equipment, was widespread due to the variety of fruit trees. Fruits, which
were converted into brandy abundance in the periods of baking, cherries,
apples, pears, plums of various sorts, peaches, Butii horns were collected
and left to ferment, then grains result, was transported by carriage to the
place where boiler installed brandy is found, near a stream. He had the
following components, the boiler itself, which was a bucket with a
capacity range between two hundred and fifty gallons. The boiler was
made entirely of copper and the brandy has a greater quality and was as
healthy as the boiler was made from a material more easily. In a brick built
fireplace is installed boiler, which is equipped with a barbecue fire which
was under the boiler. The boiler had a hole on top for placing marc and
another opening at the bottom in which escape when pot should be
emptied. The boiler was crossed by a shaft which is wrapped a chain,
while outer ends with a handle, which facilitate manual operation.
Generate stem mixing process grains during boiling, so as not to catch the
bottom of the boiler interior.25 The alembic, made entirely of copper, take
the form of caps that apply over the boiler to collect alcohol fumes were
generated by boiling the grains. A few inches diameter pipe called the
horse started from the alembic, taking steam, stopping them in the cooler.
A large cask of water because it was cooler. In continuation of that horse
is a smaller diameter pipe than him and was called a snake, it spiraling
down to the bottom of the cooler, where the pipeline alcohol fumes were
cool and where condensation take place, followed by their flow in the
form of brandy in a vat called laităr, then poured into barrels. The water
inside the cooler was always refreshed by a big wooden wheel, installed
on the water, it had mounted regular distances, approximately five-liter
cans. They were filled with river water and their weight determined to
make a rocking motion wheel, bins emptied its contents into a chute that
led directly to the cooler.
Today, sustainable design, strives to create an agglutination between
tradition and innovation. It seems that revolutions succeed through
25
If this happens, the brandy had been smoked and so the whole process was
compromised.
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Fiction and arts
creative media, resulting from a power understanding and genuine regard
for tradition, joined with a sound comprehension of the need for change,
as is the creative power through the cultivation and use, in a criticality.
If the project is deeply rooted in tradition and seeks to communicate
an important message in a new, radical, providing comprehensive
solutions to suit market needs or the needs, with distinctive character,
either. The vision is to bring together the best communication devices,
designers, artists, nurses and information technology, brand strategy and
project managers to develop creative projects that have targeted, the
development world. Work, collaborative project that seeks to provide the
best solution based on a budget, while participating in different ways,
methods aimed at improving or strengthening the market, vision and
creative communication. Internationally recognized standards in design
hand-coded officers are working and their striving for perfection in
everything they carry.
References:
Victor Voicu, Ioan Vedea-Părean, Mărginimea Sibiu, rural tourist guide,
Sibiu, 2008.
Florica Zaharia, Traditional Textiles in Transylvania – Technology and
aesthetics, Suceava, 2008.
Cornel Mişinger, Monograph Fantanele (Cacova) of Mărginimea Sibiu,
in Sibiu, 2006.
George Pavelescu, Sebes Valley. Monograph ethno-folk, vol. I, Sibiu,
2004.
Doina Isfănoni, Interference of magic and aesthetic, Encyclopedic
Publishing House, Bucharest, 2002.
Georgeta Stoica, Olga Horse, Traditional Artistic Handicrafts,
Encyclopedic Publishing House, Bucharest, 2001.
Laurenţiu Vlad, Images of traditional identity, Meridians House,
Bucharest, 2001.
N. Constantinescu, A. Dobre, Ethnography and Folklore Romanian family ethnological career development / tracks, House Foundation
"tomorrow's Romania," Bucharest, 2001.
Constantin Prang, Dictionary of Famous People Neamţ, Piatra-Neamt,
Crigarux Publishing, 1999.
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Fiction and arts
Nineta Announcers, Bioenergoterapia the millenary tradition of the
Romanian people, Editura Miracle, Bucharest, 1997.
Emilia Pavel, Moldovan Folk, Junimea Publishing, 1976.
I. Al. Florecu, Civilization wood, Ceres Publishing House, Bucharest,
1976.
Paul H. Stahl, Romanian peasants, craftsmen and their creations of art,
Romanian Encyclopedic Publishing House, Bucharest, 1976.
Tiberius Alexander, Romanian folk music, musical Publishing, 1975.
Formagiu Hedrig Mary, Folk in Romania, Art Museum RSR Bucharest,
1974.
Florea Bobu Florescu, Paul Petrescu, Stahe Paul, Bistrita Valley Folk Art,
Bucharest, Publishing House, RSR, 1969.
Romanian Folk Art – Bucharest, Academy Press, 1969.
C.G. Ledge, Vasile Nicolescu, Songs and dances popular in Moldova,
Music Publishing House, 1963.
Florea Bobu Florescu, North Folk of Moldova, Bucharest, ESPLA, 1956.
Alexandrina Enachescu-Cantemir, Romanian folk costume, Craiova, 1937.
IL Ciomac, V. Popa-Neacsa, Apuseni Mountains – Research on the
economic state of M. Apuseni, newspaper printing Universe,
Bucharest, 1936.
Bicaz Advanced Research Group of the Romanian Academy,
Ethnography Bistrita Valley.
Ion Vladutiu, Romanian ethnography.
Paul Petrescu, George Stoica, Romanian folk art.
Elena Florescu, Adolph Chevallier, Bistrita Valley.
299
Regional centre for consultancy and clothes design
Lacrimioara Simona IONESCU
University of Timişoara
Abstract: Textile and clothing firms in Romania develop quality
products for Western companies. Almost all are designed models made
overseas. Materials, accessories, blueprint and technological design as are
provided by foreign partners. This situation generates very low prices for
the goods, since all we provide is unskilled labor force, and there is no
research or creativity involved, that adds value to the product.
Romanian folklore can represent a rich and top quality source of
inspiration for the Romanian fashion design in the new millennium, likely
to stir interest among European customers.
The Research Center proposes research in the domain of fashion
design – of prints, shoes or handbags – based on real marketing research.
Such services offer customer the advantage of a unitary vision of the
product from the perspective of the buyer's needs, with a focus on
advertising and marketing.
Keywords: costume, succession, representation, production,
traditions, design, communication, originality, style office,
interdisciplinary phenomenon.
Most textile and apparel firms in Romania develop quality products
for Western companies. Almost all are designed models made overseas.
Materials, accessories, blueprint and technological design as are provided
by foreign partners. This situation generates very low prices for the goods,
since all we provide is unskilled labor force, and there is no research or
creativity involved, that adds value to the product. Thus, it is essential to
adopt creative strategies to promote the Romanian textile and clothing
industry.
Since its debut 60 years, textile and clothing industry recorded
significant changes, which were held almost without interruption.
Conditions continued growth in demand for clothing, causes a permanent
decline in Western countries. Imports of these products have increased in
Fiction and arts
those countries. And decreased employment in the garment industry,
organized in very small, less than 100 employees.
The decline in Western Europe and North America, overlapped with
the development of the garment industry in the Far East in general, as in
the whole Eastern Europe. So there is a rapid movement of the garment
industry from West to East.1 On how quickly such industry can be created
by so quickly, decade may, if the global market demands, the design space
is now more intense than ever - do not find a prompt meeting.
To modernize the clothing industry more broadly, the basic criterion
is the price now, but future is to offer value for money. Therefore,
modernization should be build on the foundation of a strategy of pushing
the market, a strategy that manufacturers, designers and marketing experts
in the problem must find the answer to the question – you can add
garments to be improved.
In these circumstances, creativity can not be addressed simply as an
intellectual phenomenon. Without the support-based business, creativity
can not be supported financially. The designer does not have the task of
leading the financial aspects of business that needs a specific
organizational structure, a specific management of creativity. This
management requires knowledge of business management and creative
design, market and lifestyle culture. Thus there can be no sales in the U.S.
without a store related information on this market, being aware of the
lifestyle of Americans.
Some designers and users, more often say they no longer want the
same product to be found in any city in the world and therefore it should
be like finding new solutions to achieve greater diversity in order to be
returned to buyer willingness to buy and fun to choose from. Others think
that there are a number of trends, needs and tastes, a fashion trend with
smoothing.2 These trends and making its appearance at different time
intervals.
Fiction and arts
Because of the many cultures in the U.S., there are great differences
between regions. In Romania these differences are caused by lifestyle,
such as the lifestyle of Maramureş, which is different from those living in
the Jiu Valley area or city. Desires may be the same, but it must be taken
into account differing lifestyles.
Therefore, cultural differences between U.S., Japan, United
Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, România, etc.., Designers must
determine to develop collections by country, region and lifestyle of the
buyer. The experience of developed countries shows that the independent
fashion design, organized in a matrix called economic STYLE OFFICE3 or
DESIGN OFFICE, is more effective than CREATION compartment
integrated in textiles firm, according to the needs of originality, for a target
market.
As an intellectual and creative activity of structuring a concept in
fashion clothing, stylism essentially contains its creative approach, capable
of aesthetic emotion in the fashion product, generate a new concept for a
new aesthetic and socio-cultural behavior, the status value embedded
symbol.
Stylism does nothing to designate the formulation enabling style
diversification by changing its image, which will be perceived and
accepted by consumers as a new concept of fashion clothing. Unlike
design, stylism development visual image requires the use of plastic
elements of composition, such as decoration, decoration, printing and
others rejected the concept of design elements on the clothing as opposed
to its principles.
In European fashion schools, U.S. or Japanese stylism issues, theory
and history of style in fashion is the theme of a well defined discipline,
while in Romania, this issue is touched only tangentially, being linked
3
1
The clothing industry, requires a labor-intensive, which requires a small
investment for job creation; thus the endowment of a fixed job was one of the
smallest, in some cases even below $ 2,000 per worker.
2
Exemple în sensul uniformizării ar fi Coca-Cola, McDonalds.
301
STYLE OFFICE or DESIGN OFFICE is a small applied research center, which
offers professional fashion design, is efficient and therefore profitable for several
aims such as creating individuality, creating an original image fashion market by
product and / or complex design services for any firm client, test the avant-garde
aesthetic and technical concepts, keeping yields based on the principle of customer
satisfaction with a profit.
302
Fiction and arts
only by history as a class suit aesthetic esthetic purposes in specialized
schools.
Fashion design is a complex task of great responsibility promoting
the values of civilization through the product cycle. This research involves
both stylistic correction system, interdisciplinary design program for
product development, and estimating the results of a design project.
Design, unlike stylism into elements that complement the search of a
style through a global approach which considers the economic data (study
marketing, consumer marketing, etc…) Technical data and technology,
logical sequencing and functional Ergonomic components, psychological,
socio-cultural, aimed at obtaining a quality product and original fashion.
In a research complex on the supply of a service bureau style,
developing a program that produced the climate on a theme by industrial
and commercial research services include product analysis of the entire
trajectory, estimating its life cycle on the market by Marketing and visual
communication through the product.
Fashion as an interdisciplinary phenomenon, brings together the
results of documentation and research in various fields, aiming to end
products increasingly competitive, all aimed at fashion, highlighting news
from one season to another. The main factors determining trends in
fashion design and technology and creativity are specialists. News
responsiveness, the ability and flexibility to adapt to changes in the
operating mechanism are particularly needed in terms of competition, to
conduct a profitable creative product. Such information is necessary on the
evolution of fashion trends.
Through a quality fashion design, inspiration authentic folk will be
able to annihilate the intoxication, the period before 1989, that a medical
condition caused by inadvertent introduction of a substitute in the
individual consciousness, a false folklore.
Rehabilitating authentic folklore today, referring here to all the
material and spiritual values which has the Romanian people, offering
them the opportunity to revive after a period of neglect and disinterest in
receiving relationship with the public and the buyer. In this way the
Romanian design, will have a real gold mine operated for the domestic
market generally took a special interest in our folklore, which demonstrate
unity in diversity of style. It is an original folk and is very well preserved,
unaltered by external influences.
303
Fiction and arts
Romanian folklore can be a rich source of inspiration of the highest
quality for fashion design Romanian in the millennium that began a
decade ago and is likely to be on the rise among European customers.
Romanian fashion design today is in fact no physical time, which
would enable completion of design historical clothing from the countries
of the past century. These countries have been started up in small fashion
houses, through the offices of large companies integrated apparel design,
style or independent office. Such situations have made it possible to
establish a style and design industries, today the world is manifested by
rapid circulation of information and stylistic values. Therefore it would be
appropriate to initiate operation of folklore in an appropriate proportion of
the facts, as a source of inspiration.
The folk costume of other peoples today can be seen only in
museums, while the Romanian folk costume is still a living presence in
daily life. In several areas inhabited by Romanian is worn at weddings, but
also in everyday life of villages in the Apuseni Mountains or photos. It is
noteworthy that survival and that is one of the oldest costumes in Europe,
and this may explain in part, the continuity of the ethnographic realities.
Romanian folk costume variety, has an amazing drive comparable to
that of Romanian language and Romanian folk tradition, both
recognizable unit in Transylvania, Banat, Crişana, Maramureş and
Moldova, Dobrogea, Muntenia, Oltenia, or Besarabia, Bukovina and
Serbian Banat. Some elements of the Romanian port were kept until the
last century, Macedo, and even Megleno Istro-Romanian.
Folk differs in details up to the present village and thus each locality
wish to differentiate by something other surrounding communities. Thus
we meet the desire of every person with something to distinguish it from
others. This paradox of unity and variety is achieved through an art
developed with remarkable cunning. National distinction is discreet, but
for those savvy is inherently obvious.
Anonymous artistic folk taste as it should be noted, the item has
survived over the centuries. Prototypes have highlighted the presence of
secular, even millennia, to come back in the collective memory,
apparently asleep, is always imposing, to enable the deployment of others.
Contemporary fashion styles account for a variety of market trends
super-saturation. Form and function are equally important characteristics
of the garment, and theatrical form should not be underestimated, and past
304
Fiction and arts
or in marginal but records should be retained balance. Of course,
inspiration is not the only popular source or the only area in which the
company can find arguments for the proposed themes or those requested
by the client. Every project builds on a goal to create a training program
for a company to support the Romanian companies in launching their
national level, both domestic and foreign markets through quality design
and promotional products appropriate, so that such companies to win a
favorable place in the market. Since investment in design and research has
been and is financially costly and manufacturing firms can not allow most
of the time allocation of funds to develop a research department of
individual value, it requires alternative opportunities to create a design
center and independent consultancy that can offer customers both
collection of products, expert advice and market studies.
In terms of market sales of such services in Romania, there she is in
full training at the level of latent demand higher or lower each
manufacturer, which is desperately trying to win a larger number of
buyers.
These firms must develop and enforce, by offering the buyer's own
product quality promoting them and do not want this individual could do
without the services of people trained in this regard. Certainly the creation
and promotion may be considered prima facie di facile activities, which
may carry any person without special training, but therein lies precisely in
error. Research Center proposes a research in the area of fashion design,
the textures, prints, shoes or handbags in design from a real marketing
research. These services insured customer, the advantage of a unitary
vision of the product from the buyer's needs and the product idea to launch
advertising and marketing.
References:
Don E. Schultz, Philip J. Kitchen, Communicating Globally, Palgrave
Macmillan, 2000. ISBN 0-333-92137-2.
David Harrison, Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, Reference
Reviews, Vol. 19, 2005.
J. K. Conlon, M. K. Giovagnoli, The power of two: how companies of all
sizes can build alliance networks that generate business opportunities,
San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 1998.
305
Fiction and arts
Dave Kurtz, Contemporary Marketing Mason, OH: South-Western
Cengage Learning, 2010.
James D. Lenskold, The Path to Campaign, Customer, and Corporate
Profitability by James D. Lenskold, McGraw-Hill Professional, 2003.
ISBN 0071413634.
Laura Patterson, Marketing Metrics in Action: Creating a PerformanceDriven Marketing Organization, Racom Communications, 2008.
ISBN 1933199156.
R. J. Masi, C. K. Weidner, Organizational culture, distribution and
amount of control, and perceptions of quality. Group & Organization
Management, AS 1995.
Georgeta Stoica, Colecţia de covoare din Transilvania şi Banat, ClujNapoca, 2008.
Victor Voicu, Ioan Vedea-Părean, Mărginimea Sibiului, ghid turistic
rural, Sibiu, 2008.
Florica Zaharia, Textile tradiţionale din Transilvania – Tehnologie şi
estetică, Suceava, 2008.
Cornel Mişinger, Monografia satului Fântânele (Cacova) din Mărginimea
Sibiului, Sibiu, 2006.
Gheorghe Pavelescu, Valea Sebeşului. Monografie etno-folclorică, vol. I,
Sibiu, 2004.
Maria Bâtcă, Costumul ceremonial de nuntă,” în „Sărbători şi obiceiuri,
vol. IV, Moldova, Editura Enciclopedică, Bucureşti, 2004.
Maria Bâtcă, Costumul ceremonial de nuntă,” în „Sărbători şi obiceiuri,
vol. III, Transilvania, Editura Enciclopedică, Bucureşti, 2003.
Doina Isfănoni, Interferenţe dintre magic şi estetic, Editura Enciclopedică,
Bucureşti, 2002.
Tereza Mozes, Portul popular din nord-vestul României. Ţara Crişurilor,
Editura Muzeului Ţării Crişurilor, Oradea, 2002.
Maria Bâtcă, „Costumul ceremonial de nuntă,” în „Sărbători şi obiceiuri,
vol. II, Banat, Crişana, Maramureş, Editura Enciclopedică, Bucureşti,
2002.
Georgeta Stoica, Olga Horşia, Meşteşuguri artistice tradiţionale, Editura
Enciclopedică, Bucureşti, 2001.
Laurenţiu Vlad, Imagini ale identităţii tradiţionale, Editura Meridiane,
Bucureşti, 2001.
306
Education
and public health
308
Quality assurance & teacher development through
class observation
Laura MUREŞAN, Radadiana CALCIU
ASE Bucuresti & QUEST Romania
The authors of this paper have carried out hundreds of class
observations in Language Schools and Foreign Languages departments
of universities in Romania and abroad. As EAQUALS (the European
Association of Quality Language Services) and QUEST (the Romanian
Association of Quality Language Services) inspectors they believe that
a consistent classroom observation programme plays an important role
in quality assurance and as teachers they are grateful to have benefited
from other teachers’ experience and knowledge, while observing their
classes.
Why to set up a class observation programme?
As in other fields of activity quality language schools and
language professionals all over the world need to know that they do
things right, i.e. that they offer language courses which would meet
their students’ needs, expectations and desires. A consistent class
observation programme is seen as an important way of supporting
teachers to highlight areas they would like to improve or share with
other teachers. The particular weaknesses or strengths which arise after
a round of observations are discussed and should be included in a
thorough in-service teacher training programme.
When setting up a class observation programme the following
issues have to be taken into consideration: (Worksheet 1)
What is the purpose of the observation? Who is going to
carry it out? For how long will the observation last? How often are
teachers observed? How is feedback given to the teacher? Is there
a system of recording classroom observation?
Each educational institution should decide on an observation
policy of its own. However, different types of observations should take
place regularly and for different purposes.(Worksheet 2) So, for
Education and public health
example the school management might observe classes not only for
giving an overall picture of the strengths and weaknesses of teaching
but also for other aspects such as: attendance and discipline. This type
of observation tends to be at short notice and could also take the form
of ‘buzz observations’ or snapshot visits without previous notice,
which aim at quality assurance.
As an additional element of on-going teacher development there
are observations called peer observations. This term covers various
types of observation: colleague to colleague, a more experienced
colleague to observe a less experienced colleague, or the other way
round etc. Each of these observations includes a discussion about what
happened in the classroom. It is understandable that peer observation
details should be restricted to the teachers directly involved, but the
fact that they have taken place, when and with whom should be
recorded. The institution should encourage peer observation in order to
disseminate good practice.
A timetable for observations for the year should be established
in each educational institution: there should be an effective system of
lesson observation carried out on a regular basis. In most of the quality
language schools teachers are observed once a year by their head
teachers or the personnel/school manager and receive feedback. Peer
observations are carried out more often, at least twice a year and points
which arise from these observations feed into the choice of staff
development sessions. Teachers are free to choose whom to observe or
are paired, but quite often decisions are made because timetabling.
They should be encouraged and trained to become observers.
New teachers have to be observed to help them settle in by
making recommendations that would avoid negative feedback from
students. They also have to observe more experienced teachers’ classes
for training purposes.
What goes on in the classroom should be recorded on
observation charts or sheets. There are different templates for
recording different types of observations. Observation sheets which
consist of a comprehensive tick list and some areas for comments are
suited to provide general information with no clear focus on specific
310
parts of a lesson. (lesson planning, lesson development, classroom
management, rapport, etc).
Other observations forms, which have been developed with a
focus on specific areas, such as interaction patterns (mapping them),
setting up and carrying out a speaking activity, beginning a lesson etc.
are more appropriate for peer observations with a strong
developmental character.
Observing the teaching process is a complex activity that needs
training. Not only the what to observe but also how to do it should be
thoroughly trained. Here are some questions to ask yourself: How long
do I spend in class? What information do I require from the
teacher? (lesson plan) What categories do I use in the feedback?
Do I use names? Should I draw attention on weak staff?
Educational institutions should have very clear outlines on how to
carry out classroom observations. If they are not done properly they
could have a negative effect on the atmosphere in the school. Teachers
could feel threatened instead of using the opportunity to reflect on their
own teaching and on how to improve certain skills. That is why
teachers have to be told that they will be observed and be given
feedback in a follow up meeting, soon after the observation. This is
recorded on an observation form which is signed both by the teacher
and the observer.
Following the feedback an action plan is agreed by both parties
and provides the basis for the next review.
Teachers are also encouraged to identify their own training needs
and are involved in In Service training sessions, which could be
organised in the form of workshops, seminars, (peer) observations, etc.
These are usually run by the Heads of department, external experts but
sometimes the teachers themselves can run them. Teachers can also
request topics they would like to cover and the Heads of department
then organize a workshop. (Worksheet 3)
These are just a few aspects that would highlight the important
role played by classroom observation in quality assurance and teacher
development. The two functions complement each other and both
contribute to keeping up the high quality standards set up by the
educational institution.
311
The three worksheets attached to this paper help teachers
understand the importance of class observation and by doing the tasks
they can become better observers and carry out class observations to
improve quality standards in their departments.
References:
Muresan, L., Heyworth, F., Mateva, G., Rose, M. 2007. QualiTraining,
A Training Guide for Quality Assurance in Language Education,
Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing
Muresan, L. 2009. Quality Assurance in ESP in Higher Education,
Strategies for Optimizing the Quality Standard in Higher
Education ESP, Risoprint
Calciu, R. 2009. Classroom Observation, Strategies for Optimizing the
Quality Standard in Higher Education ESP, Risoprint
EAQUALS. 2010. EAQUALS Inspection Scheme Manual- version 6.2,
Trieste: EAQUALS
Maxwell-Hyslop, H., Ellis, M. 1996. Inspectors Training Course for
QUEST Romania, organised through a KnowHowFund project,
with the support of EAQUALS, Eurocentres and The British
Council, Constanta, 1996 (unpublished course materials)
***PROSPER-ASE Language Centre, Bucharest, Romania - case study
presented in Muresan L., Monitoring Professional Development in an
Educational NGO, Bucharest: Punct, 2004 (pp 154-155)
312
Examples of Quality Management Instruments: Post Class
Observation Survey in a Language Centre Context*
Questionnaire to Observees
Dear colleague,
Over the past four-five months we have all
done class observation, followed by
feedback
sessions
and
informal
discussions. It appeared that a more
structured mentoring system would be
beneficial. As agreed during our staff
meeting and at the AGM, we could initiate
a series of workshops on different
methodological issues, to be conducted by
experienced teachers.
The format could be that of 3-hr sessions
to be held once per month, e.g. on
Saturdays from 10.00-13.00.
Time scale: April, May, June, September,
October, November.
In order to help us organise workshops that
are as relevant as possible to you, please
take a few minutes to answer the following
questions:
1. What course type and level have you
taught so far?
2. What other course types and levels
would you be interested in teaching in the
future?
3. Are there any methodological
aspects that you would like to improve? If
yes, please prioritise.
4. If a series of workshops were
organised,
would
you
consider
participating?
5. If yes, which would be the best times
for you?
(If possible, please indicate more than one
preference)
Thank you for your co-operation!
Questionnaire to Observers /
Area Co-ordinators
Dear colleague,
Over the past four-five months we have all
done class observation, both as peer
observation and as formative observation,
followed by feedback session. As agreed
during our staff meeting and at the AGM,
it would be beneficial to initiate a series of
workshops on different methodological
issues, to be run by us as trainer-trainees
and area co-ordinators responsible for the
academic management of the Language
Centre
The format could be that of 3-hr sessions
to be held once per month, e.g. on
Saturdays from 10.00-13.00.
Time scale: April, May, June, September,
October, November.
Benefits: These sessions would fulfil at
least three objectives:
INSET – mentoring for less
experienced teachers
An opportunity of TD for the
trainer-trainees – in a friendly environment
Last, but not least, on-going
improvement of teaching standards at our
Language Centre – part of the quality
control system.
Could you please take a few minutes to
answer the following questions:
1.
How many classes have you
observed? Please indicate the course type
and level.
What
methodological
areas do you think need improving?
Please prioritise.
2.
On which of these topics would
you like to run a workshop? When? (If
possible, please indicate more than one
preference, esp. if you want to conduct the
sessions together with a co-trainer)
Thank you for your co-operation!
313
CLASS OBSERVATION – Worksheet 1
What is your experience of class observation in your current
context?
In pairs or groups of 3, select one of the following aspects for
reflection and exchange of experience:
1. In your current institutional context, what type of class
observation is primarily used or relevant?
- Who carries it out? How often?
- What is the duration of a standard class observation in your
context?
- How is feedback given?
- Is there any action taken as a result of the class observation
process?
2. How do you perceive observation? E.g.
a) useless, since students behave differently when there’s an
‘intruder’ in the classroom
b) demotivating, a threat, often linked with salary-cuts
c) positive when handled sensitively
d) a waste of time, since there’s no feedback anyway (e.g. when a
feeling of ‘collegiality’ prevents observers from pointing out areas for
improvement)
e) ........
3. Relevant aspects before and after class observation:
• Is the support provided before and after class observation
adequate (in relation to teachers’ needs)?
• How are the following aspects handled –
o
loyalty to students as the ultimate beneficiaries of the
teaching process;
o
feedback: finding the right language and attitudes to
give feedback;
o
.... ?
314
the
teacher’s
workplace
• Taking action: what are the penalties and sanctions? How long
does it take till follow-up action is introduced?
• What other alternatives are there (in addition to class
observation and related feedback session)?
CLASS OBSERVATION – Worksheet 2
In language education, class observation is a key-component,
taking a variety of forms and playing multiple roles. There are a number
of possible reasons for observing, e.g.: training, assessment,
development, observer development, quality assurance.... Each of these
reasons is associated with a specific situation, a certain type of observerobservee relationship, and as a result of this, also the ‘what’ and ‘how’
of feedback given may vary.
1) In the table below, fill in the main reason corresponding to
the contexts described.
Main
reason
Where /
When
Pre-service
Pre- or
In-service,
within or
outside a
course
Teacher’s
place of
work or an
in-service
course
What / Why
e.g. trainee
trying out
teaching
procedures
to see whether
teaching
practice is in
compliance
with
assessment
criteria
e.g. the
development
of selfappraisal skills
Who observes
Whom
a) trainer trainee
b) peer trainee
c) trainee experienced
teacher
internal or
external
assessor teacher, trainee
/ course
participant
Feedback
can be a
trainee trainer
or observer, a
peer e.g.
peer teacher
(adapted from Maingay, P. (1988), “Observation for training,
development or assessment?”, in Duff, T. (ed.),
Explorations in teacher training – Problems and issues, Harlow,
UK, Longman)
2) What feedback style would you associate with the above
situations, e.g. (a) less directive, (b) prescriptive, (c) inexistent, (d)
collaborative or (e) a mixture of several types?
3) Discuss with your partner(s) and fill in the table below with
aspects relevant to class observation for quality assurance purposes.
E.g. Who can carry it out? What could/would be the focus of the
observation (depending on who observes and why)? How would be the
feedback?
Main Reason:
Quality
Assurance
Specific
reasons:
trainer, or
consultant,
peer as mentor
teacher /
mentee
315
for the
observer to
pick up new
ideas or to
reflect on
teaching by
observing
some-one else
teach
316
When &
Why?
What?
Who
observes
Whom?
Type of
Feedback
Suggestopaedia –
understandings and misunderstandings
Magdalena DUMITRANA
Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Pitesti
Abstract: Suggestopaedia is one of the most prolific educational
alternatives of the modern world. Considered from the beginning as
something rather avoidable by the common people, suggestopaedia was
very welcomed by the professionals and considered as a fundament of
different other approaches of learning. More than that, this science
became the basis of all the accelerated learning schools, both from East
and West. Despite of its huge impact, suggestopaedia is still unknown or
rather misunderstood by the people in charge with the educational
policies.
Keywords: learning, brain hemispheres, teaching
1. Suggestopaedia – a “bad” word?
Since the science of suggestology and especially, the results of the
educational alternative of suggestopaedia have become public-and that
happened in 1978 with the strong recommendation of the Unesco report
in the favor of suggestopaedia, since then, therefore, a lot of ups and
downs were happening concerning this alternative.
First of all, it was the name. The word ‘suggestion’ rises fear in the
people minds, fear of not being manipulated. From here, the curiosity to
find out what is all about, just stops. And this is manipulation. This is
what manipulates us in our daily life, every minute- the prejudice against
this or that; the ignorant but strong belief in what people say, what the
neighbors say, generally, what it is said.
At the unconscious level, all the stimuli, existing usually in a
normal environment, social or natural, induce to people certain feelings,
certain opinions, and certain behaviors that people would not display in
some other conditions. Everything around us has this power of inducing.
Shall we forbid a romantic music as a punishment that it induces us
romantic feelings?
As in most of the cases a misunderstanding of a word directs one’s
mind and feelings to a domain that can be far away from the initial
intention. Here we have an univocal understanding of the terms
‘suggestion’, ‘induction’ or rather ‘inductee’, ‘conviction’, all of them
under the same umbrella named ‘manipulation’. Even so, manipulation
is not necessarily an ‘ugly’ word, it does not mean obligatorily, an action
determined by an intention of a negative control upon another person
We are also manipulated by all the habits, prejudices and traditions
that we find around, being obliged in a way, to observe them. But this is
not always bad. The “manipulative” environment is only an instrument
helping people to adjust themselves to the community where they live.
Therefore, it would be wise before one let himself influenced negatively
or positively by a word, an expression, to analyze firstly, one’s own
attitude as well as the real content of meanings of that concept. In the
end, honi soit qui mal y pense - shamed be he who thinks evil of it, the
meanings are within us.
Still, as dr. Lozanov points out “for years, the true meaning of the
term ‘suggestopaedia’ has created problems and generated questions for
people all over the world. [Lozanov, 2009, p. 29] However, this
terminology creates a kind of reluctance among people, either they are or
not in this specific professional field. On the other side, precisely this
word has attracted a number of people in search for a something
different thing than they knew before.
2. Some other words
The developing research in the suggestopaedic domain has lead dr.
Lozanov to new concepts that express better, perhaps more meaningful,
what is going on in the process. Therefore, he came up with terms like
‘Desuggestology’,
‘Desuggestopaedia’,
‘Reservology”
and
“Reservopaedia”. While the terms “Suggestology” and “Suggestopedy”
remain as reference concepts, “the new terms emphasize the tendency to
bear in mind the perspective of the communicative freeing deprogramming, de-suggesting from the social suggestive norms
impressed on us over the centuries that our mental abilities are
considerably limited. Suggestopaedia therefore, frees us from those
pathological suggestions. That is why we use the prefix “de-“.” [id. p.13]
318
It is well known the fact that the man’s brain has infinite capacities
out of which only a very small number is used. Very few scientists had
the (scientific) courage to stimulate these unused capacities and dr.
Lozanv was one of them. His interest was converted then in a structured
theory and practice and more than that, his methodology did not
remained “hidden” in some specialized pages of journal. On the
opposite, de/suggestopaedia has generated a multitude of followers and
methodologies included all, in the trend of the accelerated learning. In
this way, de/suggestopedia became very known among the common
people.
However, the people continue to be afraid by this name and
continue also, to be afraid using their own capacity at its real potential.
There is also, another scary word generating much reluctance in the
people minds and hearts, namely “love”. The First Law of Reservopedia
is: Love [id. p.56]. But there are some more-“The Second Law of
reservopedia is: Freedom [id. p. 57]. These two are big words but at least
in a Christian world, where the science of reservopedia was born, love
and freedom should be welcomed, as being in agreement with the basic
Christian values. It seems that it was not so. In our times, perhaps,
people are more afraid to (really) love than in other epochs. As for
freedom, this was also a problem of understanding its content and
consecutive behavior.
The question is: how could be better, to change the word or to
change people? Successfully or not, dr. Lozanov has chose the second
alternative.
However, just for our clarification, let’s quote Dr. Lozanov’s
sayings about the content of the two words:
“It is well known that no fine accomplishments have been made in
this world without love. Love is also an essential condition for accessing
the reserves of mind. Love creates serenity, trust and contributes to the
prestige of the teacher in the eyes of the students and thus opens the
ways of tapping the reserves in the personality’s paraconsciousness.
Love cannot be played as the students will feel that. But it should not be
understood as some sentimental, soft mood, since this attitude brings
about negative reactions. Love should be experienced as genuine love
for the human beings [….]..Love, together with the other laws, creates
the necessary cheerful, genuine and highly stimulating concentrative
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relaxation. This presupposes mental relaxation and non-strained
concentration. It calls for calmness, steadiness, inner confidence and
trust. Under these conditions of positive emotions, creative mental
activity and the global learning process are characterized by an absence
of fatigue.” [id. pp 56;57]
In other words, love in suggestopedia/reservopedia means care,
serenity, calmness, cheerful atmosphere, inner confidence, trust in
teacher, lack of fatigue. Nothing does remind us the trivial meaning of
love. Thus, there is nothing to be afraid of.
3. But what about freedom?
“ When there is Love, there is Freedom.…[].The principle of
freedom is one of the most basic elements which distinguish
reservopedia from hypnosis….Freedom gives the opportunity to the
students to listen to their inner voice and to choose their way to the
reserves of mind at different moments of the process of instruction..[…]
Reservopedia is not an imposition; on the contrary, it is opening the door
to personal expression.” [id. pp.57;58]
Obviously, we do not have here some philosophical meaning or a
social one; first of all, here it is about the liberty of choice, that is the
freedom to be oneself and one’s choice to become or not a person
valuing the inner freedom and choosing the right path to acquire it,
everything of course, within and with the help of the structured
suggestopedic methodology.
These two words, “love” and “freedom” are the words (meaning
‘feeling’ and ‘consciousness’) are perhaps the words which people are
most fearful of. Once they are understood, however, it becomes more
clear that there is no threatening and not forcing to do something else
than one’s inner self wants to do. And if there is still fear, then this one
belongs to the person and not to the method.
Of course, there are some many other concepts that belong to a
more specialized area and there is the professionals’ task to discuss
them. The objective here was only to draw the attention upon some
misunderstandings coming rather from the human being’s way of
thinking rather from the suggestopedic theory/practice itself. To
understand a new idea needs an open heart rather than an open mind and
this is more difficult when the suggestopedic theory is under discussion.
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The reluctance is a good thing in itself if it is followed by some
critical thinking operations, otherwise the reluctance becomes just an
element of a prejudice.
4. Some closing words
Our
intention
here
was
not
to
convince that
suggestopedia/reservopedia is the best theory and practice ever known. It
is indeed our conviction that the methodology is original, suitable to
many areas of learning and perhaps, to many types of learners.
The only aim was just to draw the attention of anyone needs a
change of the process of teaching /learning that there are some other
alternatives, getting out from the usual patterns of a traditional or less
traditional class and one of these alternatives might be the best choice for
that person.
Though our belief is that the “traditional” teaching /learning
process has many positive valences, still we think that the tradition must
be enriched with more courageous ideas, methods and even theories, one
of these sources being suggestopedia, or after its last name, reservopedia.
References:
Lozanov, G.,Suggestopedia/reservopedia. Theory and practice of the
liberating-stimulating pedagogy on the level of the hidden reserves
of the human mind, Sofia:St. Kliment Ohridski University Press,
2009
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Peer mediation. Conflict as an opportunity of change
Catarina MORGADO
Escola Superior de Educação de Coimbra (College of Education Coimbra)
Isabel OLIVEIRA
JURISolve, Resolução Alternativa de Conflitos, Lda.
Abstract: This study discusses the implications of conflict
mediation in schools. It provides a theoretical framework in order to
understand the causes and manifestations of conflicts, as well as an
analysis of the various alternatives in resolving such situations. It
proposes a novel way in dealing with conflicts by means of mediation
instead of the traditional punitive and exclusionary methods.
Keywords: conflict resolution, schools, punitive, mediation,
authority
To have conflicts is human
To resolve them, divine
Conflict is a normal, natural part of everyday life, the legitimate
outcome of interactions between even the most well meaning
individuals. From our first moments of life to our last, humans beings
are continually involved in conflicts. We conflict over mundane inanities
as well as the most pressing issues of the times. No aspect of life is
resistant to becoming the focus of human conflict.
Conflict is not only a normal part of living, it is also a necessary
part. It is through the friction of forces in opposition that things change.
Fields as diverse as political science, biology, physics, and religion all
view conflict as a source of potentially positive change and growth. It
also plays an especially significant role in human psychological
development. The conflicts that we face in our lives shape our
characters, our cultures, and our world.
But conflicts are not always positive. Most of the ideas freeassociated with the word “conflict” are decidedly negative (fighting,
pain, violence) and, on an emotional level, people can feel unloved,
angry and depressed as a result of conflicts. Certainly, then, conflict can
have destructive as well as constructive consequences.
Students have always become involved in conflicts. But today,
young people disagree with each other more often and over issues of less
real consequence than in the past. The media shows us a vision of
aggression arousal in schools; teachers complain about lost of authority;
and families expect schools to be the place where the youngest are
educated in a safety environment.
In this context we should ask an important question: are schools
prepared to deal with interpersonal conflicts? Everyone brings up the
issue of aggression and bullying, however, interpersonal conflicts
assume a wide range of behaviors: verbal threats, cursing, name calling,
insults, racial slurs, pushing, grabbing, shoving, punching, kicking and
fighting. These are commonplaces in many schools, interfering with
schools climate and ultimately with learning environments, causing fear
and absenteeism, not only among students but also among teachers as a
response to stress.
Schools have attempted to manage interpersonal conflicts among
students, teachers and administrators by various models of discipline,
such as referrals, suspension or expulsion. However, the traditional
punitive response has already shown its incapacity to produce real
behavior changes or even to reduce interpersonal conflicts in school
context (Smith, Daunic, Miller & Robinson, 2002). Dissatisfaction with
traditional processes established to settle disputes has led educators and
others to try new ways of conflict resolution such as mediation. Peer
mediation represents a move away from programs that depend on
punitive and exclusion methods of behavior control. These methods
cause stigma and discrimination and don’t give a systemic response to
the problem.
The rush towards conflict resolution in the schools is mirrored in
society at large by a move away from the traditional litigation model of
problem solving in the courts. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
efforts, including court-based mediation programs, are expanding
throughout the justice system all over the world; in the USA, mediation
as an alternative mean of dispute resolution has been around in various
forms since the 1960s. School mediation received particular national
attention in 1984 when the National Association for Mediation in
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Education (NAME) was formed. NAME brought together educators and
mediators working in neighborhood justice centers to consider how best
to teach about mediation and conflict resolution. The mediation effort in
schools was also spurred by the development of local programs that have
grown to American national stature. Globally, Conflict Resolution
Education
(CRE) and peer mediation in particular, spread all over the world
including mature projects in Argentina, New Zealand, Australia or
Canada; in Europe, mediation school programs have been implemented
in countries such as France, Great-Britain, Switzerland, Belgium,
Poland, German, Spain, among others.
Peer mediation goals
Johnson & Johnson (1995) present peer mediation basically as a
structured process in which a neutral and impartial student assists two or
more students to negotiate an integrative resolution to their conflict. The
mediation is described as a process in which disputants are actively
involved in the resolution of their own conflicts, assisted by trained
peers.
Conflict resolution and peer mediation programs emphasize
students learning how to manage their own conflicts, by training both
mediators and disputants to listen effectively, think critically and engage
in problem solving. Mediation seeks to solve a dispute and prevent its
recurrence and students mediators learn to plan for the future; they learn
about responsibilities as well rights, about consequences as well choices,
internalizing key social and affective skills (Cremin, 2007).
According to research mediators may, in fact, beneficiate of a large
increase in social skills, comparing to disputants or control students
(Epstein, 1996); increased self-esteem and empathy as byproducts of
conflict resolution and peer mediation training has also been
documented (Maresca, 1996; Türnüklü et al., 2009). Haft and Weiss
(1998) even suggested that positive effects of peer mediation might go
beyond the school and enhance positive community relations. Some
initial evidence shows that mediators may transfer their constructive
conflict skills to sibling conflicts at home (Gentry and Benenson, 1993),
using the skills similarly in family and school settings (Johnson and
Johnson, 2001).
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Most importantly, studies of mediation practices in schools reveal
positive impact on school climate, contributing to safer learning
environment. Haft and Weiss (1998) suggested that bringing a peer
mediation process to schools can reduce violence, free up teachers to
teach more and discipline less and increase student morale.
In 2003 Burrell, Zirbel and Allen lead a meta-analysis of fortythree studies published since 1985 and the results overwhelmingly
support peer mediation effectiveness in terms of increasing students’
conflict knowledge and skills, improving school climate and reducing
negative behavior. Other inspiring meta-analysis conducted by Garrard
and Lipsey (2007) report that participation in school-based conflict
resolution education methods in general, including peer mediation,
contributes to reduce anti-social behaviors (disruptive, aggressive and
problem behaviors) among youth in kindergarten through twelfth grade
in USA schools.
Recent studies also highlight a marked reduction in anti-social
incidents leading to improvement in social school climate following the
implementation of these approaches (Noaks and Noaks, 2009).
Concluding, these programs have the potential to induce school
climates that foster pro-social behavior. Pupils become empowered to
solve their own problems, they develop conflict resolution strategies and
a safe learning environment is created for both pupils and staff.
A peer mediation program implementation on Portuguese
schools
A Conflict Resolution and Peer Mediation program is being
developed by CONSENSUS Association in two different schools (EB
2/3 Guilherme Stephens – Middle School - and Escola Secundária com
3º Ciclo de Pinhal do Rei – Middle and High School), placed at Marinha
Grande, Portugal. This project is included in a social program to prevent
addictions and create social responses to the youngest in risk, named
WINGS, coordinated by Associação para o Desenvolvimento
Económico e Social da Região da Marinha Grande (ADESER IPSS –
Society for the Economical and Social Development of Marinha Grande
Region) and financed by Instituto das Drogas e Toxicodependências
(IDT - State Institute to the Prevention of Drugs and Addictions).
The program implementation includes a Consensus experienced
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mediation team, specifically trained in conflict resolution skills and
school mediation.
The program has four implementation stages.
1. Assessment stage: the Consensus mediators team held private
meetings with the school direction and the school counselor, followed by
a facilitating meeting with some teachers to acknowledge their needs and
identify the major problems that arise in school context. Using this
information the team can promote a first draft of the intervention design.
2. Second stage: this team promotes informative and explanatory
school meetings with teachers, students, parents, and other educators,
open to the surrounding community. The program intends to involve all
school community, bringing out the peer mediation as a conflict
resolution alternative to solve interpersonal conflicts among students,
inviting all to understand and participate in the achievement of the
program goals.
During this stage, a training course in mediation skills for teachers
is provided. It includes classes about (a) conflict theory; (b)
communication skills, including active listening, empathy, selfexpression, assertiveness, accepting criticism and giving feedback, and
respecting differences; (c) interpersonal conflicts skills, which include
negotiation and problem solving skills; (c) emotions management such
as recognizing and expressing one’s emotions, empathizing with others
feelings, understanding the nature and reactions to anger, developing
self-control and anger management, and signalizing behavior that
triggers interpersonal conflicts; (d) the mediation process; (e) peer
mediation program design.
A team of mediators is selected from this initial group of teachers
and prepared to support and supervise the future peer mediators,
guaranteeing the program continuity.
3. At this stage, Consensus mediators start the selection of peer
mediators among students and their training in conflict resolution, using
the teacher team support. The model of peer selection aims to involve all
students but only a few will be selected for the specific training. How
does it work? Consensus mediator team defines a mediator profile, based
upon leadership and communication personal skills, sense of
responsibility and ability to develop empathy. This profile is provided to
all class directors because they are the teachers that best know their
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students. In each classroom students are asked to name two classmates
they would trust and seek help in resolving their interpersonal conflicts,
also intending to promote diversity of genre and ethnic differences. The
selection program intends to achieve the mediator respect and
recognition among their peers.
Finally the student training begins, promoting the same skills that
were already developed during the teachers training. The 20 class-hour
training is applied following Cohen model and its suggestions (Cohen,
1995).
Currently, the Peer mediation program in the schools of Marinha
Grande are at the third stage – Peer Mediators Training - involving 42
kids between 10 and 15 years old at Guilherme Stephens School and 36
kids at Pinhal do Rei High School, aged from 13 to 17 years old.
Following the Peer Mediators training stage, the school will
implement the peer mediation program, supported by the help and
supervision of teachers mediators. The Consensus mediation team is
trying to adapt the peer mediation program to school regulations and
procedures, in straight cooperation with teachers and the school
direction.
How does mediation process take place? The teacher or the
counselor gets together with kids in conflict and explain them the
process and mediation goals. If they are prepared to mediation, the
teacher chooses a mediator from a list of trained peer mediators,
according to age and genre and, when possible, to ethnic differences.
The Consensus team have already prepared forms to manage the
process: the “consent” form must be signed by the kids involved in
conflict and it includes parties and mediator identification and a list of
mediation rules and principles; a form to write the “final compromise” if
they succeed in solving the conflict; a parties enquiry about the
mediation process and the mediators performance; and an enquiry to be
filled by the mediators as a self-reflection about their work.
The teacher mediator has a supervising role, however he or she
must respect the confidentiality of the process. Teacher’s mediators and
peer mediators will gather together to talk about what happened during
the performed mediation sessions; the positive outcomes; their
difficulties during the sessions and how to improve their skills.
327
4. The final part reports to an evaluation stage. After 6 months to
one year of peer mediation program implementation, the Consensus
team will organize meetings with the teacher team to analyze forms,
mediation sessions and discuss inquiries and talk about what can be
improved or need to be changed.
A more refined research project will take place during this period,
promoting an evaluation enquiry to all school community about conflict
and their resolution by peer mediation. The following questions will be
addressed:
1. Number of mediation sessions that took place and percentage of
reached agreements.
2. How peers mediation has impact on teachers’ and students’
perceptions of school climate.
3. How peer mediation has impact on students’ conflict attitudes
and behaviors in terms of how frequently they are involved in conflict,
how frequently they help others who are in conflict, their conflict styles,
their tendency toward aggressive behavior (verbal, physic or
psychological aggression) and their ability to demonstrate or enact the
skills taught in training.
3.1 Number and type of discipline referrals drop out and
suspension rate will be measured.
References:
Burrell, N. A., Zirbel, C. S., & Allen, M. (2003). Evaluating peer
mediation outcomes in educational settings: A meta-analytic review.
Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 21 (1), 7–26.
Cohen, R. (1995). Students resolving conflicts. Tucson: Good Year Books.
Cremin, H. (2007). Peer mediation. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Dauber, S., & Epstein, J. (1993). Parent’s attitudes and practices of
involvement in inner-city elementary and middle schools. In N.
Chavkin (Ed.), Families and schools in a pluralistic society. Albany,
NY: State University of New York Press.
Epstein, E. (1996). Evaluation of an elementary school conflict
resolution-peer mediation program. Dissertation Abstracts
International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences, 57 (6-A),
2370.
328
Garrard, W. M., & Lipsey, M. W. (2007). Conflict Resolution Education
and antisocial behavior in US schools: A meta-analysis. Conflict
Resolution Quarterly, 25 (1), 9-38.
Gentry, D. B., & Benenson, W. A. (1993). School-age peer mediators
transfer knowledge and skills to home setting. Mediation Quarterly,
10, 101-109.
Haft, W. S., & Weiss, E. R. (1998). Peer mediation in schools:
Expectations and evaluations. Harvard Negotiation Law Review,
(Spring), 213-270.
Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1995). Teaching students to be
peacemakers. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Co.
Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. (2001). Peer mediation in an inner city
school. Urban Education, 36 (2), 165–179.
Maresca, J. (1996). Peer mediation as an alternative to the criminal
justice system. Child and family Canada, (Fall). Retrieved 20
September
2010
from
http://www.cfcefc.ca/docs/cwlc/00000827.htm.
Noaks, J. & Noaks, L. (2009). School-based peer mediation as a strategy
for social inclusion. Pastoral Care in Education, 27(1), pp.53–61.
Smith, S., W., Daunic, A. P., Miller, M. D., & Robinson, T. R. (2002).
Conflict resolution and peer mediation in middle schools: Extending
the process and outcome knowledge base. Journal of Social
Psychology, 142 (5), 567-586.
Türnüklü, A., Kaçmaz, T., Gürler, S., Kalender, A., Zengin, F. &
Şevkin, B. (2009). The effects of conflict resolution and peer
mediation education on students empathy skills. Education and
Science, 34 (153), 15-24.
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Innovatory trends in Romanian education
and research
Cornelia COŞER
Abstract: The 90s opened a wide door to the latest tendencies in
research and education. The way these were received and the impact
they had was diverse, but they unquestionably brought a fresh breath to a
country too long fastened to unfashionable and outdated practices. While
some of them became part of the national strategy for the
teaching/learning process, some others are a matter of personal choice.
This article is a review of the first of them, the one that opened the path
and, as such, brought with it the first and greatest changes.
Keywords: the Communicative Approach, post 90s context, new
textbooks
1. The first step: the Communicative Approach
Two decades ago the teachers' choices as to what to teach and how
to teach were non-existent. The language teacher was no exception with
only one textbook for each level, handed out top down, the same for
years on end, with the syllabus prescribed by higher forums often having
nothing to do with classroom realities or students' needs. Little true
education could take place under such circumstances. What a difference
compared to today's unconditioned options and foreign publishers head
over heels to infiltrate the emerging markets. The abundance of foreign
textbooks and supplementary materials besides the domestic ones leaves
a great space for the teachers' personal choices but also involves them in
an act of great responsibility since, all of a sudden, they had to develop
criteria for evaluating the wide range of materials. The passage from the
former situation to the present one did not happen overnight and does
not only involve a diversification of the teaching material. After the 90s
the door was open to new approaches and experiments in education and
new research programs, some of them enjoying greater success than
others, some applied at a national level, others at team or private levels,
but all of them opening the possibility of new perspectives in an
overaged system. In what concerned education, the cornerstone was the
adoption of the Communicative Approach to language teaching.
It took more than thirty years for the Communicative Approach to
reach Romania and even then it was possible only due to the changed
historical context. When it finally arrived, it seemed to be the answer to
the Romanian native's long-experienced frustration caused by the
inability "to express himself," namely to be a versatile participant in
conversation, giving spontaneous and appropriate answers within the
range of everyday topics. To tell the truth, the problem had never been
lack of knowledge in what concerned the structure of English, nor lack
of cultural knowledge. While Romanians involved in some training type
abroad were able to astound their audiences by their close acquaintance
with Shakespeare's life and works, they suddenly became useless when
having to order coffee or ask for directions. They seemed to bump into
speech limitations every time they were supposed to have a relaxed,
friendly conversation, no matter how common the language function
they had to perform was.
The Communicative Approach finally put a finger on the sore and
placed the correct emphasis on social communication skills. While its
declared ultimate purpose was to develop communicative performance,
it did not neglect other skills. More than that, in Romania, in keeping
with the country's specificity and tradition, it did not give up the cultural
component, since nobody actually wanted students to become orally
fluent illiterates.
The much needed change started as a British Council project
during which a group of English teachers were selected following an
interview and were trained with the purpose of producing twenty-four
textbooks, three for each level from the fifth to the twelfth grade, and a
methodology. The process was long and tedious and, beyond shadow of
doubt, it meant so much more than replacing an old teaching system
with a new one. It also meant giving up the Romanian practice of
individual achievement and replacing it with team work; it meant
experiencing, first hand and fully, the forming, storming, norming and
performing periods, specific to group formation; it meant long days and
331
late evenings of work and decision taking, giving in and standing up for
one's opinion, taking responsibility and dealing with the consequences. It
was tough on the group of teachers with most of them having to learn the
abc of materials and syllabus design. But it also meant the warm feeling
of having achieved an enormous change, of having played a part in it.
And since the transition from an old methodology to a new one could
not happen without adequate teacher training, the first people trained
were also participants at a British Council project, thus giving birth to
the idea of "profesori formatori" in the Romanian context.
In the meantime recognition was late to show since the more
progress was achieved and the greater the changes they brought
appeared to be, the more obstacles sprang up on behalf of those who
were supposed to smooth the path, but suddenly recoiled realizing the
magnitude of the subsequent impact. On the other hand, in spite of
computerized editing just being introduced, there were problems with
using the new machines and the first books were issued by Editura
Didactică şi Pedagogică without undergoing any editing process,
completely relying on the lack of experience of the materials writers, a
thing which showed in the general aspect of the books for the 5th and 9th
grades. The success of the books was also slow to come. Many teachers,
lacking proper training, were holding tight to the old, customary ways. I
personally overheard a teacher complain "I have to learn the lesson
before teaching it to the students." Well, what a surprise!
The issue of subsequent books, still not edited, was forced "under
the desk" to a certain extent. It was difficult for the authorities to
surrender control and it seemed impossible to grant freedom to both the
content of the teaching material and the students themselves, thus
stepping aside from the previous well-established traditions. However,
evolution is unidirectional and thus the breakthrough was bound to
happen.
The two fundamental pillars the Communicative Approach
overthrew referred, one, to the goal of language teaching and the other
one, to the concrete organizational form to achieve that goal.
Firstly, as already mentioned, the real purpose of teaching/learning
a foreign language has to do with social skills, namely communication.
Any other reason remains purely theoretical and, while any acquisition
for a different purpose is able to offer intellectual satisfaction, it has
332
nothing to do with performing in the real world. Social and political
changes have brought nations closer to each other and in lack of the
universal language (Esperanto, in spite of having been devised to foster
international understanding, is still a constructed language which never
really caught), English appears to be the tool used in all economic
transactions and practically all other domains. This being the case, to
convey meaning has become more important than to do it in a flawless
way and fluency has become more necessary than accuracy, although
the latter is still an expression of one's linguistic competence and as such
category determining. Appropriacy of language is the third side of the
triangle, maybe the most complex dimension since it is situational,
temporal and register-wise binding. The student is supposed to be able to
relate correctly, formally or informally, to a certain social situation
he/she is involved in, at a given time and to a specific type of
interlocutor, whose age and sex will intervene in his/her decision
making. But since the "ideal speaker" of a language is an abstraction
even in our mother tongue, one has to strive for the best possible
communicative performance in the foreign language.
Secondly, the Communicative Approach set out to accomplish
what was humorously called and seriously meant, "the destruction of the
teacher." The teacher had to "step down from the pedestal," had to "stop
playing God," many other metaphors described the necessity to give up
the reality of the authoritarian teaching style. Teachers are no longer the
source of wisdom, the only ones knowing all the correct answers. Under
the teacher's authority, the learner could never appeal to his own
resources. It became clear that the teacher's job was no longer to offer
models or descriptions of language but to create in the classroom
conditions that would facilitate the learning process. Emotions are
important in acquisition therefore, the more relaxed the atmosphere, the
more successful the process. One way of engendering positive feelings
and increased interest was to engage students in topics that were
interesting for them. The students' needs, interests and moral concerns
became part of the teaching material. When discussing subjects such as
computers or the latest fashion or film, sports and music, there are no
right or wrong answers, and not one opinion is better than the other.
While the teacher can express his/her own point of view, this should not
be done from a dominating position, he/she should be an equal
participant in the conversation. As expected, leaving the secure leading
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position and the comfortable teaching material led to a major problem in
many classrooms. Back in the 90s, while many teachers were able to
confidently teach grammar rules and correct all the mistakes students
made until language accuracy was beyond any doubt, they proved to be
less confident when having to engage in real life situations together with
their students. With their functional vocabulary and exposure to native
speakers limited, this was not surprising. But, above all, they were not
to blame for the situation since they were the products of outdated
teaching methods and of a political system that did not allow for student
exchanges or for spending a post graduation year in the country whose
language they were supposed to teach. Such practices were common
however, in western countries. It must be said to their credit that many of
them caught up with things on the fly with no outside help (since Peace
Corp volunteers were not in the picture yet), travelling and benefitting
from the increasing number of TV broadcasts, books, films and tapes,
also liberated from the communist autocracy. Soon with their own
communication skills improved, they could expect greater
communicative accomplishment from their students.
The goals of the Communicative Approach, its emphasis on oral
communication and its interactive strategies, have since become
common knowledge in the educational environment. Therefore, I will
further mention in a nutshell only a few traits which stood out as striking
differences from former Romanian practices. All of them were present in
the new textbooks at the time.
Enriching students' vocabulary is an important component of the
teaching practice. However no vocabulary should be taught out of
context, for the sake of it. The new textbooks made the difference
between active and passive vocabulary, a distinction necessary under the
circumstances of using authentic materials. The passive vocabulary was
placed in boxes alongside the texts that made the core of the lesson. A
massive change was the one that required students to guess words from
the context, to infer meaning and thus develop an ability of great
consequence in their adult lives. This was overtly in opposition with the
custom of writing all the new words on the blackboard and clearly
identifying all translation problems.
Teaching grammar deductively was another practice taken down
by the new approach. Grammar in context, with whole chunks of text
seen as units of meaning, replaced the "rule followed by example"
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routine. With all the major grammar points covered by the 8th grade, the
textbooks for the secondary level offered wide space for exposure to and
recycling of the material in a meaningful context.
The differentiation between four types of reading came in
confirmation of real life activities. Skimming, scanning, intensive and
extensive reading are rarely carried out without a purpose and on the
same text. And since learning improves when clear tasks are set and
when emotions are involved, pre- while- and post-reading activities were
devised in great variety in order to avoid boredom. There was also a
permanent endeavour towards drawing parallels between the given
situation and the students' position to it. The strongest feature in the
development of reading skills was the use, starting with the lowest
levels, of as much authentic material as possible, with exclusively
authentic materials used in the book for the 12th grade. The teaching
material was enriched with knowledge in contemporary science but also
creative arts, dance, music, painting, architecture, etc
Accepting the foreign textbook format, accompanied by cassettes
(and also an activity book and a teacher's guide) at each level was a great
step towards integrating in the Western European tradition. The cassettes
and the great variety of listening exercises were born out of the necessity
to have first hand contact with native speakers' use of the language, as
well as with varieties of English spoken in different parts of the world.
Writing, for the first time in Romanian textbooks, was developed
as a skill in its own right. What used to happen before was that in the last
minute of the class the "Write an essay/article/ composition on…" type
task was thrown to the students as a ball that hit them the harder as they
were given no other clues and no clear guides at all as to the purpose of
the writing, the audience, length of the writing, etc. The next class, the
task was checked as a final product, if at all, due to lack of time.
Teachers often imposed themselves as authorities comparing the written
piece to an ideal standard, or showing themselves preoccupied mostly
with accuracy and grammatical correctness, very much the same way
students had done when sweating in agony over the white sheet of paper.
In the new textbooks writing was taught within one lesson in each unit
and tasks were placed within realistic contexts. The difference between
formal and informal writing was taken into account and creative tasks
were given more space as the students progressed. All the basic types of
essays were covered at secondary level, together with very specific types
335
of literary essays. The way the tasks were structured within the series left
a lot of space for the weaker student to take an active part in each lesson.
The Project Works at each level and in each Unit were one more
opportunity to stimulate the activity of students with lesser academic
accomplishment, within a group in which cooperation was promoted.
There were many other benefits to the Project Works but a very
important one was that this was the opportunity when students
completely took over decision making as to the organization and
presentation of the content of their work. The teacher became silent so
they could speak up. Thus one more step was taken in the direction of
student autonomy, the latter being developed through different strategies
all through the series. The best teaching is the one that makes the teacher
redundant.
One of the very special features of these textbooks, still ensuring
their uniqueness, is the communicative perspective on literature, which
none of the subsequent textbooks, with quite a few populating the
Romanian market nowadays, could imitate. Not only was the approach
to literature unique but it was the recipient of a host of benefits:
• it allowed for the approach to all types of literature: poetry,
novel, drama, essay, etc.
• it centered on the literary works themselves and their intrinsic
value within the larger framework of language teaching
• it created a stimulating and enjoyable atmosphere during which
students were led towards an in-depth appreciation of the body of
English and American literatures
• it taught students about literary techniques, analysis of structure
and meaning, aspects of literary theory, such as point of view, theme, the
role of the setting, etc.
• it centered on the students and helped them produce
documented responses to literature in agreement with their own
perspective and opinion; thus vacuum-cleaning reading was avoided
while intelligent reading and personal contribution were encouraged
• by teaching students to write literary essays, the literary
component nicely slid back the scales, a bit tilted by the very aim of the
approach – development of oral communicative skills.
To close the list of firsts, two more important aspects should be
mentioned. The first of them is the cross-curricular dimension which
these textbooks promoted. This aspect preceded the emphasis that is
336
nowadays put on developing thinking skills instead of teaching
information. Crossing the boundaries of language learning, using
language for doing things with it, transferring knowledge from one
domain to another are all efforts towards self-identification and
awareness, on the path towards social integration.
The second, closely connected with the first, is that quality of the
textbooks which allowed for the development of personal values and
attitudes and promotion of personal growth. Awareness of other cultures'
patterns of behaviour, of culture-sensitive issues help students develop
objective thinking but also "tolerance and empathy towards others and
awareness of being a member of an international community" (Achim et
all, 2000: 41]. Thus meeting "the highest international standards in its
quality but which would be tuned to the needs of the Romanian learners
of English and would acknowledge Romanian educational and cultural
traditions" [Achim et all, 2000: 5], the series of 12 textbooks using the
Communicative Approach was written and launched on the market
between 1995 and 1999. They were student-centred, topic and task
oriented and skill based. As such these textbooks haven't been surpassed
yet. Those which followed were just treading on a travelled path. The
Communicative method first spread to the teaching of other languages,
then wrote a new page in the Romanian teaching system itself. In time
those first 5th and 9th grade books which opened the series became
known and well-liked. Nowadays, after fifteen years, they still cash in
and this is one of the reasons that prevented EDP from selling the
publishing rights to Oxford University Press, who repeatedly expressed
their wish to own the complete series.
References:
Achim, A., et all. 2002. The Methodology of Pathway to English. Oxford
University Press
Vizental, A. 2003. Strategies of Teaching and Testing. Editura
Orizonturi Universitare, Timisoara
337
Advantages of a structuralist approach to teaching
Romanian as a foreign language
Ada ILIESCU
University of Craiova
Abstract: In this communication I have tried to point out some of
the advantages of a structuralist approach to Teaching Romanian
Language as a Foreign Language (RL as FL), calling into question and
"limits" of this method when applied exclusively. I also insisted on the
essential unity between the paradigmatic and the syntagmatic in teaching
morpho-syntactic and lexical patterns to foreign students, by a practicing
teacher who functions as director of the didactic discourse. What I
wanted to demonstrate is that even when they start from level zero,
foreign students can learn to speak Standard Romanian. The teaching
methods and techniques used, however, must be quite different.
Keywords: RL as FL, structuralist approach, didactic discourse,
morpho-syntactic and lexical patterns.
Preocuparea de a prezenta întregurile coerente şi semnificative ale
unor structuri de bază ale limbii române ca limbă străină ( LR ca LS ),
dar, în anumite situaţii, şi ale limbii române ca limbă maternă ( LR ca
LM ), coexistă cu convingerea noastră că strădania tuturor profesorilor
pentru echilibru, claritate, simetrie, rigurozitate, setea de sistematizare
vine în contradicţie cu incoerenţa, absurdul, irosirea şi chiar pierderea
valorilor tradiţionale ale limbii.
De asemenea, pentru ambele aspecte ale predării (LR ca LS /
LM), încercăm să relevăm că reţeaua relaţiilor structurale se
desfăşoară în simultaneitate, iar într-o structură constituită ad-hoc – totul
e contemporan-sincronic –, fără a afirma că structuralismul ignoră şi
exclude devenirea istorică. Nu putem trece cu vederea că, în predare, nu
apar situaţii în care cursanţii nu ne pretind o explicaţie mai profundă,
adică din punctul de vedere al istoriei limbii, de pildă, ureche [lat. pop.
oricla (= auricula) etc.], ci sunt chiar foarte frecvente.
Cursantului trebuie să i se explice că structurile obiectivate se cer
analizate numai ca expresii ale unei conştiinţe structurate. Pentru a
susţine această idee, am întocmit o serie de scheme, tabele şi planşe pe
care le-am folosit ca material auxiliar şi nu de puţine ori ( de ex tabelul
formării pluralului la substantive ş.a.), am constatat că numai plecând de
la aceste materiale, cursanţii pot să realizeze diversitatea de forme şi
multitudinea de dificultăţi ce urmează a fi interpretate, descrise de
profesor şi apoi învăţate şi automatizate de către aceştia. (v., de pildă,
tabelul cu ± Categoria determinării la nume ş.a.)
Prin modelele de predare progresivă, încercăm să susţinem ideea că
sistemul limbii este o grupare de convenţii şi de norme, ale căror
funcţionare şi relaţii le putem urmări şi descrie ca având o coerenţă şi o
identitate fundamentale, în ciuda pronunţării vorbitorilor individuali,
foarte diferite, imperfecte şi incomplete, pe care - paradoxal - , studentulactorul activ al actului de comunicare, o sesizează, fiind uneori chiar
derutat, auzindu-i vorbind incorect pe unii indivizi nativi.
Sustinem, în lucrarea noastră, si faptul ca unele dintre obiectivele
cursului de LR ca LS/LM pledează pentru posibilitatea ca destinatarul
să înţeleagă aspectele de organizare morfosintactică a propoziţiei, să
integreze informaţiile noi în sistemul propriu de cunoştinţe şi să utilizeze
corect sensul cuvintelor în raport cu tema propusă. Aceste deziderate ale
destinatorului se pot verifica atunci când i se dă cursantului un număr de
cuvinte dintr-o sferă semantică1 anume, cu o temă dată, iar acesta
reuşeşte să alcătuiască o compoziţie (de pildă: stradă, pieton, bătrân, a
traversa, autobuz, accident, a ajuta, bărbat, a salva, a mulţumi) iar, în
semestrul al doilea, la o grupă de medicinişti, se poate verifica acelaşi
lucru (de pildă: element, fundamental, macroelement, oxigen, hidrogen,
carbon, azot, vital, viaţă, necesar, organism). De cele mai multe ori,
studentul realizează (fără a i se mai spune) ce temă va avea compoziţia
respectivă, deoarece intuieşte structura de adâncime a fiecărui cuvânt.
Deci, şi când se trece la acest segment al alcătuirii de enunţuri
corecte, am inteles ca structuralismul ne oferă soluţii, deoarece concepe
1
W. von Humbold dezvoltă ideea după care conceptele sunt organizate în
câmpuri semantice.
339
limba ca o împletire de relaţii între semnele fonetice şi sintactice. Pe
baza acestor presupuneri, el dezvoltă o ştiinţă a acestor semne, ţinând
seama de funcţia distincţiei semantice, întrucât numai pe baza sunetelor
se pot construi unităţile de sens. Acest lucru nu este dificil, deoarece
cursantul ştie că, şi în limba maternă a sa, fiecare cuvânt în parte are
înţelesul său şi se va combina în unităţi în cadrul contextului, în
sintagme şi în tipare de propoziţie.
De aceea, orele de compunere şi de conversaţie ajung să fie o
posibilitate de „seducţie“ pentru cursanţii care au înţeles că unităţile
semantice, propoziţiile şi structurile propoziţiei se referă la obiecte şi, de
aceea, pot să construiască realităţi imaginative, cum ar fi: peisaje,
personaje, interioare, acţiuni sau alte idei. Acestea pot fi, de asemenea,
analizate într-un mod, care nu le confundă cu realitatea empirică şi nu
ignoră faptul că ele aparţin structurilor lingvistice, iar profesorul-regizor
poate dirija o conversaţie pe o temă dată - ca exerciţiu gramatical - sau
poate da ca temă de casă o compoziţie - tot ca exerciţiu gramatical2.
Atât în Manualul nostru3, cât şi în lucrarea de faţă, am încercat
să prezentăm modul personal în care am privit predarea unor structuri
morfosintactice şi lexicale de bază - de la cota zero - , dorind să se
observe preocuparea noastră pentru organizare şi claritate/limpezime,
setea de sistematizare, în aşa fel încât străinul să observe, mai degrabă,
motorul structurator al întregului decât „forfota“ detaliilor.
Un alt avantaj al concepţiei stucturaliste( la care noi am apelat înca
din primii ani de predare), este acela că, spre deosebire de paradigmele
gramaticii tradiţionale, ai căror membri au în comun doar rădăcina sau
baza cuvântului, paradigma - aşa cum a fost gândită de la F. de
Saussure încoace - este un concept infinit mai bogat şi fertil, deoarece, în
2
Aceste teme au fost abordate în două articole prezentate de noi la Timişoara:
Conversaţia ca exerciţiu gramatical (cu aplicaţie la formele atone ale
pronumelor), Sesiunea de Comunicări, 1976, p. 94-103 şi la Piteşti: Compunerea
ca exerciţiu gramatical, în Buletinul Ştiinţific al Facultăţii de Învăţământ
Pedagogic, 1980, p. 105-108.
3
Ada Iliescu, Manual de limba română ca limbă străină (pentru studenţii străini
pentru vorbitorii străini pentru românii de pretutindeni), Bucureşti, Editura
Didactică şi Pedagogică, 2002, v.Google:ada iliescu
340
funcţie de context, sintagma poate avea, de la caz la caz, o natură
fonologică (/ kárte / comparativ cu /kártea/), morfologică (/salút/
comparativ cu /salutắm/), sintactică (#studentei acesteia bune#
comparativ cu #acestei bune studente#) şi semantică [o maşină nouă]
comparativ cu [o nouă maşină].
Deşi Sintaxa propoziţiei – din perspectiva românei ca limbă
străină – nu se predă ca la vorbitorii nativi, ci se învaţă inductiv la fel ca
lexicul4, totuşi cu probleme de sintaxă, vorbitorul ia contact inca de la
predarea verbului a fi în structuri, deci de la primele lecţii, în care
profesorul-formator pune bazele alcătuirii propoziţiilor şi exersează
diferite tipuri, în care sunt cuprinse coordonatele sintagmatică şi
paradigmatică ale lui Saussure, precum şi un nivel permutaţional
prezent, şi în gramatica tradiţională, în cadrul căruia, o mare parte de
interes se îndreaptă spre descoperirea de raporturi între propoziţii şi părţi
de propoziţie.
De pildă, între predarea cauzalităţii şi a scopului este o distanţă de
patru lecţii, cand se predă modul infinitiv al verbelor, deoarece
cauzalitatea se explică imediat după spaţialitate, temporalitate şi
modalitate, iar, la vorbitorii nativi, complementul şi subordonata cauzală
si finală se explică abia în semestrul al III-lea:
ia fii
[Unde?]
[De când?]
[Din ce cauză?]
[În ce scop? ]
#Ali este aici.#, #El este în sala de curs.#
#El este de la ora 800 până la ora 1300.#
#El nu este aici, pentru că este bolnav#
#Ali a venit în România pentru a studia.#
Un alt exemplu ar fi următorul: faptul că există un raport între
propoziţii active şi pasive este utilizat pentru constituirea unei
nomenclaturi gramaticale, arătându-se că propoziţiile - de un anumit fel
- , se află în raport de transformare cu altele:
4
Pe străin, nu-l interesează ce fel de complement, atribut etc.a folosit în timpul
vorbirii şi nu l-ar ajuta cu nimic - în folosirea limbii - sau că este capabil să facă
diferenţa teoretică între un predicat verbal şi unul nominal ş.a.m.d.
341
ia scriei
ia fi scris, -ă, -i, -ei
#Studentul scrie temele.#
#Temele sunt scrise de student.#
Pentru studenţii arabi, greci ş.a., îndeosebi, ca vorbitori de limbă
engleză, acest exerciţiu de transformare este deosebit de simplu,
deoarece acelaşi lucru se petrece, şi în limba intermediară utilizată de ei.
De asemenea, substantivările de tipul #sosirea sa rapidă# sunt
văzute tot ca transformări ale unor propoziţii imanente ca #El soseşte
repede.#.
Pe lângă faptul că dezvăluie asemănări fundamentale în structura
propoziţiilor, utilizarea permutaţiilor simplifică enorm construcţia
gramaticii, întrucât înlătură o serie de dublete. De exemplu:
#După ce am terminat cursurile, ...#
#După terminarea cursurilor, ...# 5
#Când mergeam pe stradă, ...#
#Mergând pe stradă, ...# 6
#Până să vină profesorul nostru, ...#
#Până a veni profesorul nostru, ...#
#Până după-amiaza, la ora 1700, ...#
#Până la ora 1700, ...# 7
Din exemplele oferite în lucrarea noastră şi în Manualul nostru
(exemple pe care le utilizăm la clasă încă din primii ani de predare), se
observă că structuralismul nu este, pentru noi, decât o tactică lucidă de
a ţine seama de interdependenţa şi interacţiunea părţilor în sânul
întregului.
Preocuparea profesorului practician - regizorul Discursului didactic
- pentru aspectul teoretic al părţilor de propoziţie şi al subordonatelor
corespunzătoare este ceea ce deosebeşte pe dascălul de la străini de cel
de la vorbitorii nativi. Profesorul care predă LR ca LS explică, descrie,
interpretează doar mecanismul de producere a faptelor gramaticale;
5
Această transformare e posibilă numai după ce s-a predat cazul genitiv.
Această transformare e posibilă numai după ce s-a predat modul gerunziu.
7
Ultimele două grupaje de structuri se explică după predarea conjunctivului.
6
342
el se deosebeşte şi prin aceea că pune accentul pe alt aspect al realităţii,
şi anume insistă, aşa cum s-a observat, pe ideea de structură,
estompând - uneori - aspectele realului în favoarea structurii.
De exemplu, când se predă scopul8, se pleacă de la cauzalitate,
într-o structură redundantă şi se ajunge la cea mai simplă modalitate de
exprimare, iar, la un moment dat, studentul selectează ceea ce i se pare
mai simplu:
#Eu am venit în România, pentru că vreau să studiez.#
#Eu am venit în România pentru ca să studiez.#
#Eu am venit în România ca să studiez.#
#Eu am venit în România să studiez.#
# Eu am venit în România pentru a studia.#
Această „obsesie structurală“, această „sete“ de permanenţă, de
stabilitate, de certitudine au fost transmise, şi studenţilor noştri încă din
primii ani de predare. Totuşi, n-am dori să se creadă că ne erijăm în
modele sau că, la clasă, am lucrat numai cu studenţi excepţionali, dar se
ştie că, în fiecare grupă, există cursanţi dornici de cunoaştere şi de
autodepăşire, adica studenţi supermotivaţi.
Am observat, de-a lungul anilor, că studenţii inteligenţi şi maturi,
care au o motivaţie clară şi o dorinţă sinceră de a ajunge la competenţă (o
anumită înţelegere funcţională a limbii) şi performanţă (comentate
pentru prima dată de N. Chomsky), sunt iscoditori şi dornici să
gândească în limba română. Acest fenomen se întâmplă când citesc şi
înţeleg un text în limba română cu aceeaşi rapiditate cu care citesc şi
înţeleg în limba lor maternă.
Ajungând la această performanţă, s-a observat că gândirea lor nu se
mulţumeşte cu devenirea faptelor lingvistice, cu valoarea, cu cauza sau
originea lor, ci vor ceva sigur, palpabil, ceva care să nu le scape
neînregistrat în memorie. Mai mult, studentul străin, puternic motivat, nu
se mulţumeşte cu nimic din ceea ce s-ar afla în jurul fenomenului
gramatical, cu nimic din ceea ce este simplu atribut, ci vrea fenomenul
însuşi. Nu ceea ce fenomenul are, ci ceea ce este.
Studenţii doresc, de cele mai multe ori, o întoarcere la izvoare, la
lucrurile înseşi, deci la esenţe, iar când acestea par a fi abstracte pentru
8
Nu în propoziţie, ci în frază, deci ca subordonată finală.
343
ei, la structură, la integrarea fenomenului gramatical în gramatica
însăşi. Vom da numai patru exemple, cele mai simple, care trebuie
explicate cu „simţ de răspundere“ încă de la primele lecţii, cum ar fi:
afirmaţia şi negaţia în limba română, în forma lor cea mai simplă etc.:
I #Eşti student palestinian?#
#Da, sunt palestinian.# sau
#Nu, nu sunt palestinian.#
II. #Eşti student libanez?#
#Da, sunt libanez.#
#Nu eşti libanez!#
#Ba da, eu sunt libanez#
III.#Ce faci?#
#Scriu temele.#
#Învăţ lecţia.#
#Spăl paharele.#
#Citesc o revistă.#
#Mănânc un măr.#
#Ce mai faci?#
#O! Foarte bine!#
#Mulţumesc bine!#
#Foarte bine, vă mulţumesc!#
#E! Aşa şi aşa!#
IV.
#Duminică ne ducem la parc.#
#Duminica ne ducem la parc.#
Diferenţa de sens existentă între structurile grupate mai sus nu e
uşor de sesizat nici de către un vorbit nativ neiniţiat, cu atât mai mult
dacă i se cer, şi explicaţii. Totuşi cursantul nostru „iscoditor“ doreşte, aşa
cum spunem, o întoarcere la esenţe; el pretinde „să i se fixeze în tipare
eterne...perfecţiunea“ şi să i se explice de ce? şi când? tiparele de limbă
arată într-un fel sau altul.
De aceea, din primii ani la clasa, am considerat că terminologia
lingvistică şi, implicit, teoria gramaticală sunt şi o „necesitate“, şi un
„lux“, în cele din urmă, de vreme ce profesorul-enunţiator, formator,
regizor ş.a. trebuie să aibă o serie de competenţe indispensabile
procesului de predare / învăţare a LR ca LS, deoarece se ştie că pentru a
avea capacitatea să-i învăţăm pe alţii, trebuie ca noi să fim, în primul
rând, bine pregătiţi profesional.
Revenirea structuralistă la faptul lingvistic în sine nu este o
„revenire la naştere“- deoarece nimeni nu şi-a propus ca la cursul de LR
344
ca LS/LM să facă Etimologie sau Istoria limbii - , ci la „cununie“, la
momentul unirii, al simultaneităţii perfecte: esenţă - fapt gramatical material lingvistic. Această idee a noastră poate fi exemplificată prin una
dintre cele mai importante probleme de gramatică, pe care profesorul de
la străini trebuie să o predea, deşi implică un anumit grad de dificultate,
şi anume - Predarea categoriei genului la nume9.
În predarea LR ca LM, se ştie câte dificultăţi impune cazul
acuzativ privitor la întrebări de tipul: ce ? pe cine? pe ce? unde? de
unde? etc. sau concurenţa între complementul indirect şi alte
complemente, şi chiar concurenţa numelui predicativ cu subiectul,
ambele în cazul nominativ, cu excepţia situaţiei în care apare fenomenul
de tautologie. De aceea e nevoie să se apeleze, şi la raţionamentul
logico-semantic pentru a rezolva „litigiul“.
În concluzie, tineretul contemporan studios nu caută certitudinea
în aparenţa fenomenului, în acceptarea fără discuţie a concretului, ci în
clipa miraculoasă a unităţii perfecte între idee şi fapt gramatical.
Studenţii, ai căror profesori sunt ghidaţi de structură devin şi ei
spirite ale echilibrului, ale organicului; au o gândire integratoare şi
uneori doresc să ajungă singuri la fapte cognitive individuale. Am mai
spus şi cu altă ocazie: să lucrezi cu străinii nu este prea uşor, pentru că,
uneori, profesorul e nevoit să împace nişte opoziţii ireductibile. De
aceea, dascălul de la studenţii străini trebuie să fie lipsit de prejudecăţi şi
iluzii, să fie un om corect, modest şi practic, deoarece - pentru studentul
său - , el este „oglinda în mic a umanului“, „este unitatea-etalon de
măsură pentru suflet“, este modelul demn de urmat - şi ca mod de
exprimare, şi ca mod de comportare - , fiind animat mereu de dorinţa de
a anula fisurile universului, deci şi ale studenţilor săi, care - volensnolens - sunt fizionomii diferite de a sa însuşi.
Predând structurile morfosintactice şi lexicale într-o gramatică
practică, profesorul de la grupele de străini manifestă respect pentru
realitatea faptului lingvistic; nu improvizează10, ci încearcă să respecte
ceea ce şi-a propus în planificarea semestrială şi deci să explice LR ca
LS nu doar ca o enunţare ad-hoc, ci ca un tipar sintactic. Căpătând, la
9
v. Manual.....l, p. 32-34
Dacă se întâmplă să improvizeze, studenţii simt acest lucru, manifestând
reticenţă şi chiar obstrucţie faţă de profesorul respectiv.
10
345
rândul său o gândire integratoare şi echilibrată, fiind ajutat de profesorul
său să gândească structural, studentul va căuta să înţeleagă fenomenul
din interior, să-i cunoască legea proprie de existenţă şi funcţionare11.
Pentru a exemplifica, vom face apel, în cele ce urmează, la
morfemul categoriei determinării aşa cum este considerat articolul,
care se ştie că este strict delimitat distribuţional, neapărând - ca articol decât în vecinătatea unui substantiv. Se pune deci problema ca
profesorul să-i explice cursantului trăsăturile formale, semantice şi
distribuţionale. De aceea, trebuie să insiste asupra valoarii operaţionale ca instrument - a acestuia, valoare, care se exercită, cu precădere, asupra
substanţei semantice, lucru ce se poate constata din faptul că elementele
care angajează categoria determinării, cu cele trei opoziţii ale ei
(articulat hotărât - articulat nehotărât - nearticulat) sunt utilizate în
realizarea unor clare distincţii semantice.
Pentru că articolul hotărât alături de posesivul AL12 implică cele
mai mari dificultăţi, este necesar să se prezinte contextul diagnostic al
acestuia, ţinând seama de valoarea lui determinativă, şi anume aceea că
apare numai într-un singur tip de contexte – vecinătatea unui substantiv.
Prezenţa sau absenţa articolului hotărât în anumite contexte
presupune prezenţa unor determinanţi care satisfac sau nu valenţa
articolului de a determina sau nu substantivul. Considerăm că tabelul de
mai jos este edificator în acest sens şi el poate fi folosit - nu numai la
grupele cu studenţi străini, ci şi la clasele cu vorbitori nativi - , care se
ştie câte probleme întâmpină din punctul de vedere al ortografiei: #aceşti
miniştri, aştri, zimbri# sau #toţi miniştrii, aştrii, zimbrii# ş.a.m.d.
Unul dintre procedeele structuraliste folosit atât în predare cât şi în
automatizarea modelelor de limbă este substituţia de itemi, care impun
ca necesară forma articulată / nearticulată.
11
Manualul publicat de noi în anul 2002 şi cateva dintre dificultăţile explicării LR
ca LS, prezentate în lucrarea noastră, susţin această afirmaţie, relevând modul în
care noi predăm aceste structuri, aducand studenţii la nivelul de competenţă şi
performanţă mult dorite.
12
sau alte articole posesive; pentru posesivul AL vezi Manual, Predarea posesiei,
p.58-60.
346
CATEGORIA DETERMINĂRII LA NUME
Substantiv ± articol hotărât enclitic
Corect
Greşit
Nişte
elevi
n-au
nişte
* nişte elevii
manuale.
Câţi studenţi sunt *
câţi
câţi
absenţi?
studenţii
Doi profesori au *
doi
doi
grupa mea.
profesorii
Mulţi oameni au *
mulţi
mulţi
maşină.
oamenii
*
puţini
puţini
Puţini pomi sunt aici.
pomii
aceşti
Aceşti pantofi sunt *
aceşti
noi.
pantofii
[-]
după
acei
Acei fraţi sunt ai tăi? * acei fraţii
Unii
medici
au *
unii
unii
cabinet.
medicii
Ambii copii sunt *
ambii
ambii
medici.
copiii
bunii
Bunii colegi m-au *
bunii
ajutat.
colegii
alţi
Alţi vecini s-au mutat. * alţi vecinii
Ai mei prieteni sunt * ai mei
ai mei
oneşti.
prietenii
Ai noştri copii sunt * ai noştri
ai noştri
departe.
copiii
au
Toţi
elevii
* toţi elevi
toţi
manuale.
Amândoi studenţii * amândoi
amândoi
învaţă.
studenţi
prepoz.
El a venit cu mama.
* cu mamă
[+]
după
CU
înseşi +
*
înseşi
Înseşi elevele au spus.
S
eleve
S
+
*
eleve
Elevele înseşi au spus.
înseşi
înseşi
347
După cum se va observa, şi în capitolele următoare, avantajele
folosirii tehnicilor structuraliste sunt imense şi de aceea am apelat la
acestea în predarea structurilor morfosintactice şi lexicale13.
Limitele metodei structuraliste
O interpretare justă a structuralismului decurge firesc, logic şi fără
prea mare efort, şi din înţelegerea limitelor sale.
Concluziile noastre cu privire la acest aspect sunt următoarele: a)
există pericolul ca profesorul de limbă să cadă în greşeala preluării
noutăţilor - fără discernământ - , să se entuziasmeze prea uşor de
ipoteze neverificate suficient, ceea ce i-ar putea deruta pe cursanţi; b)
unii studenţi, bine intenţionaţi în studiul lor aprofundat, tind spre cealaltă
extremă, atenţia lor începând să se îndrepte exclusiv spre tipar; c)
obiectul tinde să se reducă la structura sa; d) prin natura sa, această
metodă, tehnicile sale pot fi aplicate numai în anumite zone ale
Gramaticii practice a LR ca LS, iar în altele nu.
De exemplu, când se predă genul neutru al substantivelor
inanimate, în consoană, se observă incapacitatea de a se explica, în
termeni de structură, geneza, schimbarea calităţii etc., deoarece
gândirea structuralistă nu poate funcţiona diacronic, nu se poate spune
nimic despre originea unui fenomen lingvistic; este ca şi cum nu ar avea
“antene”, care să îi aducă semnalele propriei salvări; e) pentru unii
dascăli, abordarea structurală nu s-a încadrat armonios în complexul de
metode existent, întrucât li se părea o contradicţie prea mare între
obiectul ştiinţei şi tehnicile structuraliste14; f) având ca reper latura
organizatorică, echilibrul etc., se încearcă să se extindă importanţa
structuralismului, şi în cultura modernă, prin preocuparea pentru
noţiunea de structură ca trăsătură definitorie. Balzac şi Tolstoi se
13
v. Manual..., p.28-29
De aceea, pătrunderea metodelor structurale ( incomparabil mai adecvate) nu sa făcut pe cale „violentă“, ci au fost şi ramân o cale de acces a unei „ofensive“. Un
exemplu grăitor îl constituie unele manuale redactate recent, la noi, manuale, care
dau impresia că explică LR ca LM nu ca LS, îintrucat autorii n-au stat “in altarul
tablei”, în faţa străinilor, ci, eventual, ca profesori de română sau de engleză, au
avut, sporadic, plata cu ora la străini.
14
348
preocupau de sentimente; un contemporan se ocupă de mecanismul lor,
aşa cum preconiza transformaţionalismul, care a mutat centrul de
interes de pe produs pe mecanismul de producere. În muzică, se
presupune că structuralismul este „divinatoriu şi curios“, nu „solemn şi
ferm“ ş.a.m.d.
Părerea unanimă, cea mai frecventă - relativ la deficienţele acestei
teorii - este aceea că structuralismul consideră că limba structurează
lumea înconjurătoare, denumirile delimitând lucrurile unele de altele.
De aceea se zice că acest curent îşi depăşeşte condiţia de metodă şi se
angajează într-o filosofie în care limbii i se atribuie rolul de organizator
al lumii. În acest sens, I. Coteanu1515 afirmă:
Limba este, fără îndoială, conştiinţă practică, adică o anume
reflectare a lumii, căci nici ideile şi, cu atât mai puţin, cuvintele, după
părerea noastră, nici schemele limbii, nu sunt înnăscute, ci dobândite
iniţial prin procedee asemănătoare cu cele scrise de Pavolov în
cercetările sale asupra reflexelor condiţionate.
Revenind la ceea ce i se reproşează structuralismului, şi anume
faptul că acesta îşi întemeiază observaţiile pe ideea că, prin actul
denumirii, limba structurează lumea, I. Coteanu16 completează:
Actul de denumire nu e nici gratuit, nici convenţional. Cuvântul,
corpul său material, materia fonică realizată prin denumire nu au
corespondent obligatoriu în materia referentului, ci ceea ce este bine
ştiut şi, în general, admis.
Maria Manoliu Manea17, referindu-se la reproşurile care i se aduc
structuralismului, subliniază în lucrarea sa următoarele:
Este adevărat că, uneori, chiar şi în lingvistică, termenul de
structură ascunde mai mult intenţionalul, dorinţa cercetătorului de a-şi
vedea obiectul structurat, setea de sistematizare, proprie oricărei ştiinţe,
15
Semantica şi funcţia reflexivă a limbii, în Probleme de lingvistică generală, vol.
VII, Bucureşti, 1977, p. 17.
16
Ibidem, p. 20.
17
Structuralismul lingvistic, Bucureşti, Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, 1973, p.
237 ş.u.
349
de unde se ajunge, uneori, la ideea exprimată de Raymond Boudon că
nu există decât «comoditate în a folosi cuvântul < structură
> şi nu< necesitate > (A quoi sert la notion de structúre? Paris, 1968,
p. 42); sau, mai rău, la desemnarea prin structură a unor domenii, a
căror sferă nu a fost bine delimitată.
O altă limită a structuralismului este rezultată din necesitatea
obiectivă de formalizare a ştiinţelor; de aceea mitul limbajului, este de
părere Maria Manoliu Manea18:
... poate conduce, în acelaşi timp, la eroarea de a reduce de la
simplu joc gratuit (arbitrar) orice activitate umană, deformând
conceptul de cauzalitate internă, de autoreglare şi transformare.
Oricare ar fi însă „umbrele“ acestui curent, adevărul incontestabil
este că a dominat spiritele multor intelectuali din secolul al XX-lea, că
„mirajul“ structurii ca sistem închis în sine, ca limbaj transformat în
propriul său subiect continuă să-i fascineze, şi astăzi pe mulţi dintre noi.
Bibliografie:
Boldureanu, V., Curs practic intensiv pentru anul pregătitor,
Reprografia Universităţii, Timişoara, 1976
Brâncuş, Gr., Ionescu, Adriana, Saramandu, Manuela, Limba română.
Manual pentru studenţii străini, E.D.P., 1991
Chomsky., N., Aspecte ale teoriei sintaxei, E.Ş.E., Bucureşti, 1969
Lado, R., Predarea limbilor. O abordare ştiinţifică, E.D.P., Bucureşti,
1976
Rivers, W., M., Formarea deprinderilor de limbă străină, E.D.P.,
Bucureşti, 1977
Saussure, F., de, Curs de lingvistică generală, Editura Polirom, Iaşi,
1998
18
Ibidem, p. 239
350
Esthetic education – artistic education, essential
component of the multilateral personality
Elisabeta Margareta LINGURAR
Liceul de Artă “Sabin Drăgoi” Arad
Mariana NAGY
Universitatea “Aurel Vlaicu” din Arad
e-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: The paper aims at presenting the undeniable influence
that music has on the education process, its role in educating the
multilateral personality and forming the action patterns of a new
generation. Being part of the life philosophy of many great personalities,
such as Balzac, Dante, Schopenhauer or Le Corbusier, music touches the
nerve, the maximum sensibility points of an era. In this context, artistic
education – musical education is so important as it can determine the
characteristics of the modern life through its great personalities.
Keywords: music, creativity, education, multilateral personality
In the process of educating the young generation in order to be able
to deliberately build its own future, the scientific and cultural-artistic
creativity has an outstanding importance as, by specific means, it is
called to contribute to the affirmation of human's personality.
Romanian concept on the place and role of qualified labor force
and creativity is based on understanding the complex interdependencies
between education and society, the need for fully valorizing the creative
potential of the most significant national good - the human being.
Educating youth is the school’s first and foremost task – the
organized framework for the best preparation, systematic training and
education of people for the labor market. The school has the task to train
people with highly specialized technical and professional training in all
areas, meanwhile giving a high level of general culture. Art has an
important role, both in terms of creating new values and in terms of
influence in shaping the human personality. Art has undergone a
spectacular development, accumulating new values that have enriched the
cultural heritage of the country and increased our contribution to the
universal culture. Art played an important role both from an aesthetic
point of view and the content of ideas it expresses, by encouraging and
promoting the revolutionary spirit, by strongly contributing to a better
understanding of life, by influencing the behavior of citizens and their
system of values.
The art of sounds is able to express and interpret any feeling or
landscape, any action or conflict, the face and concerns of any hero,
because the music is thousandfold more nuanced and more accurate than
the abstract word that allows different and inaccurate representations,
often with several meanings.
1. Music in Balzac's view
Motto: "La musique c'est l'Aime
According to Balzac: “No other art than music acts so directly and so
deeply on the human soul”. Giving primacy in art to the music, Balzac
insists on its infinite nature, on the limitless possibilities offered to the
imagination of the listener.
Music is for Balzac a puzzle, an enigma that each listener solves in
his own way, adapting it and selfadapting to the specific richness of the
own psychology, to its interior world or electrical affinities.
We are forced - notes Balzac, “to accept the poet’s ideas, the
painter’s painting, the sculptor’s statue, but each of us interprets music
according to his own pain or joy, hope or despair”. While the other arts
capture our thoughts fixing them on something specific, music spreads
over all nature and has the power to express it to us. "
Considering music superior to other arts, as painting or literature,
Balzac emphasized the infinity of nuances that the art of sounds can play
through an expression and language that makes it above the possibilities of
the "color that is fixed and the word that has limits".
According to Balzac’s opinion, “the language of music is infinite, it
contains everything, it can express everything – the whole nature that is an
eternal music, a sweet melody, perfect harmony”.
In Balzac's conception – maybe under Schopenhauer’s influence,
music is the first between arts, as it is able to penetrate into the depths of
the human soul, to talk directly to it, "to communicate ideas like
352
perfumes", revealing or completing a great variety of feelings, a colored
range of sensations, thoughts, dreams and aspirations.
The initial attraction towards the art of sounds, the dynamics of
childhood, will become a true passion that the writer develops a lifetime.
At an early age, seduced by the mirage of sounds, the child bought
himself a violin - "un petit violon rouge 25 sous” and then, in the times of
febrile self-searches in his 20th, Balzac thought about writing a comic
opera inspired by George Byron's “Corsair”. Between 1831 and 1837 he
attends the Italian Opera and Theatre.
For Balzac, the ideal performer is the one who combines intellect
with sensitivity, without being entirely dominated by a deep passion that
may cancel his capability to play that work.
Playing the piano at a high level of perfection, apparently raises the
artist to the height of the poet; he is for the composer what the actor is for
the author - a translator for the divine things.
Among the great performers of his era, Balzac seems to have
listened to live concerts and recitals of Chopin, Liszt and Paganini. In his
texts, Balzac depicts them as virtuosos; moreover, he wrote considerations
on their interpretative art, comparing their styles and highlighting their
temperamental features and distinctive characters.
In Paganini, Balzac saw the artist "handled by burning passion". In
Chopin’s performing, Balzac distinguishes "a pain and Raphael
perfection” that reveal a rare sensitivity.
Realizing the temperamental differences between Liszt and Chopin,
Balzac argues on well-founded artistic differences.
"One can’t judge Liszt only after listening to Chopin; the Hungarian
is a demon, the Polish is an angel." Denying the geniality of the
composition, Liszt appears in the position of a performer bearing with a
spectacular talent under the grandeur of Dante.
He feels Rossini as "a genius, brother of Raphael". Listening to the
divine music of the Barber, he "compares the ecstatic state of Massimille
with Santa Cecilia painted by Raphael.
The purity of the melodic lines of Benedetto Marcello's Psalms
suggest to Balzac the simple and serious atmosphere of Giotto's frescoes:
"This Venetian noble is for the music what Giotto is for the painting"
The set of Balzacian analogies can be enlarged with countless
examples.
Although perhaps less than painting, music enriched the literary art of the
353
novelist; it helped to amplify, clarify and explain his ideas, illustrating
them by suggestions, symbols and references to the great creations of the
world of sounds.
And, if the music has influenced more or less the exceptional
achievements in his literary creation, nourishing the intellectual vocation
of the writer, no doubt it was for Balzac – the man, the unique art that
bears with the capacity of “calming the soul, to bestow upon him a
refreshing balsam, to displace complaints and troubles."
2. Artistic education –
basic requirement of the contemporary personality
Integrated education has now become a necessity not only of the
contemporary society but also a virtual, objective opportunity. Any
personality tends to valorize any of its availabilities. This aspiration is
stronger as the belief that this is possible, has become a common truth.
Aesthetic Education, part of the multilateral formation of the
personality, is one of the major levers which act on the cultural level of the
whole population. The importance of the aesthetic and artistic education
has increased in recent years due to new factors and conditions in a
manner that they become active and powerful forces of cultural and
educational development of our society. Contemporary art deals with
sensitive changes in the content and the form of interpretation of the
content and form of artistic expression. In this context, the artistic demand
for education is much more natural. According to many authors, esthetic
education in general and artistic education in particular is presented in
nowadays conditions as a remedy against excessive technicality, as a
means of humanizing the young generation and preventing alienation, as
an essential component of multilateralism.
Artistic education, central part of the aesthetic education has a
narrower action space, however, goes deeper, counts on a certain degree
of initiation, operates with all types of art, implies more subtle qualities
and involves more complexly the whole personality.
Modern art is inspired by the modern life and civilization
incorporating among its means the products of technology, becoming an
indispensable element to the mind and soul.
According to Le Corbusier, "the technique is not antagonistic to the
spirit (...); technique has broadened the field of poetry". Sometimes,
354
modern music was inspired by cars: such are the compositions "Pacific
231" by Arthur Honegger, imitating locomotive noises or "Daily news" by
Paul Hindemith, imitating the noise of typewriters. Modern music
enriched the history of culture with final creations. By their structure, the
news and rhythm’s share, they satisfy our technique oriented civilization.
Regarding the conception on arts, the relationship between art and
science, between art and the problems of our age faced by humanity,
Herbert Read says: "Our age is tragic, full of dangers for the existence of
all nations and whole humanity (..). What has artistic education to do with
it ? Here's our answer: EVERYTHING. We believe that there is a direct
connection between arts and life, between beauty and truth. ".
Masterpieces always contain an ethical commitment or aspiration,
something high and generally human. "I regret if I had only managed to
entertain my auditors, I would have made them better" - Handel said.
"The freedom and progress are the target of arts and of the life as
whole", thought Beethoven.
Essential for aesthetic education is the fact that it correctly blends the
logical and the emotional elements. Aesthetic education tends to acquire
certain knowledge, skills training and the development of intellectual
competencies. It completes the formation of the multilateral personality by
specific means and developing knowledge and creative forces. Instruction
consists of a student mentoring process based on a system of scientific
data, specific skills, with a scientific conception on the world. Education
and instruction in school is achieved through learning. They can not be
conceived as separate phenomena, being integrated into a coherent whole.
Education, training and study are not conceived without an intimate
connection between them, as inseparable parts of the teaching process. It is
encountered also in the art of playing the piano.
In the educational process, the student must be protected by a
tendency to aestheticism or to an outer glow that often compensates the
poverty of ideas of a less gifted composer or attracted by superficial
effects.
Esthetic education expands the opportunities of accumulating
knowledge on the objective reality by familiarizing students with the
artistic culture of the past and present. In an artistic perception, emotions
are of primary importance, but the interest only for the emotional aspects,
without a proper analysis of the content and means of expression of the
355
work, will not lead to a deep and conscious understanding nor to a long
lasting knowledge.
Education allows the knowledge of the world, not only of the data
obtained through science, but also on the path of knowledge through
artistic images - due to sensitive resources that such images make
available to those who learn.
Music sets out sensible relationships between people, given their
feelings and emotional content bearing with a general, human
character. The means of expression is appropriate to their content. These
types of emotions are sensitive expressions of that era, expressions bearing
with a certain social character too. Music touches the nerve, the maximum
sensibility points of an era. Bach and the preclassics revealed a society
wanting to ignore everything that could disturb the balance and strictly
regulated rituals. The Romanticism leads us into a new world that feeds by
harshness and breathes through shocks. New, contemporary music reflects
the effervescent era of the first half of the twentieth century, full of
innovations made in all areas of human activity. A burning desire to topple
the sonority and escape from the sphere of too much heard and always the
same combinations, is heavily felt in contemporary composing art.
References:
Bentoiu, P., Imagine şi sens, Editura muzicală, Bucureşti, 1973
Bentoiu, P., Gândirea muzicală, Editura muzicală, Bucureşti, 1975
Constantinescu, G., Boga, I., O călătorie prin istoria muzicii, Editura
didactică şi pedagogică, Bucureşti, 2007
Fraisse, P., Manual de psihologie experimentală, Paris, 1963
Pasca, G., Boţocan, M., Carte de istorie a muzicii, Editura Vasiliana ’98,
Iaşi, 2003
Salades, D., Ciurea, R., Educaţie prin artă şi literatură, Editura didactică şi
pedagogică, Bucureşti, 1967
Văideanu, G., Cultura estetică şcolară, Editura didactică şi pedagogică,
Bucureşti, 1967
Voiculescu, D., Polifonia secolului XX, Ed.Muzicală, 2005
Voiculescu, D., Fuga în creaţia lui J.S.Bach, Ed.Muzicală, Bucureşti,
2000
Zisulescu, Şt., Aptitudini şi talente, Editura didactică şi pedagogică,
Bucureşti, 1976.
356
Teaching, language and communication
Adriana VIZENTAL
Abstract: Present-day approaches to linguistics tell us that
communication means much more than using the language accurately,
i.e. correctly from a grammatical point of view. The competent speaker
knows how to use the language meaningfully, so as to convey his
message, functionally, so as to perform speech acts and get things done,
appropriately, i.e. adapted to the receiver and the situational context, and
strategically, i.e. manipulating the language so as to accomplish his realworld aims. By using the language skillfully, he can avoid conflicts and
preserve social relations in good repair. As teachers and/or as parents,
we must urge our youngsters to communicate efficiently.
Keywords: language, paralanguage, functional grammar, linguistic
strategies.
They say there is nothing new on Earth, only new people. In the
same way, in the field of education, it seems that teachers before us have
invented most of the tricks that we consider to be new and innovative,
only to discover after a while that “someone has already been there.”
Therefore, I am not going to try to tell you something new. Instead,
I suggest that we should reanalyze a number of very well known terms –
that of teacher, of language and of communication – approaching them
from a different angle.
Traditionally, the teacher is the person who transmits information
to his students, enriching their knowledge and widening their horizon.
But according to this definition, many people, or many categories of
people, are teachers for his peers. The moment a mother is given her
baby to hold in her arms, she begins to talk to it, and children usually
learn their first language from their mother – why else would we call it
“mother tongue.” Mother is also an educator: nothing can replace those
first “7 years” one gets at home. Obviously, in the age of paternity
leaves, the term “mother” must be regarded in a wider sense, to include
both parents.
It often happens that children, even very small ones, ask questions
that baffle their parents. For example:
“Dad, what’s the name of that tree?” “I don’t know, son.” “Dad,
who invented the typewriter?” “Sorry, son, no idea.” “Dad, how do
birds fly?” “Son, I really don’t know.” Mother, anxious to help her
husband out, intervenes, “Leave your father alone, son, he’s tired.” But
father stops her, “Let the boy ask, woman, how else is he going to learn
things?”
Naturally, this father does not live in 2010. Today’s father accesses
the Internet, Googles the data and gets the answers on the spot.
Traditionally, teaching was focused on accumulation of
knowledge, on providing answers to every question a student might
have. But today’s society is quite different from earlier societies, so that
the students’ needs are also quite different. In its multi-secular existence
on Earth, never before has mankind witnessed changes such as those that
occurred in the last century. 100 years ago people had no electricity
supply in their homes – I challenge you to imagine a day without
electricity in your homes. 80 years ago the trams in Arad were drawn by
horses, the number of cars could be counted on the fingers of one hand,
and planes practically did not exist. The shrinking of space,
accomplished by reducing the time required for traveling from one
corner of the Earth to another, was accompanied, in an even more
dramatic fashion, by a shrinking of the informational gap with the help
of the telegraph, the telephone (cellular, in recent years), of the computer
and the Internet, so that today we have the world’s entire data base at our
feet, on condition we know how to tame it. In addition, digital
technology makes everything so user-friendly that even the non-initiated
can learn to use the most complex tools and instruments.
In his science-fiction novel The Third Millennium, G.S,
Altschuller1 summarizes the dramatic pace of change as follows way:
Over the three millennia […], science has considerably changed its
fundamental views sixteen times. The geocentric system of the world was
replaced with the heliocentric one, quantum physics acknowledged
1
The father of TRIZ (The Theory of Solving Inventive Problems).
358
postulates that could not be imagined in classical physics, and so on.
The seventeenth overthrow is entirely possible.2
In other words, the changes are so profound, and their pace is so
quick, that we can’t even imagine what the near future has in store for
us. As a result, teachers today are preparing their students for a world
they know nothing about, a world in which much of the information they
accumulate today will be outdated or obsolete.
The main objective of mid-20th century education was the
formation of well-trained specialists, so that school was organized along
strictly defined domains. The result was the emergence of people who
knew more and more things in fewer and fewer domains (Bernard
Shaw’s definition of the specialist). But, as Altschuller argues,
specialization may be a key to open door after door, but somewhere
behind us doors were slamming shut. In his opinion, specialization
should be completely replaced with training universal professionals. (G.
Altov, The Third Millennium)
Under the circumstances, school today no longer focuses on
acquiring knowledge, but on developing abilities and skills: of locating
information, of analyzing and systematizing it, of using it for practical
purposes, etc. Today, teachers no longer say (or should not say),
Children, today we are going to speak about the cat; instead, they say,
Children, next time we’ll speak about the cat. Your task is to look up
information in books, dictionaries, on the Internet, etc. You might say
that, this way, the teacher has less work to do and that his job is easier.
Nothing could be further from the truth: instead of repeating a wellknown lesson, now the teacher has to work with each and every student
individually, assessing the material he has put together, correcting his
mistakes, making suggestions, encouraging, proposing group work,
developing habits and correcting behavior, etc. Naturally, this kind of
work is closer to the way people interact in real life: have you ever seen
a mother lecturing and her son taking notes conscientiously and learning
by heart what she has said? This type of teaching also shifts the balance
2
Quoted by Khomenko & Murashlovska, 2006: 261.
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between the two basic components of the training-educational process:
working together with the children, the teacher has a better opportunity
to influence positively their behavior.
Now if we approach the subject from another perspective, we may
say that every person is, or can be, a teacher for his peers; you don’t
even have to be grown up for that.
In my teaching experience, which spans more years than I care to
admit, never have I encountered a person with a sharper pedagogical
spirit than my granddaughter Lisa (age 6 ½). All day long, with a
dedication and perseverance worthy of a larger and wiser person, she
teaches and educates every body and thing around – dolls, cousins and
friends, parents and grandparents – and is deeply hurt when her good
intentions are rejected – which happens quite often, given that one of her
favorite students is her cousin Leon (age 7). Leon, let’s say we’re at
school and I’m your teacher. Repeat after me!; Leon, now we are in the
kindergarten and we’re having our show. You’re reciting your poem.
But Lisa’s concerns are mostly educational: Leon, don’t put so much salt
in your food.; Leon, you didn’t put you hand to your mouth when you
coughed. And when she feels that her arguments are not strong enough,
she quotes the uncontested authority in the field, Leon, what did Ady
say? (i.e. me). Naturally, the student Leon often rebels against the
authority.
Leon, too, has pedagogical preoccupations, his favorite domains
beings sports (Put your foot here, Lisa, come on, you can do it),
mathematics (a couple of weeks ago he was teaching his cousin Mark,
age 1, to count to ten; rapping it, to his merit), and figurative language (I
heard him explain to his teacher that to poke one's nose into other
people's business is metaphorical).
Even much younger children manifest didactic preoccupations. I
can prove it by describing the behavior of my other two grandchildren –
Hava (age 1 ½) and Mark (age 1 and 3 months). You can see Mark
raising his hand and scolding the disobedient dog. “Don’t!!!” says his
threatening gesture. Or take Hava: She looks at the power supply on the
wall, raises a finger in a gesture of warning, and says, “Nnnnn!!!” As the
person she is talking to is herself, you might say that it is a form of selfeducation. Wrong again. Since at this age children do not know the
pronominal system (the “I” and “you” and “he”), she is in fact
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addressing some mental “Hava girl” image, whom she carefully informs
that it is dangerous to touch the power supply. (Note the profoundly
positive character of Romanian education: the first notion learned is
Don’t !!!)
From here to the (hardly) interior monologues of our “senior” peers
is but a short step. S/He’s gone crazy, the old girl/guy, s/he’s mumbling
to him/herself! some younger onlooker might say. But what do those
greenhorns know about the complexities of education! In such cases, the
speaker – mindful adviser and guide – is carefully counseling some less
initiated alter-ego regarding the correct way to act or behave in the given
circumstance. Ceausescu was sure no Romanian could manage in life
without his wise guidance; how could then those respectable persons get
along without vocalizing the voice of reason?
But since in my audience today there are many teachers, or
prospective teachers, let us return to teaching as a profession. I shall refer
mostly to the teacher of foreign languages, but my observations are also
valid for other types of teachers, as well as for the parent-teacher.
When I was in high school, we used to learn foreign languages in
order to acquire solid general knowledge, so as to read – in the original,
if possible – the works of Shakespeare, of Dickens or James Joyce. It
was the natural course of things, because Romania was hermetically
sealed up and our only chance of equaling the West was by culture and
education. But who needs high culture today? Money, even greater
amounts, can be made by picking strawberries or by raising sheep. And
for that you don’t need Shakespeare. With due respect for honest work,
whether in the country or abroad, I dare say that some education doesn’t
hurt. I must nevertheless admit that today people have other needs and
priorities. As members of the EU, the mobility of Romanian citizens is
restricted by nothing except the limits of their own minds and skills: they
can travel, study at prestigious universities abroad, go into business with
powerful foreign firms, etc.
This state of facts imposes upon the training-educational process
new priorities, and the findings of linguists point to the right direction.
When I was learning English, foreign languages were taught by the
grammar-translation method: students were supposed to learn by heart
long bilingual lists of words, grammar was taught deductively (from rule
to examples), and translation was a basic means for assessing acquisition
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of knowledge. This was because the great linguist Chomsky had ruled
that the well-formedness of sentences was the standard by which to
assess the speaker’s linguistic competence. Confronted with the outside
world, however, such learners soon realized that their hard-learned
language was inefficient: they could recite long quotations from literary
texts, but could not cope with the most basic conversations. This was
because, on the one hand, they could not understand the rapid and
idiomatic speech of native speakers; on the other, they were used to
carefully building up sentences, so that they could not formulate their
ideas rapidly enough.
Emergence of the communicative approach to teaching foreign
languages brought about a considerable improvement. Based on the
developments in the field of functional grammar, of socio-linguistics and
pragmatics, it emphasizes the priority of meaning and asserts that the
non-wellformedness of utterances does not prevent meaningful
communication.
Unfortunately, from the observations of linguists, many teachers
have retained only the idea that grammar is not important, ignoring
completely another remark by the same linguists.
According to functional grammar, language is a system of
meanings, accompanied by forms through which the meanings can be
realized. (Halliday, 1994: xiv). In other words, the speaker organizes his
message in such a way that each level – phonologic organization,
intonation, clause structure, sentence structure etc. – carry best the
meaning he wants to express.
Indeed, even toddlers who have not yet learned to speak are able to
communicate functionally. They may not yet know how to say milk or
pick me up, but with the help of the sounds they mumble, the gestures
they make, with their frowns or cries, they manage to communicate (to
their mother, at least) their wishes and desires. In the same way,
immigrants in a new language environment learn a basic vocabulary and
use gestures to convey their message and get the things they need. This
is because we use the language not only to say things, but also to do
things, as J.L. Austin (1962) tells us in his theory of speech acts, and the
speaker’s goal is to accomplish functions: to ask or to offer, to accept or
to refuse, to praise or to apologize, etc.
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Furthermore, as Dell Hymes argues, …there are rules of use
without which the rules of grammar would be useless [… and …] some
occasions call for being appropriately ungrammatical. (Hymes, 1966).
Hymes further suggested that an experienced communicator knows the
rules of appropriate social behavior, i.e. how to address different types of
persons, what to talk about in different situations, when to speak and
when to keep silent, etc.
In addition, speakers rarely put their ideas into words directly and
straightforwardly. Careful of his own good image, and aware that
preserving social relations in good repair is essential for his own wellbeing in society, the speaker generally indulges in intricate strategies of
indirectness (Grice: 1975), whose reason, in most cases, is politeness. As
the theories of politeness (R. Lakoff: 1973; G. Leech: 1977/1983; P.
Brown & S.C. Levinson: 1978/1987) point out, we are not talking here
of real-world politeness, but rather, of communicative behaviour aimed
at obtaining real-world advantages and/or avoiding negative
consequences: the speaker may say Thank you and smile sweetly, when
in fact nothing would please him more than to punch his interlocutor in
the face.
In conclusion, in ordinary communication the speaker does not
utter sequences of words with the aim of producing accurate
grammatical structures. Often disregarding the rules of grammar, he uses
the language functionally and strategically, so as to carry out his realworld aims. Therefore, simulating in the micro-universe of the
classroom the macro-universe of the outside world, the communicative
teacher must create situations in which the students should use the
language meaningfully, functionally, appropriately and strategically,
negotiating meaning on a case-to-case basis, the way competent
speakers do in everyday life. Because, linguists today insist, meaning is
not […] produced by the speaker alone, nor by the hearer alone. Making
meaning is a dynamic process, involving the negotiation of meaning
between speaker and hearer, the context of utterance (physical, social
and linguistic) and the meaning potential of an utterance (Thomas,
1995: 22-3).
Another basic concept of modern didactics is that of developing
skills. In the case of foreign languages, we are talking of listening and
speaking skills, of reading and writing skills. (Absence of listening skills
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was one of the main reasons why grammar-translation learners could not
cope with real-world communication. Absence of spontaneous
productive skills was another).
And again, focusing on the individual skills, teachers often don’t
see the forest for the trees: they forget that people learn foreign
languages to as to communicate with other people.
How do people communicate? Starting our survey with the young
ones, let us return to Lisa and Leon. Lisa teaches and educates and, like
all self-respecting teachers, she considers that only she possesses the key
to truth, so that she insists, she annoys and exasperates. Leon, with
typical masculine efficiency, solves his problems expediently: with a
short-armed punch under the table. Obviously, at his age, he hasn’t yet
learned the profound wisdom of the Romanian saying, “Why d’you hit,
man, don’t you know how to swear?”
A linguistic equivalent of the fist, swearing has the same effects: on
the one hand, it hurts the receiver; on the other, it helps the speaker blow
off some steam. But even Leon has come to understand that the fist –
whether actual or metaphorical – is not the best solution: apart from the
punishment that he’s probably get, he will also lose his playmate; and
playing alone is no fun. All the more so, the adult person – gregarious
soul – will do his best to keep social relations in good repair.
And yet, people don’t always know how to communicate
smoothly; a fact attested by the torrents of screams and curses poured
upon us from all directions. Furthermore, using the language – even
according to the strictest rules of the dictionary, grammar and
cooperation – does not necessarily mean communication. I have recently
seen a disquieting film – Crash, 2004. Having no unitary subject, it
presents pairs/groups of people who talk to each other, but do not
communicate. The characters argue all the time (the groups meet and
interact), the voices are raised, and in two cases, the encounters end up in
bloodshed. In each case, the victim is innocent and accidental. Nor is the
killer a cold-hearted criminal; quite the opposite, just a few sequences
earlier he had risked his life to put an end to an armed street brawl. But
in this case he shoots his opponent because the latter prefers gestures to
words: instead of saying clearly that he has a miniature statue of a saint
just like that of his interlocutor, he puts his hand in his pocket – a gesture
similar to that of pulling a gun.
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Why do people argue and fight? One of the characters in the movie
summarizes the reasons lucidly: “I’m angry all the time. I wake up angry
and I’m still angry when I go to bed.” We know all too well this kind of
fuzzy anger: we are angry with the government, the crisis and our
uncertain future, with the difficult boss and the obnoxious public servant,
with our demanding husband and our cheeky children – to mention just a
few. Today even chickens are stressed; how could then we not be? And
how could our children not be, when all around them – in real life and on
TV – people scream and shout and shoot one another?
We often hear people say that “youngsters today don’t know how
to behave.” While categorically rejecting the generalizing formula (not
all, and not only, youngsters don’t know how to behave), I would
reformulate the assertion as, “Today, many people do not know how to
communicate in a civilized manner.” Because behavior and
communication are intrinsically connected. Example: I go to the post
office and, politely, ask a question. Sitting behind the thick glass
window, the clerk mumbles something without raising her head. I don’t
understand, so I repeat my question. The clerk raises her head … and her
voice! No comments!
The teacher of foreign languages has an extraordinary advantage:
in the foreign language classes you can talk about anything. In the age of
alternative textbooks, the foreign language teacher can pick texts, select
subjects of discussion and organize activities according to the students’
interests and preoccupations. On the other hand, this wide freedom is
accompanied by an immense responsibility: in a time when parents have
little time and patience to spend with their children, the task of showing
them how to behave correctly and how to communicate efficiently falls
upon the teacher’s shoulders. Let’s also remember the children living in
underprivileged areas, whose parents themselves often lack the proper
communicative skills; for many of those children, the teacher represents
the only way out.
To help the students develop their communicative skills, the
teacher may insist on strategies that can make language use more
complex and more subtle.
For example, humor in communication has magical effects. A
good joke can loosen up the spirits and save the situation. Why do
people tell jokes at parties? Because they are afraid of the silence that
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might set in when there is nothing more to say. Why do you tell your
boss jokes? Because, being in high spirits, he may consider your request
more kindly. Humor is the spoonful of sugar that makes the bitter
medicine go down more easily.
But humor can also take more subtle forms. And since such forms
are harder to perform and to interpret, they also acquire special
communicative and educational valences. With the help of figurative
language, for example, the speaker can make his message richer and
more amusing. But it is not always easy to perceive the difference
between a lie, a joke and figurative language; therefore, it is important
that we should help children, as early in life as possible, to make the
distinction.
They say that many troubles in life are triggered by the fact that
people interpret figurative messages ad literam. All the more exposed
are youngsters and children. For example: A couple of years ago there
was a commercial on Romanian television in which a woman, standing
on top of a tall building, raises a scarf above her head and jumps.
Miraculously, the scarf behaves like a parachute and at her feet some
silky cloth unfolds in smooth waves, on which the woman glides with a
delighted smile on her face. The commercial was advertising some
brand of chocolate. But how many children understood that the glide on
silk was a visual metaphor for the smoothness of the chocolate? Not so
many years ago (at least, that’s how I feel) one of my children jumped
from his superposed bed upon a sheet extended between four chairs,
convinced that it would behave like an elastic mattress. Luckily, the bed
was not too high, but he still got some serious bumps.
Nor is it always easy for adults to separate metaphor from reality.
Today we no longer live in the age of Prince Charming and of the
wicked ogre, who could fool only very young children. Today the
computer offers us a virtual reality which can baffle even grown-ups. A
novice driver once told me that he had had an accident because he had
confused the road with the computer game and instead of pressing the
brake, he had put his foot on the accelerator. Most probably, the same
thing had happened in the case of the students who, gun in hand, had
burst into the classroom and butchered their classmates and teachers.
The metaphor can also be employed to promote a more refined
kind of communication. A few days ago, for example, I was in the park
366
with my grandchildren and saw an empty can of Coca Cola placed high
in an ornamental bush. Instead of screaming and shouting at the loutish
behavior of uncivilized people, I told them serenely, Look, what a
beautiful flower! My educational objective was attained: they both
understood the irony and the criticism; in addition, they learned that
negative things can be communicated more subtly.
Language is a powerful tool in the hands of the skillful strategist: it
can even prevent major conflicts. They say that, at a United Nations
meeting, a participant irritated by the endless discussions exclaimed,
Jaw, jaw, jaw! To this, another participant replied promptly, Jaw, jaw,
jaw is better than war, war, war!
But language is neither the only, nor the most potent, means of
communication. Paralanguage, or meaningful behavior, has an even
greater impact. A survey was made in which two groups of people
received the same message: I’m not upset. For the first group the
paralanguage was positive: cheerful tone of voice, direct eye contact,
touching hands, etc. The paralanguage for the second group was
negative: quivering voice, avoidance of eye contact and of touch, etc. It
was noted that receivers believed what the paralinguistic message said.
Under the circumstances, isn’t it a serious mistake to focus only on
the correctness of the children’s text, ignoring completely their manner
of presentation? In the kindergarten children are allowed to recite the
poem My mother is the best … with a flat tone and with their eyes down.
In the classroom role-plays the language teacher concentrates on the
accuracy of what the student says, giving little attention to the tone of his
voice, to his mimicry or to his body language. We generally think that,
in the classroom, such elements are of lesser importance, because what
the teacher must grade is the student’s knowledge. But we should ask
ourselves the question: Many adults’ inability to show themselves in the
best light in crucial moments isn’t perhaps due to an absence of thorough
training in this area? An applicant who presents his case with a quivering
voice, shy gestures and furtive glances will not manage to persuade his
employer that he is the best for the job. Conversely, a Gigi Becali’s
ample voice, rich mimicry and wide gestures, communicate not only his
great optimism and full confidence in himself, but also the overabundance of his soul. What such persons do not understand, though, is
that in this way they reveal more about themselves than they would like
367
to. Because pronunciation, para- and body language function as a
metaphorical suit of clothes which – like in the saying, “Clothes make
the man” – can ensure one’s access to the desired position in society, or
forever close the door for him.
As in many other cases, our Westerns partners in the European
Union pay more attention to gestures than we do. An example: I was in
France, participating in a workshop, and we were having a festive
dinner. A French colleague raised his glass, and I raised mine. At that
moment, I heard him say, We, French people, look the person in the eye
when we click glasses. Believe me, I know all too well the importance in
communication of eye contact. But at that moment, a loud sound or
some sudden gesture must have distracted my attention. Embarrassment
aside, I could not help thinking that, in Romania, nobody would give
voice to such an observation; not because we are more tactful, but
because we would not consider the fact important enough to mention.
But eye contact is a sign of respect, and respect is an essential
component of civilized communication.
In an article written by an American pastor’s wife, I found the
following interpretation for the term “respect”: What is crime but lack of
respect for law? What is pollution but lack of respect for the rights of
others? What is inferior workmanship but lack of respect for quality?
What is slanted news reporting but lack of respect for truth? We can
regard communication from the same angle: When a youngster sticks his
chewing gum to the desk on which he is sitting, or damages a tree in the
park, he is communicating improperly with the natural environment in
which he lives. When he listens to music at top volume, or swears on the
corridors of the university, he is communicating improperly with the
members of the social group to which he (wants to) belong(s).
Without presuming that in the university man learns to
communicate correctly, let me quote the words of my primary school
teacher: “If a person goes through university, even absent-mindedly, like
a traveler changing trains in a station, you can still see the difference.” I
hope that you, by your facts and by your words, will prove her
observation true.
To be a teacher, just like to be a parent, is no easy task; nor is it one
that only brings joy and satisfactions. Have you seen many happy
teachers? In spite of the assertion become cliché, I dare say that our
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greatest complaint is not the low pay. We are affected much more
profoundly by our students’ attitude of indifference, by their poor results,
by the shortage of time in which we cannot do everything we would like
to do. Still, there will always be teachers – just as there will be parents –
who do their job with passion and dedication, endeavoring to endow the
students with positive thinking, true values and noble ideals.
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University Press.
Brown, Penelope & Stephen C. Levinson. ([1978]1987). Politeness –
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Grice, H. Paul. (1975). "Logic and conversation". In Cole, P. and
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Press.
Grice, H. Paul. (1981) “Presupposition and conversational implicature,”
in Cole P. (ed) Radical pragmatics, New York, Academic, pp. 18398
Halliday, M.A.K. (1994/1985). An Introduction to Functional Grammar.
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Approach, "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Hymes"
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in Humanistic Sciences. Arad: Editura Universităţii „Aurel Vlaicu”.
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q’s. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic
Leech, G. (1981). Semantics. The Study of Meaning. Harmondsworth:
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Levinson, Stephen. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: CUP.
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generalized Conversational Implicature. MIT Press, Cambridge
MA: MIT Press.
Thomas, Jenny (1995). Meaning in Interaction. London: Longman
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meaning to pragmatic meaning, Arad: Editura Universităţii "Aurel
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Polirom. Seria Collegium.
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The notion of transversal psychology
Gheorghe SCHWARTZ
Abstract
To gain access to a greater number of sources, man looks for tools
that can perfect his analyzers or provide him with new ones, as well as
for more accomplished data processing methods. Sensations that cannot
be brought to one's consciousness – like the Moon Sonata to a person
born deaf, or the colors of Impressionist painters to someone who has
never enjoyed the delights of sight – remain virtual. The professional
philosopher, as well as the philosopher that lives inside every human
being, raises questions. "Big questions", as well as personally annoying
ones (Why did this have to happen to me?; the vain person might say, I
knew this would happen!). The responses various individuals give are not
necessarily in tone with their ordinary behavior in life. But they carry the
satisfaction of convictions. It would be artificial to attribute the "big
question" to the philosopher, the lesser ones to the psychologist, the
teacher, or the sociologist. Transversal psychology offers certain
empirical landmarks to both categories. And, last but not least, the
philosopher inside every one of us may also find some support in it.
Key words: stimuli, mood, behavior, path, transversal psychology.
Remember? Nothing unexpected happened to you that morning, you
didn't fall victim to any stroke of fate; you didn't get any sign that some
danger was awaiting you in the predictable future; and neither did you
suffer from any physical pain. In a word, it was one of those grey
mornings in your life, impossible to distinguish mentally from those
countless days that are neither good nor bad. Impossible to distinguish–
and yet … That morning you were so depressed that, perhaps, you do
remember those hours. You were depressed without any "apparent cause".
Life seemed to have no sense and the effort needed to merely survive such
a mean destiny–a destiny lacking all reasonable motivation–seemed totally
ludicrous. Hope itself had vanished completely. Why? And why did it
happen on that precise morning, otherwise so perfectly common?
1. How about that cold evening, do you remember that? That
evening when you were walking home after a workday like all the others?
You didn’t have any special successes that day, you weren't promoted, at
home you knew there was nothing special awaiting you, no more than
yesterday, or the day before yesterday and, most probably, no more than
tomorrow. But you must remember that evening, at least because you felt
more light-hearted and "freer" and–to some extent–“happier”1. Why? Why
was it that now you could shake off with a mere shrug, the haunting
thoughts of your uselessness, of your inability to communicate–thoughts
that had been tormenting you for so long?
2. To explain the momentary emotional state of a human individual
considered healthy and able to take personal decisions, there are only
three possible answers:
a. either we refer to a metaphysical (why not, divine?) force whose
caresses or warnings haunt us, heedless to our tiny "objective
landmarks";
b. or, we think of impulses coming from some “hardly explainable
existential spheres” pertaining to the speculative domain of
parapsychology, or of reactions coming from senses we are unaware of,
and we accept the spirit’s other possibilities of investigation of the
outside world (past, present and/or future) and of the self (in its various
manifestations), other than those employed consciously by the noninitiated;
c. or, we declare ourselves content with explanations we can assess
with the help of our research instruments (whose acuity is perfectible)
and our judgment (limited at least by the landmarks we have available),
our preconceived ideas, level of intelligence, education and training, our
preconceived expectations, our relationship with God, and the limited
number of associations we can make in the restricted time span at our
disposal before the configuration of the outside stimuli bombarding us
changes.
3. The first two alternatives have their own fields of expression.
But both theology (with all its branches) and parapsychology deal with
subjects who are put in exceptional states, or who tend towards some
1
“Happier”? There is no such a thing as ”HAPPIER”, only ”HAPPY”.
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exceptional state (e.g. the person specifically trained will interpret the
mere act of raising one's eyes towards the sky as an act of separation
from earthly things).
4. Exceptional are also the direct, easily detectable, causes of
certain momentary emotional states: a success can lead to joy. If not, it
means that either the respective success did not rise to the expected
level, or it did not come at the proper moment, and that the effect (the
satisfaction) did not cover all the parameters of mood that were
functional at that moment. Similarly, a disease can induce an emotional
state: from apathy to excitement, from despair to–more rarely–a state of
optimism that is as unlimited as it is unjustified. But disease itself is an
exceptional state2, one that transgresses the boundaries of the area within
which, moment for moment, our pathological mosaic is being
constructed. Disease involves a tendency towards the extremes, while
health–hypothetical normality–tends towards the average, the centre.
5. Just as a broken leg makes us forget–at least for the initial hours–
some annoying stomach-ache, a reason that goes beyond the limits of the
ordinary eclipses for a while the parameters of our mood. It eclipses
them, but does not root them out. How many long awaited moments are
wasted or diminished in effect by causes that remain obscure? No matter
how apt to change the picture of one’s mood it might be, a reason that is
strong or extreme (located far from the average, from the core) may
become, at least for a while, terrorizing with respect to all the other
stimuli; eventually, though, it will also be eclipsed by the parameters–
which we shall discuss at large later on.
6. Mood is a momentary emotional state (see Pinpoint duration
element – behavior unit, i.e. “the minimal physical time span below
which no difference in duration is perceptible” – Henri Piéron, my
translation). It may change from one moment to the next, depending on
the occurrence of a reason which is extreme, but which–equally and
apparently–“has no particular reason”. Even in the second case,
transition from a state of euphoria to one of deep melancholy may be as
sudden.
7. Since our momentary emotional state is responsible for our
numerous daily behavioral patterns, and it also participates in our less
2
Not by frequency, but by configuration.
373
numerous major decisions, and since we know that the individual, under
the impact of the same stimuli, does not always react in the same way,
we conclude that mood is not merely a static cliché, but can also be
viewed as one image in a motion picture.
8. Viewed in this way, mood–with the accepted interpretation of
"momentary emotional state"–establishes itself as elementary unit of
behavior (which, developing in time, takes the form of a sequence of
interwoven moments, a sequence of "momentary emotional states").
9. The relation that establishes itself between behavior and the
great problems of humanity3 is similar to that between figure and
background. Generally in this relation–when an explanation is
attempted–, the following factors are considered: level of intelligence,
temperament, education, relation with God, early obsessive spiritual
experiences, obscure unconscious impulses. In "traditional psychology",
mood does not find its place in this formula, nor is accepted its quality of
elementary unit of behavior.
10. Getting beyond the "static" moment of mood and into the
"dynamic" phase of behavior, we inevitably reach the red-hot point of
decision making.
Only, in life, major decisions4 are fewer than we would like to
believe. Daily decisions (such as: which tie should I wear today, what
TV channel should I watch, what should I have for dinner, etc.), belong
obviously to the realm of mood. Big decisions are few in a person's life.
For example, one's choice of profession may result from a conscious
option, an imposed one, or hazard; then, for a while or for a life-time,
one’s entire existence stands under the sign of that decision: one's daily
program, the consequences of certain advantages / disadvantages, one’s
career promotion, etc.. If–keeping to our example–the external option
comes from an external command center and overpowers the subject's
will or remodels it, we find ourselves in situation. When the decision
comes by itself, "naturally", mood manifests itself–at least in the
moment of its conscious formulation–as an arbiter of whether to make
the decision publicly known or not.
3
Which takes the form of expressions of those problems, such as futility and
hope vs. love, death or power.
4
Major decision = a decision that can modify the course of one's life, or
even that of a (micro)collectivity, i.e. a decision that can fracture the path.
374
11. What results from that moment pertains to the realm of mood and,
in time, to that of behavior. During the long periods that follow the making
of a major decision, our parameters will perform the function of regulators,
the confrontation between them giving the picture of our subsequent
behavior. As a consequence of a decision that was made long before, all our
intentions, all our work, all our efforts, follow the strict route of our life’s
path.
12. In this context, we must not forget that that instant of such
importance–the moment of making a decision–occurs in a moment
circumscribed by a given time span, a short discharge–even when it was
long and carefully planned. Why did it happen precisely in that moment–at
seventeen hours, twenty-three minutes and six seconds–that I made such an
important decision, with long-lasting echoes? (I had courted my girlfriend
for a week, a month, three years, and suddenly decided to propose marriage
to her.) What results hence will last until I die, or until I make another
decision (e.g. after years of marriage, I decide to break it up). Why did it
have to happen precisely then–that Wednesday, at seventeen hours, twentythree minutes and six seconds–that I made that decision? Although a
decision takes serious preparation, mood interferes here again, allowing the
subject to formulate his decision. Thus, even though it is terribly limited in
time and almost unrepeatable, mood has dynamic consequences, which
raise it beyond its limits.
13. Ultimately, the question is this: why am I now doing this and not
that? Why I am now able to do things that, at other moments, I wouldn’t
even imagine doing? Or, why was it that yesterday I didn't feel like doing
something that has been one of my daily habits for such a long time?
14. Even though it deals (primarily) with specific aspects pertaining to
the functions of the psyche (memory, attention, thinking, etc.), basically, as a
science, psychology strives to explain and describe behavior5. The mental
functions together merely make up a puzzle from which other and other
components are continuously missing.
15. Just like in any field of research, tendencies become increasingly
confined to a territory that is more and more specialized: empirical or
experimental, the fragment is dissected to its tiniest pieces. Investigation
5
And not only since Watson's times.
375
goes deeper and deeper, the direction of the study being transferred from
the wide horizontal plane, to the narrowest verticality. The countless
holes drilled into the human soul make communication among them
more and more difficult, while the overall image–the whole–remains
somewhere at the surface and is forgotten; only students may
occasionally show interest in examining it.
16. Over-specialization makes us lose sight of the whole.
Obviously, thorough research of a certain aspect may provide more
rigorous explanation for the whole; but fewer and fewer are those who
can reconstruct the initial whole. Use of more sophisticated and more
reliable nuts and bolts is justified only to equip the device they were
designed for. Otherwise, they are likely to remain mere objects per se, or
… “works of art”.
17. In general–with the only exception of behaviorism, perhaps–the
theories of behavior (true, especially those of clinical behavior) are built
up around a single element: libido, or fear, or aggressiveness, or
gregariousness, one's reaction to a feeling of inferiority or guilt, one’s
need for self-assertion, etc.. This almost unique primordial element
attracts like a magnet other elements around itself, depending on how
well they support its thesis or–to use the accepted language–according to
the extent they support demonstration of the nullified hypothesis. Thus,
even if by intention the way is from cause to effect, it merely illustrates
an idea accepted a priori.
18. Sciences called "humanistic" have a tendency to disguise their
limits by employing increasingly sophisticated language. The "nonspecialist" finds it harder and harder to read a book of psychology, for
example, because the writer now uses a language that has become
professional jargon. Even the basic words receive "special meanings"
and things are read “differently”; such encoding, however, is often
gratuitous, failing to define a notion more precisely, but merely fitting it
more snugly into a pre-established code. This way, any banality is
imbued with a scientific halo.
19. For my work, I shall try to ignore that code, returning to "nonspecialized" language. In other words, I shall try to clarify (to myself)
why I (or my characters) make a major decision at a certain moment,
why I/they find a day like all the others happy or deeply unhappy, why
I/they do not always find that life is worth living, but continue to
function in spite of it all. Questions or will thus receive an answer. Just
376
like many other questions, old and new. (Every question triggers other
questions.)
20. Everything man attempts takes the form of words, triggering its
own kind of intimacy between sender and receiver. In the present
philosophy of behavior, many expressions carry the words' literal senses.
For example, the term mood is used in a way that is totally different
from that of classical psychology. Other terms employed carry different
connotations.
21. Take, for instance, the term "path". With a major role in these
lines, the term must be viewed as the smooth flow of a behavior that was
not fractured by terrorizing stimuli. As shown later on, the pulsations of
the psyche behave merely as forces that endeavor to keep the individual
on the path, on the one hand, and as forces that try to throw him off the
path, on the other. From this point of view, the path represents–together
with self-belonging–the binder that keeps together the personality of the
free and healthy human individual.
N.B. If the "fiction" writer tries to avoid answering questions, it is
the scientist’s duty to give answers. The writer merely raises questions.
Sometimes, though, questions alone cannot be “received" by the
audience, or they can only be received partially. Then, they say, it is the
writer's fault.
377
Romanian education for health in the 21st century
Abstract: 21st century medicine is one intended for healthy people.
In Romania, public education regarding cardiovascular diseases presents
serious gaps and therefore it is an impediment in having an informed,
healthy community. This study demonstrates that cases of acute
myocardial infarction (AMI) have been reduced in the last few years by
better educating the population in terms of disease addressability and
symptom awareness.
Keywords: health community, education, specialist.
1. Introduction
21st century medicine is intended for healthy people. In Romania
there are large gaps in public education for their own health and
therefore health community.
It is estimated that in the 21st century, coronary diseases will
surpass contagious diseases, and will be the main cause for morbidity
and specific mortality. Cardiovascular diseases represent a major issue
regarding public health in Romania.
The patient’s emergency medical assistance is imperious in all
cases that need vascular obstruction. As a means of intervention,
thrombolytic therapy is used in case of vascular disobstruction in the
county of Arad, however, there hasn’t been made a complete registry or
a complete analysis of the advantages of individual health and public
health, due to the absence of a population survey.
The standard mortality rate due to cardiovascular diseases, in
Romania, was in a ratio of 2 to 1 compared to Europe, situation that has
been influenced by 2 causes. On the one hand, there is the different
incidence of atherosclerosis and, on the other hand, there is the
efficiency of the treatment in the actual stage of cardiovascular diseases,
especially in the stage of acute myocardial infarction (AMI),
(Braunwald, Zipes, Libby, Bonnow, 2005, Gavrila-Ardelean, 2008). The
acute AMI mortality has been reduced in the last few years on: better
education of the population in terms of addressability in cardiovascular
emergencies (awareness of symptoms and time of "golden time"),
addressability to health services - providing technical resources,
economic and human resources specialist.
2. The purpose of the paper
This paper intends to analyzed and to achieve a forecast, for the
next 7 years, until 2013 of: the population, the specific mortality and the
number of the lost years as a consequence of this pathology, in order to
improve the management of health services in AMI, the identification of
the sanitary education level and the patients who show great factors of
cardiovascular risk, the logistics of ambulance assistance on case of
coronary emergencies (acute myocardial infarction with an over
variation of the ST segment, the introduction of the possibility of
prehospital thrombolysis/of the percutaneous coronary intervention), for
an efficient prophylaxis and therapy, reducing the specific indicators of
AMI mortality and the social-professional reinstatement of the patient.
3. The objectives of the research
In Arad, in 2002 for example, at a population of 462.427 citizens,
the mortality rate due to cardiovascular diseases has been more superior
to the specific cardiovascular mortality, in Romania, and it was recorded
at values which went beyond the standardized World Health
Organisation (WHO) mortality rate for cardiovascular diseases. The
mortality, too, due ischemic cardiopathy in the same year, represented
30% of all the deaths as a result of cardiovascular diseases (WHO,
2002). Taking into account these observations, I have started a wide
evaluative research of: mobidity and specific mortality from acute
coronary disease, acute myocardial infarction in those Arad county and
correlation with the number of lives saved by a prospective assessment
for the next 7 years, if not improve the education of patients that
geographic area in order adresabilităţii and increase accessibility to
specialized health services, and improve the management of health
services in AMI, in Arad.
379
4. Materials and working method
There has been made a database using: the informational and the
written records of the ambulance service from Arad, the informational
records of the demographic data from the University Hospital from
Arad, the registers with the consultations/hospitalizations belonging to
the Hospital’s Emergency Unit, observation files of the hospitalized
patients from the Department of Intensive Coronary Therapy (ICT), the
evidence register with cases of thrombolysis, from the ICT section.
The cases have been researched taking into account the following
criteria: the stable residence in Arad, at the beginning of the research,
residence in the last 20 years in Arad, the existence of the precipitant
factors in the etiopathogenesis of the acute myocardial infarction, initial
presumption diagnosis: acute myocardial infarction, STEMI positive
diagnosis confirmed by at least 2 of the OMS classic criteria, the clinical
beginning is below 6 hours for the patients eligible to fibrinolysin, the
creation of 2 equal groups, statistically speaking, regarding AMI cases of
patients with thrombolysis and without thrombolysis, the evaluation of
the thrombolytic therapy’s efficiency applied precociously in AMI, the
number of the lives saved (deaths recoded for 1 day, 30 days, and 1
year). The paper also presents a study made on a number of 307 patients
who had been given the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction with
over variation of the ST segment, in 2000-2006. Out of all these cases, a
number of 125 patients have been administered fibrinolytic therapy and
182 haven’t been administered this therapy. These patients have received
the conventional medications used for AMI, and some of them have
benefited from an interventional disobstruction, according to different
indications. The fibrinolytic therapy was decided upon according to the
indications and counter-indications of the American Health Association
(Alexander, Newby, all, 2007). The statistical analysis of the whole
group has been made according to a variety of items.
5. Data processing and validation
In order to process the data, there had been used statistical and
graphical programs: SPSS 12.0 and 14.0 for Windows, EXCEL,
EPIDATA.
380
6. Definitions of the terms used and the legend
The terms used are specific of the epidemiological studies. There
have been presented the types of the studies used, the distribution, the
risk rates, the variation of a measure made at random, the standard
deviation, the analysis of ANOVA variation, the test of the statistics
significance and the statistics significance (p), the interval of confidence,
the statistical power of a research.
7. Additional research for interdisciplinary areas
The methods of research used for the epidemiological diseases,
which are not contagious for the population study, have set up a relation
between the operative of the primary intervention – the thrombolytic
therapy, mortality – the success rate. The quantitative and qualitative
data have been used as statistical units. Due to the fact that in the
research of morbidity there is always difference between the evident,
subjective, diagnosed, declared, recorded, known examination and the
real level of the affection of the population, I have chosen to refer to the
medium error calculation (the standard error), the application of the
statistical significance tests and the establishment of the trust level, when
it came to discuss the results.
8. Results
The death rates due to cardiovascular ischemic disease for the
population of Arad, in 2000-2006, shows a linear increase along with the
age for both sexes, but strongly to the male sex.
In Arad, the AMI incidence increases on case of young men that
belong to the urban society. From all the patients who had called for an
ambulance in case of an AMI symptomatology, only 41% have received
thrombolytic treatment. The management of the patients who suffer
from acute myocardial infarction shows an average period of at least 3
hours from the start of the symptoms and the transport to the hospital,
most patients arrive at the hospital around 12-14-15 p.m.
Thrombolytic therapy improves very much the evolution of the
patients who suffer from AMI, leading to a decrease of mortality, for a
short period of time. In case of AMI, the thrombolytic therapy must be
applied with the shortest time possible since its start (Braunwald, 2005).
For the study groups, there is the statistical significance below the setting
381
up of thrombosis in less than 2 hours since the start of the AMI
symptoms as compared to a period of 5 hours and even more, reported to
death in case of 1 day to 30 days, being recommended the fibrinolysin
therapy in less than 1 hour from the beginning of AMI in order to
improve the LV performance (FE over 40% to 48% from the
thrombolytic patients) and the survival.
The application of the thrombolytic treatment, as soon as possible,
after the beginning of the symptoms, ensures a high efficiency, and it
offers the possibility of a normal coronary flow. The hospitalization
periods lasts, on an average, for 6 days compared to 11 days in case of
the witness group, due to a better evolution of a myocardial post
infarction. The comparison between the deaths and the lost years of life,
taking into account the 32 sexes and the age, shows that specific
mortality caused by cardiovascular diseases is inversely proportional to
the lost years of life for the OMS age classes, most of those who still
have chance, belong to the male population, being 45-55 years old. It has
been noticed a general decrease in the population of Arad, in 2000-2006,
but it is also forecast that in the next 7 years the decrease \ will continue:
2007-2013. One can also take into account that every fertile female who
died, could have given birth to 1-2 children, consequently it is estimated
a general decrease among those people who are between 30-50 years
old. Studies show that the number of deaths recorded between 20002006 increased slowly with age, but the decrease in the number of
people in the following 7 years would be marked by an affection of the
population, that is between 30-50 years old.
Conclusions:
The information and education of the citizens, especially of those
with a coronary risk, in order to recognize the emergency and to address
themselves to the medical services/call 112, with GPS, so that the
beginning of the AMI symptoms – the call 112 to be reduced to 1 to 5
minutes, and the duration of the transport to hospital should take less
than 8 minutes, in order to perform the thrombolysis in less than 30
minutes from the beginning of the acute myocardial infarction.
The coordination and assurance of an efficient relation between:
the family physician, the doctor on the ambulance, and the doctor of
UPU, reported in health education.
382
References:
Alexander K.P.,Newby L.K., Armstrong P. W.,Cannon C.P.,
GilblerW.B., Rich M.W., Van de Werf F., White H.D.,
WeaverW.D., Naylor M.D., Gore J.M.,Krumholz H.M., Ohman
E.M.: Acute Coronary Care in the Eldery, Part II: ST- Segment –
Elevation Myocardial Infarction: A Scientific Statement for
Healthcare Professionals from the American Heart Association
Council on Clinical Cardiology: In Collaboration with the Society of
Geriatric Cardiology Circulation, 2007;
Braunwald E., Zipes D.P., Libby P., Bonnow R.O. (ed): ST Elevation
Myocardial Infarction: Pathology, Pathophysiology and Clinical
Features; Management in Heart Disease, a Textbook of
Cardiovascular Medicine, W.B. Saunders Company, 7th ed., 2005;
Gavrila-Ardelean, M.F, Social policies for health: health insurance,
contributions to health services management, University Publishing
House "Aurel Vlaicu", Arad, 2008;
WHO: Reducing risks, Promoting Healthy Life, World Health Report,
Geneva, 2002.
Screening and prevention of professional diseases
“Aurel Vlaicu” University Arad
Abstract: This study theorizes that an early detection of the
premenstrual dysphoric disorder can prevent cervical cancer in young
women. U.S conducted studies have shown that PMS related
symthoms such as irritability, anxiety, hypersensitivity to rejection,
decreased interest in social activities, lack of energy, sleep disturbances
(insomnia or hypersomnia) have negatively influenced labor
productivity, workplace relations and social activities. The analysis of
these sympthoms can reveal the severity of the syndrome.
Relations of predictability have been established between PMS,
workplace productivity and cervical cancer on a sample group
monitored for six months.
Keywords: premenstrual symptoms (PMS), screening,
prevention, cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer is a serious chronic disease of great medicosocial importance with very severe evolution, especially when
diagnosed in advanced stages.
The importance of the problem stems from the fact that cervical
neoplasm is a leading cause of death of the female population. Cervical
cancer is one of the most common female cancer, with a high mortality
in advanced stages, justifying efforts nationally and internationally to
study this disease.
The cervix can easily examine clinical colposcopic and
cytological. These investigations conducted systematically, half were
based screening, leading to the discovery of the disease in its earliest
stages (stage 0/in situ), which are up 100% curable. Unfortunately in
our country-stage cervical cancer is curable unsatisfactory.
Currently, cervical cancer causes are unknown, being
criminalized a number of contributory factors relating to the body or
complex operating environment and, simultaneously or sequentially.
383
Among the factors related to the body, a high percentage is the
reproductive hormonal profile of the host, knowing that the increased
risk of cervical cancer occurs in adolescence and continues up to 50
years. Studies in large groups of patients (Melamed and colab.-1969
Ribbo, Keebler and Wied, 1971) but did not provide convincing
evidence. It is considered that the patients with cancer of the cervix is
more frequently found a degree of delay in the climax, with a relative
extension of the period of genital activity and especially preclimax
period (hormonal storm) that could pave the way for invasive cancer.
Women's age is another risk factor unchangeable epidemiological
studies demonstrated that shows that the distribution by age cervical
cancer is an ascending curve decade from 20-29 years, peaking in the
decade 45-54 years, after which decreases.
And genetic factors, family has been shown in cervical cancer.
Some studies (Nilsen-Clemensen-1957, Harvard and Hauge, 1963)
showed that there was no coincidence between the twin cervical cancer
and no family possible involvement of a factor. Other studies show that
genetic changes can occur well before the histology, which would
allow the movement of the precocity of diagnosis.
Among the modifiable risk factors include: smoking
(Winkelestein, 1977), immunosuppressive medication administered for
long periods of time, feeding behavior, etc.
The early symptoms of cervical cancer we sought dysphoric
disorder issues, which include: feelings of sadness or despair to
thoughts of suicide, feelings of tension or anxiety, panic attacks, mood
swings, bouts of crying persistent irritability or nervousness affecting
others, disinterest in daily activities and relationships, difficulty
thinking and concentrating, fatigue or low energy, appetite changes,
sleep disturbances, lack of control, physical symptoms (bloating, breast
tension, headache, joint or muscle pain).
This study starts from the premise that early detection, screening
type, the premenstrual dysphoric disorder type questionnaire
standardized tests can predict cervical cancer in young women.
Studies conducted in the U.S. noted that there are psychological
symptoms of PMS as irritability, anxiety, hypersensitivity to rejection,
decreased interest in social activities, lack of energy, sleep disturbances
385
(insomnia or hypersomnia) have influenced in a negative way labor
productivity, labor relations in rural intercolegiale and social activities.
These can be quantified for the diagnosis of the severity of the
syndrome (Hohn, 1999).
We have established certain interelations of predictivity (Hohn,
2007) between PMS, items para (gynecological examination,
examination Papa Nicolau, etc..), productivity at work and cervical
cancer, trying on them to achieve a prevention neoplasm women
employed in field work through a six-monthly monitoring scheme
(Gavrilă, Gavrilă, Grivu, 2008).
The study is underway in the county of Arad, realizing such
studies and in Timisoara and other cities west of the country, in order
to assess the situation compared to the regional level.
Bibliography:
Mihai Hohn, Elemente statistice în analiza fenomenelor psihice, Ed.
„Viaţa Arădeană”, 1999;
Mihai Hohn, Metodologia cercetării în psihologie, vol II, Ed. UVT,
2009;
Mihaela Gavrilă A., Liviu Gavrilă A., Ovidiu Nicolae Grivu,
Dezvoltarea comunitară, în Biblioteca Dezvoltării comunitare, Ed.
UAV, 2008.
386
Obesity in Arad county. Prevalence and risk factors
Dana NEGRU, Gabriela TARLE, George RADULESCU,
Laura NICOLESCU, Daniela POPA
Arad Public Health Department, Romania, Arad, Vasile Goldis Street No.5
Abstract: This paper measures the prevalence and risk factors for
obesity having as a designated target the population of Arad county. It
uses a randomized cross sectional study organized in 30 clusters, the
sample being set to 2400 people, by directly interviewing and filling out
questionnaires for three age categories: ages 5-9, 10-14 and over 15.
Results: one in six respondents is obese and one in two is
overweight. Every five years, the percentage of overweight and obese
people born after 1996 is doubled. There is an inverse relationship
between the education level of the respondent and BMI. Population
generally considers itself as having ideal food resources (42%) and, even
so, 47.7% are overweight or obese. Overweight persons have a stronger
desire to change their eating behaviors than other categories. Only 26%
of the population actively practices sports .
Conclusions: there is a major deterioration in the perception of
food and eating behaviors registered after 1996 in Arad County.
Keywords: obesity, behavior, risk factors, overweight
This paper measure obesity prevalence and risk factors for obesity
in the Arad county population, using a randomized cross sectional study
to in 30 clusters, the sample set to 2400 people, by directly interviewing
and completing the questionnaires for the three age categories, age 5-9,
10-14 and over 15 years. Results: one in six is obese and one in two is
overweight in Arad County. In every five years, the percentage of
overweight and obese in general population born after 1996 is doubled.
There is an inverse relationship between education level and BMI.
Population largely considers itself having ideal food resources (42%)
and, even so, 47.7% are overweight or obese. Overweight persons have
a stronger desire to change their food behaviour than other categories.
Only 26% of population partake in sports .Conclusions: there is a major
deterioration in the perception of food and behaviour after 1996, in
Arad County.
Introduction
Obesity is a medical condition in which excessive the Body mass index
has adverse effects on health [1]. Body mass index (BMI) is a measure
that compares height and weight, defined as persons overweight with
BMI between 25 kg/m2 and 30 kg/m2 and obese if it exceeds 30 kg/m2.
Health problems: cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, sleep breathing
disorders, cancers, osteoarthritis [2]. Causes: diet, lack of physical
activities, genetic susceptibility, endocrine disorders, medication and
mental illness.
Hypothesis
Increasing obesity phenomenon is being caused by:
1."obesity packages”, resulting in: superdense food, increased
sedentarism in humans, aggressive advertising campaigns for products
with unhealthy potential [4].;
2.other favourable possible causes of obesity: insufficient sleep,
endocrine disorders, especially caused by environmental pollutants that
interfere with lipid metabolism; drug consumption, late pregnancy,
epigenetic risk factors that transcend over generations, natural selection
for those with high BMI [3]. In our study we followed some of these
elements.
Objective
To measure obesity prevalence and risk factors for obesity in the
Arad county population.
Material. Questionnaires to determine BMI for population aged 514 and over 15. The sample criteria were: age / three categories/4-9, 1014 and over 15 years, gender (M / F) and residential environment U / R.
Methods. Randomized cross sectional study to determine obesity
prevalence in 30 clusters, the sample set to 2400 people, by directly
interviewing and completing the questionnaires for the three age
388
categories, 34 questions for people over 15 years / and then extend those
for children with the responders parents, total 282 items / over 15 years,
processed with SPSS 12.0 for Windows and MedCalc. For CI 95% the
acceptable error was under 2.5%. In determining the sample we
followed five steps:
1.Calculation of basic sample
x
n
t²
p(1-p)
=
m²
n
=
sample
size
desired
t = 95% confidence level (standard value 1.96)
p= estimated obesity prevalence in the area
m = 5% error (standard value 0.05)
2 .Design effect. Being an anthropometric study, we used the
cluster criterion. To correct the difference in design, the obtained
sample size was multiplied by D (Design effect), which is 2 for
nutrition studies.
3 Contingency .Sample was increased by 5-8%, in order to
cover non responders or recording error situation.
4. Distribution of observations. Thirty is the number of
clusters recommended by WHO (EPI Cluster Surveys) [5], and we
obtained the number of persons per cluster by dividing the number
of localities selected sample, ie 52 observations for each cluster, for
people over 15 years, then calculated the same for group 5-14 years.
5. Setting the cluster area: housing surrounding, churches,
schools, supermarkets, industrial plants.
Results
A. Obesity Prevalence .
I. There were validated 2437 questionnaires for general
population. Respondents were 52.8% male and 47.2% female, (p
<0.0001), obese 15%, overweight 32.7%, normal weight 48.7%,
underweight 3.6%. Conclusions: One in six is obese and one in two
is overweight in Arad.
389
II. There were validated 425 questionnaires for age group 5-9
years. Respondents were 52.5% male and 47.5% female (p =
0.0212), 18.4% obese, overweight 18.8%, normal weight 55.3%,
underweight 7.5%. Conclusions: One in five children is obese, one
in five children 5-9 years is overweight.
III. There were validated 417 questionnaires for age group 1014. Respondents were 49.6% male and 50.4% female (p = 0.0113),
obese 6.5%, overweight 12.3%, normal weight 78.2%, underweight
2.6%. Conclusion: One in fifteen children 10-14 years is obese, one
in eight children is overweight.
IV There were validated 842 questionnaires for age groups 5-9
years and 10-14 years. Respondents were 48.6% female, 51.4%
male, (p = 0.0010), 12.5% obese, overweight 15.8%, normal weight
66.6%, underweight 5.1%. Conclusion: One in eight children 5 - 14
is obese, one in six children is overweight.
V There were validated 1595 questionnaires for over 14 years.
Respondents were 55.0% female, 45.0% male (p <0.0001), 16.3%
obese, overweight 41.7%, normal weight 39.2%, underweight 2.8%.
Conclusions: One in six people over 14 years is obese, one in two
people over 14 is overweight.
B. General characteristics of the sample population of Arad
county.
1.Age. We see an increase in body mass index with age. The
percentage of people 20-29 years reaches 78.4% normal weight, age
beyond 50 years the percentage of overweight and obese to 75%.
Marriage seems to be favourable for overweight. But the prospect
is worrying us: if for subgroup 15 to 19 years the overweight and
obesity rate reaches 10%, 10-14 years subgroup lower reaches
18.8% for overweight and obese! So those born between 1996-2000
have from the start a handicap of 1 to 5 against their future health
status! (Perhaps, however, it is an "historical accident"?) . 5-9 years
subgroup should validate or refute the morbid hypothesis ... Indeed
it seems an incredible percentage of overweight and obesity: 37.2%.
That is, those born between 2001-2005 reach double the percentage
of overweight and obese born five years before! That means there is
390
a major deterioration in the perception of food and behaviour after
1996, coupled with sedentary activities for children and teenagers.
For children 5-9 years, the responses revealed statistical
significance: children who eat only twice a day, most are
underweight (p = 0.030); sugar intake between 50-100 g daily is
common for overweight / obese (p = 0.019); daily consumption of
meat contributes to overweight (p = 0.018); between children who
eat fruit three times daily, most are of normal weight (p = 0.029);
the highest consumption of fats occurs in obese (p = 0.002); the
highest percentage of obese children are in families where the
father’s education do not exceed 12 grades. (p = 0.042); advertising
matters for parents of obese children and does not matter for those
with normal weight children (p = 0.001).
For children 10-14 years old, statistically significant responses
are: sugar intake between 50-100 g daily is common for overweight
/ obese (p = 0.005); vegetables intake is lower in obese (p = 0.003);
higher intake of cereals is in the normal weight persons(p = 0.003);
daily intake of meat is in obese (p = 0.006); the highest intake of
juices /sweet drinks occurs in obese (p = 0.000); sweet drinks costs
matter for parents of overweight children, which means excessive
consumption in the family (p = 0.031); overweight / obese often eat
chips and fast food products (p = 0.009); most parents who do not
know the protein content of food have underweight children (p =
0.009); most parents who do not know that additives are
carcinogenic have obese children (p = 0.043); most parents who do
not know that obesity is a disease have overweight children (p =
0.004)
For persons over 14 statistically significant responses are:
those with normal weight have more accurate food preferences (p =
0.008); normal weight people have more food aversions (p = 0039;
overweight and obese persons prefer fatty foods (p = 0.004);
underweight persons have depression rate risk 4.8889 times higher
than normal weight ones (p = 0.000); normal weight persons eat
fruits three times per day (p = 0002); overweight record excessive
consumption of sweets (p = 0.005); normal weight persons consume
the largest quantities of cereals (p = 0.006); overweight persons
391
record hypertension, dyslipidemia , stroke as a consequence of
obesity (p = 0.000); obese record diabetes as a consequence of
obesity (p = 0.006); between those who follow medication
antipsychotic, antidepressant and insulin, most are overweight /
obese (p = 0.000); those with normal weight were more educated (p
= 0.000); most obese were 12 classes, are workers or retired (p =
0.000); stress is recognized by the three BMI categories
(underweight/ overweight / obese) as having a role in body weight
through mechanisms and with different effects. (p = 0.0445); stress
does not appear in relation with exterior aspect (p <0.0001), only
for those not married (p = 0.0019); overweight is higher in men
than in women (1.3490); there is no difference between the
prevalence of obese / overweight in relation to living environment
(rural / urban); overweight believes that genetic background is
responsible for body weight (p <0.0488); marriage-related stress
affects body weight (p <0.0001); over 10% of normal/
overweight/obese does not believe that obesity is a disease(p
<0.006),
2.Gender. Half of women (43.6%) falls within the normal
weight, compared with 33.8% men.
3.Marital Status. There are 7.5 obese and overweight married
persons to every unmarried one
4. Residence Area. There are no differences in terms of food
behaviour and BMI abnormalities between rural and urban areas.
5.Level of education. There is an inverse relationship between
education and BMI.
C. Food behaviour in Arad County
Arad population considers itself having material resources
for "ideal" food components(42%) .
The practice of physical sports is made daily for 26% of
subjects. The main forms are walking (72%) and team games
(17.3).
Smoking defines 27% of sample subjects plus an additional
8% occasional smokers. Arad smokers (65%) reach the group
392
overweight / obesity rate of 59%, increased by 3-4% percent
compared to smokers of 20 cigarettes per day.
Arad population eats because of: hunger (84%), taste
(47%), smell (41%), preferences (27%), price of products (18%),
tradition (17%) and advertising (9 %), packaging (7%).
The reasons why people eat are: meeting a need (81%),
pleasure (37%), pleasant smell of food (27%), celebrating an event
(18%). But, relaxation, boredom, happiness, anger, and depression,
are all reasons to eat as a percentage of less than 7% each. As
expected, obese people considered that the main reason to eat is
pleasure.
Regarding the consequences of obesity, that contribute to
the emergence of various diseases, a higher percentage of obese
persons consider that these diseases occur because of obesity.
Whitlock G, Lewington S, Sherliker P, et al. (March 2009). "Bodymass index and cause-specific mortality in 900 000 adults:
collaborative analyses of 57 prospective studies". Lancet 373
(9669): 1083–96
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (June 2003). "Behavioral
counseling in primary care to promote a healthy diet:
recommendations and rationale" Am Fam Physician 67 (12):
2573–6
R. B. Rothenberg, A. Lobanov, K. B. Singh, G. Stroh, Observations
on the application of EPI cluster survey methods for estimating
disease incidence, Bulletin ofthe WorldHealth Organization, 63
(1): 93 - 99 (1985)
Conclusion
One in six is obese and one in two is overweight in Arad. In
every five years, the percentage of overweight and obese in general
population born after 1996 is doubled. Women manage to keep the
weight balance far better than men. There is an inverse relationship
between education level and BMI. Population largely considers
itself having ideal food resources (42%) and, even so, 47.7% are
overweight or obese. Overweight persons have a stronger desire to
change their food behaviour than other categories. Only 26% of
population partake in sports . Obese people know (in a higher
percentage than other categories) of that obesity contributes to the
development of various diseases, but without considering obesity as
a disease. There is a major deterioration in the perception of food
and behaviour after 1996, in Arad County.
References:
Haslam DW, James WP (2005). "Obesity". Lancet 366 (9492):
1197–209.
Bray GA (2004). "Medical consequences of obesity". J. Clin.
Endocrinol. Metab. 89 (6): 2583–9
393
394
Physical education
and sports
396
General concepts relating to selection
in bodybuilding
Viorel Petru ARDELEAN
Abstract: It is a well known fact that in order to achieve high
performances in sports, the athlete should be discovered as early on in
his career as possible in order to better match his athletic qualities to his
intended field of sporting discipline.
I consider that a good selection based on scientific criteria can
guide us towards finding the suitable persons for practicing different
sports.
The proper selection criterion holds true especially for
bodybuilding since it is known that children’s bodies undergo a fast
developing stage and we must ensure proper protection against possible
accidents, postural deformation or any other physical or mental stress
inducing factors.
In this paper I intend to show that there are some techniques which
can help trainers, instructors and others who are involved in sports, and
especially in bodybuilding, to achieve a good selection and a more
efficient process of training.
Keywords: selection, bodybuilding, muscular development, health,
measurements.
1. Introduction
Individual motricity potential offers the perspective of high
performances. The selection of sports talent, at a very early age,
determines the sportsman future, in proportion of 70%. No doubt that
the sportsman needs a strong motivation.
According to Dragnea A. (1999:27), the selection is defined as the
researchers` systematic activity, developed and based on biological,
psychological and pedagogical criteria, in order to detect the children
with special skills for practicing different sports.
Physical education and sports
Meeting the ideal of becoming a champion, but not paying any
price, for social accomplishment, involves a scientific organization in
sports activity. The trainer is not allowed to neglect the discipline of
sports, the value of training and competition model, the sports recovery
system, the trainer competence and education. Besides, Sports is defined
as a formative science of human only if it is used the anthropological,
genetics, physiology, psychology, biomechanics data.
2. Types of selection
For circumscribing the value groups, those who practice sports
for high performance or those who perform for benefic effect, we will
use the notions from sports science regarding selection.
Methodology of selection, its mechanisms and criteria shows
that biological criteria are often top priority, but not determinant, and
have value that cannot be neglected taking in consideration the time
evolution. The positive experience concerning selection, from didactical
and operational, biological and sportive points of view, implies a three
levels approach: * primary (initial), * secondary (pubertal), * final
(for performance). Each stage contents indices which have to be
registered and analyzed in order to have a clear image of sportsman
evolution and possibilities.
Staging the selection in three levels is determined by the
biological age of sportsmen and by the sports branch. The stages can be
others that those presented in this study, according to different
approaches of the model wanted to be reach.
2.a. Primary selection in bodybuilding starts around 14-15
years, especially among those young men who exercised and have a
good health condition.
2.b. Secondary selection can be done around 18 years old,
when it can be noticed the individual development. This stage takes in
consideration the post-pubertal changes which can guarantee or not the
sportsman future performance.
2.c. Final selection takes place around 20 years, when the
somatic biotype is stabilized on the line of bone growth. This stage
permits a high performance approach.
398
During these stages the training process takes place, in
concordance to law of training technology, based on the fact that the
training is done on appropriate coordinate. This fact can be formed
following some investigations similar to medical-sportive anamnesis and
to other complex investigations (chromosomal formula, muscular
biopsies) which give us objective data about sportsman potential in
bodybuilding.
3. Sportsman health or sanogenesis
Sanogenesis is a set of criteria permanently found in different
stages of selection. In primary stage of selection, it can be chosen only
healthy people. This fact can be establish only after a medical
consultation and the future sportman has to be informed about the sports
he/she is going to practice.
Usually, in the primary selection, the physicians investigate
childhood rheumatic, neuro-psychic disorders (epilepsy, spastics),
metabolic problems, cardio-vascular diseases, hepatorenal syndroms,
deformations of locomotor apparatus, endocrine diseases, visual field
defects, etc. Especially in bodybuilding, health is important. “Diseases of
locomotor apparatus, ankylosing spondylitis, PCE, RSB, physical
deficiencies like scoliosis, severe cifolordose, are reasons for expelling
individuals from practicing bodybuilding.” (A. Girau, 1996)
Compulsory investigations will be done in exercise conditions,
determining health degree of individuals.
Sanogenesis is efficient in the next stages and even after
abandonment. Periodical investigations will lead to conclusions
regarding sportsman health and will offer a good evaluation of his
functional abilities.
4. Somatic types of individuals
This study is based on multidiscipline researches made in the
training rooms, and on some scholar researchers, a Weider School
approach.
It is necessary to take in consideration William H. Sheldon`s
opinion when we make a somatic analysis. The researcher states that in
399
every individual appear three elements of construction, their nomination
linking with foils development: embryonic-endomorphic, mezomorphic
and ectomorphic, even if it is well-known that not every tissue come
form the same embryonic foil. According to Sheldon, the individuals are
classified in three somatic types:
4.A) endomorph type – short, heavy bones, round physic,
undeveloped muscles, weigh loss is difficult. Exercising, he gains
muscular mass, but this cannot be value because of the subcutaneous fat
layer.
4.B) ectomorph type – delicate built body, lean, tall, thin bones,
long muscles.
4.C) mezomorph type - athletic, hard body, muscular body,
narrow hips. The skeleton is strong, well defined muscles.
Mezomorph type is the ideal type for competition bodybuilding,
but it can not be excluded the other types, which guided, can obtain
remarkable results. Sheldon suggests that somatotype is genetic
conditioned and this will not suffer modification during life.
This classification of somatic types is appropriate as it is the
selection criteria in bodybuilding. The somatic typology of Sheldon is
based on a sample of 4000 students from US colleges and universities.
Sheldon`s typology was widen so that to content the extreme type of
gaining weight, type of muscles, exactly what we are interested in for
bodybuilding ideal.
4.1. Muscles and type of muscular fibers
An individual with a bigger number of muscular fibers will
have the opportunity to develop strong and well defined muscles.
Hystological and biochemical data obtained with the help of biopsy,
enriched researches. There are red muscular fibers, rich in myofibrils. In
some muscles prevail one or another type. We know the intermediary
type of fibers. The Swedish scholars Karlsson and Thompson describe
those fibers, classifying them:
• Type I of fibers – with slow twitch (ST), the red fibers
• Type II if fibers – fast twitch. Those are classified in two
classes:
1. white, rapid fibers, named type II A, poorly perfused, with fast
but short time twitch, design for anaerobic regime;
400
2. white, rapid fibers, type II B, richly perfused, with strong and
longer time twitch and permit work in both anaerobic and aerobic
regime;
3. intermediary fibers, type II C, for different regimes.
These data obtained through muscular biopsy show that muscular
fibers have genetic determinism, they hardly suffer modifications after
different effort regimen.
Using the data offered by muscular biopsy, we will know the
biochemical and histological structure of sportsman muscle. Regarding
the development of muscular mass, progress occurs when there are
trained as many muscular fibers as possible, both red and white. In
bodybuilding, selection of exercises and their planning have to take in
consideration this aspect.
In bodybuilding good results can be obtained very quickly with
sportsmen who have a good anabolism because it is necessary for them
to assimilate the nutritive substances easily. From those mentioned
above we can draw the conclusion that there is a correlation between
body type and sports performance. At the same time, we underlined only
few significant factors in gaining performance in bodybuilding.
4.2. Another characterization of somatic types
Knowing the body types, the genotype components of the
sportsman is very important for sports activity. In bodybuilding
terminology, besides the Sheldon classification of bodies, it is used
another one, based on genetic criteria:
• Hard gainer is considered to be the individual genetically
ungifted but this type is not excluded from the sportsmen and who can
become performer if he works hard
• Easy gainer are those genetically gifted, having talent for
bodybuilding, those who are genetically mega-superior and they are rare.
The mega-superior has not the all ideal qualities for bodybuilding like:
mezomorph type, ideal attaching point of muscles on the bone, neuromuscular maximal efficiency, maximal length of muscle and the
necessary type and number of muscle fiber.
The training session has to be based on knowledge of body type,
on organism genetic potential in order to achieve good results and
maximum efficiency.
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5. Models of anthropometric measurements
It will be necessary to establish an anthropologic diagram of the
ideal sportsman derived from anthropometric, biochemical and genetic
data. Knowing that bodybuilding is practice by males and females and
the competitions are structured on weight and age, anthropologic
diagram of the ideal sportsman has to contain selection standards. The
training results and achievement of performance are conditioned by
hereditary background, in proportion of 50%. Maximal genetic potential
achievement depends on the training sessions planning. The last
researches offer indices regarding the biologic model for bodybuilding –
males, structured on weight categories.
John McCallum`s formula. It is used in bodybuilding, especially
for the hard gainers because it sets up a model for body proportions. The
formula starts from wrist, like in table below:
No.
Body part
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Circumference of chest
Hips circumference
Buttocks
Thighs
Neck circumference
Arms
Legs
8
Forearms
Standard
measurements
according to J.
McCallum
6,5 x wrist
85% of chest
70% of chest
53% of chest
37% of chest
36% of chest
34% of chest
29% of chest
Table 1 . Formula for body segment proportions (John McCallum)
For example, starting from the measurement of the wrist of 19 and
18 cm, it can be reach this muscular development:
402
1. chest
- 6,5 x 19 cm
2. hips
- 123,5 x 0,85 cm
3. waist
- 123,5 x 0,70 cm
4. thighs
- 123,5 x 0,53 cm
5. neck
- 123,5 x 0,37 cm
6. arms
- 123,5 x 0,36 cm
7. legs
- 123,5 x 0,34 cm
8. forearms - 123,5 x 0,29 cm
19 cm
= 123,5 cm
= 104,98 cm
= 86,5 cm
= 65,6 cm
= 45,8 cm
= 44,6 cm
= 42,1 cm
= 35,9 cm
18 cm
117 cm
99,5 cm
81,9 cm
61,3 cm
42,8 cm
41,6 cm
39,3 cm
33,5 cm
Among other qualities mentioned above, there are necessary some
qualities for a good stage presence, like: musical rhythm, musical
hearing and grace.
6. Conclusions and suggestions
The proper age for starting the training is a controversial issue in
performance sports. For example, the sportsman and trainer and teacher,
Lazar Baroga, states that about the ideal age for beginning the weight
lifting: “this can be explained, on one hand, by applying a methodical
strategy in modern training like early specialization, and, on the other
hand, by obtained performances of young weight lifters who often
overcome the seniors` results.”
Thus, most of the scholars agreed that the trainings for force
education can star at the age of 8-9 years and this was generalized over
last years. Those who were against practicing weight lifting by children,
imagined weights of hundreds of kilograms which stress the children
joints and diminish their growth.
The last researches in this field allow us to state that strength
training, properly done, don’t stop growth but, on the contrary, they help
the children growth and development due to intensifying metabolism.
It is necessary to take in consideration that some marks regarding
the weights lifted by children. The training sessions can not be more than
twice a week. Number of halves is 2 and no more than 6 exercises in a
training session. In table 2, we can see the age of child and the
recommended weight for training:
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No.
Child age
Weight
1.
11-13 years
30% of body weight
2.
13-15 years
50% of body weight
3.
15-17 years
75% of body weight
4.
Over 17 years
100% of body weight
Table 2: Table regarding weight and child age (Baroga L., 1977).
We consider that Tudor Bompa’s opinion is correct: “children at
the beginning level have to attend low intensity training courses. The
training sessions for young sportsmen have to focus on general
development, without specific performances.” (Bompa O. 2001: 220).
Periodical investigations which supervise morphological
development and health allow us to observe every modification or a
body negative feed-back to stimulus and to act according to deontology
because the trainers` priority is a good and healthy development for
young sportsmen and to lead them toward high performances.
Bibliography :
Alexe Nicu, „Antrenamentul sportiv modern”, Editura Editis, Bucuresti
1993;
Baroga Lazăr, “Haltere si culturism”; Editura Sport - Turism , Bucuresti
1977;
Baroga Lazăr, “Forţa în sportul de performanţă”; Editura Sport Turism , Bucuresti 1980;
Bompa Tudor O., „Periodizarea: Teoria si metodologia
antrenamentului”, Editura Tana , Bucuresti 2001;
Voicu Alexandru-Virgil, “Culturism” , Editura Inter Tonic , Cluj
Napoca, 1999.
404
The fitness group activities instructor
Francisco José Ascenso CAMPOS
Ricardo José ESPÍRITO SANTO DE MELO
Escola Superior de Educação de Coimbra, Instituto Politécnico de
Coimbra, Portugal
Susana Carla ALVES FRANCO
Escola Superior de Desporto de Rio Maior, Instituto Politécnico de
Santarém, Portugal
Abstract: This paper looks at how fitness activities fit inside a
modern lifestyle and the benefits conveyed by such practices. It
highlights the various types of fitness activities and their social
determinants, theoretically analyzing the relationship between the trainer
and the practitioner in order to successfully promote a functional,
motivation oriented and expectation fulfilling environment.
Keywords: fitness, health risks, motivational factors, instructor.
1. Introduction
The life style of contemporary society is characterized by
behaviors that, by themselves, constitute a serious risk for health.
Tobacco and alcohol, uncontrolled diets and/or few physical activity
practices are behaviors strictly related with main death causes in the
modern days: cardiovascular diseases, as well as with the incapacity
and/or reduction of quality of life (Terrados, 2003; Vasconcelos & Maia,
2001). Equally, concern with aesthetic, social interaction and social
recognition of the importance of physical activity for an attainment of
profits in health terms and improvement of quality of life have
influenced some individuals in search of regular physical activity,
through gymnasiums.
2. The fitness activities
Fitness activity is a type of physical activity practice. It is possible
to see a current existence of a strong and increasing market, with specific
activities, distinguished from the other activities for its individual
characteristics. Actually, it is possible to evidence a gradual increase of
gymnasiums, matching that to the necessity evidenced for current
society, that search regular sport activity for the purpose of physical,
mental and social health, having the search for this services considerable
form increased throughout last years. For Brito and Alves (2002, p. 10)
“the search of gymnasiums make increases this type of industry
becoming it sufficiently and very attractive to the investment”.
The new fitness activities appearance demanded a regular update
necessity, concerning new trends in a very progressive market. The
fitness activities, as are defined currently, in nothing are related with the
ones that are practiced in beginning. The variety is raised, looking to
satisfy the necessities of all the different practitioners. The first fitness
group activity that appears was named Aerobic. In general way, all the
fitness activities can be incorporated in individual activities and group
activities (Ceragioli, 2008).
The individual activities are monitories, guided and prescribed for
an individual person according to their characteristics and personal
objectives. As individual fitness activities we have Body Building,
Cardiofitness and Personal Training. The group activities are practiced
by many individuals that together form a group that will have to be faced
by the instructor in its totality, through the junction of individual
characteristics of all the members of the group. As group activities we
have, among others, Step Aerobic, Hidro Gymnastic or Hip Hop. There
are a lot of activities appearing, following practitioner’s motivations, for
the necessity to be always in constant evolution, renewal or update.
3. The fitness group activities instructor
The fitness instructor, with the practitioner and the administrator, is
considered one of the main intervening in the fitness market, recognized
as the three vertices of the service (Pinheiro & Pinheiro, 2006). The
relation between instructor and practitioner was a line of study followed
by some investigators that had intended to relate the personality and the
behavior of the instructor with the practice indexes of accession in
fitness activities. Wininger (2002) related exercise pleasure with the
personality of the fitness instructor, according practitioner’s perceptions.
He concluded physical condition, communication capacity and the
relation instructor-practitioner are the variables that intervene with the
406
pleasure gotten by the practitioners. According to Sena (2008), the most
frequent claims in gymnasium context are related with the instructor
“preparation”, for what, it becomes necessary to demonstrate his
technique abilities, contributing this way for attainment of previously
established objectives. Another interesting aspect is the physical
appearance. Sena (2008) say that all fitness instructors must have a
special attention to his image.
A high level of competence, amusement, satisfaction and
motivation are some of the factors that move practitioners to join and
remain in practice, having the instructor an extremely important paper.
The instructor quality and the leadership type are some of the most
important aspects that practitioners identify in programs that they prefer
(Blanco, Sicilia, Gil, Roca, & Sánchez, 2003). The instructor has to
adapt a behavior to practitioners intention through dynamism (Cloes,
Laraki, Zatta, & Piéron, 2001; Franco, Cordeiro, & Cabeceiras, 2004),
amusement (Hernández & Murguía, 2003; Silva & Silva, 2003),
motivation (Bray, Gyurcsik, Culos-Reed, Dawson, & Martin, 2001;
Cloes et al., 2001; Franco et al., 2004) and communication (Wininger,
2002).
The fitness group instructor must know as much characteristics as
they can about the practitioners, which will help on the process of taking
the appropriate decision in each moment. He must always consider the
hypothesis that not all the practitioners are motivate or excited for what
motivates him. His personality has an extremely important paper in the
development of its classes. The empathy relation must be positive,
having the instructor to move the practitioners in an enthusiastic way,
creating an adequate involvement and revealing good expectations
(Sánchez, 1999). He must disclose the fact that having charisma,
dominate technique movement, as musical technique are not enough to
be successful. It has been shown that human relation and social behavior
are very important for good performance, however, we do not intend
with this to affirm that the methodology component does not have
importance. Brito and Alves (2002, p. 10) alert us that “fitness
professional fast growth locks up the danger that they have not the
demanded formation for a correct intervention and adapted to the
practioners”.
407
The instructors and practitioners have the potential to exert
between themselves positive and/or negative influences, being essential
a good relation to create a good environment inside of a class, since that
these relations have sufficient influence on the participants involvement
(ACSM, 2001). Although in an initial phase, gymnasiums must evaluate
the expectations of the practitioners as well as proper capacity in
supplying the waited service, so that, corresponding to intended one, to
organize and delineate a service with quality, inside of the indicated
standards. The practitioner’s expectations guide, among others, the
structure, planning and/or budget of any gymnasium (ACSM, 2001).
4. Conclusions
A quality fitness group activities instructor must develop abilities
to keep practitioners in their classes, manipulating the factors that
influence participation. This knowledge will allow developing and
implementing strategies to maximize it. The instructor actual great
challenge is to create classes where is possible to practitioners be
successful and satisfy their personal issues and needs. The knowledge of
the factors that promote satisfaction in fitness practitioners is an
important factor considered in the direction of qualitative increase
market (Theodorakis, Alexandris, Rodriguez, & Sarmento, 2004).
Considering that quality perception is related to personal satisfaction
(Fornell, Johnson, Anderson, Cha, & Bryant, 1996; Spreng, MacKenzie,
& Olshavsky, 1996) and service fidelity (Theodorakis et al., 2004;
Zeithalm, Berry, & Parasuraman, 1996), these strategical factors must be
considered with extreme relevance for survival and success in this
professional competitive context (Zeithalm et al., 1996).
The instructors need to interiorize that what they say and they
make have a tremendous impact on the “environment” of their classes.
The motivational component of the instructor must provoke new
behaviors, however, the motivation does not obtain for itself that
practitioners remain in their classes much more time (Kennedy, 2000).
Effectively, to give a good class is a very important aspect and a
challenge for him. Its ability makes that he carefully draws programs and
adopt pedagogical strategies to motivate practitioners to practice
continue (Francis & Seibert, 2000). His challenge is to encourage the
continuous participation of practitioners with his attitude, personality
408
and behavior, in general, strong motivation factors to influence
participation on physical activity practice (Young & King, 2000).
One of the actual concerns in fitness market is the installment of a
quality service that leads to the satisfaction of its practitioners
(Papadimitriou & Karteroliotis, 2000). The instructor is a direct actor on
a service that must be considered in the increase of its general quality
(Murray & Howat, 2002; Papadimitriou & Karteroliotis, 2000). The
instructors has an important paper concerning the practitioners, for
amusement, satisfaction and motivation that they impose to keep them in
practice, since the qualities of the instructor and its style of leadership
the most important factors that the practitioners identify. The quality
assumes a role of prominence, becoming one of the main factors to
contemplate in this kind of service (Barreira & Carvalho, 2007). The
gradual growth up of the fitness market provided the sprouting of a new
service where it is more and more contemplated the quality given service
(Barreira & Carvalho, 2007), for what, a well formed and competent
academic fitness group activities instructor will differentiate itself from
its pairs for its professional and pedagogical intervention.
References:
American College of Sports Medicine (2001). ACSM Resource manual
guidelines for exercise testing and prescription. Baltimore:
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Barreira, C., & Carvalho, A. (2007). A realidade portuguesa do conforto
em instalações de fitness. O que mudar? Motricidade, 3 (2), 69-80.
Blanco, R., Sicilia, A., Gil, M., Roca, J. & Sánchez; F. (2003).
Desarrollo de un programa de adherencia en las escuelas deportivas
de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte de
Granada. Presentado en Congresso Mundial de Ciencias de la
Actividad Física y el Deporte - Deporte y Calidad de Vida, Granada.
Bray, S., Gyurcsik, N., Culos-Reed, S., Dawson, K. & Martin, K.
(2001). An exploratory investigation of the relationship between
proxy efficacy, self-efficacy and exercise attendance. Journal of
Health Psychology, 6 (4), 425-434.
Brito, A., & Alves, J. (2002). Desporto e consumo 1969 - 2001, Debate:
Desporto. investigação & Ciência, 0, 5-10.
Ceragioli, L. (2008). Ginástica aeróbica. Cascais: Arte Plural.
409
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The management of performance in sports by value
analysis. an ergonomic perspective
Ioan GALEA
Abstract: The purpose of the present survey is to develop the
method of value analysis (V.A.) in sporting activities in order to improve
performance in sports (P.S.). From the research it results clearly that,
when attempting to obtain high performances, numerous factors need to
be considered. From the perspective of sports ergonomy, all sporting
activities represent systemic processes, aimed at obtaining a high level of
performance.
Keywords: value analysis, system, high performance, sports
ergonomy.
Introduction
The present paper aims to develop the method of value analysis1
(V. A.) in sports, starting from the premise that all sports activities must
be approached systemically and, at the same time, it represents a process
whose result is performance. From this perspective, high performance is
the result of several factors, whose control represents the very
condition/premise of high performance in sports.
The method of value analysis emerged and was perfected in the
field of industrial engineering (Ioniţă, 1984). Our attempt to adapt it to
the field of sports is inscribed in the line of the attempts aimed at finding
new ways for optimizing sports activities (Colibaba, 2005).
A few specifications need to be made regarding the terms
employed.
1
If the method is applied to a product/service in project, the term used is
value engineering; if it designates a product/service that exists, it is called
value analysis.
411
The term sports designates both motric structures differentiated by
disciplines, branches and probe (Crâstea, 1993) viewed as
activities/processes – in the widest sense of the term activity –, and the
totality of sports objects, equipments and facilities.
From the point of view of sports ergonomy (Galea, 2007), the
system consists of the interrelationship sportsman – object –
environment, the main function of the system being high performance.
In sports activities, the notion of high performance acquires
numerous connotations, of which we shall present only the most
relevant:
Record represents the maximal performance of a specific action,
the optimal result of an activity, its output being expressed by the ratio
between the input and the output of the process. But high performance
has less spectacular significances, too, namely:
Conducting accident free sports activities can be appreciated as
high performance in what regards the organizing of the activity, its
safety, the appropriate equipment, etc. Similarly, eliminating bottlenecks
from a training session or from a class of physical education,
establishing the optimal ratio between the number of members for an
organization and the type of activity conducted, can also be considered
performance.
What we can definitely assert is that high performance is the result
of several associated factors, and that the term targets both the process
and the result of an action.
Developing the V.A. method in sports
The notional framework of V.A.
Value analysis considers that what must be analyzed is not the
product/process/service itself, but rather, the functions included by
design, and that these functions must satisfy the beneficiary’s needs.
The V.A. method aims at establishing an optimal ratio between the
use value of the good/service analyzed (Vi) and the direct and indirect
production costs it generates (Ct), and it can be expressed by the relation:
Vi/ Ct = max
(1)
As the use value of a product/service is given by the use functions
which satisfy the beneficiary’s needs, it increases when those functions
are accomplished better, with the lowest possible costs and without
reducing the quality of the product/service, i.e.:
413
Value = functions / cost
(2)
or,
Value = quality / cost
(3)
In this case, relation (1) becomes:
(4)
Σ Fi / Σ Ci = max, ( i = 1, 2, … , n )
where:
F – the function of the product/service;
C – the cost corresponding to function i;
i – the ordinal number of the product’s/service’s function.
In other words, the use (utility) value of a sports
product/service is given by the functions the product or service has
incorporated by design, i.e. its high performance is given by the manner
in which the functions of the product/service answer certain needs. In the
language of sports science, by relation (3) we understand: the main
functions of a sports activity is given by the activity’s quality, which
means high performance obtained with the lowest possible cost, i.e.
competitiveness. It must be noted that the V.A. method has its own
system of classifying and hyerarchizing functions, while the analysis
itself is guided by the following principles: the principle of functional
analysis, the principle of double dimensioning of functions, the principle
of maximizing the ratio between use value and cost, the principle of
systemic approach of the use value2.
Application of the V.A. method to sports products (equipment,
facilities) is relatively simple; things seem to complicate when it is
applied to processes/services (activities) pertaining to the domain of
sports – a domain that is multidisciplinary by excellence. For this aspect,
sports ergonomy provides the proper conceptual framework.
Sports ergonomy. Assessing performance
Sports ergonomy is a cross-disciplinary domain whose subject is
the relation established within the system “sportsman –
equipment/appliances/facilities – environment”, aimed at optimizing
performance. It develops a complex vision regarding the sportsman’s
relations with technology (sporting equipment), correlating the
physiological, psychological, anthropometric, etc. factors, with those
2
For details, see Crum, 1976.
414
pertaining to the environment (humidity, heat, air pressure, noise, etc.),
so as to obtain maximal output. I have specified in the introduction that
performance is the result of the interaction of several factors pertaining
to: the sportsman, the sports objects and the environment. Precise
definition and hyerarchizing those factors gives us the premise for a
qualitative assessment of the system’s performance. In other words, the
subject of sports ergonomy is the performance (P) of the system
“sportsman – object3 – environment,” according to the relation:
P= A⇔ B⇔C
(5)
where: P – represents the performance of the system;
A – represents the set of factors of the subsystem “sportsman”;
B – represents the set of factors of the subsystem “object”;
C – represents the set of factors of the subsystem
“environment”;
⇔ – is an interrelationship operator.
For example4: when we want to assess the efficiency (output,
performance) of the following structure of exercises (used in the
physical training of football players, for developing explosive force): 1
half-genuflexion (I=100%) + 4 jumps over hurdles from two legs on two
legs (I=90%) + 5 m accelerated run + shot at the gate, we must take into
consideration the fact that each of the players has a different level of the
respective motric quality; that the equipment used must be configured
according to the work’s intensity; that the structure of the exercises can
be performed on the grass, on slag or synthetic surface; whether the
temperature outside is 10 or 30 degrees Celsius; whether it is rainy or
windy; the number of players; the work formations; the number of sports
materials; etc. For each individual player, what percentage of his
maximal abilities do the 100 kg weight of the dumbbell, or the 100 cm
height of the fence represent? Are the players’ training shoes appropriate
for the surface on which the structure is executed, so as to eliminate the
3
For simplification, I have used the term “object” in the sense of both
product (P) (sporting materials, equipment, appliances and facilities),
process (p) (sporting activities, e.g. training sessions), and services (S) in the
field of sports, according to table 2.1.
4
A structure adapted after Cometti, G. (2005).
415
risk of accidents? Are the duration and the content of the warm-up, the
pauses between the repetitions, appropriate for the atmospheric
conditions at the moment of training? From the perspective of sports
ergonomy there is a permanent interrelationing among the factors
pertaining to the three subsystems (sportsman – sports objects –
environment), and their management is approached systemically. All
these – and not only these – aspects, define a modern training session, in
which the means (exercises) are adapted to the purpose (explosive
force). No exercises (or structures of exercises) are good or bad, they can
be efficient (optimal, performative, etc.) or inefficient, depending on the
degree to which they have accomplished the purpose for which they
were designed. This is how we must define the optimum of a sporting
activity, which is another facet of high performance.
The notional framework provided by sports ergonomy allows
us to develop a V.A. method in sports also, and our survey focuses on
sports activities – in the sense of processes!, rather than of sports
materials, equipments and facilities.
The V.A. method in sports
First of all, a table (table 2.1) has been elaborated, containing
the main factors of the subsystems “sportsman – object – environment”.
Table 2.1 Factors that make up the system "sportsman – object –
environment" (suggestion).
SUBSYSTEM
cod
1. Pulse
SPH1
2. Blood pressure
SPH2
PHYSIOLOGICAL 3. Max. volume O2/min. SPH3
(PH)
4. Amount of lactic acid in
blood
SPH4
5. Respiratory frequency SPH5
6. ...
1. Skills
SPS1
A. SPORTIV(S) PSYCHIC (PS)
2. Personality features
SPS2
3. Character
SPS3
4. ...
1. Height
SA1
2. Weight
SA2
ANTROPOMETRIC 3. Size of body segments SA3
(A)
4. Angles
SA4
416
FACTORS
5. Age
6. Sex
7. …
1. Sports objects
2. Sports materials
3. Sports equipments/facilities
4. Sports gear
B.
5. Methodological procedure
PRODUCT (P)
6. Energetic support
PROCESS (p)
7. Methods of recovery
SERVICE (s)
8. Information
(PpS) 9. Organizational structure
10. Services
11. Relations with other structures
12. Advertising
13. …
1. Pollutants
2. Noise
3. Illumination
4. Forms
5. Sizes
C.
ENVIRONMENT
(M)
6. Chromatics
7. Temperature
8. Air pressure
9. Altitude
10. Weightlessness
11. Ecology
12. …
If in relation (5) we replace notations according to table 2.1, we
obtain the concrete contents of the factors that define the three
subsystems, so that we get:
(6)
A = {SFi , Pj , An}
where: S represents the set “sportsman”, which consists of three
categories of factors, i.e.:
Fi – the physiological parameters of the set sportsman;
Pj – the psychological parameters of the set sportsman;
An – the anthropometric parameters of the sporting set;
i,j,n – the ordinal number corresponding to the category of
factors, i.e.:
A = SFi + SPj + SAn (7)
SA5
SA6
PpS1
PpS2
PpS3
PpS4
PpS5
PpS6
PpS7
PpS8
PpS9
PpS10
PpS11
PpS12
M1
M2
M3
M4
M5
∑
∑
∑
B = {PpSm}
(8)
where:
PpSm
represents
the
components
of
the
set
“PRODUCT/PROCESS/SERVICE”,
and:
C = {Ms}
(9)
where:
Ms represents the components of the set “ENVIRONMENT ”.
If in relation (5) we replace notations according to table 2.1
suggested by us, the performance of system (P) becomes:
M6
M7
M8
M9
M10
M11
5
3
6
12
11
P : (∑ SFi + ∑ SPj + ∑ SAn ) ⇔ (∑ PpSm) ⇔ (∑ Ms)
i =1
-
Obviously, table 2.1 does not cover all the factors pertaining to the
three subsystems; concrete circumstances that update high performance
come to complete the set of factors which define the content of the
subsystems (S, PpS and M).
417
j =1
n =1
m =1
(10)
S =1
Relation (10) represents the mathematical expression that records
the basic aim of sports ergonomy: that of optimizing the performance of
the system “sportsman – object – environment”; at the same time, it
offers us the possibility of developing a value analysis for sporting
activities.
The main reason for research within V.A. surveys is that the
functions performed by the analyzed sporting product/process/service
can be fulfilled better and at lower costs, i.e. we can learn what functions
are required to fulfill the conditions imposed for carrying out our
purpose.
418
One of the basic principles of V.A. is the principle of functional
analysis, which starts from the premise that all products, processes,
services are a cumulation of main and auxiliary functions. Thus, we
must first of all define the main function of an activity (e.g. in the
examples presented here, of the structure of exercises), the design, the
configuration of the activity following after. Or, in the framework of
sports ergonomy, this kind of analysis (V.A.) can only be accomplished,
in a systemic perspective, considering all the factors involved. Starting
from relation (10), which assesses the performance of a sporting activity
qualitatively, and from the factors presented in table 2.1, the main
function of a structure of exercises has the following mathematical
expression:
(11)
Fp:(SF1,4+SP1+SA5) ⇔ (PpS1,2,4) ⇔ (M7)
where: Fp – represents the activity’s main function, e.g. for the in
football example above, a structure specific for developing explosive
force in the lower limbs5;
SF1 – represents the pulse (F.C.), and it orients the intensity
of the effort (maximal/sub-maximal), the pause between repetitions, etc.;
SF4 – the anaerobic work range (force in a regime of speed);
SP1 – each player’s level of motric quality explosive force;
SA5 – the category of age (junior, senior);
PpS1 – the sports objects (dumbbell, hurdle, ball);
PpS2 – the surface of execution (grass, slag, synthetic);
PpS4 – the sports gear (shoes, jump suit, shorts);
M7 – the environmental temperature.
It is obvious that, in performing a V.A. analysis for the
example presented here, we have taken into considerations only those
factors that are included in the table suggested by us; certainly, a detailed
5
A structure of exercises is efficient and has maximal output when it is
appropriate for the intended purpose; in our case: half-genuflexion – a
general global exercise; followed by multi-form general exercises (jump
over the hurdles and accelerated running); and ending with a specifically
analytical exercice (shooting at the gate).
419
analysis needs to highlight other factors involved in each of the
categories considered by sports ergonomy.
Conclusions
Application of the V.A. method in sports represents a new
instrument by which we can improve the process of designing sports
activities.
By defining the main function of an activity, we merely adapt the
most efficient means so as to accomplish the purpose proposed.
The formalized framework suggested in the present paper allows
us to develop the V.A. method from a systemic perspective, an essential
perspective in a multi- and cross-disciplinary domain such as sports.
The major concern of the A.V. method is the quality of the process
itself which, in the field of sports, is synonymous with high
performance.
As for the usefulness of such a method, only future studies will
confirm or contradict it.
Bibliography :
Cârstea, Gheorghe (1993), Teoria şi Metodica Educatiei Fizice şi
Sportului, Editura Universul, Bucureşti;
Colibaba Evulet, Dumitru, Andrei COLIBABA EVULET, (2005),
Optimizarea procesului de instruire cu ajutorul metodei six sigma,
Conferinta ştiintifică internatională-editia a XIV-a, 27-28 oct.,
Bucureşti;
Crum, L.W. (1976), Ingineria valorii, Editura Tehnică, Bucureşti;
Davids, K., Smith, Martin, R., (1991) Controlling system uncertainty in
sport and work. Applied Ergonomics;
Galea, Ioan (2007), Ergonomie Sportivă, Editura Universitătii Aurel
Vlaicu, Arad;
Cometti, Gilles (2002) La preparation physique en football, Editura
Chieran, Paris;
Grandjean, E. (1969), Fitting the Task to the Man, London, Taylor and
Francis;
Ionită, Ion (1984) Analiza valorii, Editura Ştiintifică şi Enciclopedică,
Bucureşti.
420
Study of the pilates technique effects
over the body sculpture
Gabriela ISTVAN
Abstract: In this paper I intend to verify if the usage of tehniques
particular to Pilates can provide better muscle tonification and an
improvement of the physical tonus withouth resorting to excesive effort.
I intended to verify if using the Pilates tehniques, a better muscle
tonifiation is achieved for the major muscle groups and also an
improvement of the physical condition without requiring excessive
efforts.
Keywords: mobility, suppleness, abdominal muscles, physical
training
Introduction
Pilates gymnastics is a training method which has been used for the
last 100 years and its based on complete body. Mind and spirit
coordination.
Pilates gymnastics is not a training method which involves
jumping and running, or any active exercises, done in full body force.
This form of gymnastics includes exercises that focus on posture,
held,exercises that executed in detail, making sure that the respiration is
well done. During the exercises, the respiration is ample, rhytmic, done
at maximum, with exhaling while making an effort. That’s why this
form of training can be done by anyone: children, adults, elder persons.
Pilates gymnastics is recomended for pregnant women, which
teaches to breath properly, to focus and to keep in shape. Also the Pilates
gymnastics is recomended after giving birth in order to regain muscular
tonus.
Pilates method represent an excellent method to recover after back,
knee, hips, shoulders injury resulted after repeted tension. Pilates
corrects the asymmetry or the chronic weakness in order to give back the
body balance and prevent injury.
Pilates is a body and mind technique, also has exercises ment to
help injured dancers.
Pilates exercises increases bone resistance and joint mobility
teaching us to keep balance and mind control. It helps toning the abs, it
improves breathing, circulation and digestion. Pilates leads to mental
relaxation.
Exercises can be done in the gym, at home, outdoor, under a
specialist supervision. As reguarding the outfit, this must casual
(tshirt,shorts) and barefooted. If it is summer, hydratation is very
important each time we feel thirsty.
It can be observed that the person who does Pilates has more power
and resistance while lifting weights or going for long walks. We also
can observe a better posture. There will be no more pain in the back,
shoulders, hips, knees. Strenghtening the center of the body we will feel
a power that has never been felt before.
A superior effectiveness level will be reached keeping in mind the
eight fundamental principles:
1. Movement control
2. Breathing
3. Fluidity
4. Precision
5. Balance
6. Stability
7. Amplitude
8. Relaxation
BASIC RULES OF THE PILATES METHOD
Pilates method is composed out of at least 200 exercises. The
beginner might feel unfocused exposed to this number of exercises.
Certain movements are complex and hard to be memorised. Each
exercise is a gathering of the basic movements.
The Pilates method simplifies the exercises storing decomposing
each elemnt. They represent the basic movements and body concepts
and help building all exercises like:
• Neutral spine center
• Standing on blades
• Scoop your abslombară, toracică sau cervical
422
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Research methods used in the study
THE COMPONENTS OF THE PILATES PROGRAM
The training containes 3 steps , each with a well determined role :
Research organization
Flexuosity (lower back, torso, neck)
Semi-standing on blades
Overlapping vertebrae
The bridge
The abdominal posture
Firts position
Relaxation posture
This alphabet helps in the process of learning, even for the
most complex erecises.
Step I (5-10min) is ment to prepare the body for effort, heating
the muscles at a general level and it take 10 minutes.
Step II (30min) is ment to train de body muscles, the glutes and
thights , with an immediate effect over the cellulite, tonifiation and
reducing volume. There are also exercises ment to tone the abs and to
correct the spine posture.
Step III (7-10min) being the final part of the training ,
stretching and breathing exrecises are executed, with a positive effect
over the suplesness of the body , over the blood circulation and spine
tension.
The purpose of the research
The purpose of the research is to establish the structure , the
demands, and the methodology of the Pilates trainig.
The aim of this paper is to observe for a period of time the
development of the lower body muscles ,of the abs, the increasing of the
joint mobility, muscular elasticity, balance develoment and space
orientation after practicing Pilates on daily basis.
The tasks of the research
Testing aero fitness components of the Pilates students
• Theoreticaly determination of the most efficient Pilates
methodes
• Increasing methods efficiency used in Pilates training
423
In this sudy paper the following methods have been used:
• Methods with a high generalistaion degree (historical method)
• Methods of special investigation (observation and
experimentation methods)
• Methods of analisis and interpretation (statistical, mathematical
and graphic method)
SUBJECTS, PLACE, MATERIALS, STAGES
The test took place at Salamandra Salon Timisoara, 16
subjects with ages between 20-45 years old, frequency of the training 3
times per week, duration of one training 1 hour.
The test took place between march 2008 and march 2009
with 2 periods of 1 week break.
Materials needed: gymnastics bench, ruler, timer, 16 pilates
mattresses, 16 platforms.
The research was structured in 3 stages:
• First one, studying the Pilates literature
• Second stage-initial testing of the subjects
• Third stage –final testing of the subjects and presenting
conclusions
TESTS AND MEASUREMENTS DONE
Test nr. 1 –Strenght and resistence of the abs test
Test nr. 2 –mobility and suplesness evaluation
Test nr. 3 – balance test
Research results
After the final tests we can observe:
• An increase of the abs strengh from 7,8 to 12,9;
424
The statatistic-mathematic interpretation of mobility and
supelesness evaluation
• An increase of the mobilty from 26,25 to 29,5;
• An increase of the balance from 3,18 to 1,43.
Nr.crt
The statistic-mathematic interpretation of strenght and resistence
of the abs test
Nr.crt
1
2
3
4
5
6
Statistics
indicators
X
Mo
Me
Am
S
V
First
testing
7.87
8
8
2.15
2.75
34.94%
1
2
3
4
5
6
Final
testing
12.93
16
14
1.83
2.14
16.55%
EVALUATING THE ABS STRENGHT
Initials name
and surname
First
testing
Final
testing
Difference
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
I.E.
S.S.
I.M.
V.A
G.V.
H.A.
C.M.
M.O.
Î.M.
A.I.
C.C.
I.A
G.C.
I.E.
I.O.
O.L.
12
10
6
7
10
12
5
8
3
9
11
5
8
8
8
4
15
14
11
13
14
15
10
14
10
14
15
10
15
14
14
9
3
4
5
6
4
3
5
6
3
5
4
5
7
6
6
5
425
First
testing
26.25
30
27
5.37
5.91
22.51%
Final
testing
29.5
35
29
6.12
6.78
22.98%
MOBILITY EVALUATION
Nr. Crt
Nr.
Crt.
Statistics
indicators
X
Mo
Me
Am
S
V
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
426
Initials name
and surname
I.E.
S.S.
I.M.
V.A.
G.V.
H.A.
C.M.
M.O.
Î.M.
A.I.
C.C.
I.A.
G.C.
I.E.
I.O.
O.L.
First
testing
30
24
20
21
22
30
31
30
19
35
30
23
18
35
32
20
Final
testing
35
26
22
24
26
35
35
34
21
39
32
26
20
40
35
22
Difference
5
2
2
3
4
5
4
4
2
4
2
3
2
5
3
2
The statatistic-mathematic interpretation of balance test
Nr.crt
Statistics
First
Final
indicators
testing
testing
1
X
3.18
1.43
2
Mo
3
1
3
Me
3
1
4
Am
0.88
0.54
5
S
1.16
0.62
6
V
36.47%
43.35%
BALANCE EVALUATION
Initials
name
and First
Nr.crt
surname
testing
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
I.E.
S.S.
I.M.
V.A.
G.V.
H.A.
C.M.
M.O.
Î.M.
A.I.
C.C.
I.A.
G.C.
I.E.
I.O.
O.L.
2
2
3
3
2
2
4
3
3
4
3
2
5
4
3
6
Final
testing
Difference
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
2
2
1
1
2
2
1
3
1
1
2
2
1
1
2
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
2
3
effort and using the right systems and technologies tailored to individual
situations
After applying the Pilates programs as an independent variable
among the subjects we have reached the following conclusions:
• We have registarted a superior progress of the muscular
indicators, of the mobility of the joints and of the balance
• A progress reguarding the body effort resistance
• A better mattress work, keeping balance during de program.
• Stretching helps obtain superior results at the final mobility test
having a medium increase of the figures from 26.25 - 29.5.
The experiement which was done as a research, prooved the
efficiency of the Pilates methods through the final test indicators. The
indicators obtained at the studied parameters have targeted: physical
development, movement qualities and the technique level have increased
since the independent variable was introduced.
Recomandations
• In the future, Pilates should be part of everyones life, condiering
the benefits.
• Executing the Pilates programs with specific methods and
tailored to individual situations
• Informing the subjects over the positive effects of the Pilates
using specific dates
• Using Pilates to get better indicators but also to lose weight.
• Diverisifying the methodes in order to arouse interest of the
subjects and to attract more people, without monotony.
Conclusions
After the final testing, abs tonus, mobility of the coxo-femoral
joints and balance , were positively influenced due to the right use of
427
Bibliography :
Ackland,Lesley & Paton,Thomas – „Pilates en 10 Étapes”. Editura Guy
Trédaniel, Paris 2001.
Apostol, Ioan – „Ergofiziologie”. Editura Univ. Al. I. Cuza Iaşi 1998.
Anna, Selby – „Gimnastica Pilates pentru gravide”. Editura All,
Bucureşti 2003.
Curtis,Martine – Oakes – „Perfect Pilates l’art de modeler son corps” –
Editura Vigot, Paris 2005.
Darcey Bussell – „Pilates”. Editura Marabout, Paris 2006.
428
Dragnea, Adrian & Bota, Aura – „Teoria activităţilor motrice”. Editura
didactică şi pedagogică , R.A , Bucureşti 1999
Dufour,Anne & Riveccio,Patricia – „La méthode Pilates”. Editura
Hachette Pratique, Paris 2006.
Herman,Ellie – „La méthode Pilates pour les nuls”. Editura First, Paris
2005.
Pilates,J. H. - ,,Metoda Pilates’’ .Editura Teora, Bucuresti
Robinson,Linne & Brien,Caroline – „La méthode Pilates”. Editura
Marabout, Paris 2004.
Suciu A. & Dumitru Gh. – „Ghid pentru sănătate şi condiţie fizică”,
Bucureşti, Federaţia sportul pentru toţi.
The role of motivational factors in the development
of basic training in the game of football
for children aged 7-12
Gabriel Roberto MARCONI
Abstract: The requirments of sporting activities conerned with
football for children aged 7-12 are treated superficially and are not in
conformity with the regulations set out by the Romanian Football
Federation (FRF). Children are attracted to football practice through
announcemements made at seniors’ matches, disclosing the locations for
trials and the targeted age groups. Through this research I aim to clarify
certain points regarding scientific selection, in which the psychological
factor of practice (referring strictly to the motivational factor) is tackled
in a way that leads towards obtaining superior results.
Keywords: motivational factors, football, initiation.
Introduction
Intensifying and directing competitional human activity is the usual
subject for the advocates of analytical psychology, which see athletic
competitions as a symbolic compensation for the hardships of daily life,
a mechanism of emotional balancing1.
Due to the different aspects of motivation, children and teenagers
wish and accept their insertion in the organized practice of football. Even
during stage I (athletic orientation general training – steps II-III), the
benevolent nature of children’s participation is conditioned by the risk of
not being selected in higher ranks2.
1
Epuran, M., Holdevici, I., Toniţa, F., Psihologia sportului de performanţă:
teorie şi practică, FEST Publishing House, Bucharest, 2008
2
Motroc, I., Motroc, F., Fotbalul la copii şi juniori, Didactic and Pedagogic
Publishing House, R,A., Bucharest, 1996
429
Starting with the premises of a non-benefic reality with regards to
achieving performance in the football game, in case the player we are
planning to train has not been duly checked from a somatic, motricity
and psychological point of view, we will not know whether he is skilled
for playing football. The UTA and CS Atletico clubs have the due
satisfactory material means for the ongoing of the training and game
process, which allows us, by eliminating the already noticed gaps, to
satisfy the demands of a training based on scientific investigation and the
possibility to prove the hypothesis suggested regarding the motivational
and emotional factors related to the trainings and practice of football for
the 7-12 age groups.
Hypothesis
The research that we have planned to achieve refers to the
following hypothesis: it is considered that applying the training program
focusing on the psychological model based on the motivational factor
will improve the football training process for children.
Content, method, materials
In order to have a larger view of the motivational factors, we have
elaborated a sociological questionnaire containing a set of 4 questions,
which have been answered by 144 athletes, members of the children
groups affiliated to UTA and Atletico Arad sports clubs, these athletes’
birth years being 1998, 1997, 1996 and 1995, the way footballer groups
where our research was conducted are created. Through this method we
have gathered in a short time a large volume of information regarding
the way that children beginners at football perceive the role played by
motivational factors in obtaining superior results during the training
process. Each question had a precise purpose, having as final aim the
collection of veracious data regarding the role of motivational factors in
increasing athletic results. The sociological questionnaire created for the
subjects has maintained the research theme’s structure: the role of the
motivational factors, that can be found in the following questions:
MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS
Question
No.
1
Appreciation criteria
very much
much
little
How much do you mobilize
yourself during practice if the
coach appreciates you after a
good game?
431
2
3
4
How much does the fact that you
are wearing the club colours
influence your game during
football matches?
How much did the perspective
of possible material gains
influence you in regards to
football practice?
How much does your
parents’/colleagues’ appreciation
matter concerning your training
and evolution as a football
player?
The answers provided by children that have taken this
questionnaire are shown in bellow’s centralized tables which have been
interpreted and graphically presented, for better understanding.
Question
Possible
answers
How much Very much
do you mobilize
yourself during
practice if the
Much
coach appreciates
you after a good
Little
game?
Actual
answer
75
%
52%
63
43,8%
6
4,2%
For the first question “How much do you mobilize yourself during
practice if the coach
appreciates you after a good game? “, 75 children out of 144
(representing 52%) have answered “very much”, for 63 of them
(representing 43,8%) the answer was ”much” and 6 have chosen to
answer “little”, which makes 4,2 %.
432
Little
4,2%0%
Question no. 3 shows that 47 subjects, representing a percentage
of 32,7 % ,were very much influenced to practice football because of the
perspective of future gains. 61 of the questioned subjects, representing a
percentage of 42,2 %, were “much” determined to practice this sport by
the eventual future gains. If we were to sum up these two percentages,
we would have a vast majority of those which are motivated to play
football by the possible future material gains. There are still 36 players, a
25% percentage, which this perspective influenced in a small way to
play football.
Very much
52%
Much
43,8%
For the second question “How much does the fact that you are
wearing the club colours influence your game during football
matches?”, 67 out of 144 athletes answered “very much” (46,5 %), 71
chose “much” as an answer ( 49,3 %) and 6 opted for “little” ( 4,2 %).
Question
Possible
answers
How much does
Very much
the fact that you
Much
are wearing the
club
colours
influence
your
Little
game
during
football matches?
Actual
answer
67
46,5
71
49,3
%
Possible
Actual answer
Question
answers
How much did
Very much
47
the perspective
Much
61
of
possible
material gains
Little
36
influence you in
regards
to
football
practice?
Little
25%
6
0%
%
32,6%
42,4%
25%
Very much
32,6%
4,2%
Little
0%
4%
Very much
46,5
Much
42,4 %
Much
49,3%
Out of the 144 subject that have answered to the question “How
much does your parents’/colleagues’ appreciation matter regarding
your training and evolution as a football player?”, 45 of them
(representing 31,3 %) have answered “very much”, 60 subjects
(representing 41.7 %) have answered “much” and 39 (27 %) chose the
option “little”. The percentages have been more evenly distributed,
proportionately to the possible answers. During stage 1 of the training,
433
434
the body’s general motricity, sustained by the motivational factors, has
to be driven during the development process towards football’s specific,
this being one of the main focus points from a performance ability point
of view. Long-term training is an objective necessity. A professional
athlete needs a long training process and during this time, he must be
gradually instructed, following ascending levels, from one stage to
another. After the analysis of the answers provided by the 144 subjects,
we come upon a clear conclusion: from the point of view of children
that are beginners at football, the motivational factors have a positive
influence on achieving superior results during training and competitions.
Following conversations held with sportsmen and coaches, the
enhancement of the efficiency of motivational factors leads to a better
training process and can be achieved through the development of
training programs which would hold as permanent objective the
motivation for sport practicing.
Bibliography:
Epuran, M., Holdevici, I., Toniţa, F. Psihologia sportului de
performanţă: teorie şi practică, Editura FEST, Bucureşti,2008
Maslow, A. – Motivaţie şi personalitate – colecţia psihologie (situl
Universitatii Lencester), 2008
Motroc, Ion- Fotbal la copii şi juniori, CNEFS, Bucureşti,1989
Simion, Gh., Mihăilă,I. Fenomenul motivaţiei în practica sportivă,
Conferinţa Ştiinţifică Internaţională, Educaţia fizică şi sportul din
România – prezent şi inovare, Oradea, 2009.
435
Development of coordination in masculine artistic
gymnastics, junior gymnasts IV, level 1 and 2
Lucian POPA
Abstract: The main topic of this paper is a different approach to
coordination (coordination ability) in artistic gymnastic trainings, the
methods and the principal means of coordination development and
perfection. The experiment shown in the paper demonstrates that the
hypotheses are confirmed.
At the same time, this analysis enriches the data base of specialized
literature for masculine artistic gymnastics, and was written as a guide
for gymnastics trainers and teachers.
Keywords: coordination, motric abilities, technical elements, joint
mobility
Introduction
The research paper is an important contribution to the wide field of
coordination development in specific conditions, like the sport activities
performed by young and active men, without taking in consideration the
big performances.
The paper is focused on the ability, generic named skill, an
important quality for training the gymnastics. More specific, we draw
attention on a methodology for developing the coordination ability,
under different aspects of its manifestation.
Coordination in physical activities has an significant importance,
having the role of a dispatcher- programmer and, in every moment,
controls the general position of the body, and of its segments, preparing
the commands and the programme of each element included in a
movement or in a sequence of movements.
Theoretical background
1.1. Psychomotricity
The area of psychomotricity is broad and has a very complex and
varied content. According to most researchers, the coordination has a
central place in the psycho-motrics ability system, this category
containing kinetics, static and dynamic balance, laterality, ideomotricity,
etc. Psycho-motricity abilities are the result of the synthesis of psychic
and motric functions which ensure the right response, on one hand, and
the reception of external and internal information.
1.2. Coordination – definition, characteristics, functions
Coordination is achieved through inhibition, a process that
corrects and adjusts the fundamental nervous excitement.
Adjusting body activity, during the motor actions, involves
differentiation with maximum precision and speed of stimuli and
responses (effectors activity). At the level of the central nervous system,
after many repetitions of the action - the relationship between impulse
sensitive reflexes and motor response - based on irradiation,
concentration and mutual induction of fundamental nervous processes of
excitation and inhibition, the mechanism of the conditioned-reflex acts is
formed, as an expression of temporary connections that are established
as fundamental mechanism developed by the body when meeting the
action. Coordination is a key factor in the body's energy economy, with
direct implications in the efficiency of its activities; it is well-known that
a good coordination eliminates the useless movements. According to
most authors, regarding the manifestation of locomotors coordination,
we have studied the following items:
a) Segmentary coordination
b) General coordination;
c) Perceptive - motric coordination
1.3 Development of general coordination and segmentation
Factors which govern the ability of coordination are:
- The speed of nerve processes of excitation and inhibition;
- Ability to create links between brain hemispheres;
- Ability to control selective nerve;
- The degree of stress.
Space-time orientation depends on the following factors:
- General coordination (complex motor actions, flexibility);
437
- Coordination segment (arms, legs, mixed).
All exercises to develop coordination include:
- Teaching gradual movements, first movement of the arms, then legs
and finally overlap between them;
- Execution tempo gradually increases;
- Systematic use of them.
1.4 Development of perceptual-motor coordination (temporal and
spatial orientation ability)
Factors on which temporal-space orientation depends on:
- The ability to perceive spatial cues (optical analyser);
- The ability to perceive temporal marks (kinaesthesia analyser,
proprioception and the auditory analyser);
- The degree of stress.
1.5. The research hypothesis
Development and using systematic character of coordination
exercises should be set up in the training content of each lesson. This
content should have an appropriate methodology for application, taking
in consideration the importance and difficulty of these exercises for
children of this age, which emerged from analysis of the characteristics
that they have at this time.
I believe that the exercises developed and their implementation
methodology will lead to an increased expression of the coordination
capacity of athletes. If this hypothesis is verified and will not be
rejected, exercises and implementation methodology will become part of
each training lesson.
The experiment
2.1. Place of the experiment and its subjects
The experiment was conducted at the Sports School Club Gloria
Arad. The experiment subjects were 26 gymnasts and we had their
consent.
2.2. Means
- exercises for developing coordination segmentation
- games and motion paths in order to develop general
coordination
- motion exercises and games for developing perceptual - motric
coordiantion
438
2.3. Samples of control
- coordination segment
- general coordination
- perceptual – motric coordination
2.4. Technology
The experiment lasted 10 months, with training lessons of
120 minutes, 4 training classes in a week, from September 2009 - June
2010, the total number of training classes being 120 courses. In each
lesson we used training exercises coordination structure, about 15 to 25
minutes per lesson, depending on the complexity and number of
repetitions. As far as I’m concern, I considered necessary, as follows:
- 35 lessons with 15 min/ course = 525 minutes
Total = 2270 minutes
A major role during the lessons had warm-up activities and
the fundamental learning objectives of training reserved. Switching
control samples was carried out in several stages:
- September 2009
- December 2009
- March 2010-10-04
- June 2010
It should be added the time for “homework”, independent
activities, yet controlled, which is difficult to quantify.
Experimental means used did not affect at all the normal
process of preparation, performed as scheduled. They were perfectly
integrated into the structure of lessons, the only difference being
represented by the request and coordinative educating athletes.
The statistical and mathematical analysis notify that the statistical
indicators of significant differences of averages obtained between the
first and last pass of the control samples indicates a high degree of
significance which means a probability of 99% confidence in the effect
on education coordination ability, in its many manifestations.
These indicators allow us to refuse the hypothesis as null and to
increase confidence in exercises conducted, with a probability of 99%.
Consequently, there is a probability of 99% regarding the direct
439
influence of these exercises and the way to use them in a training
session, in order to develop the gymnasts coordination.
Conclusions
After conducting this study and analysing the results, we can draw
the following statements:
- The content of coordination exercises, developed and applied
in the training sessions, was rich, varied and was accessible for the
athletes, at this age;
- The exercises accessibility, combined with a precise dosing
can lead to efficiency increase in activities for development of
coordination
- Efficiency is demonstrated through the interpretation of
statistical and mathematical data, which indicates a confidence level of
99%. This positive probability refers both to the content of the lessons
activities and the methodology applied;
- There are some extreme individuals which seem to confirm
the regularities of growth and body development;
- Using the coordination exercises in every training session
leads to an increase of attractiveness and children’ interest for physical
education;
- It is very important to use a combination of the various
exercises, so that to be explored all the manifestations of coordination
ability;
- Watching closely the athletes activities implies a good
communication between the trainer and the gymnasts, which is very
important for building good relationships;
- I have to stress the importance that we have given to
homework (repeat certain exercises or game structures), although it is
very difficult to analyse and set the degree of involvement in these
activities. Occurrence of top-notch athletes is directly proportional to the
practise time and that means that the those athletes who worked harder at
home had greater performances and those who have not worked became
negative extremes;
- The experiment conducted showed that even at this age, the
successful coordination ability can be influence
440
Bibliography:
Alexe Nicu., Planificarea antrenamentului sportiv, Bucureşti, Editura
MTS., 1992
Anderson Bjon, Stretching, Bucureşti, Editura. CNEFS, 1988
Avramoff Eugen, Probleme medico-sportive în gimnastică, Bucureşti,
Editura Sport - Turism, 1982
Băiaşu Nicolae, Lecţii de gimnastică, Bucureşti, Editura Stadion, 1973
Cârstea Gheorghe Teoria şi metodica Educaţiei Fizice şi Sportului,
Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1993
Drăgan Ioan,(coord.) Selecţia şi orientarea medico-sportivă, Bucureşti,
Editura Sport -Turism, 1989
Dungaciu Petre, Aspecte ale antrenamentului modern în gimnastică, Ed.
S-T, Bucureşti, 1982
Epuran Mihai, Metodologia cercetării activităţilor corporale, Bucureşti,
Editura IEFS, 1978
Grigore Vasilica, Gimnastica de performanţă – noţiuni introductive,
Bucureşti, Editura Inedit, 1998
Grigore Vasilica, (coord.), Pregătirea artistică în gimnastică, Bucureşti
Editura A.N.E.F.S., 2001,
Grigore Vasilica, Gimnastica. Manual pentru cursul de bază, Bucuresti,
Editura Bren, 2003
Grigore Vasilica, Gimnastica artistică - bazele teoretice ale
antrenamentului sportiv, Bucureşti, Editura SemnE, 2001
Podlaha Robert & Stroescu Adina, Terminologia gimnasticii, Bucureşti,
Editura Stadion, 1979
Rusu Cornelia & Colab., Gimnastica, Cluj-Napoca, Editura G.M.I.,
1998
Solveborn A.S., Stretching, Bucureşti, Editura CNEFS, 1988
Solomon Mircea, &Bedo Carol & Grigore Vasilica, Gimnastica,
Târgovişte, Editura Domimpex, 1996
Şlemin, A.M., Pregătirea tinerilor gimnaşti, Bucureşti, Editura Sport Turism, 1976
Tuduşciuc Ion, Gimnastica sportivă, Bucureşti, Editura Sport - Turism,
1984
441
Biological response of training in athletics sprints
Sorin ROTARU
Universitatea “Aurel Vlaicu” Arad
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to redefine the concept of
quality in sports performance training. In order to choose the best
training methods it is necessary to be acquainted with the methodical
means and their specific effects which lead to changes at the
physiological, biochemical and psychological levels.
Keywords: sport, performance, quality, quality markers, effort,
muscular fatigue
Changes of the main functions caused by the sportive effort in
anaerobicsprints
Running trials lasting 23 to 60 seconds favour the production of
lactic acid to a greater extent up to 3g/s. Thus, in 400 m hurdles which
lasts 50 seconds, the athlete has in his blood approximately 150 grams
milk acid which is 20 times the normal amount of lacto idem (300 mg%
compared to 15 mg %).
Changes of breath in anaerobic sprints
The speed while running 400 m being lower than in 100 or 200 m,
it’s not necessary anymore to block the thorax during the run. The
athlete’s breathing is more complex in the 400 m trial. The recordings
have shown a number of 10 to 12 breath counts centered around the
moments when the athlete comes out of the turn and on landing after
jumping over the hurdles. The oxygen needed to cover the 400m
distance is approximately 24-30 L. By pulmonary ventilation the athlete
ensures 2 to 3 L oxygen which represent only 10% of the total volume
required. In terms of numbers, the oxygen deficit is higher than in
sprints, but due to intense respiratory effort a part of the total amount of
oxygen needed is covered during the run.
At the end of the race the athlete’s respiratory debit is very high(
80-100 L/ min) for 2 to 3 minutes, afterwards the breathing decreasing
and, eventually, after 20 to 30 min the pulmonary ventilation is very low,
meaning 16 to 20 breath counts per minute. The usage of oxygen is still
high for 1 to 2 hours and is ensured by a good proportion of the arterial
oxygen resulted from the increase of the coefficient of oxygen used. The
arterial-veins concentration of oxygen is in this case 7to8 volume %
compared to the normal 4-5 volume %.
Changes of blood pressure and cardiac frequency during
anaerobic running trials
When compared to 100 m and 100 m hurdles – cases in which the
effort is at its top and the changes in circulation are at submaximal level
,after 400 m and 400m hurdles, considered to be trials of submaximal
intensity, the changes in circulation tend to reach a maximal level. This
paradoxical behaviour can be explained this way: peripheral circulation
following the laws of hydrodynamics requires time to reach the maximal
stage, thing that cannot happen during sprints.
In the case of 400 m and 400m hurdles, the time of effort being 45
to 55 seconds, the probability of gradually increased cardiac debit and
arterial pressure is higher, fact that is reflected in the increased values of
cardiac frequency, blood pressure speed, cardiac debit and arterial
pressure. The cardiac frequency exceeds 180 heart beats per minute
while the arterial pressure is around 180-200/40-60 mm Hg.
The influence of anaerobe running effort on the central
nervous, neuromuscular and neuroendocrine systems
The longer period of time needed in these trials means that the
central nervous system is subjected to a higher effort and therefore the
neuromuscular system too in comparison to sprints. With 400 m hurdles
one needs ability, balance after landing especially when coming out of
the turns. The neuroendocrine system, in its turn, is more alert in order to
make good use of all inner resources.
A commonly met symptom of overused nervous system called
effort headache is present mainly with athletes who are insufficiently
trained or faced with harsh contest factors, during the 400m hurdles. It
consists of: faintness, earache, nausea, vomiting, splitting headache. At
high altitudes the frequency of such symptoms is much higher, the
syndrome is no different from usual headache but it lasts shorter. Here is
one possible explanation: the feeling of faintness is the immediate result
of the brain’s main state of hypoxia, whereas nausea and vomiting are
caused by hypocapnea. As a result they should be considered secondary
443
pathological- physiological effects. The underlying mechanism of
intense headache is probably due to extreme dilatation of brain arteries.
In order to adapt oneself to such hypoxic conditions, one should
train at medium height altitudes (1800-2200m). The athlete must be
healthy, physically strong, mentally balanced, highly motivated for this
kind of training, at the height of his training session and completely
prepared.
Renal excretion
Renal and suprarenal excretion are more intense, diuresis increases
due to a higher and longer glomerular filtration pressure. Sweat is
definitely abundant, the levels of caloric energy being obviously higher
compared to those registered in sprints. Not to be neglected the
important role the kidney plays owing to its metabolic and
hemodynamic functions.
Effort parameters in sports training
Extensive research and laboratory data led to the conclusion that
volume, intensity, length and complexity are essential effort factors.
Their influence is closely connected with different organs and systems of
the human body and also with other two types of effort: aerobic and
anaerobic.
Morphofunctional particularities of the sportsmen involved in a
process of training mainly based on one of these parameters, along with
experimental research in which only one parameter was the variable, the
others being constant, are key points in establishing values and limits for
volume, length intensity , density and effort complexity.
A comparative study on training methods of the most valuable
sportsmen reveals the fact that there are certain areas in sport where the
participants’ performance has increased a lot compared to previous
centuries, mainly as far as effort is concerned.
Therefore, the effort volume during a training session can be an
important factor contributing to the increase of anaerobic effort
capability. Still, this increase of anaerobic capability based only on
increased volume effort is not efficient as there is no direct dependence
between the two coordinates.
The volume effort in sportsmen training which involves anaerobic
contest effort, although much higher than estimated a century before,
444
must range within certain low limits compared to the effort sportsmen
make especially when trying to develop their anaerobic effort capability.
For example, in athletics it is common knowledge that the effort in
speed trials is less than 10 % of volume effort in long distance ones.
At the peak of a training session, the total sum of distances run is
some tens km for a sprinter and almost 1000 km for a long distance
runner.
Not recommending huge effort volume in order to increase one’s
anaerobic capability is justified also by the following fact: the more
reduced the dimensions and functional ability of the neuromuscular
system (with performance sportsmen) the bigger the training and
competition effort.
The physiology of muscular effort
The increasing effect of muscular activity is due to an ever bigger
number of motor units, by accessing them according to the stimulus
intensity. The bigger the number, the bigger the force of muscular
contractions.
The measurement of the electrical activity of the muscle is done by
means of certain devices, among which the most frequently used is the
electromyograph and its recording is called electromyogram. The
currents are picked by applied electrodes (surface electrodes) or needles
inserted in the muscles (Adrian and Bronck’s Needle), which allow the
exploit of even one muscular unit. The itinerary registered can be of
several types: simple, intermediary and interference. The amplitude of
motorunit potential um is 300-500 mV, and the length is 4-16
milliseconds.
Muscular fatigue, in its early stages, leads to decreased muscular
strength, low excitability, longer relaxation periods. Biochemically, it is
manifested by low ATP, excessive milk acid, low level of glucose, lack
of muscular glycogen, and last but not least painful muscular cramps.
It must be actively counterstruck by rest and relaxing therapy such
as oxygen and water therapy, massage.
Biochemical assessment of effort
In order to achieve this target/ objective modernly equipped
laboratories and highly qualified staff are needed.
Blood lactases is one of the most valuable indicators in measuring
biochemically both aerobic and anaerobic physical effort capability.
445
Blood concentration of lactases is closely linked with the effort
intensity and is an indicator of metabolic adaptability to effort .The
increased blood level is a setback in achieving good results. At ease,
lactases values vary between 0,7 to 1,8m Mol/L ;in order to obtain the
numbers in mg% we multiply them by 9,1 or using the conversion table.
Changes of lactases allow the exact determination of the aerobicanaerobic level, placed around 4 millimolslactases per liter. After
complete usage of anaerobic resources, when the lactases level reaches
16-20 millimols/ L, the sportsman drops out of the race.
Donaggio response emphasizes urinal proteins which cause acute
tiredness. The response is qualitative and it highlights the purple colour.
Micro proteins are allotted also quantitatively using Biserte’s
method (the normal values are 50-250 mg every 24 hours).The values
increase during effort, and the closer they are to the normal standards,
the better the metabolic economy in effort is.
The cardiovascular system
Modern investigation based on radioactive isotopes, X- ray, EMG,
provide crucial information about circulation dynamics and changes
which appear in the structure and functioning of the cardiovascular
system.
Heart rate, HR is one of the components of cardiac flow which can
be measured by taking the pulse or by means of the stethoscope or
placing the ear on the chest.
Cardiac flow, CFor cardiac minute –volume is the amount of blood
which circulates through the chambers of the heart in one minute. It is
measured by multiplying the systolic flow by cardiac frequency per
minute and has approximated rest values of 5,5L. It is lower with
women and during sleep.
Blood Pressure, B P changes incredibly especially when making
effort in accordance with systolic blood pressure. Peripheral vascular
endurance decreases with effort due to capillary vasodilatation in active
muscles, subcutaneous system and the open capillaries in muscles.
The respiratory system
The Respiratory rate shows, when effort is made, an increase of
up to 30-40 breaths per minute but not during sprints. At rest the values
are 16-20 breaths per minute.
446
The Respiratory Amplitude is calculated by subtracting the values
of the thorax‘s circumference forced exhalation from the values of the
thorax’s circumference at full inhalation. The inner one is measured with
the spirometer from which one can infer the total value.
Respiratory minute-volume is obtained by multiplying respiratory
rate per minute by current air volume.
Bibliography:
AlexaNicu, Antrenamentul sportive modern, Editura Editis, Bucuresti
1993
Bota Cornelia, Ergofiziologie, Editura Globus, Bucuresti 2000
Demeter Andrei, Antrenamentul sportiv-teorie si metodologie vol I-II
M.T.S, Bucuresti 1992
Legros L, La Biochimie on service de sprinteur, Sport, Belgia 1980
Weiner I, Biologia sportului, EdituraVigot, Paris, 1992
Perling Publishing C.O.INC New York, Successful track and field,
447
System optimization and natural selection
Ovidiu ŞERBAN
Abstract: Research on the miracle of life, on biosystems and on
natural selection will continue to be an ongoing challenge for scientists,
both from an aesthetic-philosophical point of view but, mainly, from a
bionic-pragmatic objective: the ability to imitate and transfer technology
in order to improve and optimize a large amount of existing equipment
in various fields and techniques that mimic living organisms in relation
to the environment.
Keywords: optimization, systems, selection, nature
Introduction
The integration of humans in nature is one of the most pressing
issues of the contemporary world. The human is defined as being the
only element that actively interacts with the environment, in the sense
that it modifies it according to his needs, the changes representing
deviations from the natural laws. The human-nature relationship
becomes fundamental for human existence, with numerous
repercussions on the human individual, animals, plants and nature in
general.
The development of the general theory of systems (Bertalanffy,
1932; 1960; Needham, 1936, etc.) and, afterwards, of cybernetics and
information theory, has drawn attention to the problems regarding the
organization and the working principles of the living matter, the levels of
integration and organization, and has allowed the delimitation of ecology
as being the study of supra-individual systems: population, biocoenosis,
ecosystem, bioshere (Odum, 1975). The levels of integration include all
subsystems of a system, including abiotic systems (non-biological, nonliving), and the levels of organization of the living matter represent
exclusive categories of biological systems, qualitatively different in
terms of organization and biological functions (Botnariuc, N., 1976,
1982).
General discussions
Generally speaking, everything that exists in the surrounding world
can be called “object” or “system”. These terms are not identical. The
objects exists, as such, with all its characteristics and behaviors. In other
words, by using “object” we refer to any actual things or events:
minerals, plants, animals, people, machines, processes, forms of
organization, products, activity programs, etc. The “system”, on the
other hand, represents only a “model” or an abstract representation that
allows a definition in the form of logical relations, graphic design or
mathematical equations. The “system” refers to an organized grouping
of entities whose mutual connections are made up of relations, which
determine effective or potential actions. For examples, we consider all
mineral bodies, plants, animals, the whole earth and the universe, as
being systems, as they are material bodies with a structure and a
grouping of components in different ways and with mutual interactions.
So, the entire objective reality, taken as a whole, forms a vast system that
can be considered as an entity.
The system properties and unity are ensured by the links between
its components. Thus, the same bodies, things, products, etc. can be
considered systems containing a series of elements: molecules, parts,
cells, organisms. The natural systems located on a scale of ranks can
ensure the highlight and the existence of two particular aspects of the
matter: living and non-living .
Given that living organisms are in a constant relationship with the
environment, the notion of “ecological system” is highlighted, referring
to a complex set, consisting of “living” and “non-living”, characterized
by mutual action of biological systems and their environment.
In ecological studies the fundamental unit is used, formed in a
limited space, which includes all living beings, communities and energy,
physical, chemical and biological conditions of the surrounding
environment. This unit is known as “ecosystem”. It includes biotic and
abiotic components of the natural environment. The living part of the
ecosystem is called biocoenosis, and the non-living part is called
biotope. The concept of ecosystem is known by other names too:
biosystem, holocenosis, microcosm.
The biosystem presents the unity of organism communities in a
given territory, which is in such a relationship with the environment, that
449
the energy flow creates a certain trophic structure, a species diversity and
a certain flow of substances inside the system (ie substance exchange
between the biotic and abiotic environment).
The organizational hierarchy is not linear, but branched.
Biosystems at different levels of organization should be examined
in terms of their systemic relations. Systematic analysis should therefore
be a primary problem-solving methodology, the core element being the
concept of ecosystem, concept around which modern ecology was built,
and which allows optimization of biosystem development.
Hence, the biosystem represents a complex system in the
environment consisting of a non-living part (abiota or biotope, its natural
frame with physical conditions) and a living part (biotic or biocoenosis).
Of course, the elements of these two parts are not physically separated,
but are in constant interaction. It is in fact a functional unit of the
biosphere which, from a structural point of view, and especially a
dynamic one, uses the energy that flows through it.
In other words, all components of a biosystem should find enough
food in the environment to grow and maintain itself. Ultimately, energy
and all the necessary elements come from the physical environment. In
an ecosystem, beings absorb, change and make energy and certain
materials move, which then are returned to the environment. Permanent
interactions between plants and animals of the same ecosystem are
actually ways in which energy and such items are distributed.
All this is achieved by optimizing biosystems.
Turning back to the issues of bionic interest (which is the discipline
that deals with the study of structure and biological processes in living
organisms), the questions rises whether, from a biological point of view,
certain principles act to determine the optimal functionality of
biosystems and their subsystems. Based on objective manifestation of a
competition between biological individuals in order to conquer the
conditions of existence, the complex process that Darwin has called
"struggle for existence", a positive answer is deduced.
Sometimes individual differences are so big, there is doubt whether
two individuals are of the same race or whether they belong to different
races. Darwin stated that these individual variations are the cause for the
outstanding achievements made by the animal selection specialists.
Hence the idea to make an analogy between the natural and artificial
450
selection arose. Man makes selections for his own interest while nature
makes selections only in the interest of the body it keeps.
Thus, his typological conception of competition between species,
accompanied by the deletion of some of them, has changed into another
conception, namely the one regarding the existence of individual
variations within populations and species. Thus, the idea of individual
variation in natural populations was the basis for his conception of
natural selection.
Due to this thinking, the principle of elimination by the natural
forces of individuals who derivate from the normal type, considered the
perfect type, maintaining a pure, constant type, static principle derived
from essentialist philosophy, has been replaced by the dynamic principle
of variable population, capable of evolution, where new individuals
appear, being above average, as well as individuals that are below
average (Mayr, 1984).
Based on the ideas mentioned earlier, Darwin defined natural
selection as being “the preservation of individual variations and removal
of harmful ones”. After Darwin, any individual in a population that
differentiates itself from the others in a profitable direction (adaptive
superiority) has a chance of survival and will therefore be promoted by
natural selection.
“Metaphorically speaking (says Darwin), it can be said that natural
selection critically searches, daily and hourly throughout the world, for
the slightest variations, rejecting the harmful ones, keeping and
accumulating all the useful ones; she works silently and insensibly,
whenever and wherever the opportunity arises, to improve each body in
connection with its organic and inorganic life conditions”. Natural
selection is effective only in populations with many variations, but
ineffective in populations without variations.
The fundamental conclusion to be drawn with regard to natural
selection, is that all types of competitive advantages, regardless of their
original nature, are transformed, eventually, into differences in fecundity
(rate of net production of offspring), which, after a sufficiently long
time, leads to the predominance of structures and forms of competitive
advantage in the population.
Natural selection acts on the multitude of variants (mutants) of
individuals of different species. It exerts “pressure” on every structural
451
and functional aspect, therefore on individual or subsystem performance
(Rosen, 1976).
Based on the above, a fundamental hypothesis was advanced,
stating that the individuals who are adapted better to the environment
also posses subsystems or accommodate processes that are optimal with
respect to certain criteria, described in mathematical terms. This
hypothesis appeared relatively simultaneous from many researchers, but
stronger at Rashevsky (1960).
Consequently, the structures and processes in the biosystem,
optimal with respect to natural selection, are optimal with respect to
certain functional criteria (cost), derived from the physical-technical
approach to the problem that usually is obtained using the metabolic
energy dissipated for maintaining, repairing and functioning of
biological structures.
This hypothesis was verified in many cases and at different levels
of complexity of living matter. Thus, it is considered to have powers of
general principle, known as the “principle of optimal project” or “the
principle of adequate design”.
Amazing performance of biological systems (biosystems called)
were, throughout history, a fascinating and ongoing challenge which
today still continues to inspire curiosity and imagination of scientists.
Nature does wonders in trying to adapt the living matter, eg.: high
sensitivity of marine animals, electrosensitive, to detect predators or prey
using extremely weak electric fields, bioluminescence for fireflies, the
mechanical properties of spider fibers, etc.
How did these beings achieve such outstanding performance? Are
these performances a danger or are they the result of some laws and very
profound natural principles? It is important to invite engineers to imitate
these performances by applying them on artificial devices in order to
improve life.
One of the universal principles that act on living matter has been
named “The principle of optimal design”. Like any principle, POD can
not be demonstrated or proved directly, but is considered to be valid
because, until now, its consequences have been verified on a large scale
and at different levels of organization of living matter, from molecules to
a population.
452
In fact, POD is a methodological consequence of two closely
related biological concepts in the theory of Darwinian evolution: the
struggle for survival and natural selection. It is known that, if within a
homogeneous species, mutations occur, then individuals of the species
and mutants will be engaged in a struggle for survival (in fact, a
competition for resources and living space). Finally these new mutants
will replace, sooner or later, individuals of the species. Therefore, they
are superior to normal individuals, taking into account specific criteria.
One of the criteria is taken from the energy costs for maintenance,
operation and multiplication.
Conclusions and perspectives
The existence of this principle makes living systems and their
subsystems to be perfect models for applied bionics, nature being a
source of invention patents which can be transferred to technical sector,
to technology and agriculture. In addition, these solutions, unlike
conventional ones, are compatible with nature, with the natural
environment, being nonpolluting, or in the worst case, leading to
biodegradable waste. The high performances determined by biosystems
are the results of POD, a universal principle governing living matter, the
latter being itself a consequence of natural selection. Due to this life
principle, nature is an inexhaustible reservoir of optimal solutions that
can be imitated or transferred in a creative way for future
biotechnologies. Research on the miracle of life, of biosystems and
natural selection, regarding the consequences of POD, will be an
ongoing challenge for scientists, both from an aesthetic philosophical
point of view and, mainly, from a bionic pragmatic objective: the
capability to imitate and transfer technology in order to improve and
optimize a large amount of the existing equipment. In all cases, the effort
of researchers and safety engineers will be fully rewarded.
Selinger, HH, Lall, A., Lloyd, JE., Biggley, WH., Culorile
Bioluminescente Firefly; I. Optimizare model, Photochem.
Photobiol., 36, 1982, p 673-680
Xu, M., Lewis, RV, Structura unei proteine Superfiber: matase Spider
draglina, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 87, p 7120-7124, 1990
Rosen, R., Principiile optimale in biologie, London, Butterworths, 1967
Hess, B., Mihailov, A., Auto-organizare in celulele vii, Stiinta, 264, p
223-224, 1994
Popescu, Al., Principiul designului optim ca o legitimitate a Bionicii,
Analele Universitatii Bucuresti, Fizica, 39, 1990, p 23-30
Stryer, L., Biochimie, editia a 3ª, New York, WH Freeman and
Company, 1995
Roth, RR., Studiul Bionicii, Perspective in Biologie si Medicina, 26, p
229-242, 1983
Gheorghe, V., Popescu, Al., Introducere in bionica,Bucuresti, Editura
Stiintifica, 1990
Popescu, Al., O taxonomie propusa pentru Biostiinta, Prolegomene,
romana J. Biophys, 1, p 49-54, 1991
References:
Iorga Siman, I., Bionica cu aplicatii in sport, Course notes, Pitesti, 2006
Popescu, Al., Sistem biologic si principiul de design optim, Biotheoretica
Acta, 46, 1998/1999, p 299-310
Bastien, J., Organisme Electrosensoriale, Fizica Astazi, 1994, p 30-37
453
454
Doping: A temptation of the present-day sports
Caius MIUŢA, Dan BANCIU, Ioan GALEA
Abstract: Our pleading is not mainly focused on saying "no" to the
doping temptation or to the "be the best" temptation in the sports world,
no matter of the used means, because we are aware of the utopia of such
an ideal. This pleading is for eliminating ignorance in order to diminish
the unwanted effects of using such substances.
Keywords: effort, performance, doping, anabolic androgenic
steroids, synthetic substances, symptomatic doping, etiological doping.
Being the best is an ideal that any human being is trying to achieve,
even if one does not explicitly manifest the will of succeeding. The
man’s wish to improve constantly his own performances in any field of
everyday life is, definitely, a result of the fact that “man, by his nature,
seeks only the extraordinary” [Voltaire, 1974:35].
This searching for performance knows, maybe, its best
representation within the Sports world, where born talents, but also those
built by hard work explore continuously their limits, going to the
extreme and, after reaching a record, they beat it, too, going ahead in the
same way till the end of the career.
The ideal of perfection represented and it, still, represents a real
spiritual force which motivates the sportsmen to make huge efforts
(cantonments, preparations), because one day to become the best [Galea,
2007: 5].
If the majority of the sportsmen think that reaching the highest
performance deserves any possible human sacrifice, some of them try to
find roundabout ways, much shorter and more efficient than the real one,
hoping to get a quick victory. This kind of Victory brings not only glory,
but, also large sums of money, because the performance Sports means
huge financial gain in certain fields nowadays.
The doping is, definitely, one of the easiest ways chosen by
sportsmen to exceed their limits, to get in front of the others and to be
the best for a short period of time. The doping is not a last minute
discovery, it was known since Ancient mythology when some sportsmen
were enhancing the fight force for twelve times, by ingesting a substance
that was extracted from a mushroom and the Greek athletes or the
gladiators were trying to become the best by consuming some herbs with
boosting effect.
The Sports historians mention the using of Efedra plant (MA
HUANG) in China, 3200 B.C., a plant that stimulated the muscular
system activity and the one of the nervous system, too.
Modern Age brings about the beginning of the institutionalized
Sports, on the one hand, and the improving of the modalities to boost the
sports performances by different substances and, even, through
alimentation. Thus, in 1879, on the occasion of the first edition of The 7
Days Cycling Race the fist mentions about the doping started to appear:
the Belgian team consumed sugar lumps soaked with essential oils; the
French team, a mixture based on caffeine [Vâjială, 2002:17]
In 1936, during the Olympic Games at Berlin, the symptomatic
doping is documentary attested; this type of doping consists in taking
some medicines that eliminate symptoms which are associated with
sports activities: fatigue, tachycardia etc.
The etiological doping which consists in using the anabolic
androgenic steroids (SAA–synthetic substances, derived from
testosterone) has the widest spread nowadays and the public recognition
of this type of doping belongs to the French recordman at the weight
throw, Arnjolt Beer (1969), even if Bill Tooney (Gold medal at
decathlon, Olympic Games, Mexico City, 1968) admitted he had used
SAA to improve his performance.
Due to these incidents, from which we mentioned only a few, The
Medical Department of the International Olympic Committee was
founded in 1967, occasion on which the definition of the doping is
elaborated by the Council of Europe (the term doping is recorded for the
first time by an English dictionary, in 1889: “mixture of opium and
narcotics”). The first doping test is made in 1968, at the Olympic
Games.
In Romania the first laboratory for doping control was founded in
1983, in The National Institute for Sports Research and in 1994,
Romania adhered to the Antidoping Convention.
456
But, what is the doping? and why is it so attractive, especially for
the sportsmen? The word doping has the etymon dop coming from
South-African dialect Kaffir and it refers to a liquid a stimulant used by
the members of the tribe within the religiuos practices. The word is
7.000 years old and it was brought on the European continent by the
Dutch people, the Englishmen adding an e and defining it in 1889.
The definition of the International Olympic Committee mentions
about the doping that “represents the using of any substance that is not a
physiological product of the body, which is taken in abnormal quantities,
or which is introduced in the body through unnatural ways and which
has as a single target to increase in a wrong and artificial manner the
sports performance. It is, also, considered as doping, the medical
treatment that needs the using of any substance which by its nature,
dosage or way of using, can lead to the improvement of the sports
performance in a wrong artificial manner.” [Galea, 2004:8 ]
Our pleading is not mainly focused on saying no to the doping
temptation or to the “be the best” temptation in the sports world, no
matter of the used means, because we are aware of the utopia of such an
ideal. This pleading is for eliminating the ignorance in order to diminish
the unwanted effects of using such substances. The conscious deliberate
doping is a no fair-play action and a performance sports career is built
only by hard work, strong personality and
fair-play.
That’s why we choose to underline the list of the substances and
the forbidden methods, just to encourage the real competitive
performance Sports that is beyond all of the temptations:
(site Agenţia Mondială Anti-Doping (A.M.A.D).
Being the best in Sports means to be able of real performances, to
exceed your own limits by your force, by hard work and last, but not
least, by having the strength to say no to the temptation of doping.
Vâjială, G., Igienă şi evaluare biologică, Editura Fundaţiei România de
mâine, Bucureşti, 2000.
Vâjială G., Lamor M., Doping.Antidoping, Editura Fest, Bucureşti,
2002.
Voltaire, Maxime şi cugetări, Editura Albatros, Bucureşti, 1974.
Etica antrenamentului sportiv, în B.I. (Biblioteca antrenorului),
Bucureşti, 2005.
Sport, dopaj, sănătate, în B.I. (Biblioteca antrenorului), Bucureşti, 2006.
Sport fără dopaj, în B.I. (Biblioteca antrenorului), Bucureşti, 2007.
Bibliografie:
Clasing, D.; Muller, R.K., Doping Kontrolle, Edirura Sport und Buch
Straub, Koln, 2001.
Drăgan, I., Medicina sportivă aplicată, Editura Editis, Bucureşti, 1994.
Galea, I., Codul antidoping, Editura Universitaţii ”Aurel Vlaicu”, Arad,
2007.
457
458
History and society.
Earthly and divine
legislation
460
Mortality in Arad City
in the first half of the 20th century
Corneliu PĂDUREAN
Abstract
Along with the birth rate, a fundamental component of a
population’s natural growth rate is the phenomenon of mortality.
Between the two World Wars, mortality in Arad – like in other
parts of our country, of Europe and of the world – was affected by a
series of epidemics, such as the Spanish flu, whose death rate in
1918-1919 had catastrophic proportions.
Local authorities were concerned with imposing administrative
measures that would contribute to increasing the degree of public
health security in the inter-war period.
Keywords: natural growth rate, mortality, diseases, epidemics,
mortality row rates.
A fundamental component of population`s natural growth rate
is, along with natality, the phenomenon of mortality.
Mortality in Arad, like in other parts of our county, of Europe
and of the world was influenced in the Interwar period by a series
of epidemics such as the Spanish flu that brought about catastrophes
in 1918-19191. Another significant epidemic was variola.
Compulsory anti-viola vaccination had been introduced in order to
limit it. Regulation no 8.254/1927 issued by the mayor of Arad,
Ştefan Anghel stated that anti-viola vaccination and revaccination
took place in April-May and October – November 1927. The
operation would be carried out on school premises. The ones who
History and society. Earthly and divine legislation
did not obey the regulation would get a fine and would be brought
by the police2.
Local authorities were concerned with imposing some
administrative measures that would contribute to increasing the
degree of public health security in the interwar period. For example,
Regulation no 10523/1929 prohibited trading natural ice brought
from neighbouring villages. Cafeterias, coffee-houses, pubs,
butcheries were obliged to use artificial ice. Butcheries and
restaurants could use natural ice provided that they used an
impermeable layer between food and drinks. City inhabitants were
advised to use artificial ice only whose “price almost equalled the
natural ice`s price and the safety against a possible infection was
absolute”3. Firstly, only newborns were vaccinated, then apprentices
and pupils. Barrier controllers and cashiers had to prevent vehicles
transporting natural ice from entering the city, even by asking the
police` help if the situation demanded.
Tuberculosis was another fashionable disease in the first half
of the 20th century. It had caused a lot of pain and suffering in the
hearts of those who saw their beloved ones dyeing from this
disease. In order to limit the mortality rate of this malady, local
authorities introduced optional vaccination with Calmette – Guerin
vaccine on June 1st, 19294.
Most deaths were caused by the two major world conflicts
where also the inhabitants of Arad took part.
This death statistics of the first half of the 20th century and its
variations is revealed in the table below.
2
1
Frederick Cartwright şi Michael Biddiss, Bolile şi istoria, Editura All,
„Monitorul Municipiului Arad”, VI, 1927, nr.16, 18 apr., p. 106-107.
Idem, VIII, 1929, nr.20, 20 aprilie, p. 5.
4
Ibidem, p.7.
3
462
Table no 1. The evolution of mortality and of the mortality row
rate (MRR) in Arad in 1900-1945
year
no of
deaths
MRR‰
year
no of
deaths
MRR‰
year
no of
deaths
MRR‰
year
no of
deaths
MRR‰
year
no of
deaths
MRR‰
1901
1.347
1902
1.429
1903
1.392
1904
1.447
1905
1.611
1906
1.505
1907
1.549
1908
1.503
1909
1.595
1910
1.464
Total5
14.842
23,4
1911
1.702
24,9
1912
1.533
24,2
1913
1.648
25,2
1914
1.552
28,0
1915
1.977
26,2
1916
1.622
26.3
1917
1.888
25,5
1918
2.159
27,0
1919
706
24,0
1920
1.261
Total
16.048
24,6
1921
3.052
22,2
1922
1.203
23,8
1923
1.192
22,5
1924
1.223
28,6
1925
1.032
23,5
1926
1.185
27,3
1927
1.022
31,2
1928
1.062
10,2
1929
1.228
18,2
1930*
1.256
Total
13.467
43,8
1931
1.340
17,4
1932
1.296
17,2
1933
1.175
17,7
1934
1.233
14,9
1935
1.364
17,1
1936
1.036
14,8
1937
1.036
15,4
1938
1.433
17,8
1939
1.356
16,3
1940
1.446
Total
12.715
16,3
1941
1.550
15,8
1942
1.749
13,3
1943
1.504
15,0
1944
2.194
16,6
1945
2.136
12,6
-
12,6
-
17,5
-
16,5
-
17,6
-
Total
9.133
17,8
20,1
17,3
25,3
24,6
-
-
-
-
-
-
We observe throughout these 45 years a annual variation of deaths.
If we refer only to row values of deaths recorded at the beginning and at
the end of the period under analysis we notice a growth of their number.
We also notice a growth in the number of deaths in the years of war,
namely 1915-1918 and 1942-1945. If we carefully analyse Table no 1, we
notice that in the last two years of world war more deaths were
registered than before. Inspite these, the highest values were registered in
1921. This is the year when dead soldiers from different European
battlefields of the World War I were registered. The lowest number of
deaths was registered in the year following the end of World War I. This
reality can be regarded as natural, if we consider the effects of war.
5
A Magyar Szent Korona Orszagainak 1901-1910, evi nepmozgalma
kozsegenkint, Budapest, 1913, p 340 - 341.
* The decesed register of 1930 registers a number of 89 cases, all male, the
death date being December 31st, 1918. Their age was between 20 and 46
years old. They had residence in Arad or Şega and Gai, which were enclosed
to Arad in 1930, being neighbourhoods of the city.
463
During the World War I, due to restrictions caused by such an event,
natural selection operated upon the ones who remained at home, keeping
alive only the healthiest of them. The ones that came back from the
battlefield were inspite of their wounds, younger. Consequently, the risk
of death was lower at the end of the war.
The above table includes also the row rates of mortality. This
synthetic indicator shows the number of deaths at 1000 inhabitants. This
perspective reveals the same growth in 1901-1945, from 23,4‰ to 24,6‰. The
years 1918 and 1944, during the world wars, the highest RBM rates
were registered, namely 31,2‰ and 25,3‰. The second decade of the 20th
century registers even more deceases. In the following decades we
register a lowering mortality tendency. These are years of “normal”
evolution, the lowering of decease numbers being a characteristic of the
phenomenon of “demographic transition” observable in Arad starting
with the 9th decade of the 19th century6. At this point we do not possess
all date referring to row mortality rates in the 5th decade but we can state,
based on date registered in the first five years that mortality registered
again values that were above “normal” decades.
As far as RBM is concerned, in 1930 it is placed below the rate of
Romania, of Arad county and other urban centres.
Table no 2 reveals that Timisoara city was placed below the
values registered in Arad, which is closely followed by Oradea city. All
three values of RBM are placed under the values of Romania and other
important cities in the country. This is a sign of urban civilization found
at that time in the western cities of Romania.
Table no 2. Deceased in 1930
Categories Romania
Arad
county
Arad city
Oradea
Timişoara Cluj
Ploieşti
Deaths
346.714
7.606
1.256
1.397
1.366
1.734
1.499
MRR‰
19,4
18,0
16,3
17,0
14,9
17,6
19,9
6
Corneliu Pădurean, Populaţia comitatului Arad în secolul al XIX-lea,
Editura Universităţii „Aurel Vlaicu“ Arad, 2003, passim.
464
We have stopped at the registers of 1930 to analyse the seasonal
distribution of deceases. Most of them were registered in the first five
months of the year, March being at the peak of this mourning statistics.
Winter months with its hardships determined by the thermic discomfort,
increase in grease consumption, body`s loss of vitamins, etc contributed
to the increase of mortality, especially by the death of chronically sick
people and of those with poor physical condition. The risk of decease
due to improper feeding is higher, as experience reveals.
Table no 3. Seasonal distribution of deceases in Arad in 1930
Jan.
m f
46 75
121
9,6
Feb.
m f
49 39
88
7,0%
Mar.
m f
65 68
133
10,6%
Apr.
m f
76 40
116
9,2%
May
m f
63 61
124
9,9%
June
m f
61 37
98
7,8%
July
m f
55 51
106
8,4%
Aug.
m f
53 41
94
7,5%
Sept.
m f
47 37
84
6,7%
Oct.
m f
40 46
86
5,8%
Nov.
m f
49 58
107
8,5%
Dec.
m f
45 54
99
7,9%
In the summer months and at the beginning of the fall the deceases
number was lower, except July. More people died in July due to
cardiological problems and higher blood pressure.
The seasonal distribution of mortality in 1930 brings significant
changes as compared to the second half of the 19th century. For example,
in 1971 most deceases were registered in August – December7. Such an
annual distribution is natural in a rural society. In these months, the
physical effort was bigger, due to harvest time and the body was
exposed to exhaustion. Also the food lacked vitamins and was rich in
fats for the individual to be able to work long hours. The dangers of
child sickness also increased because they remained home, unattended
by their mothers who went to help at harvesting. The decrease in the
number of deceases in these month, after 60 years is a sign of
urbanization in Arad city.
If we compare the seasonal distribution of mortality in Arad city to
the one registered at country`s level or urban area (Table no. 4), we
notice also in Romania the presence of the above mentioned agricultural
society model. Even the urban area of our country is closer to this model
in a certain extend.
7
Table no 4. Seasonal distribution of mortality in 1930 in
Romania and in the urban area
Admin.unit Jan.
RO
Mar.
Apr.
May
June
July
Aug. Sept. Oct.
Nov. Dec.
9,0% 8,2% 7,3% 8,2% 8,6% 7,3% 8,1% 8,3% 9,1%
ROU
8,5% 7,6% 8,9%
8,9% 8,2% 8,0% 8,6% 8,5% 7,6
CMU
9,4% 7,8% 9,5%
8,7% 9,1% 8,2% 8,0% 7,7% 6,6% 7,7% 8,2% 9,1%
ARJ
9,4% 8,1% 9,9%
9,4% 8,9% 7,4% 8,1% 7,2% 7,1% 7,7% 7,8% 8,9%
ARO
9,6% 7,0% 10,6% 9,2% 9,9% 7,8% 8,4% 7,5% 6,7% 5,8% 8,5% 7,9%
8,2% 8,3% 8,6%
Ro=Romania; ROU=Romania urban area; CMU=Crişana
Maramureş urban area; ARJ=Arad county; ARO=Arad city
We find more similarities to the urban area of Crişana and
Maramureş, area where also Arad city belonged to, or to Arad County
whose residence Arad city was. The differences prove once again that
the urbanization process was more advanced in the western part of
Romania than in other parts.
Ibidem, p. 189.
465
Feb.
8,6% 8,1% 9,2%
466
Lower Mureş Valley from the conquest of Dacia by
the Romans to the Marcomanic wars
in the light of numismatic finds1
Daniela Aurelia BUDIHALA
Universitatea Babes-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca
Abstract: In the early second century, Roman expansion has
reached the Lower Danube and after two long, costly wars, Dacia
became the westernmost province of the Empire. The engagement of the
new province in the life of the Empire started the process of
Romanization. Outside the Trajan province one can observe the Roman
influence and these can be demonstrated also by coin discoveries. The
barbarians were involved in economic exchange with the roman world.
These barbarians used roman coins for their intrinsic value, but also for
their extrinsic qualities. It is worth mentioning that roman coins were
used and produced in the Dacian territory long before the conquest of
Dacia.
Keywords: coin, barbarians, romans, Marcomanic wars.
The present research aims to identify certain political-economical
realities carried on the inferior valley of the river Mureş, between the
conquest of Dacia by the Romans and the Marcomanic wars, realities
based on the monetary circulation. The river Mureş is the largest affluent
(on the left) of Tisza. The Mureş empties in Tisza in Szeged, Hungary.
The area taken into consideration in this case represents the inferior
valley of the river Muresh, therefore between Săvârşin and Szeged. For a
better understanding of the subject, apart from the inferior valley of the
1
The authors wish to thank for the financial support provided from the
program co-financed by THE SECTORAL OPERATIONAL PROGRAM
FOR HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT, Contract POSDRU
6/1.5/S/3 – "DOCTORAL STUDIES, A MAJOR FACTOR IN THE
DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND HUMANISTIC
STUDIES
river Mureş, I also tried to enlist the monetary discoveries in the
neighbouring areas, the Crişul Alb river valley; the lack of roadways, as
well as the depopulation of the area towards South left it out of the
subject.
As we all know, the geographic frame of an area is in an on-going
process of change. For this matter, associating the present geographic
factors with the ones in the Antiquity would be a huge interpretation
error.
A potential image of the area is presented by I. Ferenczi: “From the
present-day city Mukacevo (from Subcarpathian Ukraine) and to the
present-day capital of Jugoslavia, there was a pond extending there for
months, not only alongside Tisza, but also on the inferior stream of all
Carpathian affluents. Only half-way through the dry summers, the
waters were sinking in the river bed, leaving behind vast swamps for the
rest of the year” [I. Ferenzi, 1993: p.44].
The analyzed territory is located between the Roman camp from
Micia - East - (Veţel) and the antique dwelling – West - (Szeged). This
territory is a buffer zone between Pannonia and Dacia, area that is
controlled by the Sarmate-Iaziges – Barbarian population who,
according to their interests, either favouring or not the Roman Empire.
The West border of the Roman Dacia arose many disputes – it isn’t
the case for us to debate again on this subject – I only mention the fact
that the concerned area (the inferior valley of the river Mureş) is not a
part of the Roman province. Here the Dacians and the Sarmate- Iaziges
continued to live.
The discovered artifacts strengthen the fact according to which the
Western area remains an interference area between the two provinces –
Dacia and Pannonia. The archaeological discoveries - most of them,
random – attest that these western Barbarians will take over some
elements from the Romans, especially the material culture.
The Romans exerted their control on the Inferior Mureş Valley,
because the road that connected with Apulum, Micia and Partiscum
passed by here. The statement is sustained by the presence of the marked
bricks belonging to the XIIIth Gemina [S.Márki, 1892: p.23; P.Hügel,
1996: p.73-76; M.Barbu et alii, 1999: p.36], legion that settled in Dacia
during the existence of the province, having its headquarters at Apulum.
The coin, through its characteristic nature was destined to flow,
thus being a very important source for the analysis of the human society
economical, social, political and cultural life; that is why the discovery
468
and the interpretation of the Roman numismatic material in this
interference area is a further proof for its importance for the Roman
world.
The lack of the monetary hoards that end at Trajan or his
predecessors (Domitian or Nerva) can be explained by the fact that
within the Dacian milieu the Republican denars, coined in the local
mints from Orăştie mountains were still flowing.
The monetary circulation between Dacia and Pannonia is better
highlighted in the catalogue concerning the discoveries.
The Roman Empire before the reign of Trajan was facing a strong
monetary crisis. The Dacian gold would be the one solving this situation
after the conquering wars led by the optimus princeps.
The year 106 will have been for the Romans of that century a very
significant one. Trajan decides to cancel all the duties, the tax payers are
exempted for one year from paying their taxes and – more than any
citizen of Rome could dream of – every family receives 650 denars
(equal to the cost of several qualified slaves) in order to feel as a part of
the great victory. The triumphs and the games (panem et circenses)
lasted 123 days, where 10.000 gladiators were fighting with weapons in
circus rings.
These enormous expenses were made soon before the campaign in
Dacia was closed. A commission of notables had been created in order
to establish severe measures in the field of economy, because of the fact
that the Imperial treasury was practically inexistent.
The coins that date back from Traian’s period are certified in eight
points. The denarius has a very good quality (3,40 gr at Cicir where in
every hut there were also found fragments of terra sigilata) [Hügel,
Barbu, 1997, p.575].
Half of these discoveries are located in Arad Plain, but also in the
neighboring areas. The area where Mureş flows across in Banat is very
poorly represented. A higher concentration can be noticed around Timiş
area.
Since 166, one of the most difficult periods for the Empire has
begun because of the “conspiracy” of all the peoples from Illirycum to
Gallia. The Marcomanic wars have started to which also took part the
Iaziges, the Kvasses, the Lacringes, the Burs, the Roxolanes, the
Costoboces and others [N. Gudea, 1994: p. 79. He states that Porolissum
didn’t suffer from major damage, as opposed to Dacia Apulensis and
469
Malvensis provinces, and their situation influenced the economical life,
especially the cash flow of the North province ].
Large territories in Dacia were devastated by the Marcomanic wars
starting with the second half of the year 167, both in Dacia
Porolissensisand in the center of the Transylvanian region. Porolissum
didn’t succeed in stopping the invasion and the two Roman camps there
were almost destroyed. From West, the Barbarians headed towards the
auriferous area. The population in Alburnus Maior hid their documents –
the waxed plates – in the gold mines galleries (the last plate is dated 29th
of May 167) [IDR, I: p.175]. Damage caused by the invasions were also
noticed at Apulum, but especially at Ulpia Trajana Sarmizegetusa [CIL,
III, 1769] and Tibiscum.
In 168 the legion V Macedonica was transfered in Dacia, at
Potaissa as a consequence of a series of measures that were implying the
frontier consolidation of the provinces (including the creation of some
new legions such as II Italica and III Italica, established on the Danube
shores) [M. Bărbulescu, 1987: p. 24].
The Marcomanic wars stroke hard in the Danubian provinces,
especially in Inferior Pannonia and Inferior Moesia [N. Gudea, 1994, p.
79]. The tragic situation in here influenced the trade, thing showed by
the monetary discoveries.
The analysis of the isolated monetary discoveries catalogue allow
us to observe the shock of Marcomanic wars (the pieces are from
Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus or the members of the Imperial family).
In the case of three of the settlements we don’t have future
documentation (Deszk, Dezna, Firiteaz). In other two settlements we
found coins dating back only since Phillip the Arab (Chisindia and
Lipova). Documentation concerning the reign of Gallienus or Aurelian
was found only in three other settlements (Cenad, Ineu, Pecica) and
another concerning the period of Konstantin (Kiszombor).
The coin discoveries are quite various and probably the coin was
used for the payroll. Because we are referring to the confines, a coin of a
greater value and of a very high quality (the material used for these coins
were gold and silver) starts to be used here [V. Mihăilescu-Bîrliba, 1999,
p. 809-810]. Another observation is that we mainly have the same
discovery points as in the case of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. We still
have to take into consideration the fact that the coin found here, and used
during the period of the two emperors, could have also been used during
470
Marcus Aurelius and his son, Commodus, because it was a coin made of
a high quality material.
Generally, during Commodus, few money were coined and the
launch of the economy didn’t take place. So, older coins were being
used.
The space between Dacia and Pannonia represents an ethnic
diversity based on the principle of cohabitation. It is because of this
principle that we can barely spot the differences between the Dacian and
Sarmatian dwellings. Though the Romans didn’t extend to their
territories, the habitants were very aware about the reality of the Roman
Empire, due to the economical and political relations between them. As
a consequence of these facts, the Dacians and the Sarmatians were either
the allies or the enemies of Rome. This can also be stated according to
analyses of the monetary reality in that area. The treasuries confirm the
fact that during certain periods the relations between them deteriorated,
or a new enemy appears in the area. Under these circumstances, they
decided to bury their fortunes hoping that when the problems would
have been solved and life would have take its natural course, they could
use again their fortunes.
Taking into consideration the numismatic collection from the
Inferior Mureş Valley, we can observe that concerning the trade, this
area was controlled by the Romans who found here a quick way of
connection with Pannonia (Tisza wasn’t seen as a border, but as a
geographic reality). Another observation is that the discoveries strictly
concern the Mureş Valley and the Criş Valley, which represent access
ways between Pannonia and Dacia through Iaziges Plain. These
discoveries demonstrate that the roads were controlled by the Romans.
Being an area that Apatin barbaric world, identified through
currency may rise to Domitian
Because the area analized here belongs to the barbarian world the
isolated coins discovered here can reach it's lowest points at Domitianus
or maybe even earlier, because the Barbarian used the old coin,
especially for its intrinsical value (high quality metal) when the more
recent currency significantly decried, as it is the case of the period we
are now taking into consideration [V. Mihăilescu-Bîrliba, 1980: p.8390]. It can also be noticed a continuity of the dwellings, that could
represent local power centers assuring the connection with the centers
from the Criş Valley (as we can see on the attached map, the linear
disposal of the discovery points can mark a secondary road).
471
The assumption of adopting an economy based on truck was hard
to accept because in the area there was a big army that needed great
financial resources. Once again, this is about the Barbarian perception on
the Roman currency, about their scepticism regarding the situation in the
Empire.
Appendix 1.The catalogue of the discoveries regarding the selfcontained pieces2
ARAD, „Remus street with Barsei”, Arad city, district of
Arad.
Discovery with unmentioned character.
Random discovery.
1D Trajan.
Randomly discovered in the yard of an immobile, at the
intersection of the two streets in 1972.
CMA.
M. Barbu, P. Hügel, 1993; P. Hügel, M. Barbu, 1997.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
2.
2
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
ARAD, „Ceala”, Arad city, district of Arad.
Dwelling. IIIth - Vth centuries.
Random discovery.
3 Denars: Caracalla(1), Aurelian(2)
No further details.
CMA.
M. Barbu, P. Hügel , 1993, p. 67, no.1; P. Hügel, M.
Barbu, 1997, p. 550, no. 3 s, 576 no. 3 s.
The catalogue of the self-contained pieces concerns the following fileds: 1.
The name of the place; 2. The type of the discoveries; 3. The character of
the discoveries; 4. The number of the discovered pieces; 5. The time-scale
of the research; 6. The keeping place of the materials; 7. Bibliography.
472
3.
4.
6.
7.
Dwelling.
Random discovery.
1D Antoninus Pius, 1D Faustina Senior, 1D Faustina Iunior.
In the summer of 1964, the workers from G.A.S-Ceala
discovered - when they were on site – artifacts belonging to
different eras. It seems that they found in the tombs two small
grey cups of clay turned on a potter’s wheel and a small
blackish jar made by hand, that was decorated around its
collar with dimples, a bronze Roman fibula and four Imperial
silver coins: Titus, Antoninus Pius, Faustina Senior and
Faustina Iunior.
CMA.
E. Dörner, 1970, p. 449-450.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Random discovery.
1D Hadrian.
Discovered in the soil brought for grading in Vlaicu
headquarter in 1992 from Ceala.
CMA.
M. Barbu, P. Hügel , , 1993; P.Hügel, M. Barbu, 1997.
In the bibliography Arad appears as a reference, without the
mentioning of the toponym.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
5.
1.
ARAD, „Complex Sere”, Arad city, county of Arad.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Random discovery.
1D from Faustina Iunior.
No further details.
CMA.
6.
1.
BEBA VECHE, Beva Veche township, district of Timiş.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Discovery of unmentioned character.
Random discovery.
2 D Trajan, 1 AE Maximianus Herculius, 1 AE Constans.
Within the township area, without any specification of the
place, the aforementioned coins were also referred to.
Unmentioned.
Toma-Demian 2002-2003, p. 174; Mare 2004, p. 157; Luca
2005, p. 24–26.
2.
3.
4.
5.
7.
6.
7.
8.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
473
6.
7.
BEBA VECHE, „Train station”, Beva Veche township,
district of Timiş.
Sarmatian Dwelling.
Survey.
1 D Traianus.
The survey was carried out near the edifice of the train station,
where there was identified a Sarmatian dwelling. The coin
was in a very poor phase of preservation (very rusted) because
of the fact that in the discovered inventory appeared another
iron object found in its immediate proximity.
Unmentioned.
Huszár 1954, p.91, n.CLIV.
1.
474
BECICHERECU MIC, Becicherecu Mic township, district of
Timiş.
Random discovery.
3 D Trajan, 1 AE Diocletian.
Within the township area, without any specification of the place,
the aforementioned coins were also referred to.
Unmentioned.
Toma-Demian 2002-2003, p. 174; Luca 2005, p. 25.
9.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
10.
11.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
BRUZNIC, Ususău township, district of Arad.
Discoveries made by amateurs.
1D since Hadrian, Septimius Severus and Phillip the Arab.
No further details.
The Museum of Banat from Timisoara.
B. Mitrea, 1945, p. 88.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
BUHANI, Dezna township, district of Arad.
2AU since Marcus Aurelius.
Acording to N. D. Covaci here were discovered bronze and
silver coins dating since Marcus Aurelius.
The National Museum from Budapest.
S. Márki, p. 27; S. Dumitraşcu, p. 125, nr. 2; M. Barbu, P.
Hügel, 1993, p. 68.
6.
7.
12.
BENCECU DE SUS, Pişchia township, district of Timiş.
1 D Traian, 1 AE Constantin.
Within the township area, without any specification of the place,
the aforementioned coins were also referred to.
Unmentioned.
Medeleţ 1994, p. 252; Luca 2005, p. 27.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
13.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
CHISINDIA, Chisindia township, district of Arad.
1D Antoninus Pius, 1D Fipil Arabul.
Information from S. Marki, taken by E. Dörner.
CMA.
S. Márki, p. 27; S. Dumitrascu, p.126, no. 4; M. Barbu, P.
Hügel, 1993, p. 68, no. 9.
14.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
CHIŞINEU-CRIŞ, Chişineu-Criş town, district of Arad.
Dwelling.
AE Trajan and 1D Elagabal.
In Pumping Station point there were found pottery fragments
coming from bowls turned on a potter’s wheel, out of soft paste.
Unmentioned.
S.Márki, p.28, S. Dumitraşcu 1993, p. 126; P. Hügel, M. Barbu,
1997, p. 578, no.15a.
6.
7.
15.
CENAD, Cenad township, district of Timiş.
1D, Faustina Senior, 1D Commodus, 1D Aurelian, bronze
dating since Gallienus.
475
The coins were discovered in 1930, they are now belonging to
personal collections in Timisoara.
Nussbaum collection (Hadrian).
D. Benea, p. 459.
476
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
CICIR, Cicir township, district of Arad.
1D from Trajan.
It was found by a pupil on an island of the Mureş.
CMA.
S.Dumitrascu, p.126; D.Benea, p.459; Barbu, Hugel, 1993,
p.69.
16.
17.
18.
19.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
DESZK, Csongrád shire, Hungary.
Marcus Aurelius and Commodus.
The discovery doesn’t come with any further details.
Unmentioned.
Fülöp 1976, p. 257 (H. 8), 262.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
DEZNA, „În Vii”, Dezna township, district of Arad.
Bronze and silver coins dating since Marcus Aurelius.
No further details.
Not specified.
S.Márki, p.27; S. Dumitrascu, p.126; M. Barbu, P. Hügel, 1993,
p.69.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
FIRITEAZ, Şagu township district of Arad.
Dwelling.
1D Antoninus Pius, 1D Marcus Aurelius.
Information from E. Dörner.
Unmentioned.
D.Benea, p.459; Barbu, Hugel, 1993, p.69.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
20.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
21.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
22.
FRUMUŞENI, Frumuşeni township, district of Arad.
Dwelling?
1D Commodus.
No further details.
Unmentioned.
M. Barbu, P. Hügel, 1993, p.69.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
477
478
GURAHONŢ, Gurahonţ township, district of Arad.
1D from Trajan.
When the works for the cafeteria of the local highschool
began, two Imperial coins dating back since Nero and Trajan
were discovered.
The highschool from Gurahonţ.
Barbu, Hugel, 1993, p.69.
INEU, Ineu town, district of Arad.
Coins dating since Commodus and Galienus.
The coins were discovered in 1867, near Moroda, on the
shore of Cigher.
The National Museum from Budapest.
S.Márki, p.24.
KISZOMBOR, Csongrád shire, Hungary.
Germanic necropolis.
Systematic digging.
1 D Lucius Verus, 1 AE Constantius II (?)
The coin dating since Constantius is punched and probably used
as a pendant.
Unmentioned.
Huszár 1954, p. 86, 87, n. CXVI.
23.
1.
2.
KISZOMBOR, Csongrád shire, Hungary.
Sarmatian necropolis.
3.
4.
Systematic digging.
1D Trajanus, 1D Faustina senior, 1D Hadrianus, 1D Marcus
Aurelius, 1D Commodus.
Coins discovered in stratigraphic context.
Unmentioned.
Huszár 1954, p. 86, 87, n. CXVI.
5.
6.
7.
24.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
25.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
26.
LENAUHEIM (township, district of. Timiş)
1 D Trajan.
Within the township’s area, in an undetermined place, it was
discovered a stock made out of multiple ceramic jars, dated from
the IIIrd-IVth centuries B. Ch.
Not specified.
Medeleţ 1994, p. 266; Mare 2004, p. 186; Luca 2005, p. 221.
LIPOVA, Lipova town, district of Arad.
Dwelling.
Coins dating since Faustina Iunior and Phillip the Arab.
The diggings made for the foundation of the Agricultural
Highschool in 1886 brought to light mill stones, Roman coins
and the half of a Roman tomb stone representing a man wearing
a toga.
The Museum of Banat from Timisoara.
479
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
27.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
28.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
480
NĂDLAC, Nădlac town, district of Arad.
1D Trajan, 2D Hadrian, 1D Antoninus Pius, 1D Severus
Alexander, 1D Faustina Iunior, 1D Iulia Domna.
Within the Sildan collection from there are the above
mentioned coins that were identified by the professor Moisil.
Sildan collection.
OLARI, Sintea Mică township, district of Arad.
Self-contained discovery.
1D Trajan.
Discovery made by the grave digger Vass Francisc in the
Evangelic Graveyard, on December 2007.
CMA.
Inedited.
PECICA, Pecica town, district of Arad.
Rescue diggings.
1D Antoninus Pius, 1D Faustina Iunior, ANT Etruscilla, 1D
Iulia Domna, ANT Gallienus, 1D Aurelian.
No further details..
CMA.
D.Benea, p.459; M. Barbu, P. Hügel, 1993, p.69.
29.
30.
31.
32.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
PECIU NOU, Peciu Nou township, district of Timiş.
1 D Trajan, 2 AE Constans, 1 AE Constantius II.
Discovery made aprox. 1Km South of the village.
Not specified.
Medeleţ 1994, p. 274; Toma-Demian 2002-2003, p. 181; Luca
2005, p. 281
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
PEREGUL MIC, Peregul Mare township, district ofArad.
Dwelling.
1AE from Trajan.
Information from S.Marki.
Neprecizat.
S.Márki, p.27; S.Dumitrascu, p.126; Barbu, Hugel, 1993, p.69.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
SÂNPAUL, Şofronea township, district of Arad.
1D Lucius Verus.
Unmentioned.
Barbu, Hugel, 1993, p.69
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
33.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
34.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
SÂMPETRU GERMAN, Secusigiu township, district of
Arad.
Discoveries made by amateurs
1D Gordian.
481
35.
482
1.
2.
3.
4.
The information comes from Dörner and it is defective. It
appears mentioned in its notes where it is also found a draft of
the coin.
Unmentioned.
Inedited.
SÂMPETRU GERMAN, „Satul Nou”, Secusigiu township,
district of Arad.
1D from Trajan
It was found by Bleiezeffer Andrei, blacksmith at CAP, in the
southern part of the township known for the name of „Satul
Nou”.
CMA.
M.Barbu, P.Hügel , 1993, P.Hügel, M. Barbu, 1997
SÂNNICOLAU MARE, Sânnicolau Mare town, district of
Timiş.
Self-contained discoveries
Discoveries made by amateurs
1 D Commodus.
Tomb stone, sealed tegulated material le(gio) XIII Gemina in
different patterns, including with anthroponomy.
Unmentioned.
P. Hügel, M. Barbu 1993, p. 70; M. Barbu, P. Hügel, 1997, p.
585
SZEGED, „Öthalom”, Csongrád shire, Ungaria.
Sarmatian tomb.
Systematic digging.
1 D Faustina senior, 1 D Caracalla.
5.
6.
7.
36.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
37.
38.
Apart from the coins from the studied tombs, before the start of
the systematic diggings, other pieces were brought to light: 2 AE
Maximianus Herculius (236-305),
1 AR suberate,
Undeterminable, 1 AE undeterminable.
Unmentioned.
Párducz 1943-1950, p. 186; Huszár 1954, p. 95, n. CLXXXIX.
ŞEITIN, Şeitin township, district of Arad.
Dwelling.
Surface researches.
1D Marcus Aurelius and 1D Lucilla.
Further more, there were discovered ceramic fragments coming
from bowls turned on a potter’s wheel, made up from a soft grey
paste, Roman import pottery. .
Unmentioned.
M.Blajan, 1975, p.70; M. Barbu, P. Hügel, 1993, p.69.
6.
7.
TROAŞ, „Gomila”, Săvârşin township, district of Arad.
1AE Phillip the Arab.
On the territory of the village, a coin was found, that was used
during the reign of Phillip the Arab, coin that C. Daicoviciu
catalogued as coming from Trajan’s period. Iosif Dohangie, the
teacher who has this coin sent a paper appendix of this piece.
Personal collection.
1.
2.
3.
4.
VARIAŞU MARE, Iratoş township, district of Arad.
1D Marcus Aurelius.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
483
5.
6.
7.
39.
40.
484
Further more, there were discovered ceramic fragments coming
from bowls turned on a potter’s wheel, made up from a soft grey
paste, Roman import pottery.
Unmentioned.
M. Barbu, P. Hügel, p. 71, n. 36.
6.
7.
ZĂDĂRENI, Zădăreni township, district of Arad.
Secluded Sarmatian tomb.
Unmentioned.
1D suberate Marcus Aurelius,1D Antoninus Pius (Inedited).
Discovery made in tomb in 1957. The piece in original is dated
170-171. The second piece also appeared in a Sarmatian tomb in
1958.
CMA.
Barbu, Hugel, 1993, p.69.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
ZERINDUL MIC, Mişca township, district of Arad.
1D Lucius Verus.
Prof. Molnar’s personal collection.
Inedited.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
485
486
Soviet 'patterns' for the serbs living in Romania
1948-1950. Kulturny uputnik”
(The Cultural Adviser)
Miodrag MILIN
“Aurel Vlaicu“ University, Arad
Abstract: Following the awkwardness of the beginnings when it
comes to loans, at the beginning of the 50s, the first autochthonous
voices appear in the Serbian minorities' work, recycled on Stalinist
patterns. This environment, intensely terrorized by political levers,
generated a work to measure: infested by prejudices and fears, the
omnipresent complex of guilt for the Titoist "heresy," at any time a
possible antechamber for the most violent, physical, repression.
With practically more true intellectuals being in prison than free,
what is informally called "separating the wheat from the shaft" will be
accomplished.
Thus the so-called proletarian culture flourishes, solidly settling in
the institutions of the system. Disdainfully treated and politically
orchestrated by the representatives of the majority. Nowhere at home,
unacknowledged, correspondingly perceived more as an exercise of
cultural manifestation in one's own language, but of a foreign identity for
the mother country and culture.
Keywords: Titoism, Stalinism, resolution, counter resolution,
"Cultural Guide," "wooden" language
Taking everybody by surprise a group of leaders of the Serbian
Union from Timisoara1 reacted negatively to the June 28 1948
1
This is the usual denomination. The correct one is SSKDUR (Savez
slovenskih demokratskih udruzenja u Rumuniji), or the Slav Democratic
Cultural Associations Union in Romania SDCAUR, although it was almost
entirely formed by Serbs.
Resolution, that condemned, in a Stalinist manner, Tito’s Yugoslavia2,
and was issued by the Informative Bureau of the Communist Countries
meeting in Bucharest. Following a week of consultations with their
members, almost 2000 of them being former partisans and deserters
from the Romanian Army, they issued a Counter-Resolution of
solidarity to Tito’s policy.
The Serb Hard-liners’ reaction shocked the PMR Banat County
leadership who could not handle the escalating conflict of an
uncontrollable outcome.3
At once, the Internal Affairs Department intervened. Teohari
Georgescu, the Minister, came personally, to Timisoara, to stop at once
this Serb dissident movement. Teams of investigation, control and
guidance for the activities of the communist militants and Serb procommunists were formed.
During the night of July 12/13, the rebel group was investigated
during a harsh interrogation by Iosif Bogdan, an activist sent from Head
office.
2
See recent bibliography: Joseph Rotschild, Intoarcerea la diversitate.
Istoria politică a Europei Centrale şi de Est după Al Doilea Război
Mondial,[Bucureşti], 1997; Jean-François Soulet, Istoria comparată a
statelor comuniste din 1945 pînă în zilele noastre,[Iaşi], 1998.Miodrag
Milin, Andrei Milin, Sârbii din România şi relaţiile româno – iugoslave.
Studiu şi documente (1944 – 1949), Timişoara, 2004. Great Powers and
Small Countries in Cold War 1945 – 1955. Issue of Ex-Yugoslavia.
Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference, Belgrade, November
3rd – 4th, 2003, Beograd, 2005. Liubomir Stepanov, Uniunea Sârbilor din
România, Timişoara, 2006; Zbornik radova sa Medjunarodnog okruglog
stola Tito – Staljin (Papers from the International Round Table Tito –
Stalin), Beograd, 2007; Andrei Milin, Miodrag Milin, UACDSR sau Sârbii
din România pe baricadele Războiului Rece, Timişoara, 2009
3
We have in mind the planned Serb Congress for “Romania’s
Democratization” but also with possible secessionist motivations, in those
unclear times at the end of the war. There were rumors of an awaited change
of the name of Timisoara into Titograd (Titigrad). The subject is developed
in M. Milin, A. Milin, Sârbii din România şi relaţiile...p. 33 – 79.
488
The control activities expanded during the following weeks and
months4 under the coordination of Mirko Jivkovici, an activist from the
Party regional Branch, future university professor in Bucharest,
supervisor, and guider of the Yugoslav emigrants and later of the
Serbian students in the Capital of Romania. In the leadership of the
Serbian Union, he was associated with Alexandru Kurici, a fanatic and
narrow –minded teacher, follower of the PMR policy, supervisor for
years of the Serb high school teenagers, especially those who had the
unfortunate experience of Baragan deportation.
It is nevertheless true that also, the Yugoslav Internal Affairs
Service had its share, we think a major one, contributing to escalating
tensions, but for now, the respective archives maintain a cautious silence
in this respect. Therefore, the repressive machinery of the Communist
Regime in Bucharest began to act. At the same time the minority
population, to a great extent of rural origin, less educated and
consequently easily manipulated, was subdued to negative emotions5 in
the very fragile peace settled over the not yet healed wounds of the
terrible World War. After isolating the ‘rebellious group’ a true Stalinist
4
See the events in detail and supported by documents in A. Milin, M. Milin,
UACDSR..., p. 11 – 292.
5
Jean-Fr. Soulet, in his book (p. 27, subchapter Populaţii aflate între
entuziasm şi teamă) makes a remarkable comment on the hypostasis of
populations’ implication in the Last Worldwide Conflict. Some had lived the
conflict with a winning positive emotional state, while others experienced
all kinds of frustrations. In Romania, the majority facing the communist
regime, brought by from the East, was frustrated after the failure of the
maximal national project on the Eastern Front. The Serbs living here, and
being less accepted by the majority, due to ethnic connections with the
“historical enemy” from the East, would be meeting their expectations at the
presence of the Red Army in Banat, as well. This felling became euphoria,
after the success of Tito’s policy, for which many had fought as partisans.
With the separation that took place in the Communist Block that put the
equality sign between Tito and fascism, the Serbs face an unsettlement of
the existential value scale. Such an emotional environment triggered their
very irrational reaction that is to oppose to the whole world while being in
this microcosm, and openly contest the fatal Resolution of June 28.
489
style propaganda offensive started with activists, educated in rural party
schools, instructors, agitators, snitchers, zealous informants, military
surveillance of ‘unsecured’ border villages and opinion leaders by
Security forces, and putting in place the first high treason of the new
republic and socialism in general trials.6
As an instrument of instructing and bringing back on the right track
the disconcerted or undecided, the Cultural Guide paper was founded. It
was in fact a sort of initiation guide for the rural world into the rules of
obedience and vulgar adulation of the Moscovite pharaoh and his
perfidious and hypocritical epigones from Bucharest. Following the
clumsy beginning, the second issue7 pompously and solemnly opens up
with the Soviet Union Hymn, rendering the indestructible union of
republics made possible by the constructive spirit of Great Russia, under
Lenin’s guidance towards the sunny shore of peoples liberty, that are
embraced by the union flag, in accordance with Stalin’s words: faith,
labor and great deeds!
On the next page8 and in antithesis, evaluation marks were taken
and interpreted from the muscovite Pravda of the negative status in
Yugoslavia: Tito-Rankovici Group’s9 extreme nationalism that stained
their hands with the blood of Arso Jovanivici, the Stalinist
6
M. Milin, PCR şi minorităţile: cazul UACDSR sau sârbii bănăţeni – de la
erezie la calvarul „reeducării in volume Partide politice şi minorităţi
naţionale din România în secolul XX, Vasile Ciobanu and Sorin Radu,
Editors, vol. II, Sibiu, 2007, p. 219 – 234.
7
Kulturni uputnik za kulturne domove” („The Cultural Guide for the Rural
Cultural Institutions”), no. 2, november 1948, Timişoara, p. 2
8
Ibidem, Editorialul Kuda vodi nacionalizam Titove grupe u
Jugoslaviji(Where leads Tito’s Group Nationalism in Yugolsavia), p. 3 - 8
9
Alexandar Rankovici, Tito’s close ally, chief of Security during and after
the war (UDB-a, Ured za drzavnu bezbednost= State Scurity Department)
liquidator of the Colonel Draza Mihajlovici armed opposition of Cetnics
against Tito. In mid 60’s, his political career ended in disgrace due to
Serbian nationalist empathies.
490
10
hero , which opened in this way a path for imperialist reaction.
Stalin is furthermore the great pathfinder for the workers
worldwide. He is the only person capable to guide them onto the path of
eternal peace and salvation from bloody wars, of crushing the capitalist
slavery and bringing the overall progress of humanity. Following a short
deliberation, the anonymous writer came to the definitive conclusion
that:”…also in our politics there are no options that are not Stalin’s
creation.”11
Furthermore, the dark humor came to upload even more the
crushing burden of generalized fear.12
10
Arso (Arsa, Arsenije) Jovanovic , General, Chief of Staff of Partisan
Army (JNA, Jugoslovenska narodna armija = Popular Yugoslav
Army).After the war was sent to military study in USSR, assasinated by the
UDB at the Romanian border in dark circumstances in 1948 autumn. New
reserches show some disappointment of the yugoslav officers of the study
and living conditions in the Soviet Union. See in detail, Miroslav Perisic, Od
Staljina ka Sartru. Formiranje jugoslovenske inteligencije na evropskim
univerzitetima. 1945 – 1958 (From Stalin to Sartre.The Yugoslav Intelectual
Formation at European Universities...) , Beograd, 2008, p. 225 – 254. The
author caustically mentiones:”...a great number of Yugoslav students
andofficers did not need much time to realize they were not for the Russians
what the Russians were for them.” Out of the 1984 millitary perssonel that
was studying in USSR in 1948, 342 joined the Resolution while the rest
returned home. (p. 251 – 252). The Yugoslav Officers in Moscow, came
home through Romania at the Jimbolia border. An informative note to the
Police headquarters in Timisoara, 1948, august 7, said: „...after they had
embarked on the Yugoslav train and the train began to move they started to
manifest for Tito by shouting ‘Jugoslavija’ and ‘Zivio drug Tito’ .” (M.
Milin, A. Milin, Sârbii din România şi relaţiile româno – iugoslave..., p.
214).
11
“Kulturni uputnik...”. nr. 3/ 1948, p. 3 – 9
12
Povukao je rec (He took back his words).The working pesant entered in a
verbal dispute with a dubious
kulak that eluded the compusory
cereal quotas „You are so odious tha you do not even deserve to rot in
prison!” The kulak reacted insisting that the proletarian should take bake his
words.”Well”, said the rural worker „Look, I take back my words: you
entirely deserve to rot in prison!” (Ibidem, p. 21)
491
Another apologetic text praised the Constitution and Stalinist
legislation, and the Generalissimo’s words confessed that: “…millions
of honest people from the capitalist countries wished for the fulfillment
of all the things that had already happened in USSR. 13
Undoubtedly, it was an adequate prologue for the new
Romanian Constitution of the popular republic.
According to a Soviet recipe, a molding of “Socialist
Yugoslavia”14 was also tried by the remaining emigrants in Moscow
after the communist split. On April 1949, they reunited to issue an
appropriate newspaper.
One of the pro-Stalinist masterminds was Radonija Golubovici,
former ambassador to Bucharest, who abandoned Tito’s political line.15
The paper was considered Moscow’s gift to the Yugoslav proletarians
for the international celebration of proletarian labor. Nevertheless, on the
May 1 event, Stalin was again expected to give a speech full of
providential terms.16
For the Serbs from Romania an ideological mark was Iosif
Chisinevski, the party propaganda satrap at the time. His unleashed
perorations 17 at the national reunion of ‘Peace Partisans’ in Bucharest
had reached paranoia regarding the Yugoslav issue: “The fear of peace,
characteristic of capitalism began to overcome the traitorous agent
leading Yugoslavia…
The Yugoslav leaders, puppets of Anglo-American imperialists, by
means of festive speeches on building socialism…without Soviet and
international proletarian help, but with the help of Atlantic Dollars and
Marshall Plans try to hide the betrayal of socialism…and their abortion
13
Ibidem, Constituţia stalinistă, p. 23
Ibidem, no. 9/ 1949, p. 7. See also the Photo Annex.
15
Radonja Golubovici. Yugoslavia’s Ambassador to Bucharest. Several
verbal notes with accusations from both parts were issued with the occasion
of Ambassador Golobovici’s desertion on July 30, 1948. He also notified the
„Scanteia” newspaper on his abandoning Tito’s political line. A. Milin, op.
cit., p. 207 – 213).
16
„Kulturni uputnik...” no. 8/ 1949, I. V. Stalin – On First of May, p. 1.
17
Ibidem,. Comrade’s...Presentation at the RPR Intellectual’s Congress for
Peace and Culture, p. 25 – 27.
14
492
into a trivial bourgeois republic, stocked-still in the imperialist slavery
chains…
Yugoslavia decays day by day into a consumption market for the
reactionary western culture…
Grand projections of decadent American movies are displayed in
the presence of their authors and the Yugoslav Government…
In Yugoslavian movie theatres, demonstrations took place…for the
people do not love gangster, robbery and arson American movies. They
reject them with disgust because they know them to be enemy weapons
and opened doors for war propaganda.
The demonstrators shouted, “We want Soviet movies!”
Tito, the traitor and criminal, and Moshe Piade, 18 the Yugoslav
“Goebels” try to convince the educated people, writers, and artists to
join the nationalist coterie and raise them against the Yugoslav peoples
interests and the peace front. However, the fact that hundreds of writers
and teachers were imprisoned in Rancovici’s jails, some being tortured
and killed by this executioner’s janissaries, while others are forced to
hide or emigrate, proves that the intellectuals resistance …becomes
wider…
The Yugoslav people understand perfectly that under Tito and his
allies’ mask…an agent of the peoples enslaving trusts and arsonists of
war is hiding…
The heroic Yugoslav peoples see in the Soviet Union the liberating
force…against Tito’s nationalist - chauvinist coterie, an imperialist
reactionary agency…enemy of culture and peace…”
Bucharest did not stay behind Moscow. In the Capital of Romania,
“Under the Internationalism Flag” the paper of Yugoslav immigrants
was issued.19 They began with applauses and ovations towards USSR,
the Bolshevik Party and I.V.Stalin, the genial leader of peoples. Again in
the editing crew Duşko Novakov, Ljubo Pavicevici, Ivan Dobraşinovici,
Dmitar Koraci, Milan Poznan, Slavko Dobrosavljevici, are mentioned.
Other emigrants mentioned were S. Gruici, T. Knejevici, J. Tomin, B.
18
19
Moshe Piade, Prim minister of Yugoslavia at the time.
Ibidem, nr. 9/ 1949, p. 68.
493
Trkulici, S. Pavlovici, M. Petrin, Z. Milici, M. Petrovici.20. There were
many others, some in disgace due to the political situation in
Bucharest.21
The most zealous ones would evidence themselves in the pages of
“Cultural Guide”, Timisoara, with ridiculous poetry and writings for the
Romanian fellow citizens. Probably out of precaution and not of
embarrassment, they will publish under pseudonym.
On the first issues, Gorcilo Mitrovici22 would eagerly write poems.
In some of his rhymed verses he would mix together Tito’s criminal
thoughts embracing fascism with the punishing fire of red jet mortars,
and hot vows of paranormal devotion for the mythical inhabitant of
Kremlin.23
Gradually the new Romanian Popular Republic is introduced in the
picture. Its front exponent was then, Chisinevski, the one we saw as a
perfidious and, even beyond Moscow’s expectations, a venomous critic
of the Yugoslavs,. Soon we discover the existence of May 9, 1877, an
Independence Day, contrary to the ‘dirty forgery’ of the ‘bourgeois
landowners’ that had tried relentlessly to hide it behind May 10, a day of
dynastic eulogy. This was useless because Carol, the Prussian, the prince
brought to power, proved himself to be in the end “…a guardian of
foreign capitalism interests “24
Against this “treacherous” policy and the imperialist yoke, the
heroic labor class stood up. Nevertheless, the real independence was
gained after the defeat of Hitler’s Germany and the country’s liberation
by the Red Army…
20
Ibidem, p. 63.
On the debates in the Yugoslav emigrants club in Bucharest, see Vukale
Stojanovici, Senke Bukuresta (The Shadows of Bucharest), Zrenjanin, 2003.
In a memorialistic book on his 1949-1952 Bucharest experience, the author
relates his personal conflict with Dusko Novakov and his antourage.
22
Gorcilo Mitrovici, a sort of Serbian „Dumitrescu Amărăşteanu”.
23
„Kulturni uputnik...”, Suznjeva izjava (The Imprisoned Confession), nr.
11/ 1949, p. 13 – 14.
24
Ibidem, 9 Maj – dan nezavisnosti ( May 9– Independence Day), nr. 8/
1949, p. 14.
21
494
Conclusion: “we must not forget that the Soviet Union had helped
us, and does so all the time by supporting our economy …in order to be
able to preserve our independence and the democratic achievements we
have gained…”25
Following the May festivities the poor Romanians were hit by a
furious exultation of “heroic over - fulfillments” and then boundless,
even insane, different plans, illustrated by the harsh noise of beyond any
control numbers and percentages.
“What is Kolkhoz?” is a text of the same euphoria and lack of
common sense censorship, which unleashes on the rural reader a
bombardment of figures and astounding statistics regarding a large
quantity of cereals and many rubles that shall eventually flood his
household. A more skeptical peasant from Banat soon understands
everything while reading the unequivocal conclusions: “The Soviet
Power is directly interested in strengthening the Kolkhoz
democracy…for this contributes to the unstopping strengthening of
collective farming orders and, at the same time to the strengthening of
the Soviet State force”26
In addition, gradually, the peasant writers of the new era became
present in the multileveled polyphonic and multi-stratified chorus of
adulations of the new false paradise.
Laza Ilici, the agrarian proletarian poet, attunes his clumsy lines on
the vigorous themes, of great resistance and impact of the antiimperialist revolution. The less he understands the more arrogant,
furious and crazy he becomes in his verses. The Varias collectivist
throws revolutionary thunders and flashes of lighting over the New York
Wall Street or London City. He spreads fear towards the “monstrous
25
Ibidem, p. 15. The obedient formulation, of communist type, at the
beginning of Romanian propagandistic indictment: “USSR helped and will
always help us!” would be, as the local regime acquires a nationalist image,
replaced by „due to the care and wisdom of our party and government”
revealing a clear self-sufficiency of our proletarian leaders.
26
Ibidem, no. 11/ 1949, p. 20.
495
imperialists” and “atomic maniacs”. What a sad pity for the lost destiny
of those lacking common sense!27
A privileged place was reserved to the conclusions of the Annual
Conference in Budapest of the informational Bureaus of communist and
labor parties. As a paradox in the final Resolution, one year after the
schism, some rather negative conclusions on the results of the anti-Tito
battle occurred.28
In Moscow’s view, the “Yugoslav traitors” were successful in
creating a “contra revolutionary gang formed of reactionary, nationalist,
clerics and fascist elements…” aiming at the separation of ‘brotherly
countries’ from the Soviet Union. The treacherous group was successful in
transforming Belgrade into an American spying and anti-communist
propaganda centre, by openly joining the imperialist block at the United
Nations…”into a common front with American reactionaries”.
Consequently, Yugoslavia would, almost overnight turn into an
anticommunist, police state, with a fascist regime.
In accordance with such times, Bojidar Cherpenisan, a teacher and
another dilettante of blank verses on proletarian indoctrination of North
American workers, began to pour into rhymes a “public letter” to the
American worker29 . We do not know if the receiver understood anything
out of the language and the “philosophy” of the message, but for sure the
bard offered “freedom and prosperity” on the bright Leninist path,
considerably widened by Stalin over the Atlantic Ocean.
27
Ibidem, Onima iz Volstrita (Message to Those on Wall Street), no. 12/
1949, p. 8.
28
Ibidem, Jugoslovenska kompartija pod vlascu ubica i spijuna. Rezolucija
Informacionog biroa (The Yugoslav Communist Party under the leadership
of assassins and spies. The Information Bureau Resolution) no. 1/ 1950, p.
21 – 26. This pessimist evaluation must be correlated to the furious wave of
trials and political executions that caused top radical structural changes in
„brotherly” east European parties and popular democracies. See an
exquisite comparative analysis of Stalinist repression in „east-European
democracies : J. Rotschild, op. cit., p. 115 – 212.
29
Kulturni uputnik”, Otvoreno pismo americkom radniku (Public Letter to
the American Worker), no. 3/ 1950, p. 28.
496
After the clumsiness of a borrowed start, in the recycled art of
Stalinist patterns for the Serb minority, at the beginning of the 50’s, the
first native voices occurred. They were intense, even smothering, with
terror, and generated a measurable artistic creativity, infested by fears and
prejudice, the overall guilty complex, anytime a possible antechamber for
the most violent physical oppression.30
Having many real intellectuals imprisoned than actually at large “a
separation of the wheat from the chaff” was done. A dramatic split
pushing the cultural expression of the minority on to the lost paths of
political confrontation and suppression of freedom of expression.
The so-called proletarian culture flourished into the system’s
institutions. It was despised and politically used, never at home,
unrecognized or inadequately perceived, more likely as a cultural
expression exercise on the official language, but of a strange identity for
the country and native culture.
The result of these traumas was a minor artistic creation, marked by
frustrations and failures, never and nowhere entirely valued, obedient to
everyday politics that kept it on intensive care, until it finally passed away.
September 19, 2009 11:25:39 PM
(Pages 8, Times New Roman, 12; 1.5 space; no. of characters with
spaces: 21.832
The undersigned, Isabela Prina, authorized translator by the
Ministry of Justice in Romania, under Reg. no. 8464/2003, hereby certify
the authenticity of this English version of the Romanian text of the emailed document.
September 19, 2009 11:25:39 PM
(Nr.pagini: 8.;Times New Roman 12;1,5 space;caractere cu
spaţii:21.832.)
Subsemnata Isabela Prina, interpret / traducător autorizat de
Ministerul Justiţiei, nr.8464/2003, certific conformitatea traducerii cu
textul documentului redactat în limba română şi primit pe e-mail.
30
An unintentionally or maybe of diabolic perfidiousness, dark humor
comes out of the naive or allegedly naive poem Posle proveravanja (After
checking) by S. M. Lalici (Ibidem, p. 44) . Such a strange creation had also
political causes: massive PMR elimination of former legionnaires and other
actual or imaginary enemies.
497
The public servant. Challenging in the Court of
Justice the evaluation file of the employee’s
professional performances and skills
Eugenia IOVĂNAŞ
“Aurel Vlaicu” University”, Arad
Abstract. It is a prerogative of the employer to grant marks when
the annual individual and professional achievements evaluation
procedure of public servants is made.
The law court invested with an annulment action of “The annual
valuation of the professional activity paper slip” has the right to make
the legal control of the individual and professional achievements of the
public servant valuation procedure. The evaluation mark and the
granting of another mark are not absolutely necessary.
The professional achievements evaluation file must contain a
motivation of the marks granted based on the evaluation criteria from the
methodological valuation of the professional activity Norms.
The motivation is necessary by the appreciation’s possibility
perspective regarding the public authority’s competence to emit the
administrative legal document and regarding the legality and the solidity
of the disposed measure.
Regarding the aspect of motivation of legal documents, The
European Court of Justice said that the motivation has to be appropriate
with the emitted one and to present in a clear measure the algorithm
followed by the institution that adopted the measure attacked, so the
aiming persons can establish the measures motivation and also to allow
the revision of the legal document by the national law courts that are
competent.
The motivation’s insufficiency or it’s missing lead to the nullity of
the national law court’s legal documents.
Keywords: public servant, performance criteria, evaluation file
I. Case study – Present Case
By the action registered on the part of Cluj Law Court and
registered again at Arad Law Court according to the close instructions of
the High Cassation and Justice Court given in the solving of the
resettlement demand, the plaintiff – individual summoned in trial the
defendant – public institution – Cadastre Agency, requesting the law
court to notice that the individual evaluation file of the relevant
achievements and abilities of the activity she carried on is, partially,
illegal and not solid and on the consequence to order the partial
annulment of it, respectively the contested points, with the obligation of
the defendant to give the maximum score and the “Very good“ mark
reported to her entire activity and in relation with the post paper sheet, to
order the nullity of the decision of maintaining the score regarding her
evaluation, adopted by the appeal solving commission because of the
lack of motivation, to order the defendant’s obligation to public excuses
in a national circulation newspaper in two different publications, to order
the defendant’s obligation to give the worth salary and the payment of
moral damages in value of 100.000 RON for the moral prejudices
created by the defendant.
In the motivation of her actions the plaintiff emphasized that during
her individual achievements and abilities evaluation for the time that she
was appraised, she was given the “Satisfying” mark, but the evaluation
was made by the second executive manager with who she had certain
incidents during the professional activity progress and the professional
achievements and abilities individual evaluation file was approved by
the executive manager of the defendant, regarding the fact that both of
the managers are in their functions only from the second decade of the
year that she was appraised for .
She also pointed that the paper sheet in discussion is clearly not
solid, because from it’s content arise only perfunctory evaluation that are
not approved, the assessor limited to only make simple statements that
are wrong, regarding her achievements and abilities and did not indicate
a documentation that can sustain these evaluations, none of the negative
aspects from the presented once is proved with concrete examples and
other explanations, so the evaluation is faulty and perfunctory and from
it does not arise what evaluation method was used, which are the
concrete criteria regarded and in what way certain principles where
499
witnessed (uprightness, ethics, realism and objectivity) stipulated in the
Indoor Discipline Regulations.
She also stated that in the appeal conveyed to the defendant she
made another analysis of the subparagraphs from the evaluation file, as
against she received minimal scores, emphasizing in her actions
motivation, that in contrary with the indicators from the regulations and
the work tasks established in her paper sheet post she resolved all of her
tasks, her activity as manager of the Cadastre Agency cannot be
appreciated as being inefficient, on the contrary she managed to organize
the work efficiently and with proper results, trying to respect the
deadlines, she fulfilled in time all her work tasks, and no task was
identified as being delayed, more, it was not proved that the delays in the
tasks fulfillment are frequent situations ad she pointed out that she
fulfilled her duties properly with responsibility professionalism, she
maintained that she applied and accomplished with a lot of accuracy and
quality the work tasks and the requirements from the paper sheet post the
Indoor Order Regulations and did not have any claims over this aspect,
in the year that she was evaluated she took part at all the improvement
classes organized by the defendant obtaining very good outcomes, and in
April of the same year she obtained the title of Master with refinement
and she is in university – degree specialization, she applied the
acquaintances she achieved at the improvement classes regarding the
specific and concrete conditions that are existing at the institution’s
level, she also stated she never had any complaint of unresolved task,
she emphasized that she coordinated many of her colleagues in activity,
she had and still has the availability of sharing her acquaintances, to
maintain the team spirit by her actions, organize meetings, concluding
that the marking is subjective, as long as regarding her professionalism,
availability and kindness she obtained the maximum score, so the
assessor is in contradiction with himself and no way she ever received
any complaint about her professional ethics. She also showed that she
was never punished for presumptive minor wanders and that she is
useful for the institution for over a decade, institution that she brought
into being, in all this time she occupied a leading function and it is the
first time when this mark was granted to her, not in the last place she
underlined that her evaluation file has no sustaining such as a note or a
reference that can be used as an evidence for the evaluation conclusion,
500
the assessor did not show which are the concrete situations (by clear
examples) that led to the obtaining at every subparagraph of a reduced
number of points, and the evaluation file conclusions are in contradiction
with the findings from the report regarding the monitoring of the activity
she is leading, made exactly in the evaluation year but also with the
Accounts Court report that gave motion download without any objection
in that year.
By meeting, the defendant required the rejection of the action
invoking that in essence the evaluation must only be made by itself and
not by a law court that would surpass the trial power attributions if it
would obligate the defendant to grant the maximum score for the
plaintiff, more, the Labor Code does not stipulate that the law court can
obligate the employer to public excuses, and regarding the plaintiff’s
requirement to receive the worth salary, we can see in the legal
document’s economy that this is not mandatory and the law court can’t
take the place of the employer, in plus the defendant invoked that the
plaintiff does not justify a legal interest, she only has the desire to be
granted as being “Very good” and not a right recognized by the law, it
defended itself saying that the plaintiff’s arguments cannot be accepted
because the score for every evaluation criteria can’t be censored b the
law court, and regarding the moral damages it appreciated them as being
unacceptable because only if the defendant refuses to compensate the
employee this one can report to a law court, but the plaintiff didn’t prove
she made a request in this case and that she demanded compensations
from the employer.
By the civil sentence no.1380 from the 6th of October 2009, of the
Arad Law Court, the action formulated by the plaintiff was partially
accepted and so the individual paper sheet of achievements and abilities
evaluation regarding the year that she was evaluated by the defendant
was annulated, the solution to still maintain the plaintiff’s score was
considered null even if it was made by the defendant’s Evaluation
Board, the defendant was obligated to pay 35.000 RON to the plaintiff as
moral damages, the plaintiff’s requirement regarding the fact that the
evaluation file is partially illegal was rejected, the plaintiff’s demand to
obligate the defendant to grant her the maximum score and to be
evaluated as being “Very good” was rejected, the plaintiff’s demand to
obligate the defendant to public excuses in a national newspaper in two
501
different publications was rejected and was rejected also the plaintiff’s
demand to received the worth salary with the defendant’s obligation to
pay the trial expenses.
At first was stipulated that considering the decision that the Indoor
Order Regulations of the Cadastre and Real Estate Publicity Agency
offices approved by The Order no.1019/2005, emitted by the Executive
Manager of the National Cadastre and Real Estate Publicity Agency
regarding the 9th article, 5th paragraph from the Government Decision
no.1210/2004 regarding the organization of the National Cadastre and
Real Estate Publicity Agency, republished, says without any legal attack
possibility that the evaluation has to be made with uprightness,
professional ethics, realism and objectivity (53rd article, 4th paragraph)
and the evaluation activity must be reflected by the individual paper
sheet of achievements and abilities evaluation from which the
professional competence must be reflected, and also the employee’s
qualities and capaciousness. The three evaluation criteria of the
individual and professional achievements evaluations are the
professional competence, the behavior and the other qualities (57th
article) ; “professional competence” means to fulfill the requirements
from 58th article, 1st paragraph, “employee’s behavior” means to fulfill
the requirements form 59th article, 1st paragraph and other qualities
“means to fulfill the indicators from 60th article, 1st paragraph from the
same regulations.
More than that, the Order no.300/2004 89th article of the
Administration and Internal Ministry regarding the management activity
of the human resources of these sectors unities, the evaluation sheet
reports of the personnel must be brought to their knowledge, after they
have been approved by the commanders that made them and the
assessors have the obligation to listen to their opinion regarding the
correctitude and the objectivity of the evaluations, and to motivate their
decisions.
On the other side, the same Regulations that was mentioned higher,
that was changed by the Order no.268/2006, for the modifying of the
Executive Manager of the National Cadastre and Publicity Real Estate
Agency Order no.1019/2005, establishes that the appeal made in legal
conditions against the evaluation has to be filed at the Human Resources
Direction, in five days since the evaluation result was found out and it
502
has to be solved by the Appeal solving Board made by order and from
which can’t take part the person that made the evaluation file.
The law court noticed in the case that from the content of the
evaluation sheet contested by the plaintiff are resulting only
appreciations regarding the plaintiff’s achievements and abilities that are
not well-founded and based on a proper documentation, neither one of
the negative aspects mentioned in the paper sheet is proved with
concrete examples or extra explanations, and does not result which is the
evaluation method used and neither the concrete criteria that where in sight
when the evaluation was made to eliminate any possibility of
discrimination, criteria that should have been brought to the plaintiff’s
knowledge when the evaluation activity was initiated.
With other words, it has been concluded by the law court, regarding
the way that the plaintiff’s evaluation file has been made that we cannot say
that the evaluation was made with uprightness, ethics, realism and
objectivity, and that this paper sheet reflects the real professional ability,
behavior and qualities of the plaintiff. So the only legal conclusion is that the
mark given to the plaintiff is not motivated, motivation that is absolutely
necessary, in plus the assessor had the legal obligation to listen to the
plaintiff, because he didn’t do that, he caused her an injury which in the
given conclusion must not be proved by her, but is presumed in the case.
In the verdict’s motivation was also showed that the plaintiff’s
requirement which is to be found out that the individual evaluation file is
partially illegal, can’t be received according to the 3rd article of the Civil
Procedure Code which says that the interested part can make a demand to
find out the existence or inexistence of a right, but the demand can’t be
received if the part can ask for the right’s accomplishment.
Regarding the plaintiff’s demand for the moral injuries, this one was
seen as being well-founded because the evaluation made by the defendant in
illegal conditions and it’s result caused the plaintiff a moral prejudice
especially when the plaintiff brought evidence that she has a good
reputation, a vast professional experience being involved also in the
scientific activity by the volumes she published, she is an honorable person
which is mentioned in the “Romanian Personalities Encyclopedia” and has
the title of Master with “cum laude”, qualities that the defendant did not
deny.
Regarding the amount of the moral damages, because of the
connection between the evaluation’s result including the differences
503
between the plaintiff and the defendant and the plaintiff’s medical
affections, was not found, the law court enforced the conclusion that the
grant of these moral damages in an amount of 35.000 RON is reasonable.
In the law court’s decision motivation was also detained that the law
court is not the proper one to make the evaluation or to grant another mark
even if the evaluation file was annulated, so it rejected the plaintiff’s demand
for the worth salary knowing the fact that the grant of the salary depends of
the evaluation which regards the employee.
The law court’s decision remained unalterable, being kept in appeal by
the Appeal Court of Timisoara by the civil decision no.262 from 19th of
February 2010, the defendant’s appeal was admitted only regarding the
amount of the trial expenses.
II. General Considerations
It is undeniable that the appeal worded by the employee against her
professional achievements and abilities individual evaluation file represents
a work conflict as it has been defined by the Labor Code as being
represented by any disagree between the social partners.
On the other side t is known that the labor jurisdiction has as target the
solving of the work conflicts regarding the ending, the execution, the
modification, the suspension and the cessation of the individual or group
work contracts stipulated in the higher mentioned code and also judicial
reports between the social partners, stipulated in the same code.
So, stipulated in the Labor Code dispositions regarding the deadlines
when the regards for a labor conflict solving can be addressed to a law court,
it is absolutely necessary that the appeal against the professional
achievements and abilities individual evaluation file to be made by the
employee in 30 days from the communication of the evaluation report.
The judgment of the appeal is in the competence of the law court in
which district the plaintiff has the residence; the judge decision in this case is
final and enforceable, it can be attacked by appeal and it will be solved by
the Appeal Court.
It is practicable the urgency regime characteristic to every labor
conflict, the evidence administration is made with the respect of this regime,
and the evidence burden goes to the employer who is obligated to bring the
defense evidences before the first day of the suit.
Regarding the contents of every professional achievements and
abilities individual evaluation file, beyond the rules that different Indoor
504
Order Regulations have, it is essential that it is motivated properly, because
for the Romanian state it applies the community jurisprudence in which it
says that the motivation must be proper with the emitted legal document and
has to present in a clear manner the algorithm followed by the institution
that took the attacked measure, so that the evaluated persons can establish
the measure’s motivation and also to allow the community competent law
courts to make the revision (case C-367/1995).
Also, the European Court of Justice decided that the extent and detail
of the motivation depend of the nature of the legal document and the
demanding that the motivation has to fulfill depend of every case
circumstances, an insufficient or wrong motivation is equal to the lack of
motivation. More than that, the motivation’s insufficiency attracts its nullity
or the lack of lawfulness of the community legal documents (case C41/1969).
On the same idea, it has to be remembered that a particularization of
the reasons is necessary also when the issuing institution has a large power
of appreciation, because the motivation gives the legal document
transparence, the particulars can check if the legal document is correctly
founded and in the same time can allow the jurisdictional control made by
the law court (case C-509/1993).
In the same manner has pronounced the Romanian High Court of
Appeals and Justice by decision no.1580 from 11th of April 2008, showing
that the discretionary power given to an authority cannot be seen, in a law
state, as being an absolute and unlimited power, because exertion of the
appreciation right by violating the fundamental legal rights and freedoms of
the citizens ordered by the Constitution, is power excess. The Romanian
Constitution orders at 31st article, 2nd paragraph the authorities’ obligation to
insure the correct information of the citizen regarding the public occupations
and the personal interest problems. So, it has been detained by the High
Court of Justice that any decision which can product effects regarding the
fundamental rights and freedoms, must be motivated not only regarding the
citizen’s and society perspective appreciation possibility above the
lawfulness of the measure, because to accept the thesis which says that the
employer must not motivate his decisions is equal with the emptiness of the
democracy essence and the law state based on the legality principle.
In concrete, the assessor’s appreciations must be based on a proper
documentation; the negative aspects from the paper sheet must be evidenced
with concrete examples or explanations, and from the paper sheet must
505
result the evaluation method that was used and the evaluation criteria that
must be brought to the employee’s knowledge when the evaluation activity
began.
Respecting the principles higher mentioned and also the defense right
it is obvious that no matter what the rules are the assessor has the obligation
to listen the employee, otherwise he causes him an injury which, in the
given conditions, must not be proved by the employee because is
understandable from the case.
From another point of view, but in full agreement with the same
decision of the higher mentioned High Court, it is a prerogative of the
employer the marks’ grant when the evaluation procedure is over, and the
law court invested with the annulment of the individual evaluation file has
the competence to exert only the legal control of the evaluation procedure,
without making herself the evaluation and grant another mark.
Not in the first place, is undisputed that in the exertion of the legal
control, the law court cannot proceed to only a partial annulment of the
paper sheet, because it hasn’t got the power to make opportunity
appreciations.
Bibliography:
Constantin Calinoiu, Verginia Verdinas, The common public function
theory, Lumina Lex Publishing, 1999, pages 12-13
Guy Isaac, General common law, Armand Colin Publishing, page 92
Rodica Narcisa Pretrescu, Administrative law, Accent Publishing, 2004,
page 437
Verginia Verdinas, Bill nr. 188 from 1999 regarding the Status of the public
servants, Lumina Lex Publishing, 2000, page 23
The High Court of Appeals and Justice, Jurisprudence, The executory and
fiscal legal department, year2006
Public decision nr. 1380 from the 6th of October 2009, pronounced at the
Arad Law Court, unpublished
Public decision nr. 262 of The Timisoara Appeal Court, from the 19th of
February 2010
506
Case law, precedent, and law-making in the English
legal system
Nicoleta Florina MINCĂ
University of Pitesti
Abstract: The paper presents the rules of precedent which
determine when courts are bound by earlier decisions and compares the
common law system with that of civil law countries. It explains how
these rules have been affected by the Human Rights Act 1998 and by the
increasing willingness of the judges to accept that they do not ‘discover’
the law, but play a role in its formation. The acknowledgement of a lawmaking function raises questions about the legitimate boundaries of
judicial law-making. Therefore, judges are thought to determine the
social consensus on which changes to the law are based.
Keywords: rules of precedent, law-making, boundaries
Introduction:
One of the requirements of a just legal system is that decisions of
courts are consistent, in that like cases are treated alike so that litigants
can, to some extent, predict the likely outcome of cases. To this end, it is
normal for judges in all legal systems to seek to reach decisions which
conform to earlier cases. In the common law system, however, this
principle is elevated to a formal system of binding precedent which
requires judges to follow the decisions of earlier courts in certain
circumstances. The system is essentially a simple hierarchy – the higher
the court, the more authority its decisions have. Where the decisions of
higher courts do not constitute binding precedent, they are said to be
persuasive. The courts will take them into consideration and will follow
the decision unless they think there is good reason not to.
Case law is a major source of law for which the judges are
responsible. Judges only get the opportunity to make pronouncements on
an area of law. They must work within the existing law and subject to
the rules of the doctrine of judicial precedent. However, the courts are
wary of the retrospective effect of case law. Case law is unlike law made
by Parliament: Parliament may legislate on any subject area it chooses,
but usually legislation only affects the future, it is not retrospective.
Experimental Part:
In order for a case to be followed by later courts it must be written
down and reported. Historically, when only a small proportion of the
cases were reported, this factor was a significant limitation on the system
of precedent. The first question the judges must ask themselves is
whether the facts of the case are sufficiently similar that the earlier case
constitutes a precedent. The key question is whether the differences
between the present and previous case have a bearing on the outcome of
the case. If there are materially different facts, the court may
‘distinguish’ the case from the earlier cases and so apply a different rule.
To decide whether facts are material or not, the court must determine
what the general rule is which was laid down by the earlier case. This is
called the ‘ratio decidendi’, which is a combination of the rule of law
and the material facts to which it applies.
For example, in Camplin (1978) the House of Lords held that a 15year-old boy who killed a man by striking him with a chapatti pan after
the man had sexually assaulted him could claim the defence of
provocation to a charge of murder. If in a latter case, all the facts were
the same, but the defendant had stuck his assailant with a kettle, that
would not be considered a material difference in fact and the case would
be a binding precedent.
It has generally been agreed that the ratio in Camplin was that in
deciding whether or not a person could claim the defence of provocation
to the charge of murder, the court should consider the effect of the
provocation on a reasonable person with the same general characteristics
as the defendant. The age of the defendant in the latter case would
probably be considered a material fact. The court would still be bound
by the general rule set down in Camplin but might distinguish the
outcome on the facts.
One important question in the system of precedent is whether
higher courts are bound by their own earlier decisions. The rules differ
for different courts. The Divisional Court of the High Court, being a
court of review, is generally bound by its own decisions in the same way
as the Court of Appeal. In Young v Bristol Aeroplane Co. Ltd (1946) the
Court of Appeal set out the rule that it is bound by its own decisions
except in the following circumstances: earlier decisions of the Court of
508
Appeal conflict; an earlier decision has been overruled by the House of
Lords; an earlier decision was reached in error because a binding
precedent or statutory provision was overlooked.
In deciding whether or not a precedent applies to a set of facts
which has not previously been considered by the court or in choosing
between competing precedents or constructing the meaning of a statute,
the judges can be said to be creating the law. Such cases sometimes
involve issues around medical treatment and require judges to make
highly sensitive and difficult decisions. An example of this arose in 2001
when the Court of Appeal was left to decide whether it would be lawful
for surgeons to separate conjoined twins in order to save the life of one
twin in an operation which would result in the certain death of the other
(Re A).
Sometimes, the changes which give rise to the need for judicial
law-making are not technological, but social. In 1991, the courts held
that a husband was no longer immune from prosecution for raping his
wife (R v R). Until then, the common law rule was that by marrying, a
woman effectively gave her ongoing consent to sexual intercourse with
her husband. Instead of abiding by the precedent and leaving Parliament
to abolish the immunity if it so wished, the court went ahead and
changed the law to bring it into line with current social attitudes to rape
and marriage.
In White v White (2000), which concerned the division of assets on
divorce, the House of Lords held that the Court should start from the
assumption that the husband and wife were entitled to equal shares on
divorce, rather than, as it had done up to that time, seeking to provide for
the ‘reasonable needs’ of the non-earning partner (usually the woman).
Results and Discussion:
It is quite easy to state the rules of binding precedent, but in
practice, it is not always easy for the courts to know how to apply them.
The courts must go through a series of decisions in order to determine
whether or not it is bound by a particular previous decision. As concerns
Camplin, the main question in determining the ratio is to know what the
level of the generality of the rule is, and this is not always easy for the
court to discern.
The rules of precedent and statutory interpretation are simply
guiding structures which judges necessarily exercise a wide measure of
discretion. Sometimes, this discretion must be exercised because new
509
technologies throw up situations which have not occurred before (Re A).
No precedent existed for such a situation and the criminal law could not
be reconciled with the facts, since it was arguable that if the surgeons did
not operate they might be committing a criminal offence by failing in
their duty to save the life of the stronger twin, while if they separated the
babies, they might also be committing a crime by bringing about the
death of the weaker twin. In practice, the judgment was forced to look
beyond the law, coming up with a reasoning which allowed the
operation legally to proceed though it was difficult to reconcile with the
existing law.
In White v White, the decision of the court was explained as in
keeping with contemporary understanding of equality which required
that the contribution of the non-earning partner in the home should be
viewed as equivalent to that of the earning partner.
It is possible to make too much of the difference between a
common law and civil law system in terms of the role of precedent. For
instance, in France, judges are not bound by earlier decisions, but in
practice, they seek the benefits of consistency and certainty which
following earlier decisions brings. On the other side, one significant
effect which the system of binding precedent has is to give a greater role
to the appellate courts in a common law country.
It is clear that judges, particularly the senior judges in the Court of
Appeal and the House of Lords, are widely-engaged in law-making. It is
impossible for them to avoid doing so and the distinction between the
creation and interpretation of law is so difficult to draw as to be almost
meaningless.
There are, however, sound democratic principles why judges
should take a very restrictive approach to their law-making function. The
notion of parliamentary sovereignty requires that laws are made only by
elected representatives. Every time judges take upon themselves the task
of determining what the law should be, they risk undermining this vital
principle. The increased law-making role of the judiciary raises
important questions about the way judges are appointed.
One of the most significant features of the provisions of the Human
Rights Act 1998 is its potential impact on the system of precedent.
Under Human Rights Act, s 2 when deciding on Convention points,
courts must ‘take account’ of the case law of the European Court of
Human Rights. Therefore, it is not bound by those decisions, but it is
510
under a duty to consider them. However, under s 3, courts must, so far as
possible, interpret legislation in a way which is compatible with the
European Convention on Human Rights and, furthermore, under s 6, it is
unlawful for the courts (as public authorities) to act in a way which is
incompatible with the Convention.
Taken together, these provisions mean that when any court is
considering a statutory provision or the common law which raises
Convention issues, the Courts must look at the jurisprudence from
Strasbourg and interpret the requirements of the Convention in the light
of that case law. Yet, s 2 does not alter the established rules of precedent.
Where there are contradictory rulings of the House of Lords and the
European Court of Human Rights, domestic rules of precedent prevail
and the Court of Appeal is obliged to follow the House of Lords.
Conclusion:
Although the rules of precedent limit the extent to which judges
can change the law, judges clearly make law. Whether or not it is good
for a democratic system to rely on judges to make the law, in practice it
seems that judges in the higher courts will be called upon more
frequently to shape the law in areas which have political, economic and
moral significance. Judges’ decisions are a function of what they prefer
to do, tempered by what they think they ought to do, but constrained by
what they perceive is feasible to do. Whether or not the right balance
between preference, obligation and feasibility is being struck by the
judges, it is an ongoing and crucial question in the legal system today.
References:
Cross, R. and Harris, J. Precedent in English Law, 4th edn, Oxford
University Press, 1991
Holland, J. and Webb, J. Learning Legal Rules, 6th edn, Oxford
University Press, 2006
Lee, S. Law and Morals, Oxford University Press, 1986
Robertson, D. Judicial Discretion in the House of Lords, Oxford:
Clarendon Press,1998
Wilson, S., Mitchell, R., Storey, T. and Wortley, N. English Legal
System, Oxford University Press, 2009
Zander, M. The Law Making Process, Cambridge University Press,
2004
511
Civil Law and changes made by the new Civil Code
in the Civil Law in their preliminary title
Petru TĂRCHILĂ
Abstract: Having come into force on the 1st of December 1985, the
Romanian Civil Code has many articles which were repealed or modified
through normative articles adopted throughout time in the pursuit of
harmonization of its provisions to the reality of the social, economic, judicial
domain but also harmonization of the Romanian legislation to the European
one. The legislature adopted Law 287/2009 which promotes the New Civil
Code, a normative act adapted to the contemporary realities of the
Romanian society. It also made Romanian Legislature compatible to the
one of the E.U. Even the structure of the New Civil Code reflects the
changes of this normative act. While the old civil code consisted of a
Preliminary Title and 3 books (components which regulate different
domains of the Civil Code) the new Code consists of a Preliminary Title and
7 books.
Keywords: the Romanian Civil Code of 1985, the New Civil Code of
2009
1. Civil Law, the main part of the Romanian Private Law
Etymologically the expression civil law has its origins in the Latin
term Jus civile, utilized in the time of The Roman Empire in order to
designate the law of the roman citizens, in opposition to Jus gentium,
which designated the law which could be invocated by the pilgrims
(foreigners) comprising the common rules which were applied to all the
peoples of the empire. Component part of the Romanian private law, the
civil law comprises juridical norms which regulate patrimonial and extra
patrimonial rapports, concluded between individuals and legal persons in
positions of juridical equality. 1
1
GH. Beleiu, Romanian Civil Law., 4th Edition, Rosetti Publishing House,
Bucharest, 2000, page 25.
The juridical patrimonial rapports are those rapports which have an
economic content and a clear-stated value in money, for instance, the
property rapports (transfer of the property right, inheritance), the
pecuniary obligations (loans, mortgage) a.s.o.
By their nature or the type of the subjective civil rights which are
part of their content, the juridical patrimonial rapports are classified in
two great categories:
-real juridical rapports, which consist of main real rights, like the
property rapport
-obligation juridical rapports, which are stated in their content the
right of debt, no matter if this has its origins in an act or juridical fact.
On the contrary, the juridical non patrimonial rapports or those
extra patrimonial lack in economic content and they manifest the person
individuality.
The juridical non patrimonial rapports are classified in three great
categories as it follows:
-rapports which regard the existence and integrity of the subjects,
as the right to life, the right to health, the right to social reputation a.s.o.
-rapports of the identification of the subjects as the name right, the
right for residence a.s.o.
-rapports generated by intellectual creation of the subjects which
have their source in science, literature, arts, invention or other object of
the intellectual property right.
This way, through the regulation object of the juridical norms of
civil right, the civil right regulates the human activity starting the
moment of birth to his/her death, contributing in a substantial way to the
protection of the patrimonial and non patrimonial human values.
In the same time, the civil law has also the function of common
law regarding juridical rights, for the juridical rapports of private law
because when a part of the private law does not consist of its own norms
to regulate a certain social relationship, the proper juridical norm of the
civil law will be applied2.
For a long time, private law was synonym for civil law, because
this is the main structure of the private law, because comprises in ‘the
dense network of its norms the whole human life’3
2. The changes brought by the New Civil Code
The Romanian Parliament adopted Law nr. 287/2009 regarding the
new civil code, promulgated by the President and published in Monitorul
Oficial nr. 511/24.07.2009. The New Civil Code comprises a great part
of the civil juridical norms of the old code but it is more complex,
adapted to the new realities from the Romanian contemporary society
and also to the requirements of the community acquis regarding the
integration and compatibility of the Romanian Legislature to the
European Legislature.
Even the structure of the new code reflects the changes brought by
the Legislature, as it follows:
-the old code consisted of a Preliminary Title and 3 books
(component parts which regulated different domains of the civil law).
The Preliminary title was entited ‘On the effects and the
application of law, generally’.
The 1st book-‘On persons’;
The 2nd book-‘On goods and the great changes of the property’;
The 3rd book-‘On different ways for receiving property’;
-The new civil code consists of a preliminary title and 7 books, as it
follows, as it follows:
The 1st Book-‘ On persons’;
The 2nd Book-‘On family’;
The 3rd Book-‘On goods’;
The 4th Book-‘On inheritance and liberties’:
The 5th Book-‘On obligations’;
The 6th Book-‘On the extinctive prescription, declaration and
calculation of terms’;
The 7th Book-‘Dispositions of international private Law’;
3
2
P. Tarchila, Civil law, General Part and the Persons , Gutenberg Publishing
House, Arad, 2008.
513
M. Eliescy, Inheritance Course, Humanitas Publishing House, Bucharest,
1997
514
2.1 The changes of Civil Law in the Preliminary Title of the
New Civil Code
The old code comprised by the Preliminary Title has only 5
articles, from which art. Nr. 2 was abrogated. The most important
aspects of these are those debated in art. 1 referring to the principle of
the non retroactivity of the civil law, aspect stated in art. 1589 and 1911
Civil code and also the aspects of the 3rd article referring to the criminal
responsibility of the judge which refuses to judge a civil case because of
the slender law.
The New Civil Code comprises in the Preliminary title named “On
civil law” a number of 4 chapters, as it follows:
-chapter 1, named “General dispositions’, which presents in the
first two articles the object of the regulation and the content of the civil
code:
“The Code Dispositions regulate the patrimonial and non
patrimonial rapports between persons as subjects of the civil code”.4
Referring at the content of the civil code, art. 2 states that this is
compound by a rules ensemble which constitutes the common right for
all the domains of the letter of the spirit of its dispositions.
Referring to the general application of the aspects of the code, the
dispositions of the present code stipulate that ‘these are applied also to
the rapports between professionalisms, and also to the rapports between
them and any other subjects of civil law’.5
In the same content of the code it is also explained the term of
‘professionalism’, referring at the person who exploits a company.
Means the exploitation of a company the systematic exercitation , by one
person or more, of an organized activity which consists of producing,
administration or alienation of goods or service, no matter this has a
lucrative purpose or not.
4
5
Law 287/2009, Chapter 11, art.1.
Law 297/2009, Preliminary Title, Chapter 1, art.3
The last two articles of the first chapter refer to the priority
application of international treaties regarding human rights and the
priority application of the aspects of the community law.
Chapter 2 of the Preliminary Title is named “The application of the
Civil Law” and consists a number of three articles which treat ‘spatialtemporality’ of its effects. Referring to the time application of the civil
law, The New Civil Code reiterates the aspects of the old Civil Code,
respectively the fact that “The Civil Law is applied as long as it is in
force. It doesn’t have retroactive power.”
The last 2 articles of this chapter define the principles of
territoriality and extemporaneity of the civil law. Referring to the
territoriality principle it is stated that normative acts adopted by the
authorities and central public institutions are to be applied on the whole
territory of the country except the case it is stated in another manner and
the ones adopted by the authorities and administration local public
institutions are applied in their territorial competition region only.
In case of juridical rapports with foreign origin elements, the
determination of the civil law is made having in mind the international
private law norms from the New Civil Code, the 7th book.
Chapter 3 of the Preliminary Title it is named “The interpretation
and effects of the civil law” and comprises a number of 9 chapters, as it
follows:
The first article is dedicated to the interpretation of law and means
the fact that “The one who adopted the civil norm is competent to do and
interpret it, originally. The interpretative norm produce effects only for
future. The law interpretation produces effects only for the future. The
law interpretation by instance it is made only in the behalf of its
application in the case of judging.”6
The second article is dedicated to the institution of the customs and
the general principles. In a juridical way, customs mean to understand
the local habit and the professional usages and these produce effects only
in the way that they are recognized or admitted by law, especially.
6
515
The same, Chapter 3, art.9, alin.1,2 and 3.
516
rd
The 3 article named “The application of some law categories”
means the fact that the laws which derogate from a general disposition
which restrain the exertion of some rights, produce effects only as much
as they are recognized or admitted by law expressively.
The 4th article, named “The liberty of disposal” states that anyone
can independently dispose by his/her own rights, if law does not states in
a different manner. In the same time, in this article it is stated that no one
can freely dispose if it is insolvably.
In the 5th article of this chapter, named “The disclaim to the right”,
the legislator states expressively that the disclaiming to the right it is not
assumed.
The 6th article, named “The Good Faith” states the obligation of the
subjects of the civil right juridical rapport in order to excite the rights
and assume the obligations with good faith, in full accord with the public
order and good manners. The Good Faith is assumed until it is not
proven differently.
In the 7th article of the chapter, named “Right abuse” it is stated that
there is no right to be exercised in the pursue of hurting or damaging
another one, in an excessively and dishonorable way, on the opposite of
the good faith.
The last but one article of the 3rd Chapter of the Preliminary title
named “ The guilt”, treats this institution (coming from the General Part
of Criminal Law). Therefore, the legislator institutes the fact that the
person is responsible for his/her deeds committed intentionally or by
fault, in case law does not mention it differently.
The institutions of intention and fault are defined as it follows:
-the fact is intentionally committed when the author foresees the
result of his/her action and is willing to get it done, or, even he/she is not
willing to do it, accepts the possibility of its production
-the fact is committed by fault when the author foresees the result
of his/her action but does not accept it, considering without cause, that
this will not occur or does not foresee the result of his/her action,
although he/she should have foreseen it. The fault is severe if the
author’s actions have been done with some much negligence or
imprudence that even the person most lacunaria in dexterity would not
have manifested it towards hi/her own interests.
517
The last article of this chapter treats the institution of the common
and invincible error. In this article the legislator states the fact that “No
one can send or constitute many rights than him/herself has”7.
Referring to the common and invincible error, the legislator states
that when someone having a common and invincible belief considered
that a person has a certain right or juridical quality, the instance will be
able to consider that the act signed in this situation would cause the same
effects towards those in mistake as it would have been available, except
the case when its dissolution wouldn’t cause any prejudice.
The common and invincible error does not presume.
Chapter 4 named “The publicity of rights, acts and juridical facts’
consists of a numver of 7 articles, as it follows:
The first chapter, named “The object of publicity and ways of
accomplish” designates the rights, acts and facts which can pe
advertised, according to law.
Publicity is realized thorugh:
-Land registry;
-The Electronic Archive of Real Estate Warranties;
-Other forms of publicity stated by law (the juridical publicity);
In de 2nd article, named “Publicity conditions” is expressively
stipulated the fact that “The procedure and conditions are stated by
law”.8 The accomplishment of this condition can pe asked by any
person, even if he/she lacks in the capacity of exercitation.
The 3rd article named “The effects of publicity”, legislate the
opposability of law
To publicity, fixes its rank and if law states this conditions the
constitution or their juridical effects.
The 4th article named “The Presumptions, confirms that a right, act
of fact was supposed to publicity by writing it in a public registry it is
presumed that it exists, and if it has been radiated it is presumed that it
does not exist.
7
8
Legea 287/2009, Preliminary Title, chapter 3, art. 17
Idem, Preliminary Title, chapter4, art. 18.
518
Article nr.5, named “The lack of publicity.Sanctions”, the legislator
states that “If the publicity formality was not realized and this was not
presumed by law with constitutive character, the rights, acts and facts or
other juridical rapports for publicity constitute a bar to third parties,
except the case these have known them though other ways.”9
The last two articles refer to the concurrence between the different
forms of publicity and the consult of the public registries and the
legislator states that when law supposes a right, act or fact to different
formalities of publicity, the non-effectuation of a publicity requirement it
is not covered by the effectuation of another. In the same time it is
expressively mentioned that any person may, according to the law
conditions, ask for consulting and may obtain extracts or copies
regarding a right, act, fact or another juridical situation for publicity.
Bibliography:
Romanian Civil Code entered in force on the 1st of December 1985
Law nr. 287/2009 for promoting the New Civil Code (published in
Monitorul Oficial al Romaniei, nr. 511/21.07.2009)
P.Tărchilă, Civil Law.The General Part and the Persons. Gutenberg
Publishing House, Arad, 2008.
M. Eliescu, Treaty of Civil Law, The General part, The Academy
Publishing House, Bucharest, 1992;
Gh. Beleiu, Civil Law, Şansa Publishing House, Bucharest, 2000.
M. Mureşan , Civil Law.The General Part, Cordial-lex Publishing
House, Cluj-Napoca, 1996.
O. Ungureanu, Civil Law. Introduction, Rosetti Publishing House,
Bucharest, 2005
The Life and Its Story in the Old Testament
Mihai HANDARIC
"Aurel Vlaicu University,” Arad
Abstract: In this article, the author intends to show that “the story”
as a literary genre, is the main instrument used in the Old Testament text,
in communicating and in motivating the human community, who
adopted the Judeo-Christian faith. It seems that there is an ontological
relationship between humans and the story. From this point of view,
there are important differences between the biblical stories and Greek
literary texts, in the sense that, the characters in the Bible do not dare
comment over the will of God, as do those from de Greek texts. The
Scripture is taken as “the Story” (with capital letter) of the Creator,
addressed to humans. This Story is a description of the Life of the
Creator (the Life with capital letter). The life is mediated, for Israel,
through the Story. This Story of God integrates all other stories of the
individuals and communities. It is argued that the act of storytelling can
be taken as the centre for Old Testament interpretation. From this point
of view, the biblical passage from Deuteronomy 6:4-9, known by the
name "Shema", can be considered as the theological centre of the Old
Testament. The story of the Scripture has a meaning for its readers, only
when it is lived out by them.
Keywords: story, story telling, the Old Testament
1. The role of the “Story” in interpretation
In the begining we wish to underline the fact that “the story” as a
literary genre has an important role in educating people. In human
society, the story has been used as an instrument for moral instruction.1
1
9
Brad J. Kallengerg in his essay "The Master Argument of MacIntyre's
After Virtue", from the volume edited by Nancy Murphy, Brad J.
Kallengerg & Mark Thiessen, Virtues & Practices in The Christian
Law 287/2009, Preliminary Title, chapter 4, art.21.
519
Concerning adopting the concept of “story”, we have to admit that,
theology fully benefited by the postmodern world view, namely, that we,
as a human community, are integrated into some particular contexts,
which in turn, influence: the manner we communicate, our religion, and
our existence, in general.
In this article, we intend to show that the story is also the main tool
used in the process of communicating and in motivating the human
community, who adopted the Judeo-Christian faith.
It seems to us that there is a ontological relationship between
humans and the story. Amos Wilder has been impressed "with the fact
that great bodies of the world's literature and scriptures – not least the
Bible – are so largely made up of story and narrative."2 He tries to ask
why, the particular genre, called “story” is predominant in the world
literature. He observes the impact which “the story” has over different
categories of people. He asks himself "how is it that we account for the
appeal of a story whether to children or grown-ups, for that which
'keeps children from play and old men from the chimney corner'?"
(Wilder; A 1983, p. 354).
Wilder considers that the story stirs up the interest, because of
several motifs, namely: the curiosity of the reader for the events that
happened in the story, the manner in which the events succeeded one
after another, the common aspects in the story, with which the reader
identifies himself, the end of the story, and the way it is narrated (the art
of storytelling). The world of the story is built up on the way the author
understands reality "story-worlds, thus, are shaped by more or less
articulated grasp of our human actuality" (Wilder; A 1983, p. 363).
This means that the human interest in reading or listening a story,
consists in its close relationship with the very life he is experience.
Returning to our special area of concern, we say that this relationship
between man and the story applies also, to the way we express our
religious faith. The idea of “story” presented by the postmodern
theologians, brings some new insights in understanding the divine
revelation.
Auerbach and later Hans Frei,3 analysed the biblical narratives by
comparison with the Greek classical narratives, such as The Legends of
Olimp. They observed that there are important differences between the
biblical stories and Greek narratives. On the one hand, the biblical
narratives have the capacity to imitate reality (mimesis, mimetism). By
contrast, the characters from the Greek legends have the liberty to
express their oppinions, to comment concerning the will of the gods,
praising or accusing their demands; which is not the case for the
characters from the biblical text.
Concerning the biblical story, such as "The sacrifice of Isaac"
(Genesis 22:1-19), Auerbach observs that the characters from the Bible
do not dare to comment over the will of God. Once he receives God's
command, Abraham assures himself that the divine will, shall be
implemented, as it was narrated to him by God. The characters from the
Bible have the following options: 1) Either to decide to play the role
prescibed to them in the story, as it was communicated to them by God,
2) either to refuse to be part of this story. There is no middle way, as in
the Legends of Olimp, where the characters negotiate with the gods
concerning the implementation of their will.
2. The Old and the New Testament as a single and complete
story of life
We may take the Scripture as a Story (with capital letter) of the
Creator, addressed to his creatures, namely humans. This Story is a
Tradition: Christian Ethics After MacIntyre, (Harrisburg: Trinity Press
International, 1997)), p. 14, informs us that "storytelling was the primary
tool for moral education in classical Greece".
2
See the article of Amos Wilder, "Story and Story – World ," from
Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, vol. Xxxvii, (Richmond:
Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1983), p. 354-355.
521
3
See Auerbach, Erich, Mimesis: The Presentation of Reality in Western
Literature, Trans: Willard R. Task, (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton
University Press, 1953, 1st ed., 1949). See also Hans Frei, The Eclipse of
Biblical Narrative, (New Heaven and London: Yale University Press, 1974),
p. 1-2.
522
description of the Life of the Creator (Life with capital letter) and the life
(with small letter) of the creatures. In this Story, the creatures were
confronted with a personal decision, to choose between Life and Death.
In the blessings and curses from Deuteronomy, Israel was advised by
Yahweh: „I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I
have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose
life, that you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19 RSVA).
From the point of view of the Old Testament, there is a direct
relationship between the life, in general, and the story. The life is
mediated, for Israel, through the Story. And the life is to be taken from
God, who is „the Life.” In Jeremiah 2:13, Yahweh complained because,
in a certain moment, Israel „... my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out
cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” This
means that the source of man's life, is “the Life“ – who is God.
The authors of the Scripture, communicate the divine message,
using „the story” as a literary genre, but not only.4 The biblical story is
unitary, but it has some sections, small stories, which are integrated into
“the great Story,” which, in turn, represents the description of God's
World as a whole.5 From this perspective, we can see the Old and the
New Testament as part of the same great Story, of God's World. The
Scripture (the Old and the New Testament) is the complete story of „the
World of God.” The Old Testament is not complete, without the New
Testament. The New Testament describes the final revelation of God,
presented to man, through Jesus Christ (John 14:6, Hebrews 1:1-3). In
order to understand this revelation (this Story), we need to have both
sections of the Christian Scripture. To know the whole story of Christ
4
Even though in the biblical text we have different literary genres, such as
legal, didactic and poetic texts, we may see them as parts of the whole story
of the Scripture. It is not unusual that in a story there are includes different
other literary genres into it.
5
See Hans Frei, The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative, (New Heaven and
London: Yale University Press, 1974), p. 1-2.
523
(the Messiah), we have to read the Old Testament, which represents the
beginning of the story, in which it is foretelling his coming and his work.
The Lord Jesus Christ encouraged his hearers to read the Old
Testament scriptures, in which they will discover his story (John 5:39;
Luke 24:25-27).6 In the same time, in order to understand the whole
story of God's World, it is necessary to read the New Testament, which
records the fulfilment of many promisses made in the Old Testament.
Further, Hans Frei asserts that the story of God does not end with
the closing of the New Testament. Each generation and each person has
its own story, which integrates itself into the biblical story. These
individual stories belong, in this way, to God's World (Frei; 1974, p. 3).
He insisted also, that the biblical world, presented in the Old and the
New Testament, is complete and normative for each individual story, of
the following generations, which are invited to participate in the World
of God, which is described by the Scripture. The other individual stories
fit into this compact story, presented in the Scripture.7
An argument in favour of the normativity of the Scriptures for
other external narratives is seen in the „treatises of the history of old
Romanian literature (N. Iorga, Sextil Puşcariu, Alexe Procopovici... N.
Cartojan, G. Călinescu...) (which) dont have special chapters concerning
the church literature; nevertheless, the topic is included in the larger
sphere of the religious literature”.8
6
Let's remember that the Scripture of the people, in Jesus' time, was only
the Old Testament. The New Testment has been written, latter on.
7
In this sense we will recall the statement of N.T. Wright about the
normative character of the New Testament canon, which can be extrapolated
also to the Old Testament, which is part of the Christian canon. He said that
we have to accept what the canon claims about itself. "The New Testament
claims to be the subversive story of the creator and the world, and demands
to be read as such...it offers itself as the true story... the true history of the
whole world" (N.T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God,
from the series Christian Origins and the Questions of God, vol. 1, (London:
SPCK, 1992, the fourth printing, 1997), p. 471).
8
See Ioan Chirilă, “The Bible In The Romanian Culture”, from Sacra
Scripta: Journal for Biblical Studies, ed. Stelian Tofană, Cluj-Napoca:
Babeş-Bolyai University, 2005, 1-2, p. 159.
524
We have to admit the complexity of the process of man's
approaching to God. This difficulty is due to the diversity of the contexts
in which live each person and each community. Each individual has his
own complex life story. In these circumstances, God offers to man the
possibility to adhere to the world mediated through Scripture. Man is
exhorted to harmonize the world of his life with the world of God which is presented into the story of the Scripture. Here we see the role of
the theologians, to update and to retell periodically, the story of the
biblical world, in a language, proper to the generation, to which they
address. By the theology, written by them, the reader can understand
what he has to do, in order to accomodate his life with the world,
presented into the biblical story.
3. Story telling in the Old Testament
The representatives of "the historical critical method," used by the
theologians, from the Enlightenment until the end of the 20th Century,
treated with contempt the importance of the biblical story in
interpretation, because it was considered a subjective and mythological
version of the real history of the text. They proposed to give up the
version of the history, as it is presented by the biblical authors, and to
create a new version of the history of the Bible, based on historical
critical principles.9 They supported a critical version of the biblical
hi

Proceedings of ISREIE 2010, Section

Transcription

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