ANALELE UNIVERSITĂŢII BUCUREŞTI LIMBI ŞI LITERATURI STRĂINE 2013 – Nr. 2 SUMAR • SOMMAIRE • CONTENTS LITERATURĂ ŞI STUDII CULTURALE / LITTÉRATURE ET ÉTUDES CULTURELLES / LITERATURE AND CULTURAL STUDIES IOANA COSTA, The Hermit and His World ...................................................................... DIANA YUKSEL, Toegye as a Teacher: From Sage Learning to Sagehood ...................... ROXANA UTALE, Itinerari critici danteschi: Francesco de Sanctis .................................. MARIA SÂRBU, Régime diurne et régime nocturne de l’image dans l’oeuvre d’Alain-Fournier ...................................................................................................... ANCA PEIU, A Rose for Edith: An Oasis of Poetry in the Citadel of Old New York Prose ............................................................................................... IRINA DUBSKÝ, The Gates of the Invisible. Moby Dick as the Hieroglyph of the Absolute ............................................................................................. ANCA-LUISA VIUSENCO, Sylvia Plath and Zelda Fitzgerald or Madness and Creativity Intertwined .................................................................................... IRINA-ANA DROBOT, Modernist and Postmodernist Representations of the World in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and in Graham Swift’s The Light of Day ............. HANIBAL STĂNCIULESCU, Strategie de riscrittura nella narrativa italiana postmoderna ...... 3 11 23 33 45 55 65 75 89 2 MIHAI IACOB, La Indistinción ontológica del discurso erótico: Coños de Juan Manuel de Prada ................................................................................................................... LAURA SITARU, On Cultural and Political Constants in the Context of Contemporary Developments in the Arab World ............................................................................ DELIA GRIGORE, School Education and Rroma Ethnic Self-Esteem .............................. * Recenzii • Comptes rendus • Reviews .................................................................................. Contributors ........................................................................................................................ 101 115 127 147 161 THE HERMIT AND HIS WORLD IOANA COSTA∗ Abstract Hieronymus’ opusculae “Vita Beati Pauli, monachi Thebaei”, “[Vita Malchi] De monacho captiuo” and “Vita Hilarionis” are parts of a triptych meant to explain his ascetic ideal; its defining traits are chastity, temperance, generosity, acceptance of models and advices that are of true Christian spirit. The three “Vitae” are distinct, though in perfect harmony. Hieronymus himself is part of the three stories, either as narrative link (he once heard a story, while being a young man, and tells it now, by the end of his life), or as an explicit comment regarding his present work and the way his previous work was read. His moral annotations are remarkably discreet. Keywords: Hieronymus, hermits, ascetic life, desert, solitude, trials. The ascetic ideal of Hieronymus is pictured in three opusculae: Vita Beati Pauli, monachi Thebaei; [Vita Malchi] De monacho captiuo; Vita Hilarionis. In his biography, these opusculae equal stages of his inside becoming, succeeding in an explicit order: dwelling in the desert, in 376, he wrote Vita Pauli, basis of monachal life. During the exile years, beginning with 385, he settled in Bethlehem, being followed by Paula, one of the aristocratic women that represented the Aventine Circle; in Bethlehem, he wrote Vita Malchi, in 388, mirror of the life inside the community. Some years later, he accomplished, with Vita Hilarionis, what was to be a well articulated trilogy, with perfect tension. This triple work set the fundaments of Latin hagiographic literature, designing the paths for the future authors: the eulogy of virginity and the commendation to embrace it (laudatio, exhortatio), models and examples (exempla), advices (praecepta, disciplina). The pieces of this triptych are well individualised, though preserving a common tone, beyond the story of each protagonist: they are in perfect harmony, both with each other and with their author. The components belong to biographic elements, details of the life in desert, including the creatures of the desert, trials, visions, miracles1. ∗ Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Bucharest, [email protected]. This paper is the written version of the presentation that I gave at the Annual Conference of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Bucharest, 5-6 November 2010. 1 The abbreviations used here are: P. for Vita Beati Pauli, monachi Thebaei, M. for [Vita Malchi] De monacho captiuo and H. for Vita Hilarionis. IOANA COSTA 4 1. Biographies Paulus (P. 4.1), born around 228, lost both his parents while still an adolescent and, together with his sister (recently married), inherited a fine wealth; by the age of sixteen, he was already acquainted with Greek and Egyptian learning, was gentle and loved God dearly. When Decius’ persecution began, his brother-in-law succumbed to the “accursed hunger for gold” (vide Vergilius, Aeneis, 3.57: auri sacra fames) and planned to handover the young man he was supposed to hide. That moment Paulus decided to hide, seeking refuge in the mountains (P. 5.1), where he found some rocky heights with a cave, closed by a huge stone. Driven by curiosity, he entered the cave and discovered an open space, under the sky, well shadowed, due to an old palm tree. The tree provided Paulus not only with shadow, but also with dates and it was, from the very beginning, the evidence of good, limpid, water, that seemed to exist only for the sake of this holly man, as it was immediately swallowed by the same soil that gave birth to it. There he spent all the rest of his life, in prayers and solitude (P. 6.1). Malchus’ biography is revealed in a first-person account, accomplished by the end of his life to bishop Evagrius, an intimate of Hieronymus; being only child, Malchus was the offspring of his family and was supposed to inherit the wealth: this is why he was insistently advised to get married. Reluctant as he was to this perspective and being overwhelmed by his father’s threats and his mother’s tears, Malchus decided to leave home, having as unique purpose to remain chaste (M. 3.1). He headed towards west, finally reaching the Chalcis desert (M. 3.4-7); there he settled in a monastic community, working and fasting. Many years later he decided to return to his mother, a widow now, to sell his property, give the money to the poor and retaining something for him. He stubbornly resisted the abbot who thought that this plan was a trial of the devil and warmly and tearfully asked him to stay. The predictions of the wise abbot were completely accurate and Malchus encountered a turning point in his life: the group he was travelling with (M. 4.1: “men, women, old men, young men, children, about seventy persons”) is attacked by Ismaelits; they are captured and taken as slaves. Malchus became, together with a little woman, property of a master, but this somehow seemed to be not the most acerbic fate ever. He had to take care of the sheep and at least was thankful (M. 5.3) for not seeing too often his master and the other slaves. Hilarion lived his first years in the desert much earlier than Malchus or Paulus. He was born (H. 2.1) in a town in Palestine; his parents used to worship idols, so that Hilarion was “blooming like a rose among thistles”. Just like Malchus, he felt the need to return to the place of his birth: he did that after the death of his parents (H. 2.6); he gave some of the wealth to his brothers and offered the rest to the poor, without keeping anything for himself; he was fifteen (H. 2.7-10). THE HERMIT AND HIS WORLD 5 Hilarion was chased by fame his whole life: the miracles he accomplished – unwillingly, barely surrendering the pleas of the people around him, laymen and hermits – were yelling everything he wanted to keep in silence. Man of the desert, he always felt overflowed by the people he attracted, no matter how far away he was travelling and hiding (H. 19.1-3): and so, by the age of sixty three, looking around and seeing so many brothers and people brought to him by those who wanted to cure them from illness and bad spirits, he burst into tears and sadly rememorated his life in solitude. He left (H. 22.1), accompanied by no more than two brothers, and lived in such restraint, that used to say that only then began to be the servant of Jesus. Nevertheless, the fame followed and reached him: he left (M. 23.1) for Sicily, on a ship, together with a disciple, Zaranus; followed once more by fame, he wanted to head towards Egypt, but finally settled in Cyprus, in a secluded place found by his disciple, where humans could hardly climb. The hermit life Hilarion so greatly desired was also the life of the other two in Hieronymus’ triptych. Malchus once abandoned it, wanting to see again his mother, somehow regained it while being a slave, lost it when trying to quit slavery (M. 7.1). Antonius, the character that connects the stories in Vita Pauli, also lived in solitude. He was taken over by the vision of a hermit older than him, who was Paulus (P. 7.1-3): while being one hundred and thirteen years old, and Antonius, ninety years old, the latter suddenly thought that there was nobody else in the desert. Having this thought, he headed towards nowhere, without knowing why; on the other hand, Paulus was announced that it was to arrive the man meant to burry him. 2. Life in the Desert: Food, Clothes To Paulus, the palm-tree (P. 6.1-2) gave food and clothes. Malchus seems always willing to offer details about his everyday life: (M. 3.2) “we had some meat, almost raw, and camel milk to drink”; (M. 5.2) “in some sort of prison, I change my clothes: I learn to be almost naked”; (M. 5.4) “I was feeding myself with fresh cheese and milk”. Hilarion is the most amazing of all – and amazing is, quite the same, the precise description: (H. 3.1) “he only wore a sack to cover his body […]; he ate fifteen dried dates a day, after the sunset”. Leaving aside the story, Hieronymus registers details of the everyday life Hilarion lived (H. 4.1-5.7): from sixteen to twenty, he dwelt in a tiny hut, made of sedge and twigs […]; he only cut his hair once a year, on Easter day; to the last day of his life, he slept on the ground, directly on some twigs, without ever washing the sack he was wearing […]; from twenty to twenty three, he ate half a pint of lentils moistened with cold IOANA COSTA 6 water; from twenty three to twenty seven, he ate dried bread with salt and water; from twenty seven to thirty, he ate wild herbs and roots; up to thirty five, he ate six ounces of barley bread and scarcely boiled vegetables, without oil; suffering from signs of malnutrition, he had to modify his diet: up to sixty three, he ate six ounces of barley bread and boiled vegetables with oil and, up to eighty, he added a broth made from flour and crushed herbs – always after sunset. Probably the most touching episode is described in P. 10.2-3: Antonius finally found Paulus and they received bread fallen from a raven’s beak; it was one whole piece, as Paulus for sixty years received every day half a bread from a raven and now there were two “soldiers of Christ”. 3. Creatures of the Desert The desert is the place where the creatures get unexpected forms; either imaginary or common, as the raven that brought in his beak bread for Paulus an Antonius, they act miraculously. The journey of Antonius to Paulus is marked by marvellous creatures (P. 7.4-8.5): a mixed living being, man and horse; a little man, with curved nose, with horns on his forehead and goat legs; a mortal belonging to Fauni, Satires and Incubi species. Paulus was guided towards Antonius’ cave by a thirsty she-wolf. After Paulus’ death, two terrifying lions help Antonius to dig a grave for the saint (P. 16.2-7) and then asked for blessing. The story of Malchus has dissimilar creatures in its turning points: ants and a lioness. The ants (M. 7.2) made him remember the work of the free communities; the lioness (M. 9.2) was a providential presence, killing the followers and setting free Malchus and the little woman. Whenever Hilarion met an animal, some miracle happened, due to his taming powers and capability of chasing the bad spirits: for instance, in H. 14.1, a huge Bactrian camel, full of rage, brought to the holly man by thirty men, in solid ropes, was suddenly disciplined and acted like a gentle creature. 4. Trials The faith of the hermits is always tested, in numberless ways, specific to each biography. Regarding Paulus, we know nothing on this matter, probably just because Hieronymus only told the story of the first and last years of Paulus’ life. The character is described solely through the eyes of Antonius – and this latter hermit is painfully tested in the desert, by visions and strange creatures. THE HERMIT AND HIS WORLD 7 Malhus willingly changed the course of his life twice or thrice, and each of these turnings became a longstanding trial, in itself and in its consequences. Being among monachs, he decided to return to his mother and resisted the pleas of his abbot; during the journey, he was caught by thieves and became a slave; while being a slave, with a life relatively settled, is unpredictably and repulsively rewarded by his master: he is given a wife that he did not want, and is on the verge of taking his own life (M. 6.1-9): “nothing is ever certain with the devil! many and unspeakable are his traps! this is how his envy found me, no matter how I tried to hide!” Hilarion, gone to the desert while still very young, in the years of innocent adolescence, is assaulted by visions that are whipping his senses (H. 3.2): “What does the devil do? […] The apprentice of Christ was compelled to think about things that he did not know and to mirror in his soul experiences that he did not have. Mad at himself, he struck his chest with the fists” and decided not to feed his body anymore, to keep it in hunger, thirst, cold, heat and misery. 5. Visions The trials are sometimes difficult to be distinguished from visions. Even if sublimely meant and leading to meritorious acts, visions are no less than trials of the soul strength that has to bridle the feeble and frightened body. Antonius saw, in a night vision (P. 7.2), that deep inside the desert was another hermit, much better than himself. After meeting Paulus, Antonius saw him among angels, raised in heaven, radiant, glowing as white as the snow (P. 14.1). Malhus is closer to simple facts, to real life, and his visions (whenever appear) are the consequence of tangible elements, such as the ant colony that brought to his memory the proverbs of Solomon and made him crave for free life, urged him to run away from slavery. Hilarion is, as seen above, a tender and delicate personality that grants large space to visions and, nevertheless, is capable of endless miracles, in a natural way, adequate to his spirit. While fasting with huge faith, weaken and ill (H. 3.7), one night he began to hear sheep that were bleating, oxen that were bellowing, some womanly cries, lions’ roar, armies clanging, impossible voices – and he was flooded by fear only hearing them, long before even seeing something. He frequently saw visions of naked women and abundant feasts. Once an impatient coachman jumped on his shoulders and began spur him with scorning words, as if he was a lazy, hungry horse. 6. Miracles Miracles are defining for Hilarion. He accomplished them against his own will, being repeatedly besought by those in suffering and, nevertheless, by his IOANA COSTA 8 own disciples. He tried to resist them all, as he felt the need of staying in the shadow, anonymously. The moment he did the first miracle, he began being famous, almost chased by fame as a healer and source of blessing for all the living beings, humans or animals: the people, the huge crowds that are always looking for him – with only one, miraculous, exception, of the final years – succeed in finding him (H. 7.1-13.10). All the miracles are memorable, but some of them seem to be even more beyond compare, becoming part of the local history, e.g. H. 22.2: there were already three years since the last rain and everybody was weeping; the people, with sad faces and weaken bodies, approached Hilarion as servant of Christ and successor of holy Antonius. Impressed by their lamentations and grieve, he prayed: immediately the place got wet and the rains went on and on, so that appeared snakes and poisoned reptiles: again Hilarion had to save the people. He can never remain hidden, as seen in H. 26.1: landing unknown in Sicily, Hilarion appeared in a vision a shield maker had in Rome, in St Peter’s Basilica. Some more stupendous miracles: (H. 28.3) a huge snake laid a region to waste, swallowing cows, sheep, and people, but Hilarion made the snake enter, by his own will, into a large pyre and than fire it up; (H. 29.1) a tremendous earthquake raised the sea, that was about to cover the earth: he made the cross sign trice on the sand and raised his hands, the sea billow stopped stock-still in front of him and, boiling and roaring, slowly withdrew. 7. Moral annotations The moral passages are rare and unobtrusive; they occurre only in the first two Vitae, lacking in Vita Hilarionis. One of them (P. 4.2) is worded in classical tradition: auri sacra fames (vide supra, cap. 1) pushed Paulus’ brother-in-law to act duplicitously and to plan a betrayal. More natural in these texts appear notes on faith, as in P. 6.1: the things he narrated seemed unbelievable only to those that can not understand the power of faith. Placing a moral note by the end of an opuscula increases its strong message (P. 7.1): marble, precious stones and precious clothes, gold and pearls were not missed by the naked hermit that drank pure water directly from the spring. Paulus was only covered by earth, but he will be glorified in heaven; those buried in prized graves will burn in fire, together with their fortunes. In Vita Malchi, solely the final paragraph suggests a moral teaching: the story of Malchus was told to Hieronymus while he was still very young; now, as old man, he tells this story of a pure life and leaves his descendants the legacy of a chaste model. THE HERMIT AND HIS WORLD 9 8. Auctorial Approach The presence of Hieronymus is totally self-effacing in this hagiographic triptych. The introductory parts are, nevertheless, to be interpreted as a unit, in a dense network of threads that links the lives of the three hermits. The first of the Vitae, of Paulus, enlightens the roots of monachal life in the desert (P. 1.1): many asked themselves who was the first to live in the desert […] – said the usual answer is that a certain Paulus of Thebes was the founder of this institution, and Hieronymus agrees with that opinion. The presence of Hieronymus is exemplary, without being severe (P. 18.1): the final paragraph of Vita Pauli is a gentle request toward the reader, to remember the sinful author that – if possible – would have chosen the poor tunic of Paulus instead of all the purple of the kings. The “Life of Malchus” is a writing exercise that, explicitly, was meant to help Hieronymus in preparing for a huge work (M. 1.1): the history of mankind from Jesus to his time. The “Life of Hilarion” becomes, intentionally, the argument of monachal life, no matter the changes and the relationship with the human world (H. 1.6): “we do not intend”, he says, “to credit the voices of some malevolent readers who, after criticizing my beloved Paulus, might criticize now Hilarion”, slandering one for his loneliness just as slandering the other one for the crowds that were following him: “for those malevolent, the person that lived in seclusion did not live, and the person who had been seen by many did not deserve to be praised”. In these words we completely recognise Hieronymus, the author, who defends his writings and, nevertheless, his models. The option belongs completely to the reader, bringing to our memory a famous passage from Seneca’s letters: he advises his younger friend, Lucilius (Epistulae morales, 1.1.1) to be jealous of his own time, to keep it only for himself, saving it from the thieves that – overlooked, as if their prey was worthless – harass us all, to master his own time: Ita fac, mi Lucili: uindica te tibi, et tempus quod adhuc aut auferebatur aut subripiebatur aut excidebat collige et serua. In these three Vitae, time is as precious as it was for Seneca, but from a different prespective, of the eternity. REFERENCES Aigrain, R. (2000), L’ hagiographie: ses sources, ses méthodes, son histoire, Société des Bollandistes, Brussels. Cousin, P. (1959), Précis d’histoire monastique, Bloud & Gay, Paris. Gregoire, R. (1987), Manuale di agiologia. Introduzione alla letteratura agiografica, Monastero San Silvestro Abate, Fabriano. Jérôme, Trois vies de moines (Paul, Malchus, Hilarion) (2007), Edgardo M. Morales, Pierre Leclerc (eds.), Éditions du Cerf, Sources Chrétiennes, Paris. TOEGYE AS A TEACHER: FROM SAGE LEARNING TO SAGEHOOD DIANA YUKSEL* Abstract Yi Hwang Toegye is one of the most prominent icons of Korean Confucianism from Joseon. Dubbed as the promoter of the Korean Confucian orthodoxy, Toegye is renowned for his comprehension of the Confucian Way. Yet, he formally withdrew from official positions in a time when scholarly worthiness was closely related to one’s social duty. Then what made a scholar like Toegye become an icon of Korean Confucianism and moreover what made him more iconic than some of his contemporaries? These questions have been raised before and have been answered primarily from either a philosophical or a political perspective. I believe that there has to be more than that in order to create such a powerful image, something that made Toegye be the providential Teacher, in the same way Confucius had been centuries before, something that pertains to the domain of the sacred rather than secular. The aim of this paper is to identify the elements of spirituality in Toegye’s discourse and to analyze their implications in the shaping of the iconic image of the Korean Neo-Confucian thinker of the 16th century which acquired an almost religious significance. Keywords: Confucian spirituality, Sage-learning, self-cultivation, moral duty, reverential seriousness. 1. Introduction Since the beginning of Confucianism, the exemplary Confucian was meant to play twin roles: reformer and preserver, discoverer and transmitter, scholar and prophet. His utmost mission was to uphold the Way (Dao 道). In Korea, Yi Hwang 李滉 (1501-1570) is one of the most prominent beacons of Korean Confucianism from Joseon. He is one Confucian who took his mission seriously and became an iconic master of all times in Korea. Yet, he is known to be “Toegye”1, the one who formally withdrew from public duty, due to the fact that he had a few attempts to withdraw to a secluded place to dedicate himself to study, recollection and the perfection of the moral self. He was always called * University of Bucharest, Department of Oriental Languages and Literatures, [email protected]. This paper was presented at the 26th AKSE Conference in Vienna, 6-9 July 2013. 1 退溪 퇴계, “Retreating creek”, Yi Hwang’s pen name. DIANA YUKSEL 12 back to public duty and to serve the kings until the last years of his life. Withdrawing from public duty was not something unheard of, Confucius himself had done so, but in Joseon Korea, scholarly worthiness was almost institutionalized and was very closely related to one’s social duty, to the point of recreating the Mencian desideratum of a socially engaged “heroic scholar” (hogeol ji sa 豪傑之士). Yi Hwang Toegye does not seem to fulfill the role of a “heroic scholar” and yet he is undoubtedly an icon of Korean Confucianism. He has been dubbed the unequalled master of the Way, the clarifier of the Neo-Confucian thought and the one who makes the line of Confucius-Mencius-the Cheng brothers-Zhu Xi complete, the very “Zhu Xi of Korea”. What made him an icon and moreover, what made him more iconic than all of his contemporaries? These questions have been raised before and have been answered primarily by analyzing Toegye’s contribution as a philosopher, moralist or adviser in state matters. I believe that the powerful image that Toegye projected has to be rooted in something else, something that singled him out and made him the providential Teacher, in the same way Confucius had been centuries before, something that pertains to the domain of the sacred rather than the secular. What made Toegye’s teachings transcend the borders of communitarian ethics and socially engaged metaphysics and acquire an almost prophetic dimension? Following the theories of Michael C. Kalton and Edward Y. J. Chung on the nature of Confucian spirituality in Korea, it seems that what gives Toegye’s teachings an aura of out-of-this-world and of spiritual leadership is his belief in the power of the self-cultivation, expressed in numerous occasions and developed in various works. Taking the thesis of the “sage learning” (seong hak ) as the core of his teachings, Toegye advocated the power of self-cultivation through moral practice to restore the social harmony and the Heavenly order. In his most synthetic work, Ten Diagrams for Sage Learning (Seonghank sipdo ), Toegye shows that by becoming one with the Heavenly principle (Dao) (through self-cultivation among other methods) the ordinary self can turn into a sage, a process that implies an individual effort, but has consequences of global importance. Confucius said that “Man can make the Way great – it is not the Way that makes the man great.”2 That is why for Toegye, the self-cultivation is not only a scholarly task, it is a way of life and a process of spiritual formation and trans-formation. Endowed with spiritual implications, the practice of self-cultivation becomes thus for Toegye the true Confucian Way. One of the key elements in this process of self-transformation towards sage learning is the practice of “mindfulness” or “reverent seriousness” (gyeong 敬), which becomes a medium 2 Analects 15:29 人能弘道,非道弘人。 TOEGYE AS A TEACHER: FROM SAGE LEARNING TO SAGEHOOD 13 of reaching the state of sage-learning, an almost beatification if we consider the fact that for Confucius this was an ideal impossible to reach, reserved only for the sage kings of the old (the legendary Emperors Yao and Shun, and the Duke of Zhou). In his efforts to promote practical self-cultivation (often by the power of self-example), Toegye raised a secular concept like gyeong to a sacred dimension. His idea of self-cultivation implied an active engagement into a practice which acquired spiritual span, and which made of him the providential Teacher. While his moral conduct and active implication in teaching the Confucian Way and establishing the Confucian orthodoxy in Korea played an important role in establishing Toegye as one of the iconic figures of Korean Confucianism, I believe that it was his contribution to Confucian spirituality that singled him out from among other prominent Confucian scholars and shaped the final image of the Korean Neo-Confucian thinker who has left a clear-cut cultural footprint on the scholarly scenery of 16th century Joseon. 2. Confucian Spirituality – “Le pari sur l’homme” Confucian spirituality can be analyzed by starting from the words of Confucius: “Man can make the Way great – it is not the Way that makes the man great”. The Master has made a “bet on man”3, gambled all on the importance of man in the scheme of the Universe and established a tradition in which the ordinary became the locus of the extraordinary, immanence acquired a transcendent dimension and the secular became the sacred4. The master has challenged the simple secular moralism with a sort of “spiritual nobility”5. But the confidence he placed on the capacity of man to recover the sacrality of his initial position on the axis of Heaven and Earth is somehow limited. The ideal of a sage (sheng ren 聖人) is not attainable even for himself. The paradigm shifted with the rise of the Neo-Confucian thought and the contributions of Zhou Dunyi 周敦頤 (1017-1073), Cheng Hao 程 (1032-1085), Cheng Yi 程頤(1033-1107) and most of all for Zhu Xi 朱 (1130-1200). For the Neo-Confucians, the Heavenly-endowed nature was recoverable by cultivation of one’s self and the sagehood, no longer a long-lost ideal, was attainable by self-transformation, an act of constant care for the “luminous virtue” (明德 ming de) within oneself. The bet was upped. Confucian spirituality was now aiming at moral cultivation “so that the individuals can 3 Anne Cheng launched the phrase “le pari de Confucius sur l’homme” in Histoire de la pensée chinoise (1997), referring to the centrality of man in Confucius’ thinking, to the importance he had in the triad Heaven-Earth-Man and to his capacity of fulfilling his role in this triad, the matrix of the Universe. 4 Mary Evelyn Tucker, “Introduction” to Confucian Spirituality (2004). 5 Herbert Fingarette, Confucius: The Secular as Sacred, 1998 (reissue). DIANA YUKSEL 14 realize their full personhood.” 6 Zhu Xi’s synthesis of Neo-Confucian ideas, recorded in the collection Reflections on Things at Hand (Jinsilu 近思 ), provided a comprehensive metaphysical basis for Confucian thought and practice that could rival with the Buddhist metaphysics, and which encompassed the cosmological element, the ethical and ritual practices, scholarly reflection and the social participation into a “this-worldly spirituality”7 with the aim of balancing the inner cultivation with the outer investigation of things. Yi Hwang Toegye continued this line of thought in Korea by placing the practice of self-cultivation at the center of Confucian spirituality, since the ultimate goal of man was to reach the sage’s understanding of things. Toegye believes in the innate capacity of man to transform the ordinary self into sagehood in unity with the Heavenly Way (cheon do ), the ideal model, based on the transcendent yet immanent reality of human goodness. Into this frame of Confucian spirituality which unites the immanent and the transcendent, the process of self-cultivation offers a “model of self-transcendence”8 which allows for identifying the transcendent with what is immanent. The self-cultivation (sugi ) for Toegye encompasses a few processes such as “expanding knowledge through the investigation of things” (gyeokmul chiji 格 ), “making one’s thoughts sincere” (seong eui ), “rectifying one’s mind-heart” (jeongsim ) and “cultivating one’s own body” (susin ). But most of all, as explained in the work that crowned his scholastic career, Seonghak sipdo, self-cultivation and attainment of sagehood is conditioned by the practice of “reverential seriousness” (gyeong 敬). The self-cultivation is also the key element in education for Toegye, which refers primarily to moral conduct, to which reverential seriousness is vital. This spirituality that Toegye promotes and which requires a disciplined way of self-transformation through a constant practice of the processes of self-cultivation has made a valuable contribution to Neo-Confucian scholarship9. It is very possible that in the end, this counted more in creating the final image of Toegye than his role in perpetuating the orthodox line of Confucianism in Korea or his philosophical debates over the nature and importance of Principle (I ) and Substance (gi ). 6 Ibid., p. 4. Ibid., p. 10. 8 Edward Y. J. Chung, “A Confucian Spirituality in Yi T’oegye: A Korean Neo-Confucian Interpretation and Its Implications for Comparative Religion” in Confucian Spirituality, pp. 215-216. 9 JaHyun Kim Haboush, Martina Deuchler (2002): “For Toegye, self-cultivation constituted the core of a generative process of self that would eventually lead to harmonization of the human order with the cosmic order. It required intellectual discipline and an ascetic way of life – two premises that grew out of his rather pessimistic view of human nature – and demanded close interpretation of the Neo-Confucian textual tradition.” (“Introduction”, Culture and State in Late Choson Korea, p. 3). 7 TOEGYE AS A TEACHER: FROM SAGE LEARNING TO SAGEHOOD 15 3. Toegye as the Teacher Like a true Confucian master, Yi Hwang Toegye was a teacher. He had activated in a few educational institutions in an official capacity10 and he had also dedicated himself to the informal, personal and insightful study of Confucian values on a few occasions when he retired from public life. He left public duty and retreated to a quiet place where he could write and refine his thinking, and where he was followed by an increasing number of disciples. Consequently, he established the Dosan Academy (Dosan Seowon ) on the Mountain Do. One of the areas of interest for his own study and for the instruction of his followers was the study of the mind-heart from the Classic of Mind-Heart (Xinjing 經), a work he had studied with fervor. This book offered him guidance in the process of spiritual cultivation, for he was not a simple scholar, but he proved to be “an engaged man of faith and spiritual practice”. 11 As a teacher, Toegye had followers who went on becoming respected Confucian scholars themselves. To his disciples he offered an inspirational model, not only of a scholar that masters the art of hermeneutics in Confucian texts, but also as the image itself of self-cultivation and a dedicated educator: “His zeal in the personal pursuit of learning was matched by his zeal in teaching others, and his lectures continued up to the month before his death.” Yun Sasoon (1990: 9) Even as a formal educator, Toegye had emphasized the importance of balancing the inner transformation with the outer quest, so that the future officials he was training would be cultivated men with strong Confucian values (propriety, loyalty, trustworthiness, modesty, reverent seriousness): [...]Throughout your daily lives you must endeavor to practice propriety. You must urge one another on to put forth vigorous effort to correct old habits: at home consider the proper disposition for serving your parents and elder brothers, and in society maintain the proper propriety in serving elders and seniors. Internally make loyalty and trustworthiness your focus, and externally practice modesty and deference; thus you may fittingly respond to the nation’s intent in founding schools, encouraging the literary arts, and fostering literati.12 Toegye again took his mission seriously, not only for transmitting the Way, but also for creating transmitters of the Way, by means of practicing the Confucian values13. But his individual mission and personal commitment had determined changes in the way man related to the universal matrix. He is no longer a simple educator, he is recreating the tradition of transmitting the Way and becomes 10 He was named, for instance, “head instructor” (Daesaseong 大司 成) of Sungkyunkwan Academy in 1552. 11 Edward Y. J. Chung, p. 216. 12 Toegye jeonseo, B, Yeonbo, 1.11a, translation found in Yun Sasson (1990), p. 17. 13 For more on Toegye as an educator see Yun Sasoon, pp. 17-21. DIANA YUKSEL 16 a “prophetic voice”14, the Teacher, who impacts the personal consciousness and conscience with impact at universal level. He advocated the importance of the individual moral effort and of the self-cultivation for the harmony of the universe, and by the self-example showed that this was not an impossible desideratum. This moral effort is not only necessary, but it is required of man, it is compulsory so that the man be able to distinguish the moral principle from the selfish desires and thus reach moral achievement15. Therefore, to do what morally ought to be so means to “abide in reverential seriousness” (geogyeong 居敬), which is the “learning of the morally accomplished men” (gunja ji hak 君 ), which Toegye calls the “learning of reverential seriousness” (gyeonghak 敬 )16. When the student is sincerely able to abide to reverence [gyeong] and makes the clear distinction between the principle and the desires, his efforts of nourishing and cultivating [it] will be deep. If the self-examination and correction of the mind-heart is continued with sincerity for a length of time, one can reach a state of detachment.17 Toegye understood the way of mind cultivation as an inner-directed and spiritual task of self-transformation. In this regard we may identify his learning as a “new kind” of Cheng-Zhu school that stresses “spiritual mind cultivation”. In the Diagram of Heaven’s Imperative Explained (Cheon myong do seol 圖 ), he gives primordial importance to the learning of reverence, which is the “beginning and the end” of moral education and thus quintessential to becoming morally accomplished: When the mind is tranquil, the superior man preserves and nourishes its “substance” (che ). When feelings and intentions are aroused, one examines and corrects oneselfand rectifies their usefulness. If one does not take gyeong to be the first principle of learning, how can one establish the original mind? Hence, before the mind is aroused, the learning of the superior man is to take gyeong as the first principle and to give full effort to “preserving and nourishing”. After the mind is aroused, it is to give full effort to self-examination and self-correction. This is the reason why gyeonghak completes the beginning and the end.18 The moral effort pays off only by constant practice, only if continued “for a length of time”19. In order to do this, the method of practicing reverence should be doubled by the discipline of controlling one’s mind-heart (sim beob ). 14 Wm. Theodore de Bary. Toegye jeonseo 1:205b. 16 Toegye jeonseo, 29:15a, “Letter to Kim Yi Jeong”. 17 Toegye jeonseo, 7:24b, v. 1, p. 205, “Letter to Yi Pyeong Suk”. 18 Toegye jeonseo, v. 3, p. 144, op. cit. in Edward Chung, p. 252. 19 In reference to the method of “quiet-sitting” and thoughtful study explained by the Cheng brothers and which were also part of the inspirational practice of reverential seriousness. 15 TOEGYE AS A TEACHER: FROM SAGE LEARNING TO SAGEHOOD 17 When the mind-heart is tranquil at night, one must experience Heaven’s principle (cheon I ) in oneself. One should examine what one has done and work at self-reflection and self-rectification every day. Once you get used to this practice, you should realize the truth of learning to become a Sage.20 Toegye revisits the Mencian theory of the inherent goodness of the human nature. When a human being is born and the germs of the human nature are still latent, the selfish desires are not manifest. With the growth of the human being and the coming into contact with the environment, the material desires (fuelled by the vital energy) dominate and the pure principle of the inherent human nature is lost. Through the constant moral effort of practicing reverence, the selfish desires and the emotions triggered by the social environment can be suppressed. The evil (ak ) is present in the individual just as the good (seon ) is. The prevalence of the evil is an acquired condition, it is “the failure of the individual to nurture his human nature inherently good”21. So what one needs to do is the practice of good nature. Toegye warns against the precarious balance of power between good and evil in man and shows that the selfish desires can become manifest with any hesitation from the path of moral cultivation. Therefore, the one who aims for moral self-accomplishment should be apprehensive of the selfish desires and guard his mind-heart against them with the vigilance of a castle guard: Always cautious and fearful, never venture to slacken. Stop up your mouth like the opening of a bottle, and guard your intentions as you would a city wall.22 This state of moral vigilance is necessary. The moral anxiety which makes the human being question his actions can become useful for controlling the individual selfish desires and preserving the balance and the harmony of the mind-heart. Once the inner space is in harmony, the outer world will also be in harmony. In order for the mind to keep the inner balance and thus ensure the outer harmony, the subtle principle (I) should prevail over the course vital energy (gi) and the human mind should be one with the principle and unaffected by the movement of gi. The constant practice of reverence is one way to keep the unity of the mind-heart and the principle and secure the control of the ethical virtue over the selfish desires. If the balance is lost, the consequences acquire ontological dimensions: If one should falter for a single moment, selfish desire will put forth ten thousand shoots; one will be hot when there is no fire, cold when there is no ice. If there is a hair's 20 Toegye jeonseo, vol. 4, p. 209, op. cit. in Edward Chung, pp. 205-206. Chai-sik Chung, “Between Principle and Situation: Contrasting Styles in the Japanese and Korean Traditions of Moral Culture”, in Philosophy East and West, p. 262. 22 Diagram of the Admonition for Mindfulness Studio, translated by Michael C. Kalton, p. 178. 21 DIANA YUKSEL 18 breadth disparity [from what is right] Heaven and Earth will change their places; the Three Guidelines will perish and the Nine Laws will be wiped out.23 The cultivation of the mind-heart through reverence and seriousness implies respecting a set of rules of proper conduct that Toegye suggests to everyone, including the king, rules which constantly remind the individual of him moral duty: attention paid to protocol, proper situational conduct, solemn silence, respect for the hierarchy, obedience in front of authority and most importantly, an ascetic attitude and repression of selfish desires and emotions: When you go abroad, behave to everyone as if you were meeting an important guest; preside over affairs as if presiding at a sacrifice.24 The aura of dignity and seriousness projected over the one who abides by the practice of reverence mirrors the tranquility and the harmony of the mind-heart. For Toegye, the harmony reflects also through the unity of the inner world and the outer one. The sacrality of the ritual involves an almost magical element: by understanding the Way, respecting the rules of proper conduct and setting one’s mind-heart in a state of balance, everything falls in place effortlessly, as foreseen by Confucius: “With correct manners, no commands are necessary and affairs move forth.” 25 The social adequacy, the respect for hierarchy and etiquette, the reverence in conduct and the cultivation of the mind-heart become for Toegye valuable virtues: Properly order your clothing and cap and make your gaze reverent; recollect your mind and make it abide, as if you were present before the Lord on High. The appearance of the feet must be as if they were heavy, the disposition of the hands respectful. First select the ground and then tread; twist and turn [your way] through the ant mounds.26 The practice of reverence for achieving and preserving the harmony and the balance of the mind-heart and its unity with the transcendental principle through morally oriented actions should be doubled by a mental state of detachment. In other words, the active exterior should be balanced with an inner state of tranquility and they should mutually correct and control. Toegye’s understanding of gyeong becomes in a way more spiritual than that of the previous Neo-Confucian scholars. He adds a personal dimension to the moral self-accomplishment not only through emphasizing the importance of the process towards going closer to the Buddhist idea of illumination than to that of the Confucian sage (seong in ), a status virtually impossible to attain. The 23 24 25 26 Ibid. Ibid. Analects 13:6 其身正,不令而行. Diagram of the Admonition for Mindfulness Studio, translated by Michael C. Kalton, p. 178. TOEGYE AS A TEACHER: FROM SAGE LEARNING TO SAGEHOOD 19 inner self-transformation cannot be though separated from the outer moral accomplishment of the individual as a social being. The self-cultivation through the practice of reverence has as ultimate goal an interior illumination, but not restricted to the inner individual world (like the Buddhist total detachment from the outer world), but an illumination of the self for the greater good of the other, according to the universal law of harmony, which encompasses “the nature of interaction, of flowing, of rising and falling, of action and non-action.”27. 4. Toegye’s Cultural Footprint Appreciated as the synthesizer of Korean Confucianism, Toegye recreated a world defined by the unity of Heaven and man (cheon in hab il ) where man has an all-important and central position. His decisions and actions determine the course of events and the harmony of the triad Heaven- Earth-man. His mission of correctly transmitting the Way may be seen as prophetic, in that it is also doubled by practice of the values taught and by the power of selfexample. Naturally, he was appreciated by his ideological followers and disciples as an unequalled master of the Way, as the providential Teacher. Jo Mok 趙 , Kim Seongil 金誠一, Jeong Yuil 鄭惟一 and others praised him in their writings as the One (il in 一人) true teacher of the Confucian Way. Even his renowned opponent, Yi I Yulgok 李珥 栗谷 (1536-1584), finds him the most achieved scholar in his understanding of the Way, even more than the martyr-master Jo Gwangjo 趙光 (1482-1519): Since Cho Kwangjo [1482-1519], there is no one who can compare with T’oegye as the leading Confucian of his time. It might be said that he did not quite equal Cho Kwangjo in pure native ability, but in the investigation of principle Cho could not match his precision and subtlety. 28 In the second half of the 19th century, there is another wave of recognition for Toegye’s work. Two scholars, particularly, underlined in their studies the unicity of Toegye’s grasp of Confucian teachings and the image of exemplary Teacher that he projected. One of them was Jang Ji Yeon 張志淵 (1864-1921) who compiled a history of Korean Confucianism and appreciated that Toegye “is the one and only who clarified true learning and guided aright the scholars who succeeded him, clearly making shine again here the Tao (Way) of 27 Zhang Zai, “Siku qianshu” in Zhang Dainian, Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy, p. 275 "선생은 세상의 유종(儒宗)으로서, 조정암 뒤로는 서로 비견할 사람이 없다. 그 재주와 기국(器局)은 혹 정암에 못 미칠지 모르겠으나, 의리(義理)를 탐구하여 정미한 것까지 드러내는 데서는 정암이 미치지 못하는 것". See also Toegye jeonseo, B, Toedo eonhaeng tongnok, 1.27a in Yun Sasoon, p. 1. 28 DIANA YUKSEL 20 Confucius, Mencius, the Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi.”29 Mun Ilpyeong 文一平 (1888-1939) sees in Toegye the paradigmatic image of Korean Confucianism: [...] before Toegye Confucianism [in Korea] did not go beyond the conventional political and literary pursuits, and only with the appearance of Toegye on the scene does it first attain the status of a full philosophy, and the development of theory in the area of propriety and ritual also comes only with him, so it would be fitting to take Toegye as this peninsula’s paradigmatic Confucian figure.30 Through his teachings Toegye seems to have skillfully created not only an important and relevant Confucian legacy, but a heritage of cultural resources and universal values that he promoted in necessary relation to the individual practice of self-cultivation with the aim of acquiring sage learning. His cultural footprint outlines an exemplary Teacher, the true image of a sage scholar, one that continues the line of Confucius, Mencius and Zhu Xi. REFERENCES Primary Sources Confucius, Lun yu (Analects), internet database: http://ctext.org/analects, accessed on 18.06.2013. Yi Hwang, Toegye Jeonseo (The Complete Works of Toegye), Seoul, Seonkyungwan University Press, compiled in 1986. (Yi Hwang). 道 (Seonghak sibdo), microfilm, Academy of Korean Studies, compiled in 1999. Secondary Sources Ames, Roger T. & Rosemont, Henry Jr. (1998), The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation, Ballantine Books, New York. Chan, Wing-tsit ed. (1986), Chu Hsi and Neo-Confucianism, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu. Chan, Wing-tsit (1963), A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy, Princeton University Press, New Jersey. Chen, Yong-jie (1986), "How T'oegye Understood Chu Hsi" in T'oegye hakpo, no. 49, pp. 66-90. Cheng, Anne (2001), Istoria gândirii chineze, translated from French by Florentina Vişan şi Viorel Vişan, Editura Polirom, Iaşi. Chung, Edward Y. J. (1995), The Korean Neo-Confucianism of Yi Toegye and Yi Yulgok: A Reappraisal of the "Four-Seven Thesis" and Its Practical Implications for Self-Cultivation, Suny Series in Korean Studies, State University of New York, New York. 29 "그 정학(正學)을 천명하고 후생을 개도함으로서 '공맹 정주(孔孟程朱)의 도'를 환히 우리 동방에 다시 밝힌 사람은 오직 선생 한 분뿐이라" 30 “퇴계 이전까지는 유교가 오히려 정치나 사장(詞章)의 여습(餘習)에서 벗어나지 못하던 것이, 퇴계의 출현을 기다려 완전한 철학의 성립을 보게 되었으며, 예론의 발달도 또한 퇴계 이후에 있었은즉 퇴계로써 반도 유종(儒宗)을 삼는 것이 당연한 일이다.” See also Yun Sasoon (1990), p. 2. TOEGYE AS A TEACHER: FROM SAGE LEARNING TO SAGEHOOD 21 Chung, Edward Y. J. (1992), "Yi T'oegye on the Learning of Reverential Seriousness (Kyonghak): A Korean Neo-Confucian Spirituality?" in Korea Journal, volume 32, no. 1 / Spring, pp. 61-71. Chung, Edward Y. J. (1992), "Yi T'oegye on the Neo-confucian Learning of Principle and Mind: A 'Religious' Way of Self-Cultivation.", in Asian Profile, vol. 20, no. 5 / October, pp. 353-365. De Bary, Wm. Theodore (1991), Learning for One's Self: Essays on the Individual in the Neo-Confucian Thought, Columbia University Press, New York. Deuchler, Martina (1992), The Confucian Transformation of Korea,. A study of Society and Ideology, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London. Fingarette, Herbert (1972), Confucius: The Secular as Sacred, Harper Torchbooks, New York. Gardner, Daniel K. (1990), Chu Hsi-Learning to Be a Sage. Selections from the Conversations of Master Chu, Arranged Topically, University of California Press, Berkley and Los Angeles. Haboush, JaHyun Kim, Martina Deuchler (eds.) (1999), Culture and State in Late Chosôn Korea, Volume 182 of Harvard East Asian Monographs, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London. Hwang Joon-yon (2001), "Neo-Confucian Scholars of Chosun Dynasty and the Problems of Spiritual Cultivation in Case of the Four-Seven Debate" in Tongyang cholhak yongu vol. 25, no. 6, pp. 217-234. Kalton, Michael C. (1988), Yi Hwang, To Become a Sage: The Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning, Columbia University Press, New York. Kim, Young-doo (2005), Toegye and Gobong Write Letters, translated by Louis Choi, Jain Pub. Co., Fremont, California. Tu, Weiming, Mary Evelyn Tucker eds. (2004), Confucian Spirituality, Volume Two, The Crossroad Publishing Company, New York. Yun, Sa-soon (1985), "T'oegye's Identification of 'To Be' and 'Ought': T'oegye's Theory of Value", in The Rise of Neo-Confucianism in Korea, Wm. Theodore de Bary, JaHyun Kim Haboush, (eds.), Columbia University Press, New York. Yun, Sa-soon (1988), "T'oegye's Social Thought", in T'oegye hakpo, no. 57, pp. 91-80. Yun, Sa-soon (1991), Critical Issues in Neo-Confucian Thought: The Philosophy of Yi T'oegye, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu. Zhang, Dainian (2002), Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy, translated by Edmund Ryden, Yale University Press, New Haven and London & Foreign Languages Press, Beijing. ITINERARI CRITICI DANTESCHI: FRANCESCO DE SANCTIS ROXANA UTALE* DANTESQUES CRITICAL ITINERARIES: FRANCESCO DE SANCTIS Abstract After the nearly complete disappearance of the Dantesque exegesis in the Italian Baroque period, as early as the first decades of the 19th century, Alighieri returns (slowly, but surely) to the attention of literary critics and historians. One of the most well-founded voices on the subject belonged to Francesco De Sanctis, who dedicated long years to the study of Dante’s works (Lezioni e saggi su Dante, 1842-73, but also, more importantly, pages of Storia della letteratura italiana, 1870-1871), and who actually laid the groundwork for the modern interpretation of the Florentine. De Sanctis is the first to identify the nucleus of Dante’s poems to be none other than the universal and human motif, the first to hear in Alighieri the voice of mankind and not just of man. This gives way to a personal, human-to-human level of reading, without intermediaries and filters. Keywords: Italian literature, Dantesques studies, history of criticism, Francesco de Sanctis, the voice of mankind. Ad onta della sua impressionante attività (soprattutto se pensiamo all’epoca in cui pubblicò e alle difficoltà collegate allora all’editoria e al mercato del libro culturale), Francesco De Sanctis non riuscì a portare a compimento un caro progetto: un libro su Dante, anche se questo fu l’obiettivo costante di ben più quindici anni della carriera del critico napoletano. Sin dai suoi inizi didattici (particolarmente precoci) aveva desiderato scrivere un’opera in cui, in un secolo che già si era concluso sotto i fertilissimi auspici dello studio di Dante in Italia e non solo (scriveva: “oggi è l’era di Dante”1 oppure “Dante e Shakesperare i due idoli della critica odierna” 2 ), mettere le cose a punto ma anche porre fine alla vertigine di misteri e sinuose interpretazioni che il povero Fiorentino riceveva ormai da centinaia di anni. Distratto però * Università di Bucarest, Dipartimento di Linguistica Romanza, di Lingue e Letterature Iberoromanze e Italiano, [email protected]. 1 Francesco De Sanctis, Lezioni e saggi su Dante, a c. di Sergio Romagnoli, Giulio Einaudi Editore, Torino, 1955, p. 243. 2 Ibid., p. 19. ROXANA UTALE 24 dall’attività didattica ma anche dall’attivismo politico rimandò sempre il suo ambizioso progetto3. E nel 1850 venne pure incarcerato a Castel dell’Ovo con l’accusa di essere mazziniano. Seguirono tre anni in cui tradusse 4 parte di Goethe, scrisse due drammi5 ma soprattutto studiò seriamente Hegel, il filosofo con i cui concetti avrebbe confrontato d’allora in poi il proprio pensiero anche se le sue posizioni nei confronti del tedesco sarebbero mutate rapidamente: dall’approvazione, alla riformulazione, al rigetto. Nel 1853 venne imbarcato su una nave diretta in America ma riuscì a sbarcare a Malta e rifugiarsi da esule a Torino. Oltre al lavoro di insegnante in una scuola femminile, dal 1854 pro bono, cominciò a presentare in un’aula del Collegio San Francesco di Paola corsi serali su Dante6. Purtroppo le memorie che avrebbe dettato verso la fine della vita si fermano agli eventi del 1848, così che non si hanno impressioni e testimonianze dirette degli anni trascorsi a Torino oppure dei progetti che si andavano disegnando nella mente continuamente desta di De Sanctis. Non possiamo essere d’accordo con Benedetto Croce quando afferma che “De Sanctis non concepì il proposito di scrivere la Storia della letteratura italiana prima dell’estate del 1868” 7 . Se si analizzano cronologicamente gli interessi letterari di De Sanctis si può quasi rifare un diario del suo interesse per lo studio di Dante, soprattutto della Divina Commedia. Anche se le principali idee e la struttura portante dell’analisi di Dante furono presentate già nel saggio Esposizione critica della “Divina Commedia”, databile 1853-54, quindi prima dell’inizio delle lezioni torinesi, è certo che De Sanctis concepiva le sue relazioni pensando allo stesso progetto di un’opera dedicata esclusivamente a Dante oppure a una serie di monografie dedicate alle grandi personalità della letteratura italiana. Queste lezioni – di certo le prime (di 34) – ebbero il ruolo di chiarire all’autore stesso le principali questioni relative al metodo critico da applicare a Dante, una specie di propedeutica a quello che il letterato aveva già in mente. De Santis infatti, continuando a parlare su quest’argomento, chiariva e compiva la propria interpretazione. Affermava al finale delle lezioni torinesi: ”vi confesso che non sarei giunto a colorire il mio disegno, se non fossi stato 3 Nel 1868 pensava di comporre un’opera articolata in tre volumi, uno all’anno. Intervenne però il contratto con Morano per la stesura della Storia della letteratura italiana che gli avrebbe rapito più tempo di quanto si era immaginato. Il progetto di un libro su Dante fu abbandonato. 4 Traduce Handbuch einer allgemeinen Geschichte der Poesie (Manuale di storia generale della poesia), apparso a Napoli, nel 1853, incompleto ed anonimo. 5 Cristofo Colombo (oggi perduta) e Torquato Tasso. 6 Sarebbe interessante precisare che in quel periodo egli non era l’unico a tenere a Torino corsi su Dante. Oltre alle voci istituzionali (Pier Alessandro Paravia, all’università, tanto per fare un nome), c’erano tanti altri che presentavano delle lezioni interpretative soprattutto sulla Divina Commedia. 7 Benedetto Croce, Storia della letteratura italiana. Nota bibliografica, in Scritti su Francesco De Sanctis, a c. di Teodoro Tagliaferri e Fulvio Tessitore, Giannini editore, Napoli, 2007, p. 225. ITINERARI CRITICI DANTESCHI: FRANCESCO DE SANCTIS 25 aiutato da voi” 8 , diceva a chi aveva assistito con tanto entusiasmo alle sue lezioni 9 . E il suo “disegno” era stato dal principio quello di una percezione realistica dell’arte ma anche di una argomentazione metodologica che nasceva dalla necessità di un’esegesi esaustiva, che avrebbe permesso la spiegazione del mondo dantesco nel suo contesto storico, culturale, politico. Il secondo corso torinese iniziò con l’ampia analisi del XIII canto dell’Inferno (la cantica prediletta di De Sanctis) e del personaggio di Pier delle Vigne. Il relatore proponeva il concetto di “situazione” – particolarmente importante nel suo pensiero – perché analizzava la contraddizione tra le intenzioni dell’autore e il mondo poetico, compiuto. Nelle sue pagine era sempre attento a identificare il movente culturale e illustrare le correnti antagoniche10, così che ciascuno degli scrittori fosse fortemente connesso alla sua epoca (e nel caso di Dante il contesto è determinante, la sua opera è il riflesso di una società e di un contesto ben documentabili) ma che anche il critico potesse stabilire e dimostrare la storicità di ogni manifestazione artistica. Su proposta dei corsisti questa lezione fu pubblicata sullo Spettatore di Firenze nel 1855; più tardi sarebbe entrata a far parte del volume Saggi critici11. È probabile che intorno al 3 giugno De Sanctis abbia concluso anche il secondo corso di Torino, senza però poter concludere la presentazione della Divina Commedia: dovette fermarsi al Purgatorio. A Torino fece lezioni, scrisse, pubblicò12, si fece un’eccellente fama nei circoli culturali. Purtroppo nella capitale del Piemonte 13 l’esule napoletano trovava a stento il poco necessario al sostentamento e le prospettive di una cattedra universitaria erano inesistenti vista l’avversità dell’ambiente accademico torinese. Così che quando gli fu proposto (infatti gli era stato già proposto a gennaio) di occupare la cattedra di letteratura italiana dell’appena fondata Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule di Zurigo accettò senza indugi. Qui sarebbe entrato in un ancora più fervido clima culturale, a lato di altri emigrati di sinistra, amici d’eccezione (Burckhardt, Vischer), sarebbe tornato su autori importanti (Quinet, Heine, Schopenhauer) e tutto questo avrebbe contribuito al compimento dei suoi principi di poetica realista. A Zurigo iniziò le sue conferenze con una introduzione ai primi secoli di letteratura italiana (“Io voglio, o, signori, presentarvi la letteratura nel secolo ch’ella è letteratura, cioè nel secolo XIV, quando la lingua e il pensiero 8 Francesco De Sanctis, Lezioni e saggi, cit., p. 349. Sembra che nel pubblico si sia trovato un paio di volte Umberto di Savoia stesso, il futuro re. 10 V. anche Giuseppe Petronio, L’attività letteraria in Italia. Storia della letteratura, Palumbo, Palermo, 1984, p. 667 e Carlo Muscetta, Francesco De Sanctis, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 1978, p. 101. 11 Morano, Napoli, 1869. 12 Anche da Zurigo continuerà a pubblicare sulle gazzette di Torino. 13 O almeno di Genova. 9 ROXANA UTALE 26 acquistano una forma fissa”14; un altro materiale che più tardi avrebbe adoperato nella redazione dei primi capitoli della Storia) ma nei primi due semestri(dei nove che avrebbe trascorso a Zurigo) la sua intera attenzione andò a Dante, perché in De Sanctis si era risvegliato l’intento di scrivere alla fine il libro sul Fiorentino. A quell’epoca risalgono i saggi apparsi su La rivista contemporanea di Torino: Dell’argomento della “Divina Commedia” e Carattere di Dante e della sua utopia, che avrebbero dovuto costituire i primi capitoli del libro su Dante. Purtroppo la terza lezione non è stata pubblicata e l’originale si è perso. Ci sono rinvenute però le tormentate e tormentanti redazioni della quarta e quinta. Nell’epistolario con l’amico Camillo De Meis il critico dichiarava: “No, Dante non ancora l’ho afferrato; è un’ombra che mi sfugge sempre, e non posso fissarla” 15 . Quindi abbandonò la “maledetta quarta lezione” 16 confessando di farlo per svogliatezza. Dicendo ciò De Sanctis era onestissimo. Sergio Romagnoli17 pubblicò per la prima volta questi manoscritti in possesso della Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli e ne esce la misura dello stress dell’autore di questi due testi: li scriveva e riscriveva semplicemente ricopiando da una stesura all’altra intere pagine, ne sbagliava la numerazione ecc.18 Era il 1858 e senza rendersene conto De Sanctis così lasciava Dante. Si sarebbero reincontrati solo nella rielaborazione di materiali più vecchi per la Storia della letteratura italiana 19 oppure in occasione della pubblicazione di volumi contenenti scritti ancora più vecchi, Saggi critici oppure Francesca da Rimini secondo i suoi critici e secondo l’arte, Il Farinata di Dante, L’Ugolino di Dante (1869 in Nuova Antologia, poi in Nuovi saggi critici, 1873). Tornando però alle lezioni di Zurigo (48 in tutto) va detto che anche a causa del periodo molto lungo oltreché della composizione del pubblico, De Sanctis sì, riprese i materiali di Torino ma li ritagliò diversamente, ridusse la loro tematica e la concentrò, rinunciò alla parte teorica introduttiva. Questa decisione era, al di là del suo aspetto, anche di natura personale: a Torino non aveva fatto in tempo a presentare tutto, il Paradiso non l’aveva neanche iniziato. Così che gli giovò fare un ripasso dei suoi appunti sulle due 14 Francesco De Sanctis, Lezioni e saggi, cit., p. 526. Francesco De Sanctis, Lettere dall’esilio (1853-1860), a c. di Benedetto Croce, Laterza, Bari, 1938, p. 179. 16 Idem. 17 Francesco De Sanctis, Lezioni e saggi, cit., pp. 563-630. 18 Niente è però più emblematico dello stato di scontentezza di De Sanctis per il mancato progresso dei suoi lavori che il finale della prima redazione della quinta lezione: “La poesia è rappresentazione, e come tale, non può attin…”; în Lezioni e saggi, cit., p. 591. 19 Solo che per il capitolo della Storia ..., come una ulteriore prova che, man mano che gli anni passavano, le sue opinioni critiche ed estetiche si saldavano, De Sanctis sceglie di inversare l’ordine delle lezioni di Zurigo: parla prima dell’allegoria e della poesia, dell’opposizione tra il monod dell’allegoria e quello poetico, dell’ideale morale del poeta e solo dopo attacca la genesi della Divina Commedia. 15 ITINERARI CRITICI DANTESCHI: FRANCESCO DE SANCTIS 27 cantiche. È così che ritroviamo quasi immutate metà delle tematiche. Per altre invece sentì il bisogno, da un lato, di concettualizzare di più e di partire da Dante per allargare poi il discorso verso la letteratura universale, verso la teoria letteraria (perché egli non si limitò alla stretta trattazione di Dante ma si era anche proposto di seguire le caratteristiche di una vera sperimentazione di un criterio generale di interpretazione). Dall’altro, rinunciare sempre di più alla forma didattica delle presentazioni, all’analisi testuale (ad esempio, all’analisi di ognuno dei canti) nell’intento di trovare l’equilibrio tra l’analisi estetica e le questioni collegate alla critica. De Sanctis aveva tentato questo approccio anche a Napoli, a scala ridotta certo, perché era stato da sempre contrario alla “critica a spizzico e a bocconi”20. Però nei testi del 1842-43, così come sono stati ricomposti dagli appunti di svariati corsisti e dai ricordi dettati dal critico (nel 1882) nell’ultimo capitolo di La giovinezza di Francesco de Sanctis 21 , a quella data sembra che il suo tentativo di mantenere un equilibrio interpretativo nella polemica tra il Classicismo e il Romanticismo non gli abbia permesso di svolgere pienamente le sue abilità critiche e i tentativi di dare un’interpretazione teorica alla sua critica non l’abbiano soddisfatto. Solo quando, ormai più maturo e più sicuro sulle sue doti interpretative, permise che l’incontro tra l’autore e il critico avvenisse all’interno dell’opera poetica, giunse a “rivive[re] con lui la genesi della poesia e le passioni del suo animo e del suo tempo”22. Nella quarta lezione di Torino rispettivamente terza di Zurigo stabilì quali erano le caratteristiche di ciascuno dei generi e provò ad applicarle successivamente alla Divina. Tutte le volte però c’era qualcosa che … traboccava. E ciò non poteva significare che: “Di tal fatta è la Divina Commedia, che per vastità di contenuto entra a tutte innanzi, o, per dir meglio, essa è il contenuto universale, di cui tutte le poesie non sono che frammenti (...) Essa non è dunque questo o quel genere di poesia, ma tutta la poesia in tutte le sue forme essenziali.”23 Il concetto di forma sta infatti non solo al centro degli scritti su Dante ma di tutte le sue analisi letterarie. Superata l’accezione hegeliana di forma (Il sistema sospingeva Hegel a cercare nella forma l’idea; ma il sistema non lo sospinse sino a disconoscere l’unità organica dell’idea e della forma, anzi la sua maggior gloria è di avere altamente proclamata la contemporaneità dei due termini nello spirito del poeta, e di aver posta l’eccellenza dell’arte nell’unità personale in cui l’idea sta involuta e come smemorata24), 20 Francesco De Sanctis, Lezioni e saggi, cit., p.381. Francesco De Sanctis, La giovinezza di Francesco De Santis, a c. di Pasquale Villari, Morano, Napoli, 1889; apud Sergio Romagnoli, în Lezioni e saggi, cit., pp. XVI-XVIII. 22 Francesco De Sanctis, Lezioni e saggi, cit., p. XIX. 23 Ibid., pp. 99-100. 24 Ibid., p. 604. 21 ROXANA UTALE 28 De Sanctis cercò a lungo il proprio linguaggio, così che non raramente è finito in imprecisioni, inconguenze di natura terminologica notate da tanti dei suoi commentatori25. Però una volta definito ed esplicitato, esso apparve nella sua piena pertinenza: La forma vive nel seno stesso della materia; ciascun argomento ha in sé la sua poetica, cioè le sue leggi organiche, le sue condizioni vitali, in cui è posta la sua personalità, quello per il quale esso è sé e non altro: e quel lavoro è perfetto che è come un individuo compiuto, proprio ed incomunicabile26; cioè la forma è compiuta allorquando gli elementi obiettivi e soggettivi si fondono perfettamente. In seguito De Sanctis volle chiarire ai suoi corsisti di Torino oppure di Zurigo ma anche ai lettori di tutte le sue opere su Dante quanto fosse gigantesca la confusione in cui i commentatori – indifferentemente della loro origine27 – avevano affondato Dante facendo della Divina Commedia un testo quasi illeggibile, nel quale il lettore avrebbe dovuto trovarsi perennemente in uno stato di allerta, pronto in qualsiasi momento a scoprire il senso celato di un’immagine. Partendo proprio da un’affermazione dal valore assiomatico, che la Divina è un poema allegorico, De Sanctis presentò alcune delle proposte più strambe di decodificazione del testo: dalle interpretazioni mistico-religiose a quelle sociopolitiche, a quelle filosofiche ecc., per trovare poi anche una possibile motivazione a questa fioritura delle interpretazioni: Ebbene, l’allegoria fu una specie di salvacondotto, per il quale la poesia poté avere il suo diritto di cittadinanza e ricevere il battesimo nel mondo cristiano. Così il Boccaccio nel suo commento sopra Dante prova lungamente che poesia e teologia solo lo stesso (...). L’interpretazione allegorica è necessaria per gustare e apprezzare una poesia? (...) È tempo che nella grande poesia si cerchi la poesia, quella sola per cui Dante è immortale28. Ed è per questo che avverte i suoi studenti che “il Dante che io vi spiego me lo foggio io”29. Una posizione alla quale rimase sempre fedele, tanto da riformularla con maggiore autorità e allargandole l’area di azione in Nuovi saggi critici 30: “Gittate 25 Infatti l’imprecisione non colpisce solo il concetto di forma ma, almeno nel caso presente, cioè Dante, De Sanctis non è particolarmente costante né con quello di artista, né con quello di Risorgimento (che adopera per Rinascimento; v. şi Dante Della Terza, Francesco De Sanctis e il Medioevo, în D. Della Terza, M. D’Ambrosio, G. Scognamiglio, Tradizione e innovazione. Studi su De Sanctis, Croce e Pirandello, Liguori editore, Napoli, 1999, pp. 5-13) oppure di Medioevo. 26 Francesco De Sanctis, Lezioni e saggi, cit., p. 82. 27 I tedeschi si trovano però tra i suoi bersagli prediletti. 28 Francesco De Sanctis, Lezioni e saggi, cit., pp. 408-409. 29 Ibid., p. 305. 30 Il volume raccoglie scritti del periodo 1868-1869, ma è stato pubblicato con la Morano, Napoli, în 1872. ITINERARI CRITICI DANTESCHI: FRANCESCO DE SANCTIS 29 via i commenti e avvezzatevi a leggere gli autori tra voi e loro solamente. Ciò che non capite, non vale la pena che sia capito: quello solo è bello che è chiaro”.31 Si è già capito che una delle costanti di lavoro di De Sanctis era la sistematica demolizione dei pregiudizi letterari. Quasi tutti gli studi danteschi precedenti a lui non lo soddisfacevano e anche le loro pretese di offrire al pubblico diverse versioni romanzate della vita di Dante. Quindi non poteva lasciarsi scappare l’opportunità di fare luce anche su ciò. Quasi ironicamente (anche se De Sanctis pure quando criticava i più maldestri commentatori lo faceva gentilmente) abbozzò anche egli dieci righe di vita dell’autore: qual’era il suo nome, come si era innamorato di Beatrice, come aveva sofferto alla morte di lei, come era entrato in politica, come “fu odiato ed odiò, fu offeso ed offese”32 ecc., per poi dimostrare quanto potesse essere errata la convinzione che i dati biografici potrebbero spiegare la complessità dell’opera di un artista: la vera vita di Dante, che rimane a fare, è la storia della sua anima, è il determinare del suo ingegno, il suo carattere, le sue passioni”33. E nelle lezioni immediatamente seguenti mostrò come lo stesso processo di filtrazione della realtà attraverso la mente e l’anima dell’artista avviene anche nel caso della trasformazione del suo personaggio e applicò il tutto a Beatrice. Lei è una nella Vita nuova ed un’altra nella Divina; nella mente di Dante lei ha subito le naturali modifiche presupposte dallo scivolamento dalla realtà verso l’arte: Così la nuova Beatrice contiene in sé l’antica, ed è ancora qualcosa di più: è il primo e il secondo amore, la donna, la santa e l’idea, il passato e il presente di Dante, non figura l’uno dell’altro, ma fusi insieme, il fantasma del passato trasformato dal tempo e trasfigurato dalla poesia (...). La poesia è trasfigurazione, è la realtà innalzata a verità34. Ma anche Dante, come Beatrice, è un personaggio non operante, ma contemplante, è un essere allegorico, l’uomo o l’anima nella storia della sua redenzione: è un’idea, non è un carattere. Ma in seno a questo Dante ascetico e teologico, venuto dalla scuola e dai libri, è rimasto vivo l’altro Dante, quale la storia ce lo dipinge e quale lo abbiamo veduto dianzi: il partigiano, il patriota, l’esule, lo sdegnoso e vendicativo Dante, tutto “umano” e “carnale”, in flagrante contraddizione con quello35. Tutto in una perfetta coerenza con il concetto di forma che De Sanctis proponeva: “Per me, l’essenza dell’arte è la forma (...) ma la forma, in cui l’idea è già passata, ed a cui l’individuo si è già innalzato: qui è la vera unità organica dell’arte”36. 31 32 33 34 35 36 Francesco De Sanctis, Lezioni e saggi, cit., p. 635. Ibid., p. 125. Ibid., p. 377. Ibid., pp. 144-145. Ibid., p. 656. Ibid., p. 609. ROXANA UTALE 30 All’esperienza personale e sentimentale, Dante aggiunse anche quella intellettuale: “Dante è stato dottissimo: abbracciò quasi tutto lo scibile (...): teologia, filosofia, storia, mitologia, giurisprudenza, astronomia, fisica, matematica, rettorica, poetica, fece suo tutto il mondo intellettuale di quel tempo”37. E, per spiegare lo spessore di informazione dell’universo dantesco, De Sanctis provò a scrivere quelle insoddisfacenti quarta e quinta lezioni del pensato libro su Dante. Infatti consideriamo si possa affermare che la massima profondità dell’analisi dantesca fu raggiunta appunto in questi testi. Come già detto, gli studi anteriori, quelli di Napoli oppure di Torino (con l’estensione di Zurigo) non erano che “il cantiere” del pensiero del critico e i capitoli della Storia della letteratura italiana – l’ultimo sguardo di De Sanctis a Dante – dovevano rispettare certi canoni: inizialmente la Storia ... doveva essere un manuale ad uso dei licei, doveva avere una certa dimensione (duramente negoziata dall’autore con il suo editore) ecc.38 Erano quindi l’esposizione delle conclusioni alle quali era giunto De Sanctis dopo tre lustri di analisi. Però i saggi Dell’argomento della “Divina Commedia” e Carattere di Dante e sua utopia, da un lato, e le due lezioni incompiute, dall’altro, danno la vera misura di quello che sarebbe dovuto essere il libro su Dante. Soprattutto “la maledetta quarta lezione” in cui De Sanctis provava e riprovava a sorprendere la chiave dell’interpretazione di Dante. In essa si discuteva della maniera in cui l’autore incorpora il volume delle conoscenze assimilate ma anche il ruolo che esse occupano nella realizzazione dell’allegoria generale del poema. Pensando all’attaccamento così insistentemente manifestato per Dante, il lettore potrebbe trovare sorprendenti i brani in cui De Sanctis espone gli errori commessi nella composizione della Divina: Il poeta ha voluto innalzarsi in una regione trascendente la poesia, nella regione della scienza; ha fatto di essa scienza lo scopo della poesia; ha voluto far servire la materia poetica a questo scopo. Ha voluto tre cose assurde, contradditorie; Omero non ci ha voluto mettere un secondo senso, e Dante ce l’ha messo. Tanto peggio per Dante. Si è voluto dare una pena infinita per giustificare le sue finzioni, e questo gli è forse costato più fatica che tutto il resto. Ond’è che la sua storia non è né sì chiara, né sì intelligibile, né sì compiuta, come la storia omerica, e non fa lo stesso piacere39, paradossalmente però l’esito si rivelò molto più interessante dell’intento. Se Dante ci fosse rimasto coerente – dice De Sanctis –, non avrebbe ottenuto che un facsimile dell’opera del suo maestro, Brunetto Latini. Allontanandosi però dagli obiettivi stabiliti in partenza, Dante avrebbe cominciato a provare un 37 Ibid., p. 554. Per più informazioni, v. Benedetto Croce, Come fu scritta “La storia della letteratura italiana”, in Una famiglia di patrioti ed altri saggi, Bari, 1949, pp. 267-76, ma anche Storia della letteratura italiana. Nota bibliografica, cit., pp. 223-239. 39 Ibid., p. 630. 38 ITINERARI CRITICI DANTESCHI: FRANCESCO DE SANCTIS 31 sentimento di inquietudine: la sua finzione non poteva essere credibile, non aveva un senso; cioè tutto quanto le avrebbe conferito valore e l’avrebbe giustificata. Di conseguenza avrebbe cominciato ad aggiungerci epiteti, circostanze il cui ruolo sarebbe stato di tenere desta l’attenzione del lettore per poter afferrare quel senso secondo. “Così traviato da una falsa poetica guasta la poesia e non giova alla scienza. Questo è il difetto della poesia dantesca; questo fa che la non sia schietta poesia; il difetto è generato da quella torta concezione; dallo stare ostinato in sulle idee”40. In assenza di una conclusione del libro su Dante non ci possiamo affidare che all’ultima, cioè quella messa in conclusione al VII capitolo della Storia..., dedicato alla Commedia: “In quelle profondità [del mondo di Dante] scavano i secoli, e vi trovano sempre nuove ispirazioni e nuovi pensieri. Là vive involto ancora e nodoso e pregno di misteri quel mondo, che (...) si chiama oggi letteratura moderna41. Purtroppo De Sanctis ha avuto, come Dante stesso, i suoi limiti e i suoi intenti falliti. Non ha capito quanto fosse avanti la critica che praticava e perciò non ha elaborato una definizione filosofico-sistemica42. E questo ha condotto a mende nella sua opera: non ha potuto proprorre una terminologia coerente, né è riuscito a superare le posizioni romantiche ed idealistico-hegeliane. Inoltre aveva ragione – almeno in parte – Gabriele D’Annunzio, così attento all’ “abito” di uno scritto, quando diceva che l’opera di De Sanctis, “essendo priva di quella resistente virtù che è lo stile, dovrà in breve perire”43. I suoi scritti non sono necessariamente periti – prova sta che, tanto tempo dopo l’affermazione di D’Annunzio, cioè negli anni ’60-’70 del Novecento, la sua opera ha conosciuto una seconda fortuna, ulteriore a quella procuratale dall’attività di editore di Croce – ma rendono difficile la lettura e alcuni dei giudizie oggi fanno proprio ridere. Sin dai tempi di Croce era nata la domanda “cosa resta tuttora della critica di De Sanctis?”, qualunque fosse quel tuttora. Di sicuro un metodo che i posteri hanno adattato, che ha fatto storia e che ancora non ha smesso di essere appetibile ai critici. Ma anche un atteggiamento di “patriota e (…) educatore etico-politico44. 40 Ibid., p. 627. Francesco De Sanctis, Storia della letteratura italiana, cit., p. 287. 42 Cfr. anche Gennaro Savarese, Leggere De Sanctis oggi, in Francesco De Sanctis. Recenti ricerche, Atti del convegno di studi organizzato dall’Istituto per gli Studi Filosofici e dalla Provincia di Avellino, Avellino, 1-2- marzo 1985, Edizioni Quattroventi, Urbino,1989, p. 40: “Quello che invecchia più rapidamente in uno storico e critic letetrario come De Sanctis [è] la parte sistemica”. 43 Gabriele D’Annunzio, Prose di ricera, di lotta, di comando, di conquista, di tormento, d’indovinamento, di rinnovamento, di celebrazione, di rivendicazione, di liberazione, di favole, di giuochi, di baleni, a c. di E. Bianchetti, Mondadori, Milano, 1956, vol. III, p. 341. 44 Paolo Jachia, Introduzione a Francesco De Sanctis, Laterza Editori, Roma-Bari, 1996, p. 68. 41 ROXANA UTALE 32 BIBLIOGRAFIA De Sanctis, Francesco (1955), Lezioni e saggi su Dante, a c. di Sergio Romagnoli, Giulio Einaudi, Torino. De Sanctis, Francesco (1889), La giovinezza di Francesco De Sanctis, a c. di Pasquale Villari, Morano, Napoli. De Sanctis, Francesco (1968), Storia della letteratura italiana, U.T.E.T., Torino. Croce, Benedetto (1949), Come fu scritta “La storia della letetratura italiana”, in Una famiglia di patrioti ed altri saggi, Bari. Croce, Benedetto (2007), Storia della letteratura italiana. Nota bibliografica, in Scritti su Francesco De Sanctis, a c. do Teodoro Tagliaferri e Fulvio Tessitore, Giannini editore, Napoli. D’Annuzio, Gabriele (1956), Prose di ricera, di lotta, di comando, di conquista, di tormento, d’indovinamento, di rinnovamento, di celebrazione, di rivendicazione, di liberazione, di favole, di giuochi, di baleni, a c. di Egidio Bianchetti, Mondadori, Milano. Della Terza, Dante (1999), “Francesco De Sanctis e il Medioevo”, in Dante Della Terza, Matteo D’Ambrosio, Giuseppina Scognamiglio (eds.), Tradizione e innovazione. Studi su De Sanctis, Croce e Pirandello, Liguori, Napoli, pp. 5-13. Jachia, Paolo (1996), Introduzione a Francesco De Sanctis, Laterza Editori, Roma-Bari. Muscetta, Carlo (1978), Francesco De Sanctis, Laterza, Roma-Bari. Petronio, Giuseppe (1984), L’attività letteraria in Italia. Storia della letteratura, Palumbo, Palermo. Savarese, Gennaro (1989), “Leggere De Sanctis oggi”, in Francesco De Sanctis. Recenti ricerche, Atti del convegno di studi organizzato dall’Istituto per gli Studi Filosofici e dalla Provincia di Avellino, Avellino, 1-2 marzo 1985, Edizioni Quattroventi, Urbino. RÉGIME DIURNE ET RÉGIME NOCTURNE DE L’IMAGE DANS L’ŒUVRE D’ALAIN-FOURNIER MARIA SÂRBU* DIURNAL ORDER AND NOCTURNAL ORDER OF THE IMAGE IN ALAIN-FOURNIER’S WORK Abstract Our study aims to identify, in Alain-Fournier’s work, the symbolic values of the two orders analyzed by Durand. We found that the significant images cluster around the discovery of the Lost Estate. The moral height and purity required by the diurnal set of symbols are essential conditions to access the Estate. These characteristics of the Lost Estate are fulfilled by Yvonne. The same image can combine symbolic values of the diurnal and nocturnal order, but it is the nocturnal order that dominates Fournier’s work. The discovery of the mysterious Domain, land of the privacy dreamed by Meaulnes, supposes an initiatory journey, placed by Durand among the cyclic symbols of the nocturnal order. Meaulnes’ existential quest is presented in terms of an optimism that overcomes any difficulty. Keywords: orders of the image, Alain-Fournier, quest, discovery, elevation. Gilbert Durand regroupe les images en deux régimes : le régime diurne de la hauteur, de la pureté et de l’antithèse, et le régime nocturne de l’inversion, de l’intimité et des euphémismes. Il comprend par « régime » un groupe de structures sémantiques définies comme des formes transformables, jouant le rôle de protocole motivateur pour tout un groupement d’images. Il définit le régime diurne comme un régime de l’antithèse – en soulignant que, si la nuit a une existence symbolique autonome, la lumière, par contre, ne peut pas exister sans les ténèbres – et le régime nocturne comme un régime de la conversion et de l’euphémisme. Selon Durand, il y a, d’une part, des symboles du régime nocturne qui se caractérisent par une inversion de la valeur affective attribuée aux visages du temps, de sorte qu’au sein de la nuit l’esprit pressent la lumière, la chute devient descente, l’abîme prend la forme d’une coupe, l’être entrevoit un espace intime et protecteur. D’autre part, il y a les symboles du retour ou les * Université « Alexandru Ioan Cuza » de Iasi, Roumanie, [email protected]. MARIA SÂRBU 34 symboles cycliques qui visent à rechercher et à découvrir un facteur de stabilité à l’intérieur du temps et à synthétiser les aspirations à un monde au-delà de la transcendance et des intuitions immanentes du devenir. A l’intérieur de ce groupe, la nuit par exemple n’est qu’une promesse de l’aube. Durand (1977 : 70, 77, 80, 243-244) L’univers imaginaire d’Alain-Fournier pourrait être décrit par des symboles du régime diurne – des symboles thériomorphes (les symboles prenant une forme animale), ascensionnels (les symboles de l’élévation) et diaïrétiques (les symboles qui exigent un procédé dialectique, où ils affrontent leur contraire) –, aussi bien que par des symboles du régime nocturne – des symboles de l’inversion et de l’intimité et des symboles cycliques. 1. Régime diurne La découverte du Domaine sans nom – événement essentiel du Grand Meaulnes – qui exige une âme pure au voyageur subissant les épreuves de l’initiation, est précédée par l’apparition d’une tourelle grise qui ressemble à un vieux pigeonnier. Le renvoi indirect au pigeon – oiseau rangé par Durand parmi les symboles thériomorphes de la pureté – suggère l’état d’âme de l’étudiant égaré. Longtemps après, Meaulnes avoue qu’il est arrivé au Domaine lorsqu’il était à un degré de pureté qu’il n’atteindrait jamais plus. Alain-Fournier (2000 : 160) La pureté, mais aussi l’instinct d’élévation et de sublimation se rattachent aux figures féminines (Yvonne de Galais, Valentine et leurs inspiratrices) associées à la présence d’oiseaux : hirondelle, tourterelle, pigeon ou colombe. Yvonne de Galais lui semble « toute frémissante, comme une hirondelle un instant posée à terre et qui déjà tremble du désir de reprendre son vol. » Alain-Fournier (2000 : 72-73) ; Colombe Blanchet est une « chaste jeune fille admirable » Alain-Fournier (1990 : 31-32) Fournier se voit lui-même « le veilleur aux colombes, la vieille âme très pure » Alain-Fournier et Jacques Rivière (1926-1928, tome IV : 153) ou bien il imagine, dans « A travers les étés », un après-midi à « la Maison des Tourterelles » – Alain-Fournier (1986c : 130) – avec la jeune fille qu’il aime. L’ascension fascine Fournier au moins autant que la pureté. Un extrait d’Ibsen de Solness le Constructeur, où le mouvement vertical est attribué à une tour est retenu par l’avide chercheur de significations qu’il est : Ibsen. Solness le Constructeur. Beau. – Grand symbole. − Une tour… ? Que voulez-vous dire ? − Je songe à quelque chose qui s’élève… − Qui s’élève librement dans les airs ! … Alain-Fournier (1930 :100) Son enthousiasme pour les images d’élévation se manifeste sous plusieurs formes. Action réalisée par des personnages, attribut des objets ou des forces RÉGIME DIURNE ET RÉGIME NOCTURNE DE L’IMAGE DANS L’ŒUVRE D’ALAIN-FOURNIER 35 émotionnelles, l’ascension est arborée aussi bien dans le roman que dans les lettres. Un jour, Fournier aperçoit des montagnes qui « paraissent émerger d’un gouffre immense dont la ligne d’horizon serait un bord » ; un autre, lors des manœuvres militaires, il éprouve la grande et furtive satisfaction d’avoir encouragé réellement ses soldats, sentiment qu’il sent « monter » sous lui et qui est, dans son opinion, peut-être plus précieux qu’une grande passion ou un grand amour. Son livre même est projeté comme une gradation ascensionnelle ; son point terminus aboutit au sommet de la pureté et du sacrifice, c’est-à-dire à la joie : « Et puis, il y aura une troisième partie, où le personnage de la première (de l’enfance) reviendra et cela montera plus haut que la pureté, plus haut que le sacrifice, plus haut que toute la désolation – à la joie » Alain-Fournier (1930 : 269, 268) ; Alain-Fournier et Jacques Rivière (1926-1928, tome IV : 244). Le séjour au Domaine suppose non seulement un certain état spirituel (la pureté), mais aussi l’ascension vers une région chaste où règnent les enfants. Avant d’entrer dans « sa » chambre du vieux château, Meaulnes doit franchir le mur moussu qui se trouve entre la lisière du bois et la cour du domaine. Une fois le mur surmonté, l’ascension continue. Le mur et les voitures qui remplissent la cour représentent les marches d’un escalier imaginaire, appuyé sur la terre pour figurer le monde mortel en tant que « support » à partir duquel toute ascension doit commencer. Meaulnes passe d’une voiture à l’autre, du siège d’un char à bancs au toit d’une berline pour arriver à une fenêtre des annexes. La dernière marche avant la fenêtre est le « siège d’un haut char à bancs » ; de là, il arrive « à la hauteur de la fenêtre », qu’il pousse « sans bruit comme une porte » Alain-Fournier (2000 : 55). La dernière voiture et la fenêtre portent visiblement la marque de la hauteur. Cependant, selon Durand, les escaliers descendent toujours; monter dans le grenier ou dans le chambres situés à l’étage c’est toujours descendre dans le cœur du mystère, un mystère nuancé par l’isolement et l’intimité. Durand (1977 : 304) L’endroit caché dans le bois, la fête et ses participants sont étranges pour Meaulnes, et le simple fait d’être près de Meaulnes et d’écouter l’histoire de ces aventures plonge Seurel dans le mystère. Le grenier de la maison de Sainte-Agathe est le lieu propice des confessions. C’est là que Meaulnes raconte à Seurel son étrange aventure qu’il avait si longtemps gardée pour lui et qui chassait son sommeil, de sorte que, vers une heure du matin, Seurel était réveillé par le bruit de ses pas et le trouvait déambulant vers la chambre et les greniers. C’est toujours aux greniers que Seurel trouve la vielle malle d’écolier de Meaulnes. Elle renferme des cahiers et des livres de SainteAgathe, mais aussi le journal de Meaulnes. Le grenier est un musée des ancêtres et un lieu du retour. Durand (1977 : 304) Seurel avoue que l’image des greniers appelle toute une série de souvenirs : 36 MARIA SÂRBU … si j’essaie d’imaginer la première nuit que je dus passer dans ma mansarde, au milieu des greniers du premier étage, déjà ce sont d’autres nuits que je me rappelle ; je ne suis plus seul dans cette chambre ; une grande ombre inquiète et amie passe le long des murs et se promène. Alain-Fournier (2000 :14) Dans une lettre à Jacques Rivière (3 mars 1909), Alain-Fournier se rappelle que, pendant son enfance, il associait les chambres du haut avec le mystère : Je savais que monter dans les chambres du haut, pour coucher dans la grande maison inconnue, ne me serait plus, comme autrefois, tant de douceur et de mystère. Alain-Fournier et Jacques Rivière (1926-1928, tome IV : 82) Augustin n’échappe pas à cette attirance pour le mystère des greniers. Sa première apparition dans le roman le présente descendant du grenier des Seurel qu’il vient d’explorer. « Je n’ai su que plus tard quel royaume il s’y était découvert » Alain-Fournier (1986a :422), précise François dans les esquisses du roman. Les deux camarades sont attirés par les greniers à cause de la hauteur singulière qu’y prend la maison. Une lucarne suffit pour que la maison s’ouvre sur l’infini. Et suscite le désir d’aventure des deux garçons. Un fragment des brouillons est significatif : « C’était un des grands désirs de François, je le sais, d’aller un jour à cette chapelle. (…) Il l’avait, comme Meaulnes à sa lucarne, découverte un soir d’été entre les arbres lointains ». Alain-Fournier (1986a :444) Les greniers ou les chambres du haut peuvent être intégrés aussi dans le groupe des symboles diaïrétiques, guidés par une intention polémique qui les confronte avec leur opposé. Durand (1977 :196) Selon Durand, une maison est un être terrestre qui enregistre les appels célestes du régime diurne de l’imaginaire. Ces valeurs symboliques sont mises en évidence par la branche à la portée du vent et le grenier en proie à tous les courants d’air. D’une part, la maison sépare et défend ses habitants de l’extériorité, d’autre part, elle prédispose à des rêveries de l’intimité. Durand (1977 : 208) (Les parents de François cherchent toujours à renforcer le pouvoir sécurisant des logements successifs de la famille du narrateur. Les efforts de sa mère visent à rendre « habitables » les maisons en condamnant les portes et en bloquant les courants d’air pour créer ainsi un espace clos, où elle peut se retirer pour coudre. Son père, quant à lui, ferme les volets de bois aux portes vitrées sur l’intimité profonde de la maison.) Dans Le Grand Meaulnes, les branches secouées par le vent caractérisent le Domaine mystérieux lors de la fête étrange – « bâtiments confus où le vent secouait des branches devant les ouvertures roses, vertes et bleues des fenêtres » Alain-Fournier (2000 : 60) – ou lors des noces d’Augustin et Yvonne : « Aucun bruit du dehors n’arrive plus maintenant jusqu’aux jeunes gens. Il y a tout juste une branche de rosier sans feuilles qui cogne la vitre ». Alain-Fournier (2000 : 181) RÉGIME DIURNE ET RÉGIME NOCTURNE DE L’IMAGE DANS L’ŒUVRE D’ALAIN-FOURNIER 37 La valeur défensive de la maison est renforcée par sa forme carrée. La maison de Meaulnes, par exemple, est une construction carrée et, en outre, les fenêtres du rez-de-chaussée qui donnent sur la rue sont si hautes que personne n’y regarde jamais. La forme carrée met l’accent symbolique sur la défense de l’intégrité intérieure. Meaulnes s’y retire pendant les longues vacances ou lorsqu’il veut réfléchir avant de prendre une décision. L’image de cette maison apparaît seulement lors de la visite de Seurel. Au rôle symbolique de la figure carrée correspond l’attitude de Meaulnes pendant la discussion avec son ancien camarade. Il ne tend pas la main à Seurel, il le regarde sans le voir, il écoute en silence, « la tête un peu rentrée, dans l’attitude de quelqu’un qu’on a surpris et qui ne sait comment se défendre, se cacher ou s’enfuir » Alain-Fournier (2000 :161), cherchant à justifier sa conduite et le désespoir où il avait sombré. 2. Régime nocturne L’intention polémique du régime diurne est estompée par l’euphémisme qui caractérise le régime nocturne. La mélodie, par exemple, est un euphémisme par rapport au bruit. Selon Durand, la musique est le double euphémisant de la durée existentielle. La musique retrouve en nous la racine de tous les souvenirs et la transforme, pour un instant, en centre d’un monde féerique. Durand (1977 :277) Dans la chambre de Wellington, Meaulnes entend « le son d’une musique perdue » apporté par le vent. Le son lui-même est comparé avec un souvenir « plein de charme ». Ensuite c’est le souvenir même qui arrive. Il se rappelle le temps où sa mère, jeune encore, jouait du piano l’après-midi dans le salon, et lui, en silence, derrière la porte, l’écoutait jusqu’à la nuit. AlainFournier (2000 : 56) La musique nocturne caresse aussi les amoureux, de sorte qu’ils pensent en « tendres sonorités », comme Ludwig Tieck l’a dit. Dans la partie la plus paisible et la plus obscure de la demeure, Meaulnes entend jouer du piano et se dirige vers le son. La musique l’attire et il s’arrête dans la chambre où une jeune fille joue « très doucement » du piano, entourée de petits enfants. La musique mélodieuse le plonge « dans le bonheur le plus calme du monde » et lui rappelle un rêve de jadis. La jeune fille qui avait ensoleillé les rêves de Meaulnes pendant son enfance apparaît pour la première fois devant lui lors de la fête étrange. Il imagine, comme autrefois, qu’il est dans sa propre maison, marié, un beau soir, et que la jeune inconnue jouant du piano c’est sa femme. Alain-Fournier (2000 : 66-67) Par l’euphémisme de la musique, le temps est réhabilité et l’angoisse disparaît (Meaulnes était « angoissé » avant de se réfugier dans la pièce silencieuse), car le jeune homme oublie sa condition d’intrus à la fête étrange, il se sent chez lui au Domaine mystérieux, près de la belle jeune fille. 38 MARIA SÂRBU Le logement (le Domaine mystérieux), la bien-aimée et la mort (la tombe) sont isomorphes dans le cadre du symbolisme de l’intimité. En apprenant que la jeune fille s’est mariée, Meaulnes associe la mort au bien-être de son aventure de jadis : « Peut-être quand nous mourrons, peut-être la mort seule nous donnera la clef et la suite et la fin de cette aventure manquée » Alain-Fournier (2000 :134) ; « Dans la mort seulement […] je retrouverai peut-être la beauté de ce temps-là… » Alain-Fournier (2000 :160) L’association des valeurs mortuaires avec le repos et l’intimité se retrouve dans le folklore. Les chambres secrètes cachent les belles au bois dormant des contes. Durand (1977 :295) Augustin trouve la fille de ses rêves dans la pièce la plus paisible et la plus obscure de la demeure. L’intimité du château est renforcée par la dernière chambre, plus mystérieuse que les autres. Seurel a bien compris la signification du château. Il sait qu’il cherche … le passage dont il est question dans les livres, l’ancien chemin obstrué, celui dont le prince harassé de fatigue n’a pu trouver l’entrée. […] Et soudain, en écartant, dans le feuillage profond, les branches, avec ce geste hésitant des mains à hauteur du visage inégalement écartées, on l’aperçoit comme une longue avenue sombre dont la sortie est un rond de lumière tout petit. Alain-Fournier (2000 :120) La joie d’être parfaitement enfermé est symbolisée aussi par le logement sur l’eau, c’est-à-dire par la barque. En dépit du froid de l’hiver, Meaulnes se croit au cœur de l’été et se sent chez soi, car, sans savoir comment, il se trouve dans le même yacht que la jeune châtelaine. Il peut la regarder à l’aise et être regardé par elle dans ce lieu clos, île en miniature où le temps cesse de voler. Dans Le miracle des trois dames de village, un conte du recueil Miracles, les trois jeunes femmes se trouvent d’abord « dans leur salon fermé, comme dans une barque amarrée au milieu du courant » (1986c : 175). Elles se sentent si tranquilles dans le salon, qu’elles ne peuvent distinguer aucun bruit, pas même le tic-tac de la pendule. La barque, symbolisant le récipient protecteur, est remplacée ensuite par la roulotte et le char, d’autres véhicules servant de refuge, d’abri. Le char apparaît non seulement comme un facteur de sécurité, mais aussi comme un ambassadeur symbolique du monde de l’au-delà, lorsque le cercueil d’Yvonne est amené dans une charrette à bœufs. Un autre char, la vieille voiture de Mme Meaulnes, qui conduit Augustin à la fin de son séjour à Sainte-Agathe, symbolise la fin de l’adolescence de François : « … je me trouvai, pour la première fois depuis de longs mois, seul en face d’une longue soirée de jeudi – avec l’impression que, dans cette vieille voiture, mon adolescence venait de s’en aller pour toujours ». Alain-Fournier (2000 :126) Selon Durand, la notion de récipient est solidaire avec celle de contenu, généralement un fluide intégré au symbolisme aquatique de l’intimité. Durand (1977 :318) Dans l’œuvre d’Alain-Fournier, le lait est associé aux instants RÉGIME DIURNE ET RÉGIME NOCTURNE DE L’IMAGE DANS L’ŒUVRE D’ALAIN-FOURNIER 39 heureux de repos dans des logements qui inspirent un sentiment de sécurité. L’hospitalité des gens de campagne les fait offrir à Meaulnes, qui s’était égaré, un bol de lait avec du pain. Dans le poème Dans le chemin qui s’enfonce, la promenade au pays de l’enfance des deux amoureux se passe comme s’ils étaient arrivés au soir, dans la salle basse d’une ferme inconnue où on leur offre du lait. Dans un fragment du texte Les Gens du Domaine, les jeunes amoureux se trouvent dans leur propre ferme ; elle trait les vaches, lui, il donne du foin aux vaches. Leur vie heureuse devient l’objet des songes d’une demoiselle qui vient, le soir, chercher du lait chez eux. Fournier imagine le bien-être comme une série de voyages interminables pendent lesquels il s’arrêterait chez des paysans isolés qui lui offriraient du lait : « D’ici là, je voudrais ne me nourrir que de kilomètres, de lait pris dans des fermes ignorées, et de paysages ». Alain-Fournier (1986b :33) Pour parvenir à l’intimité avec soi-même qu’il recherche et qu’il défend, et pour retrouver en soi-même le primitif, le primordial, Meaulnes doit affronter l’inconnu et faire preuve d’un courage spécifique surtout aux voyages sur la mer. Comme Fabrice, le personnage de la Chartreuse de Parme, Meaulnes doit passer d’un régime héroïque de l’image et de l’action à un régime mystique régi par les valeurs et les images de l’intimité, donc du rouge au noir. Maintes fois, dans le roman, les aventures de Meaulnes sont associées aux vagues dangereuses : « je regardais avec les autres cet attelage perdu qui nous revenait, telle une épave qu’eût ramenée la haute mer – la première épave et la dernière, peut-être, de l’aventure de Meaulnes » ; « demeure d’où partirent et où revinrent se briser, comme des vagues sur un rocher désert, nos aventures » ; « la première vague de cette aventure dont nous ne reparlions pas arriva jusqu’à nous ». Alain-Fournier (2000 : 13, 32, 86) Mais la découverte de l’amour et de la mort est le destin de tous les hommes, depuis la création du monde. Les aventures de Meaulnes sont, en grandes lignes, les épreuves subies par tous les mortels. Dans une lettre à Jacques Rivière (4 avril 1910), Alain-Fournier insiste sur le côté humain de l’histoire de Meaulnes : « … pour l’instant c’est l’histoire de l’homme-sur-latour, mais descendu sur terre. C’est le pays sans nom, mais aussi le pays de tout le monde. Ce sera bien plus humainement beau ainsi ». Alain-Fournier et Jacques Rivière (1926-1928, tome IV : 197) Toute expérience initiatique aboutit à un recommencement. On entre ainsi dans la sphère des symboles cycliques, qui répètent à l’infini les rythmes temporaux, tout en les maîtrisant. Durand (1977 :349) L’arrivée de Meaulnes est, pour Seurel, « le commencement d’une vie nouvelle » – Alain-Fournier (2000 :20), et même un recommencement de la vie, car elle coïncide avec sa guérison, une vraie inclusion dans le groupe des écoliers, le renoncement aux heures de solitude et la participation à des événements inédits. Ce début est marqué par un symbole cyclique, la roue. Dès 40 MARIA SÂRBU le premier soir à Sainte-Agathe, Meaulnes aide Seurel à quitter sa condition d’enfant solitaire pour connaître une enfance plus mouvementée. Poussé par Meaulnes, Seurel sort sans demander la permission et commence à transgresser les règles de l’école. De plus, cette conduite se développe même sous les yeux de l’institutrice. L’émancipation porte l’emblème de la petite roue qui avait été le soleil ou la lune au feu d’artifice d’un Quatorze Juillet. Dès lors, la mère de François ne retient plus son fils à sortir, elle ne lui fait plus de reproches. L’anthropologue de l’imaginaire affirme que les cérémonies initiatiques sont des répétitions du drame temporel. Durand (1977 : 380) Elles comportent tout un rituel de révélations successives, elles s’exécutent lentement, par étapes : sacrifice, mort, tombe, résurrection symbolique. L’initiation suppose presque toujours une preuve mutilante ou sacrificielle, matérialisée pour Meaulnes en la blessure au genou. Il est important de souligner que la blessure est produite par la roue de la voiture. La roue, symbole cyclique, vient renforcer la signification des cérémonies initiatiques. En continuant son chemin, Meaulnes avance lentement, car son genou enflé lui fait mal. La douleur est tellement vive qu’il doit s’arrêter et s’asseoir à chaque moment. Arrivé au Domaine mystérieux, il franchit le mur péniblement, à cause de son genou blessé, mais après s’être reposé, son genou semble guéri. Meaulnes n’est pas le seul qui subit l’initiation à l’amour et à la mort. Seurel et Frantz connaissent, eux-mêmes, l’étape de la « mutilation ». Seurel souffre d’une coxalgie qui le rend craintif et malheureux. L’arrivée d’Augustin Meaulnes coïncide avec sa guérison et son genou cesse définitivement de lui faire mal à partir du soir où il commence à chercher tout seul le Domaine mystérieux. Quant à Frantz, en se tirant une balle de pistolet, il se fait une blessure à la tempe. La souffrance physique semble passer d’un personnage masculin à l’autre. L’apparition d’Augustin apaise la coxalgie de François, mais, pendant son aventure, Augustin se fait lui-même mal au genou. Lorsque le genou d’Augustin paraît guéri, Frantz se tire une balle de pistolet qui le blesse à la tempe. Augustin et François se confrontent à la mort d’Yvonne, dont le Domaine des Sablonnières sera la tombe. François doit porter lui-même le corps inanimé vers le cercueil, ensuite il recommence sa vie en prenant soin de la fille de ses amis. Augustin apprend d’abord qu’Yvonne est morte, et seulement après cela, qu’il a une fille, promesse de renouveau pour l’avenir. Pour lui, retrouver sa fillette c’est la dernière étape de son parcours initiatique, la phase récapitulative des épreuves qui ont confronté le jeune homme avec l’altérité de l’amour et de la mort. L’épilogue du roman (l’épisode du retour de Meaulnes) pourrait porter le titre « Le temps retrouvé », car Meaulnes y est le sujet d’une transmutation initiatique née du conflit entre identité et altérité. La petite fille est une nouvelle Yvonne, qui rend la joie de vivre aux trois jeunes hommes. La petite Yvonne est le nœud du passé et du présent, la résurrection du passé. Le petit enfant aide les trois grandes personnes à RÉGIME DIURNE ET RÉGIME NOCTURNE DE L’IMAGE DANS L’ŒUVRE D’ALAIN-FOURNIER 41 découvrir du futur dans le passé même. Au-delà des événements de la mémoire objective, ils liront les souvenirs comme ceux d’une enfance réelle qui vit en eux, devenant un avenir de perpétuel recommencement, une création continuelle. Jean-Gilles et Meaulnes partagent cette nostalgie de l’enfance. Selon Alain-Fournier, le héros du Grand Meaulnes eut une enfance trop belle qu’il traîne après lui pendant toute son adolescence. Par instants, il semble que « tout ce paradis imaginaire qui fut le monde de son enfance » va faire son apparition à la fin de ses aventures ou par la suite d’un de ses gestes. C’est par exemple, le cas du matin d’hiver où, après s’être absenté à son cours pendant trois jours, il y rentre comme « un jeune dieu mystérieux et insolent ». Lettre du 4 avril 1910, Alain-Fournier et Jacques Rivière (1926-1928, tome IV : 193-196) Quelques années auparavant, Alain-Fournier écrivait à Jacques Rivière que sa vie même est une quête sans cesse renouvelée : « Derrière chaque instant de la vie, je cherche la vie de mon paradis ; derrière chaque paysage, je sens le paysage de mon paradis. Je suis satisfait. » Lettre à Jacques Rivière, 26 janvier 1907 Alain-Fournier (1926-1928, tome III : 27). Pour Alain-Fournier, chaque instant est une quête initiatique renouvelée, une euphémisation du temps qui aboutit à la joie humaine. Il exprime sa soif d’un paradis de lettre en lettre. On peut rapprocher le parcours initiatique de Meaulnes du « rite du centre », étudié par Mircea Eliade. Eliade (2008 : 60) Le rite du centre suppose une ascension jusqu’au Centre du Monde pour transcender l’espace profane et pénétrer dans une « région pure ». Le voyage de Meaulnes finit par l’arrivée au Domaine mystérieux, qui deviendra le centre du monde de Meaulnes. Pour entrer dans le cœur du domaine, le néophyte a dû se confronter à un vrai labyrinthe végétal – l’étroit chemin défoncé, les herbes, les marais, les fausses pistes – aux ténèbres et aux problèmes de communication avec les gens qu’il croise pendant son voyage. La présence du labyrinthe est une exigence du voyage en soi-même à la suite du « rite du centre ». Elément nécessaire au rituel d’initiation, le labyrinthe a la fonction de défendre le néophyte devant toute force extérieure nocive, et l’aider en même temps à se concentrer, à trouver son propre « centre ». En dépit de l’obscurité et de la fatigue croissantes, le voyage de Meaulnes lui a offert aussi un peu de soulagement : la halte et le bol de lait dans la maison isolée, le souvenir de la vision qu’il avait eue tout enfant – donnant lieu à des rêveries d’intimité. Selon Eliade, la contradiction entre les obstacles et le soulagement supposés par le labyrinthe n’est qu’apparente. Il y a toute une série de mythes, de symboles et de rituels qui soulignent la difficulté qu’il y a à pénétrer dans un Centre, et d’autre part, il y a un ensemble de mythes et de rites qui témoignent de l’accessibilité de ce Centre. Un des exemples offerts par Eliade est celui du pèlerinage aux Lieux Saints. Il souligne que c’est un itinéraire difficile, mais toute visite à une église est un pèlerinage. Un château à demi ruiné peut, lui 42 MARIA SÂRBU aussi, être situé au Centre du monde. Ne sachant pas comment rentrer au Domaine, Meaulnes recherche longtemps le chemin perdu, sans résultat. La clé du labyrinthe est révélée par un des élèves qui avaient été les camarades de classe de Meaulnes et Seurel. C’est le rustre Jasmin Delouche qui décrit le château des Sablonnières comme s’il y a passé sa vie et ouvre la voie vers le domaine perdu. Le chemin s’ouvre « net et facile comme une route familière », loin de tout espoir. Yvonne a raison de dire que le bonheur est tout près, bien qu’il n’en ait pas l’air : …il y a peut-être quelque grand jeune homme fou qui me cherche au bout du monde, pendant que je suis ici dans le magasin de madame Florentin, sous cette lampe, et que mon vieux cheval m’attend à la porte. Si ce jeune homme me voyait, il ne voudrait pas y croire, sans doute ?... Alain-Fournier (2000 : 148) Arrivé au Pays sans nom, Meaulnes abandonne la perspective de celui qui est « en chemin » vers le Centre ou du « voyageur » pour s’approprier l’état de celui qui y est déjà parvenu ou du « sédentaire ». Guénon (2008 : 52) En oubliant le temps historique, Meaulnes connaît au Domaine le présent éternel, surtout lorsqu’il se trouve auprès d’Yvonne. Il rencontre la beauté et la jeunesse, pour tout dire en un seul mot – l’amour. Il nous semble lire entre les lignes : « Arrête-toi, instant, tu es si beau ! » Il suffit à Meaulnes de désirer revoir la jeune fille ou de penser à elle pour la rencontrer tout de suite, pour que l’instant merveilleux revienne : … sans savoir comment, Meaulnes se trouva dans le même yacht que la jeune châtelaine ; A terre, tout s’arrangea comme dans un rêve. ; Il errait au hasard, persuadé qu’il ne reverrait plus cette gracieuse créature, lorsqu’il l’aperçut soudain venant à sa rencontre et forcée de passer près de lui dans l’étroit sentier. (C’est nous qui soulignons) Alain-Fournier (2000 : 70-71) Nous remarquons la présence du verbe « apercevoir » dans le dernier exemple ; il a la plus élevée occurrence (60 occurrences) après « regarder » (138) et « voir » (118). En nous appuyant sur la topographie des verbes de vision établie par Pierre Ouellet dans sa Poétique du regard – Ouellet (2000 :114-131), nous pourrions caractériser l’événement perceptif chez Alain-Fournier en fonction des mesures de l’espace-temps (l’espace étant tourné vers le monde des objets et le temps vers les actes du sujet) concernant son champ conceptuel de vision. Ainsi, l’acte d’apercevoir vise « un objet individué et délimité » et se localise dans l’instant, ayant « des frontières temporelles bien précises ». La plupart des occurrences significatives de ce verbe s’enregistrent dans les trois chapitres de la fête étrange, le sujet de l’acte de perception étant toujours Meaulnes et l’objet principal – Yvonne. La brièveté de l’expérience perceptive correspond à la représentation que Meaulnes se fait du temps lors de son séjour au Domaine. Un autre verbe vient la renforcer : « entrevoir » : Seurel RÉGIME DIURNE ET RÉGIME NOCTURNE DE L’IMAGE DANS L’ŒUVRE D’ALAIN-FOURNIER 43 perçoit l’aventure de Meaulnes de la même manière : « ce bonheur mystérieux que Meaulnes a entrevu un jour. » (C’est nous qui soulignons) C’est un verbe qui s’applique, tout comme « apercevoir », à un objet perçu comme entité unique dans un intervalle de temps bref correspondant à l’instant. A la lumière des symboles du régime diurne et du régime nocturne, le cheminement vers le Domaine mystérieux est une invitation à une ascension qui témoigne de l’optimisme d’Alain-Fournier. Au-delà de tous les chagrins, son univers imaginaire a une destinée heureuse. BIBLIOGRAPHIE Alain-Fournier, Jacques Rivière (1926-1928), Correspondance 1905-1914, Gallimard, Paris. Alain-Fournier (1990), Colombe Blanchet. Esquisse d’un second roman, Le cherche-midi éditeur, Paris. Alain-Fournier (2000), Le Grand Meaulnes, Librairie Générale Française, Paris. Alain-Fournier (1986a), Le Grand Meaulnes, Miracles. Le dossier du Grand Meaulnes, Ed. Garnier, Paris. Alain-Fournier (1930), Lettres à sa famille, Ed. Plon, Paris. Alain-Fournier (1986b), Lettres au petit B., Ed. Fayard, Paris. Alain-Fournier (1986c), Miracles, Fayard, Paris. Bachelard, Gaston (2003), Poetica spaţiului, Ed. Paralela 45, Bucureşti. Durand, Gilbert (1977), Structurile antropologice ale imaginarului, Univers, Bucureşti. Eliade, Mircea (2008), Images et symboles, Ed. Gallimard, Paris. Guenon, René (2008), Scurtă privire asupra iniţierii, Ed. Herald, Bucureşti. Ouellet, Pierre (2000), Poétique du regard : littérature, perception, identité, Presses Universitaires de Limoges. A ROSE FOR EDITH: AN OASIS OF POETRY IN THE CITADEL OF OLD NEW YORK PROSE ANCA PEIU∗ Abstract My essay discusses three issues: the (possible) influence of Edith Wharton – the first woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, in 1921 – upon young William Faulkner, making his early literary apprenticeship in New York, right then, in 1922-1923; the revelation of Wharton’s gift as a poet; last but not least, the polarity major-minor writers/ writings in a literary canon always bound to change. Keywords: old-new, minor-major, romantic-modern, fiction-poetry, urban-rural, literary canon, trains in (Old) New York. It has been my intention to write here about one of Edith Wharton’s much acclaimed pieces of shorter fiction, “The Old Maid: The ’Fifties,” the second one of the four novellas of her volume Old New York (1924). I still believe an echo of this particular story is detectable in William Faulkner’s celebrated novella “A Rose for Emily” (1930), for all its Southern Gothic gloomy humor. And the link between the two extremities of this modern American fiction polarity is Faulkner’s story “Miss Zilphia Gant” (1928/ 1932). William Faulkner did complete his young writer’s apprenticeship in New York between 1922 and 1923, as a shop assistant in a bookstore, where his manager was Elizabeth Prall, just before she married Sherwood Anderson. Anderson would encourage Faulkner in his career, playing a decisive part in his further artistic development in New Orleans. Still before all that, as a young Southern writer employed at a bookshop in New York, Faulkner must have read as voraciously as ever, with a keen eye for the best writers of the day. Edith Wharton was unmistakably one of them, being the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1921 for her novel The Age of Innocence (1920). Faulkner cannot have been unaware of that. ∗ University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Department of English, [email protected]. 46 ANCA PEIU Failed motherhood coincides with a sense of void, a kind of barrenness of the soul, in all these three stories: Edith Wharton’s “The Old Maid” – on the one hand; William Faulkner’s “Miss Zilphia Gant” and “A Rose for Emily” – on the other hand. The possibility that the young William Faulkner may have found not only some affinity with Edith Wharton’s sharp wit and twisted turns of irony, but also some strain of despair and waste of affective energy, the essential frustration and repression, both of which make of such protagonists as Delia Ralston and Chatty Lovell two masks of the same image of utter feminine defeat, appears to me stronger than ever now, that I have studied both these writers with the ever growing admiration of a fan. As it shows from between the lines of Wharton’s novella, conventional (failed) motherhood can play the classic quid-pro-quo game with conventional (failed) spinsterhood any time: as a solitude persona, none of the two versions of selfhood is any safer; they are made to appear incomplete without each other. If Aunt Chatty is no more of a spinster than young Tina’s (foster) mother Delia, the fictive kaleidoscope has worked its trick. Chatty must give up a happy secure marriage to Joe Ralston for the sake of Tina, her daughter with Clem Spender. Her cousin Delia had once given up Clem himself, who was genuinely in love with her, for the sake of a safe conventional marriage to Jim Ralston. That their own daughter Delia should bear the mother’s name is an ironic mise en abyme: the story is very likely to go on for ever. Instead, for the sake of her lost lover, mother Delia adopts Tina, who rounds up the story by a successful marriage. The 1939 American film made after this brilliant short story features Bette Davies as passionate Chatty Lovell – the right actress in the right role. Likewise, Faulkner’s rural Miss Zilphia Gant grotesquely driven by insane jealousy to conceive a baby(girl) without any sexual partner, just on her own, focusing hard on her job, imagining herself to follow Virgin Mary, as she vainly hopes – cannot be too far from the perverted game of quid-pro-quo played by Wharton’s Old New York ladies. To me, it is all the more significant that out of the four mid-nineteenth century decades ascribed in turn to the novellas which make up the book Old New York, it is “the ’Fifties” that should correspond to “The Old Maid.” 1850 is the year when Nathaniel Hawthorne outraged his readers publishing his romance The Scarlet Letter. Adulterous motherhood in some Puritan illo tempore Boston, the tense relationship between Hester Prynne as the mother and Pearl as her daughter foreshadow Wharton’s jeweler’s diegesis. As for William Faulkner, he reacted to this overpowering inspiration by one of his best experiments in novelistic style: As I Lay Dying (1930). Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne is echoed there by Addie Bundren, the poor white trash Yoknapatawpha school teacher, a perfect alien to all the passers by within her life, who decides to quit when she reckons her (marital and maternal) A ROSE FOR EDITH: AN OASIS OF POETRY IN THE CITADEL OF OLD NEW YORK PROSE 47 double duty has been done. The key to her allegorical character is a sarcastic piece of home-truth: My father said that the reason for living is getting ready to stay dead. I knew at last what he meant and that he could not have known what he meant himself, because a man cannot know anything about cleaning up the house afterward. And so I have cleaned my house. (Faulkner, 175-176; my emphasis) Just as passionate in her solitude as Wharton’s Chatty Lovell, Faulkner’s Addie Bundren has no patience with grand words when it comes to conventional family life, and especially mock-heroic motherhood: And so, when Cora Tull would tell me I was not a true mother, I would think how words go straight up in a thin line, quick and harmless, and how terribly doing goes along the earth, clinging to it, so that after a while the two lines are too far apart for the same person to straddle from one to the other; and that sin and love and fear are just sounds that people who never sinned nor loved nor feared have for what they never had and cannot have until they forget the words. Like Cora, who could not even cook. (173-174; my emphasis) Addie repeats in her only monologue, placed by Faulkner just after she has died, that “words are no good.” Which is also true for Wharton’s Chatty Lovell, the so-called “old maid.” Words are not to be trusted: they stand for convention, for conformity: they hardly correspond to slant truth. Addie’s own last words in Faulkner’s book are: One day I was talking to Cora. She prayed for me because she believed I was blind to sin, wanting me to kneel and pray too, because people to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too. (176; my emphasis) Wharton’s Chatty Lovell could have put it that way, too: the same rebellious spirit of a failed mother bearing her cross with tight lips gives life to Wharton’s character. And then Faulkner’s Miss Emily Grierson in “A Rose for Emily” his famous Southern Gothic story is just the murderous version of the same feminine cast of mind, describing possessiveness as quite a frequent flaw of our gender. The story was published in the same year with As I Lay Dying, 1930. As for today, I have another Miss Emily on my mind to re(dis)cover in terms of Edith Wharton: Emily Dickinson, the exquisite American poet of an implausible 19th century, who can only “see/ New Englandly.” The recluse rebel of Amherst, Massachusetts held within her self-imposed withdrawal from the world the same gift for introspection and (self)irony that would (not much) later distinguish worldly Edith Wharton of New York, New York. If Edith Wharton is often classified as a minor writer, then should her poetry be regarded as the even more minor expression of her literary talent, I ANCA PEIU 48 wonder? The minor poet within the major mind of a gifted writer corresponds to the old world of a city for ever new, like New York. The cityscape is allegorical. Yet the formerly so busy High Line trains could only have crossed “the city that never sleeps,” as classic Liza Minelli sings in an old famous song about New York. And as for today, it is likewise subway trains that build the most reliable transport network all over New York. Ghostly impersonal trains cross this poem, likewise, which is and is not about New York, whether old or new. Whether the poem be “minor” or not, let us still read it here. Therefore, meet Edith Wharton, the poet: Terminus Wonderful was the long secret night you gave me, my Lover, Palm to palm, breast to breast in the gloom. The faint red lamp Flushing with magical shadows the common-place room of the inn, With its dull impersonal furniture, kindled a mystic flame In the heart of the swinging mirror, the glass that has seen Faces innumerous and vague of the endless travelling automata Whirled down the ways of the world like dust-eddies swept through a street, Faces indifferent or weary, frowns of impatience or pain, Smiles (if such they were ever) like your smile and mine when they met Here, in this self-same glass, while you helped me to loosen my dress, And the shadow-mouths melted to one, like sea-birds that meet in a wave – Such smiles, yes, such smiles the mirror perhaps has reflected; And the low wide bed, as rutted and worn as a high road, The bed with its soot-sodden chintz, the grime of its brasses, That has born the weight of fagged bodies, dust-stained, averted in sleep, The hurried, the restless, the aimless – perchance it has also thrilled With the pressure of bodies ecstatic, bodies like ours, Seeking each other’s souls in the depths of unfathomed caresses, And through the long windings of passion emerging again to the stars… Yes, all this through the room, the passive and featureless room, Must have flowed with the rise and fall of the human unceasing current, And lying there hushed in your arms, as the waves of rapture receded, And far down the margin of being we heard the low beat of the soul, I was glad as I thought of those others, the nameless, the many, Who perhaps thus had lain and loved for an hour on the brink of the world, Secret and fast in the heart of the whirlwind of travel, The shaking and shrieking of trains, the night-long shudder of traffic; Thus, like us they have lain and felt, breast to breast in the dark, The fiery rain of possession descend to their limbs while outside The black rain of midnight pelted the roof of the station; And thus some woman like me waking alone before dawn, While her lover slept, as I woke and heard the calm stir of your breathing, Some woman has heard as I heard the farewell shriek of the trains Crying good-bye to the city and staggering into darkness, And shaken at heart has thought: “So must we forth in the darkness, Speed down the fixed rail of habit by the hand of implacable fate –” So shall we issue to life, and the rain, and the dull dark dawning; A ROSE FOR EDITH: AN OASIS OF POETRY IN THE CITADEL OF OLD NEW YORK PROSE 49 You to the wide flair of cities, with windy garlands and shouting, Carrying to populous places the freight of holiday throngs; I, by waste land and stretches of low-skied marsh, To a harbourless wind-bitten shore, where a dull town moulders and shrinks, And its roofs fall in, and the sluggish feet of the hours Are printed in grass in its streets; and between the featureless houses Languid the town-folk glide to stare at the entering train, The train from which no one descends till one pale evening of winter, When it halts on the edge of the town, see, the houses have turned into grave-stones, The streets are the grassy paths between the low roofs of the dead; And as the train glides in ghosts stand by the doors of the carriages; And scarcely the difference is felt – yes, such is the life I return to…! Thus may another have thought; thus, as I turned, may have turned To the sleeping lips at her side, to drink, as I drank there, oblivion. (American Poetry, 19-21; my emphasis) “To have an eye for resemblances” is the first classic condition for becoming a poet – ever since Aristotle. Metaphor implies a keen eye, as the devil dwells in details. Edith Wharton was a professional visionary, not only as a writer, but also as a designer, with an architect’s self-assured refined taste. She could and she did build her own houses: she was quite particular about her places, whether in her beloved Old New York, or anywhere else in the world, especially on the Old Continent. For she was just as passionate a traveler. Yet at the back of her skeptical mind there may have always lingered an echo of Emerson’s warning in “Self-Reliance:” Traveling is a fool’s paradise. Our first journeys discover to us the indifference of places. At home I dream that at Naples, at Rome, I can be intoxicated with beauty and lose my sadness. I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from. I seek the Vatican and the palaces. I affect to be intoxicated with sighs and suggestions, but I am not intoxicated. My giant goes with me wherever I go. (Emerson, 167; my emphasis) Emerson1 was a good friend of Henry James Sr., the novelist’s father. The Concord Sage was actually William James’s godfather; so Henry James the novelist may have been himself no stranger to such Emersonian paradoxes, as a 1 An allusion to Emerson is not at all far-fetched here; in fact, he is quite present at the back of Wharton’s mind, just as he is there for any American author emerging after Transcendentalism. What Harold Bloom calles “the anxiety of influence” is discernible here, too. And moreover, it is Harold Bloom himself who, in a relatively recent study of Edith Wharton’s narrative art, points to her affinity with R. W. Emerson: “It is not a “combination of obstacles” that hindered the flight of Ethan Frome, but a terrible fatalism which is a crucial part of Edith Whrton’s Emersonian heritage.” (Bloom 2007: 226; my emphasis) 50 ANCA PEIU gifted traveler himself and one of the best friends Edith Wharton ever had. This polarity home–exile haunts the canonical novels and stories of both James and Wharton, as an acknowledged autobiographical projection on both sides (of the Atlantic, too). Their protagonists driven by their unquenchable Wanderlust are perfectly adaptable, yet they belong nowhere: exquisitely rich homeless wanderers, both. There is no running away from what Emerson calls “the sad self:” that personal “giant” that cannot and would not be left home – wherever that might be. Yet here, in the above poem of the accomplished story-teller, the deeper voice perceptible in this apparent monologue, the one that transforms it into a refreshing poetic dialogue, is that of Emily Dickinson. And of course the poems I am thinking of here are among her best known: 712 – “Because I could not stop for Death”; 449 – “I died for Beauty.” Both Dickensonian poems represent Death as some chivalrous good company. “Death is the mother of beauty” (7) – says Wallace Stevens’s feminine lyrical persona, reluctant to give up her “complacencies of the peignoir” on a “Sunday Morning” that she wants all to herself, instead of conforming to the dull pattern of self-righteous puritan churchgoers. Like these, many characters of Wharton’s Old New York cling to social appearances above anything else, “pursuit of happiness” included. Like this anonymous Stevensian rebel, Wharton’s (and likewise James’s) protagonists prefer beauty to bigotry. They can all rely on Emily Dickinson in their propensity for poetry and the arts, rather than for any social rule (read “dogma”) that has spent its energy irretrievably. Edith Wharton poem “Terminus” is a modern “valediction forbidding mourning,” and seeking instead “oblivion,” as in Emily Dickinson’s poem 536 “The Heart asks Pleasure – first –” and then ever humbler favors (like “to go to sleep,” and finally “the privilege to die”). Wharton’s title “Terminus” points to a characteristically ironic double meaning: the metaphysical “end of the road,” plus the ending of an illicit love affair. The trip implies the classic intercourse between Eros and Thanatos: quite likely, an ultimate (i.e. consummate) amorous escapade. Gentlemanly Mr Death is a tender “Lover,” gratefully appreciated for the “wonderful,” “long secret night,” offered to his secret lady, the lyrical I–speaker. Despite the sordid atmosphere of the inn which has hosted them, it has been worthwhile. They have shared an anonymous affair, and the delicious ultimate reward cannot be too far now: “oblivion.” The callous cynical “Unreal City” (as we seem to be haunted by symbolist reminiscences from Baudelaire via T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land) is not too far, though. Returning to it signifies resuming everyday existence, meaningless, ghostly, worse than Death himself, her accomplice in the lyrical persona’s A ROSE FOR EDITH: AN OASIS OF POETRY IN THE CITADEL OF OLD NEW YORK PROSE 51 escapade. Going home is the dreadful duty, inescapable even after the fatal date with the dark prince of the world out yonder. Whether old or new, the lyrical persona’s home city is characteristically cold and dirty, as in symbolist poetry, but also as in the naturalist cityscapes of Stephen Crane, or Theodore Dreiser. It comes as a surprise that Edith Wharton, who suffuses her novels and stories with minutest details of luxurious luminous settings, should in this poem choose the sordid setting of the inn room, sheltering the two lovers’ meeting “in the gloom.” Gloom points both to the obscurity of this anonymous place and to their hopelessness. Then perhaps the most important elements of this lyrical setting are the mirror and the (red) lamp. In other words: the mirror as a classic instrument of mise en abyme (an infinite self-portrait, gathering contours of former women having assumed the speaker’s role in the story, making these contours melt into one only empty mask); and “the faint red lamp” as a late romantic/naturalist symbol of (failed, faded, futile) introspection. The “dull impersonal furniture” of this cheap inn room is a sharp contrast to most of Edith Wharton’s elegant indoors settings, in both her writings and her designing. The anaphoric insistence on the empty masks of (other) faces, just as common and neutral as her own, turns this lyrical persona into an echo of Ezra Pound’s shortest poem, “In a Station of the Metro:” The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough. (American Poetry, 514; my emphasis) At least, in Pound’s haiku there is this final image of spring, refreshing and restoring hope. Whereas in Wharton’s poem, “faces innumerous and vague of the endless automata,” “faces indifferent or weary, frowns of impatience or pain” signal an infernal “Terminus” of no return. The sense of the allencompassing nothingness is a sound literary message of American literature masters, from Melville to Hemingway. We find it here, again, in this (minor?2) poem by Edith Wharton. Then the anaphoric sequence of “smiles (if such they were ever)” (almost) brings some life into this fateful mirror: 2 It is Harold Bloom again, as the foremost American critical authority in matters of the (fluid) universal literary canon, who (indirectly) teaches us that there can be actually no standard classification of the valuable writers. It is risky therefore to assume that Edith Wharton were a “minor” author. In his generous approach of her (better known) output as a novelist, Bloom remarks: “R. W. B. Lewis, Wharton’s biographer, regards The Age of Innocence as a minor masterpiece. Time so far has confirmed Lewis’s judgement, but we now suffer through an age of ideology, and I am uncertain as to whether The Age of Innocence will be strong enough to endure.” (Bloom 2007: 220; my emphasis) ANCA PEIU 52 Smiles (if such they were ever) like your smile and mine when they met Here, in this self-same glass, while you helped me loosen my dress, And the shadow-mouths melted to one, like sea-birds that meet in a waveSuch smiles, yes, such smiles the mirror perhaps has reflected; (19; my emphasis) The poem is exquisitely modern in point of atmosphere, reminding readers of T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock:” Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question. Oh, do not ask, “What is it?” Let us go and make our visit. (American Poetry, 728; my emphasis) The soothing sweet accomplices’ dialogue of nameless “you and I” in both poems speaks volumes about their shared solitude. It is this dreary setting that suggests that what actually matters for this couple has nothing to do with material satisfaction: Seeking each other’s souls in the depth of unfathomed caresses, And through the long windings of passion emerging again to the stars… (19; my emphasis) Then the speaker says “yes” again: Such smiles, yes, such smiles the mirror perhaps had reflected […] Yes, all this through the room, the passive and featureless room, Must have flowed with the rise and fall of the human unceasing current… (19; my emphasis) The word “Yes” is intimate and familiar from an emblematic modern monologue closing James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922). Promiscuous Molly Bloom expresses herself just as overwhelmingly in a flow of lively poetic images linked by the stream-of-consciousness technique. She culminates in an all-embracing and candidly affirmative “Yes.” Whereas Edith Wharton’s nameless womanpersona here speaking would be content with just as much as “oblivion:” A ROSE FOR EDITH: AN OASIS OF POETRY IN THE CITADEL OF OLD NEW YORK PROSE 53 And scarcely the difference is felt – yes, such is the life I return to…! Thus may another have thought; thus, as I turned, may have turned To the sleeping lips at her side, to drink, as I drank there, oblivion. (21; my emphasis) The contingency of life-experience so intensely rendered makes all these poets communicate, whether by their poetry, or by their prose. To me, this final image of Edith Wharton’s poem “Terminus” vibrates in (under)tones of Emily Dickinson’s poem 536: The Heart asks Pleasure – first – And then – Excuse from Pain – And then – those little Anodynes That deaden suffering – And then – to go to sleep – And then – if it should be The will of its Inquisitor The privilege to die – (Dickinson, 50) Edith Wharton’s poem “Terminus” has been a wonderful surprise to a reader like me, believing herself rather well acquainted with this would-be “minor” fiction lady writer of Old New York. It can only prove one should never take one’s writers for granted, whether “major” or “minor.” They may surprise us most when we think we have learned our lesson well. REFERENCES Works Cited Bloom, Harold (2007), Novels and Novelists: A Collection of Critical Essays, Checkmark ooks, An Imprint of Infobase Publishing, New York, NY. Dickinson, Emily (1997), Selected Poems, Edited by Helen McNeil, University of East Anglia, Everyman, J. M. Dent, London, UK. Eliot, T. S., 1966 (1954), Selected Poems, Faber and Faber Limited, 24 Russell Square, London, UK. Emerson, R. W. (1990), Selected Essays, Lectures, and Poems, Edited and with a Foreword by Robert D. Richardson, Jr., A Bantam Classic, Bantam Books, New York, NY. Faulkner, William, 2000 (1930), As I Lay Dying, Modern Library, New York. Stevens, Wallace (1972), The Palm at the End of the Mind, Selected Poems and a Play, Edited by Holly Stevens, Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, New York, NY. Wharton, Edith, 2002 (1924), Old New York: Four Novellas, Pocket Books, Enriched Classics, New York. *** (2000), American Poetry, The Twentieth Century, Volume One, Henry Adams to Dorothy Parker, The Library of America, Compilation, notes, biographies copyright, and editing by Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., New York, NY. 54 ANCA PEIU Selective References Wharton, Edith (1985), Novels: The House of Mirth, The Reef, The Custom of the Country, The Age of Innocence, The Library of America, Volume compilation, notes, and chronology, Copyright by Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., New York, N.Y. Wharton, Edith (2008), “The Other Two”; “Roman Fever,” in The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Seventh Edition, Volume 2, 1865 to the Present, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, pp. 521-533; 534-543. THE GATES OF THE INVISIBLE MOBY DICK AS THE HIEROGLYPH OF THE ABSOLUTE IRINA DUBSKÝ∗ Abstract The present study tries to reveal how Melville artistically articulates his intuition of the hieroglyphic nature of the Absolute and the hierarchical structure of the Universe encapsulated in Ahab’s vision of “the pasteboard masks”. Central to the projection of the world structure in the whaling epos is the functional similarity displayed by the whale and the mask, both of them being interpreted, in the light of the Swedenborgian theory of correspondences, as the isthmus between the sensible and the intelligible. Another key-element in the structure of the novel is Ahab’s hunt which is meant to open the gates of the invisible, thus assuming the dimension of an initiatory quest. The interconnection between the levels of being is further explored by reference to the esoteric significance of a graphic sign – the letter nun – and to the symbolism of the cosmic form to which René Guénon devotes an in-depth analysis in “Symboles Fondamentaux de la Science Sacrée”. The overarching idea of the study is that the world projected in the Melvillean epos is articulated through an interplay of meanings of cosmic laws which generate a multifarious configuration. Keywords: hieroglyph, correspondence, whale, invisible, cosmic. “A wondrous work in one volume” – a phrase by means of which Ishmael, the narrator, captures the essence of one of his fellow-travelers, a phrase which also captures the essence of Moby Dick as a book. The readers are warned that “the mystic – marked whale remains undecipherable” (chapter lxvi) safeguarding its secret by means of an inscrutable mask. Melville artistically articulates his intuition of what is beyond the mask in the monologs and dramatic exchanges of his characters: when Starbuck overtly condemns Ahab for his hatred of “a dumb brute” (161), the latter gives him a remarkable answer which testifies to his advanced level of awareness and knowledge of the Invisible realm: ∗ “Spiru Haret” University, Bucharest, e-mail: [email protected]. This paper is the written version of the presentation that I gave at the Annual Conference of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Bucharest, 5-6 November 2010. 56 IRINA DUBSKÝ All visible objects are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event – in the living act, the undoubted deed – there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the moldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask (…). That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate (161). Ahab’s words seem to echo Emerson’s initiatory adage which is, in fact, a faithful illustration of the Swedenborgian theory of correspondences: “Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact” (28). The unfolding of the dynamic core of the novel articulates a multi-tiered world structure, the construction of which corresponds to the spiritual progress or regress of the protagonist. Spiritual ascent, that is, attainment of illumination, has as counterpart the access to a higher order of being which parallels the upward movement in the cosmic order. Conversely, the negative drives entail a sliding down the cosmic hierarchy. Ahab possesses knowledge of a superior level of being, yet, the supernatural, which has laid hold of him, does not activate in him any upward-tending impulse but quite the reverse. The captain’s vision of the “pasteboard masks” encapsulates a depiction of the hierarchical structure of the Universe. What is generally defined as “the supernatural” is not to be mistaken for something operating outside or beyond the rules of the Universe; the supernatural” – or the “unknown but still reasoning thing” as Ahab calls it – is something above our plane of existence which is one of the indefinite planes. Owing to the hierarchical order of being, the superior levels are in a relation of causality to the inferior ones, conditioning them in this way. Ahab is fully aware of the mythical, symbolic quality of the world. He knows that nothing in this world is self-sufficient or autonomous; everything has its roots in the level of existence immediately superior to its own. The autonomy is precluded by the lack of common measure between the Principle and the manifest. The mask functions as an intermediary between the visible and the invisible, half shadow and half apparition, an ambiguous vehicle of the messages between the two realms. It is the herald of the Unseen, turning it into something compatible with the sensible world. Ahab’s dark mastery of “the inscrutable” surfaces in his ability to recognize the whale as the isthmus between the sensible and the intelligible. He realizes that Moby Dick is a point of contact between two states, a narrow gate through which the Principle communicates with the manifest. Ahab glimpses the secrets of the Universe when the similarity between the whale and the mask is revealed to him. Nevertheless, this revelation does not lead him to a state of illumination because he approaches the mystery through hatred, which precludes enlightenment. THE GATES OF THE INVISIBLE MOBY DICK AS THE HIEROGLYPH OF THE ABSOLUTE 57 The ultimate effect of Ahab’s hunt is the opening of the gates of the invisible, which is a prerequisite of any initiatory process, yet, this opening is not towards a superior state. In the memorable scene of the oath Ahab asks his “mates” to “cross” their lances “full” in front of him so that he can “touch the axis”(163-164). “The axis” is emblematic of Axis Mundi linking the three worlds - the underworld, the Earth and Heaven - thus establishing the cosmic hierarchy. Ahab’s gesture is symbolic of his reaching the core of being. It is a ritualistic gesture laden with mystical value: by touching the axis, he places himself in the center of the world which marks the opening of the tangible into the invisible. This point is where two opposite states of existence meet. The human being, placed midway between the high and the low, can embark either on an upward-tending or a downward-tending quest. Upon touching the axis, Ahab announces his choice by swearing “death to Moby Dick” (164). Two central mythical aspects of water symbolism are illuminating for the analysis of Ahab’s inverse initiation. One such facet of water symbolism is represented by the ocean as an emblem of “the truth above”, of “divine reality, potentially replete with all” (Gaskell 544). Another symbol relevant to Ahab’s quest is that of the “limited sea” standing for “the illusion below” (Gaskell 661). Ahab’s esoteric pronouncement that “truth hath no confines” (162) unmistakably refers to the unlimited “ocean of truth” above. His rhetorical question “Who’s over me?” (162) establishes his position in the Universe, for it is the infinite ocean of the “truth-reality” that is “over” him while he is floating on the “limited sea” of desires and passions. Ahab’s “fiery emotion” and “magnetic life” (164) confine him to the mystic “water below”, that is, to the deceptive quality of the inferior planes of existence which contain the inverted or distorted reflections of truth. He identifies the level of being to which he belongs as the one where “all visible objects are but as pasteboard masks” of “unknown, reasoning thing[s]” (161). These reasoning, ungraspable entities are placed on a plane superior to Ahab’s. Their distorted reflections form the “visible objects”, masks of the unknown, which the hero strives to tear off. His rage is not directed against the “dumb brute”- as Starbuck thinks - but at the “inscrutable thing” for which the whale is only a mask. He is aware of the existence of “the beyond” of which Moby Dick is a signifier. Ahab’s satanic error lies in his inability to perceive the quality of this “beyond” which results in his fighting the Mystery by “strik[ing]” and “hat[ing]”. At the foundation of his grim failure lies his overpowering desire not only to unravel an enigma but to annihilate it for its inscrutability drives him mad. Intricately connected with the whale’s function in the cosmic configuration are “the mysteries of the letter nun” to which René Guénon 58 IRINA DUBSKÝ devotes an in-depth analysis in his seminal, thought-provoking book Symboles fondamentaux de la science sacrée (Chapter XXIII). Guénon points out that in the Islamic tradition this letter represents the whale, a fact which dovetails perfectly with the original meaning of the word nun which means “whale” as well as “fish”. This double significance may be related to the vaster context of the symbolism of the fish as Savior both in the Christian faith and the Hindu tradition. Traditionally, the two zodiacal gates corresponding to the summer solstice and to the winter solstice, respectively, represent the entrance into and the exit out of “the cosmic grotto” (Guénon, Symboles 161). The whale corresponds to the zodiacal sign of the Capricorn where the solstice gate which leads up to the “ascending way”, also known as “the gate of the gods” is located (Guénon, Man and His Becoming 28). “The cosmic grotto” stands for the place where the human beings dwell and unfold their temporary existence. After completing their sojourn in “the cosmic grotto”, the human beings exit through one of these two gates, according to the degree of their spiritual realization. The two ways of the manifested world are “the bright” way and the “dark” way. Those following the bright path progress from the manifest to the non-manifest. The bright path corresponds to the process of spiritual realization while the dark way leads back to the visible dimension of being. Projecting this symbolism into the story of Moby-Dick, it becomes apparent that the whale functions as the Savior-Fish, the Redeemer, opening the path to a higher dimension. Nevertheless, Ahab, the dark quester, is blind to this supreme spiritual quality of the white whale. Thus, he chooses the descending way, along which he heads to the inferior cosmic levels. The failure of Ahab’s symbolic hunt stems from the mad gesture through which he sets up a relation of binary opposition between him and the whale, casting himself in the role of subject and assigning the role of object to Moby Dick. But this duality, this schizophrenic division, pertains to the periphery of existence, to what the Scripture calls “outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12). In the Kabbalah, nun is associated with the idea of birth which may be placed in the vaster context of rebirth as regeneration of the individual or cosmic being (Guénon, Symboles 162). This interpretation is suggested by the shape of this letter in Arabic: it consists of the lower half of a circumference and its center. This graphical representation may also be construed as an image of the esoteric Ark and its precious contents: the seed of immortality, or Luz as it is called in Hebrew. These aspects of traditional symbolism deepen the perspective and make possible the identification of the whale with the matrix in which the transition between two modes of being is effected. Ahab’s consuming obsession with the whale, the apocalyptic proportion of his hatred stand for his imprisonment in the Leviathan which, in its turn, THE GATES OF THE INVISIBLE MOBY DICK AS THE HIEROGLYPH OF THE ABSOLUTE 59 typifies the period of darkness and death preceding the resurrection. The whale, an emblem of the matrix, thus becomes an illustration of the ritualistic cave. Corroborated with the mystical dimension of the whale is its “whiteness” interpreted as something “ineffable”, “elusive”, “indefinite” and “inscrutable” suggestive of “the heartless voids and immensities of the Universe”(193). The narrator establishes some striking correspondences. He equates the whiteness of the whale with “the great principle of light [which] forever remains white or colorless in itself” while the hues of “the deified nature” are likened to “subtle deceits, not actually inherent in substances but only laid out from without” (193). In other words, the whale is equated with the Principle, the One and the Potential as opposed to the manifest world of generation and destruction. The “mystical” and “elusive” quality of the whale is suggestive of the ineffable character of the divine. Hence, the incomprehensibility of the whale makes itself manifest in “the pasteboard masks” which Ahab aims at striking through. By allowing these destructive, vengeful drives to take dominion over his entire being, Ahab cuts off his roots from the Causal Plane simultaneously stifling the mythical nature of the world. Therefore, he is left to wander on the lower waters, symbolic of the astral plane of passions, in this way losing the faintest chance of redemption. Ahab’s journey is the epitome of counterinitiation since to be an initiate means “finding roots in this world while living in the invisible” (Nataf 127). His condition is diametrically opposed to a state of enlightenment for his existence is rooted in his tormenting determination to take vengeance on the “inscrutable”. The elusiveness of the whale is suggestive of a fundamental cosmic law, namely, the qualitative character of distance, be it in time or space: the ineffable can be sensed only through motionless contemplation; if one tries to grasp it, it vanishes. At the core of any process of initiation lies a secret that cannot be put into words. “The head of this Leviathan is an entire delusion” (346) declares the narrating voice; this amounts to saying that the Leviathan is a hieroglyph between the visible and the invisible, an expression of the Absolute. Its intensity consists in its inaccessibility: the more fiery Ahab’s passion is, the farther the ineffable retreats beyond the horizon. Moby-Dick’s elusiveness is enhanced by its hieroglyphic character. The inexpressible veils itself in its inaccessibility: “The whale, like all things that are mighty, wears a false brow to the common world” (346) writes the “unlettered” Ishmael. He testifies to the “pyramidical silence” (345) and “the blankness full of meaning” (193) of the whale. Moreover, what triggers the quest for meaning is “the forehead pleated with riddles” (345) of the Leviathan. The “pyramidical silence”, as well as the richness of enciphered significance, are the defining attributes of the Supreme Center, Agarttha (Guénon, Le Roi du Monde 15) which in Sanskrit means “the Inviolate”. Even if the Center is inexpugnable, it becomes accessible for those who qualify, for 60 IRINA DUBSKÝ those who strive towards it in order to achieve the state of serene balance beyond the strife of passions. Even if Ahab fights to reach the Center, he is disqualified because of his demonic drives. Moby Dick’s color or “visible absence of color” (193) is the very synthesis of the colors of the rainbow. White is associated with the supreme spiritual authority, with the immutability of the Center, which is the same as the White Island or the White Mountain upon which all the positive spiritual efforts are focused. The function of the White Whale is that of the Center, traditionally defined and interpreted as “the seventh region of space” (Guénon, Symboles 225) which coincides with the Principle. Ishmael’s insightful remarks on “the whiteness of the whale” (185) invite a closer analysis of the attributes of this so-called color and its esoteric significance. René Guénon advances a subtle discussion of the symbol of the rainbow exploring its hidden facets. He reveals that the rainbow contains six colors only - an idea which runs counter to the commonly held seven-color theory: three fundamental and three complementary colors. The other elements of the chromatic spectrum, inappropriately referred to as “colors”, are only intermediary shades - as is the case of indigo. Besides, introducing an extra color in the chromatic set would completely ruin their harmonious distribution which is usually represented according to a very simple geometrical figure which is laden with dense esoteric significance: each fundamental color can be placed in each angle of a triangle while each complementary can be placed in each angle of another triangle inversely positioned in relation to the “fundamental” triangle so that each color and its complementary are diametrically opposed. This display yields the six-pointed figure known as “Solomon’s Seal” (Symboles 338). The seventh term of the color septenary can be identified by referring to the geometrical construction of the seventh ray. This can be derived from the symbolic representation of the three-dimension cosmic cross made up of the six directions of space and their center taken together. The seventh element of the rainbow can be revealed by analogically superposing the color septenary represented in Solomon’s Seal and the cross of space. The function of the seventh chromatic term in relation to the other six colors will be similar to the role of the center related to the six space directions. The seventh color will be positioned at the center of the six-pointed star, namely, the point where all apparent oppositions, which are in fact complementary to each other, fuse together and merge into oneness. In other words, the seventh term is not properly a color just as the center is not a direction per se. The center is the very origin of the six space directions. Therefore, the seventh color must be the principle out of which the six are generated and in which they are synthetically contained. This is none other than white itself which is “colorless” – to quote THE GATES OF THE INVISIBLE MOBY DICK AS THE HIEROGLYPH OF THE ABSOLUTE 61 Ishmael – just as the point is a-dimensional. Or, to quote Ishmael once more, “whiteness is not so much a color as the visible absence of color and at the same time the concrete of all colors” (193). White is not made manifest in the rainbow just as the seventh ray is not represented geometrically. The six colors are the result of the refraction of white light just as the six directions stand for the unfolding of the potentialities comprised in the primordial point. Therefore, René Guénon concludes, each septenary consists of an indivisible foundational unit accompanied by another six elements generated out of it, the unit corresponding to the un-manifested principle while the six terms represent the totality of the manifest. The seventh ray, the counterpart of whiteness, represents the way along which a being returns to the non-manifest after completing a journey in the visible dimension of existence. In the light of this analysis, Moby Dick emerges as the symbol of the liberating way, corresponding to the ritualistic straight path at the end of which illumination awaits. The symbolism of the whale is intricately connected with that of the mythical monster, which generally performs the role of the guardian of a treasure. The treasure Moby Dick guards is its whiteness which stands for the invisible, the transcendent order of being, the Causal Plane. However, what Ahab strives for is not access to the Causal Plane but “the blankness” of the whale and its wall-like quality. These attributes fuel Ahab’s passion and trigger off his counter-initiatory quest. The Guardian of the Threshold, of which Moby Dick is emblematic, marks the passage to a superior level of spiritual development. After the encounter with this terrible figure one can either be successful and accede to the treasure – as is the case of those who qualify – or be devoured by the monster. Ahab was confronted by the white monster and found wanting: his portion then was to meet his doom. Ahab’s consuming obsession took roots in the wake of his first encounter with Moby Dick, when his bodily dismemberment occurred. This clash has as its Biblical counterpart the fight between Jacob and the Angel of God during which Jacob is wounded. These two exemplary stories typify the encounter with the Absolute, an existential adventure which sets the stage and arouses the desire for similar pivotal experiences. Symbolically, to mutilate or to maim is tantamount to a displacement from the diurnal, normal, common order – the order of the even – followed by a transfer to the order of the odd which is the same as the nocturnal, occult or transcendent domain (Cirlot 145). It was Moby Dick that operated this mutation in Ahab’s existential position: it crippled him and so it inflicted a symbolic wound on him thus effecting a transition in his ontological status: 62 IRINA DUBSKÝ It was only then, after the (…) encounter, that the final monomania seized him (182). At this very moment, Ahab sets out on a voyage which unfolds in a space that lacks the qualitative aspect characteristic of a sacred space. His voyage turned from a progress into an aimless wandering over a watery mirror which represents the common dimension of being. The prerequisite of spiritual realization is to be able to reflect one’s image in this mirror without being absorbed in it. Some postulants, such as Ahab, end up drowning in their own image: he “at last came to identify with Moby Dick not only all his bodily woes but all his intellectual and spiritual exasperations” (181). Ahab opens the channel of communication between his world and the Causal Plane the herald of which is Moby Dick itself. He tries to initiate an exchange of values between the visible and the invisible: Do you see this Spanish ounce of gold? (…) It is a sixteen-dollar piece, men - a doubloon. Whosoever of ye raises me the white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys! (159) For Ahab, the gold coin is a master-key to the gates of the intelligible: The mariners revered it as the white whale’s talisman(…). It was set apart and sanctified (427). This doubloon, of “the purest, virgin gold” (427) nailed to the main mast “amid the rustiness of iron bolts, yet untouchable and immaculate to any foulness” (427) is an emblem of the Lapis, the Philosopher’s Stone, the Quintessence in exile in a world subjected to corruption and destruction. It is the emissary of “a country planted in the middle of the world” (428) which is another name for the inviolate Center-Agarttha. On one of these facets, among other emblematic images, is shown a sun “entering the equinoctial point at Libra” (428). The autumn equinox is suggestive of the equilibrium between the solar world and the planetary existence. Ahab interferes with this state of balance and upsets the universal order through his demonic hatred. Starting from Libra, the sun sets out on a journey toward janua coeli symbolized by the winter solstice. Ahab’s progress corresponds to the segment of the solar itinerary limited by the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. In his sinister hunt, Ahab rushes towards the gates of death as he is doomed to never step through the gate of Heaven. The symbolism of the doubloon is linked to the significance of the solstice gates. The coin is suggestive of Janus Bifrons, the Master of Time and the holder of two keys; these two keys correspond to the two solstice gates – janua coeli – the winter solstice – and janua inferni – the summer solstice (Guénon, Symboles 241). THE GATES OF THE INVISIBLE MOBY DICK AS THE HIEROGLYPH OF THE ABSOLUTE 63 The double-faced god is also a janitor, the one who opens and respectively closes an interval. Moreover, Janus discharged the function of performer of initiation into mysteries. “Initiatio” derives from in-ire (“to go in”), being intricately connected with the symbolism of the gate. According to Cicero, the name of “Janus” has the same root as the verb “ire” (“to go” or “to walk”). In the light of this analysis, the symbolism of the doubloon acquires new dimensions. The coin abides simultaneously in two different realities, functioning as the gate between two worlds. The fact that the sun represented on the doubloon is in Libra – midway between the two solstice gates – has rich esoteric significance. This solar position is evocative of Ahab’s status: he stands on the threshold separating two states – a dark and a bright one, emblematic of spiritual destruction and spiritual enlightenment, respectively. But the indomitable quester asserts his ultimate choice: “From storm to storm! So be it, then!” (428). Moby Dick, though abiding in a superior dimension of being, makes itself manifest on the watery surface which is emblematic of our plane of existence. As Ishmael solemnly states in his affidavit, Moby Dick is one of “the plainest and most palpable wonders of the world”( 203) even if it might appear to the “ignorant” as a “monstrous fable” or “an intolerable allegory”(203). The “fables and genealogies” (Gaskell 509) are emblems of sacred stories regarded as literally true instead of symbolically true in a deep sense. The story of the whale is just like a sacred writing veiled in mystery and obscurity because of the human inability to apprehend subjective truths. BIBLIOGRAPHY Primary Sources Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Eric W. Carlson (1979), “Beauty”, 1836, Emerson's Literary Criticism, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE. Melville, Herman (1952), Moby Dick: Or, the Whale, Luther S. Mansfield & Howard P. Vincent (eds.), Hendricks House, New York. Secondary Sources Gaskell, G.A. (1981), The Dictionary of All Scriptures and Myths, Gramercy Books, New Jersey. Guénon, René (1958), Le Roi du Monde, 1927, Gallimard, Paris. *** (1958), Man and His Becoming According to the Vedanta, trans. Richard Nicholson, Noon Day Press, New York. *** (1962), Symboles fondamentaux de la science sacrée, Gallimard, Paris. Nataf, André (1994), The Dictionary of the Occult, Wordsworth Editions Ltd., Hertfordshire. Sten, Christopher (1996), The Weaver-God, He Weaves: Melville and the Poetics of the Novel, Kent State University Press, Kent, OH. SYLVIA PLATH AND ZELDA FITZGERALD ORMADNESS AND CREATIVITY INTERTWINED ANCA-LUISA VIUSENCO* Abstract Since the dawn of time, human beings have been fascinated with the mysterious phenomenon called “madness”/ “insanity”/“lunacy,” its sources and its effects. As a result, more often than not, those deemed “mad”/“insane”/“lunatic” have been either feared as demonic or hailed as prophetic. One interesting approach to madness, however, is that linking mental disturbance to heightened creativity, an approach which dates back to Antiquity and which has spurred such a deep controversy, involving humanists and scientists alike, that analyzing it satisfactorily (from the ideas of the ancient Greeks, through Romanticism and up to current neurological research)would require a lifetime of arduous study. The present paper¸ part of a wider research project dedicated to the relationship between mental instability, the creative act and its potential healing power, therefore one in desperate need of a proper context, is the product of an attempt, carried out through a case-study-like integrated analysis of biographical data, letters, diaries, as well as literary works, to shed light on the interaction between creativity and “madness” (the term lacks any pejorative connotations; when chosen over more politically-correct phrases, it is due to its great symbolic charge) in the lives of two American figures of the twentieth century – Sylvia Plath and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald1. Within the paper, each will be afforded a sub-section benefiting from a title which anticipates the two main poles of the discussion that follows, and incorporating its own conclusions. Keywords: madness, creativity, biography, interaction, case study. 1. Introduction The reasoning behind my decision to pair Sylvia Plath and Zelda Fitzgeraldas subjects of the present paper is, I believe, fairly transparent: apart from their having led lives equally marked by great inner turmoil and a constant strive for artistic recognition (within tumultuous marriages to highly successful writers), having died tragically, and having been almost mythicized over the course of the following decades, what brings the two remarkable women * University “Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, Iaşi, Romania, [email protected]. 1 Throughout the present paper, I will most often refer to the two writers using their first name, since I feel I have reached a level of intimacy with them that can only derive from such a courageous act as inviting readers (and, implicitly, critics) into a troubled existence. ANCA-LUISA VIUSENCO 66 aboveeven further together (and is truly significant for a (novice) literary critic as myself) is the fact that they have both channeled their personal experience with mental disturbance into a novel, more precisely Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963) and Zelda Fitzgerald’s Save Me the Waltz (1932). However, before delving into an in-depth analysis of any of these autobiographical literary products and its likely cathartic role, I find it responsible to try to comprehend how each author regards the creative process as such and, if possible, to answer (strictly at an individual level, for the issue of the relationship between madness and creativity is so complex and so sensitive, that generalizations simply cannot be made) the difficult question of whether creativity is enhanced by mental instability, inhibited by it, an escape from it, or, maybe, even a major factor in its onset. What needs to be mentioned at this point is the fact that, as a non-specialist, I have neither the ability to diagnose the writers my research is based on (I rely on the informed opinion of psychiatric professionals in this respect), nor such a diagnosis as one of my focus points. However, although I admit that establishing a psychiatric diagnosis is a process which tends to equate the person with the disease, I do believe that having at least a basic notion of the conditions the writers in question were afflicted by is vital in understanding both their life and their work. Freud (quoted in Flaherty 2005: 50) stated that “Before the problem of the creative artist, analysis must, alas, lay down its arms.” Let us, nevertheless, undiscouraged,try to unravel the dynamics of the madness – writer – work triad as reflected in the case of two exceptional individuals, not accidentally women. 2. Madness and Creativity au féminin 2.1. Sylvia Plath: Creativity, between Catharsis and Catalyst “And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”2 (Friedrich Nietzsche) On February 11th, 1963, in a cold apartment in London, a young mother gassed herself to death while her babies were asleep in the next room, and gave birth to a legend. The world was finally truly discovering Sylvia Plath. A whirlwind followed: the first Pulitzer Prize ever awarded posthumously, The Bell Jar, met with reservation by critics at the time of its publicationin the United Kingdom3, turned into the madness narrative, biographies, biopics and adaptations, letters and journals published in the midst of controversy etc. Sylvia Plath became a double symbol: the writer tortured by inner demons, and 2 In Friedrich Nietzsche (1966), Between Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, trans. W. Kauffman, Random House, New York, p. 89. 3 The novel was first published shortly before Sylvia’s death, in January 1963, in London,under the pen name Victoria Lucas. In 1967, it was published in the United Kingdom under Sylvia's name, while 1971 was the year of its publication in the United States. SYLVIA PLATH AND ZELDA FITZGERALD ORMADNESS AND CREATIVITY INTERTWINED 67 the woman driven to a tragic death by a society in which her aspirations were still premature. As a result, she was appropriated by the mental health movement and the feminist movement alike. But who was, in fact, Sylvia Plath? What drove her mad and what role did her writing play in her madness? Sylvia Plath was, first and foremost, from a young age, an overachiever. She studied at prestigious institutions and had outstanding results. She published her first poem at the age of eight in the Boston Sunday Herald, and, by the age of thirty, had been so prolific as to have written a total of two hundred and fifty poems, around seventy short stories, several magazine articles, a verse play, a children’s book, a novel, and at least one draft of a second novel. Yet, she never felt she was receiving the recognition she yearned for, a recognition that would have somehow pleased the ghost of a domineering father who died before his time due to a refusal to receive proper medical care that Sylvia equated with a traitorous suicide and towards whom Sylvia felt, consequently, great ambivalence, and a mother who transferred her own unfulfilled ambitions onto her children, a “much-loved yet ultimately resented mother, whose double she [Sylvia] had to be, for reasons of guilt or ego weakness, and to whom she was tied by a psychic umbilicus too nourishing to sever,” as biographer Anne Stevenson (quoted in Piette 2010: 63) describes Aurelia Plath. The frustration at her inability to gain such acknowledgement led to Sylvia’s first mental breakdown and subsequent suicide attempt at the age of twenty (both fictionalized later on in The Bell Jar), and it intensified to an unbearable extent during her marriage to British poet Ted Hughes. Sylvia bitterly discovered that she had to subordinate her literary goals both to her duties as a wife and a mother, and to the career of her husband, the very man she had described as the only one in the presence of whom she, the woman who, in a bout of self-confidence, had envisaged herself as “the Poetess of America” (quoted in Wurst 2004: 18), would “never have to restrain [her own] little gift, but could push it and strain it to the outmost, and still feel him ahead” (quoted in Wurst 2004: 18), the brilliant poet who saw her works as “sweating, heaving poems born out of the way words should be said” (Plath, quoted in Wurst 2004: 18). How did Sylvia cope with the failures in her private life, as well as her inability to live up to her own image of herself? She wrote, for writing acted as an outlet for all the negative emotions that were consuming her, as proven by the following entry in her journal: In polite society, a lady doesn’t punch or spit. So I turn to my work… I am justifiably outraged. Spite. Meanness. What else. How I am exorcising them from my system… Like bile. Threw you, book, down, punch with fist. Kicked, punched. Violence seethed. Joy to murder someone, pure scapegoat.But pacified during necessity to work. Work redeems. (Hughes and McCullough 1982: 184-185) In the winter of 1963, while separated from her husband, who was involved in a relationship with another woman, Sylvia, the woman who asked 68 ANCA-LUISA VIUSENCO herself “How to express anger creatively?” (Hughes & McCullough 1982: 272), was overcome by a writing frenzy: sleep-deprived and manic, she wrote nearly a poem a day, “poems breaking open my real experience of life in the last five years” (Hughes & McCullough 1982: 209), as she called them. They would later be included in the volume Ariel, “a fascinating and somewhat horrifying portrait of a woman on the brink of suicide” (Agarwal 2003: 55), which “reads like a haunting diary” (Agarwal 2003: 55). There are, however, critics who see this episode of hypergraphia4 at this stage in Sylvia’s life as counterproductive, acting as an accelerant in her mental decline, rather than a means of depressurizing emotionally. Another entry in Sylvia’s journal reads as follows: Fury jams the gullet and spreads poison, but, as soon as I start to write, dissipates, flows into the figure of the letters; writing as therapy? (Hughes & McCullough 1982: 255) In a way, writing was Sylvia’s talking cure. However, this delving into the very depth of her soul that transpires from her poetry and that she is so highly acclaimed for proved dangerous, for she became so immersed in what she was experiencing, that, at a certain point, there was no escape from the feeling of utter futility and, as a result, she committed suicide. It was her third attempt, after the one at age twenty, and a second one, close to her death, which involved her purposefully running her car off the road apparently as a reaction to her marriage coming apart. In his preface to Sylvia Plath: Method and Madness, Edward Butscher (2003: XII) talks about the lyric poet having “the ability to stand back from the cauldron of his own life, as if from a canvas, and impose the objective values of an edifice, forging finished products from the very fires of emotional entanglements that are still scalding him.” Indeed, Sylvia is said to have been “strategically intimate and deliberately intense because she understood the meaning and the effect of these choices on her readers” (Nelson 2006: 22), which involves a type of reasoning highly atypical for a person in a state of extreme emotional distress. Yet, the association of a confessional poet such as Plath with the idea of “ruthless remoteness” (Butscher 2003: XII) is contradicted by both the tragic biographical truth (her accelerated mental disintegration, ending in suicide, in the context of heightened self-scrutinizing and self-revelatory creativity – which is not to say that writing should be reduced to the level of a symptom in mentally unstable individuals), and her poems themselves (the level of involvement is simply too great). 4 Hypergraphia, although not a condition in itself, is recognized by neurologists as an overpowering desire to write which can accompany the manic episodes of individuals suffering from bipolar disorder. SYLVIA PLATH AND ZELDA FITZGERALD ORMADNESS AND CREATIVITY INTERTWINED 69 The same level of involvement is visible in The Bell Jar, in relation to which Sylvia stated, however, the following in a letter to her mother which was later included in the “Bibliographical Note” to the novel: What I’ve done is to throw together events from my own life, fictionalizing to add color – it’s a pot boiler really, but I think it will show how isolated a person feels when he is suffering a breakdown.… I’ve tried to picture my world and the people in it as seen through the distorting lens of a bell jar.… My second book will show the same world as seen through the eyes of health. (Quoted in Harris 1988: 107) One needs to understand, however, that Sylvia’s relationship with her mother was a problematic one, and that The Bell Jar was a thinly disguised account of persons and events in its author’s life. Sylvia poured her soul into her only novel just as she poured it into her poems, with all the beauty and darkness it had to offer. In the end, one may choose to see Sylvia as one of the writers who “strove with all their creative might to mend the ravages and disorder of broken brains” (Vaillant 1995:232), as a mind trying to right itself through writing. I, for one, believe that the introspection that her poetry occasioned forced her to confront even the demons that had previously lain hidden within her and, as aesthetically pleasing (in a voyeuristic kind of way, as in the case of any literary product authoredby an individual with a disintegrating psyche, I must add) as we find her arresting poems today, they cost her the very little that was left of her sanity. My heart aches for her, for I agree with biographer Lynne Ferguson Chapman: Sylvia Plath […] had all the prerequisites for happiness: she was brilliant, talented and beautiful. […] But Sylvia Plath was also frequently – and ultimately fatally – depressed. (1994: I) 2.2. Zelda Fitzgerald: Creativity, between Repression and Quest “I wish I could write a beautiful book to break those hearts that are soon to cease to exist: a book of faith and small neat worlds and of people who live by the philosophies of popular songs.”5 (Zelda Fitzgerald) Distinguishing between Zelda Fitzgerald, the woman, and Zelda Fitzgerald, the myth, has become virtually impossible, for, by now, the aura of legend has obscured the flesh-and-blood woman almost completely. To most, Zelda is the quintessential willful, but charming, Southern belle, “gifted with beauty, grace, high spirits, […] expert skills of flirtation” (Bryers & Barks 2003: XXV) and an army of suitors, turned icon of the Roaring Twenties – the flapper, “the 5 Quoted in Nancy Milford (1970), Zelda: A Biography, Harper & Row, New York, p. 351. 70 ANCA-LUISA VIUSENCO audacious young woman who danced and drank; smoked chic cigarettes; bobbed her hair and showed her shins; and shook and shimmied in jazz halls and clubs of uncertain reputation” (Sagert 2010: 11), turned madwoman. When it comes to the source of her madness, however, opinions are divided. Many (including biographers Nancy Milford, Kendall Taylor and Sally Cline) blame it on her marriage to famous novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. The latter apparently transformed the “wild, pleasure loving girl” (Bryers & Barks 2003: 8) into “a reckless and decorative wife” (Bryers & Barks 2003: XXVII) (Zelda herself had stated in one of her letters to her then fiancé that she wanted to be worn by him “like a watch-chain or button-hole bouquet – to the world” (Kurth 1996: 21), either misappropriating or stifling her literary talent in the process, and, consequently, turning her mad. The author of Zelda Fitzgerald and the Failure of the American Dream for Women, Koula Svokos Hartnett (quoted in Bryers & Barks 2003: XIV), for instance, stated the following: As his appendage, [Zelda] was to become the victim of [Scott’s] self-destructive urge. In denying her the right to be her own person…, by refusing to permit her the use of her own material…, by rebuking her for attempting to create a life of her own – he gradually causes her to emotionally wither and die. According to the supporters of this view, if the glamorous polish is peeled off, the “youthful, fun-loving, free-spending, hardworking, and innovative” couple, as granddaughter Eleanor Lanahan (2003: XXVI) claims they wished to be (and were) perceived, whose very mentioning “can summon taxis at dusk, conjure gleaming hotel lobbies and smoky speakeasies, flappers, yellow phaetons, white suits, large tips, expatriates, and nostalgia for the Lost Generation” (Lanahan 2003: XXIII) were, in fact, engaged in the unhealthiest of relationships, one marked by alcoholism, mental illness, financial troubles and infidelity. Scott is portrayed as the authoritative husband who did not allow Zelda to become her own woman and her own writer. Zelda was, indeed, the perfect muse. The words in her diaries and her letters could easily become the wittiest lines for a novelist’s heroines, already made in her image (and what a compelling image it was!). She was, thus, also an abused, drained muse, who came to see madness as an escape: She [Zelda] had used up her life providing material for a writer who to this day is considered one of America’s greatest, yet as a man and husband was cunningly controlling. When she finally tried to make a life for herself, apart from the marriage, it was too late. She had scant resources left. The only way out was through the insanity to which her family was prone. (Kendall Taylor, quoted in Bryers & Barks 2003: XIV) Indeed, Zelda was not particularly comfortable with this state of affairs, as expressed, albeit in her usual playful manner, in the review she wrote for The Beautiful and Damned in the New York Tribune: SYLVIA PLATH AND ZELDA FITZGERALD ORMADNESS AND CREATIVITY INTERTWINED 71 It seems to me that on one page I recognized a portion of an old diary of mine which mysteriously disappeared shortly after my marriage and also scraps of letters which, though considerably edited, sound to me vaguely familiar. Mr. Fitzgerald – I believe that is how he spells his name – seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home. (Quoted in Lanahan 2003: XXVIII) Yet, to claim that Zelda did not find the success she longed for exclusively because of her husband’s own insecurities as a writer, however, and that the support he did provide by editing some of her work or publishing texts penned by her under his name could only be catalogued as the result of these insecurities, coupled with a competitive and domineering nature, is an exaggeration. Eleanor Lanahan (2003: XXX) is understandably outraged by the idea: Perfect strangers have volunteered with straight faces that Zelda had all the talent and Scott simply stole her ideas – an injustice that, of course, drove her crazy! That Scott was an egotistic man and not particularly pleased with his wife entering a territory he saw as his own is obvious. That he believed his wife was merely an amateur and that her texts could potentially embarrass him in front of the world is, again, undeniable. Yet, turning him into a scapegoat fails to take into account vital aspects such as the age in which the couple lived (one that still required women to be content with their domestic roles and not seek selffulfillment outside the home), the fact that Scott had already reached both a level of experience that allowed him to be able to act as editor for his wife, and a level of notoriety that increased the chances of publication of any text signed by him, or, more importantly, Zelda’s long history of mental instability. Her first mental breakdown occurred in 1930, after three years of intense, physically and mentally exhausting ballet training begun rather late in life, at the age of twenty-seven, in an attempt to fulfill a life-long dream. Zelda was in the end diagnosed with schizophrenia, a new disease at the time, and several hospitalizations (during some of which she underwent versions of the rest cure that only worsened her condition) marked the rest of her life, which ended tragically in 1948, eight years after the death of her (then estranged) husband, in the fire that engulfed the mental institution where she was a patient. Prior to her death, however, after being no longer allowed to dance, Zelda had sought a new way of expressing herself. In 1932, during her stay in a clinic in Baltimore, she wrote a semi-autobiographical novel titled Save Me the Waltz and sent it to her husband’s publisher without previously consulting him. Scott was furious: not only had she fictionalized their story, but she had also managed to do so before him (he had been working on a novel drawing on the same material – their marriage, her obsession with ballet, her breakdown – for years; it would be published in 1934 as Tender Is the Night). Today, Save Me the Waltz, significantly revised so as not to be plagiaristic, as Scott saw it, is largely regarded as a companion to Tender Is the Night, rather than a novel in its own right. Zelda had, it seems, failed once more: Save Me the Waltzwas not well- 72 ANCA-LUISA VIUSENCO received by critics, and it was only in the final years of her life that she began working on another novel, which was never completed. Most of her time during these final years was dedicated, however, to painting, which she started pursuing as both a form of therapy and yet another outlet (one that did not conflict in any way with Scott’s) for the creativity that was broiling inside her. Zelda’s canvasses range from biblical tableaux, to dance scenes, to fairytale paintings, and their dramatic nature does make them captivating, but, although Scott financed an exhibition in New York in 1934, they were largely labeled as the products of a troubled psyche, as symptoms rather than art, and, hence, despite a recent revival of critical interest, no real value has been attributed to them. All evidence seems, thus, to suggest, on the one hand, that Zelda’s greatest bouts of creativity had her mental instability as a background, and, on the other hand, that she was more or less unsuccessful in every one of the endeavors through which she sought to carve an artistic identity of her own. In offering her view on her parents’ marriage and Zelda’s attempts at being recognized as an artist, Scottie Fitzgerald, however, stated the following: It is my impression that my father greatly appreciated and encouraged his wife’s unusual talents and ebullient imagination….It was my mother’s misfortune to be born with the ability to write, to dance, and to paint, and then never to have acquired the discipline to make her talent work for, rather than against, her. (Quoted in Kurth 1996: 28) Although she was a direct witness to events that biographers only have access to through written documents, it is a known fact that children feel torn when basically asked to choose between their parents, especially if they are no longer alive. Nevertheless, as unreliable as Scottie may be, I do agree with her: Zelda was a talented woman who, despite the mask of confidence she put on, simply could not find peace. A dysfunctional marriage to a man who was talented and troubled as well did by no means help. I believe, nevertheless, that her accomplishments, who fade in the face of Scott’s, it is true, are, however, remarkable for the age in which she lived and for a person afflicted by mental illness and torn between dependency and the desire for independence, and that both her writing and her art deserve an objective reevaluation, one that does not start from the premise that she was just a victim, a woman of many talents forced to live in the shadow of her famous husband. For all intents and purposes, Zelda and Scott, the couple who “danced and drank and loved and fought” (Sagert 2010: 23) inspired and drove each other mad in equal measure (Scott (quoted in Kurth 1996: 22) famously said: “Liquor on my breath is sweet to her. I cherish her most extravagant hallucinations.”), and, as fascinatingly and intricately bound as their lives may have been, the work each left behind should be judged on its own terms. SYLVIA PLATH AND ZELDA FITZGERALD ORMADNESS AND CREATIVITY INTERTWINED 73 3. Conclusions What the two case studies that the present paper is based on seem to prove is that, irrespective of whether or not we accept the idea of a relationship of causality between them, to a certain extent, these two complex sums of psychic phenomena – madness and creativity – do appear to overlap, in other words, that, indeed, “the delusions of the madman, the fervor of those under the grip of strong emotions and of the creations of the artist [seemingly] spring from a common source” (Nettle 2001: 2). Yet, mental illness, independent of the creativity it may or may not trigger (either in the form of writing, “the supreme achievement, […] by turns exhilarating and arduous” (Flaherty 2005: 1), or painting, dancing etc.), is a horrific experience, which requires immense inner resources to overcome, and this should never be glossed over through a romanticization of madness. As a result, at the end of the present paper, I find myself in awe of the two women I have analyzed, for their work, which, as emphasized above, would be a great accomplishment for any individual who has not had to struggle with mental illness, becomes extraordinary in the context of their emotional instability. In Madness in Literature, Lillian Feder pointed out the following: The varieties of communication among the mad include muteness, violence, and suicide, as well as verbal and pictorial symbols, all of which convey inner experience of enormous range and complexity. […] One discovers […] a symbolic language that discloses the intricate ways in which the mad incorporate the very conflict and suffering into the world from which they have withdrawn. (1983: 33) Indeed, the attempts at communicating of the mentally ill are very complex, as are the causes and effects of their illnesses, but reaching the level of beautifully-crafted, yet true-to-the-suffering literary pieces (or any other artistic product) is not, in my view, a feat that many can accomplish. As a result, Sylvia Plath and Zelda Fitzgerald, along with writers such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Shirley Jackson, Emily Holmes Coleman, Joanne Greenberg or Mary Jane Ward, should be celebrated for it. The present paper has, in the end, intended to do just that. REFERENCES Agarwal, Suman (2003), Sylvia Plath, Northern Book Centre, New Delhi. Bryers, Jackson R. and Cathy W. Barks (Eds.) (2003), Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald,2nd Edition, Bloomsbury, London. Butscher, Edward (2003), Sylvia Plath: Method and Madness, 2nd Edition, Schaffner Press, Tucson. 74 ANCA-LUISA VIUSENCO Chapman, Lynne Ferguson (1994), Sylvia Plath, The Creative Company, Madison. Feder, Lilian (1983), Madness in Literature, Princeton University Press, Princeton. Flaherty, Alice W. (2005), The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York. Harris, Mason (1973), “The Bell Jar, West Coast Review,” in Linda Wagner-Martin (Ed.) (1988), Sylvia Plath, the Critical Heritage,Routledge, London/ New York, pp. 107-113. Hughes, Ted and Frances Mccullough (Eds.) (1982), The Journals of Sylvia Plath (abridged edition), Dial Press, New York. Kurth, Peter (1996), Zelda, an Illustrated Life: The Private World of Zelda Fitzgerald, Harry Abrams, New York. Lanahan, Eleanor (2003). “Introduction” to Jackson R. Bryers and Cathy W. Barks (Eds.), Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald,2nd Edition, Bloomsbury, London, pp. XXIII-XXXI. Nelson, Deborah (2006), “Plath, History and Politics,” in Jo Gill (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Sylvia Plath, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 21-35. Nettle, Daniel (2001), Strong Imagination.Madness, Creativity and Human Nature, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Piette, Adam (2010), “Mothers, Mirrors, Doubles: Anne Stevenson’s Elegies for Sylvia Plath,” in Angela Leighton (Ed.), Voyages over Voices: Critical Essays on Anne Stevenson, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, pp. 55-70. Sagert, Kelly Boyer (2010), Flappers: A Guide to an American Subculture, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara. Vaillant, George E. (1995), “Creativity and Psychotic Defenses,” inGeorge E. Vaillant, The Wisdom of the Ego, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, pp. 231-247. Wurst, Gayle (2004), “Words to ‘Patch the Havoc’: The Imagination of Ted Hughes in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath,” in Joanny Moulin (Ed.),Hughes: Alternative Horizons,Routledge, London, pp. 17-28. MODERNIST AND POSTMODERNIST REPRESENTATIONS OF THE WORLD IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S MRS DALLOWAY AND IN GRAHAM SWIFT’S THE LIGHT OF DAY IRINA-ANA DROBOT∗ Abstract The aim of this paper is to find Modernist and Postmodernist features in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and in Graham Swift’s The Light of Day which are used to represent the world for their characters. Features shared by both trends or used by both writers will be pointed out, as well as inner and outside representations of the world. Similar elements, such as the lyricism used by both authors, the same one-day duration of the novel, interweaving of past and present, use of language (ordinary speech, linguistic effects) as well as other features related to the literary trends they belong to (for instance, parody in Swift) will be considered in the analysis of the representation of the world in these novels. How does Swift rewrite the stream of consciousness used by Woolf and what is its effect on the representation of the world? Keywords: Modernism, Postmodernism, Woolf, Swift, representation. 1. Introduction What is common (and what can be noticed right from the start) in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and in Graham Swift’s The Light of Day is the use of language, which shares several common aspects: stream of consciousness, lyricism, ordinary speech, linguistic effects. Modernists are known for switching the interest of their novels from the social world to language. This is true for the novels of both authors, in fact. The inner world of their characters becomes more important than outside reality. Other aspects include various themes echoing one another in the contents of the two novels, such as war, death, love, travelling and even aspects related to the same one-day duration of the action and thoughts described in the novel, the interweaving of past and present, the same setting, but during a different time: the city of London. ∗ Department of Foreign Languages and Communication, Technical University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest, e-mail: [email protected]. This paper is the written version of the presentation that I gave at the Annual Conference of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Bucharest, 5-6 November 2010. IRINA-ANA DROBOT 76 What is common with both Modernism and Postmodernism is the rejection of boundaries between genres, a feature to be found in both Woolf and Swift. In both novels there are quotations from poems or various allusions to other types of stories. Even the novels themselves are not examples of ordinary prose. They combine prose with lyricism. The fragmented view of the world is also a common feature of Modernism and Postmodernism. Generally, while for modernists such a fragmented view of life is regarded as negative, as tragic, it is an acceptable representation of reality for the postmodernists. Ambiguity and thus simultaneous views are generally associated with Postmodernism. According to Postmodernism, simultaneous views are not seen as contradictory, “but as an integral part of the complex patterning of reality.” With Postmodernism, world views, among others, are questioned. How much of these characteristics (and others) belonging to Modernism and Postmodernism hold for Mrs Dalloway and for The Light of Day? To what extent does the poetic or the language games aspects of the novels contribute to the representation of the world? How do characters view the world in the two novels? To what extent do the two novels belong to Modernism or Postmodernism, not chronologically speaking but judging on certain features? 2. Use of language It is said that language not only describes certain experiences of reality, it also shapes it, it creates a certain perception of the world. In the case of Woolf and Swift’s novels, language contributes to the representation of the world as perceived by characters. With Modernists, language is very important, while with Postmodernists it has a contradictory role. Karen Kaivola (1963: 103) notices that, according to Linda Hutcheon, “postmodernism responds to a crisis in representation, a recognition of language’s mimetic failure, while it acknowledges the necessity of using language to represent the world, subjectivity and experience.” Virginia Woolf had her reasons for choosing the stream of consciousness to illustrate experiences of reality in her novels, as reflected by the characters’ consciousness. How does Swift describe his views on writing a novel and how does the stream of consciousness he uses contribute to his depiction of a certain representation of reality? 2.1. Poetic Language. Illustrating Reality Poetic language is a common feature in both Mrs Dalloway and The Light of Day. MODERNIST AND POSTMODERNIST REPRESENTATIONS OF THE WORLD IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S MRS DALLOWAY AND IN GRAHAM SWIFT’S THE LIGHT OF DAY 77 According to Freedman (1963), “[…] lyrical novels can […] emerge from situations in which the author’s point of view is the aesthetic key to a formal representation, […] primarily of the world on which his vision has been trained.” Freedman also notices, with reference to Woolf, that “Worlds in time and space are not precisely reproduced but are rearranged in aesthetic designs which become universal and symbolic.” Graham Swift rewrites the modernist stream-of-consciousness novel, as practiced by Virginia Woolf and James Joyce (Draga 242). The stream-ofconsciousness is a mixture of all the levels of awareness, an unending flow of sensations, thoughts, memories, associations, and reflections (Norman, Rose, Stream-of-consciousness). Modernism focuses on language and on interior reality. According to Genevieve Lloyd, a distinctive preoccupation of the modern novel is represented by the concern with the inner contents of consciousness. Alcaraz Varo claims that, in Mrs. Dalloway, “there is virtually no plot: what matters is the emotions, sensations and recollections of the characters [...]”. The plot is actually there, yet the focus is on the characters’ inner world, expressed by means of a language which is often lyrical. This holds for Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway but also for The Light of Day, Swift’s novel, which, chronologically speaking, would be situated as belonging to Postmodernism. With Postmodernism one would expect a more ironic use of language and more language games rather than lyricism. The two trends, however, may be regarded not as opposed, not as reacting against one another, but also as continuing one another. As we have seen, there are features which are common to both trends. Moreover, Postmodernists try to surprise their readers by being different. Emotion is a significant aspects in Graham Swift’s fiction. As Jakob Winnberg states, this is opposed to ‘the waning of affect’ which characterizes postmodernism (Fredric Jameson 1998). Winnberg's claim is that Swift's work reflects a movement from modernism to limited modernism to postmodernism. Daniel Lea (2005) presents Swift as a writer “who has consistently defied simple categorisation.” Presenting him as a writer belonging to Postmodernism is an inadequate interpretation. Fabbri points out that “Graham Swift is among those few writers who not only give semantic thickness to each particular word and thought, but also know how to deal with feeling.” Swift himself states in an interview: "Whatever else one can do with a novel, I think the most important is to provoke feeling, one does write from the heart. The head does a lot on top of that, but the core of the book is feeling." (Amanda Smith). Stef Craps, in Trauma and Ethics in the Novels of Graham Swift, notices that Swift’s style of writing is “[...] characterized by its attempts to improvise a fugitive lyricism out of the patterns of 'ordinary' speech [...]”. In another interview (October 2006), Swift says that “He feels the words should flow musically, creating an underlying rhythm.” 78 IRINA-ANA DROBOT Thus, Swift’s writing is similar to Woolf’s. An exception regarding form is that Swift’s sentences are shorter than the majority of Woolf’s. Joanna Russ calls Virginia Woolf a lyric novelist in To Write Like a Woman. In the same book she gives a definition of the lyric mode. According to her, this mode is without chronology or causation, its principle of connection being associative. The lyric mode consists of the organization of discrete elements (images, events, scenes, passages, words) around an unspoken thematic or emotional center. In her view, no piece of writing can exist purely in any one mode, but there is a predominance of ‘one element, perhaps two.’ The task of the writer, for Woolf, was to express life as it is in reality. For this, language should be flexible, it should be able to give enough freedom of expression. She uses language in a poetic way; her stream of consciousness was supposed to describe “what it felt like to be alive” (Jensen 122), or “the myriad impressions of an ordinary mind on an ordinary day’ (Lloyd 147). Freedman (1963) notices that, for Woolf, a “poetic” “picture of the world […] allowed her to reject pedantic realism yet to insist on facts as the components of an ultimate symbolic vision.” The lyrical type of writing has a role in shaping experience, as Kaivola also notices. The lyrical novel focuses on subjective perception and “registers ambivalence through antithetical impulses”. The reconciliation of antithetical impulses is also seen by Ralph Freedman as one defining feature of the lyrical novel. It is not just lyrical passages that lead to defining a novel as lyrical, as lyrical passages are to be found in most novels, together with certain rhythmic features. According to Kaivola, lyrical prose could allow Woolf to write about dangerous subjects, such as the force of the unconscious, while she could retreat into an “aestheticizing diffuseness” (59). Woolf presents in Mrs Dalloway the case of a suicide. The atmosphere of the novel, although dark, is built by means of lyricism. In Graham Swift, lyricism helps deal with a murder and the reasons for it. We begin to understand Sarah and we don’t feel about to condemn her. If we don’t take her murder into account we see her as a good person. She helps Kristina and then she begins to love George. The whole story is expressed lyrically. As Liesl M. Olson notices in Modernism and the Ordinary (Chapter 2, Virginia Woolf's 'cotton wool of daily life') (Olson 64), Woolf’s distinction between moments of being and non-being shows her awareness that ‘the modern novel cannot represent only heightened moments of self-consciousness, but must be made up of more mundane moments that make up one’s life.’ Woolf’s writings thus record the subjective mind, or heightened experience, but they also represent the ordinary. In this consists her ambivalence. Freedman claims that “Within this moment, the mind reflects upon its own activity as it lights up the world and constructs it as a distinct pattern of existence, only to see it fall apart at the point of its clearest insight.” MODERNIST AND POSTMODERNIST REPRESENTATIONS OF THE WORLD IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S MRS DALLOWAY AND IN GRAHAM SWIFT’S THE LIGHT OF DAY 79 All of Graham Swift's novels deal with the extraordinary in the ordinary (Cora Lindsay 2002). His novels are about ordinary events in the lives of ordinary men. However, in their voices Swift ponders some of the bigger issues of life – such as death, birth, marriage and sex - as well as the everyday politics of relationships and friendships. 2.2. Language Games. Linguistic Effects George Webb, from the novel The Light of Day, will have the opportunity to improve his language skills. His language is both lyrical and filled with language games. As Wood notices, George’s language is “full of subtle linguistic effects, and even a ‘fugitive lyricism’”. (Lea) The Modernist and Postmodernist concern with language is illustrated in the contents of The Light of Day, in the motif of the teacher. Both Rachel, the former wife of George Webb, and Sarah are teachers. Sarah is a lecturer in Modern Languages and also a translator. It is from her that George learns how to improve his language skills. He visits Sarah in prison and he gives her what the prison wardens call his “homework”, which consists of his impressions of the outside world. He is thus “furnishing her with an imaginary world of which she can have no perception.” (Lea 2005). George, as a narrator, begins many chapters in the middle of the events or in the middle of thought, which are not completely rendered. The reader is left to gradually come to understand their meaning, their significance. This is an instance of Postmodernist playing with the reader, of allowing the reader to make an effort while reading. In an interview (October 2006), Swift admits that he intends to leave certain details to the reader’s imagination, not to precisely put them into words. Before he improves his language skills and maybe even some times afterwards, George’s “grasp on language” is “limited and imaginatively circumscribed by set patterns of thinking and viewing the world” (Lea 2005: 194). Lea also mentions that George repeatedly uses terms such as ‘cold’ or ‘beautiful’ when he describes the day; this “suggests a restricted and somewhat inflexible intelligence”. However, that may be only one side of George’s personality. He also changes under Sarah’s influence and with him his view of the world. 3. Echoes of Mrs Dalloway in The Light of Day Aside from aspects such as those related to poetic language, or a presentation of the inner world, there are similarities between the two novels IRINA-ANA DROBOT 80 related to their contents. The very structure of the two novels is similar, together with other aspects related to plot, images, along with characters’ perception of the world related to language, as previously seen. 3.1. One-Day Duration Both novels take place during one day, which includes, however, going back to the past on certain occasions. In Mrs Dalloway, the action takes place during a single day in post World War I England, and we are presented with an inter-war social structure. The Light of Day covers the events happening during one day in 1997. The events, or better put, what goes on in the consciousness of characters in a one-day narrative are carefully chosen. According to Lea, “Swift chooses a day which is emotionally highly charged and symbolically weighted [...]”. Lea contrasts this with Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway. While the events in The Light of Day occur on “a special day”, a Thursday, and not any Thursday, but November 20 (George Webb goes to visit his former client, Sarah, in prison and the grave of the husband she murdered two years ago.), in Mrs Dalloway, we are introduced to a day which reminds Clarissa of her youth. From there, we are offered instances of what happened in the past, and we are also given the opportunity to experience the perception of other characters, such as Septimus, whom Clarissa doesn’t even meet personally. Catherine Pesso-Miquel notices about Swift and literary trends the following: “Long considered as a quintessentially postmodernist writer, for instance by Linda Hutcheon, who used Waterland to define the aesthetics of “historiographic metafiction,” Swift seems recently to have preferred modernist forms, or even a straightforward fictitious narrative eschewing metafiction, intertextuality and historiography, as if he agreed with recent critics who have been begging for a “return to stories” in the British novel.” 3.2. Past and Present What is immediately noticeable about the organization of narrative in Graham Swift’s novels is that his narrators never tell their story chronologically, although there is an overall linear progression. There is always a movement backward and forward between the narrator’s present and the past events which are told. This organization of narrative indicates that the past weighs heavily on the present. In Graham Swift’s novels, characters try to deal with and understand the past. Characters try to reconcile past selves with present selves into a continuous, coherent identity. The past has had its influence on George MODERNIST AND POSTMODERNIST REPRESENTATIONS OF THE WORLD IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S MRS DALLOWAY AND IN GRAHAM SWIFT’S THE LIGHT OF DAY 81 Webb’s present and on his identity. We can see this from the meditation of the past (on his childhood, his failed marriage and career as a policeman) which is found in his interior monologue. In Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa remembers what she experienced in the past and she herself reflects on those events. Similar reflections belong to other characters, for instance to Septimus and to his wife Rezia or to Peter. They think a lot about the choices they did in the past and their effect on their present. Clarissa thinks about her decision to choose to marry Richard instead of Peter. Moreover, she reflects on her present life. Septimus and Rezia think about their past decision to get married. Each of them has their story and their present feelings involved when thinking about the way their past choice affects their present. Both authors see identity in their novels as flexible, fluid, always in the process of becoming. This was the modernist perception of identity, but it is present in Swift’s works as well, together with an oscillation between past and present, between past selves and present selves, which are united by memory. The ‘double awareness’ of memory Woolf takes over from Wordsworth and the Romantic tradition is also visible with Swift. 3.3. Setting The image of the town of London is present in both novels. Walking on the streets of London is usually an occasion to explore. It gives characters a feeling of freedom. The setting is identifiable in real life. The motif of travel is visible both in the exploration of the outside, urban space as well as with respect to the mind, which travels across many layers of memory. As Megan Tiegan (2006-2007: 32) notices, in Mrs Dalloway, the characters “explore the streets of a rapidly modernizing London.” The streets are represented as “highly aesthetic”, infused with vitality”, with “appealing crowds”. Characters “rejoice in the crowd’s vitality” as they walk on the streets. Clarissa Dalloway feels a strong “bond” to the city. She is “overcome by the vitality of a summer morning in London”. Characters “mingle with the city’s crowds” (Tiegan 20062007: 31) and “their identities merge with those of the Londoners they encounter on the streets through of shared perceptions and echoed thoughts.” However, “connectedness” is found together with isolation, the “ambivalence towards the city” being “rooted in the ambivalence of modern identity”. A fragmentation of identity is an effect of “the city’s rapid modernization”. This includes a feeling of loss of self, of unstable relations between characters, mainly due to a feeling of “the city’s perpetual instability”. “Simultaneous absorption in multiple identities” ends in isolation (Tiegan 2006-2007: 35). Focus in The Light of Day is on inner reality, but at the same time we notice that George Webb pays lots of attention to details related to his surroundings IRINA-ANA DROBOT 82 (names of streets, street numbers). The reader may visualise every street named, “the wilderness of Wimbledon Common and the bleak vastness of Putney Vale cemetery” (Malcolm 2003). Place setting is seen as local and rendered with a particular meticulous observation, by Taylor, who calls this ‘cab-driver accuracy’. In The Light of Day, we are presented with names of streets and also with specific directions: (1) [...] on the other side of Broadway [...] [...] From Wimbledon’s lower end [...] [...] Past Worple Road [...] [...] the first option for Wimbledon, via Kew Bridge [...] Names of streets and town areas are also present in Woolf’s novel, with similar directions: (2) [...] walking towards Bond Street, from the middle of Bond Street to Oxford Street [...] [...] Clarissa was suspended on one side of Brook Street [...] [...] Gliding across Piccadilly, the car turned down St. James’s Street. [...] [...] And Richard Dalloway and Hugh Whitbread hesitated at the corner of Conduit Street [...] These details contribute to the creation of a fictional world. The borders between the real world of London and the fictional image of London are blurred. Beatrice Berna, in Vanessa Guignery’s book (Re-)mapping London: Visions of the Metropolis in the Contemporary Novel in English (2008), notices that Graham Swift in his novel The Light of Day presents us with a Modernist view of the world. “London […] works as a palimpsest, revealing an international history of war and tragic personal stories in an organicist way.” George’s “driving through London mirrors his work on memory and his quest to make sense out of the chaos of existence.” As Vanessa Guignery (2008) claims, the areas of London presented in the two novels differ, in the sense that Woolf presents a “modern metropolis […] with its crowded thoroughfare in which the artist is the stroller […]”. Swift presents another side of London, the South-West, including Wimbledon and its surroundings. Walking and driving through London becomes a journey of selfdiscovery and transformation, according to Guignery. The journey echoes George’s thoughts. The same goes on in Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. 3.4. Common Themes and Images Reflecting on the past is common for Woolf and Swift’s novels. George Webb reflects on his childhood, his marriage, his relationship with his daughter. MODERNIST AND POSTMODERNIST REPRESENTATIONS OF THE WORLD IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S MRS DALLOWAY AND IN GRAHAM SWIFT’S THE LIGHT OF DAY 83 Clarissa Dalloway too reflects on her youth, her marriage and the relationship with her own daughter. While Clarissa remains rather unhappy in her marriage, George Webb is given a chance for a redemptive love (with Sarah). Isolation comes from being involved in distant relationships, from feeling misunderstood. This happens in the relationship between Lucrezia and Septimus, and is echoed at least during some moments in the relationship between Clarissa and Richard. This in turn is echoed in George’s failed marriage. Death is another common theme. However, while in Mrs Dalloway there is a suicide, in The Light of Day there is a murder. There are more deaths than that, however, in both novels. In Mrs. Dalloway death runs as a theme throughout the novel, creating a dark atmosphere witjh the help of Shakespeare’s lines: “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun/ Nor the furious winter’s rages.” In The Light of Day, Kristina’s family was killed during the war. “Love and death are intimately associated around and through the ambiguous drama of the murder […]” (Lea 2005: 193). There in an imprecision in the representation of the murder. Sarah’s behaviour seems unexplainable, according to Lea and even Swift writes in his novel that “Life happens outside the law.” What Swift says may suggest “an admission of the permeable boundaries between the subject and the social framework in which his/her subjectivity is couched” and also “an acknowledgement of that which exists outside the acceptable” (Lea 2005: 194). The image of the war is found in both novels, together with the way it may affect certain characters’ lives. Septimus suffers from shell-shock while Kristina is a refugee whose family has been killed. The war, according to Freedman, “has created the significant abyss in Septimus’ world”. Characters who travel are again common in the two novels. Tropes of travel and movement are present throughout Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway. Travel is a central trope or thematic feature of modernist texts. Movement, travelling are contrasted to a domestic stasis. Clarissa understands the importance of movement in her life: she experiences the fear of social exile, when she is not invited by Lady Bruton to lunch. Characters in this novel are related, explicitly or implicitly, to a foreign place. Peter Walsh, a self-described solitary traveller, comes from an Anglo-Indian family. Sally Seton has French origins. Miss Kilman is of German descent. Septimus himself is an immigrant, the same goes for his wife. In the novel there are mentioned various Irish characters, like Moll Pratt and Mrs. Walker, or other immigrants, like a young woman coming from Edinburgh, or the presence of Americans (the stereotype of the bargain-hunting, gullible American tourist) is to be noticed. Woolf's novel reveals the hybridity of a cosmopolitan center like London long before the term was used among postmodernist scholars. Travel is also present in Swift’s novels. To illustrate dislocated self-alienation, he uses the exile of two rich refugees, Emperor Napoleon III and Princess Eugenie IRINA-ANA DROBOT 84 in a lodge in Chistlehurst. They reveal the provisionality of fixity, as their house later became part of a golf course, while Eugenie outlived him. ‘Travel’ is usually associated with modernism, while ‘displacement’ is connected to postmodernism. Yet, the two terms are not just binary categories, there may be continuities between them just as with the two trends. Caren Kaplan, in her book Questions of Travel: Postmodern Discourses of Displacement, defines these terms as follows: “Travel is very much a modern concept, signifying both commercial and leisure movement in an era of expanding Western Capitalism, while displacement refers us to the more mass migrations that modernity has engendered.” (Kaplan 1996: 3) Situations from the present that bring back memories occur in both novels, together with these common themes and images. 4. Fragmentation Both Woolf’s and Swift’s characters live in a chaotic, fragmented world. The world becomes fragmented due to the characters’ feelings of not feeling understood. They may feel imprisoned in their relationships, for instance. The idea of feeling imprisoned is felt during Swift’s novel as an equivalent for isolation in Woolf’s novel. He is imprisoned with Sarah in a relationship of mutual dependency, each clinging to the other as an embodiment of desires for different lives, as if in an echo of the relationship between Lucrezia and Septimus. Kristina feels imprisoned in the Nashes’ home on her arrival, or at least perceived by Sarah as such. Characters feel insecure, as if they were living in a chaotic world, a world without meaning because of the happenings in their lives. For Septimus, it is the death of Evans during the war that makes the world appear meaningless to him. For Rezia, it is her husband’s behaviour, which is strange, uncaring towards her that makes life and the world seem chaotic and then his suicide changes completely what she imagined that her life would be like. The war is also the cause for Kristina’s wanderings. She finds herself in a different world, in a different country and then she goes back to an empty home (as her family was killed during the war in Croatia). However, the reader will not know what Kristina’s reactions will be. War brings change. It transforms the world and characters’ representations of the world. The stream of consciousness reflects a fragmented representation of the world in the fragmented thoughts. Thoughts are presented in the novels as they occur to the characters, and time is not chronological, in the sense that characters move in their thoughts and memories between past and present. MODERNIST AND POSTMODERNIST REPRESENTATIONS OF THE WORLD IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S MRS DALLOWAY AND IN GRAHAM SWIFT’S THE LIGHT OF DAY 85 Karen Kaivola (1991: 30) notices in Woolf that the “refusal to maintain a clear boundary between oneself and the world is a radical view of the relationship between self and other where the mingling of self and other is not just death and annihilation of the self but a restorative wholeness and lifeaffirming intimacy.” Clarissa feels at times part of people she never met. This feeling is expressed in a lyrical language and may be regarded as what Woolf called a “moment of being”. A similar situation happens with George Webb, when he imagines various situations and feelings of other characters in order to “picture the scene”. Irreconcilable feelings are part of Clarissa. For instance, “She felt very young” and “at the same time unspeakably aged.” She feels alone (“She had a perpetual sense... of being out, far out and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day.”) yet she likes to organize parties. In this way she gains approval, admiration from her guests. At times she has doubts about her self-worth, for instance: “But often now this body she wore... this body, with all its capacities, seemed nothing – nothing at all”. Lyrical moments, aside from expressing opposed feelings, offer characters a sense of order at times. Walking or driving on the streets of London also have this effect, as we have previously seen. Woolf’s characters experience “moments of being”, while Swift’s characters experience similar moments, revelations. All these are intensely felt moments. According to Berna, the epiphany at the end of Swift’s novel shows “what it is like to be a human being”. Characters make other efforts to make order and bring peace into their lives. Self-analysis is used by characters in both authors. Their analysis of past events is such an attempt. Another attempt may be seen in Clarissa’s wish to make her house perfect, to be the “perfect hostess” in order to have a good social position and thus a high self-esteem. The chaotic world is seen in the characters’ lives. Clarissa has her own insecurities. Swift’s character, George, sees his life change for the worst and his existence becomes chaotic. He loses his job, then his wife leaves him. Afterwards he gets a hobby, cooking. He finds another job and redemption by means of his love for Sarah. 5. Simultaneous Views Swift represents “primarily a personal rather than a factual reality […]” (Lindsay 2002). The “looking inward” (Wordsworth) in Woolf shows her favouring subjective experience in her writings (Güneş 2003). Both authors favour inner experience, which leads to more views on reality. Every character may perceive the world differently. In Mrs Dalloway, for instance, Clarissa has her own view on reality, different from that of Peter, Sally, Richard Dalloway IRINA-ANA DROBOT 86 while Septimus interprets it differently than the rest of the world. Septimus seems to live in a world of his own until he can no longer make the difference between reality and fantasy. His inner world of thought and feelings, however, is something normal for what he has gone through and yet nobody understand him. Other people cannot perceive the world as he does and they don’t even try to. As Freedman (1963) notices, Septimus’ world is “wholly internal”. In The Light of Day, we are given only one point of view, George’s. Yet he himself has his own way of perceiving the world. What is more, George tries to understand how the others have seen various events, to see through their perspective. He doesn’t find his own view the only possible and correct view of reality. In Mrs Dalloway there are also characters who try to perceive the world through other characters’ eyes. Clarissa imagines the death of Septimus, being helped by the fact that she has a “fear of and simultaneous urge toward death” (Leaska 1977: 89). Peter imagines Clarissa’s future as “the perfect hostess”. According to Freedman (1963), “The process of awareness registers the impact of the external world upon the inner life.” As for the stream of consciousness, Freedman (1963) sees it as “filtering life through inner experience”; “it serves to lay bare many hearts within a panorama of life.” 6. Conclusions In these two novels, two worlds are represented: the outside world and the inner world. The inner world is influenced by the outside world and also plays a part in perceiving the outside world. The stream of consciousness as well as common images, themes, the same one-day duration bring the two novels close to one another. The one-day duration is associated with Modernism and the break with traditional narratives may be associated with both Modernism and Postmodernism. Such features play an important part in representing the fictional worlds. Another important element is the setting. The two novels have Modernist features judging by their approach to the role of the city of London in allowing the characters to explore not only its streets but also their memories, their inner worlds. The geographical side of London may stand for a wish to order a chaotic world in which the characters feel at times that they live in. Epiphanies or moments of being give characters a sense of order to their representation of the world. In Mrs Dalloway, the atmosphere seems darker than in The Light of Day. The theme of death, represented by Shakespeare’s lines is different than the images of light and the optimistic epiphany at the end of Swift’s novel. This may show that the fragmented view of life is associated with something negative in Woolf and MODERNIST AND POSTMODERNIST REPRESENTATIONS OF THE WORLD IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S MRS DALLOWAY AND IN GRAHAM SWIFT’S THE LIGHT OF DAY 87 accepted in Swift, although none of the two novels may be associated exclusively with features of one single trend. Features of the trends too are debatable. REFERENCES Primary Sources Swift, Graham (2004), The Light of Day, Penguin Books, England. Woolf, Virginia (1981), Mrs Dalloway, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York. Secondary Sources Beja, Morris (1971), Epiphany in the Modern Novel, University of Washington Press, Seattle. Freedman, Ralph (1963), The Lyrical Novel: Studies in Hermann Hesse, Andre Gide, and Virginia Woolf, Princeton University Press, New Jersey. Guignery, Vanessa (2008), (Re-)mapping London: visions of the metropolis in the contemporary novel in English, Editions Publibook Université, Paris. Güneş, Ali (2003), “William Wordsworth’s ‘Double Awareness’ of Memory in Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs Dalloway’”, Doğuş Üniversitesi Dergisi 4 (2), 183-196. Kaivola, Karen (1991), All Contraries Confounded: The Lyrical Fiction of Virginia Woolf, Djuna Barnes and Marguerite Duras, University of Iowa Press. Malcolm, David (2003), Understanding Graham Swift, University of South Carolina Press, South Carolina. Mchale, Brian (1992), Constructing Postmodernism, Routledge, London and New York. Mchale, Brian (1987), Postmodernist Fiction, Routledge, London and New York. Pesso-Miquel, Catherine (2007), From historiographic metafictions to bedtime stories: The changing contours of Graham Swift’s novels, http://www.cairn.info/revue-etudesanglaises-2007-2-p-135.htm Roe, Sue, Susan, Sellers, eds. (2000), The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Winnberg, Jakob (2003), An Aesthetic of Vulnerability: The Sentimentum and the Novels of Graham Swift, Goteborg University Department of English, Goteborg. STRATEGIE DI RISCRITTURA NELLA NARRATIVA ITALIANA POSTMODERNA HANIBAL STĂNCIULESCU∗ THE REWRITING STRATEGIES IN THE POSTMODERN ITALIAN LITERATURE Abstract In Italy the postmodernist literature is not regarded by the critics as a viable experiment as it is thought to be a late development of the avantgarde. Many Italian writers have adopted some of the strategies which clearly can be considered as pertaining to this precise tendency of development of the modern novel. Among the most important strategies one can count the rewriting. It resides in rewriting the past and recompose it in accordance with the understanding and the codes of the contemporary reader. Thus the past becomes some kind of reservoir of subjects and ways of expression which now can be used in new narrative structures. For the Italian novelists, the best model remains Italo Calvino, an author of modern allegories, a puzzler who has enriched Italian literature with intricated meta-fictions. His followers, whether they admitted it or not, authors as Umberto Eco, Antonio Tabucchi or Alessandro Baricco, in spite of adopting for non-literary reasons some simplifications, have still managed to find new values for the rewriting technique. Keywords: Postmodernism, avantgarde, rewriting, metafiction, irony, possible world. 1. Essere o non essere postmoderni Lo scontro fertile tra modernismo e postmodernismo divenne in Italia, negli ultimi decenni, e sopratutto e paradossalmente negli ambienti letterari, un’esperienza di refrattarietà. Non sono gli scrittori ad opporsi a questa nuova tendenza felicemente sfruttata dalla cultura statunitense sin dagli anni Cinquanta del secolo scorso e molto ben accolta in paesi come Germania, Francia o Gran Bretagna. Di converso, loro – Umberto Eco, Antonio Tabucchi oppure il più giovane Alessandro Baricco, per fare solo alcuni esempi – hanno arricchito il ∗ Dipartimento di Linguistica Romanza, Lingue e Letterature Iberoromanze e Italiano, Universitá di Bucarest, [email protected]. HANIBAL STĂNCIULESCU 90 paradigma della narrativa contemporanea producendo romanzi prettamente postmoderni in cui la storia culturale viene letta come se fosse un palinsesto da raschiare e ricoprire poi di nuovi ‘segni’. L’impostazione ludica di questi testi è già diventata canonica e i loro autori sono in genere pronti ad ammettere che la strada di una letteratura che non sia più al rimorchio della realtà è stata certamente aperta da un insigne precursore e cioè da Italo Calvino, maestro incontestabile della riscrittura. Tra le creazioni in cui Calvino sottopone a riciclaggio il materiale offerto dalla tradizione letteraria e che costituiscono prove indiscutibili della sua raffinata abilità combinatoria, si annoverano il racconto Il conte di Montecristo, lo strano libretto Le città invisibili e il romanzo Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore. 1.2. Dalla confutazione al giudizio ironico Però, in modo abbastanza bizzarro, come osserva Remo Ceserani, gli intellettuali e i critici letterari italiani sono da molti anni rimasti “inflessibili nel respingere le nuove tendenze e si sono rifiutati di dar loro un minimo di credito o semplicemente descriverle”1. Così, si possono segnalare confutazioni recise che vanno spesse volte fino alla negazione assoluta del fenomeno come tale, oppure rifiuti ben mascherati sotto ironiche analisi le cui conclusioni si articolano sempre in giudizi severi che annullano completamente la fisionomia del postmoderno. Illustra bene il primo tipo di atteggiamento un apprezzamento alquanto pugnace del fu Giuseppe Petronio che constata la mancanza di spessore del progetto postmoderno percepito come fenomeno di cui molti parlano senza poter accertarne l’esistenza vera: Un saggio che ho letto in questi giorni, e non dell’ultimo venuto, di un romanziere americano di buona fama, stiva in una pagina critici e romanzieri, che dice postmoderni, e c’è di tutto: lui e i suoi amici, Beckett, Borges, Alain Robbe-Grillet e Gabriel García Márquez, Eliot e Calvino, Thomas Mann e Musil, risalendo fino a Flaubert, Baudelaire, Sterne, Cervantes... Egualmente, per mesi, ho letto saggi e libri di letteratura, cinema, architettura e urbanistica, economia e politologia, storici di tutte le storie, di tutti i paesi e di tutti i livelli, e, lo confesso, più leggevo più le idee mi si annebbiavano, e l’impressione ultima la posso condensare in un verso di Dante: il poeta latino Stazio vuole abbracciare Virgilio, ma questi sorridendo lo ammonisce: “sbagli trattando l’ombra come cosa salda”: scambi inconsistevoli ombre per cose reali2. 1 R. Ceserani, Raccontare il postmoderno, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 1997, p. 146. G. Petronio, “Postmoderno? ”, in Atti dell’incontro di studio “Postmoderno?”, 28-29 novembre 1998, a.c. di G. Petronio e M. Spanu, Trieste, Gamberetti 1999, pp. 17-18. 2 STRATEGIE DI RISCRITTURA NELLA NARRATIVA ITALIANA POSTMODERNA 91 Anni fa, prima di aver steso il sopracitato giudizio, il professor Giuseppe Petronio, ormai novantenne, venne a Bucarest a parlare dinanzi agli studenti romeni di certi aspetti della letteratura italiana contemporanea. Sorvegliato dallo sguardo glaciale di Dante il cui imperituro busto in gesso si trovava come al solito su uno dei banali armadi reperibili nell’aula in cui ha sede la nostra cattedra e accolto amicalmente da Ramiro Ortiz (il cui nobile ritratto protegge docenti e discenti amanti della cultura italiana da più di un secolo), Petronio colse l’occasione per fare una filippica contro gli scrittori postmoderni. La sua spietata requisitoria s’imperniava sull’idea di valore estetico, dimenticato secondo lui dai seguaci di questa ‘corrente’. Il loro istinto commerciale veniva condannato dal vecchio professore che li accusava di pensar soltanto al proprio “conto in banca” ricorrendo ovviamente a formule di facile successo come garanzia di vendite stratosferiche dei loro prodotti narrativi. L’episodio può essere un argomento a favore di una certa coerenza dei punti di vista del nostro e della serietà del suo impegno critico. Con tutto ciò, gli inaspettati elogi riservati durante quella breve conferenza ad uno scrittore come Camilleri, la cui fama mi sembrava a quel tempo e ancor mi sembra del tutto immeritata, mi avevano allora reso alquanto perplesso. Non c’è ombra di dubbio, il padre del commissario Montalban potrebbe essere accusato di peccati simili a quelli per i quali Petronio sentiva il bisogno di condannare al rogo la narrativa postmoderna. Questa sorta di visione inquisitoria, oltre tutto, riesce sempre a obnubilare la chiarezza di percezione dei fatti letterari. 1.3. Postmoderno o neoavanguardia? Un’angolazione più equilibrata troviamo invece in alcuni interventi relativamente recenti dovuti a Renato Barilli la cui giovinezza intellettuale fu contraddistinta dalla sua adesione al Gruppo 63, uno dei più interessanti raggruppamenti neoavanguardisti della seconda metà del Novecento di cui fece parte per qualche tempo anche Umberto Eco. In un saggio intitolato Il problema del romanzo nella teoria e nella pratica del Gruppo 63, Barilli sottolinea che a partire dagli anni Sessanta, varie sperimentazioni narrative, non tutte cresciute nei confini del gruppo, ma presto cooptate da quella onesta brigata, hanno imposto una dimensione di letteratura al quadrato, “di letteratura volta a rifare il verso a se stessa, che in fondo avrebbe costituito un’altra delle possibilità in cui si sarebbe riconosciuto il postmoderno”3. Il critico pare aver scoperto la magica fonte da cui scaturì questa nuova ‘eresia’ letteraria che pare aver conservato nel suo DNA tratti genetici da collegare all’avanguardia e neoavanguardia, pur 3 R. Barilli, “Il problema del romanzo... ”, nel volume I tempi del rinnovamento, Atti del Convegno Internazionale “Rinnovamento del codice narrativo in Italia”, Bulzoni-Leuven University Press, Roma-Leuven, 1955, p. 533. HANIBAL STĂNCIULESCU 92 riconoscendo onestamente che il suo capostipite de facto non appartenne al suo gruppo: “Tale via sarebbe stata percorsa con sempre maggiore determinazione da un autore certamente estraneo al Gruppo 63, cui tuttavia i membri di questo riservarono sempre un’attenzione affascinata, anche se perplessa, Italo Calvino”4. 1.4. Rivisitare il passato In un suo intervento ulteriore, pervaso dal solito fervore avanguardistico, Renato Barilli torna all’argomento precisando i lineamenti di una prassi letteraria che egli vede prolungarsi fertilmente nell’immediata contemporaneità, nelle sperimentazioni postmoderne. Un “gusto citazionista”, una “tenerezza verso le memorie”5 scopre il teorico nelle opere di alcuni giovani architetti a partire dagli anni Settanta, tratti che vede poi manifestarsi pienamente pure in certi prodotti romanzeschi con lo stesso spirito critico-ironico. Il passato viene considerato da questi creatori una miniera in cui scavare per far uscir fuori dimenticate, e non di rado aspramente vituperate dagli oltranzisti del Modernismo novecentesco, ricchezze. Consapevole dell’inerente eteronomia dell’arte, Barilli osserva il rapporto sottile tra dinamica sociale ed economica, mutazioni di mentalità e le nuove tendenze che si articolano in una specie di retromodernismo: Il passato, invece di dover essere distrutto, demonizzato, diventa un serbatoio di elementi, di stilemi che può essere utile recuperare perché viviamo, vivevamo già allora, in una società del benessere, in una società che voleva rilassarsi e quindi non vivere nel culto dell’economia, della funzionalità, come era quella di mezzo secolo prima, delle avanguardie pure e dure dei primi del Novecento; era arrivata l’ora di concedersi una distensione e quindi di scoprire che il passato aveva il suo fascino, nel momento in cui il passato ritornava grazie a tutte le immagini rese possibili dall’industria culturale...6. Tornando a punti di vista espressi nella sua giovinezza all’occasione di un convegno del Gruppo 63, il professore Barilli mette in risalto questo paradosso: c’è la possibilità di cambiare cammino e, invece che impegnarsi in una ricerca sempre più accanita dell’originalità, dell’invenzione ad ogni costo, “visto che il nuovo si sta esaurendo”, al contrario, lo scrittore può optare per un ritorno a stereotipi letterari codificati da molto tempo e convalidati dalla tradizione: “si tratterebbe insomma di riscrivere le vecchie storie, di rifare Verne o Dumas...”7. Riciclare il vecchio diventava così il cardine di tutta una pratica narrativa, ma il concetto di paternità non veniva affatto negato e forse in questo modo si spiega la sferzata che Barilli lancia al ex-compagno Eco: 4 Ivi. R. Barilli, “Tre ipotesi per il Postmoderno”, nel volume Postmoderno? a. c. di G. Petronio e M. Spanu, cit., p. 84. 6 Ivi, p. 85. 7 Ivi, p. 90. 5 STRATEGIE DI RISCRITTURA NELLA NARRATIVA ITALIANA POSTMODERNA 93 Noi infatti aggiungevamo che queste citazioni dal passato devono pur sempre avere le virgolette, come è buona regola, altrimenti si cade nel plagio, nella copia; così anche l’autore che ruba al passato dovrebbe mettere le virgolette e lavorare il testo in modo che sia immediatamente chiaro che la sua è una riscrittura, un riuso, ma improntato ad un’ «altra» cifra. Questa è l’operazione che Calvino fa in modo sublime, mentre Eco spesso dimentica le virgolette, cioè non si capisce più dove c’è lui, o invece la ripresa da altri8. Situandosi sottilmente su posizioni in certo qual senso contrarie, soprattutto in ciò che riguarda la vitalità del filone di avanguardia che, secondo Barilli, sembra nutrir sempre la narrativa in Italia e altrove, Ulrich Schulz-Buschhaus parla invece di “banalizzazione quale conseguenza di successo eccessivo”. Si trattasse infatti di una specie di “stigma della prevedibilità che l’artista di avanguardia cerca di superare producendo effetti di choc e di trasgressione”9. Oggi, tutti questi sforzi di demolizione di regole, di codici, paiono piuttosto futili perché “non c’è più nessuna norma da combattere e, anzi, la trasgressione stessa si trasforma in una nuova paradossale sorta di convenzione” 10 . Riprendendo un’idea di Adorno, SchulzBuschhaus afferma che le possibilità espressive degli scrittori moderni si sono ridotte in seguito alle incessanti spinte innovative: ogni innovazione estetica non può essere considerata soltanto “un arricchimento aggiunto al repertorio delle tecniche espressive di cui disponiamo; ogni innnovazione ha, allo stesso tempo, come conseguenza anche una riduzione del repertorio, perché trasforma altre tecniche in procedimenti ormai superati”11. Questa censura opera all’interno del sistema letterario stesso, non viene imposta dalla morale o dalla politica, in base ad un concetto che Adorno definiva come Kanon des Verbotenen, canone dell’interdetto. Per uscir da questa situazione di blocco, l’arte radicalmente moderna reagisce avvicinandosi sempre di più al silenzio e l’opera di Samuel Beckett può costituirne la prova. Di converso, osserva Schulz-Buschhaus, la Post-avanguardia o l’arte postmoderna vuol recuperare la comunicatività tornando in sostanza alla leggibilità che si deve capire senza dubbio anche in termini di referenzialità. Questo scopo viene ricercato, “e delle volte raggiunto, mediante il riuso del materiale comunicativo inerente a generi e forme della tradizione letteraria”12. 2. Il modello ‘ontologico’ La presentazione delle principali linee di sviluppo di un dibattito tutt’ora in corso intorno alle sfaccettature di un fenomeno molto complesso come il 8 Ivi, pp. 90-91. U. Schulz Buschhaus, “Postmodernismo o Post-avanguardia?” in Postmoderno? a. c. di G. Petronio, M. Spanu, cit., p. 41. 10 Ivi, pp. 41-42. 11 Ivi, p. 42. 12 Ivi, p. 43. 9 HANIBAL STĂNCIULESCU 94 Postmoderno ci porta alla conclusione che le strategie di riscrittura furono sì una scelta ispirata da parte di certi prosatori degli ultimi decenni, ma anche un tipo di poetica derivato dall’evoluzione generale del campo delle lettere. Qualche anno fa, in un mio libro dedicato ai prodotti romanzeschi di Umberto Eco13 , cercavo di stabilire le tappe che conobbe nel suo crescere la storia della rappresentazione letteraria. Proponevo un modello descrittivo basato su tre concetti corrispondenti a tre grandi epoche dell’avventura narrativa dell’umanità cui vorrei aggiungere in queste pagine qualche riflessione fresca. Il primo, il Reale ‘primigenio’ (R-p), sarebbe tipico per un’epoca in cui ‘il non ancora scritto’ mostrava generosamente i suoi tesori inesplorati. Era quello il Mondo come Testo, ossia il Libro del Mondo che abbracciava tutto l’Essere, Terra e Cielo, mortali e Dei, invitando gli umani ad avventurarsi su innumerevoli e appetitosi percorsi cognitivi. Quando accadde tutto questo? In illo tempore. Possiamo chiamare quell’era pre-omerica, e fu seguita da un’altra, vigorosamente popolata all’inizio da scrittori che pensavano in universali, soprattutto greci. È l’epoca in cui regnava il Reale verosimile (R-v), è senza dubbio un lungo periodo di trionfo della mimesis, prolungatosi fino ai giorni nostri. Nacque da questo indomabile travaglio il Mondo dei Testi che arricchì straordinariamente lo scrivibile. In questo spazio, di una vivacità che difficilmente si potrebbe superare, hanno ottenuto il diritto di eterna cittadinanza gli eroi: Achille, Edipo, Amleto, Don Quijote, Faust e tantissimi altri, usciti – come nelle antiche storie – dalle teste dei loro vari creatori e padri. Questo è il paradigma dello Scrittore Demiurgo, di gente come Manzoni e Balzac, Dostoevskij e Dickens, Joyce e Bulgakov. Se si accetta questo tipo di periodizzazione, allora si badi anche al fatto che, verso la fine dell’età del ‘Reale verosimile’, si è verificata una glaciazione dovuta per un verso alle avanguardie oppure alle neoavanguardie e per l’altro ai produttori del cosiddetto nouveau roman. Infatti, si trattava di una crisi del narrare avvenuta in seguito ad una proliferazione di scritti che peccavano di cerebralismo, di astrattezza. Questa stanchezza, questo esaurimento, questa sclerosi allontanarono i lettori che vedevano chiudersi per loro il territorio della letteratura che diventava (come in certi altri momenti del passato) un gioco destinato soltanto a degli iniziati che avevano perso il gusto della feconda referenzialità. Così si spiega la reazione postmoderna e l’inizio di una terza età in cui predomina il Reale ipotetico (R-i). 2.1. Un lauto banchetto di significanti Gli scrittori e i pensatori postmoderni hanno scoperto che la tesi abbastanza pessimistica di Adorno va emendata: la tradizione letteraria non raccoglie detriti di innovazioni obsolete il cui riuso sarebbe vietato in base ai 13 H. Stănciulescu, Repere italiene în romanele lui Umberto Eco, EUB, Bucureşti, 2007, pp. 219-222. STRATEGIE DI RISCRITTURA NELLA NARRATIVA ITALIANA POSTMODERNA 95 canoni del modernismo esacerbato; questo grande serbatoio contiene mezzi espressivi, contenuti, tipi di intreccio, costrutti culturali, rappresentazioni varie, atteggiamenti estetici, generi e specie riciclabili all’infinito. Si registra in tal modo un’ inebriante espansione del significante che non sarebbe stata possibile senza che prima esistesse il Mondo dei Testi che è il frutto di una plurisecolare e indubbiamente illimitata semiosi. Perciò, si può dire con Nietszche che il mondo è diventato fabula e si può aggiungere che si deve già parlare di un Reale ipotetico. Per descriverlo, la diegesi postmoderna si appoggia su strategie nuove tra cui, conseguentemente, basilare rimane la riscrittura. L’originalità non è più un’ossessione per questi narratori e, come si è visto, per alcuni di loro neppure la paternità... Si fa di tutto per determinare il consumatore di letteratura a riscoprirne il fascino e si va spesse volte fino all’eccesso di tipo commerciale ciò che poi corrisponde pienamente alle regole del gioco. Il genere prediletto è il romanzo, ma si tratta di un romanzo ibrido dove non di rado s’immischiano fumetto, western e topoi fatti circolare dalla cinematografia statunitense. In questo modo procede per esempio Alessandro Baricco quando compone City. Il famoso Umberto Eco incomincia la sua carriera di romanziere con un giallo metafisico imbevuto di filosofia, teologia e storia, Il nome della rosa, che corrisponde ovviamente all’idea di metafinzione storiografica (‘historiographic metafiction’)14. Un bel romanzo firmato da Antonio Tabucchi porta un titolo ‘canonico’, Sostiene Pereira, frase che si ritrova dappertutto nel romanzo e suona come un tema musicale e allo stesso tempo filosofico che sottolinea il carattere probabile, ipotetico della vicenda di un giornalista portoghese, molto deluso e ormai vecchio, che compie un atto di grande coraggio svelando al pubblico un orrendo crimine della polizia segreta di Salazar. 2.2. Allegoria e metanarrazione Tutti questi scrittori sono di solito capaci anche di metabolizzare il metanarrativo, ma la strada fu aperta dal loro grande capostipite, e cioè da Calvino con il suo romanzo Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore contenente dieci possibili incipit corrispondenti a dieci tipi diversi di romanzo. Una cornice narrativa accentua l’impronta sperimentale del libro: due personaggi, Lettore e Lettrice, s’impegnano nella ricerca del vero autore di quelle storie senza fine e man manino, per dirla con Eco, in seguito al loro sforzo inferenziale e adattandosi permanentemente alle esigenze di un testo che si sta scrivendo, diventano Lettore Modello e rispettivamente Lettrice Modello. Calvino, da grande puzzler e trickster, propone un viaggio testuale a sfondo teorico che si configura poi sorprendentemente come allegoria della lettura vista nella sua 14 Cfr. Linda Hutcheon, The Politics of Postmodernism, Routledge, New York and London, 1989. HANIBAL STĂNCIULESCU 96 dimensione gnoseologica. Per lui, citare dal passato vuol dire sempre riscriverlo affinché diventino palesi i suoi moltissimi livelli certo mai tutti; il narratore è indubbiamente condannato a comportarsi come ri-scrittore e con disinvoltura egli deve riproporre generi e specie narrative che parevano ‘chiusi’ per i lettori dell’età moderna. Tant’è che Calvino costruisce un affascinante mondo possibile nel romanzo parabola Il barone rampante il cui protagonista, Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, si rifugia sin dall’adolescenza sugli alberi e non tocca più la terra neppure quando si trova in fin di vita. ‘Guardare il mondo dall’alto’ diventa l’ideale carico di significati maggiori e di conseguenze sociali del baronetto ribelle che nega le sue origini e aderisce spontaneamente, visto che le vicende si svolgono in un mondo settecentesco, ai comandamenti illuministici. Così, con straordinari e del tutto originali risultati, Calvino fa rivivere il conte philosophique, il racconto filosofico il cui maestro innegabile è certamente Voltaire. 3. L’eclissi dell’autore Uno scrittore che usa intelligentemente la proficua e altrettanto rischiosa tecnica della riscrittura è Alessandro Baricco. Uno dei suoi più interessanti e seducenti prodotti narrativi è il romanzo Oceano mare , mondo possibile impossibile o, all’inglese, distopia15. Le storie dei personaggi s’incrociano nella locanda Almayer, in uno spazio ricettacolo collocato nei pressi dell’oceano e governato da bambini trasognati con certe abilità telepatiche. Però, alla fine, si vede che la vera energia diegetica emanava da un solo punto, dalla settima stanza. D’altronde, questo è il titolo dell’ultimo capitolo del libro, La settima stanza, ed è da qui che esce l’Autore dopo aver terminato il suo lavoro. Non ci vien detto il nome di questo umile vate il quale, dopo una terribile tempesta, raduna intorno a se tutti i bambini e gli racconta la storia del mago che benedice il mare. Era quella un’epoca in cui gli uomini non avevano perso il senso del sacro, in cui le parole erano attaccate alla vita, gonfie di significati. L’abitante misterioso della locanda Almayer è un demiurgus otiosus incapace di grandi gesti come quelli che sta evocando dinanzi al suo uditorio infantile. Baricco vi propone, in cifra, la metafora dell’eclissi dell’autore e, non a caso, il romanzo di questo erede di Calvino contiene alla fine questa bellissima allegoria della Riscrittura: Così non la vide, la locanda Almayer, staccarsi da terra e disfarsi leggera in mille pezzi, che sembravano vele e salivano nell’aria, scendevano e salivano, volavano e tutto portavano con sé, lontano, anche quella terra e quel mare, e le parole, tutto, chissà dove, nessuno lo sa, forse un giorno qualcuno sarà così stanco che lo scoprirà16. 15 16 A. Baricco, Oceano mare, Rizzoli, Milano, 1993. Ivi, p. 225. STRATEGIE DI RISCRITTURA NELLA NARRATIVA ITALIANA POSTMODERNA 97 3.1. Quando Baricco riscrive Omero Con il bizzarro libretto intitolato semplicemente Omero, Iliade 17 , la cui undicesima edizione veniva offerta dalla Feltrinelli nel 2011 al mercato letterario, Baricco, un sottile e convalidato riscrittore ha cercato evidentemente di superare certi limiti connaturali di questa tecnica o filosofia del comporre che dir si voglia. Era ben consapevole del fatto che la condizione dell’autore di apocrifi è ingrata, ma ebbe la baldanza di non lasciar dormir in pace quella buon anima di Aristotele. Sfruttando una traduzione in prosa di Maria Grazia Ciani (pubblicata dalla casa editrice Marsilio), si è permesso di manipolarla a fin di farla leggibile per il lettore di oggi cui accorda la patente di ‘moderno’. Baricco allega al testo ottenuto in seguito ad alcune operazioni rischiose su cui tornerò una prefazioncina in cui spiega i suoi intenti e poi colloca un secondo paratesto alla fine del libro. Si tratta di un discorso puramente giornalistico a finalità militante perché lo scrittore non ama la guerra e ci dice di essere alla ricerca di qualcosa di diverso: “Costruire un’altra bellezza è forse l’unica strada verso una pace vera”18. Prima di tutto è importante osservare che di per sé una traduzione in prosa dell’Iliade costituisce un violento cambiamento di codice. La sparizione di quel ritmo ieratico, di quella maestà discorsiva e solenne che l’esametro dattilico riesce a imprimere al testo omerico è una perdita considerevole. La cultura romena vanta una traduzione veramente eccezionale del grande poema omerico dovuta a George Murnu che riuscì a trasporre nella nostra lingua ciò che Aristotele chiamava “metro eroico” 19 considerandolo il solo adatto all’epopea. Baricco invece preferì di riplasmare un testo poetico già trasformato dalla traduttrice in una narrazione in prosa. Dalla prefazione sappiamo la gravità dei suoi interventi: Per prima cosa ho praticato dei tagli per ricondurre la lettura a una durata compatibile con la pazienza di un pubblico moderno. Non ho tagliato, quasi mai, delle scene intere, ma mi sono limitato, per quanto era possibile, a togliere le ripetizioni, che nell’Iliade sono numerose, e ad asciugare un po’ il testo. Ho cercato di non riassumere mai e di creare sequenze più stringate usando sezioni originali del poema. Per cui i mattoni sono quelli omerici, ma il muro risulta più essenziale 20. 3.2. Dove si vede perché piange Achille Per creare la sua epopea, Baricco ha fatto anche un’operazione dissacratoria eliminando totalmente le presenze degli dei perché pare consideri 17 A. Baricco, Omero, Iliade, Feltrinelli, Milano, 2011. Ivi, p. 163. 19 Poetica, studiu introductiv, trad. şi comentariu de D.M. Pippidi, Ed. IRI, Bucureşti, cap. 24, 1459b, 1998. 20 A. Baricco, cit., p. 7. 18 HANIBAL STĂNCIULESCU 98 che queste non abbiano niente a che fare con la sensibilità certo moderna. Tutto questo va di pari passo con una sorta di pulizia stilistica: il romanziere si è accanito contro “gli spigoli arcaici” del testo a dispetto del fatto che esprimevano una scelta ben motivata della traduttrice. Altri due tipi di interventi di grande portata sarebbero la riscrittura dell’opera omerica in prima persona e l’inserzione nel testo di passi ripresi da altre opere: le interpolazioni principali hanno radici nell’Odissea (libro VIII, la caduta di Troia raccontata da Demòdoco) e in un breve poema del periodo postomerico intitolato La presa di Ilio (Ilii excidium) il cui autore è Trifiodoro. Le aggiunte, onestamente, vengono promesse in corsivo, ma il lettore versato constata che molti passi estratti dallo scritto di Trifiodoro sono stati integrati nell’Iliade di Baricco senza nessuna indicazione tipografica e lo stesso accade con le storie cantate dall’aedo Demòdoco. Il centone ricucito che risulta in seguito a queste aggiunte e asportazioni di tessuto omerico vivo è decisamente operistico. Un momento decisivo della trama con al centro Achille è senza dubbio il suo incontro con Priamo venuto a sollecitare la salma di Ettore. Dopo tanti trattamenti stilistici e rifacimenti, la vitalità degli eroi omerici e la dignità del famoso ipotesto spariscono del tutto e si ottiene soltanto questo tipo di narrazione scialba e sdolcinata: Priamo gli prese le mani, le mani terribili che tanti figli gli avevano ucciso, e se le portò alle labbra, e le baciò. “Achille, tu mi vedi, sono vecchio ormai. Come tuo padre, ho passato la soglia della triste vecchiaia. Ma lui almeno sarà nella sua terra a sperare di rivedere un giorno il figlio, di ritorno da Troia. Immensa è invece la mia sventura: cinquanta figli avevo per difendere la mia terra, e la guerra me li ha portati via quasi tutti; non mi era rimasto che Ettore, e tu l’hai ucciso, sotto le mura della città di cui era l’ultimo ed eroico difensore. Sono venuto fin qui per riportarmelo a casa, in cambio di splendidi doni. Abbi pietà di me, Achille, nel ricordo di tuo padre: se hai pietà di lui abbi pietà di me che, unico fra tutti i padri, non ho avuto vergogna di baciare la mano che ha ucciso mio figlio”. Gli occhi di Achille si riempirono di lacrime. Con un gesto della mano scostò da sé Priamo, con dolcezza. Piangevano, i due uomini, nel ricordo del padre, del ragazzo amato, del figlio. Le loro lacrime, in quella tenda, nel silenzio21 . Ormai è chiaro, Baricco è pienamente riuscito a laicizzare e a smitizzare Omero ma il pericolo che non sembra intravedere affatto è quello di imporre la sua versione abbreviata nella coscienza dei giovani lettori come se fosse una sorta di vulgata, di testo canonico: eccovi, cioè, cari lettori, una cosa vecchia spolverata e meravigliosamente ammodernata per tutti voi! Per sfortuna, come l’autore stesso osserva, questo “non è probabilmente un buon sistema per comprendere la civiltà omerica”22. 21 22 Ivi, p. 144. Ivi, p. 8. STRATEGIE DI RISCRITTURA NELLA NARRATIVA ITALIANA POSTMODERNA 99 BIBLIOGRAFIA Aristotel (1998), Poetica, studiu introductiv, traducere şi comentariu de D.M. Pippidi, Ed. IRI, Bucureşti, cap. 24, 1459b. Baricco, Alessandro (1993), Oceano mare, Rizzoli, Milano. Baricco, Alessandro (2011), Omero, Iliade, Feltrinelli, Milano. Barilli, Renato (1995), “Il problema del romanzo nella teoria e nella pratica del Gruppo 63”, in I tempi del rinnovamento, Atti del Convegno Internazionale “Rinnovamento del codice narrativo in Italia”, Bulzoni-Leuven University Press, Roma-Leuven Barilli, Renato (1999), “Tre ipotesi per il postmoderno”, in Atti dell’incontro di studio “Postmoderno?”, 28-29 novembre 1998, a cura di G. Petronio e M. Spanu, Gamberetti, Trieste.. Ceserani, Remo (1997), Raccontare il postmoderno, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino. Hutcheon, Linda (1989), The Politics of Postmodernism, Routledge, New York and London. Petronio, Giuseppe (1999), “Postmoderno? ”, in Atti dell’incontro di studio “Postmoderno?”, 28-29 novembre 1998, a.c. di G. Petronio e M. Spanu, Gamberetti, Trieste. Schulz-Buschhaus, Ulrich (1999), “Postmodernismo o Post-avanguardia? ” in Postmoderno? a. c. di G. Petronio, M. Spanu. Stănciulescu, Hanibal (2007), Repere italiene în romanele lui Umberto Eco, EUB, Bucureşti. Tryphiodorus (1862), Excidium Ilii, Parisiis, Editore Ambrosio Firmin Didot, MDCCCLXII. LA INDISTINCIÓN ONTOLÓGICA DEL DISCURSO ERÓTICO: COÑOS DE JUAN MANUEL DE PRADA MIHAI IACOB∗ ONTOLOGICAL INDETERMINACY OF THE EROTIC DISCOURSE: JUAN MANUEL DE PRADA’S COÑOS Abstract The article discusses Juan Manuel de Prada’s debut book Coños, departing from Brian McHale’s approach in Postmodernist Fiction and particularly focusing on the concept of “ontological indeterminacy”, considered by McHale essential for the study of postmodernism. The concept covers narrative methods and formulas often attributed to the postmodernist literature, such as mise en abyme, metalepsis, heterotopia, fragmentarism, transtextuality, procedural writing, parody, genre hybridity, autofiction etc. The present study emphasises two general aspects. On the one hand, it focuses on the transformations undergone by the genre literature (horror, adventure, erotic or crime fiction) which, in its canonical forms, has aimed at providing an intense verisimilitude effect. The latter has been however seriously relativised, although not suspended, by the postmodernist approach. On the other hand, as Prada’s erotic stories anthology is a remake of an avant-garde text by Ramón Gómez de la Serna (Senos), the analysis of the dialogue between the two discourses refines and corrects to a certain degree the opposition “epistemological dominant” versus “ontological dominant” used by Brian McHale as a criterion in distinguishing between modernism and postmodernism. Keywords: postmodernism, ontological indeterminacy, eroticism, resemantization of epistemological doubt, genre literature, remake. Coños, una colección de textos eróticos, homenaje a Senos (1917) de Ramón Gómez de la Serna, es el primer libro de Juan Manuel de Prada, cuya versión inicial y más reducida fue publicada en 1994 por Ediciones Virtuales, para que, un año después, Valdemar se encargara de la edición definitiva. El presente trabajo propone una lectura en clave postmoderna de Coños, partiendo de una comparación con Senos, basada en el concepto de “dominante ontológica”, definido y desarrollado por Brian McHale, primero en Postmodernist Fiction (1987) y luego en Constructing Postmodernism (1992). Según la distinción ∗ Departamento de Lingüística Románica, Lenguas y Literaturas Iberorománicas e Italiano, Universidad de Bucarest, [email protected]. 102 MIHAI IACOB propuesta por McHale, el pensamiento y la poética modernistas se centran en la duda epistemológica (McHale 2004: 8), relacionada con el conocimiento del mundo y la comunicación de dicho conocimiento, mientras que la visión típicamente postmodernista gira alrededor de cuestiones ontológicas, que el teórico norteamericano formula mediante las siguientes preguntas: Which world is this? What is to be done in it? Which of my selves is to do it? (…) What is a world?; What kinds of world are there, how are they constituted, and how do they differ?; What happens when different kinds of world are placed in confrontation, or when boundaries between worlds are violated?; What is the mode of existence of a text, and what is the mode of existence of the world (or worlds) it projects?; How is a projected world structured? (McHale 2004: 10) Por consiguiente, la incertidumbre de los procesos cognitivos viene sustituida, en el paradigma teórico postmoderno, por la indeterminación y la inestabilidad ontológicas (McHale 2004: 25). Como se verá a continuación, en el libro de Juan Manuel de Prada se realiza un cuestionamiento de la naturaleza del discurso literario y del mundo proyectado por éste, a la vez que la voz narrativa reivindica una posición difícil de localizar, entre el campo textual y el extratextual. Por otra parte, se ponen en tela de juicio tanto las fórmulas, como los efectos de la literatura erótica tradicional. Uno de los elementos problemáticos desde el punto de vista ontológico es el narrador autorreferencial o dramatizado (Booth 1974: 144), personaje también presente en Senos, pero con menos consistencia que en la obra de Juan Manuel de Prada, donde se construye como una entidad indeterminada, al mismo tiempo unitaria y fragmentaria. Por un lado, su discurso se caracteriza – igual que en el libro de Ramón Gómez de la Serna– por una coherencia procedente del sexocentrismo (todos los relatos que conforman Coños glosan un tipo de sexo femenino) y un estilo híbrido, que conjuga algunos giros coloquiales y muestras de lenguaje sexual explícito con formulaciones elaboradas y una profusión de alusiones culturales. Al mismo tiempo, en varios relatos, el narrador dramatizado se refiere a sí mismo y alude a su propio libro mediante tres clases de mise en abyme: del “enunciado”, de la “enunciación” y del “código”. De modo que se pueden identificar (auto)referencias al tema del texto literario o “citas del contenido” (Dällenbach 1991: 73), casos de “‘presentificación’ diegética del productor” del relato, secuencias que destacan el proceso de producción literaria y las circunstancias que condicionan dicho proceso (Dällenbach 1991: 95) y, finalmente, representaciones metatextuales del mismo relato como una “composición” (Dällenbach 1991: 120): “la espeología del coño”, “la prospección o introspección del coño” (Prada 1996: 79); “el coleccionista de coños, el filatélico” (Prada 1996: 23); “yo, tratadista del coño” (Prada 1996: 116); “el coño de mi novia […] me ha servido como coartada o excusa o inspiración para otros coños imaginarios” (Prada 1996: 84); “El coño LA INDISTINCIÓN ONTOLÓGICA DEL DISCURSO ERÓTICO: COÑOS DE JUAN MANUEL DE PRADA 103 de mi novia, única vaina en la que envaino mi pluma (quiero decir que sólo interrumpo la escritura para follar dentro de ese coño), no ha formulado en los últimos tres días ni una sola queja, a pesar de la abstinencia a que lo someto (y aún le quedan otros tres, porque me he propuesto redactar en seis días este catálogo)” (Prada 1996: 85); “tipología de los coños” (Prada 1996: 23); “este libro, único catálogo verídico que hasta la fecha se ha escrito sobre el particular” (Prada 1996: 62); “(pero sobre culos hablaré en otro libro)” (Prada 1996: 119). Todas estas secuencias autorreflexivas, por su reiteración y su carácter explicativo, añaden unidad y coherencia tanto al enunciado, como a la primera persona del enunciado, que se responsabiliza del mismo1. Por otro lado, las mises en abyme mencionadas anteriormente, a la vez que contribuyen a la unidad del narrador, provocan una escisión dentro del mismo, entre el personaje inmerso en el acto de narrar y participe de las intensas emociones generadas por el recuerdo, y el personaje que analiza con lucidez, mientras narra, sus propias actitudes y su propio oficio. De hecho, la escisión ontológica manifestada dentro de la entidad relatora abarca, en su totalidad, el discurso de Coños, que se propone como alabanza auténtica de sexos femeninos, avalada por experiencias directas o ajenas, y, a la vez, se desautoriza como simple construcción textual, fruto de un proceso de escritura desarrollado en conformidad con determinadas fórmulas discursivas. El carácter escindido, fragmentado y múltiple del narrador dramatizado de Coños se manifiesta también por la movilidad de su perspectiva sobre los hechos relatados, movilidad que no se limita a la alternancia habitual entre la homodiégesis y la heterodiégesis, sino que, a veces, provoca una transgresión de las fronteras entre niveles narrativos que habitualmente no interfieren. Se trata de lo que, en la teoría postmoderna, se ha denominado “heterotopía” (McHale 2004: 18). Además, como suele ocurrir en muchas obras postmodernas, una heterotopía implica una “metalepsis”, es decir la circulación de personajes y objetos entre los niveles ontológicos o mundos de estructura incompatible, que, sin embargo, llegan a comunicar (Genette 1989: 298, McHale 2004: 120). En Coños se dan dos tipos de metalepsis, la descendente y la ascendente. El primer tipo aparece en “El coño de la solterona”, donde el narrador extradiegético, que reivindica el estatuto de creador de un universo literario, baja a este universo de forma brusca e inverosímil: 1 En Senos hay pocas mises en abyme y secuencias autorreflexivas, aparte de los prólogos a distintas ediciones: un “coleccionista de senos”, referido en tercera persona, aparece en el relato titulado “El coleccionista”; el narrador habla de sí mismo, al principio de “Los senos llenos de oro”, en estos términos: “Yo, que soy el escritor de los senos, su crítico de arte, el que formó su colección y ya no admite ni los duplicados ni las falsificaciones que ofrecen de todos lados, no me dejo engañar por los senos” (Gómez de la Serna 1992: 100). 104 MIHAI IACOB Qué triste languidece el coño de las solteronas, qué iguales discurren los días de la espera. Entra por las ventanas un crepúsculo rojo, definitivo como el Apocalipsis, y llora el coño una lágrima de fuego o impotencia, intuyendo que su amante no volverá. La solterona se levanta de su sillón de mimbre, se asoma a la ventana y requiere a un hombre que pasa por la calle. Ha guardado ausencia durante años y años a la memoria del primer amor, y ahora quiere desahogarse con el primero que pilla. Afortunadamente, yo he sido el primero (Prada 1996: 72). Las fronteras ontológicas se pueden infringir también mediante la subida ficticia de un personaje literario a un nivel superior de ficción, que, en ocasiones, simula poseer el estatuto de realidad empírica. Esta transgresión de las fronteras entre el arte y la vida (Hutcheon 2002: 29) se realiza en Coños, a través de una mise en abyme de la enunciación, que vehicula datos auténticos o susceptibles de serlo. Pues el narrador extradiegético de “El coño de mi novia” distingue entre la existencia real del sexo de su novia y los “coños imaginarios” retratados en los otros textos del libro. Además, este narrador asume el papel de autor, mencionando la intención de concebir y redactar la colección de textos eróticos en seis días (Prada 1996: 85). La información en cuestión se confirma parcialmente en el paratexto editorial, publicado en la segunda solapa de la edición de Valdemar, donde se mencionan las “cinco intensas jornadas de primavera” que ha invertido Juan Manuel de Prada en ampliar la primera edición del libro. Al proporcionar un dato casi auténtico en su obra de ficción, el autor reta irónicamente al lector a preguntarse por la veracidad de otros datos susceptibles de ser autobiográficos, comunicados en “El coño de mi novia” y en otros relatos del volumen. Este reto autorial, característico de lo que se ha denominado “autoficción”, provoca un “vértigo interpretativo” (Alberca 2007: 132), puesto que: abre al menos dos posibilidades interpretativas: ¿se trata de una autobiografía sensu latu con la forma y el estilo de una novela (que bien podría introducir incluso algunos elementos ficticios)? O, por el contrario, ¿se trata de una ficción (novela del yo), en la que el autor se convierte en el protagonista de una historia totalmente fabulada? (Alberca 2007: 126). Mientras que la presencia real o simulada de información auténtica socava los cimientos de la ficción, otros componentes, formales y temáticos, provocan el efecto contrario, subvirtiendo la dimensión (pseudo)documental del discurso. Uno de los elementos temáticos que se inscriben en esta categoría es la variedad de oficios, condiciones sociales, edades, etnias, gustos, posturas y experiencias vitales que el narrador dramatizado se atribuye a sí mismo: ruso y agregado cultural en la embajada rusa en España (“El coño de la siberiana”); español, residente en una ciudad que podría ser Salamanca (“El coño de las ahogadas”); recepcionista en un hotel pequeño y asiduo lector de Marcel Proust (“El coño de las lesbianas”); mayordomo de un marqués y víctima de vejaciones sexuales, perpetradas por su amo (“Alegorías de salón”); estudiante LA INDISTINCIÓN ONTOLÓGICA DEL DISCURSO ERÓTICO: COÑOS DE JUAN MANUEL DE PRADA 105 en Princetown (“El coño de la comanche”); enfermero que trabaja desde hace muchos años en un manicomio (“El coño de las momias”); médico que realiza experimentos con cadáveres (“El coño cataléptico”); casado y adúltero con el pensamiento (“El coño de las desconocidas”); soltero que convive con su novia en una buhardilla (“El coño de mi novia”); solterón que vive con su madre (“El coño de las sonámbulas”); pedófilo entrado en años (“El coño de las niñas”); lisiado de guerra (“La contorsionista”). Esta acumulación excesiva pone de manifiesto el carácter, por lo menos en parte, apócrifo de las historias, contadas por un narrador no fiable. Asimismo, la condición ficticia se comunica a través de algunos datos en sí mismos sospechosos, poco verosímiles o claramente fabulosos. Por ejemplo, en “El coño de las cubanas”, el narrador pretende ser amigo íntimo de Fidel Castro, mientras que, en “Los coños de Melusina”, asegura haber capturado una sirena en los mares del Norte, a la que tiene secuestrada en su casa y metida en “una bañera con termostato que conserva el agua a veintiocho grados centígrados” (Prada 1996: 88). Otros personajes desconcertantes y cómicos a la vez, como una ventrílocua que habla con el sexo (de “hendidura horizontal”) y una faquiresa hindú que posee una vagina dentada, aparecen en “La ventrílocua” y en “La faquiresa”. En esta galería de freaks se incluye el mismo narrador, que, en “Cuestión de simetría”, pretende poseer un miembro bífido. Al fin y al cabo, el estatuto paradójico del narrador –indistintamente unitario y fragmentario, ficticio y referencial– es una de las consecuencias de la práctica literaria denominada por Brian McHale “escritura procedural” (McHale 1992: 199). Esta práctica, frecuentemente utilizada en los años 60 del siglo XX por los integrantes del grupo OuLiPo, consiste en una renuncia parcial, por parte del autor, del control sobre el texto literario, mediante la aplicación casi automática de un procedimiento lingüístico o sémico. En el caso que nos ocupa, Juan Manuel de Prada ha optado –igual que Ramón Gómez de la Serna en Senos– por cruzar dos fórmulas discursivas, el catálogo y la ficción literaria en primera persona, lo cual supone, por un lado, una “personalización” del discurso científico y, por otro, una descentralización inevitable de la voz narrativa del discurso literario. Puesto que el catálogo registra clases o reseña únicamente lo antológico, las experiencias eróticas relatadas tienen que diversificarse y multiplicarse para encajar en este patrón discursivo, a la vez que el carácter anecdótico de estas experiencias se desvirtúa en beneficio de la categoría y el exemplum. Con lo cual, el cupo de una biografía individual verosímil se ve superado tanto cualitativa como cuantitativamente. A esto se añade la multiplicación del narrador en primera persona, que sigue y no sigue siendo el mismo personaje, hecho que aumenta la hibridez genérica de Senos y de Coños como discursos narrativos. Así pues, los textos de Ramón Gómez de la Serna y Juan Manuel de Prada no se pueden considerar una colección de relatos cortos propiamente dicha, por su discurso demasiado unitario, pero 106 MIHAI IACOB tampoco una novela corta canónica, por su construcción modular y fragmentaria, lo que constituye otra inestabilidad ontológica, la de las fronteras genéricas, que se infringen muy a menudo en la literatura vanguardista y postmoderna2. Por otra parte, existen recursos estilísticos que exhiben la indeterminación ontológica del mundo proyectado en Coños. Uno de estos recursos es la correctio, que consiste en volver sobre lo dicho para matizar o rectificar: “El coleccionista de coños, el filatélico que ha besado todos los coños para probar el sabor salobre de su sello de lacre (disculpen la aliteración)” (Prada 1996: 23); “caballitos de mar, medusas de mar que salen del agua (miento, las medusas y los caballitos son faunas estrictamente acuáticos)” (Prada 1996: 97); “con la disculpa de desenterrar la pipa de la paz (¿o lo que se desenterraba era el hacha de guerra?)” (Prada 1996: 139); “Guardo a Melusina, la sirena que capturé en los mares del Norte (y no me detendré en detallar su captura, ni en defender su existencia)” (Prada 1996: 88). Las citas anteriores parecen referirse sólo a una cuestión epistemológica, señalando las contradicciones de un narrador mitómano y torpe, que se desautoriza a sí mismo. Sin embargo, este narrador poco fiable es, como lo hemos comprobado antes, en primer lugar una entidad inestable e indefinida, con lo cual, la indeterminación ontológica precede, supedita y engloba la duda epistemológica 3 . De manera que el problema fundamental que se plantea aquí no es la correspondencia o la falta de correspondencia entre la realidad y las palabras del narrador, o sea lo que McHale denomina “degree of certainty” (McHale 1992: 9), sino la naturaleza ambigua del mundo proyectado por el discurso de Juan Manuel de Prada en su totalidad, y habitado por este narrador. Hay que tener en cuenta, además, que, en Coños, la cuestión de la credibilidad del narrador constituye un préstamo tomado de Senos (donde la cantidad de pechos glosada resultaba igual de sospechosa y poco verosímil). Con lo cual, la “duda epistemológica” se reproduce por el filtro de la parodia, que la relativiza, resemantiza y neutraliza parcialmente. Se trata aquí de la problemática supervivencia del texto parodiado a través de su réplica paródica, ya que, como afirma Linda Hutcheon, la parodia asume y rechaza, al mismo tiempo, su modelo (Hutcheon 2002: 12, 54). En conclusión, resultaría más adecuado considerar el uso reiterativo de la correctio una mise en abyme más, que subvierte el realismo, focalizando la condición material y libresca, casual y rectificable de la proyección literaria. No es otro el efecto de las letras capitales de la edición de Valdemar, formadas por unos desnudos femeninos en posturas diversas, unas “mujeres-letra” que 2 Uno de los casos de cruce discursivo, mencionado por Linda Hutcheon en Una poética del postmodernismo, es precisamente el que se da entre la novela y la colección de relatos (Hutcheon 27). 3 McHale admite la convivencia jerárquica en el mismo texto de las cuestiones ontológicas y epistemológicas (McHale 2004: 11). LA INDISTINCIÓN ONTOLÓGICA DEL DISCURSO ERÓTICO: COÑOS DE JUAN MANUEL DE PRADA 107 remiten a la naturaleza literaria de las mujeres comentadas en los textos de la antología, a través de sus sexos. Cabe señalar también que la profusión y la ingeniosidad de las figuras retóricas – seña de identidad de toda la literatura de Juan Manuel de Prada4 – fomentan la misma función autorreflexiva del discurso y exhiben su condición de juego lingüístico o de ejercicio literario de tema autoimpuesto, que se propone emular el texto de juventud de Ramón Gómez de la Serna. El patrón retórico de Senos, que se reproduce y amplifica en Coños, comprende los cruces antes mencionados entre la fórmula del relato corto y la del catálogo, por un lado, la colección de relatos y la novela, por otro; la construcción lingüística muy elaborada; el uso constante de la exclamación y de la anáfora retórica, mediante la que se tematiza el término sexual directo; el insólito contrapunto entre este término y sus espectaculares definiciones metafóricas; la conversión de una parte de la anatomía femenina en una sinécdoque, es decir en una representación en pequeño de la mujer: “Tocar tus senos no es tocar tus senos, es poderte tocar a ti en lo más íntimo” (Gómez de la Serna 1992: 40); “El coño de las solteronas, capilla silenciosa de esa gran catedral que es la mujer” (Prada 1996: 71). Sin embargo, tanto en Senos como en Coños el estatuto de la sinécdoque como figura retórica queda a menudo en entredicho. Se trata del fenómeno de literalización o “realización” de los tropos (McHale 2004: 134), cuyo significado oscila entre lo literal y lo figurado. En primer lugar, la actitud fetichista, la hipertrofia de los desarrollos metafóricos que glosan partes anatómicas de distintos tipos de mujeres tienen como efecto final la conversión de la “parte” (seno o sexo) en una entidad autónoma con respecto al “todo” (la mujer). A veces, el proceso de autonomización de la sinécdoque es tan intenso, que desemboca no sólo en un aislamiento del fragmento anatómico con respecto al conjunto, sino en una oposición entre el primero y el segundo. En un relato como “El coño cataléptico”, el sexo de una mujer ahogada sigue vivo, pese al fallecimiento de su posesora: Empecé la disección inspeccionando ese coño inhóspito y ramificado de pelos, ese coño que parecía como impostado en el cuerpo de la difunta. Le acerqué un espejo, para alcanzar con su reflejo los repliegues inaccesibles a la vista y percibí entonces cómo la superficie bruñida se empañaba con una respiración imposible, un jadeo que procedía del útero, si es que el útero puede sustituir a los pulmones. Pasé toda la noche en vela, como aquellos personajes de Edgar Allan Poe, esperando que el coño de la muchacha abandonase su estado de catalepsia y recobrara su humedad de flujos y menstruaciones. La luz del quirófano envolvía a la difunta con una delgadez de esqueleto, pero su coño seguía 4 Según Pascual García, para un escritor como Juan Manuel de Prada lo que importa verdaderamente es “el gusto por la palabra y sus secretos, la aventura del lenguaje y el dominio del verbo estético, más allá, por supuesto, del contenido, que es tan sólo una excusa desvergonzada y cínica” (García 2004: 80). 108 MIHAI IACOB empañando el espejo, empañándolo y desempañándolo, según expulsaba o inspiraba aire. El coño cataléptico funcionaba como un fuelle, ajeno al rigor mortis de su dueña, y, al expeler el aire, pronunciaba algún ronquido, o resoplaba con sus labios menores. […] Yo me pregunto ahora, tres meses después: ¿despertará algún día este coño cataléptico? (Prada 1996: 130) Literalizaciones o distorsiones extremas de la sinécdoque, como la arriba citada, son difíciles de encontrar en Coños, a diferencia de lo que ocurre en Senos, donde se plantean a menudo separaciones radicales, inversiones entre la entidad posesora y la poseída, oposiciones e incluso enfrentamientos entre los senos y las mujeres que los poseen. En “Senos para soldados”, por ejemplo, se habla de “la mujer que tienen los senos” (Gómez de la Serna 1992: 66); en “La temerosa”, una baronesa que siente miedo por sus senos los guarda en una caja fuerte y los pone únicamente en las fiestas; en “Las que fueron matadas por sus senos”, se habla, como el mismo título lo indica, de una operación de exterminio emprendida por los senos en contra del cuerpo entero; en “Los senos de verdadero Sévres”, una mujer vende sus pechos a un anticuario y luego sale de la tienda de éste “sin senos, lisa” (Gómez de la Serna 1992: 99). Y los ejemplos podrían continuar. El hecho de que este planteamiento ontológico a través de la subversión de la sinécdoque haya sido desarrollado con más intensidad por Ramón Gómez de la Serna que por Juan Manuel de Prada parece indicar que la dicotomía entre epistemología y ontología, mencionada al principio de este trabajo, no sirve siempre para distinguir entre el vanguardismo de Senos, parte del proyecto modernista (Călinescu 1995: 232), y el postmodernismo de Coños5. Tal vez sea necesario que la dicotomía propuesta por McHale entre las poéticas modernista y postmodernista, se cruce con otros criterios para conseguir una perspectiva más compleja y matizada sobre el fenómeno literario6. Uno de estos criterios de distinción, invocado por Umberto Eco, es la “manera de hacer” de las dos estéticas, que se manifiesta también en el modo de 5 McHale afirma que la “dominante ontológica” acerca el postmodernismo a la vanguardia (McHale 1992: 56), mientras que otros teóricos, como Umberto Eco o Linda Hutcheon, distinguen entre la revolución vanguardista y el conservadurismo irónico postmodernista (Hutcheon 2002: 12, Eco 1983: 102-103). Por su parte, Matei Călinescu, a pesar de considerar que la vanguardia y el postmodernismo son “caras de la modernidad”, los opone, utilizando los mismos criterios que Eco y Hutcheon (Vid. Călinescu 1995: 232). 6 Incluso Brian McHale subraya que las perspectivas epistemológica y ontológica son únicamente “dominantes”, hiperónimos de dos “poéticas”, y no rasgos particulares antitéticos, o hipónimos (McHale 2004: 7-13). Por tanto, su propuesta teórica se abre, en principio, hacia el cruce de varios criterios particulares de distinción entre modernismo y postmodernismo. Sin embargo, es posible que, a veces, los hiperónimos que distinguen entre las dos poéticas, según la opinión de McHale, resulten menos funcionales en el análisis de textos concretos que los hipónimos, lo cual pone en tela de juicio la jerarquía categorial de los conceptos que se emplean como criterios de distinción. LA INDISTINCIÓN ONTOLÓGICA DEL DISCURSO ERÓTICO: COÑOS DE JUAN MANUEL DE PRADA 109 relacionarse con la tradición. Comparado con la vanguardia que, como punta de lanza de la estética modernista, busca sistemáticamente la ruptura con las convenciones consagradas, el postmodernismo tiende a recuperar el pasado, aunque con ironía. Por consiguiente, se puede considerar que la actitud típicamente vanguardista es radical y rupturista, mientras que la postmodernista se caracteriza por la moderación (Eco 1983: 103). De este modo se podría explicar por qué Ramón Gómez de la Serna prefiere la fisura ontológica, mientras que Juan Manuel de Prada opta solo por la indeterminación ontológica. No obstante, la misma cuestión se puede enfocar desde un punto de vista diferente. Dejando de lado la necesaria discusión –que no entra en el propósito de este artículo– sobre la solidez de los criterios que incluirían Senos y otras obras de Ramón Gómez de la Serna dentro de la vanguardia europea propiamente dicha, la fisura ontológica tematizada en el texto ramoniano se puede interpretar también como fruto de la visión erótica perturbada o solo insólita, que tiene el narrador extradiegético sobre el mundo. Así pues, conforme a esta lectura, todo en Senos se reduciría a un problema epistemológico, problema que no se plantea –como se ha visto anteriormente, al comentar el uso de la correctio– de la misma manera en lo que respecta al narrador de Coños, cuya perspectiva constituye una re-producción de la perspectiva del narrador de Senos, parcialmente neutralizada y subvertida por la parodia. Por tanto, en Coños se recoge el vanguardismo de Senos, con una mezcla de ironía y deferencia, característica del postmodernismo. En este sentido, se vuelve significativo el primer párrafo de “El coño de la violonchelista”: Ahora que ya definitivamente las vanguardias han dejado de dar la murga, ahora que el cubismo ha engrosado el elenco de tendencias clásicas, ahora que el espíritu de Picasso dormita en algún baúl cerrado con siete llaves, aún nos queda a los nostálgicos del arte de principios de siglo el consuelo de asistir a un concierto para cuerda y ver a las violonchelistas en simbiosis con su instrumento, única imagen del cubismo que sobrevive en el mundo (dejo aparte la jeta de Rossy de Palma, demasiado equina y kitsch) (Prada 1996: 19). Si la tematización del seno o del sexo femenino y la densidad de las analogías elaboradas que los definen contribuyen a interrumpir la conexión entre estos órganos anatómicos y el cuerpo al que pertenecen, el carácter sumamente insólito y amplificado de las analogías desestabiliza la condición de los senos en calidad de senos y de los sexos en calidad de sexos. Ramón Gómez de la Serna y Juan Manuel de Prada no extraen, en ocasiones, sus símiles de la cercanía física o semántica, sino que el vehículo o el segundo término de la comparación están tan alejados semánticamente del tenor o del primer término de la comparación, que los últimos adquieren una condición ontológica inestable. De manera que difícilmente se puede seguir considerando un seno el que se abraza con las manos como a “ese niño al que apretujan en las aperturas de los teatros y de las procesiones” (Gómez de la Serna 1992: 157). Igual que a 110 MIHAI IACOB duras penas se puede seguir concibiendo como sexo femenino el de las sonámbulas: “ese vellocino de plata, tenía un rumor de caracola, y si uno acercaba el oído, podía llegar a escuchar, entre un fondo marítimo y monocorde, mensajes emitidos en un lenguaje cifrado, como interferencias de una emisora de radio con sede en la cara oculta de la luna” (Prada 1996: 39). La autonomía y la independencia del signo con respecto al referente, o, en otros términos, la conversión del signo en referente conlleva una relativa deserotización del discurso erótico, que, en su forma más convencional, busca provocar sólo una reacción fisiológica en el lector, reacción basada precisamente en el realismo de un discurso constituido por figuras retóricas auténticas, transparentes, cuya función primaria es la de comunicar eficazmente unos episodios sexuales excitantes. A la deserotización contribuye también el modo en que Juan Manuel de Prada (inspirado por Gómez de la Serna) construye las definiciones de los sexos femeninos, empleando un collage estilístico que señala la ironía, una disparidad de registros que se manifiesta entre el término definido, el más directo y coloquial para referirse al sexo femenino, y los términos que lo definen, tópicos de la prosa poética romántica y tardo romántica. El resultado participa, por el esteticismo, el exceso y la artificiosidad asumidas, de la perspectiva camp, glosada por Susan Sontag en su famoso ensayo “Notas sobre lo camp” (Sontag 2007: 351-372): El coño de las solteronas, príncipe de una mansión derruida, rosal silvestre de un jardín abandonado, sigue floreciendo cada mes, sigue produciendo jugos inútiles, en la esperanza de preservarse joven para un fantasma de pólvora y lejanías. El coño de las solteronas, capilla silenciosa de esa gran catedral que es la mujer, mantiene siempre encendida una llama votiva y ruega a Dios por el regreso del hombre (Prada 1996: 71). Por consiguiente, a pesar del repetido empleo anafórico de la palabra “coño”, se podría caracterizar al autor de Coños con las palabras que Brian McHale usa para retratar a Guy Davenport y a William Burroughs: “a poor pornographer but a good postmodernist” (McHale 2004: 152). Igual de adecuado sería para Juan Manuel de Prada el término “poerótico”, cruce léxico empleado por Maurice Couturier para definir al Vladimir Nabokov de Lolita (Couturier 2006: 940). El collage estilístico antes mencionado remite, además, al carácter heterodoxo del discurso erográfico pradiano, con respecto a los paradigmas de la pornografía, el erotismo y la novela amorosa, ya que en Coños se encuentran alternativa y, a veces, simultáneamente, todos los rasgos definitorios – según Gaétan Brulotte (Brulotte 1991: 13-15) – de los tres subgéneros de la literatura erótica latu sensu, subgéneros que se afirman y se desautorizan mutuamente. En primer lugar, la repetición constante del término sexual directo y la estructura adicional, basada en una aglomeración de estampas eróticas, provocan un efecto LA INDISTINCIÓN ONTOLÓGICA DEL DISCURSO ERÓTICO: COÑOS DE JUAN MANUEL DE PRADA 111 de saturación, típico de la pornografía. Al mismo tiempo, los relatos de Juan Manuel de Prada emplean el lenguaje connotativo y velado del erotismo propiamente dicho y, asimismo, privilegian las manifestaciones sentimentales de la novela amorosa. Otro tópico sobre la literatura erótica, que se deconstruye en Senos y en Coños, es el de la clandestinidad y la marginalidad de esta literatura. Este lugar común justifica el uso de procedimientos elusivos a través de los que se intenta evitar la identificación del narrador erográfico con el autor empírico: a veces, por medio de un relato neutro, no focalizado (Genette 1989: 244), como ocurre en Las once mil vergas de Apollinaire, o, en otras ocasiones, recurriendo al anonimato (Teresa filósofa). Una tercera posibilidad, empleada por el Marqués de Sade en Justine o los infortunios de la virtud y por Vladimir Nabokov en Lolita, es acudir a narradores intra o extradiegéticos muy dramatizados e individualizados, incluso por sus nombres (Justine, Humbert Humbert), en los que los autores delegan la “culpa” de vivir y relatar experiencias eróticas que trasgreden la moral socialmente aceptada. En ocasiones, incluso se añade un contrapunto ideológico entre un narrador intradiegético y un narrador extradiegético (que sí podría considerarse un trasunto del autor empírico, sin desprestigiarlo), para que el segundo tome el partido de la virtud consagrada socialmente y vitupere el vicio (Justine). A diferencia de lo que acontece en los casos anteriores, en Senos y en Coños no se señala, ni explícita, ni implícitamente la diferencia entre la visión del autor empírico y la del narrador extradiegético, que asume sin reparos tanto las vivencias sexuales como la perspectiva heterodoxa sobre estas vivencias, siguiendo el ejemplo de algunos narradores de finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX, como, por ejemplo, el Marqués de Bradomín de las Sonatas de Valle-Inclán. Es más, como hemos comprobado antes, el narrador de Juan Manuel de Prada llega incluso a tomar prestados biografemas o pseudobiografemas del autor empírico (la condición de escritor, el haber redactado el texto en cinco días), que fomentan en lugar de evitar la identificación narrador-autor. Esta característica del narrador tiene una doble implicación. Por una parte, el narrador constituye una entidad intermediaria que sale parcialmente del texto, interfiriendo, aunque mínima y cuestionablemente, con la biografía de Juan Manuel de Prada. Por otra parte, sin embargo, la primera persona erográfica da más muestras de confinamiento al espacio de la literatura que su correspondiente ramoniano, debido a un grado superior de dramatización y, sobre todo, al hecho de que el que relata en Coños es una réplica del que relata en Senos, es decir una entidad literaria al cuadrado. Una consecuencia más de la reivindicación de la dignidad del discurso erótico son las características epidícticas (Aristóteles 1998: 63-66) que adquiere este discurso en los textos comentados. Es decir, en lugar de argumentar a favor de la excelencia de ciertas partes de la anatomía femenina y de las experiencias eróticas relacionadas con éstas, lo que encontramos en Senos y en Coños es más 112 MIHAI IACOB bien un encomio transmitido directamente y sin reservas, como si expresara una opinión mayoritaria y oficial, que no necesitara ninguna justificación. Una de las marcas epidícticas es la enálage de la persona, o sea la sustitución de la primera persona del singular por la primera del plural, figura mediante la que se atribuye abusivamente (petitio principii) una visión infrecuente, particular y negociable sobre los senos y los sexos a un “nosotros”, referente a la totalidad de los hombres: “Todos tendremos ese gesto reflexible y final. Un día tomaremos en nuestras manos los senos con ese escepticismo postrero” (Gómez de la Serna 1992: 45); “Queremos imaginarnos el coño de esa mujer y no podemos (necesitaríamos el talento de Juan Gris), queremos asistir a la lucha que se desarrolla por detrás de la madera (Prada 1996: 20). Parecido a lo que ocurre con otros aspectos de los dos libros analizados, el discurso epidíctico antes mencionado tampoco está exento de contradicciones. Por debajo del desenfado de un orador que simula comunicar con un público ya convencido, cuando éste no lo está necesariamente, se perciben implícitas intenciones exhortativas y disuasivas. Así se explican el léxico exquisito, las metáforas muy elaboradas y las referencias a la cultura alta, que apoyan y dignifican indirectamente el panegírico sexual. Igual que Humbert Humbert en Lolita, los narradores de Senos y Coños intentan ganar la “aprobación estética” del conocedor de literatura (Couturier 2006: 941). Al mismo tiempo, el elogio al sexo femenino se autosubvierte mediante el collage de registros antes comentado, que exhibe el desajuste, por lo menos desde el punto de vista de las expectativas del lector común, entre el objeto y el estilo del encomio. Epícteto Díaz Navarro identifica esta disparidad, junto a su función (auto)irónica, en otros textos de Juan Manuel de Prada, donde se puede comprobar la misma “exhibición de figuras retóricas” que en Coños: “En La tempestad y en otros textos encontramos a veces un uso irónico de este estilo, una inadecuación entre el contexto y el lenguaje que se utiliza” (Díaz Navarro 2006: 203). En consecuencia, las construcciones retóricas ampulosas de Senos y, sobre todo, de Coños –su réplica paródica– ostentan, por su desproporción con respecto al tema del discurso, un carácter intencionadamente artificial y hueco, de mero espectáculo lingüístico, desligado del mensaje o la ideología 7 . Tal como apunta Pascual García: “Es verdad que Coños no contaba nada, que no subyacía a la obra ninguna idea antropológica, que no contenía una tesis ni inauguraba un territorio mítico” (García 2004: 80). Este escepticismo ante los “grandes temas” y ante la dimensión sapiencial de la literatura es definitorio de la visión postmoderna. 7 Se trata de una de las características de la sensibilidad camp: “Cargar el acento en el estilo es menospreciar el contenido, o introducir una actitud neutral respecto del contenido. Ni que decir tiene que la sensibilidad camp es no comprometida y despolitizada; al menos, apolítica” (Sontag 2007: 353). LA INDISTINCIÓN ONTOLÓGICA DEL DISCURSO ERÓTICO: COÑOS DE JUAN MANUEL DE PRADA 113 Es preciso destacar que la deconstrucción de los paradigmas erográficos, la deserotización y la relativización del patos amoroso a través de la ironía y de la “literalización” de los tropos no conllevan una suspensión total de la comunicación de los impulsos instintivos y de las vivencias auténticas, en beneficio de una perspectiva exclusivamente fría y cerebral. Igual que en otros textos postmodernos, en Coños reina el inclusivismo, la paradoja, la cohabitación de tendencias contrarias. De modo que, a pesar de la vehiculación consciente e irónica del lenguaje ramoniano (ya de por sí irónico), se percibe una actitud nostálgica y deferente hacia el modelo. De la misma manera que la autorreflexividad y la socarronería no impiden la comunicación de una visión auténticamente idealizadora o tortuosa sobre la mujer y el sexo. “La comunión de un estilo suntuoso y de un asunto procaz –observa Pascual García, insistiendo en la misma condición paradójica del libro– es en este tomo un acierto, como si la densidad poética rebajara la manifiesta impudicia del contenido, sin que por ello perdiera la obra su frescura y su morbo” (García 2004: 80). No es otra la opinión expresada por Umberto Eco en Apostillas a “El nombre de la rosa”, donde se afirma que, aunque se preocupe por evitar la inocencia y asumir la inevitabilidad de los tópicos, el autor postmoderno sigue hablando de amor y -se podría añadir aquí- de sexo (Vid. Eco 1983: 103). Como se ha constatado a lo largo de este trabajo, en Coños se pueden identificar una serie de rasgos que varios teóricos vienen atribuyendo, desde hace más de medio siglo, a la poética postmodernista, regida, según Brian McHale, por el principio de la “inestabilidad ontológica”: heterotopía y metalepsis, autorreferencialidad, parodia, literalización de las figuras, sensibilidad camp, mixtura y subversión de los géneros. A pesar de que para todos estos rasgos existen marcas textuales, la condición postmodernista del primer libro de Juan Manuel de Prada se ve a veces cuestionada por la similitud con su modelo, una obra modernista de Ramón Gómez de la Serna. Esta dificultad de categorización, en cierta medida inherente a cualquier intento de aplicar un paradigma teórico a manifestaciones literarias concretas, se puede resolver satisfactoriamente considerando al menos dos aspectos. En primer lugar, los planteamientos aparentemente epistemológicos de Coños no son más que réplicas paródicas de los planteamientos de Senos. En segundo lugar, la “dominante ontológica” no es el único criterio útil para identificar discursos postmodernos. La teoría del postmodernismo destaca también la distinción, operativa en el caso que nos ocupa, entre la moderación de la subversión postmodernista y la radicalidad de la revolución modernista. Por otra parte, la meta de este artículo no ha sido solucionar definitivamente la cuestión de la diferencia entre la poética modernista y la postmodernista, sino instrumentalizar conceptos funcionales y fértiles en el análisis de texto, para ofrecer una interpretación coherente y sostenible del primer libro de Juan Manuel de Prada. Además, el mismo espíritu contradictorio MIHAI IACOB 114 del discurso postmoderno, tantas veces invocado, obliga a un uso flexible y relativizante de los instrumentos interpretativos de la literatura. BIBLIOGRAFÍA Alberca, Manuel (2007), El pacto ambiguo. De la novela autobiográfica a la autoficción, Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid. Aristóteles (1998), Retórica, Alianza Editorial, Madrid. Booth, Wayne (1974), Retórica de la ficción, Bosch, Barcelona. Brulotte, Gaétan (1991), “Petite narratologie du récit dit érotique”, en Poétique 85, pp. 3-15. Călinescu, Matei (1995), Cinci feţe ale modernităţii, Univers, București. Couturier, Maurice (2006), “Nabokov, Vladimir”, en G. Brulotte y J. Phillips (eds.), Encyclopedia of Erotic Literature, Routledge, Londres, pp. 939-942. Dällenbach, Lucien (1991), El relato especular, Visor, Madrid. Díaz Navarro, Epícteto (2006), “Las máscaras del escritor: Las primeras novelas de Juan Manuel de Prada” en Á. Encinar y K. M. Gleen (coord.), La pluralidad narrativa. Escritores españoles contemporáneos (1984-2004), Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid, pp. 203-218. Eco, Umberto (1983), “Marginalii şi glose la Numele Rozei”, en Secolul XX 8-9-10, pp. 87-106. García, Pascual (2004), El lugar de la escritura. Lectura personal de autores contemporáneos, Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia, Murcia. Genette, Gérard (1989), Figuras III, Lumen, Barcelona. Gómez de la Serna, Ramón (1992), Senos, Libertarias/Prodhufi, Madrid. Hutcheon, Linda (2002), Poetica postmodernismului, Univers, Bucarest. Mchale, Brian (1992), Constructing Postmodernism, Routledge, Londres. (2004), Postmodernist Fiction, Routledge, Londres. Prada, Juan Manuel de (1996), Coños, Valdemar, Madrid. Sontag, Susan (2007), “Notas sobre lo camp”, en Contra la interpretación y otros ensayos, Debolsillo, Madrid, pp. 351-372. ON CULTURAL AND POLITICAL CONSTANTS IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ARAB WORLD LAURA SITARU* Abstract During the recent revolutionary process, the classic pyramid describing the distribution of the power in Islamic traditional politic thought which have as basis the umma has been reversed. This mutation is calling other reformulations inside the conceptual field which commonly characterize the Arab Islamic political systems. Thus, concepts such “people”, “revolution”, “liberty”, “democracy” and “state” are reshaped within a new political meaning of political participation. The old traditional referents are replaced by a new schema of understanding the power. The current research’s purpose is to explain the reshaping of a classical politic paradigm, and to identify cultural continuities within this process, if any. Keywords: archeology of concepts, cultural continuities, al-cāmma, al-h~ās{s{a, popular culture, Arab street. 1. Introduction The fall of the authoritarian regimes in the Arab countries, mainly in Egypt and Tunisia, besides the surprise caused by the political gesture per se, has brought back to the public attention an older issue about the specificity of the political system/ systems in the Arab-Islamic space. “Break or continuity” is the key question for the commentators of the historical moment called “The Arab Spring”. Traditional categories that set up the political systems in the Arab-Islamic world are easily identified, and also identifiable, in the contemporary development of events. This study, which resorts to the archaeology of concepts, is trying to look into realities and conceptual frameworks which are said to condition the current political developments in the Arab space. The cases presented in this analysis refer to several social and political aspects related to the events that led to the toppling of the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, among which the return to the forefront of the Arab street’s public life of religious forces and also the return to the role which the army continues * University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Department of Arabic, [email protected]. 116 LAURA SITARU to have in Egypt, perpetuating, as certain researchers believe, a classical tradition related to the organisation of the state in the cultural space defined by Islam, or simply defending its own interests as a caste or group to the detriment of another well known category of classical Islam, namely the al-mas{lah{atu l-cāmma (the general interest), that has been described by the authors of the medieval political treaties. A continuous polarization of social forces, accompanied by a biased redefinition of political options are other descriptions which commentators use especially when referring to the situation in Egypt, which has a great potential for unpredictable development. Speaking in terms of the cultural and political heritage, the analysis can be extended, in order to strengthen the general framework of the research, towards the developments following the Libyan revolution, with recrudescing fragmentations of the tribal type, or towards the mainly denominational revolutionary conflicts in Bahrain or Syria. For each of the abovementioned situations one can provide reasons or conditionings of the “culturalist” type, as often occurs in studies and commentaries, just as they can be accounted for by a game of local and regional1 political forces that are abruptly faced with a new social and political reality, with an often unpredictable evolution. 2. Excluding the Community (umma) from the Exertion of Power Equation. A Constant of Political Life in the Arab-Islamic World? Talking about the modern history of the Islamic space, historians such as Mohammed Arkoun draw at least one continuity line between past and present. He says that one of the constants of the framework in which the political life in the Islamic space developed / is developing is the permanent exclusion of the community, umma, from the exertion of power2 equation. It has always been marginalized, submitted to pressure and tyrannies of all kinds, left to the whims of the local power mechanisms, which, in time, led to a regeneration of preIslamic solidarity, mostly of the tribal type. The people, designated by words with a negative connotation similar in meaning to the French phrase le menu peuple, has never been recognized as a possible partner in the governing process. According to the political theories written during the Muslim Middle Ages, the community is the one that gives legitimacy to the leader, but actually the leader 1 We agree with the observation made by Willis (2012: 11): “it is likely that whilst most of the political landscape of the modern Maghreb has been produced by longer-term historical processes, parts of it are the product of much more recent developments”, thus trying to avoid any exaggeration when attaching to historical influence a more important role than that it actually played in the unfolding of the events analysed, while being fully aware that remarks of the historical and cultural/ culturalist type are often overrated. 2 Arkoun (1986: 54). ON CULTURAL AND POLITICAL CONSTANTS IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ARAB WORLD 117 has a divine mandate. The leader is not questioned; he plays the role which the heart has in relation with the other organs of the human body3; manzilatu-hu ka-manzilati Allāhi min al-cuqūli wa s-sā’iri l-mawğūdāti4 ‘his role is that which God has in relation with the creatures endowed with reason and with the rest of His creation’. The leader is a model in society and sukkānu l-madīnati calay-him ’an yasīrū calā ġirāri ra’īsi-him wa yus{bih{ū s{ūratan min-hu5 ‘the city inhabitants have to follow the model of their leader and become his image’. Al-Māwardī6 (972-1058) however admits that the leader can be removed by the community on account of several reasons (ğarhun fī l-cadālati7 and naqsun { fī badani-hi8), because the community cannot be mistaken, as they are guided by Muslim clerics who, in turn, are inspired by the divine law. It is interesting to notice, in the context of the ongoing developments in the Arab world (the so called “Arab Spring” and the post-revolutionary events) that the political principles formulated, at the level of ideas, in the Middle Ages of the Islamic civilisation have functioned, quite surprisingly and, most probably spontaneously, in the historical moments we’ve mentioned. The classical power pyramid with the community leader at the top is questioned by the very base of the pyramid- the people- who, as it did not happen very often in the political history of the Arab Islamic space, are now speaking out their minds. The slogan that animated the uprising in Tunisia aš-šacbu yurīdu isqāt{a nniz{āmi ‘the people wants the fall of the regime’, taken over by the Egyptians in the Tah{rīr Square, and the protesters in Bahrain, Yemen and Syria, marks also at a linguistic level the unprecedented denial of an order considered unrepresentative and illegitimate. Aš-šacbu yurīdu ‘the people wants” – is a sentence that semantically rules out any ambiguity. Moreover, the slogan, said to have become a symbol of the Arab uprisings, was concocted, purposefully or accidentally, in the literary Arabic language – although, as is known, it started being used in Tunis – and not in a dialect of the Arabic language which everybody would have expected from a people’s uprising. The slogan has provided the Arab world with a desideratum which was turned, at least in the case of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, into a historical reality. Al-Fārābī in his work Al-Madīnatu l-fād{ila refers to the city leader using these words, comparing him with the heart and the role it has in the human body, cf. Wafī (n.d.). 4 Wafī, (n.d.: 30). 5 Wafī (n.d.: 30). 6 Al-Māwardī (1996: 29-30). 7 When he is unfair in the governing process (literally: when he violates the idea of justice). 8 When he has a physical impairment (preventing him from governing in good conditions). 3 118 LAURA SITARU The common reaction of the “Arab street” in 2011 came to confirm an evolution which experts explain today by means of the phrase “generational transformation”9, a change and re-setting of the concept of “Arab public sphere” that occurred especially after 2000, which was associated with the mass media development and the freedom of expression made possible by the virtual space of talk shows and forums10. Without a doubt, the mass media covering the panArab world, such as the Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV channel, have contributed to the popularisation and “Arabisation” of certain national events or events with a national impact, such as the Palestinian issue, the protests organised in Egypt by the Kefāya Movement and the protest movements in Lebanon that followed the assassination of Rafīq al-H{arīrī. Television, a form of manifestation of the popular culture type, became, starting with the 1990s of the 20th century, and mainly after 2000, one of the vectors forming an identity, claiming the right to represent the reality. News as well as commercial TV channels adopt what experts call a transnational approach favouring the emergence of a “hybrid-culture”11 within the Arab world, of a pan-Arab 12 media. The liberalisation of the public expression medium produces, as Kraidy (2012: 59) put it, “a shift in Arab public discourse toward free-market ideal, and economic neo-liberal values”. This “new Arab public sphere” 13 stems from the national-type conditioning imposed by authoritarian regimes as well as from the regional stakes and clashes in which they were deeply involved, taking a common stand and having a common reaction, as a think-tank at Arab level. Therefore, the attempts of the acting regimes to explain the protest movements they are faced with on their national territories through all sorts of scenarios involving foreign “interference” in the society development are immediately disapproved of and sanctioned by this “new Arab public sphere”. The accusations levelled against Iran in the case of the Bahrain uprisings by the Gulf states did not go unsanctioned by the revolution generation, just as Asad’s discourse about the denominational nature of the conflict in Syria did not persuade anybody. Lynch (2012: 21-22) talks about a regionally integrated narrative, about a unification of the Arab public space which, although it is not completely new for the modern14 period, is more intense than ever before. Thus, the concerted action 9 Lynch (2012: 12-15). The new generation openly mocked their leaders on Al-Jazeera talk-shows and forums. See Lynch (2012: 12). 11 Designated as such by Kraidy (2010: 13). 12 An October 2007 Gallup survey shows that in Saudi Arabia, one of the most problematic media-consuming markets, 93% of the population watches pan-Arab TV channels in order to keep abreast of the latest developments. See Kraidy (2010: 97). 13 A phrase coined by Lynch (2012: 16). 14 Lynch (2012: 33) discusses the large scale street movements of the 1950s and 1960s, when masses were mobilised by the idea of pan-Arab unity whose initiator, Egyptian president Gamāl Abdel Nasser, used the radio station “The Voice of the Arabs” to air his ideological 10 ON CULTURAL AND POLITICAL CONSTANTS IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ARAB WORLD 119 taken by the Arab street in the run up to and during the uprisings against the authoritarian regimes in 2011 can be associated with the ideological mobilisation of masses which the Arab world experienced during what historians call the “Arab Cold War”15, but we believe that a distinction should be made, which is related to the unity of a generation that provided a common response to authoritarianism, irrespective of its ideological nature. From Morocco to Bahrain, from Egypt to Syria, people denounced the idea of authoritarian leadership and not the form of government that exerted this type of authority. In the context of the talk about power and its projections in the ArabIslamic space it’s worth mentioning the fact that the good governing principles carefully drafted by the medieval theoreticians of the Muslim political system have always represented a desired, ideal order, and consequently an utopian order, which permanently clashed with the necessary order. The theme of chaos (al-fawd{ā) and disorder (the philosopher Al-G|azālī is the author of the famous sentence which became a governing principle: a bad, even unjust governing is better than disorder and anarchy) has served, during the history of governing in the Islamic system, as a faithful ally of the necessary order principle to the detriment of legitimate order or governing. Returning to the conditions in which umma, the community conceived of as the base of power, could use its right to remove its leader, the classical political treaties write about the lack of cadāla or treating the community while trampling over the principle of equity or social justice. According to classical authors, the leader has to pay attention to the mas{lah{a, the interest of the community and its progress, ensuring the existence of social equity as a principle underlying the functioning of the umma. In his work Al-Madīnatu l-fād{ila (‘The virtuous city’) Al-Fārābī 16 the virtue of social and attitudinal equity and justice is almost redundantly used: ’an yakūna muh{ibban li-l cadli (…), ’an yakūna cādilan fī ah~lāqi-hi, fa-lā ifrāt{a wa lā tafrīt{a17 ‘to love justice…, to be fair in his behaviour, to neither exaggerate nor neglect’. Economic and social polarisation has reached a very high level in the contemporary Arab space dominated by authoritarian systems, but this is not something new for the political system discussed. The gap between elites and convictions, in a similar or comparable way to that in which the Al-Jazeera station is today used sometimes for airing political messages or for supporting regional political actions. 15 The phrase refers to the period of the 1950s and 1960s, when two ideological blocs emerged within the Arab world, the pro-Soviet bloc ideologically dominated by the pan-Arab doctrine and the pro-western bloc made up mostly of the regional monarchies, with spectacular shifts from one side to the other, depending on the internal developments in certain Arab states (Iraq and Egypt for example). 16 Abū Nas{r Muh{ammad ibn Muh{ammad al-Fārābī (872-950), an Arab philosopher. 17 Wafī (n.d.: 33). LAURA SITARU 120 masses, clearly and undoubtedly marked at the level of the related Arab linguistic terminology, is a constant of the Islamic cultural world, which has propagated a well-defined separation of social roles through customs, not necessarily through treaties or laws, a separation which is more precise in comparison with other political systems. The popular masses (al-h~ās{s{a) have developed, in time, a system of values parallel to the official system, represented by the state (through the caliph) and the clerics’ Islam, thus engendering a people’s Islam, an Islam of brotherhoods and religious orders, a mix of šarīca and local traditions. We should also mention that radical Islam is partly a manifestation of people’s Islam, as it is well know that the leaders of the Islamist movements reject everything that is related to exegesis and the theological interpretation effort, since these are not part of their reference Islam. The secular Arab republics instated after WWII have developed a legitimizing discourse based on the consensus of the umma, of the national community, defined through the word šacb ‘people’18, but political practice, just like in the historical past, imposed another type of reality. Be they republics or monarchies, the Arab states continued to govern by granting power, in a discretionary way, to a caste, either we speak about military or religious regimes. What is relevant is the fact that, while the ruling political regimes were concerned with putting the blame for the protest movements against them on external causes and regional or international power games, a whole generation representing the despised category of the Arab street (al-h~ās{s{a) was developing a unitary revolutionary rhetoric which contested the madīnat az{-z{ulm (‘the city of injustice’) and its practices. We find in the unitary/common reaction of the Arab street a revival of the principle of the Arab unity, as a founding identity principle and especially as a reconfirmation of the existence of a gap between political elites and the umma (‘the city people’, in the words of Al-Fārābī). The people are becoming once again aware of their right to take action and to participate in the city affairs and they understand their role of h{āfiz{ (‘guardian’) of the good behaviour of the leader. The examples offered by the new Egyptian public sphere ready to react to each gesture of the power that is deemed a deviation from the just behaviour are from now on a prototype of social participation. 3. Classical Principles, Current Contexts In the context of the Arab uprisings, the word cadāla has been brought up again in discussions by various commentators who underline the importance of establishing a transition balance, a balance between social classes in the period following the overthrow of authoritarian regimes. Invoking the concept of 18 Sitaru (2009: 35-106). ON CULTURAL AND POLITICAL CONSTANTS IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ARAB WORLD 121 c adāla intiqāliyya and guaranteeing the implementation of the transition balance is a sine qua non for preventing social chaos and the almost unavoidable sliding towards a civil war 19 . Reforming institutions is in the opinion of Arab commentators a priority of the present historical moment, because, as they put it, the state institutions have inevitably been associated with the oppressive actions of the political regimes recently ousted from power. Social equity or justice should not be mistaken for vindictive actions, neither should it be the appanage of one social category or another, and especially it should not be politicized. The Iraqi society, after the removal from power of Saddam Hussein’s regime, offers a counter-example to the social equity model in a post-authoritarianism era. Another possible such example is given by Bashar al-Asad’s Syria whose evolution towards denominational and political vendetta actions is already a fact. Libya is in a slightly similar situation, where tribal-type segregation, this time coupled with a precarious situation of the central institutions, creates the framework for social developments with high potential for conflict. Again, we are far from Al-Fārābī’s ideal virtuous city, this al-madīnatu l-fād{ila which is defined by opposing it to other possible cities and types of social organization: al-madīnatu l-fād{ilatu mud{āddātu-ha al-madīnatu l-ğāhilatu, al-madīnatu l-fāsiqatu, almadīnatu d{-d{āllatu, al-madīnatu l-mubaddalatu20 ‘the virtuous city is defined by comparison to its contraries: the ignorant city, the city on the wrong path, the city that lost its way, the rotten city’ and where the inhabitants’ participation in the life and destiny of their city seems to be an immutable principle: 'afrādu l-madīnati murīdūna wa muh~tārūna21 ‘the people of the city express their will and have the right to elect’. The model described by Al-Fārābī in the 10th century is not far from the claims of the revolutionary Arab generation – the new Arab public sphere – as they were formulated during the people’s uprisings of 2011 and 2012. The philosopher Al-Fārābī explains in detail the principles underlying the al-madīnat al-fād{ila and which characterize the latter as the opposite of z{ulm (oppression, injustice, authoritarian system), these two principles being al-cadl wa-l karāma ‘justice and dignity’. H{uriyya wa karāma ‘freedom and dignity’ are the two 19 According to Ibrahim Sharqiya Farihat in his editorial Al-‘Adālatu l-intiqāliyya fī duwali r-rabī‘i l-‘arabiyy (The transition balance/ equity in the countries of the arab spring), published on www.aljazeera.net, and read on June 1, 2012. 20 Wafī (n.d.: 72). 21 Wafī (n.d.: 41). 122 LAURA SITARU fundamental concepts based on which the regional common narrative of the Arab uprisings was formed, and which have been mentioned by Lynch (2012: 21). The organisation into “clans” of the Islamic world, actually a continuation of a particular form of organisation dating from the pre-Islamic period, is another constant of the political history of this space which can be seen even today and which has materialised in what is mainly known as a conflict of denominations. In order to permanently support our arguments on the Arab theoreticians of the political and social phenomenon, we mention the observations of the historian Ibn Khaldoun (1332-1406) referring to the fact that Islam, which tried to offer Arabs a supra-tribal identity, has failed in its attempt, because the clan spirit (cas{abiyya) continued to mark the destiny of this space. On the other hand, there are many examples in the history of Islam when ideologies (of religious inspiration or not) were subordinated to and used by the political factor, as Ferjani (2005) remarked. He said that the religious history of Islam is made up of a long series of circumstantial doctrines that use religion to serve strategies and options that were actually chosen without taking into account any religious 22 views. Mentioning Ibn Khaldoun once again, the evolution of dynastic powers has nothing to do with religion: they were carried to power by a dacwa ‘message’, that served a cas{abiyya ‘clan’ in order to instate a type of mulk ‘royalty’23. Much debated was the denominational 24 side of the Syrian revolution, frequently called “the Syrian Sunni revolution”, referring to the fact that most of the people who contest the Asad regime are from the majority population of Sunni orientation (75% of the total population). At the same time the confessional side has become more visible, which makes the Syrian uprising different from the uprisings in the other Arab countries. The official discourse of the Asad regime resorts to many such arguments, accusing the “Sunni” opposition of sectarian tendencies and of trying to undermine the Syrian unity. This is a card whose stake the Asad regime understands very well, a card successfully played in the past by the stakeholder-power, France. In his most recent work, Haddad (2012) explains the power network around president Asad, built on strong economic interests and which gathers around the president’s family not only elites of the Alawite minority but also elements of the Christian and Sunni bourgeoisie of the Syrian big cities, thus doing away with the arguments in favour of a strictly denominational explanation of the conflict. In this context, the observers of the Syrian situation draw attention to the fact that the opposition is not made up of only one denomination, but it actually attracted 22 Cf. Ferjani (2005: 141). See Sitaru (2009: 35-106). 24 The theme was approached in the article “Turning the Syrian political discourse denominational” in 22, on February 28, 2012, http://www.revista22.ro/confesionalizareadiscursului-politic-sirian-13587.html. 23 ON CULTURAL AND POLITICAL CONSTANTS IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ARAB WORLD 123 Christian, Druze and Alawite elements around itself, because the ruling regime, although it is part of the last minority above mentioned, does not exclusively serve its interests. Another constant of the political history in the Islamic space, which is at the same time a source of permanent tension in the political organisation and, especially, a very topical issue, is the role of the military power in organising the city. This is an aspect noticed by Oriental studies scholars and also by the Egyptian reformer of the early 20th century, ‘Alī Abderrāziq25, who writes that Islam was set up as a cultural and political system as a consequence of the military and war power, stemming from the Imperial adventure and not from the prophetic revelation. The army is, in the classical hierarchy of the Muslim power, one of the pillars supporting the state (dawla), frequently crossing over the demarcation line imposed by its theoretical role. Of course, at present, armies such as that of Egypt, which are a micro-state in their own right, and also the extremely comprehensive security apparatuses developed along decades of governing by authoritarian political regimes, as was the case of Syria but also of Algeria and Bahrain, to give but a few examples, have a decisive role in the political developments of the moment. In the case of Egypt, after decades of military governing, after decades of anti-monarchy and military revolution (1952) which entailed, among other things, the rise to the forefront of political life of some figures coming from the army (as was the case with the last three presidents of the Egyptian republic), it is obvious for any knowledgeable observer that the current fight, including the electoral fight, is not waged between general categories such as the religious or the lay categories; we are actually witnessing a clash between a military and militarized system, on the one hand, and a civil society that is now taking shape, on the other hand26 . Neglecting or disregarding the power of the army in ensuring internal political and social peace could have disastrous consequences for Egypt in the coming years. The dismantling of Saddam Hussein’s army, after the US troops entered Iraq, caused an extremely aggressive response from the military elements, one of the obvious causes of the state of chaos in terms of security in which the country was plunged for quite a long period of time. Actually, the militarization of the political power and of the governing act per se was happening in almost all the Arab countries, except for the monarchies, in the 1950s. Coups d’etat or military revolutions mark, in mid 20th century, a change of the political class, an upside-down move in the power hierarchy, and also in the social hierarchy of the Arab states. Revolutions bearing the label of “the young officers” or “the free officers” do not change only one political regime but the image of an entire society which reconsiders its own functioning norms. 25 26 Abderraziq (1994). The Economist, “The presidential elections in Egypt: Egypt’s second republic”, May 19th, 2012. LAURA SITARU 124 At the same time there emerges another type of political narrative which is significantly different from the pre-revolutionary themes, a product of the Egyptian upper and middle classes27. Actually, as is well known, a legitimising discourse should accompany the political gesture or action. The message which the Egyptian military system propagates among its representatives, for instance, and conveyed to the receiving-masses capitalises on elements taken from a collective political imaginary/mind where the fear of chaos and insecurity are two essential elements. The role which the army and the military-type structures have in the Arab states that have recently witnessed revolutionary events could be co-related more with the changes of the 1950s, when the series of regime collapses brought the army at the top of the power hierarchy, rather than with a historical tradition in which military castes turned dynasties28 have governed Islam for many centuries29. REFERENCES Abderraziq, Ali (1994), L’islam et les fondements du pouvoir (nouvelle traduction et introduction de Abdou Filali-Amary), La Découverte, Paris. Al-Māwardī (1996), Al-Ah{kāmu s{-S{ultāniyya wa l-wilāyātu d-dīniyya, Al-Maktab al-’islāmī (h~arağa an-nas{s{a ‘Isām Fāris al-Harastānī), Cairo. Arkoun, Mohammed (1986), Islam, morale et politique, Editions Desclée de Brouwer, Paris. Ferjani, Mohamed-Chérif (2005), Le politique et le religieux dans le champ islamique, Librairie Arthème Fayard, Paris. Haddad, Bassam (2012), Business Network in Syria. The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. Hitti, Philip K. (2008), Istoria arabilor. All Publishers (translation by Irina Vainovski-Mihai), Bucharest. Kraidy, Marwan M. (2010), Reality, Television and Arab Politics. Contention in Public Life, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Lynch, Marc (2012), The Arab Uprising. The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East, Public Affairs, New York. Sitaru, Laura (2009), Gândirea politică arabă. Concepte-cheie între tradiţie şi inovaţie, Polirom, Iasi. 27 Cf. Voll et al. (2012). The Mamluk dynasty that ruled in Egypt between 1250 and 1517 is just the best known example of military who gained the power, not to speak about the tradition of the influence of military castes on the state leadership, which resulted, among others, in the emergence of the function of sultan in mid 11th century, who, together with the caliph, led the Arab-Islamic caliphate for centuries. Cf. Hitti (2008: 301). 29 The role of the military in the organisation and functioning of the Abbasid Caliphates, and also of the states that emerged against the backdrop of its fall, is well expressed in the titles the military have or that have been attributed to them. Therefore, titles such as rukn ad-dawla (the pillar of the state or governing), mucizz ad-dawla (the one who strengthens the state), cad{ud ad-dawla (the arm of the state) or ’abnā’ ad-dawla (the sons of the state), show the uncontested importance of the military in Islamic polity, especially after the 10th century. Cf. Turner (2004: 1-22). 28 ON CULTURAL AND POLITICAL CONSTANTS IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ARAB WORLD 125 Turner, John P. (2004), “The abnā’ al-dawla: The definition and legitimation of identity in response to the fourth fitna”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society, 2004, 124, 1, pp. 1-22. Voll, John, Peter Mandaville, Steven Kull, Alexis Arieff (2012), “Political Islam in the Arab Awakening: Who are the major players?” in Middle East Policy Council http://www.mepc.org/journal/middle-east-policy-archives/political-islam-arab-awakeningwho-are-major-players (published in April 11, 2012). Wafī, Alī Abdel Wāhid (n.d.), Al-Madīnatu l-fādila li-l Fārābī, Nahdatu Misra, Cairo. Willis, Michael J. (2012), Politics and Power in the Maghreb. Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco from Independence to the Arab Spring, C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., London. SCHOOL EDUCATION AND RROMA ETHNIC SELF-ESTEEM DELIA GRIGORE∗ Abstract Our exploratory study aims to analyze the connection between the self-esteem of the family, expressed also through the assuming of the ethnic identity, the ethnic and individual self-esteem of children and their school success. Is a low ethnic self-esteem of parents affecting the self-esteem of their child? Without any doubt, yes: a parent with low self-esteem will transmit it to his child and this one will have an ethnic self-esteem also low, if not even lower, which does not mean that he will not be able to build up a higher individual, or even ethnic, self-esteem, if the happenings in his life will encourage him in this direction. But the most often, especially in the non-Rroma school environment, the Rroma child, identified even against his will as Rroma individual, needs am increased self-esteem, able to support him to build up an individual self-esteem, both strong, because they are arising one from the other, being useful in increasing his school participation and performances. This happens because a child with an increased self-esteem is a child who trusts his own forces, desires and designs this success, assumes responsibilities, has critic spirit, develops dialogues with the others, for motivating with good arguments his positions and actions, is strong, assertive and involved in action, has aspirations and not only on short term, but mostly on medium and long term. Therefore, as the school is an investment on medium and long term, the increased self-esteem is one of the important conditions for the school success of any child. Keywords: Rromanipen, ethnic identity, self-esteem, fictional ego, authentic ego, reflective difference, internalized social stigma. Our exploratory study aims to analyze the connection between the selfesteem of the family, expressed also through the assuming of the ethnic identity, the ethnic and individual self-esteem of children and their school success. Is a low ethnic self-esteem of parents affecting the self-esteem of their child? Without any doubt, yes: a parent with low self-esteem will transmit it to his child and this one will have an ethnic self-esteem also low, if not even lower, which does not mean that he will not be able to build up a higher individual, or even ethnic, self-esteem, if the happenings in his life will encourage him in this direction. But the most often, especially in the non-Rroma school environment, the Rroma child, identified even against his will as Rroma individual, needs am increased self-esteem, able to support him to build up an individual self-esteem, ∗ University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, [email protected]. 128 DELIA GRIGORE both strong, because they are arising one from the other, being useful in increasing his school participation and performances. This happens because a child with an increased self-esteem is a child who trusts his own forces, desires and designs this success, assumes responsibilities, has critic spirit, develops dialogues with the others, for motivating with good arguments his positions and actions, is strong, assertive and involved in action, has aspirations and not only on short term, but mostly on medium and long term. Therefore, as the school is an investment on medium and long term, the increased self-esteem is one of the important conditions for the school success of any child. On other side, what are the effects of a low self-esteem in the family and implicitly, of the child on his school participation and performances? Marked by a low self-esteem, the child does not trust himself, is permanently afraid of the failure, considers that any bad happening is from his fault, does not assume responsibilities, has an overmuch self-critic spirit and a very low critic spirit, does not believe in change, not even in his own change, believes in the grimness of the destiny, on which throws the blame when it is about his failures, does not assume the responsibility for his actions, tells often that God decided this way, in conflict situation is secluded, introverted, humble, fearful, defensive, but can also be violent, unpredictable, easy to influence by others’ opinions, internalizes the others’ opinions about him, is not an action man, all theses in the context where he considers himself as belonging to an inferior group, dominated, success less, stigmatized. The direct consequence is the decrease of his school performances. The Rroma, as members of a minority group considered deviant and inferior, have as reference group the majority one, considered as successful and representative and that is why they will internalize the social representations of the majority about Roma and they will perceive them as belonging to Rroma themselves. While such representations are mainly negative, the self image of Rroma becomes negative also and the ethnic self-esteem lows down. Even more, upon the three “egos”, what Rroma believe about themselves (the actual perceived ego) is, in most of the cases, in opposition with what they would like to be (the ideal ego) and with what Rroma believe they would have to be, observing the wishes of the surrounding ones (the wanted ego), circumstances which are leading to a distorted self-esteem, with crushing tendencies. The attempt for solving this crush is expressed, very often, by the unconscious assuming of a split, schizoid, dual ego, which conceals and falsify its essence, in order to administrate the need to produce an impression suitable for the society; in other words, it develops a strategy for adjustment to the social environment where it is placed. The individual rejects or conceals his real deep identity and acts as if not being himself, but someone else, the fictional ego gets the place of the authentic ego and the self-identification is based on the reflective difference: I am what the otherness believes about me, because this otherness is superior to me. SCHOOL EDUCATION AND RROMA ETHNIC SELF-ESTEEM 129 As main source of the decrease of the self-esteem of Rroma we can identify the internalized social obloquy (stigma), opposed and winning towards any other factors able to improve the ethnic self-esteem. The legacy of a exclusion history had decisive effects on the Rroma collective mind. The deprivation of the individual of his rights and of the access to resources for social development is leading to the lose of ethnic dignity and installation of self-blame and ethnic shame of self: “What more to say, we, gypsies, are guilty for all what happen to us, if we have been different the Romanian wouldn’t hate us, they have their reasons too, because we are too much thieves and we don’t like nor work or school! (…) We, we are not counting, we are different, but the others …”1. The stigma of the Rroma identity, amplified also by the systematic use towards Rroma, in the contemporary society, of a damage-racial and negative-stereotyped language, doubled by the inability of the Rroma elites to convert themselves into a credible and viable model for Rroma people and to transmit correct and clear information about Rroma, both for Rroma and nonRroma population, have led to an internalization of the negative image about themselves, which transformed the Rroma self-esteem into a self-stigma or, even worse or equally bad, in a sort of self-hate, both of them almost irreversible, especially in the context of a formal mono-cultural education, of the loss of the identity references and of the absence of institutions able to create and represent the Roma cultural model. The occurrence is comparable with what Theodor Lessing is calling “selfhate”, referring to the Jews: “the psychology of the Jews is nothing else but a particularly enlightening exemplification for the psychology of a minority which is suffering”2. The result of this process of internalization of the stigma led to the construction of a strategy of surviving by halving, by the structure of a somehow schizoid personality, which means fragile and vulnerable at the existential sideslips, led to the rejection of the authentic ego, of the deep ego and to the presence of a fictional ego, fake, deficiently adjusted to the requirements of an alienating society. As deep and extended the acculturation process is, as the ethnic self-esteem is lower and able to convert into self-contempt. This model of damaged and damaging thinking has been and goes on being perpetuated also by the educational public policies, even if not directly, by an explicit rejection of the Rroma child, although, quite often, this happens through the obvious racist attitude of many authorities in education, including teachers, but in exchange made permanent by a certain systematic destruction of the ethnic identity, due to a mono-cultural educational model, ethno-centrist, in which the school attitude towards the Rroma children is of “cultural 1 2 Vatrash Rroma, 34 years old, 10 years of school, Bucharest. Theodor Lessing “La Haine de soi, le refus d’être juif”- Berg International, 1990, p. 38. 130 DELIA GRIGORE assimilation”, considering that Rroma can be “civilized” only if “they become Romanians”. The unique model of reference imposed by the educational system is – the most often autarchic and inflexible – circumscribed by the majority values. In the context of a stigmatized ethnic identity, the much-needed “integration” in the otherness society, which rejects the specificity for reaching the so much quoted mainstreaming - concept which can successfully replace the assimilation, without any negative connotation – becomes the ideal method to impose the self-stigma to the ethnic self-esteem. But if this would be able to produce a citizen culturally neutral and complete from perspective of observing his civic rights and obligations, it would be possible to say that the society does not lose anything because of the low self-esteem of certain of its members or groups. Only, the experience proves that an individual with low self-esteem, no matter if personal, of group or ethnic, is easier abandoning not only his ethnic identity, but also his citizen responsibilities. If the social environment is teaching you that you are good for nothing only because you belong to Roma people, you will lose the self confidence, you will internalize this social label and you will not only cease any effort to prove otherwise, but even more, you will cease to assume any responsibility, considering them as exceeding your thinking and action abilities and you will start to behave following the heteroapplied label and to answer the negative expectations of the society by a deviant social attitude. Therefore, the interest of the whole society would have to be to make efforts for increasing the self-esteem, ethnic included, of its members. The self-esteem of each group, but most of all of a people confronted to a self conception historically negative, as it is the Rroma people, can increase only if the group has the means to find itself as group, as deep membership to common values and shared standards. To be proud of yourself, you must know who you are; to know who you are you need to gather together, to take distance from the others and to see what is keeping you apart from the others and what is making you common to others similar to you. What would have to develop a people for not falling pray to the slow but sure process of cultural assimilation? The answer is easy to forestall: their own values. How should they be cultivated? In formative institutions, through the dialogue with the otherness or the education for diversity. Regarding the Rroma, because of being confronted with a weak selfesteem, it is necessary the knowledge and recognition of the Rroma history and culture first by the otherness, in order that the Roma identity could be later internalized and assumed by the Rroma themselves. This must happen inside the school, by the inclusion of coherent and consistent information about the Rroma history and culture in the mandatory curriculum for all pupils and through a systematic and pragmatic-oriented ethno-educational inclusion. SCHOOL EDUCATION AND RROMA ETHNIC SELF-ESTEEM 131 The internalization of the ethnic stigma, also in the case of Rroma children in Romania, has historical reasons. The discrimination of the Rroma is consequence of a history of social exclusion and institutional racism. The slavery situation in which they have been kept more than five centuries, starting from the first documentary attestations in the Romanian countries, places the Rroma at the edge of the society, being considered as immobile goods, serving as exchange unit. The slavery affected deeply the Rroma children also, being separated from families, exchanged, sold or given as presents, very often at smaller prices than the animals. The sexual abuse of the slaves’ owners over the Rroma girls was not punished by law. The legal abolition of the slavery in 1856, produced as following the pressure of the Western abolitionism, did not bring an essential change from point of view of the placements of the Rroma regarding the majority population, therefore did not reach a spiritual emancipation. The reformist program of the forty-eighters and of the governments which followed did not include the problem of the emancipation / social integration of the Rroma. The noninclusion of the Rroma issues in the public policies led to their relapse into the previous status and to the stigmatization of the ethnic membership. The marginalization and social exclusion of Rroma created in time an important socio-cultural gap between the majority and the Rroma community. The attitude, behavior and dominant policy of the society towards the Rroma oscillated between the racism of exclusion, leading to Genocide and the racism of domination, expressed by cultural assimilation. The policy of social exclusion and of racial discrimination against the Rroma reached its top with the Holocaust during the Ion Antonescu’s regime: the deportation and extermination of Rroma in Transnistria (1941-1942). Among victims, 6.714 have been children. On the anomic canvass from after 1989, even if the recognition of the Rroma as national minority supposed the gain of some politic and civic rights, the catastrophic damage of their economic and social situation was a consequence of the institutionalized racism. From cultural and social point of view, the Rroma are considered as a parasite “sub-culture”, o marginal social group, which leads to the proliferation of the racial manifestations. In the context of a democracy in evolution, the preventing of the access to social rights and exclusion from the resources necessary to the individual / community development have lead to the violent recrudescence of discrimination and racism, to the weakening of the citizenship status. The inter-ethnic conflicts based on racial discrimination against Rroma – recorded in the villages Mihail Kogălniceanu (October, 1990), Bolintin-Deal (April, 1991), Ogrezeni, Bolintin-Vale, Vălenii Lăpuşului (August, 1991), Comăneşti (November, 1992), Hădăreni (September, 1993), Bâcu (January, 1995), Alba Iulia, Buhuşi (2003), Craiova (2003) – are going on to be a concern reason, 132 DELIA GRIGORE also by violence (many of them ended with destruction of the Rroma housings and with murdered Rroma), as by the fact that the impunity situation of the Romanian state led to the non punishment of the guilty ones. The police is encouraging such anti-Rroma manifestations by its own violent and abusing actions, which we can often consider as racial motivated, many times developed without legal support, like raids in the Rroma communities, excessive use of force, arbitrary use of the weapons, arresting without warrant, violent treatment of the arrested. The Rroma children are the most affected victims, from psychological point of view and sometimes, even physically, of this abusing treatment. The social exclusion, the racial discrimination and the lack of interest of the state to adopt pro-active policies are composing the roots of the ethnicization of the poorness. One of the consequences of the discrimination is that, from economic-social point of view, the Rroma community is the most disadvantaged in Romania. The high rates of the poorness and the low level of access to the labor market are inducing to the Rroma families the dependence of the welfare assistance, which is far away of assuring them a decent level of life. The life hope for Rroma in Romania is with 15-20 years lower than of the majority one, being situated around 50-55 years old (“Rroma in an Expanding Europe. Breaking the Poverty Cycle”, a World Bank Study, 2003). Because of the discrimination in the health system (manifestations of racial discrimination against Rroma of the medical staff, the refuse of some family doctors to register Rroma on their records, the lack of access to the quality medical act) and of the socio-economic factors (poorness, inappropriate alimentation, inability to acquire medical drugs, the lack of medical insurance), the health estate in the Rroma communities was visibly damaged during the last decade. 63% of Rroma have no medical insurance (UNDP, “Rroma in Central and Eastern Europe. Avoiding the Dependency Trap”, 2003), therefore they can not benefit the public health services. Because of the standard life conditions, the communicable diseases (hepatitis), as well as nutrition diseases (diabetes), is occupying the first places in the hierarchy of the pathology of Rroma population. The respiratory diseases, the digestive diseases and the cardio-vascular ones are also wide spread among Rroma. The most often, the Rroma can not pay their health insurances, which is limiting or even excluding the access of children to medical services. As consequence, the Rroma children are more vulnerable to the child diseases and to epidemic diseases like polio, diphtheria and typhus. In this sense, the Rroma children are a special risk category. The alimentation of the Rroma children, as result of their low level of living, is poor, unbalanced and inappropriate. As consequence, many Rroma children are suffering of malnutrition, anemia, vitamin deficiency, dystrophy, which dramatically reduce their development possibilities and has profound negative effects on their ability for study and their health. Also, the Rroma infant mortality is more than 4 times higher than average (Romanian Government and SCHOOL EDUCATION AND RROMA ETHNIC SELF-ESTEEM 133 CASPIS – the Commission Anti-Poorness and Promotion of the Social Inclusion, “The Social Support for Rroma Population”, 2003). The access of Rroma children in the education system is still limited. One of five Rroma can not send their children to school because of lack of decent clothing (“Rroma in an Expanding Europe. Breaking the Poverty Cycle”, A World Bank Study, 2003). The lack of identity is used as an excuse for not giving the right to attend the school for Rroma children. There are schools refusing the enrollment of Rroma children in school if parents do not have permanent residence in that locality. Forced to work at an early age to ensure their family survival, many Rroma children often abandon the school. Approximately 27% of the Rroma population never attended any school education or did it only for a few years. While the literacy is almost complete in the country, illiteracy among the Rroma population was estimated at the beginning of the transition period, to 44% for men and 59% for women (“Rroma in an Expanding Europe. Breaking the Poverty Cycle”, A World Bank Study, 2003). Participation at kindergarten of the Rroma children of pre-school age (3-6 years) is much lower (17,2% - ICCV, 1998) than of the children at the same age for the total population of Romania (67% - the school year 1997-1998, Romanian Statistical Yearbook, 1999). 24,4% of Rroma children over 10 years do not attend school at all (Zamfir, Preda, “Rroma in Romania”, 2002). Only 20% of the Rroma children attend kindergarten, compared with 66.1% in the whole population of pre-school children (2000-2001). Only 50% of Rroma children go to school regularly and degree of illiteracy among individuals over 45 years reaches 30%; 80% of Rroma children are out of school, 23% of Rroma children can not read (“Rroma in an Expanding Europe. Breaking the Poverty Cycle”, A World Bank Study, 2003). Only 8.9% of Rroma have completed secondary education and only 0.3% higher education (“Rroma in an Expanding Europe. Breaking the Poverty Cycle”, World Bank Study, 2003). There are still reported several cases of Rroma children in segregated schools or classes, where the quality of education and the conditions of study are well below the minimum standard. With few exceptions, schools in Rroma neighborhoods are in a very bad state. Teachers are unqualified. The teaching materials are inadequate and the teachers are not interested in Rroma students. When we speak of segregation, we do not mean education in Rromani language, but schools or classes segregated on ethnic criteria, without this mean being justified by the study of the language. The Rroma children attending the school are confronted also with the discriminatory treatment exercised by the teachers and with the verbal abuse and not infrequently with physical violence, of the majority pupils, abuses which are not corrected by the teachers or school staff. The Rroma children are called “gypsies” and they are accused by their colleagues of being dirty or that would have lice or diseases. Sometimes this treatment is accompanied by physical 134 DELIA GRIGORE abuses from the teachers of other ethnicities, including the use of corporal punishment for minor violations of school discipline, such as talking in class. To understand the collective mental model inherited by the Rroma children and which is bearing on their individual consciousness, sometimes during their whole life blocking their access to themselves and to the culture to which they belong, it is more than needed an imaginary excursion on the territory of their vernacular culture and of the way in which this one, being in a constant process of ethno-genesis, which excludes the otherness, understood to build up the mentality against Rroma. Defining for the dominant culture in what regards the collective “imagination” of Rroma is the stereotype, in most of cases negative, bearing the sign of the scapegoat of the history and defining all the frustration and fears rejected by the consciously level of the society. Although the Rromani language, history and culture are taught in school, on the parents request, the mandatory school curriculum does not yet include information about Rroma, so that what prevails in the child education in Romania is only the unique model of reference imposed by the educational system of the Romanian society, which continues to circumscribe, autarchic and inflexible, the values of the majority. In this educational context, where the Rroma are ignored, the only information about Rroma which reach the children being the negative stereotypes biased and unilaterally provided by the mass-media and by the selfsufficient public opinion, it is natural that Rroma parents, having in their great majority an already low ethnic self-esteem, because of the social circumstances of reference, to strengthen and confirm this weak self-esteem through the contact with the school, which is alien for them and that they feel like a closed space, which does not understand them, despises and rejects them. Therefore, it is natural that the Rroma parents choose not to study Rromani language, history and culture in school, considering such subjects dependent on the majority collective spirit: “The Gypsy is not like man / As the osier is not like tree”, “The Gypsy is a Gypsy even on Easter Day”, “The Gypsy is human only from far away”, “When the Gypsy became king, his father first hanged”, “He drowned just like a Gypsy next to the shore”. This model of prejudiced thinking has been and is perpetuated also by the educational policies in Romania, even if not directly, through an explicit position of rejection of Rroma child, although often this occurs through distinctly racist attitude of certain authorities in education, including teachers, instead made permanent through a systematic destruction of ethnic identity, because of a mono-cultural educational model, ethno-centric, in which the school attitude towards the Rroma children is of “cultural assimilation”, considering that Rroma can be “civilized” only “if they become Romanians”. SCHOOL EDUCATION AND RROMA ETHNIC SELF-ESTEEM 135 The educational system of the Romanian school offers, as unique reference model, the values of the majority community. Given this cultural colonization policy, based on the criterion of the number and of the inflexible autarchic “prototype”, the majority holds all the power levers and representation institutions and the Rroma cultural model, under the pressure of the negative stigmatizing stereotypes, is perceived as deviant and it is recommend, by default, the acculturation. The Rromani language skills are often considered as unnecessary (“Why should he learn the Gypsy language at school, he knows it from home! At school to learn something useful, which can be used later! The Gypsy language, what to do with it?”3 “What need to speak Gypsy language? We do not know it and we're better off! We are not that kind of Gypsies!”4), or even dangerous to the status of the child in a non-Rroma school environment (“Why to learn Rromani at school? To get a Gypsy accent and to have his colleagues laughing at him? If I did not want to teach him Gypsy, I knew very well why!”5). If the school, as an authority recognized by the society, does not recognize and not include the Rromani culture, how could Rroma parents, already having a stigmatized identity and a low self-esteem, consider the study of Rromani culture important for their children? Even when trying to capitalize on Rroma culture, the school has often a stereotyped vision about the Rroma pupils, considering that their only significant contribution to the school culture could be the music and dance. Often, the school itself seems convinced that Rroma do not give importance to the education and this point of view is internalized by the Rroma themselves. Moreover, the school understands by the concept of education exclusively the school education, concept almost generalized in the Rroma collective mentality also: “So are our Gypsies, they have little education, they do not go to school. What education to receive in family? What, that one is education? ”. The result is, again, the decreasing of the self-esteem. There are several types of relationship between the Rroma child and school. The Rroma child, whose family lost the Rromanipen values and standards, in which family the Rromani language is not spoken, in other words he is coming from a culturally assimilated or acculturated family, is taught by his parents to hide his Rroma identity or even they tell him he is not a Rroma and at school he “discovers” that he is “Gypsy”, something negative, stigmatizing and painful, instant when his self-esteem goes down, he does not understand anything at all and his natural reaction is the denial of his ethnic 3 4 5 Silversmith Rroma woman, 39 years old, 8 years of schooling, Bucharest. Vatrash Rroma woman, 45 years old, Bucharest. Ursari Rroma man, 39 years old, 8 years of school, Bucharest. 136 DELIA GRIGORE identity: “No, I am not Gypsy, why do you insult me? What if I am a bit darker, does it mean that I am Gypsy?”6 The child starts to hate his straight-assigned identity, including his color, as a symbol of stigma (“Lord I would like to be whiter, what can be more beautiful!”7, “When I was little, I used to wash several times a day my face, to make myself whiter!”8, “When I was little, I used to drank a lot of milk to whiten myself! When I grew up, I discovered a cream which was said to whiten!”9, “I saw my sister sitting all day long at the river with her legs in the water and I asked her why sitting like that. She told me that this way she will whiten. From that day I started me too to stay there!”10 “When I was a kid, I was praying every night to whiten and the next day, I was asking my mother wondering if I've bleached. To please me, my mother was telling me that I have bleached a bit!”11) and, together with the ethnic self-esteem, that however he was not aware about, the individual self-esteem collapses also. What results is the destruction of self-confidence and together with it, the drastic reduction of the school performances. The child will direct all his efforts to demonstrate his membership in the ethnic majority, became a reference and will reject his ethnic origin / affiliation. However, as an apparent paradox of the dominance racism, dissociation of the collective self and the conversion to the major educational canon does not help very much to the “social integration” of the young Rroma, who remains a excluded. The Rroma ghetto child, with a poor family, however “used” to be perceived as citizen of marginal and deviant world, as belonging to a “parasite” social group, to a “criminal minority”, “used” with the raids and fingerprinting of his whole family, with the forced evictions, expulsions and demolition of the houses, however in state of absolute poverty, far from being immune to the stigma, begins to project his future like irreversible negative, result of an implacable destiny, of an ancestral curse or of the “original sin” of being Rroma. The attitudinal cleavages get worse in school, space of “ethnic cleansing” that, on one hand, “longs for the cultural and linguistic soul” of the child, as Gellner would say and on the other hand, ultimately stigmatizes, imprisoning the ego in an auto-realizing prediction, coming from the negative perception of the school majority authority. Even when attempting to forget his identity and to become “Romanian” as much as possible (“I was ashamed to say that we are Gypsies, as colleagues laughed at me!” 12 , “If I would have been whiter, I 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Fiddler Rroma child, 12 years old, Bucharest. Rromungro child, 10 years old, Cluj-Napoca (Cluj County). Wood-carver Rroma man, 36 years old, 8 years of school, Babeni (Vâlcea County). Ursari Rroma woman, 28 years old, graduated for higher studies, Bucharest. Vatrash Rroma man, 53 years old, graduated from high school, Gagesti (Vrancea County). Vatrash Rroma man, 30 years old, graduate, Bucharest. Silversmith Rroma girl, 22 years old, student, Bucharest. SCHOOL EDUCATION AND RROMA ETHNIC SELF-ESTEEM 137 wouldn’t have said that I am Gypsy!”13), the abandon of the ethnicity is not rewarded with a real inclusion, he continues to be “the Gypsy”, who must be placed on the last bank to not “bother the class”, who has no education, who comes from a bad family. The Rroma child issued from a family that respects, at least partly, the values and standards of the Rromanipen, speaking Rromani, who knows and assumes his ethnic identity, once attending the majority school, sees how his entire system of values and standards of family education is overturned, being identified by the school authority with a space of sub-culture. Alienated from his own representations of the world and life, the Rroma child feels, though often not on a conscious level, but in the depths of his subconscious, like a prisoner of a deforming institution, where he can not recognize himself and which, instead of protecting him, rejects him and cheats his so fragile horizon waiting. Thus, an irreversibly existential slippage occurs, a break between the projection of the individual self – resulted from the originally self-image, produced by the culture of origin and the reception as deviant of this projection by the school community – produced from the stigmatizing stereotype with which is perceived the axiological system of the Rroma spirituality. Because it does not promote the model inter-cultural of education and the respect for cultural difference, the school becomes a traumatic element for this child. The results can be: the collapse of the ethnic and individual self-esteem, with all related consequences, including the decreased school performance, dualism home – Rroma, school – Romanian, therefore the hiding of the ethnic identity (“I am white and nice, why do they say that I am Gypsy?” 14 ), the consequence being the formation of a schizoid personality, diffuse, with difficulties of communication and adaptation; the reject of the ethnic identity and the acculturation effort (“I didn’t want to be Gypsy no more, I was sick of that! And since then I never was again!”15), the effect being the quartering in a fictional ego and the dissolution authentic ego, leading to existential and deviant slippages of attitude and behavior; final rejection of the school culture, as traumatic and its consequence being the school abandon (“I didn’t go again to school, they were looking nasty at me and cursing me, they were calling me pauper and did not want to stay in the same bank with me, they were saying I’m dirty, but you have my word I wasn’t, as mother, from all her poverty, was putting on me clean clothes, although they were sewn, but they were clean!”16, “I gave a damn school, so bad I was there! But now I'm sorry I wasn’t stronger! At that time I was a kid and I didn’t like the school of Romanians: they were calling me Gypsy girl, they were mocking on me, they were asking me if I live 13 14 15 16 Ursari Rroma girl, 20 years old, student, Alexandria. Silversmith Rroma child, 11 years old, Bucharest. Vatrash Rroma man, 35 years old, graduated from high school, Cluj-Napoca (Cluj County). Ursari Rroma man, 32 years old, 3 years of school, Buzau (Buzău County). 138 DELIA GRIGORE in a tent or in a palace! I think that they were rather envying me, because my folks had some cash!”17). The rupture from the Rroma collective self, due to the internalization of the stigma and thereby, to the inferiority of the ethnic membership, is leading to the trauma of the individual ego, to a deep state of disociability and to an inevitable existential failure, especially at an age when patterns are established and ways to solve the inherent conflict with the world are looked for. Losing the spiritual ideal of his individual and collective / ethnic personality, the Rroma child gets to deny himself, to convert into an euphemism his ethnicity, until its complete rejection, the only alternative to accede to a higher status being his naturalization or his individual social mobility, the individual salvation through acculturation, cultural assimilation, abandonment of the Rromanipen (Rromani traditional law), therefore the dissolution of his own identity. The stigmatization of the Rroma identity, especially due to a mono-cultural formal education and to the lack of institutions for training and representation of the Rroma cultural model, is amplified also through the routine use by the media of a racially prejudiced and stereotypical language that cultivate and enhance the attitudes and discriminatory behavior of the wide audience. Often, the Rroma parents identify the difficult economic situation as main cause for the lack of participation of their children to school education: “The Romanian think we are dirty, thieves, that we do not like the work, as we do not like the school! But it’s not like this, we would work, but we don’t have where! Our children don’t have what to put on, what to shoehorn, that's why they don’t go to school, not because they don’t want! That they could be also dry wood be among us, as everywhere, but we are not all like that!”18 Most times, the school education is identified with the increase of the social status, but also with the loss of ethnic identity: “Vasile’s son learned by the book, his father wanted to make him a great man. He didn’t even speak Gypsy language with him, to not give him the accent, so the Romanians couldn’t laugh on it! Now he’s living in the city, he has a house, he took a Romanian woman and now they have big children! He's no more a Gypsy! He has money! I think he's making a big deal, as not coming in here at all!”19; “I'm not talking Gypsy, I don't have anything to do with the Gypsy, I learned by book, I have a job, I have house, I have everything I need, I let the Gypsy back, I do not deal with it anymore!”20; “Good thing I learned by book, that I escaped from Gypsies and poverty!”21. 17 18 19 20 21 Flowerist Rroma woman, 28 years old, 4 years of school, Bucharest. Coppersmith Rroma man, 29 years old, 3 years of school, Sarulesti (Călăraşi County). Tinsmith Rroma man, 45 years old, 6 years of school, Caracal (Olt County). Vatrash Rroma man, 43 years old, graduated from high school, Alexandria (Teleorman County). Vatrash Rroma woman, 39 years old, graduated for higher studies, Iasi (Iaşi County). SCHOOL EDUCATION AND RROMA ETHNIC SELF-ESTEEM 139 Along with the aspiration for raising the educational level, also the individual and community self-esteem is growing (“Our boys are smart guys, I sent them to college, we support them to learn!”22; “We changed us also, we are no more so backward: we give children to learn the book, to not remain stupid as we were! In our time, it was like that, but now the times have changed: we also have other claims!”23), but often the ethnic self-esteem remains low (“Yes, I want him to go to school, but what to learn with a Gypsy teacher, what, he’s not good enough for a Romanian teacher?”24; “Look, if she's Romanian, she sends her children to school, she does not want them to remain stupid!” 25 ; “What to learn from a Gypsy teacher, 'cause he’s Gypsy like him, he learns better from a Romanian teacher!”26). To the distrust in the ability of a Rroma to be a good teacher, the distrust in the school is opposed, perceived as an alien institution, even dangerous, able to irrevocably remove the child from the standards and values of the Rromani culture, among them especially the purity: "What's to learn at the school, to become Romanian, forgetting from where he’s coming?”27, “I don’t let him go to school, as he grabs nonsense!”28, “I don’t let her to school because she’ll learn bad thing from the Romanian girls! To us, the girls are serious!”29. In the opposite direction of “their” school is acting “our” school on the self-esteem of the Rroma parents and children: if the Romanian school can increase the individual and community self-esteem of the Rroma family and child, but in most cases it lowers their ethnic self-esteem, the school founded on the Rromani language and culture increases the ethnic self-esteem of the Rroma family and child. Here are some significant examples: two groups of bilingual kindergarten (Rromani and Romanian languages), from Sarulesti (Calarasi County) and Ciurea (Iasi County) and the primary school with teaching in the Rromani language in Magura (Timis County). The Rroma parents are proud of their children kindergarten and of the fact that it is operating in the Rromani language: “I am delighted that our children have their kindergarten, where they speak our language, because at the other one they were not going, because they were understanding nothing from what was spoken!”30, “It’s well that they have kindergarten, to learn something too, 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Ursari Rroma man, 45 years old, graduated from high school, Toflea (Galaţi County). Coppersmith Rroma woman, 27 years old, no school, Ciurea (Iaşi County). Wood-carver Rroma man, 35 years old, 6 years of school, Ghimpati (Giurgiu County). Ursari Rroma woman, 43 years old, 7 years of school, Braila (Brăila County). Flowerist Rroma woman, 35 years old, 8 years of school, Bucharest. Coppersmith Rroma man, 28 years old, no school, Sarulesti (Călăraşi County). Coppersmith Rroma man, 30 years old, 4 years of school, Ciurea (Iaşi County). Gabor Rroma man, 29 years old, 4 years of school, Tg. Mures (Mureş County). Coppersmith Rroma woman, 28 years old, no school, Ciurea (Iaşi County). 140 DELIA GRIGORE to not remain stupid as we were! And it's even better to be on Gypsy, because it’s easier to understand!”31. Although there is still a slight inferiority complex compared to the majority culture, manifested by the fact that it is expected and desired the confirmation from non-Rroma as, for example, Rromani is worthy of tuition (“Our director is Romanian and said it would be possible to teach all subjects in the Rromani language. If he, as a Romanian, thinks so, then it must be true!”32), however, the ethnic self-esteem of the Rroma parents and children from a school with teaching in Rromani language is greatly increased, compared with the ethnic self-esteem of the Rroma parents and children from a school with teaching in Romanian: “The parents have ask to make the teaching in the Rromani language! Now they are proud of that!”33; “We are pleased with our school: they have good teachers, the children understand each other, they're at school or in the community together, they have good results, they are learning in Gypsy, as the Hungarians learn in Hungarian, that we're not more stupid than them!”34; “Now we come to school, before we hardly came, because it was hard and we were not understanding what the teacher was saying! (...) We love our school: it’s easier, because we learn in our language, we play as we know, we knew our lady teacher from before! (...) If it will be dissolved, we shall not come to school and elsewhere we do not like!”35 Moreover, even in the schools where the Rromani language, history and culture are taught, the ethnic self-esteem is increasing (“We are proud to be Rroma. To us the Rromani language is taught, we have a good teacher!”36) or has the prerequisites to grow (“We registered our child to Rromani language too, because we are Gypsies after all. I hope it will be good!”37). Even if, at the beginning, they are considered only as an opportunity to get access to a better school (“We started too to declare us Gypsies, now that there are those places in high schools, because before we were quite ashamed!”38), the affirmative measures are also an incentive to increase the self-esteem (“My son too attended a good high school, because of the places for Rroma, I want him to keep on learning, to have what to be proud of as Rroma !”39). The ethnic self-esteem of Rroma can increase by the extension of the Romany language learning, of the Roma history and culture, in school, 31 Coppersmith Rroma woman, 25 years old, no school, Sarulesti (Călăraşi County). Ursari Rroma woman, 28 years old, graduated for higher studies, institutor, Maguri (Timiş County). 33 Ursari Rroma woman, 20 years old, graduated for pedagogy high school, student, Maguri (Timiş County). 34 Ursari Rroma woman, 30 years old, 8 years of school, Maguri (Timiş County). 35 Ursari Rroma child, 10 years old, Maguri (Timiş County). 36 Silversmith Rroma child, 15 years old, School No. 136, Bucharest. 37 Flowerist Rroma woman, 26 years old, 8 years of schooling, Bucharest. 38 Vatrash Rroma man, 49 years old, graduated from high schooling Bucharest. 39 Silversmith Rroma man, 44 years old, 10 years of school, Bucharest. 32 SCHOOL EDUCATION AND RROMA ETHNIC SELF-ESTEEM 141 including, where the conditions permit (Rroma communities native speaker of Romany language, the favorable option of the Rroma parents, qualified Roma teachers, textbooks in Romany language and so on), by a bilingual education or even monolingual in Romany language. The culture, as aggregate of values, knowledge, standards, beliefs and practices shared between the members of a group during their social life, including, at subconscious level, a horizon of expectations referring the thoughts, feelings / emotions and action, it is one of the most important factors which must be kept under observation when we are inter-acting, when we refer the social issues and look for solutions in solving the difficult situation in the society. The culturally marginalized groups, for instance the stigmatized ethnic or national minorities, like the Rroma minority, have been excluded by the dominant culture from the standardization of the values; that is why this last one is the one which would have to involve itself in the identity reconstruction of the minorities, including the positivity of the cultural diversity and of the values of the minority identities. Cross-cultural communication is leading to the approaching of the individual from the collectivity which he belongs, considering it as crucial for the social conditioning. In a pluralist society, it is essential to be taken into account that the cultural membership has a fundamental role in the development of the individual, starting with the first steps from childhood. The multi-cultural societies are realities of the contemporary world, when people belonging to different ethnic, religious, professional, age and so on groups are establishing aleatory contacts when the practical circumstances of the co-existence impose them. Different socio-cultural groups are living in a common physical / geographical space, without an explicit intention to communicate, cooperate or set up a values change. But the cultural pluralism does not exclude the existence o a common set of values, standards and principles, which are the basement of the civic identity in the respective physic-social space. In multi-cultural context, the involved groups are developing a mutual acceptance of passive kind, by which many cultures are living together in the same space / environment, without conflicts, bat without either developing permanent and consistent relationship. If the multi-culturality / multi-culturalism is therefore representing the peaceful co-existence of many cultures, the inter-culturality / inter-culturalism is the dialogue and change between at least two strong cultures, equally represented in the society, involving the knowledge, the understanding, the assuming, the appreciation, the capitalization and the promotion of the other’s culture, based on its knowledge and understanding in what it has deep and genuine. The relation with the other’s culture in an inter-cultural society is established by a cultural policy which has as aim, consciously and programmatically, the building up, at level of groups and individuals, of a need 142 DELIA GRIGORE to know the otherness and develops, in all formative contexts of the society, a strong and permanently updated information about the other’s identity. The inter-culturality is a process produced at the crossing between two cultures, not being an aim itself, but an instrument de for cooperation and cultural exchange, a method to settle up bridges for dialogue in the mutual understanding, but which can reach it aim only when they are identified and corrected the unnatural transformations of baneful behaviors at the level of intersection of the cultures and when the two or more cultures have an equivalent social representation in the environment of interference and institutions for identity representation and training similar in value and interest degree for the society. In a situation contrary to the equality between the cultures which are entering in dialogue or produce the inter-cultural change, therefore in the context where we have a dominant majority culture, vernacular, creating standards, considered higher by seniority, stretch or intensity, which controls the levers of power and positive social representation, which has preponderance in the school education and the continuous training of the members of the society and a dominant minority culture, marked by the negative stereotype and by the internalized stigma, considered alien by difference and inferior by the position in the territory of the sub-culture or at least tolerate, never respected, we can not talk about inter-culturality with real and deep meaning of the word. In this respect, at ideal level, the construction of an inter-cultural society supposes, first of all, the re-construction of the stigmatized identities of the marginalized ethnic groups and the equality of chances for the positive social representation of the minorities and the majority, by the full presence of the minority ethno-cultures in the school education, at all levels and through the establishment of a strong institutional basement for promoting, preserving and developing the ethnic identities (cultural centers, museums, schools with teaching in the languages of the ethnic minorities, university departments specialized in the culture and history of the ethnic minorities and so on). If such conditions are not fulfilled, the place of the inter-culturality is taken by an uneven and inequitable dialogue, in which the majority culture does not respect and understand, but only at most tolerates the minority culture, especially in its stereotype-positive and spectacular aspects, without reaching the basics of the ethnic identity. What is happening is a subtle acculturation process, under the mask of the fake inter-cultural dialogue, the minority culture being taken over inside the majority culture, where it loses its standards and values, remaining only with the perfunctory elements, easy to understand and assimilate by the otherness too neglectful to identity details and subtleties. Another concept is connected to inter-culturality and multi-culturalism – the trans-culturality. The trans-cultural values are the values able to be transferred from a culture into another one, by mutual adjustments, but without losing its original basement of vision. The trans-culturality supposes the transfer of SCHOOL EDUCATION AND RROMA ETHNIC SELF-ESTEEM 143 values and standards from a culture to another, by mutual acceptance of both cultures. The result is a third culture. In the context of the explosive exchanges of information and intensive cultural interferences in the global state, the majority of world societies are developing this third culture produced from the reunion, overlapping and interweaving of two or more ethnic identities in a common expression and representation frame. Some of the values of one culture are vanishing under the normative pressure of another and some others are capitalized by the other’s standards. A mutual translation is produced for practices, standards and values, the result being a new identity, composite, often beneficial, because it generally preserves those practices, standards and values valid and available for the adjustments to the frontier environment. One conclusion would be that low self-esteem of the family, which is directly reflected on the self-esteem of the child too, is leading to the decrease of the participation and school performances and an increased self-esteem of the family, also with direct consequences on the self-esteem of the child, is leading to the increase of the participation and school performances. Another conclusion could be that the studies level is increasing the individual self-esteem and eventually, the group’s one, but generally it doesn’t increase the ethnic self-esteem. This last one is increasing under the circumstances in which the school education is based also on the values of the Rromani language and culture. This supposes a process of mutual learning, enrichment, mutual respect and equal representation of the majority and minority identities, being the perfect instrument for achieving an inclusive school, based on the integration and harmonization of the cultures. Each pupil learns the culture of the other, the pupils are learning to know and respect each other, learns the basics of the interculturality: the cultures are equal and have the right of warrantee for an equivalent symbolic capital in society. There becomes fundamental the presentation, cultivation, affirmation and promotion, in all segments of the education – formal, non-formal and informal –, also of differences, as well as similarities between the ethnic groups, in order to build up the dialogue and the value exchange, the mutual knowledge and understanding, the cooperation and improvement of all kinds of relations developed in society – professional or individual. An educational policy of the promotion of the difference is based on a school curriculum, culturally de-colonized, on the development of abilities for the otherness perception in all the learning branches: to be, to know and to do. Such a perspective in the school education supposes the personalization of the knowledge, the adjustment of the universality to the local values and standards, the deep and plenary capitalization of the experiences of each pupil in his recognized and capitalized quality as member of an ethnic group. The practice of the daily life of each pupil inside his ethnic group becomes a basic element in 144 DELIA GRIGORE the formative methodology, in this way the education answering directly and actively to the individual cultural needs of the pupil, adjusting them to the cultural memory with which he is endowed by his membership to a certain group identity. From Rroma perspective, the education for diversity in the school environment has at least some methodological interpretations. It represents the inclusion of the inter-culturality in the basic and continuous training of teachers, including information about the Romany language, history and culture, but also it is the inclusion of the history, culture and elements of Romany language in the mandatory school curriculum, which means the common trunk of the formal education for all pupils. Besides, it also means the inter-cultural approach of the teaching and learning, as well as of the relationship between the Rroma pupils and their parents. There is needed a permanent concern of the teacher to include, in all school specialties, the otherness and cultural diversity at every level of work with the pupil: exemplification, experiment, communication, inter-action and cooperation. Here there are some samples of inter-cultural approach for different school specialties: in history – the inclusion of Rroma history and culture, as well as elements of Romany language, in the mandatory curriculum; in literature – the inclusion of certain samples of literary works of Roma authors; in geography – the presentation of the Rroma migration and of the non-territorial nations, Rroma among them; in civic education – the approach of the issues of cultural diversity in society, of the inter-ethnic stereotypes, of the social representation and prejudices linked to Rroma people, of the discrimination and of the ways to prevent it and fight against it; in biology – the achievement of certain processes to compare the biologic diversity and the cultural one; in chemistry – the presentation of the similarities and differences in the mixture process of the chemical substances and the processes of cultural interferences and inter-cultural exchange. Very concerning is the fact that, even if champion of the standardization of the diversity and inter-culturality in school education, by the two adopted Orders [the Order No. 1529/18.07.2007, regarding the development of the issues of the diversity in the national curriculum and the Order No. 3774/ 24.04.2008, regarding the approval of the school curriculum for the optional specialty “Inter-cultural education” (curriculum at the school decision, for gymnasium education) and of the review school curriculum for the optional specialty “The human rights” (curriculum at the school decision, for high school), the Ministry of Education does not seem to have done almost anything for their implementation, their provisions remaining only at level of simple declaration of intentions. Too much neutral for considering the individual needs and the specific interests of each pupil, too much distant and too much standardized to be SCHOOL EDUCATION AND RROMA ETHNIC SELF-ESTEEM 145 concerned by the identification of the emotional and cultural context supposed by the development of each pupil, directed almost exclusively towards the technical instruction of the pupils, by the delivery of information apparently not connected to the cultural context, the school not only is unable to know and understand in depth the pupils’ soul, therefore it is confronted to a failure of trust and communication in relation with them, but it is also far away of being neutral from cultural point of view, imposing in fact the educational model of the majority national culture, without succeeding to include the identity of the minority otherness, the respect for diversity and otherness and to achieve the so desired inter-cultural dialogue. The main source of the malfunctions in communication and understanding between school and the Rroma pupil is the lack of knowledge, at school level, of the realities in the Rroma community, of standards and values observed inside it. To the extent that the school aims on becoming an inclusive environment, open to the ethnic diversity and not only, it has the duty to identify the problems of cultural communication in the relationship with the Rroma pupil and his parents, mainly with those issued from a traditional community, speaker of Romany language and keeper of the values and standards of the Rromanipen (the law of the traditional Rroma culture / rromani dharma). Also, it must identify the most important sources of the malfunctions in the mutual communication and understanding and build up a coherent and comprehensive strategy for improving the relationship with the Rroma pupils and parents, by dialogue and permanent cultural exchange. The school has the duty to know, to understand and to respect the family of the Rroma child, for creating him the feeling that everything he will learn is according the standards and values promoted in his family, not at all in opposition with it. At his turn, the teacher must be also known, including also by disclosing the most important elements of the personal identity, by the Rroma family, for constructing the trust of the parents in the one who is training their child, becoming in this way a second parent for him. The school must permanently ask the parents’ advice, mainly from the Rroma mothers, their statute being strengthened by mutual visits and by the active involvement in some activities in school. There are standards and interdictions which must be known and observed by the teacher, who will achieve in this way the respect and the trust of the Rroma family. For being able to deeply and efficiently communicate with the Roma pupil, the school institution has the obligation to know him, including also to know, as close as possible, the culture to which he belongs. The urgent necessary demarche is to come closer to otherness, to discover and know it and to experimentally occupy a proper place in the space of its culture, in order to identify the nuances from inside. In this respect, the teachers must be informed 146 DELIA GRIGORE regarding the Rroma history and culture and to know also some elements of Romany language. Therefore, the inclusion of Rromani culture in school education is the optimal solution for building up the self-esteem of Rroma children and the most important way towards an inclusive school community, where the Roma children could feel like and consider themselves as parts of a multi-ethnic collectivity, in which every culture discovers itself in what is essentially common and essentially different. RECENZII • COMPTES RENDUS • REVIEWS Cătălina Iliescu Gheorghiu (ed.), Duplicidad comunicativa y complicidad creadora en la traducción del teatro = Duplicitat comunicativa i complicitat creadora en la traducció del teatre. Dos extremos de latinidad: continuidad cultural y contigüidad lingüística entre el rumano y el catalán = Dos extrems de llatinitat: continuïtat cultural i contigüitat lingüística entre el romanés I el catalá, Traducción y revisión de los artículos originales en rumano, francés y catalán: Cătălina Iliescu, Delia Prodan, Dalila Niño y Natalia Sanmartín, Universidad de Alicante / Universitat d’Alacant, Alicante, 2005, 218 pp. La importancia del libro coordinado por Cătălina Iliescu Gheorghiu, profesora titular en el Departamento de Traducción e Interpretación de la Universidad de Alicante, consiste en que recoge las experiencias del proyecto Dos extremos de Latinidad: continuidad cultural y contigüidad lingüística entre el rumano y el catalán. Este proyecto de intercambio teatral y cultural rumano-catalán se inició con el convenio firmado entre la Universidad de Alicante (UA) y la Unión Teatral de Rumanía (UNITER) el mes de abril de 2003, con el fin de realizar en común actividades que llevaran a un acercamiento cultural entre los dos países. Las actividades desarrolladas incluyeron la selección de textos dramáticos, la traducción y adaptación de tales textos, clases de rumano y de catalán, montaje y estrenos de dos piezas de teatro, una rumana y otra catalana. Según la nota de prensa publicada en la página web de la UA el 10 de mayo de 2005, el volumen fue presentado el 6 de mayo del mismo año, a las 14 horas, en la Sala Aifos de la Universidad de Alicante. La presentación corrió a cargo del entonces Vicerrector de Extensión Universitaria de la Universidad de Alicante (UA) Jesús Pradells, del catedrático de Literatura Española José Carlos Rovira y de la profesora Cătălina Iliescu Gheorghiu. La misma nota expone los antecedentes de la publicación del presente volumen, en el que han sido plasmadas las experiencias del proyecto arriba mencionado: la preparación en rumano por el Teatro Universitario de la obra Minim.mal Show de Sergi Belbel y Miquel Górriz, representada en el Festival Nacional de Teatro, y la interpretación en catalán por la compañía rumana Succes, de la Universitatea Naţională de Artă Teatrală şi Cinematografică de Bucarest (UNATC), de la obra Paparazzi o crónica de un amanecer abortado de Matei Vişniec, cuyo estreno oficial tuvo lugar el mes de noviembre del mismo año en el Paraninfo de la Universidad de Alicante. El espectáculo fue presentado además en otras dos localidades alicantinas, Benissa y Cocentaina, y también participó en el Festival Nacional de Teatro de Palma de Mallorca. En Rumanía, ambos espectáculos, esta vez en lengua rumana, fueron presentados en coupe en el Teatro “Mihai Eminescu” de Botoşani, “Vasile Alecsandri” de Iaşi y en el Teatro de Comedia de Bucarest, en el marco del Festival Nacional de Teatro “I. L. Caragiale”. El libro comienza con el Prólogo firmado por José Carlos Rovira Soler, el Apunte periodístico por Ezequiel Moltó, periodista del diario El País, que es una versión revisada del artículo publicado por este cotidiano el 5 de mayo de 2003 y la Introducción escrita por la editora, Cătălina Iliescu Gheorghiu. Siguen seis capítulos, los primeros cinco incluyendo estudios de lingüística románica, lingüística y fonética contrastivas, teoría de la traducción, crítica teatral, 148 RECENZII • COMPTES RENDUS • REVIEWS estudios literarios, semiótica y semiología y el último la versión bilingüe de las dos piezas de teatro, Paparazzi, de Matei Vişniec, traducida al catalán por los alumnos del Màster Universitari en Traducció General i Específica i Correcció de Textos (Català – Españyol –Anglés) de la Universidad de Alicante: Cristina Yuste, María Botella, María Antonia Plá y Juan Antonio Brotóns, con una revisión realizada por Vicent Martines, y Minim.mal Show de Sergi Belbel y Miquel Górriz, traducida por Cătălina Iliescu y Delia Prodan. La Introducción firmada por la editora del libro, Cătălina Iliescu Gheorghiu, desvela su propósito de presentar a través del libro el proyecto apoyado en tres ejes: la latinidad de los dos idiomas, el discurso dramático como medio de comunicación más antiguo y la interculturalidad sustentada sobretodo durante nuestra época a través de los movimientos migratorios, entre los cuales destaca el contacto cada vez más amplio entre los inmigrantes rumanos con el espacio socio-cultural ibérico. También expone las diversas etapas del proyecto, cuyo transcurso cronológico se estructura el orden de los estudios presentes en los varios capítulos del libro, siendo notable su esfuerzo por aproximar a las dos culturas, de hacerlas comunicar desde planos iguales y su intención de construir una perfecta simetría del presente volumen dedicado al intercambio cultural. El primer capítulo, La génesis de un experimento hermenéutico multilingüe y de diálogo entre culturas, consta de dos partes. La primera es la intervención de Ion Caramitru, Presidente de UNITER desde el año 1990, Ministro de Cultura 1996-2000, anteriormente actor y director del Teatro “L. S. Bulandra” de Bucarest y actualmente Director del Teatro Nacional de Bucarest, Descripción del experimento, quien apoya tal intercambio teatral cuyo punto de partida se ve desde luego sustentado en el filón del parentesco cultural y temperamental, y sobre todo en las modalidades de expresión autoral y en los símbolos teatrales y el subtexto que completan y a veces suplen la palabra, en la oportunidad del contacto directo que es justo en lo que el arte dramático se fundamenta. La segunda parte es un estudio de lingüística contrastiva, La latinidad como denominador común. El catalán y el rumano: dos lenguas románicas confrontadas, escrito por Sanda Reinheimer-Rîpeanu, catedrática de Lingüística Románica la Universidad de Bucarest. Al detallado discurso lingüístico diacrónico y sincrónico, hecho con suma profesionalidad y proporcionando datos estadísticos interesantes relacionados con el nivel fonético, morfosintáctico y léxico de los dos idiomas nacidas a las periferias de la antigua Romania, añade y desarrolla la autora el tema etnolingüístico, que presenta pruebas de una misma mentalidad en relación con varios elementos de la realidad, y al que se le debe el aumento del sentimiento de que nos encontramos en un mismo mundo. El segundo capítulo, Estado de la cuestión y selección de textos dramáticos, así como advierte su título también se compone de dos partes: la primera, motivando la puesta en diálogo de una pieza rumana trece años después de la caída de la dictadura y otra catalana creada en 1987, a los doce años de la caída de la dictadura de Franco, presenta simétricamente la historia posrevolucionaria del teatro rumano desde la crítica teatral y la del teatro catalán postfranquista desde la perspectiva literaria, a través de los artículos El teatro rumano hoy por Andrea Dumitru, crítico teatral y secretaria literaria en el Teatro “Nottara” de Bucarest y El teatro catalán hoy por Natasha Leal Rivas, profesora de la Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, mientras que la segunda parte da cuenta de las razones que llevaron a la selección de los textos dramáticos, a través de la intervención de la editora, Cătălina Iliescu Gheorghiu, Los “Paparazzi” de Matei Vişniec o a propósito del absurdo y la de Irene Sadowska, crítico de teatro de la AICT (Asociación Internacional de Críticos de Teatro), Presidenta de Hispanité Explorations, El “Minim.mal Show” de Belbel y Górriz o hablando de la incomunicación. La lectura del ensayo crítico e histórico hecho por Andrea Dumitru proporciona el placer de rememorar los momentos clave de la vida social y cultural de la Rumanía post-comunista. Inmediatamente después de 1989, el teatro rumano ha gozado de una explosión de simpatía dirigida hacia el espacio de la Europa del Este, la salida del ghetto, en las palabras del crítico Mihai Popescu, del teatro rumano supuso la libre circulación de los artistas y varios programas de RECENZII • COMPTES RENDUS • REVIEWS 149 intercambio entre el teatro rumano y el americano, francés e inglés. Le printemps de la liberté fue la primera gira de artistas franceses de élite por los escenarios e Rumanía, los dramaturgos, especialmente británicos, escriben piezas inspiradas en los acontecimientos sufridos por la sociedad rumana: El bosque loco de Caryl Churchill, With love from Nicolae de Lin Coghlan. En 1990, el director Richard Eyre, director del Teatro Nacional de Londres, organiza la primera gira por el Reino Unido de Hamlet, cuyo estreno había tenido lugar en el año 1985, del Teatro “Lucia Sturza Bulandra”, montado por Alexandru Tocilescu, con Ion Caramitru intérprete del papel principal. La autora recurre a las figuras ejemplares de la atmósfera posrevolucionaria, con los espectáculos de Andrei Şerban, Una trilogía antigua, la versión más dramática de su éxito mundial realizado anteriormente en 1975 en el Teatro La Mama de Nueva York, y su puesta en escena de Edipo de George Enescu en 1995 en la Opera Nacional de Bucarest, la Antigona montada por Alexandru Tocilescu, Han puesto esposas a las flores… de Fernando Arrabal montada por Alexandru Hausvater en 1991, impulsando el teatro ambiental y el teatro de crudeza, la pieza Las Danaidas montada por Silviu Purcărete en Bucarest en el año 1995 y en el siguiente en Aviñón - la Carrière de Boulbon, verdadero espectáculo coral, impresionante por su imagística. Paso a paso la euforia y el éxtasis se vuelven en agonía, a la vez con la caída en desuso del teatro de repertorio surge una dramaturgia original en medio de la crisis de la identidad cultural, en base a una ruptura drástica entre generaciones, un teatro poético cuyo imperativo es reflejar la realidad violenta de la actualidad, promovido por la generación 2000, una generación que se auto-genera, según cita la autora a Mihai Măniuţiu, sin que las anteriores puedan constituir un modelo para ella. En este contexto, el proyecto dramAcum – un concurso de dramaturgia dirigido a los jóvenes significó la salida del teatro de los espacios convencionales y la proliferación de los espacios underground en clubes y cafés, la experimentación de tipo grotowskiano y el performance, ambiente en el que el Vişniec redescubierto, ya reivindicado por la cultura francesa, viene a constituir el emblema del teatro europeo post-absurdo, el teatro-manifiesto, propulsado por la vuelta al texto y al teatro de acción del ámbito dramático anglo-sajón. Concluye la autora que se ha vuelto a escribir apasionadamente para el escenario no para el cajón, con un lenguaje brutal, directo, cotidiano, apto para reflejar un mundo fragmentado, carente de sentido, desestructurado. La nueva espectaculogía destaca por su dimensión visual, fruto de una imaginación en ebullición, a través de expresividad corporal o recurriendo a las técnicas multimedia. El capítulo tercero, Teatro y traducción. El largo camino del texto origen hacia el escenario término, cuenta con un nuevo estudio de la editora, Cătălina Iliescu Gheorghiu, El doble código del género dramático: ¿lector origen y espectador término?, que aborda las contradicciones y las particularidades del proceso comunicativo teatral frente a otros tipos de comunicación y también con una verdadera poética de la traducción de textos dramáticos en el ensayo hecho por Delia-Ionela Prodan, Dificultades de traducción inherentes al género dramático. En la visión de la última, la ventaja del traductor de teatro reside en que su material no es monolítico, la hibridación siendo su palabra de orden. El polimorfismo mismo del teatro, dentro del cual se borran las fronteras entre géneros – lírico, dramático, narrativo – y también entre formas de manifestación artística – plástica, musical, coreográfica y escenográfica –, lo convierte en un receptáculo generoso donde pueden encontrar su voz tanto el yo como el otro, lo familiar como lo extraño, lo visible y lo invisible. En su intervención dentro del presente capítulo, Cătălina Iliescu Gheorghiu hace una síntesis crítica de los numerosos estudios que abordan el teatro en sí como un fenómeno traductivo, aún faltando la intervención del cambio interlingüístico, basado en la transcodificación inherente al género. Siguiendo a autores como Paviso Poyatos la autora explica que al igual que el traductor, el director teatral “traduce” su propia evaluación de las intenciones del autor y su respuesta toma la forma de un acto comunicativo semiótico complejo, cuyo marco es más amplio que el lingüístico discursivo, puesto que incluye, además del lenguaje verbal, elementos no verbales, de kinésica, proxémica, deixis, iluminación, danza, lenguaje icónico y musical. Aún más, cuando se trata de dramaturgos bilingües, como es el caso de Matei Vişniec, la autora cita a 150 RECENZII • COMPTES RENDUS • REVIEWS Gaddis Rose quien señala que el trabajo del director no se limita sólo a la comparación del texto traducido con el original sino también con la otra lengua del dramaturgo, ya que podría tratarse de lo que llama “ur-text”, un constructo con interferencias y dislocaciones lingüísticas utilizadas deliberadamente por el autor de la pieza. Como los traductores facilitaron la interacción de los dos equipos participantes en el experimento, hallándose en el cruce comunicativo entre los actantes, concluye la autora que el proyecto ha proporcionado evidencias con respeto al papel del traductor en la cadena comunicativa, mientras que la traducción propiamente dicha rebasa sus límites de proceso de traslación cultural y lingüística de las obras, adquiriendo un componente sociocomunicativo y relacional, el producto teatral final siendo el resultado de un doble proceso de traducción: la lingüístico-cultural y la hermenéutica contenida en la propuesta escénica del director. El capítulo cuarto, El proceso de translación escénica, se ocupa del desarrollo propiamente dicho del proyecto, las dificultades del montaje con un mínimo atrezzo, las estrategias empleadas en la preparación lingüística previa de los actores y se compone de cuatro intervenciones, nuevamente divididas en dos partes en virtud de la misma simetría que rige el libro entero. Las primeras dos fueron escritas por los directores teatrales mismos, recogiendo sus experiencias durante su trabajo artístico en frente del escenario a lo largo del montaje de las obras dramáticas: Transformaciones del texto dramático impuestas por condicionantes externos, por Bodgan Cioabă, director teatral del Teatro “Al. Davila” de Ploieşti y La semiotica teatral de “Minim.mal Show”: estimulos visuales y auditivos por Juanluís Mira Candel, escritor, autor de numerosas obras dramáticas, profesor de literatura española, director de teatro e impulsor del Aula de Teatro de la Universidad de Alicante. Las dos restantes se refieren al trabajo profesoral detrás del escenario, “tras los bastidores”, el de la preparación lingüística de los actores según las exigencias de las obras: Clases de lengua catalana e inmersión cultural de los actores rumanos por Joan Llinas, profesor de lengua catalana en la Universidad de Bucarest y Aspectos prosódicos contrastivos y su repercusión en la traducción y representación de los diálogos de “Minim.mal Show” en rumano por Cătălina Iliescu Gheorghiu. Esta segunda parte consiste en explicar que se trató de cursos de segunda lengua con fines específicos, los de proporcionar a los actores los medios necesarios que aseguraran una buena interpretación para garantizar a su vez, una recepción sin incomprensiones del texto dramátco. Con miras a todo ello, los dos estudios despliegan detalladamente la taxonomía de los elementos supra-segmentales o prosódicos típicos de los dos idiomas, como son el acento, el ritmo o la entonación, a los que se prestó suma atención durante los cursos, al lado de los errores por transferencia, o por asociación grafemasonido, en el total ímpetu de llegar a una precisión fonética satisfactoria a la hora de los estrenos actuados por los actores en un idioma que no era suyo y con el que tampoco habían estado en contacto anteriormente al proyecto. Destaca también la contribución de Juanluís Mira Candel, que da cuenta de la corriente minimalista que rigió su estrategia directiva como un proceso deconstructivo de la realidad escénica, que desde una perspectiva semiótica dista de cualquier intento de globalización o dispersión de signos y se acerca a la focalización puntual de los mismos. Asimilando la esencia del ideario “minimal” a la música de Bach, en la que una fuga va creciendo y aportando nuevas sugerencias a través de sus variaciones entre ese escaparse para volver, en el teatro la unidad más sencilla dará luz a través de su búsqueda y variación a un macrosigno final más complejo, que otorga el valor real al significante inicial, minúsculo, aleatorio. El minimalismo es un macrojuego en el que el público es también un signo fundamental, un jugador más cuya presencia da sentido, siendo a la vez, en las palabras de Francisque Sarcey la esencia del drama, la condición necesaria de su existencia. En el montaje de Minim.mal Show, explica Juanluis Mira Candel que ha elegido la silla como signo desnudo, primer y último protagonista alrededor de un grupo de escenas centrales que narran el desencuentro entre un hombre y una mujer, alrededor del juego de contrastes, la sonrisa y la tristeza, la chabacanería como contrapunto al misticismo, construyendo el clímax y el anticlímax de una espera imposible partiendo de la soledad de la silla y llegando la soledad del actor. RECENZII • COMPTES RENDUS • REVIEWS 151 Sergi Belbel suele encargar las bandas sonoras a un mismo compositor, Oscar Roig, concediendo un gran peso específico a la partitura en la concepción de sus montajes. Por ende, en la tradición de Beckett, por el cual la obra es un cuerpo de sonidos fundamentales, según el director teatral, el soundtrack de Minim.mal Show fue pensado como una partitura de estímulos auditivos igual de relevantes como el texto verbalizado, el discurso final siendo integrado tanto por palabras análogas a notas de música (ut poesis musica), como de música semejante al discurso textual (ut musica poesis). El capítulo quinto, Los polos de latinidad se atraen: la respuesta del público ante las representaciones escénicas, concluye el experimento con dos intervenciones acerca de la recepción de las obras por el público en una comunidad de habla distinta. Se trata de A propósito de una representación teatral: “Paparazzi” de Matei Vişniec en Benissa por Joan Borja i Sanz, profesor del departamento de Filología Catalana de la Universidad de Alicante y director de la sede universitaria de Benissa, y de la síntesis sobre El Festival Nacional de Teatro “I. L. Caragiale”: aspiraciones y envergadura hecha por Aura Corbeanu, profesora de la Universidad de Teatro de Sibiu, Rumanía, y directora de UNITER, quien remarca que anteriormente al experimento Paparazzi no se había puesto nunca en escena en Rumanía, y su representación en el marco del proyecto ha constituido un triple evento: estreno en Rumanía, en España y a la vez el primer montaje en catalán. La sexta y última parte del libro, Versión bilingüe de las dos obras, concebida como epílogo, consiste en las dos piezas originales junto a su excelentísima traducción al rumano y al catalán. En conclusión, estamos ante un libro testimonio de un proyecto, cuya importancia reside justamente en el hecho de dejar impresos a los acontecimientos de un experimento cuyo propósito fue el acercamiento e intercambio de dos espacios culturales similares tanto desde el punto de vista lingüístico, como idiosincrásico. Defiende su intento en varios frentes de batalla, desde el acercamiento lingüístico entre el catalán y el rumano, hasta el ámbito social, cuyo espejo es el teatro mismo. Expone las dificultades de la traducción, el proceso mismo de mediación, tomando en cuenta tanto las convergencias como las divergencias existentes entre los dos espacios, y la percepción del producto final con sus posibles consecuencias en el espacio receptor. Despliega una manera completa y complexa de abarcar todas las dimensiones de tal experimento, reuniendo multitud de personalidades de varios campos y especialidades, equipos de actores, directores y traductores, implicando una impresionante variedad de recursos e instituciones, todo ello en el empeño de difundir la cultura rumana entre los catalanes y la catalana entre los rumanos, tratándose de dos mundos aún casi desconocidos uno por el otro, inéditos uno para el otro, en paisajes extremos de la antigua Romania y la actual Europa. Es impresionante el esfuerzo y el empeño de la editora en agrupar tanta información, se le nota la más profunda creencia en el intercambio cultural y su noble empeño en acrecentar la visibilidad del actual espacio cultural rumano. SILVIA ŞTEFAN∗ Cătălina Iliescu – Gheorghiu (ed.), Teatru cu voce de femeie: două piese de Gianina CĂRBUNARIU şi Laila RIPOLL = Teatro con voz de mujer: dos piezas de Gianina CĂRBUNARIU y Laila RIPOLL, ediţie bilingvă – edición bilingüe, Editura Cheiron, Bucureşti, 2008, 214 pp. Cătălina Iliescu Gheorghiu es profesora titular en el Departamento de Traducción e Interpretación en la Universidad de Alicante, donde imparte cursos de rumano y también es Presidenta de la fundación cultural Aripi, entrañadamente vinculada con la difusión de la cultura rumana en el ∗ Departamento de Lingüística Románica, Lenguas y Literaturas Iberorománicas e Italiano, Universidad de Bucarest, [email protected]. 152 RECENZII • COMPTES RENDUS • REVIEWS extranjero. El presente volumen que edita en el año 2008 fue presentado en Rumania el 12 de enero de 2010 en Teatrul azi – Revista de cultura teatral editada por la Fundación Cultural „Camil Petrescu”, como parte de la serie „Dramaturgi de azi”, coordinada por Andreea Dumitru e Ioana Anghel, lanzada en el año 2005, que proponía antologías cuya meta era la de crear una imagen cuanto más edificadora sobre la dramaturgia reciente en espacios culturales menos conocidos. También fue reseñada en la revista Revista 22 – En el laboratorio de Jerzy Grotowski en la sección Sobre el teatro con Miruna Runcan por Crenguţa Manea bajo el título Transferencias teatrales. Sirviendo su propósito de realizar un acto de intercambio cultural, el libro tiene una estructura quiasmática en espejo, empleando cara a cara dos piezas de teatro contemporáneo, la primera en rumano, Stop the Tempo!, firmada por la autora rumana Gianina Cărbunariu, y la segunda en español, Atra bilis (Cuando estemos más tranquilas…), firmada por la autora española, Laila Ripoll. Cada una de las piezas viene introducida por una breve presentación de las dos autoras, representantes de la dramaturgia contemporánea, y dispone de su traducción al otro idioma. La traducción al español de la pieza rumana, manteniendo el mismo título en inglés, fue firmada por un grupo de traductores formado por Dalila Niño, David Grau, Fernanda Bozio del Mastro, Marta Cano, Laura Mas, Santiago Mas y Ana Ortuño, mientras que la traducción al rumano de la pieza española, con el título Fiere (Aici nu s-a întâmplat nimic…), se firmó por Roxana Antochi, Ioana Brumar y Bianca Sandu. La pieza rumana está introducida por un estudio en español escrito por Cătălina Iliescu Gheorghiu, y traducido al rumano por Roxana Antochi, y la pieza española por un comentario en rumano escrito por Roxana – Mihaela Antochi, y traducido al español por Dalila Niño. El libro entero viene introducido por un Prólogo firmado por Juan Antonio Ríos Carratalá, traducido al rumano por la misma Roxana Antochi. Juan Antonio Ríos Carratalá es Catedrático de Historia del Teatro Español en la Universidad de Alicante y especialista en los siglos XVIII y XX. Ha publicado libros relacionados con la dramaturgia, ha preparado ediciones críticas dedicadas a figuras sobresalientes del teatro español y ha coordinado diversos volúmenes colectivos. Firma más de un centenar de artículos en revistas de especialidad. Su prólogo empieza ex abrupto tematizando retóricamente el problema de la imposibilidad de definir una dirección previsible para el teatro contemporáneo, de la falta de criterios y la indiferencia generalizada frente a las orientaciones mayoritariamente aceptadas, creándose un marco de libertad, pero también uno de desorientación, lleno de hechos caóticos y contradictorios, que hacen posible cualquier desarrollo de fuerzas, todo ello llevando a la aparición de este tipo nuevo de actividad creativa marginal, que en el futuro podría convertirse en relevante desde el punto de vista del control social y político. Dentro de tal contexto, los autores jóvenes, representantes de esta generación en permanente búsqueda, sobre los cuales escribe citándole a Fernando Fernán Gómez que “tienen la vida por delante”, aunque más bien les gustaría tenerla alrededor, crean obras con valor testimonial, cuya temática es la juventud misma, el teatro convirtiéndose en el testigo directo de una realidad inmediata, empleada a miles de kilómetros de distancia, y la traducción de estas obras siendo un puente válido entre los dos mundo esencialmente similares, y a la vez contribuyendo a la destrucción de estereotipos y tópicos relativos a Rumanía, por otra parte casi desconocida en España desde el punto de vista cultural. Las autoras dramáticas elegidas por el proyecto de este libro son Gianina Cărbunariu, miembro fundador del proyecto dramAcum, autora de la pieza Stop the Tempo!, escrita en 2003, estrenada bajo su dirección en el mes de diciembre del mismo año en Teatrul LUNI de Green Hours y traducida al inglés, francés, alemán, polaco, checo, húngaro y presentada en escenarios de Alemania, Francia e Irlanda, los espectáculos de Gianina Cărbunariu habiendo sido incluida en importantes festivales europeos de Wiesbaden, Torun y Moscú, y Laila Ripoll, fundadora de la empresa de teatro Producciones Micomicon, donde trabaja como actriz, dramaturga y escenógrafa, autora de varias piezas de teatro, entre las cuales la traducida con ocasión del presente volumen, Atra bilis (Cuando estemos más tranquilas…), y de adaptaciones de las obras de Lope, Juan de la Cueva, Miguel de Cervantes, Calderón de la Barca y Tirso de Molina, sus creaciones habiendo sido traducidas al francés, italiano, griego y vasco y, recientemente al rumano. RECENZII • COMPTES RENDUS • REVIEWS 153 El estudio de Cătălina Iliescu Gheorghiu, Temp(o)us fugit…, dar nu şi pentru Gianina Cărbunariu. Studiu despre traducerea în limba spaniolă a piesei Stop the Tempo!, abre la primera mitad del volumen, explicando el contexto de la evolución histórica del teatro rumano, caracterizada por una ruptura radical entre la generación actual, lanzada alrededor después del año 2000, que bajo influencia británica vuelve al texto y al teatro de acción, y la que atraviesa una fase de crisis de la identidad cultural durante los años 90, como consecuencia de las décadas anteriores de anquilosación del teatro rumano en principios absurdos, inflexibles, dictados por la censura, propios del sistema totalitarista de las naciones que se habían quedado al este del telón de acero después de la contienda. En este contexto de la ruptura entre las generaciones nacen los espectáculos inconformistas, experimentales, montados en underground por empresas independientes que desarrollan proyectos similares a dramAcum, un concurso de creación destinado a los directores de teatro y dramaturgos, entre los cuales Gianina Cărbunariu, la exponente brillante de esta nueva actitud cara al teatro y a la vida, definitoria para la salida de la crisis del teatro rumano, apta para reflejar el mundo fragmentado de hoy en día, falto de sentido, desestructurado. El contenido propiamente dicho de su intervención revela las particularidades del texto originario y trata in extenso la complejidad de las dificultades de traducción, empezando con el título imperativo en inglés y analizando tanto el nivel macro del medio espacio-temporal que contiene las indicaciones escénicas, los decorados, las luces, el sonido, la proxémica y la kinética, como también el nivel micro de los elementos del argot y de las expresiones idiomáticas. La autora indica también la dificultad de la adaptación del slang en clave lúdica de los jóvenes contrastando con la rigidez de los clichés del “lenguaje de madera”, como también el papel de los anglicismos impuestos en el vocabulario común por mass-media y las estrategias de traducción adoptadas para cada caso. Aun más, analiza las relaciones intertextuales (especialmente la aparición en la pieza de los poemas de Marius Ianuş) y las relaciones intersistémicas relativas a las dificultades de transferir unos elementos propios de un espacio cultural, como por ejemplo los antropónimos, los nombres de bares o marcas comerciales, la publicidad, las películas y los programas TV recientes, los modos de vida cotidiana, una transferencia por la cual el traductor representa la instancia que garantiza el mantenimiento de un cierto equilibrio. A continuación describe el proceso de traducción propiamente dicho, que involucra todo un equipo y que se desarrolló en varios niveles, desde la confrontación de la versión publicada en Liternet.ro en 2004 con la versión en inglés (traducida por Andrei Marinescu y Paul Meade, a través de un programa financiado por la Fundación Stewart Parker y la Fundación ACT), seguida por la „traducción bruta”, literal del texto en español, realizada con la ayuda de un hablante nativo, y posteriormente el equipo de traductores estableció las normas generales y repartió el texto, cada uno ocupándose de un ¿????de escenas. Lo que siguió fue una visita a Rumania hecha por el equipo de traductores, para estudiar la relación de ciertas frases, más difícilmente entendibles por el público español, con el contexto de la sociedad rumana. La tercera etapa fue la confrontación de las traducciones individuales y la resolución de las posibles controversias, todo ello con la aplicación del modelo de análisis traductológico propuesto por los descriptivistas Lambert y Van Gorp. La segunda parte del libro se dedica simétricamente a la pieza dramática española, Atra bilis (Cuando estemos más tranquilas…), que analiza Roxana-Mihaela Antochi, estudiante de doctorado en la Universidad de Alicante, en su excelente estudio Rolul elementelor culturale în construirea umorului. Resurse folclorice şi religioase în textul dramatic al Lailei Ripoll/ El papel de los elementos culturales en la construcción del humor. Recursos folkloricos y religiosos en el texto dramático de Laila Ripoll. El comentario se divide en cuatro partes, cada una dedicada a uno de los cuatro personajes femeninos: Nazaria sau melanjul comic / Nazaria o la mixtura cómica; Daria, frustrarea pseudoreligioasă / Daria, la frustración pseudos-religiosa; Aurora/Aurori, încifrarea versificată / Aurora, la clave versificada y Ulpiana, sursă paremiologică / Ulpiana, fuente paremiológica. La autora enfatiza la estructura circular del texto analizado, acentuado el sentimiento de inercia, que explica también la opción de traducirse el subtítulo de la pieza en rumano Aici nu s-a 154 RECENZII • COMPTES RENDUS • REVIEWS întâmplat nimic…. [literalmente: Aquí no ha pasado nada…] Tratando minuciosamente las relaciones entre los personajes femeninos de factura y construcción distinta, nota que más allá de estas diferencias lo que tienen en común es el hecho de haber nacido y de vivir en un rincón olvidado del mundo, que puede ser un oscuro pueblecito de España, o de cualquier otro país. Mientras Nazaria es un tipo de „muñeca rusa”, un cajón de sorpresas, que puede decir cualquier cosa en cualquier momento, un personaje vivo, que establece la dinámica del texto entero, es el núcleo conflictivo de la trama, la pulsación de energía en un mundo entumecido, para el traductor convirtiéndose en una provocación permanente, por la pendulación perpetua entre lo formal y lo informal, entre lo religioso y lo laico-vulgar, la caracterización de Daria, la hermana mártir que se sacrifica para el bien de la familia incluye el elemento religioso como eje de su tipología, una religiosidad más o menos autentica, pero que constituye su nota de distinción. Al personaje de Aurora se le considera el menos cómico, con una evolución espectacular a lo largo de la pieza, perteneciendo a la tipología del loco sabio, aportando mensajes profundos, bajo el velo de la poesía popular. Ulpiana, cuya muerte al final del texto confiere a la trama una buena representación, es la principal fuente de paremiología, aportando un plus de frescura y vitalidad, sus decires contrastando visiblemente la artificialidad y la preciosidad de las otras mujeres. Enfatizando la idea de la fijeza y constancia localizada en el folklore y la religión, en donde no hay variaciones, ni cambios, ni se trata de evolución, y la forma en la cual de la misma manera, en la cronología de la pieza no hay ningún tipo de evolución, los conflictos y las tensiones no tienen una intensidad mayor, faltándoles? la finalidad, al caer la cortina la vida de las tres mujeres fluyendo invariablemente sin fluctuaciones, concluye la autora que la pieza resulta esencialmente cómica, el humor siendo la componente central que brilla sobre todo al nivel del lenguaje, en la interferencia entre el filón religioso y el componente folclórico, los dos ejes inmutables del proceso dinámico representado por la cultura. En conclusión, como se puede notar, se trata de un volumen con una estructura completa, casi matemática, que representa un estudio de traducción, con el análisis de la compleja problemática relativa a la transferencia de un espacio cultural al otro, a través de la yuxtaposición de dos ejemplos de representación de la crisis contemporánea, dentro de un mundo de lo femenino, tanto desde el punto de vista autorial/autoral, como del de los personajes presentes en las piezas teatrales, que realizó la editora Cătălina Iliescu Gheorghiu de una manera sumamente profesional con apego a su esencial creencia en el importante papel que en nuestro mundo global tiene el intercambio social y cultural. SILVIA ŞTEFAN∗ Margarita Rigal (ed.), Los legados de Poe, Madrid, Editorial Síntesis, 2011, 290 pp. As the editor herself points out in the introduction, this volume is meant to fill a gap in Spanish literary research and make up for the absence of a rigorous, up-to-date collection of studies concerning the works of Edgar Allan Poe. It succeeds in fulfilling this task, as it identifies the main coordinates of Poe’s short stories and poetry and of their reception throughout time, particularly in Spain, while also setting up a strong basis for further academic investigation. ∗ Departamento de Lingüística Románica, Lenguas y Literaturas Iberorománicas e Italiano, Universidad de Bucarest, [email protected]. RECENZII • COMPTES RENDUS • REVIEWS 155 The book is made up of nine chapters, each dealing with Poe’s literary and cultural legacy viewed from a different perspective, and four annexes meant to be used as research tools by those trying to become familiar with Poe’s life and works. The first chapter, “Lo gótico y lo cómico (o lo arabesco y lo grotesco)”, authored by Margarita Rigal Aragón, who also edited the volume, deals with the meaning of the terms grotesque and arabesque and the way they relate to Poe’s short stories. The second, “La ciencia del raciocinio”, also written by Margarita Rigal, and the third, “Poe y la ciencia ficción”, by Francisco Javier Castillo Martín, examine Poe’s role as the initiator of detective fiction and science fiction, respectively. “Poe en la cultura popular”, the fourth chapter, is authored by Ricardo Marín Ruiz and explores the way Poe as a literary figure and elements of his works have been incorporated into popular culture. The following chapter, “Historia gráfica de Poe: un siglo de ediciones ilustradas”, by Fernando González Moreno, is an overview of the illustrations that Poe’s poetry and prose have inspired, from the earliest editions of his works to the first half of the 20th century. Santiago Rodríguez Guerrero-Strachan is the author of the sixth chapter, “Un persistente recuerdo: la recepción de Poe en España”, concerning the reception of Poe as a writer and of his fiction and poetry in Spain. “Poe visto por Baudelaire”, by Juan Bravo Castillo, is an account of the influential interpretation given by Baudelaire to Poe’s works. “Luces y sombras en las traducciones de Narrativas extraordinarias y Poesía completa”, authored by Silvia Molina Plaza, analyses two Spanish translations of Poe’s poetry and short stories, highlighting their positive and negative aspects. The final chapter, “Reto al futuro: frentes de rivalidad y venganza”, by Félix Martín Gutiérrez, is an essay on the part played by revenge, rivalry and conflict in Poe’s writings. The first annex is a biographic map, comprising the main events of Poe’s life and literary career, in a historic context. The second is a list of Poe’s most important works, including the date of their first publication, the periodical publications where they appeared during the author’s lifetime and a brief inventory of possible literary influences for each title. The third annex is a bibliographic study citing the most important editions of Poe’s works, both authorized by the writer himself and posthumous, in English and other languages, and a selection of biographies and studies written about Poe. The fourth annex contains the bibliographic references for the first three annexes. The volume is predominantly monographic and its chapters are, for the most part, meant to catalogue specific features of Poe’s works or instances of their reception. Placing these elements in a larger context or analysing the way they relate to each other and function as a whole is often limited to only a few suggestions in each chapter. The main exceptions are the first and last chapter, which contain some of the most detailed and original analyses in the book. The first chapter traces the meaning of two terms famously employed by Poe himself in the title and preface of the short story collection he published during his lifetime, namely grotesque and arabesque, and manages to shed a new light on their use. In this study, Rigal points out their original meaning as architectural terms, along with the relationship they bear to the term gothic, as far as both decorative art and literary fiction are concerned. At the same time, she gives an overview of Poe’s complete short stories, emphasizing their unity and challenging the common critical assumption that they can be divided into two distinct categories, the grotesque (understood as comprising humorous works) and the arabesque (presumed to mean serious or terrifying). According to Rigal, the two concepts are often intertwined, and the short stories commonly labeled as comical, “frivolous” works deserve the same critical attention as the “serious” prose. It is a pertinent suggestion, which should be taken into account in Poe criticism. The last chapter examines the part rivalry and vengeance play in Poe’s fiction, along with the ambiguous, conflictual relationships they establish between the self and the other, the individual and the collective, or inner nature, its outward manifestations and the outside world. These conflicts, which generate violent imagery and recurring themes such as doubling or imposture, are traced back to Poe’s status as an outsider in 19th century American literary circles, his hostility towards rival literary figures, or his ambivalence towards the wide public, also referred to as “the mob”. Although maybe not as conceptually strong as the opening chapter, this 156 RECENZII • COMPTES RENDUS • REVIEWS study makes some interesting connections and, as its title suggests, opens promising new perspectives for further investigation. Another outstanding chapter is the fifth, which goes beyond simply cataloguing the graphic depictions that Poe’s writings have inspired throughout time, by emphasizing the importance attributed to literary illustration by the writer himself, and the “illustrability” of his poetry and prose. It draws attention on Poe’s capacity for evoking powerful images, while also evaluating the way various illustrations match the strength of his writings or fail to do so. The section on the grotesque and the arabesque, “Lo arabesco y lo grotesco: del Art Nouveau al Expresionismo”, is particularly edifying, as it refers back to the suggestions made in Margarita Rigal’s opening chapter, while examining the part played by these two concepts in 19th century and early 20th century graphic arts and the way it was influenced by Poe. Sadly, not many of the illustrations discussed in this chapter are reproduced, and when they are their quality is sometimes debatable; better printing conditions would have made the study even more compelling, given that it relies so heavily on the connection between image and text. The remaining chapters are meant to give a comprehensive account of Poe’s works and their reception, and are generally as satisfying as the limited space devoted to each of them permits. The second and the third explore the features pertaining to detective fiction and science fiction that can be found in Poe’s prose, along with some of the main literary and non-literary influences present in these writings. Both articles mention a few of the works of fiction, newspaper articles or scientific studies whose elements Poe incorporated into his works. At the same time, some references are made to the social and material changes occurring in 19th century life, which might have influenced Poe and, subsequently, the genres he helped create. However, arguably little attention is given to any of these aspects and the two chapters rarely go beyond inventorying Poe’s genre-defining stories (this is particularly true for the chapter on detective fiction; admittedly, the one on science fiction puts a greater emphasis on placing Poe’s prose in a larger cultural context). All in all, the general impression we are given is that, a few precursors notwithstanding, both detective fiction and science fiction were created pretty much single-handedly by Poe, which can be subject to debate. Undoubtedly, however, both chapters can serve as a solid basis for further research on Poe’s role in establishing these genres and on the literary (and non-literary) influences both present in and exerted by his works. Chapters four, six and seven take on the task of mapping the influence and reception of Poe’s works and personality, albeit only in certain spheres. The fourth chapter lists Poe’s appearances in popular culture, from poems dedicated to him during his lifetime or shortly after his death, to films or comics based on his writings. It ends with a brief attempt to explain Poe’s easy acceptance into popular culture and his transformation into an iconic figure, by mentioning the appeal of his biography, his ability to satisfy both popular taste and more refined readers, and the masterful use he makes of the element of surprise in his writings. The sixth chapter fulfills a somewhat similar task, using largely similar methods: it overviews some of the most important writings on Poe’s life and works that appeared in Spain from the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century, appraising their originality or indebtedness to the critical views that were popular at the time. It is illuminated by the seventh chapter, which deals with Baudelaire’s interpretation of Poe and helps explain its lasting influence on the way Poe was perceived in Spain and other European countries. While these chapters cannot give a definitive, all-embracing account of the issues they examine, they do raise some interesting questions which deserve further investigation. They can also be a good starting point for establishing other connections; for instance, as far as pop culture is concerned, between Poe’s role in initiating popular genres such as detective fiction, science fiction and horror fiction, and his current iconic status; or, regarding Poe’s reception in Spain, research can be extended to Spanish literary works that draw on Poe and the way they reflect said reception. The same can be said about the eighth chapter, which makes some pertinent value judgements on the quality of two Spanish translations of Poe’s works (Narraciones extraordinarias, translated by J. Farrán y Mayoral, and Poesía completa, by María Cóndor and RECENZII • COMPTES RENDUS • REVIEWS 157 Gustavo Falaquera). Although it only focuses on a few translation problems, it draws attention on the difficulties faced by anyone attempting to translate Poe’s poetry and prose, which deserve to be examined in a more extensive study. To sum up, the importance of this volume lies mainly in the inspiring new perspectives it opens. Although far from being an exhaustive analysis of Poe’s literary and cultural legacy, this volume has all the qualities necessary to fulfill its goal of stimulating interest towards this writer. Its rigorous, convincing chapters do an excellent job in laying the groundwork for more detailed research on Poe’s life, works and influence, in Spain and elsewhere. CORINA NUŢU∗ Petr Polák, El esperpento valleinclaniano en el context del arte grotesco europeo, Masaryková Univezita, Brno, 2011, 97 pp. El libro de Petr Polák, licenciado en Filología Hispánica, Derecho y Teoría e Historia del Arte Dramático de la Universidad Masaryk, es un estudio muy bien argumentado y documentado sobre la relación entre la creación artística del esperpento del autor modernista español Ramón del Valle-Inclán y la estética de lo grotesco. El trabajo se estructura en tres capítulos que desarrollan el tema central, yuxtaponiendo teoría y análisis de texto. En el primer capítulo Polák se acerca a la teoría del esperpento desde la definición del término en DRAE hasta la idea estética del propio Valle-Inclán y las opiniones de los más importantes estudiosos de la literatura española. El esperpento elude una definición sencilla por su “naturaleza híbrida y original” y llega a significar tanto el género dramático creado por el escritor gallego, como una particular visión del mundo, una categoría estética que echa sus raíces en el arte grotesco español y europeo. La naturaleza amorfa del esperpento proviene del hecho de que el concepto ha conocido una modificación y evolución en cada una de las obras de Valle-Inclán, desde la dramaturgia anterior a Luces de Bohemia de 1920, pasando por Los cuernos de don Friolera (1921), Las galas del difunto (1926), La hija del capitán (1927), hasta obras posteriores que recuperan y utilizan rasgos esperpénticos, como la novela Tirano Banderas (1926). Como en el caso de la nivola unamuniana, el esperpento es un género autorreflexivo que se define a sí mismo a medida que se articula como creación artística. La primera y más conocida teoría del concepto la ofrece Max Estrella, protagonista de Luces de Bohemia, que se vale de la metáfora de los espejos cóncavos en que se reflejan los héroes clásicos, o sea el reflejo deformado de los valores estéticos, morales y sociales del mundo. La finalidad es representar y criticar la esencia de la realidad moderna, desrealizando sus apariencia física, para que el autor evoque su naturaleza trágica, corrupta, ridícula desde una posición demiúrgica. Nos parece relevante comentar aquí la larga tradición en la literatura española de la metáfora del espejo como filtro que se interpone entre el artista y la realidad. Casi se convierte en un tópico presente en la obra de varios escritores modernistas, entre quienes nombramos al más influyente filósofo del siglo veinte, José Ortega y Gasset. El arte moderno según Ortega y Gasset plantea un cambio radical de perspectiva sobre la realidad, declarándose autónomo, subjetivo y deshumanizado. El esperpento es una de estas múltiples facetas del arte de principios del siglo y, según apunta Polák, se inscribe en la línea vanguardista del modernismo, al lado del expresionismo alemán y de las cabriolas grotescas futuristas. ∗ Departamento de Lingüística Románica, Lenguas y Literaturas Iberorománicas e Italiano, Universidad de Bucarest, [email protected]. 158 RECENZII • COMPTES RENDUS • REVIEWS En el segundo capítulo Polák se preocupa por el origen del arte grotesco que se remite a los murales de los antiguos edificios de la Roma antigua, y su evolución hasta el romanticismo. Se realzan las características de la deformación y subjetivismo que recuerdan la descripción del esperpento del capítulo anterior. Al semantismo histórico del arte grotesco – sea estilo extravagante y caricatural en la época clásica, sea horrible y monstruoso en la época romántica – le corresponden las teorías de Mijaíl Bajtín y de Wolfgang Kayser. El crítico ruso enfoca el arte grotesco durante la edad media y el renacimiento desde una perspectiva social, insistiendo en su vertiente popular y carnavalesca, mientras que el teórico alemán explora el lado angustioso y macabro. De las dos visiones se recalcan la hibridación, y la heterogeneidad de elementos cómicos y trágicos, rasgos propios también del arte grotesco pictórico. Polák pasa revista a los más importantes pintores y escritores del arte universal y español que han desarrollado la estética grotesca, con ejemplos numerosos y relevantes. En el último capítulo, el tercero, se alcanza el propósito principal del estudio, al ponerse de manifiesto la presencia de elementos grotescos en el esperpento valleinclanesco: deformación y desdoblamiento de los seres humanos, animalización y muñequización, distorsión del lenguaje. De afiliación barroca – Quevedo y Cervantes – y romántica – Goya – la estética esperpéntica aglutina tendencias comunes de las vanguardias europeas, alistándose en las primeras filas del regeneracionismo modernista español. En palabras de Valle-Inclán, el esperpento es una “tragicomedia mojiganga” o una “buffa tragedia” – definición que nos recuerda otra vez de la opinión de Miguel de Unamuno en cuanto a su novela modernista, llamada nivola. Desde el punto de vista retórico el esperpento evoluciona desde el horror hasta lo carnavalesco persiguiendo el mismo fin: socavar los valores y las normas establecidos desde un marcado compromiso social y moral. El presente estudio de Petr Polák constituye una lectura al día muy provechosa sobre el esperpento de Ramón del Valle-Inclán y el origen de la estética grotesca en el arte europeo y español. MELANIA STANCU∗ Sorina Dora Simion, La retórica del discurso en la obra de Enrique Vila-Matas, Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti, 2012, 365 pp. El su libro de 2005, Doctor Pasavento, Enrique Vila-Matas nos confiesa: „Sólo sé que me fascina escribir sobre el misterio de que exista el misterio de la existencia del mundo, porque adoro la aventura que hay en todo texto que uno pone en marcha, porque adoro el abismo, el misterio mismo, y adoro, además esa línea de sombra que, al cruzarla, va a parar al territorio de lo desconocido (p.33). Es un acto de fe del escritor barcelonés que se vuelve representativo para toda su creación ficcional. En su obra la literatura y la realidad son dos espacios interconectados que comunican a través de las palabras y del misterio, hasta que la literatura se convierte en la única realidad posible. La obsesión de la literatura es una fuente permanente para la imaginación de Vila-Matas que desde una posición autorreflexiva y paródica se interesa por la vida de escritores, por el acto de creación o bien su cese, imaginándose la realidad – igual a J.L.Borges – como la consecuencia de un texto infinito de ficción (Le Magazine Littéraire no. 534/agosto 2013, p.99). Es el mismo misterio de la narrativa del autor catalán lo que constituye el propósito de la investigación académica de Sorina Dora Simion. El libro La retórica del discurso en la obra de Enrique Vila-Matas representa la tesis doctoral que la autora defendió en 2011 en la Universidad de Bucarest, ∗ Departamento de Lingüística Románica, Lenguas y Literaturas Iberorománicas e Italiano, Universidad de Bucarest, [email protected]. RECENZII • COMPTES RENDUS • REVIEWS 159 bajo la coordinación del profesor Coman Lupu y del profesor Francisco Chico Rico. El estudio plantea una aproximación interdisciplinaria a la obra vila-matiana y se construye a lo largo de cinco secciones (Introducción, Bases teóricas, Análisis práctico, Bibliografía y Anexos) y siete capítulos. El corpus estudiado abarca un número de dieciséis novelas, dos volúmenes de ensayos y entrevistas que se extienden a un periodo de tiempo de 37 años. No obstante, Sorina Simion decide dedicar un capítulo entero al análisis pormenorizado de dos de la novelas de Vila-Matas: Hijos sin hijos de 1993 y Dublinesca de 2010. El método de análisis se fundamenta en la teoría de la retórica general contemporánea desarrollada por Antonio García Berrio y que abarca tanto el núcleo de la retórica clásica como también la lingüística textual, la semiótica, la semántica, la pragmática, la poética de lo imaginario y la teoría de la literatura. Todas estas aproximaciones a la obra literaria están reunidas en un conjunto coherente que ofrece planteamientos variados que aseguran el equilibrio en el análisis de las partes del discurso artístico. El estudio del discurso narrativo experimental de Vila-Matas se vale también del modelo semiótico de TeSWeST II (Petöffi, 1979 y Albaladejo 1998), que arranca desde la teoría de la estructura del texto y de la estructura de los mundos de ficción para servir a determinar las operaciones retóricas propias del intellectio y del inventio. Según demuestra la autora en su trabajo la inventio consta de un número restringido de temas y en el proceso de desarrollar, acortar, incidir, redistribuir estos contenidos semánticos: vida/muerte; amor/odio; realidad/literatura; prosaísmo/imaginación; mundo cotidiano/mundo inusual, imaginario; identidad/alteridad. En cuanto al nivel dispositivo, las reglas del retazo y las reglas de la geometría fractal actúan conjuntamente y fraguan estructuras dinámicas y recurrentes, autosimilares y recursivas. Es la estrategia del caos integrado y dominado o del fractal-concha. En este mismo nivel dispositivo, se nota el deseo del escritor de buscar siempre lo nuevo, de no estancarse en la convención. Por lo tanto, surgen estructuras complejas, al mismo tiempo, estables e inestables, dinámicas y estáticas, naturales y artificiales. En el nivel elocutivo, al escritor, el marco narrativo le sirve como pretexto para desarrollar y sugerir lo de dentro, oculto, y que no se revela más que a veces. Necesita una trama débil para desarrollar los núcleos simbólicos, el código metafórico propio. La poeticidad del novelista catalán se apoya en dos figuras fundamentales: la antítesis – para expresar la polaridad yo narrativo – el otro – y la metáfora – que también sirve en los juegos de identidad entre los personajes y describir otros elementos constituyentes como el espacio y el tiempo. Aunque Vila-Matas ha sido considerado por muchos críticos autor posmoderno, Sorina Simion se plantea revisar esta acepción y trae argumentos para encajar la prosa vila-matiana en la corriente de la transmodernidad (Rodríguez Magda, 2004). El movimiento trans – supera los límites del postmodernismo, englobando elementos de las vanguardias y del modernismo, valiéndose de los avances técnicos y del universo cibernético, o sea portátil, que configura la realidad presente en una sucesión rápida y aleatoria de imágenes. Los protagonistas de las novelas de Vila-Matas son instancias del propio yo creador como impostor, shandy, hijo sin hijos, espía, viajante, Bartleby, Montano, padre e hijo, Hemingway, hikikomori. La autopsia de la novela post- o trans-moderna deja al descubierto no sólo al autor, pero también al lector. Éste es co-productor, editor, amigo de los textos heterogéneos – relatos orales, conferencias, manuscritos, memorias, diario, historia, enciclopedia, autobiografía, documento world – que constituyen la hibridez de la prosa vila-matiana. Su obra es el resultado de una tensión permanente entre contrarios – literatura y vida, ficción y realidad, identidad y alteridad, eros y thanasos, cordura y locura, descendencia y tiempo – que se resuelve en una reconciliación de tipo barroco o manierista o transmoderna, según demuestra Sorina Simion. La originalidad y la rigurosidad científica recomienda La retórica del discurso en la obra de Enrique Vila-Matas como una lectura imprescindible tanto para los estudiosos de la prosa del autor como para los interesados en las aportaciones de la retórica general en el plano de la narrativa actual. MELANIA STANCU∗ ∗ Departamento de Lingüística Románica, Lenguas y Literaturas Iberorománicas e Italiano, Universidad de Bucarest, [email protected]. CONTRIBUTORS IOANA COSTA is professor at the University of Bucharest, Department of Classical Philology, since 1990; has a PhD in Indo-European Linguistics (1996). She is the author of Neflexibile indo-europene (1999), Fonetică istorică latină (2003, 2008), Textele antice şi transmiterea lor (2008, 2011), Papirus, pergament, hîrtie. Începuturile cărţii (Humanitas, 2011), Nec merguntur. O sută de poveşti filologice (2012), Antichităţile noastre (2013). She edited and/or translated Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis historia (6 volumes, Polirom, 2001-2004), Seneca’s Opera philosophica (6 volumes, Polirom, 2004-2008), chapters in Septuaginta (8 volumes, NEC-Polirom, 2004-2011), Cato’s De agri cultura; participated in more than 60 national and international scientific reunions and published circa 100 papers and book reviews in philological periodicals and volumes. IRINA-ANA DROBOT. Born 1983. I graduated from The Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures (University of Bucharest) in 2006. The subject of my graduation paper was "Phonological Processes in English in the Feature Geometry Model" (supervisor: professor Andrei Avram). In 2007 I graduated from the MA programme English Applied Linguistics – Teaching Modern Languages. The subject of my dissertation paper was "Varieties of New English: Phonological Features" (supervisor: professor Andrei Avram). I have been working as a junior teaching assistant at the Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, Department of Foreign Languages and Communications (teaching English) since October 2007. I am a PhD candidate (since October 2008) (Literary and Cultural Studies Doctoral School, University of Bucharest). The title of my PhD thesis is Virginia Woolf and Graham Swift:The Lyrical Novel. My advisor is professor Lidia Vianu. I am a member of the Editorial Board of Buletinul Stiintific, Seria Limbi Straine şi Comunicare review, published by the Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest (beginning with issue V, no. 2/2012). IRINA DUBSKÝ is a Senior Lecturer in English and American Literature, the Faculty of Letters, Spiru Haret University, Bucharest. She holds a PhD in Philology, an MA degree in American Cultural Studies and a BA in Foreign Languages and Literatures from the University of Bucharest. Her doctoral dissertation entitled “Shadowings-Forth of the Invisible”: Esotericism in Herman Melville’s Fiction – Moby Dick and the Tales (distinction: Magna cum Laude) encapsulates the focal points of her field of research, represented by the exploration of the alchemical tropes and esoteric significance encoded in Herman Melville’s work alongside the study of the initiatory patterns and symbolic imagery in the literature of the American Renaissance. She has been involved in this intellectual enterprise throughout her academic studies and onwards. A more recent facet of her research is represented by the role Protestantism has played in the foundation and development of the American mental history. This activity has been materialized in her participating in conferences and similar scientific events as well as in the publication of several professional papers and a forthcoming book on Herman Melville’s esoteric thought. She has also worked as a translator for Humanitas Publishing House. DELIA MĂDĂLINA GRIGORE is a Rroma woman born in Galaţi town, on 7th of February 1972, but raised in Bucharest from the age of four years. She is a teacher of Rromani literature and culture at the University of Bucharest – Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, where she began her work in 1998. She graduated the Faculty of Letters at the University of Bucharest in 1995 and the mastership in ethnology and folklore at the same Faculty of Letters in 1996. In 2004, with the thesis „Rromanipen – Family Customs in Rroma Traditional Culture”, she obtained the PhD degree in visual arts – ethnography – ethnology specialization at 162 CONTRIBUTORS the Romanian Academy – „Constantin Brăiloiu” Institute of Ethnography and Folklore. Between 1995 and 2002 she worked as a curator at the National Village Museum „Dimitrie Gusti”. She began her work as an activist in the Rroma movement for Rroma rights and for Rroma ethnic identity in 1996 and so far she coordinated a significant number of projects targeting Rroma and she participated to a huge number of conferences, congresses, seminars concerning Rroma issues. From 2004 Delia Mădălina Grigore is the president of the Rroma Center „Amare Rromentza”. From 2011 she is a member of the National Commission for Safeguarding the Immaterial Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture. In 2007 she moderated the TV show „About us, the Rroma”. She is the author of some important studies about Rroma, the most important being: Guidelines of Rromani Language and Culture, (2000); Rromanipen – Family Mystics at the Rroma (2001); Introduction in the Study of Rroma Contemporary Identity’s Traditional Culture Patterns – Rromani anthropology and folklore course (2001); Rromanipen – Rromani Culture Benchmarks (2011) and the co-author of a significant number of books: Rroma History and Traditions – textbook for 6th and 7th classes (2005); Rroma in Search for their Self-esteem – exploratory study (2007); Assessment of Educational Public Policies Addressed to Rroma (2009); Practical Guidelines for Intercultural Preschool Education (2011); Practical Guidelines for Bilingual Preschool Education (2011); Documentary (script and production) and volume Sostar na rovas? / Why aren’t we crying? – O Samudaripen / Rroma Holocaust and its True Story (2009). Delia Grigore also writes poetry in Rromani language: she is the co-author of the poetry volume Babel.ro. Young Minority Poets (2000) and she won the 2nd prize of poetry at the International Creation Contest „Amico Rom”, 15th edition, organized by „Them Romano” Association in Lanciano, Italy (2008). MIHAI IACOB (born in 1968, Deva, Romania) is Associate Professor at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Department of Romance Linguistics, Ibero-Romance Languages and Literatures and Italian, where he teaches since 1993. He also collaborates as a researcher with Grupo de Tradducción & Paratraducción of the University of Vigo (since 2011). In 2002 he earned his PhD degree in Philology (cum laude) with the thesis Significado y funciones del paratexto en los códices de las “Cantigas de Santa María” de Alfonso X El Sabio (published in 2003). His interests mostly concern postmodern and modern Spanish narratology, argumentation and cultural studies. Some of his recent publications are: “The (Re)Construction of Transylvania in Vampire Films” (2013), “El paratexto literario y la traducción: algunas cuestiones teóricas con aplicaciones prácticas” (2012), “La problematización de la ficción en Fray Gerundio de Campazas de Francisco de Isla” (2011), “La ‘otra Europa’: construcción de la imagen de Rumanía en los medios españoles” (2010), “La instrumentalización de la feminidad en la publicidad automovilística y su regulación” (2010 and “The Myth of Dracula As a Didactic Hypertext” (2010). ANCA PEIU, PhD, Associate Professor, Literary Translator. In January 1991, Anca Peiu won the professional contest for a position in the Department of English, of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, of the University of Bucharest – her Alma Mater. Ever since then she has taught lectures and seminars of American Literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, early American Civilization, British Literature of the 20th century, electives on Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), and William Faulkner (1897-1962), practical English language. She has instructed an impressive number of students, helping them as the advisor of their graduation papers. In December 1999, Anca Peiu earned her doctoral degree in Comparative Literature, due to a study in narratology with a special approach of Thomas Mann (1875-1955) and William Faulkner. Her dissertation was published by the University Press of Bucharest. As an acknowledged scholar in her field of research, Dr. Anca Peiu has published in a critical edition three volumes of her own literary translations into Romanian from William Faulkner’s works, provided with updated introductory studies and well-documented chronologies. More volumes of this critical edition are still to follow. Anca Peiu is the author of numerous academic essays in literary studies, published in many RECENZII • COMPTES RENDUS • REVIEWS 163 prestigious anthologies, in various university volumes and reviews. She is currently preparing an ampler volume of studies in American Literature. Associate Professor Anca Peiu has traveled as an IREX scholar to Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA, and later, as a Fulbright scholar to Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. As a Soros grantee, she has been to Warwick University, England, UK, and likewise, to Edinburgh University, Scotland, UK. MARIA SÂRBU. Born on July 17, 1985, in Hunedoara. PhD in Philology with a thesis entitled “Motifs littéraires dans l’œuvre d’Alain-Fournier”, member of the French Teachers’ Romanian Association and of the “Charlotte Sibi” Francophone Cultural Association of Iaşi. Graduate of the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi, Faculty of Letters (Romanian-French), class of 2007 and Francophone Studies Master, class of 2009. Graduate of the School of Arts Iaşi, specialization painting, 2006. During the academic year 2009-2010, she has been collaborating to the documentation for the dictionary of the Romanian language, project of the Romanian Academy. Literary debut in Litere magazine, 2010. She published poems and literature studies in Romanian magazines. As a French and Romanian teacher, she has been attending several trainings in Romania and abroad. On July 5, 2012, she has been a speaker during a workshop for the French teachers during the First French Language World Forum (Québec, Canada). On Octobre 23, 2013, she was one of the speakers at a round table of the Regional Seminar for the French teachers held in Sofia, Bulgaria. LAURA SITARU. PhD, is a lecturer at Department of Arabic, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Bucharest. She is currently working on cultural patterns and identities in Arab Islamic World in modern context. Her areas of interest also include modern Arabic literature and contemporary political developments in Arab World. As a lecturer at Arabic Department, she delivers undergraduate and graduate courses of Arabic Language (Modern Standard Arabic) and Arab Islamic Civilization (Modern Period). In 2009, her book Arab Political Thought. Key-concepts between tradition and innovation was published by Romanian Polirom publishing house. She was also a Fulbright Visiting researcher at Georgetown University, Alwaleed Ben Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding (2011-2012), a Visiting Scholar at Cairo University, Faculty of Arts (2000-2001) and Faculty of Political Sciences and Economy (2007-2008). She finished her PhD and MA degrees in conceptual history at the University of Bucharest and BA degree in Arabic Language and Literature at the same university. HANIBAL STĂNCIULESCU, PhD, has been born in 1955 in Poseşti (Prahova). He studied philology (Italian-French studies) at the University of Bucharest. In 1999 he became teacher at the Philological Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures where he teaches Italian language and culture. Before starting his carrier at the University, in the ’90s, he has run the literary magazine CONTRAPUNCT where he wrote dozens of articles. He also published articles in other periodicals. He is the author of several books: short stories (The Household, The Revolution in Appartment 114) and a novel (Murder in Harmonia Mundy Shop). His theater play, The Migraine, has been staged at the National radio as well as on one of Bucharest’s important stages, Teatrul Mic. His scientific work, which has become more important in the latest years, is refering to the contemporary Italian literature, especially Postmodernism. On this subject he publishes in 2007 a book: Italian Landmarks in Umberto Eco’s Novels. Also he published in several books with multiple authors studies on the same subject. His next book will be on the issue of transcodification in the work of several Italian poets and novelists among who one can found Petrarca, Ungaretti and Cesare Pavese. ROXANA UTALE (born in 1966) is a graduate of the Faculty of Letters but, for two decades, she has dedicated herself to Italian studies and now teaches at the Foreign Languages and Literatures Faculty of the University of Bucharest. Her interests mostly concern modern and contemporary Italian literature studies, with a particular stress on playwrights (studies on: Piero 164 CONTRIBUTORS Metastasio, Luigi Pirandello, Ettore Petrolini, Alberto Savinio, Massimo Bontempelli, Eduardo De Filippo, Dino Buzatti, Renato Mainardi, Corrado Alvaro, Alberto Moravia, Natalia Ginzburg, Pier Paolo Pasolini, variety arts, Futurism a.s.o.) It was this field that also constituted the subject for her doctoral thesis (started under the guidance of the dearly missed Prof. Marian Papahagi and finished with Prof. Doina Derer, 2005), Naraturgii. Studiu de dramaturgie italiană din secolul XX [“The Narraturgists. A Study of 20th Century Italian Dramaturgy”] (2009, Editura Universităţii Bucureşti). The same publishing house brought out Roxana Utale’s handbooks, commented anthologies or works edited by her. With Prof. Doina Derer, she is the coordinator and co-author of the Dicţionar Român-Italian [Romanian-Italian Dictionary] (Gramar, Bucharest, 1999; 2008). She is a translator of fiction and essays. ANCA-LUISA VIUSENCO. For the past five years, she has been working as a Teaching Assistant within the Department of Geology of the Faculty of Geography and Geology of the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași. An American Studies graduate, she has recently earned her PhD with the thesis “The Madwoman: From Life to Page to Screen.” The topic of her doctoral research, conducted based on the principles of Cultural Studies and Feminism, was the fictional representation of women suffering from various mental disturbances (from post-partum psychosis to schizophrenia) in seven (semi)autobiographical works belonging to female American authors, as well as, where possible, their corresponding filmic adaptations. Anca-Luisa Viusenco is the author of papers such as “The Madwoman: A Feminist Controversy,” published in the Supplement to Tome XIV (2011) of the Scientific Annals of the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași (Foreign Languages and Literatures), and “The Madness Narrative: Between the Literary, the Therapeutic and the Political,” published in vol. 10, no. 1 (March 2013) of the Romanian Journal of English Studies. Apart from those which oriented her choice of doctoral topic, her academic interests also include ethnic literature, American history and visual art (the work of Georgia O’Keeffe, in particular). DIANA YUKSEL is Assistant Professor at the University of Bucharest, the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, where she teaches courses on Korean language, Korean culture and thought, Korean literature and Korean popular culture. She has received her MA degree in Eastern philosophy from the School of Liberal Arts at Yonsei University in Korea and her PhD from the Doctoral School of Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Bucharest. She published a number of papers based on her research on Korean Confucianism, but also on her teaching experience in Korean Studies. Diana Yuksel is the Coordinator of the Korean Language and Literature program at the University of Bucharest. She has given lectures in Korean Confucianism and Korean cultural identity at Charles University in Prague, Comenius University in Bratislava and the University of Warsaw. ANALELE UNIVERSITĂŢII BUCUREŞTI (AUB) LIMBI ŞI LITERATURI STRĂINE ÎN ATENŢIA COLABORATORILOR Pentru o cooperare eficientă între editori, autori şi casa editorială, autorii de articole şi de recenzii sunt rugaţi să respecte următoarele norme: Articolele pot fi trimise în engleză, franceză, română, italiană, spaniolă, germană. Articolele trebuie să fie trimise pe suport electronic (e-mail sau CD) în format WORD (.doc or .rtf). Articolele trimise trebuie să conţină numele şi afilierea instituţională a autorilor, ca şi adresa de e-mail. Autorii sunt rugaţi să predea şi o scurtă prezentare auto-bio-bibliografică (cca. 10-15 rânduri). Articolele trebuie să fie însoţite de un rezumat (10-15 rânduri), urmat de 5-7 cuvinte-cheie, ambele în engleză (font Times New Roman, corp 9, la un rând). Toate articolele şi recenziile vor fi redactate cu diacritice; dacă sunt folosite fonturi speciale (Fonetic, ArborWin etc.), se va trimite şi tipul de font folosit. Formatul documentului: pagină A4 (nu Letter, Executive, A5 etc.). Marginile paginii: sus – 5,75 cm; jos – 5 cm ; stânga şi dreapta – 4,25 cm ; antet – 4,75 cm; subsol – 1,25 cm. Articolele trimise trebuie tehno-redactate cu font Times New Roman, corp 11, la un rând. Titlul articolului trebuie să fie centrat, cu majuscule aldine (font Times New Roman, corp 11). Numele (cu majuscule aldine) şi afilierea autorului trebuie să fie centrat, sub titlu (font Times New Roman, corp 9). Rezumatul (însoţit de titlul articolului tradus, dacă articolul este în altă limbă decât engleza) precedă textul articolului (font Times New Roman, corp 9, la un rând); cuvintele-cheie (Times New Roman, corp 9, italic) urmează rezumatului. Notele trebuie să apară în josul paginii (cu font Times New Roman, 9, la un rând). Trimiterile bibliografice, indicarea sursei pentru citate – se vor indica în text, după următoarea convenţie: (Autor an:(spaţiu)pagină) − (Pop 2001: 32); (Pop/Ionescu 2001: 32). Se pot utiliza în text abrevieri, sigle (SMCF, vol. II, p. 20) care vor fi întregite la bibliografia finală, după cum urmează: SMCF – Studii şi cercetări privitoare la formarea cuvintelor în limba română, vol. II, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 1961. LR – Limba română etc.... RITL – Revista de istorie şi teorie literară etc.... RRL – Revue roumaine de linguistique Bibliografia va fi indicată după următorul model: 166 (1) Pentru cărţi, volume, monografii se indică numele autorului, prenumele prescurtat, anul apariţiei, titlul cu italic, editura, oraşul (eventual volumul sau numărul de volume). În cazul în care una dintre componentele trimiterii bibliografice lipseşte, se vor folosi normele consacrate − [s.l.], [s.a.]. La volumele colective se va indica îndrumătorul/ coordonatorul/ editorul prin (coord.) sau (ed.)/ (eds.) după nume şi prenume. În cazul în care există mai mulţi autori/ coordonatori/ editori, doar primul nume va fi inversat (Zafiu, R., C. Stan...). Coteanu, I., 1982, Gramatica de bază a limbii române, Editura Albatros, Bucureşti, Riegel, M., J.-C. Pellat, R. Rioul, 1999, Grammaire méthodique du français, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris. Zafiu, R., C. Stan, Al. Nicolae (eds.), 2007, Studii lingvistice. Omagiu profesoarei Gabriela Pană Dindelegan, la aniversare, Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti, Bucureşti. (2) Pentru articole din volume colective se indică numele autorului, prenume, an, titlu între ghilimele, urmat de in + prenume (prescurtat), numele editorului/ editorilor (ed./ eds.), titlul volumului în italice, editura, oraşul, pagini Zamboni, A., 1998, „Cambiamento di lingua o cambiamento di sistema? Per un bilancio cronologico della transizione”, in J. Herman (ed.), La tranzitione dal latino alle lingue romanze. Atti della Tavola Rotonda di Linguistica Storica, Università Ca’Foscari di Venezia, 14-15 giugno 1996, Tübingen, Niemeyer, pp. 99-127. Portine, H., 2012, « De la synonymie à la reformulation », in S. Berbinski, D. Dobre, A. Velicu (éds.), Langages(s) et traduction, Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti, Bucureşti, pp. 47-62 (3) Pentru articole din reviste se indică numele autorului, prenumele autorului, anul, titlul articolului între ghilimele, urmat de in + numele revistei cu italic (neabreviat), volumul/ tomul, numărul, pagini. În cazul în care există mai mulţi autori, doar primul nume va fi inversat. Fischer, I., 1968, « Remarques sur le traitement de la diphtongue au en latin vulgaire », în Revue Roumaine de Linguistique, XIII, nr. 5, pp. 417-420. Cornea, P., 1994, „Noţiunea de autor: statut şi mod de folosinţă”, în Limbă şi literatură, vol. III-IV, pp. 27-35. Sorea, D., A. Stoica, 2011, “Linguistic Approaches to Verbal and Visual Puns”, in Analele Universităţii Bucureşti. Limbi şi Literaturi Străine, anul LX-2011, nr. 1, pp. 111-127. Toate referinţele bibliografice din text trebuie să apară în bibliografia finală ; pentru mai multe detalii despre normele de editare (“Guidelines for authors”), se poate consulta adresa : http://www.unibuc.ro/anale_ub/limbi/index.php Articolele trimise vor fi discutate de o comisie de specialişti în domenii filologice: lingvistică, literatură, studii culturale, studii de traductologie. Articolele trebuie trimise la următoarele adrese de e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]. THE ANNALS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS The authors of the articles and book reviews are requested to observe the following publication guidelines: The articles can be edited in English, French, Romanian, Italian, Spanish, German. The articles should be submitted electronically (by e-mail or CD) in a WORD format (formats .doc or .rtf). The articles should contain the author’s full name and affiliation, along with the author’s e-mail address. The authors are requested to supply an auto-bio-bibliographical note (approximately 10-15 lines). The articles should contain an abstract (10-15 lines), followed by 5-7 Keywords (Times New Roman, 9, single spaced), both in English. All the articles and book reviews must be edited using diacritical marks; if there are special Fonts, these should also be sent. The page format: paper A4 (no Letter, Executive, A5 etc.); The page margins: top – 5,75 cm; bottom – 5 cm; left and right – 4,25 cm; header – 4,75 cm; footer – 1,25 cm. The articles submitted for publication must be typed single spaced, in Times New Roman, 11. The title of the article should be centered, bold, all capitals (Times New Roman, 11) The author’s name (bold capitals) and affiliation should be centered, under the title (Times New Roman, 9). The abstract (with the translated title, if the article is written in other language than English; Times New Roman 9, single spaced) precedes the text of the article; the Keywords (Times New Roman 9, bold) follow the abstract. The notes should be indicated by superscript numbers in the text and typed at the bottom of the page (single spaced, Times New Roman 9). The references or the quotations sources should be indicated in the text, following the format: (Author year:(space)page) − (Pop 2001: 32); (Pop/Ionescu 2001: 32). The abbreviations or abbreviated titles (SMCF, vol. II, p. 20) can be used in the papers; they will be included completely in the listed references at the end of the article, as it follows: SMCF – Studii şi cercetări privitoare la formarea cuvintelor în limba română, vol. II, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 1961. LR – Limba română etc.... RITL – Revista de istorie şi teorie literară etc.... RRL – Revue roumaine de linguistique The references should observe the following styles: 168 1. Books Basic Format: Author: last name, first name (only the name of the first author is inverted), year of publication, Title of Work, publisher, location. Coteanu, I., 1982, Gramatica de bază a limbii române, Editura Albatros, Bucureşti. Riegel, M., J.-C. Pellat, R. Rioul, 1999, Grammaire méthodique du français, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris. 2. Edited Books Basic Format : last name of the editor, first name, (ed./ eds.), year of publication, Title of Work, publisher, location (only the name of the first editor inverted). Zafiu, R., C. Stan, Al. Nicolae (eds.), 2007, Studii lingvistice. Omagiu profesoarei Gabriela Pană Dindelegan, la aniversare, Bucureşti, Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti. 3. Articles or Chapters in Edited Book Basic Format: last name of the author, first name, year of publication, “Title of article/ chapter”, in name of the editor/ editors (ed./ eds.), in Title of Work, publisher, location, pages of chapter. Zamboni, A., 1998, „Cambiamento di lingua o cambiamento di sistema? Per un bilancio cronologico della transizione”, in J. Herman (ed.), La tranzitione dal latino alle lingue romanze. Atti della Tavola Rotonda di Linguistica Storica, Università Ca’Foscari di Venezia, 14-15 giugno 1996, Tübingen, Niemeyer, pp. 99-127. Portine, H., 2012, « De la synonymie à la reformulation », in S. Berbinski, D. Dobre, A. Velicu (éds.), Langages(s) et traduction, Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti, Bucureşti, pp. 47-62 4. Articles in Journals Basic Format: last name of the author, first name (only the name of the first author is inverted), year of publication, “Title of the article”, in Title of Periodical, volume number (issue number), pages. Fischer, I., 1968, « Remarques sur le traitement de la diphtongue au en latin vulgaire », in Revue Roumaine de Linguistique, XIII, nr. 5, pp. 417-420. Cornea, P., 1994, „Noţiunea de autor: statut şi mod de folosinţă”, în Limbă şi literatură, vol. III-IV, pp. 27-35. Sorea, D., A. Stoica, 2011, “Linguistic Approaches to Verbal and Visual Puns”, in Analele Universităţii Bucureşti. Limbi şi Literaturi Străine, anul LX-2011, nr. 1, pp. 111-127. All the bibliographical references should appear in the final bibliography. For some more details (Guidelines for authors), visit also : http://www.unibuc.ro/anale_ub/limbi/index.php All the papers will be peer-reviewed by a committee of specialists in different philological fields: linguistics, literature, cultural studies, translation studies. The first version of the articles should be submitted to the e-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected]. Tiparul s-a executat sub c-da nr. 627/2013 la Tipografia Editurii Universităţii din Bucureşti