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Annals of “Dunărea de Jos” University of GALAŢI 

Fascicle XIII, New Series. 

Issue 28, XVI (XXVII), 2009 

pp. 5-10 

Language 

and 

Literature 

STRUCTURI ŞI FORME LITERARE/REPREZENTĂRI ALE FEMINITĂŢII 

ÎN NUVELA ROMÂNEASCĂ PAŞOPTISTĂ 

Simona Antofi 

În opinia lui Mihai Zamfir, proza intervalului 1830–1880 reprezintă „un mare text 

relativ unitar, a cărui formulă internă de generare se modifică (...) foarte lent”, text 

subsumabil binomului generalizator Memorie versus Imaginaţie – „un model al prozei 

româneşti din secolul al XIX-lea”. Explicându-şi termenii, criticul arată că „memoria implică 

tot ceea ce se referă la asimilarea de formule epice antecedente”, „la o memorie culturală”, în 

vreme ce Imaginaţia, o „minus memorie”, reprezintă, din punctul său de vedere, „acea 

facultate epică a cărei acţiune tinde la producerea senzaţiei de noutate sub raport diegetic, 

dar şi sub acela al caracterelor, al descripţiei” (Zamfir 1989: 70-71). Sub această umbrelă 

teoretică s-ar cuveni situată, prin urmare, multitudinea de manifestări concrete, plurimorfe, 

ale nuvelisticii româneşti în discuţie. 

Oarecum polemic la adresa opiniei citate, Liviu Papadima suplimentează binomul prin 

componenta Observaţie, respectiv cu preocuparea prozei şi a nuvelei paşoptiste de a 

cartografia şi de a ierarhiza realitatea vremii. Raportul concurenţial Memorie versus 

Imaginaţie explică invazia categoriilor literare ale memorialisticii în întreg teritoriul ficţiunii. 

Faptul este demonstrat de Mihai Zamfir şi este pus pe seama nevoii, resimţite de autorii 

vremii, de a-şi autentifica scrierile narative. Dat fiind statutul incert al prozei româneşti la 

începuturile ei, datorat, în principal, autorităţii modelului literar şi existenţial poetic, 

valoarea estetică se bizuie pe complementaritatea dintre emoţie, sinceritate, autenticitate şi 

autobiografie. 

Corelată cu incapacitatea aproape generală de invenţie epică, a scriitorilor români ai 

perioadei, această stare de fapt a dus, în mod firesc, la umplerea tiparelor Memoriei literare 

cu încărcătură autobiografică implicit literaturizată. Instrumentarul favorit al literaturizării 

este cel melodramatic, bazat pe perspectiva maniheistă asupra lumii şi pe o retorică specifică: 

coincidenţe numeroase (regimul coincidenţelor poate fi investit cu funcţia de principal motor 

narativ şi diegetic, aşa cum se întâmplă în Buchetiera de la Florenţa, în cadrul căreia suita de 

coincidenţe face să progreseze naraţiunea şi, în parte, decide soarta eroilor), situaţii 

lacrimogene, lovituri de teatru şi posibilitatea amestecului de niveluri stilistice. 

Toate acestea ar ilustra, potrivit lui Nicolae Manolescu, apartenenţa prozei paşoptiste 

la romantismul de tip Biedermeier. Comentând punctul de vedere al lui Virgil Nemoianu 

(Îmblânzirea romantismului), Manolescu (1990: 192) evidenţiază principalele tipuri care se 

amestecă în Biedermeier Romanticism, şi-anume biograficul, melodramaticul şi istoricul, dar 

se desparte de opina lui Zamfir făcând două observaţii categorice : „Nu cred că, totuşi, să se 

poată vorbi de o puritate a paradigmei, fiind mai degrabă vorba de o proză hibridă” chiar 

dacă „graniţele relativ discrete dintre speciile memorialistice sunt mai des încălcate decât 

aceea, mult mai netă, dintre memorialistică şi ficţiune” –ceea ce contrazice punctul de vedere 

anterior, pentru care se poate accepta ideea autonomizării memorialisticii, componentă 

principală a prozei româneşti de început, în raport cu celelalte forme literare narative; iar a 

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doua observaţie slujeşte de minune demersului nostru, căci evidenţiază acuitatea spiritului 

critic al scriitorilor paşoptişti şi putinţa, ba chiar firescul existenţei metatextelor : 

„probabil că trăsătura cea mai remarcabilă a prozei noastre romantice (exceptând 

romanul) este alexandrinismul ei, faptul de a fi de la început bătrână ca mentalitate şi 

sofisticată stilistic” (Manolescu 1990: 192 şi 193). 

În această ordine de idei, se cuvine amintită opinia lui Mircea Muthu, pentru care 

balcanitatea, respectiv „spiritul sud–estic” în literatură, se regăseşte ca stare de spirit 

decantată şi devenită, „în evantaiul de motive, teme, tipologii, atitudini şi performanţe 

artistice”, balcanism literar. Configurat de un text cu multiple niveluri semantice, precum 

Istoria unui galben, balcanismul literar românesc îşi dezvăluie dubla sa dimensiune, parodică 

şi de evocare (Muthu 2002: 72 şi 79), în virtutea căreia nuvelele paşoptiste îşi asumă o dublă 

funcţie: de a reproduce/evoca artistic realitatea, conform convenţiei literare a epocii, şi de a 

pune în discuţie procedeele de literaturizare ca şi formele literare aflate în circulaţie 

demonstrând, astfel, deschiderea spre ironie şi spre parodie a prozatorilor vremii. 

Literatură a „memoriei restauratoare”, naraţiunea literară din secolul al XIX-lea şi 

scriitorul care-o compune relevă „«intenţia de a documenta», în limitele adevărului şi, 

aproape întotdeauna, în absenţa oricăror pretenţii de exprimare estetică despre oameni şi 

întâmplări ştiute de scriitor prin sine însuşi sau prin alţii” (Curticăpeanu 1977: 13). La nivelul 

scriiturii, însă, cultura, spiritul critic, rezervele estetice, maliţiile şi ironiile prozatorilor 

români, familiarizaţi cu literaturile apusene, produc amestecuri inedite de realitate 

literaturizată, pe suport (auto)biografic cu funcţia de a legitima ficţiunea, şi reversul parodic, 

reacţia de disconfort intelectual provocată de nevoia de a apela la modele apusene mediocre 

şi de a le autohtoniza în limitele unei literaturi ce abia se năştea. Se adaugă ceea ce Liviu 

Papadima numeşte „miza lecturii «estetice» şi cea a persuasiunii ideologice”, dirijate în 

conformitate cu întreg contextul politic şi social paşoptist, care duce la „relaţia de solidaritate 

între ficţional şi nonficţional.” Mai mult, în condiţiile funcţionării precare a „instituţiei 

literaturii” şi într-o cultură marcată de efortul definirii instituţionale a principalelor tipuri de 

discurs–istoria, ştiinţa, morala, didactica, ideologia–proza literară se vede obligată să 

satisfacă două cerinţe distincte: să instruiască şi să se supună logicii naraţiunii literare, 

aceasta din urmă cu propria sa orientare dublă: cauzală, necesară pentru producerea 

efectului de verosimilitate, şi teleologică, cu misiunea de a asigura unitatea şi relevanţa 

textului (Papadima 1989: 147 şi 151). 

De departe cea mai prolifică specie literară a perioadei paşoptiste, nuvela – şi formele 

sale concrete – se poate clasifica, în funcţie de dominanta tematică a fiecărui text, în patru 

categorii în cadrul cărora instrumentarul literar, strategiile şi tehnicile de lucru se amestecă, 

circulă de la o categorie la alta şi intră în combinaţii aproape neaşteptate pentru „tinereţea” 

prozei româneşti din epocă. Astfel, nuvelei istorice, celei sentimentale şi melodramatice, 

precum şi celei de moravuri, i se adaugă nuvela exerciţiu de stil, metatextul care aspiră la a 

deconstrui, în special cu mijloacele parodiei, modelele de literaritate ale vremii. 

Fundamentat pe o restricţionare a strategiilor narative, pe favorizarea netă a relatării la 

persoana I singular şi facilitând, astfel, invazia biografismului şi asocierea acestuia cu latura 

documentară a textelor narative, modelul melodramatic asigură, totuşi, garanţia 

ficţionalităţii tocmai prin rigiditatea frustrantă – pentru spiritele lucide ale epocii – a reţetei 

sale literare. Emfatizând convenţia, melodramaticul acomodat nuvelistic permite elaborarea 

unei instanţe naratoare hibride, „autonaratorul” care, pe de o parte, „intens personalizat”, îşi 

tematizează postura auctorială (Papadima 1989: 151), explicitându-şi intenţiile şi 

justificându-se, iar pe de alta, îşi asumă intenţiile specifice instanţei sale, în varianta Genette 

sau a altora. Ia naştere, astfel, ceea ce Nicolae Manolescu numeşte, în alt context, „tirania 

semnificativului”. 

6

Naratorul adesea intradiegetic şi cu veleităţi auctoriale se comportă de multe ori 

despotic cu cititorul, dirijându-i cu autoritate lectura şi instaurând un pact de lectură univoc. 

Sprijinit, în demersurile sale narative, de întreg angrenajul textului, care anticipează ferm 

diegeza şi, mai ales, deznodământul, naratorul şi, prin el, scriitorul, cultivă „suprasaturarea 

informaţională a codurilor narative”, „hiperdeterminarea”, ca instrumente ale 

„predictibilităţii” narative influenţate, de asemenea, de „indiciile privind încadrarea într-un 

gen anumit, sistemul personajelor, teme proeminente”. Ca modele literare apusene insistent 

valorificate în acest context, „romanţul” de senzaţie, novella melodramatică sau povestirea 

de aventuri cultivă arbitrarul, la nivelul loviturilor de teatru, de pildă, dar îl şi „domesticesc” 

(Papadima 1989: 161 şi 167). 

La prima vedere, Istoria unui galbân, aparţinând lui Alecsandri, ilustrează tendinţele 

romantice şi modelele literare apusene ale epocii, exploatând, prin tablouri şi scene de 

moravuri, culoarea locală, dimensiunea etnografică şi sociologică a prozei Biedermeier. Pe 

baza personajului de tip picaro-conform tradiţiei literare de sursă spaniolă şi de secole XVI – 

XVII, un vagabond, un aventurier, un cerşetor care circulă dintr-o pătură socială în alta, 

dintr-o ţară în alta etc. –se investighează medii sociale şi moravuri şi se satirizează acid 

relaţiile sociale, ierarhiile, sistemul de valori, mijloacele de parvenire etc. din societatea 

românească a epocii. 

Actualizând strategic procedeul alegoriei, scriitorul îşi etajează textul, corelându-l cu 

două instanţe narative distincte, doi naratori care îşi asumă, fiecare, secvenţe distincte. 

Primul narator fixează cadrul – rama – istorisirilor celor de-al doilea şi asigură, prin relatarea 

la persoana întâi şi printr-o serie de similitudini biografice cu autorul (redactor la Propăşirea), 

prezumţia de autenticitate şi de credibilitate. Acest narator îşi recuză, însă, discursul satiric, 

punându-l pe seama celui de-al doilea narator, un galben olandez cu certe veleităţi 

scriitoriceşti. Dubla schemă a comunicării, astfel instituită, antrenează un naratar prim – 

cititorul virtual – căruia i se adresează satira socială şi morală a timpului, şi un naratar 

secund, real în ţesătura textului, o para turcească. 

Modalităţile narării diferă şi ele şi antrenează textul într-un joc metatextual de 

autoreflectare ironică a „virtuţilor” naratoriale apreciate în epocă: mânat de o curiozitate cu 

iz ironic, primul narator – „autonaratorul” – se auto-ironizează în această postură şi 

ironizează, totodată, prin consimţirea tacită la sancţionarea, de către para, a „practicii 

literare” a galbenului, recuzita romantică a timpului şi modelele ei apusene. Găsind un 

echivalent alegoric strategiei narative a „manuscrisului găsit”, „autonaratorul” îşi îngăduie 

libertatea de a se pretinde un singur scriptor. La rândul său, galbenul–narator serveşte drept 

instrument pentru realizarea, la adăpostul unei binevenite obiectivităţi de suprafaţă, a satirei 

sociale multiplu orientate aşa încât, graţie unei secţiuni transversale prin societatea epocii se 

obţine o rudimentară „comedie umană” miniaturală şi se dă o rezolvare ideologică pentru 

obligaţia textului de a fi verosimil. Pe de altă parte, galbenul olandez colaborează, împreună 

cu naratarul său adesea recalcitrant, la un „manual al bunului povestaş” (Papadima 1989: 

195), trecând în revistă şi exemplificând, prin discurs, suficiente elemente negative ale 

literaturii epocii. Rezultă de aici un inventar de producţii literare sau (pseudo)literare – un 

metatext sui generis – care actualizează şi judecă acid modelele literare ale epocii. 

Impresia de ansamblu pe care o lasă Istoria unui galbân, deopotrivă „poveste a vieţii” 

galbenului şi „istorisire”, este de „amestec de istorisire picarescă şi cronică de moravuri, 

abilă întreţesere de «popular» şi de «livresc»” (Papadima 1989: 245). Un efect imediat al 

acestei procedări este ceea ce Andrei Bodiu (2002: 26) numeşte „teatralizarea epicului” – 

formă de hibridizare a epicului şi a dramaticului , la care se adaugă jocul de scenă, bine 

intenţionat, şi cu scop parodic, al galbenului, precum şi hibridizarea cu secvenţe de discurs 

poetic „împrumutate” de autor personajelor sale şi, automat, devenite victime ale deriziunii. 

Exploatând avantajele povestirii cu sertare, care oferă galbenului întreaga gamă de 

disponibilităţi şi de instrumente literare ale epocii, adesea convertite în instrumentele 

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autorului moralist (ca în povestea tragică – şi exemplu de nuvelă sentimentală cu recuzită 

melodramatică – a ţigăncii Zamfira), Istoria unui galbân nu mai blochează iniţiativele 

interpretative ale cititorului avizat ci, tocmai prin dramatizarea narării, pune în evidenţă 

colaborarea interpretativă activă, „pe viu”, a naratorului-personaj cu naratarul său. Urmarea 

este aceea că repere de bază ale convenţiei melodramatice sunt scurtcircuitate ferm, precum 

tema „suferinţei în amor”, sau „modelul de sensibilitate” al vremii, portretul „canonic” al 

frumuseţii feminine, deconstruit cu precizie de galben, spre încântarea paralei (uşor geloasă 

pe obiectul presupus al adoraţiei galbenului) ş. a. 

În ţesătura istorisirii, dialogul intertextual îşi face loc cu putere, printr-un lanţ de 

parodii bine conturate: parodierea modelului melodramatic însuşi, actualizat ca istorie de 

dragoste a celor două monede, din care nu lipsesc lovitura de teatru, recunoaşterea 

spectaculoasă, descrierea frumuseţii feminine şi a celei masculine şi confesiunea obligatorie; 

parodierea – prin prezenţa unor elemente ce fac posibilă recunoaşterea modelului apusean – 

romanul de capă şi spadă, sau parodia Desperarea, o demonstraţie pe dos de virtuozitate 

poetică ce sancţionează reţeta poetică a epocii. Pe lângă aceste elemente se cuvin amintite şi 

„reuşitele” literare ale galbenului – instantaneele realiste, dar ascultând de ideologia socială 

romantică, rudimentele nuvelistice, nucleele nuvelistice autentice, autonome (povestea 

Zamfirei), precum şi fiziologiile ce creionează tipuri umane şi sociale - parazitul social 

(cartoforul), parvenitul prin femei, avarul (evreu), sau tipologii romantice încă active (hoţul 

de codru). 

Întrucât adesea paraua intervine şi rupe coerenţa modelelor literare sau stilistice, 

refuzând „pactul de lectură” şi sancţionând, prin desele ei avertismente, suspendarea 

nejustificată a naraţiunii şi parantezele digresive, se poate spune că ambii, naratorul şi 

naratarul, „se luptă pentru aproprierea «sujetului»” (Papadima 1989: 196). Având toate 

atributele necesare unui scriitor, paraua este, virtual, un contracandidat serios al galbenului 

şi jocul de-a uite-literatura-nu-e-literatura, din Istoria unui galben, susţine opinia potrivit 

căreia „învinuite de clişee romantice şi convenţionalism, scuzate oarecum prin tinereţea 

autorului, scrierile de început ale lui Alecsandri au, de fapt, un substrat polemic nu 

îndeajuns de evident pentru toţi criticii scriitorului” (Curticăpeanu 1977 : 137). 

Nuvela lui Negruzzi, O alergare de cai, rescrie, metatextual, acelaşi model melodramatic, 

optând pentru procedeul contrapunctării a două istorii şi a două istorisiri spuse de doi 

naratori distincţi. Cel dintâi, şi el un „autonarator” strategic, se înclină, ironic, gustului 

publicului şi dă textului necesarul aspect memorialistic întrucât, afirmă Nicolae Manolescu 

(1990: 198) „ca să fie creditabilă povestea de amor, e nevoie de această mise-en-scène extrem 

de minuţioasă, în care îşi găseşte locul însuşi naratorul, introdus cât se poate de subtil”. 

Acest prim narator prezintă lumea bună a Chişinăului şi slujeşte de naratar celui de-al doilea 

narator, doamna B. Aceasta din urmă relatează povestea nefericită de dragoste a Olgăi – 

înţesată cu elemente ale recuzitei sentimentale şi melodramatice – asigurând textului 

garanţia de autenticitate şi încărcătura emoţională obligatorie. Căci doamna B. a auzit 

povestea chiar de la Olga, care i s-a confesat de mai multe ori, iar „autonaratorul” îşi poate 

permite, şi de această dată, să pozeze în simplu scriptor, lipsit de responsabilităţi narative 

sau ... morale. De altfel, pe tot parcursul relatării doamnei B., maliţiosul „autonarator” 

întrerupe istorisirea contrapunctând-o cu ironii bine regizate, care reverberează în ţesătura 

de ansamblu a acestei „bijuterii de precizie tehnică” negruzziene (Manolescu 1990: 197). 

Istorisirea doamnei B, este încadrată, la nivelui ansamblului textual, în naraţiunea cu 

aspect memorialistic a naratorului prim, ce se autoportretizează cu falsă candoare drept „un 

june brunet care, dupe barbetă şi musteţi, se conoştea că era străin” (Negruzzi 1983: 32) şi 

vizează, maliţios, clişeele literare ale ascunderii identităţii povestitorului. În acest mod, 

miezul melodramatic „îşi creează propriul context situaţional” (Papadima 1989: 224) care, de 

această dată, îl invalidează, destructurându-i mecanismele. 

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Senzaţia de artificialitate pe care o antrenează stereotipiile temei iubirii (ne)împărtăşite 

este eficient amendată de asumarea parodică a rolului îndrăgostitului nefericit (sau a 

seducătorului fără scrupule, dar numai aluziv astfel, aşa cum arată scrisoarea primită de 

narator de la o tânără fată care îl iubeşte), completat cu autoaprecierea aerului melodramatic 

arborat intenţionat (Manolescu 1990: 198) şi cu trimiterea intertextuală la Balzac. În acest 

mod, povestea Olgăi, sinucigaşa îndrăgostită iremediabil de Ipolit, femeia fascinantă şi 

misterioasă ale cărei lecturi duc – ca într-un alt intertext celebru – cuplul Francesca da Rimini 

şi Paolo Malatesta din Divina Commedia – la îndrăgostire şi la formarea cuplului tragic, este 

situată într-un „model interactiv de funcţionare a literaturii” (Papadima 1989: 215) care 

permite reacţiile cele mai diverse: fie acceptarea „pactului de lectură” cerut de convenţia 

melodramaticului (lecturile Olgăi au funcţie premonitorie şi dezvăluie pasionalitatea ascunsă 

a femeii, hărăzită din start unui final tragic), fie detaşarea lucidă şi ironică de convenţie şi de 

clişeele literare în uz. 

Exploatând valoarea de document autentic a scrisorii, naratorul îşi joacă mai departe 

rolul melodramatic şi, ca orice înşelat în dragoste, mimează actul retragerii din lume sau al ... 

călugăririi. Şi pentru ca ascuţimea critică a demersului parodic să fie şi mai evidentă, se 

inserează în text, pe baza procedeului mise en abîme, un rezumat al întâmplărilor şi al 

tipologiei literare a personajelor, ilustrate de nuvelă, precum şi al strategiilor deconstructive 

ale noului tip nuvelistic exersat de Negruzzi. În acest fragment se regăsesc, concurenţial, mai 

multe registre stilistice, „în care funebrul se combină cu burlescul, patima Olgăi cu cochetăria 

doamnei B., oile pastoralei neoclasice cu vibratoul melodramei romantice” (Negruzzi 1983: 

47) şi, totodată, variantele „pozitive” ale frumuseţii feminine, Olga şi doamna B., cu 

imaginea ilar – grotescă a Saşei, cea căreia i s-a scurs un ochi, şchioapă de un picior, dar care 

„scrie, ceteşte groaznic” (Negruzzi 1983: 47). 

Epilogul (pseudo)istoriei de amor dintre narator şi doamna B. dă ultima lovitură 

eşafodajului melodramatic din centrul textului. Întors în Chişinău, după douăzeci şi doi de 

ani, naratorul face o vizită doamnei B. şi relatează : 

„Găsii o băbuţă zbârcită, înconjurată de căţei şi de motani, care, după ce cu politeţă 

mă invită lângă dânsa, îmi prezentă o priză de tabac! […]. 

--Cum, doamna mea, porţi ochilari ? 

--Ce ? Ai pleşuvit ? 

--Tragi tabac ? 

--Ţ-au căzut dinţii ? ş. c. l., s. c. l. ”(Negruzzi 1983: 53-54) 

Pe nedrept uitată, eronat lecturată, nuvela exerciţiu de stil a lui Negruzzi este încă o 

dovadă a lucidităţii critice a actului de scriitură, luciditate care a însoţit mersul literaturii 

române de la începuturile acesteia. 

Referinţe 

Bodiu, A. (2002). Şapte teme ale romanului postpaşoptist, Piteşti: Paralela 45. 

Curticăpeanu, D. (1977). Vasile Alecsandri prozator, Bucureşti: Minerva. 

Manolescu, N. (1990). Istoria critică a literaturii române, vol. I, Bucureşti: Minerva. 

Muthu, M. (2002). Balcanismul literar românesc, III, Balcanitate şi balcanism, Cluj-Napoca: Dacia. 

Negruzzi, C. (1983). Păcatele tinereţelor, Bucureşti: Minerva. 

Papadima, L. (1989). Literatură şi comunicare. Relaţia autor–cititor în proza paşoptistă şi postpaşoptistă, Iaşi: 

Polirom. 

Zamfir, M. (1989). Din secolul romantic, Bucureşti: Cartea Românească. 

9

Abstact 

The Romanian literary production has for a long time witnessed a tendency towards aligning with 

the literary phenomena of the western civilization. During the revolutionary year of 1848, the 

short story, for instance, which was one of the most prolific literary forms, was characterized by 

relative submissiveness to the European literary patterns accounted for in the ironic and parodic 

discourse overtones. The parodic style developed by Vasile Alecsandri or by Constantin Negruzzi 

in several varieties of literary proves the transparency of a critical spirit bearing upon the creative 

art of literary criticism performed during the same period. 

Résumé 

On a remarqué depuis longtemps la tendance de la littérature roumaine de se synchroniser avec la 

littérature européenne occidentale, ce qui met en évidence d’une façon particulière le statut de la 

femme du point de vue littéraire. Pendant l’époque de 1848, une des plus fertiles formes littéraires, 

la nouvelle, se caractérise par la soumission relative aux modèles littéraires européens, aussi que 

par l’exercice ironique et parodique. La démarche parodique se développe, dans la pratique 

littéraire de Vasile Alecsandri ou de Constantin Negruzzi, en plusieurs variantes et prouve 

l’existence de la lucidité et de l’esprit critique qui accompagnent, à l’époque mentionnée, l’acte de 

création littéraire. 

Rezumat 

S-a remarcat de multă vreme tendinţa literaturii române de a se sincroniza cu literatura europeană 

occidentală, fapt ce scoate în evidenţă, într-o manieră cu totul specială, statutul femeii văzut prin 

prisma literaturii. În timpul perioadei paşoptiste, una dintre cele mai fertile forme literare, nuvela, 

se caracterizează prin relativa supunere faţă de modelele literare europene precum şi prin 

exerciţiul ironic şi parodic. Demersul parodic se dezvoltă în mai multe variante în practica literară 

a lui Vasile Alecsandri sau a lui Constantin Negruzzi şi demonstrază existenţa spiritului critic şi 

a lucidităţii care însoţesc, în perioada menţionată, actul creaţiei literare. 

10




pp. 11-14 

FORMULA LIVRESCĂ A UMORULUI 

ÎN SCRIERILE LUI 

ION CREANGĂ 

Simona Antofi 

11 

Language 

and 

Literature 

Formula de umor creată prin scrisul literar al lui Ion Creangă stârneşte, şi azi, dacă nu 

controverse, în mod cert, dezbateri concentrate fie în jurul surselor folclorice ale comicului şi, 

implicit, ale umorului, fie pe problematica raportului dintre scriitorul aşa-zis poporal şi cel pe 

deplin conştient de actul său de creaţie. În felul său – discret metaforic, literar şi voit 

ambiguu – Călinescu remarcase natura aparent concurenţială, înşelătoare pentru neavizaţi, a 

scrisului, a umorului şi a plăcerii estetice provocate de opera lui Creangă: „plăcerea stârnită 

de audiţia scrierilor lui Creangă e de rafinament erudit. [...]. Creangă e un umanist al ştiinţei 

săteşti, scoţând din erudiţia lui un râs gros, fără a fi totuşi un autor vesel prin materie. 

Conţinutul poveştilor şi al amintirilor este indiferent în sine, ba chiar apt de a fi tratat liric ori 

fantastic, veselă este hohotirea interioară, setea nestinsă de vorbe, sorbite pentru ele însele 

dintr-o voluptate strict individuală” (Simion 2004 : 451). 

Criticul semnalează, de altfel, două aspecte esenţiale ale scriiturii lui Ion Creangă: 

centrarea asupra sa însăşi, într-o formă de autoreferenţialitate inedită şi greu de hotărât în ce 

măsură intenţionată de autor, şi figura complexă a spiritului creator. Dispus să-şi asume 

public, mai ales în cercul elitist al Junimii, rolul scriitorului popular, autor de ţărănii şi hâtru, 

gata oricând să înveselească prin anecdotele lui corosive, Ion Creangă a fost, în realitate, un 

forçat de la plume al literaturii române. 

Lupta continuă cu inerţiile şi capcanele limbii – a aceleia literare, pe care a predat-o 

învăţăceilor săi, şi a aceleia deprinse în Humuleşti – s-a dovedit a fi, în ultimă instanţă, şi o 

luptă cu sine. Lupta dintre răzeşul din Humuleşti, bun ştiutor de carte şi cu mintea limpede 

şi severă a dascălului, şi scriitorul în devenire, perfect conştient de riscurile meseriei şi de 

talentul pe care-l avea. 

Pe de altă parte, (re)facerea lumii prin discurs refuncţionalizează, în cazul lui Ion 

Creangă, procedee ale oralităţii şi de sorginte populară – probabil, singurele pe care scriitorul 

le simţea ca fiind ale sale – transformându-le în instrumente aducătoare de prospeţime ale 

literaturii culte. Reelaborarea imaginii satului Humuleşti se bizuie, în egală măsură, pe efecte 

de real menite să stabilizeze o referinţă ambiguizată constant de jocurile de limbaj, ca şi pe 

capacitatea discursului literar de a-şi construi un referent de al doilea grad, pe ruinele celui 

primar. 

Aşadar, lectura euristică simplifică, dar şi văduveşte scriitura lui Ion Creangă de 

adevăratele ei valenţe. Lectura hermeneutică, însă, face posibilă sesizarea şi analizarea 

opţiunilor stilistice ale autorului, a arhitecturii de ansamblu a fiecărui text în parte şi a 

tuturor, împreună. În sensul acesta, umorul lui Ion Creangă poate corespunde definiţiilor 

deja clasicizate, cu condiţia acceptării de către orice interpret a particularităţilor de scriitură 

care transferă sursa râsului în atitudinea auctorială şi în volutele textului. 

Comparând umorul cu ironia, şi formula umorului lui Ion Creangă cu cele ale altor

scriitori din literatura universală, Todoran remarcă : 

“umorul rezultă dintr-o «integrare» a omului în lume, iar ironia dintr-o «distanţare» faţă 

de ea. Superioritatea umoristului este aparenta lui prostie, adică aparenta lui inferioritate, 

care se dovedeşte o reală superioritate când înălţimea lumii imaginare este măsurată pe 

dimensiunea vieţii lui reale.” 

(Todoran 1985 : 64) 

Altfel spus, notele de ironie sau de autoironie din Amintiri, de pildă, sunt reacţii ale 

autorului însuşi, ale cărui intrări şi ieşiri din text sunt rapid cenzurate prin întoarcerea la 

literatură – „Hai mai bine despre copilărie să vorbim, căci ea singură este veselă şi 

nevinovată.” Retragerea în literatură, sub zodia umorului atoatevindecător reprezintă, fără 

îndoială, şi o soluţie de supravieţuire. Faptul a fost deja remarcat în critica de specialitate. 

Efectul catarctic al scriiturii şi al umorului pe care-l înmagazinează transformă copilăria celui 

mai mare fiu al unei familii cu mulţi fraţi, destul de înstărită, dar mereu cu grija zilei de 

mâine, în copilăria copilului universal, iar satul Humuleşti într-un eden infantil spre care 

gândurile adultului se întorc mereu, pentru o necesară regenerare afectivă, spirituală şi 

creatoare. 

Mereu luminoasă, imaginea mamei pare a fi unul dintre instrumentele privilegiate de 

rescriere literară a istoriei proprii. Aşa se face că aparenta contradicţie dintre umorul – mereu 

ţărănesc şi proaspăt 1 – şi natura deosebit de elaborată a scriiturii din Amintiri dispare odată 

cu evidenţierea statutului de roman indirect a textului, în mod fundamental recreator al unei 

vieţi cu exemplaritate de destin. 

În fond, în termenii Mariei Corti, „pentru un scriitor, stilurile sau registrele oferă un 

model formal”, iar „elementele care provin dintr-un tip de scriitură sau registru” „poartă în 

ele, împreună cu conţinutul semantic, o «informaţie suplimentară de registru».” 2 Aşa se 

explică faţada folclorică a eşafodajului arhitectural din Amintiri, ca şi din orice alt text al lui 

Ion Creangă. 

Mai mult decât atât, aparenta contradicţie se regăseşte şi în structura spiritului creator. 

Conştientizându-şi, fără doar şi poate, latura ţărănească, sau, altfel spus, disponibilitatea 

intrinsecă pentru faptele literare pe care le numea, adeseori cu falsă modestie, ţărănii, 

scriitorul se dedublează, suprapunându-i originii sale ţărăneşti conştiinţa lucidă a creatorului 

de literatură care trebuie să vorbească despre lume – despre lumea sa – pe cât de bine poate. 

Şi dacă „la fiecare efort de construire al producătorului, aceasta [opera] suferă o alterare, 

opera îl modifică şi, odată terminată, reacţionează, încă o dată, asupra lui” (Negrici 1978 : 20). 

În această relaţie complexă a scriiturii cu autorul ei şi a acestuia cu sine pârghia 

umorului funcţionează ca soluţie de recalibrare a realităţii care, nu de puţine ori, a dat năvală 

peste scriitor. Episoadele dureroase ale existenţei lui Ion Creangă, culminând cu declanşarea 

epilepsiei, sunt binecunoscute. De aceea, scepticismul pare a fi „fondul de atitudine 

existenţială pe care se clădeşte umorul.” 3 Iar gratuităţii umorului i se adaugă acea atitudine 

înţelegătoare, îngăduitoare şi nota discretă de simpatie care supradetermină scepticismul. 4 

În Moş Nechifor Coţcariul, de exemplu, neajunsurile meseriei de harabagiu şi nu 

suficienta îndestulare care par a se ascunde în spatele existenţei prin cuvinte a personajului 

masculin pălesc simţitor în faţa aventurii erotice din limbaj, care o surclasează pe cea reală. 

Putând fi citită şi ca un discurs involuntar metatextual, nuvela propune un dialog savuros, 

prin aluzii şi echivocuri, între harabagiu şi giupâneşica Malca, respectiv între un abil 

mânuitor al forţei persuasive şi creatoare a limbajului şi un interlocutor nu mai puţin dibaci 

la vorbe şi, cu siguranţă, priceput interpret. 

Mult mai aproape de umor decât de obscen, expresia echivocă ascunde şi descoperă, în 

acelaşi timp, un proces de negociere între Moş Nechifor şi giupâneşică, fie a disponibilităţii 

erotice a ambilor, fie a (in)discretei puteri a limbajului literar de a înlocui pe de-a-ntregul 

12

ealitatea. Drumurile săptămânale pe care Malca le va face, cu harabagiul, la socri, denotă, 

aşa cum s-a remarcat deja, apropierea erotică a celor doi şi, totodată, obiceiurile – şi 

obişnuinţele – lingvistice comune. 

Cu sau fără ameninţarea vreunui lup, cu o căruţă (aparent) gata de a se dezmembra, cei 

doi călători vor înnopta de fiecare dată în aceeaşi pădure protectoare şi e de bănuit că vor 

prelungi mereu plăcerea dialogului ce pare a masca flirtul, pentru a-l crea undeva dincolo de 

aparenţe. „Umorul povestitorului constând – remarca Eugen Todoran – tocmai în echivocul 

care ne scuteşte de urmărirea întâmplărilor până la ceea ce în realitate este obscen” (Todoran 

1985 : 62). 

Iar Mircea A. Diaconu semnalează, odată cu nenumăratele fire care-l leagă pe autor de 

personajul său 5, dimensiunea inedit textualistă a literaturii lui Ion Creangă, respectiv 

„spectacolul limbajului în sine, spectacol gratuit şi autonom”, căci „orice ierarhie se 

suspendă, orice convenţie este distrusă şi un sentiment al egalizării tuturor nivelurilor 

existenţei provoacă râsul «homeric»: conştiinţa plasează egalizarea sub semnul ludicului, al 

gratuităţii.” 6 

Se adaugă, aici, căutarea structurii sonore desăvârşite a limbajului, ca o garanţie a 

literaturităţii şi a acreditării răzeşului din Humuleşti ca scriitor. Acel „hermetism folcloric” 

de care vorbea Ion Negoiţescu înseamnă atât putinţa de a crea atmosferă la nivelul sugestiei 

sonore cât mai ales boicotarea voită a sensului referenţial, aşa încât personajele şi acţiunile 

lor să fie „cortina în spatele căreia inteligenţa, ironia, complexele scriitorului construiesc un 

alt semnificat”, estetic. 7 Şi un profil al autorului din text deghizându-se în spatele 

anecdoticului şi luând pe rând locul fiecăruia dintre personajele sale, pe care le alimentează 

mereu, afectiv şi lingvistic. 

Restituindu-şi lumea copilăriei pe măsură ce o creează, Creangă se construieşte şi pe 

sine, „sceptic şi autoironic, histrion şi narcisist” 8, transformând o practică semnificantă într-un 

modus vivendi care nu face concurenţă stării civile, cum s-ar putea spune, pentru că o 

înlocuieşte, venind dinspre literatură, cu vocaţia autenticităţii. 

Note 

1. Eugen Todoran remarcă: „în comparaţie cu formule caracteristice ale umorului la diferiţii scriitori ai 

literaturii universale – în dezvoltarea ei istorică – umorul tragic la Cervantes, corosiv la Boccacio, 

indecent la Rabelais, jovial la Chaucer, trist la Mark Twain, paradoxal la Bernard Shaw – umorul lui 

Creangă rămâne un umor ţărănesc, păstrând în el urmele originii lui folclorice” – în Secţiuni 

literare, 1985, p. 53 

2. Maria Corti, Principiile comunicării literare, Ed. Univers, Bucureşti, 1981, pp. 90 - 91 

3. Mircea A. Diaconu, Ion Creangă. Nonconformism şi gratuitate, Ed. Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 2002, p. 103 

4. Idem, p. 105 

5. „Moş Nechifor e un alter ego al autorului pentru că el înspăimântă parodiind spaima şi seduce 

parodiind seducţia în aceeaşi măsură în care naratorul acestei nuvele mimează inocenţa” – Mircea 

A. Diaconu, op.cit., p. 116 

6. Ibidem 

7. Idem, p. 139. De altfel, la p.123, criticul enumeră principalele strategii de articulare lingvistică a unei 

imago mundi unice: „proza ritmată şi rimată, ironia, discursul alert, cu enumerări ingenioase, 

nesofisticata plăcere a inventării, toate acestea excelează într-o serie de sinonime la nivelul 

antroponimelor sau chiar al toponimelor. Prin fluxul care pare involuntar, deşi este atât de studiat, 

al asociaţiilor lingvistice, Creangă face dovada geniului său lingvistic.” 

8. Idem, p. 157 

Bibliografie 

Corti, M. (1981). Principiile comunicării literare, Bucureşti: Univers. 

Diaconu, M. A. (2002). Ion Creangă. Nonconformism şi gratuitate, Cluj-Napoca : Dacia. 

Negrici, E. (1978). Figura spiritului creator, Bucureşti: Cartea românească. 

Simion, E. (coord.) (2004). Dicţionarul General al Literaturii Române, C/D, Bucureşti: Univers 

13

Enciclopedic. 

Todoran, E. (1985). Secţiuni literare, Timişoara: Facla. 

Abstract 

Unjustly considered a „folk writer” by the Romanian critical tradition, Ion Creangă created a 

structured „illusion of reality” deeply rooted in his textual humour. Relying on his active writing 

conscience and the expectations of his contemporary and forthcoming reader’s concerns, Ion 

Creangă’s work valued the sense of humour not as an end in itself but as a means of gaining 

supremacy over his readers crossing over time and spac by paving the way for different types of 

reading. nto mean of gaining over the reader – the real and the future ones – opening the way 

toward different types of reading. Thus, beyond the surface reading and the overt humoristic 

structures, the aesthetic category of humour generates the construction of a specific kind of 

discourse, to which reality is only a starting point. 

Résumé 

Considéré, en vertu de la tradition critique roumaine, écrivain populaire, Ion Creangă met en 

oeuvre une illusion de réel parfaite, fondée, entre autres, sur la composante humoristique de son 

écriture. L’oeuvre de Ion Creangă – élaborée à l’aide d’une conscience créatrice lucide et fondée sur 

l’évaluation correcte de l’horizon d’attente de l’époque – utilise l’humour en tant que stratégie de 

gagner l’adhésion du lecteur contemporain et de la postérité. De ce point de vue, en dehors de la 

perception superficielle des informations textuelles, et des effets immédiats de l’humour, cette 

catégorie esthétique prend part, par ses éléments concrets, à l’élaboration d’un univers de discours 

spécifique, pour lequel la réalité n’est que le point de départ. 

Rezumat 

Pe nedrept numit, în virtutea unei îndelungate tradiţii critice, „scriitor poporal”, Ion Creangă 

construieşte o impecabilă iluzie de real fundamentată, printre altele, pe componenta umoristică a 

scriiturii sale. Rod al unei conştiinţe scriitoriceşti deosebit de active, şi al aprecierii corecte a 

aşteptărilor publicului cititor din vremea sa, opera lui Ion Creangă face din umor pârghia necesară 

câştigării adeziunii cititorului – a celui real şi a posterităţii – permiţând, totodată, o lectură 

diferenţiată. În această ordine de idei, dincolo de percepţia superficială a datelor textului, şi de 

efectele imediate ale componentei umoristice, categoria estetică a umoristicului participă, prin 

elementele ei concrete, la elaborarea unui univers de discurs specific, pentru care realitatea 

reprezintă doar punctul de plecare. 

14




pp. 15-22 

STRATEGIA 

ACHIZIŢIEI PROPRIETĂŢILOR SEMANTICE LA 

PREŞCOLARI 

Filip Cristian Bacalu 

15 

Language 

and 

Literature 

Evoluţia semantică este strâns legată de evoluţia cognitivă. Sensul se dezvoltă cu 

ajutorul experienţei, al predispoziţiilor înnăscute şi al oportunităţilor disponibile. În timpul 

evoluţiei pre-lingvistice, copiii îşi însuşesc înţelesuri pentru evenimentele trăite prin 

intermediul altor membri. În timpul jocului şi al altor evenimente care necesită atenţie, se 

stabilesc legături bine definite între acţiuni, obiecte şi vocalizări. 

Înţelegerea limbajului nu presupune doar înţelegerea aspectelor limbajului în sine, 

precum intonaţia şi situarea temporală care ajută la identificarea cuvintelor şi frazelor, ci şi 

crearea de legături între semnificat şi semnificant cu referire la evenimentele din jur 

(Veneziano 1989; Veneziano, Sinclair şi Berthoud 1990). Semnele lingvistice sunt arbitrare; de 

exemplu, obiectul caracterizat prin lungime şi aspect subţire care conţine grafit este folosit 

pentru scriere şi poartă denumirea de „creion.” L-am fi putut denumi simplu „goo,” deşi 

aceasta înseamnă ca toţi să îl numească astfel. 

Relaţia dintre semnificant şi semnificat este, de asemenea, una abstractă. Unele obiecte, 

precum creioanele şi pietrele, sunt entităţi concrete, dar alte concepte, precum libertatea şi 

iubirea, sunt abstracte. Piaget a propus trei scheme pentru inteligenţa senzorial-motorie – 

previziunea (abilitatea de a anticipa următorul eveniment dintr-o activitate în desfăşurare), 

intenţionalitatea şi recunoaşterea relaţiilor dintr-o frază – scheme care ajută copiii să 

folosească sistemele simbolice. În momentul în care tutorii adulţi reacţionează la vocalizările 

copiilor, aceştia demonstrează copiilor că vocalizările lor au un înţeles, fie că aceştia din 

urmă au intenţionat un anume lucru, fie că nu. Copiii devin astfel conştienţi de importanţa şi 

înţelesul evocat de vocalizările lor. 

Limbajul folosit în preajma copiilor poate determina şi semnificaţia comunicativă şi 

socială a limbajului. Limbajul dintre adulţi şi copii („mămos”) are caracteristici distincte, 

diferite faţă de limbajul dintre adulţi. În general, „mămoşenia” se distinge printr-o 

intensitate ridicată, frecvenţe variate, debit scăzut al verbalizării, intonaţie variată, enunţuri 

mai scurte, repetiţie, structură simplă a propoziţiei, verbalizare concentrată pe momentul 

prezent şi folosirea de diminutive, precum ursuleţ, nani, păpică. „Mămoşenia” se orientează 

către interesele şi nivelurile de conştientizare, jucând un rol important în evoluţia lingvistică 

şi a comunicării, deşi credem că trebuie evitate. 

În jurul vârstei de 9 luni, copiii încep să devină familiari cu cei din jur, în special cu 

părinţii. La scurt timp după aceasta, ei folosesc idiomorfisme (Werner şi Kaplan 1963). 

Idiomorfismele (vocabule sau forme fonetice constante) sunt sunete unice pe care le atribuie 

copiii, în mod constant, unui obiect sau acţiuni. Deşi aceste idiomorfisme nu sunt cuvinte şi 

nu sunt recunoscute astfel, ele au rol de cuvinte idiosincretice pentru copil. Unele 

idiomorfisme pot avea punctul de plecare în imitaţie, precum „rrr” pentru a face referire la o 

maşină sau la un câine. În genere, tutorii identifică uşor înţelesul idiomorfismelor folosite,

deşi alţii nu au această capacitate. Stabilitatea fonetică se poate mări, un proces denumit 

asociere în lanţ (Vygotsky 1962). De asemenea, idiomorfismele reflectă creativitatea lingvistică 

a copilului. În mod frecvent, idiomorfismele sunt combinate cu primele cuvinte (Reich 1986). 

1. Vorbirea pentru sine 

Teoria dezvoltării propusă de Vygotsky menţionează achiziţia mentală a limbajului 

social şi ajutorul acestuia în rezolvarea problemelor şi în raţionament. Între 2 şi 4 ani, 

vorbirea pentru sine capătă un caracter pronunţat, care scade însă pe măsură ce este 

convertit în limbaj mental propriu. Furrow (1984) a sugerat că vorbirea pentru sine serveşte 

funcţiilor de reglare lingvistică proprie, descriere şi expresivitate. Frawley şi Lantolf (1986) 

însă, au accentuat faptul că toate formele de vorbire pentru sine sunt reglatoare, iar 

neapariţia limbajului în efectuarea unei sarcini nu afectează funcţionalitatea. Deşi 

descoperirile sunt variate, există o teorie care susţine viziunea lui Vygotsky adaugând că 

vorbirea pentru sine este o funcţie cognitivă cu orientare din partea utilizatorului. Aceste 

descoperiri atestă şi faptul că funcţiile limbajului sunt în acest punct într-o perioadă de 

tranziţie. 

O culegere de lucrări despre vorbirea pentru sine editată de Diaz şi Berk (1992) se 

concentrează asupra lărgirii şi testării perspectivei teoretice propuse de Vygotsky. Cele două 

mari direcţii prezente în lucrările lui Vygotsky – importanţa vorbirii pentru sine ca stadiu 

cognitiv intermediar între colaborarea cu alţii şi propria activitate cerebrală şi, pe de altă 

parte, natura de reglare proprie a vorbirii pentru sine a copiilor – au parte de un sprijin 

marcat. Lucrările lui Vygotsky oferă, de asemenea, o perspectivă în istoria socio-culturală 

proprie copiilor şi a evoluţiei cognitive, astfel încât legăturile create între mediu, pe de o 

parte, şi creşterea şi dezvoltarea copilului, pe de altă parte, pot fi analizate mai atent 

(Behrend, Rosengren şi Perimutter 1989, Smolucha şi Smolucha 1992). 

2. Primele cuvinte 

De obicei, primele cuvinte apar între 9 şi 12 luni şi se referă la oameni importanţi 

pentru copil (mama sau tata) sau la obiecte. Cuvintele pentru obiecte mişcătoare (ex.: maşini) 

sau care pot fi manipulate (ex.: suc) sunt mai frecvente decât cuvintele de acţiuni (ex.: pa-pa). 

Funcţiile asociate cu primele cuvinte sunt, în general, numirea, afirmarea şi cererea. 

Denumirile date de copii reflectă denumiri de categorii, „căţeluş,” şi nu de entităţi separate, 

cum ar fi „câine mare, câine rău” (Baldwin şi Markman 1989). S-a observat o preferinţă a 

copiilor pentru primele tipuri de cuvinte achiziţionate; copiii care achiziţionează multe 

substantive comune sunt denumiţi referenţiali, iar cei care îşi însuşesc alte tipuri de cuvinte, 

expresivi. În timpul folosirii primelor cuvinte, copiii folosesc cuvintele în mod frecvent, fie în 

forma fonetică, fie făcând referire la semnificat. În acest stadiu, ei percep cuvintele ca parte 

din sistemul lingvistic şi conştientizează valoarea comunicativă a acestora. 

Copiii referenţiali sunt consideraţi mai avansaţi în dezvoltarea lexicală din punctul de 

vedere al înţelegerii şi producerii, fiind capabili să folosească cuvintele în contexte variate. 

Deşi copiii expresivi prezintă expresii fixe şi un vocabular eterogen, copiii referenţiali se 

concentrează asupra denumirii obiectelor şi folosirea substantivelor şi a atributelor acestora. 

Copiii se folosesc de mai multe strategii pentru achiziţionarea primelor cuvinte. Un 

principiu important este contrastul. Conform acestuia, copilul presupune că un termen nou 

nu se referă la obiectul menţionat anterior (Markman şi Wachtel 1988). Alt principiu este 

presupoziţia că un termen nou cuprinde toate părţile constitutive ale unui obiect, şi nu doar 

o parte din acesta; acest principiu este denumit principiul scopului obiectului (Taylor şi 

Gelman 1988). Un alt studiu semnat Taylor şi Gelman menţionează că un copil de 2 ani se 

foloseşte atât de categoria lingvistică formală (ex.: substantiv sau adjectiv), cât şi de 

16

contrastul lexical pentru interpretarea cuvintelor noi. A treia strategie, schiţarea rapidă, 

adună informaţii despre înţelesul cuvântului, folosindu-se de modul de întrebuinţare în 

propoziţie şi de cuvintele cu care este comparat; această strategie oferă informaţii rapide, dar 

incomplete, despre noile cuvinte. Heibeck şi Markman (1987) au arătat că, la 2 ani, copiii pot 

îngusta sfera semnificatului cu ajutorul celei de-a treia strategii. În plus, copiii cuprind 

frecvent noile cuvinte în vocabularul propriu prin formarea de ierarhii lingvistice în care 

cuvintele noi sunt subordonate unei categorii deja stabilite (Taylor şi Gelman 1989). 

Alte investigaţii au format legături între dezvoltarea semantică şi cea cognitivă în 

timpul etapei enunţurilor formate dintr-un singur cuvânt. Gopnik şi Meltzoff (1986) 

formulează teoria specificităţii, care propune conexiuni specifice între anumiţi termeni 

lingvistici şi anumite stadii de dezvoltare cognitivă în etapa enunţurilor formate dintr-un 

singur cuvânt. 

Sensurile primelor cuvinte pe care copiii şi le formează, deşi constante, au tendinţa de a 

exagera sau minimiza folosirea categorială. Minimizarea survine atunci când copilul observă 

că multitudinea de semnificaţii aferente unui cuvânt este mai restrânsă decât cea a unui 

adult. De exemplu, ceea ce copilul înţelege prin minge ar putea fi restrâns la mingea favorită, 

şi nu la mingi în general, cu atât mai mult la mingea de rugby. Exagerarea folosirii 

categoriale survine atunci când copiii folosesc excesiv un anumit cuvânt – numirea tuturor 

bătrânilor „bunic.” Această exagerare este răspândită atât în vorbire, cât şi în înţelegerea 

vorbirii altora. 

Primele cuvinte rostite au iscat divergenţe de opinie cu privire la caracterul simbolic 

sau de specificare a intenţiilor copilului. Aceasta naşte întrebarea: cuvintele reflectă concepte 

fundamentale sau servesc ca mijloc alternativ de atingere a unui scop? Piaget susţine că 

primele cuvinte nu au caracter simbolic, ci sprijină dezvoltarea de noi scheme de acţiuni în 

vederea stabilirii de noi metode pentru atingerea unui scop. Acest proces are loc între 12 şi 18 

luni. Unii specialişti susţin ipoteza şi afirmă că aceste vocalizări reprezintă acţiunile care 

reflectă direct intenţiile copilului. Acţiunile sunt, de obicei, protoenunţiative (comentarii 

informative) sau protoimperative (ordine). În continuare, pentru o mai bună înţelegere a 

producerii primelor cuvinte, se vor detalia explicaţii teoretice alternative despre primele 

cuvinte şi despre folosirea acestora. 

3. Explicaţii alternative pentru concepte şi primele cuvinte 

Owens (1992) susţine că semantica face referire la un sistem de reguli care dictează 

conţinutul cuvintelor şi combinaţiile dintre cuvinte. Cuvintele nu sunt oglinda realităţii, ci 

numai conceptele şi credinţele oamenilor despre realitate. Cunoaşterea cognitivă reflectă 

cunoaşterea realităţii – modul în care oamenii împart experienţele şi conceptele în categorii. 

Oamenii stochează informaţii despre experienţele trăite (memorie episodică), simboluri, 

reguli şi legăturile dintre acestea (memorie semantică). Memoria episodică şi cea semantică 

au o bază comună de informaţii şi experienţe; formarea conceptelor fiind considerată cel mai 

important proces cognitiv. Când un concept este asociat cu un cuvânt, rezultă cunoaşterea 

semantică, luând naştere, în felul acesta, fundamentele înţelesului lingvistic. 

Pentru caracteristicile care stau la baza cunoştinţelor semantice au fost propuse câteva 

explicaţii: 

ipoteza trăsăturilor semantice, 

ipoteza nucleului funcţional şi 

învăţarea prototipică. 

Fiecare dintre aceste perspective susţine că diferitele caracteristici ale referentului sunt 

însuşite de copii, dar nimeni nu cunoaşte ce se ascunde în gândurile altora; oamenii pot doar 

deduce înţelesuri din cuvinte sau presupuneri. 

17

4. Ipoteza trăsăturilor semantice 

Eve Clark (1973a, 1973b) argumentează că un copil învaţă un set de trăsături universale 

care caracterizează toţi referenţii, ca de exemplu uman / non-uman, neînsufleţit / însufleţit, 

etc. Copiii află înţelesuri noi prin identificarea particularităţilor mai importante ale unui 

referent. Spre exemplu, o minge poate fi caracterizată prin rotunjime şi proprietatea de a 

sări. Pe măsură ce copilul creşte, criteriile se pot schimba, putându-se adăuga sau şterge 

unele caracteristici, spre exemplu, mărimea, materialul, etc. Clasificarea conform acestor 

particularităţi este gradată de la trăsăturile cele mai largi la cele mai specifice (Ingram, 1991). 

Pentru unii termeni, spre exemplu antonimele, doar unul este considerat a fi de bază, 

subliniind dimensiunea semantică. De exemplu, în cazul antonimelor „înalt” şi „scund,” 

dimensiunea semantică definitorie este conceptul de „înălţime.” Când se doreşte cunoaşterea 

înălţimii unei persoane, se întreabă cât de înaltă este persoana în cauză; astfel, înălţimea este 

dimensiune semantică definitorie şi fundamentală. Dimensiunea definitorie este considerată 

marcată, înţelesul acesteia fiind cel dintâi element achiziţionat (Clark 1973a, 1973b). Alte 

categorii, precum pipăitul sau auzul sunt achiziţionate la început. Backscheider, Shatz şi 

Gelman (1993) evidenţiază că între 3 şi 4 ani, copiii înţeleg genul ontologic; aceştia 

conştientizează că plantele şi animalele pot creşte, dar că obiectele nu au această capacitate. 

Unii critici au înaintat presupunerea că această ipoteză nu specifică exact care sunt 

caracteristicile cele mai importante. Aceştia susţin că referenţii abstracţi sau cei care implică 

judecăţi relative, precum „mai mult,” nu sunt explicaţi de această ipoteză. 

5. Ipoteza nucleului funcţional 

Kathryn Nelson (1974) afirmă că proprietăţile funcţionale ale referentului, şi nu 

proprietăţile statice, sunt cele care definesc înţelesul referentului. Copiii încep prin a numi 

termenii de acţiune; Nelson susţine definirea obiectelor de către copii în funcţie de calităţile 

funcţionale şi adăugarea ulterioară de proprietăţi perceptive relevante. Nucleul 

semnificatului îl reprezintă folosirea funcţională a unui obiect. Conceptul se achiziţionează; 

apoi se adaugă proprietăţile funcţionale, iar la final, proprietăţile nucleului referentului sunt 

distinse de alte relaţii. De exemplu, mărul reprezintă ceva digerabil, care poate fi aruncat, şi 

este, de obicei, rotund şi roşu. La un moment dat, faptul că mărul poate fi aruncat este 

considerată o calitate funcţională importantă. Deşi Nelson a adunat dovezi practice, ipoteza 

nucleului functional nu a fost susţinută de mulţi. 

6. Învăţarea prototipică 

Bowerman (1978) a criticat atât ipoteza proprietăţilor semantice, cât şi cea a nucleului 

funcţional ca fiind limitate în ceea ce priveşte capacitatea copilului de a deosebi relaţia 

constantă dintre referenţi. Teoria susţine existenţa unui model sau prototip central pe care 

copiii îl asociază cuvintelor; de obicei, acest model se suprapune, identificându-se cu 

referentul care a fost folosit cel mai des de adulţi în asociere cu un anumit cuvânt care l-a 

denumit în primă instanţă. Învăţarea prototipică permite extinderea continuă şi adaptarea 

conceptelor. De exemplu, cuvântul „scaun” poate face referire, în primul rând, la taburetul 

folosit de copil, dar, gradual, denumirea va cuprinde şi scaunele de la masă sau balansoarul 

tatălui. Treptat, taburetul va căpăta un înţeles de sine stătător, fără a-l mai include în 

categoria scaunelor deoarece nu deţine suficiente caracteristici asemănătoare cu cele ale 

semnificaţiei principale de „scaun.” Iniţial, toate animalele blănoase, cu patru picioare erau 

denumite „căţeluş,” dar treptat câinii, pisicile, caii şi veveriţele devin creaturi distincte, deşi 

toate poartă denumirea comună de „animal.” 

Noţiunea de prototipie se bazează pe ideea lui Wittgenstein (1958) potrivit căreia toate 

sensurile lexicale nu reprezintă caracteristici invariabile, ci asemănări de familie sau un grup 

18

de proprietăţi. Referenţii care împart caracteristicile definitorii ale unui concept sau obiect 

vor deveni prototipul respectivului concept sau obiect. 

Potrivit ipotezei caracteristicii semantice, copiii dezvoltă înţelesuri prin adăugarea de 

proprietăţi; ei au tendinţa de a lărgi sfera cuvintelor la început pentru ca ulterior să fie 

corespunzătoare cu întrebuinţarea corectă. Pe de altă parte, ipoteza nucleului funcţional 

susţine existenţa unui nivel conceptual între referent şi cuvânt. Ambele ipoteze sunt 

asemănătoare, prin evaluarea înţelesului ca organizat în jurul proprietăţilor invariabile 

(Ingram, 1991). Spre deosebire de aceasta, învăţarea prototipică presupune definirea de către 

un prototip central a înţelesului principal, alţi referenţi fiind evaluaţi în funcţie de prototip. 

Deşi nu există o limită bine definită în decelarea mecanismelor cognitive, apare totuşi o 

abilitate definitorie de clasificare a experienţelor, de recunoaştere a asemănărilor şi 

deosebirilor, de aplicare a noilor cunoştinţe situaţiilor familiare şi a regulilor familiare 

situaţiilor noi. 

7. Achiziţia proprietăţilor semantice selectate 

Această secţiune va formula câteva concluzii generale şi va analiza unele cuvinte 

achiziţionate în anii preşcolari; copiii au nevoie de câţiva ani pentru a stăpâni aceşti termeni. 

După cum am menţionat anterior, primele cuvinte sunt de obicei nominale, în special 

cele care fac referire la obiectele des întâlnite în jur, sau la persoanele familiare. Cuvintele 

care exprimă acţiuni sunt comune, dar sunt mai puţin frecvente. Nominalele sunt 

achiziţionate, de asemenea, la început, în cadrul nivelului intermediar de generalizare. De 

exemplu, la nivelul intermediar, „câine” poate deveni termen abstract şi general şi poate fi 

înlocuit de „animal” sau poate deveni specific, fiind înlocuit de „câinele lup.” Nivelul 

intermediar este, probabil, generic şi folositor pentru clasificare, astfel încât ar părea 

rezonabil ca acesta să fie printre primele însuşite. 

Cuvintele englezeşti care încep cu wh- folosite în propoziţiile interogative sunt 

achiziţionate în ordinea aparentului caracter abstract. What, who şi where (ce, cine, unde) sunt 

primele achiziţionate; acestea privesc, în general, referenţi concreţi prezenţi în interacţiunea 

zilnică, în consecinţă nu au un grad de abstractizare atât de ridicat, precum how, why sau 

when (cum, de ce, când). „How” are un caracter mai concret, în sensul că se poate vedea cum 

ceva se produce, dar why şi when sunt cele mai abstracte. Alţi factori care contribuie la 

achiziţia acestor termeni sunt funcţiile sintactice ale diferitelor forme verbale care conţin 

grupul wh, verbele din propoziţiile interogative care cuprind elemente din grupul wh şi 

utilizarea interogaţiilor wh în discurs (Bloom, Merkin şi Wootten, 1982). Alte studii 

anterioare arată că preşcolarii nu deţin raţionament bidirecţional, fiind limitaţi din punct de 

vedere al ordinii (ex.: răspundeau mai corect la întrebări ca “Ce s-a întâmplat după x” faţă de 

întrebări ca “Ce s-a întâmplat înainte de x”). Însă, French (1989) observă că preşcolarii 

răspund mai ferm la întrebările conţinând „după” decât la întrebări despre evenimente 

petrecute la care s-a făcut referire prin „când.” Acesta a mai observat că dacă se oferă un 

context adecvat, răspunsurile bidirecţionale sunt posibile şi relevante în circumstanţele 

respective. 

Aceste constatări dovedind influenţele complexităţii cognitive (sau gradul de 

conceptualizare cognitivă) asupra însuşirii semnificatului, pot constitui o ipoteză plauzibilă 

în cazul achiziţiei cuvintelor de relaţie („mare,” „mic”), de schimbare („acesta,” „acela” referitor 

la distanţa dintre referent şi vorbitor) şi gradele de rudenie („unchi,” „văr”). Coley şi Gelman 

(1989) afirmă că utilizarea cuvântului „mare” depinde de factorii contextuali, şi de 

interdependenţa factorilor semantici şi cognitivi. În studiul acestora, copiii mai mari se bazau 

pe înălţime în determinarea obiectului cel mai mare; copiii de 3 ani se foloseau de înălţime în 

ceea ce priveşte oamenii, nu de lăţime / grosime, însă toţi subiecţii se ghidau după spaţiul în 

care se aflau pentru determinarea obiectului celui mai mare. 

19

Însuşirea conceptelor şi reprezentările lingvistice respective ar trebui să fie paralele. De 

exemplu, copiii care folosesc corect expresia „în faţa” ar trebui supuşi testelor de nonverbalitate 

pentru conceptele de apropiere şi de caracteristici ale obiectelor, pentru a dovedi 

stăpânirea conceptelor şi caracteristicilor obiectelor înainte de folosirea acestei forme 

lingvistice; ei ar trebui să demonstreze însuşirea înţelesurilor formei „în faţa” în aceeaşi 

ordine ca în cazul achiziţiei de concepte relaţionate non-verbale. Astfel, ordinea dezvoltării 

cognitive conceptuale ar trebui să preceadă şi, respectiv, să se regăsească în formele 

lingvistice aferente. Retrospectiva formulată de Johnston (1986) arată că frecvenţa 

întrebuinţării şi complexitatea lingvistică şi semantică pot influenţa ordinea achiziţiei 

termenilor relaţionaţi. Urmând o idee similară, E. Clark (1980) spune că „sus” este cel dintâi 

cuvânt folosit corect din perechea „sus-jos,” iar abia mai apoi „jos,” la fel şi în cazul perechii 

„faţă-spate.” Ea argumentează că aceste înţelesuri sunt achiziţionate în ordinea determinată 

de strategiile non-lingvistice anterioare folosite de copii pentru aceiaşi termeni. 

8. Termenii de schimbare 

Termenii de schimbare sunt termeni ai căror referenţi se schimbă în funcţie de vorbitor, 

de unde şi când se adresează vorbitorul. Termenii reprezentând gradele de rudenie, 

pronumele, „acesta” sau „acela” provoacă schimbarea referentului în funcţie de vorbitor. 

Pronumele de persoana întâi şi a doua nu sunt însuşite decât după anii preşcolari (Reich, 

1986). Referinţele anaforice, în care un pronume poate fi ataşat la mai mult decât un singur 

substantiv, ca în propoziţia „Bogdan i-a spus lui Nae că îl cunoaşte pe Batman,” sunt 

stăpânite în timp, pe măsură ce copiii pot alterna între perspective (Smyth, 1995). 

Diferenţierea între „aici” şi „acolo” şi „acesta” şi „acela” se definitivează abia în jurul vârstei 

de 7 ani. Astfel, termenii de schimbare şi de relaţie sunt achiziţionaţi de-a lungul unei întinse 

perioade de timp. Înţelegerea acestor termeni presupune localizarea obiectelor cu referire la 

sine sau la punctul de vedere al vorbitorului. 

9. Termenii psihici 

Termenii psihici ca „a gândi,” „a cunoaşte,” încep a fi folosiţi între 2 şi 3 ani. Wellman 

şi Estes (1987) spun că acest tip de termeni au fost mai întâi utilizaţi drept funcţii ale 

conversaţiei, majoritatea fiind folosiţi pentru referinţe psihice distincte, explicite. Copiii au 

abilitatea de a face diferenţa între termeni de ordin psihic şi planul real. Până la 4 – 5 ani ei 

înţeleg întrebuinţarea termenilor de ordin psihic, precum „a cunoaşte,” „a gândi” pentru 

acţiuni sigure. Până la 4 ani, copiii fac distincţia între „a cunoaşte” şi „a gândi” şi „a ghici” şi 

percep termenul „a cunoaşte” ca o judecată sigură (Moore, Bryant şi Furrow 1989). 

Evoluţia semantică, în special a primelor cuvinte, este o sarcină complicată care 

depinde de maturitatea şi complexitatea cognitivă, de frecvenţa utilizării şi a oportunităţii. 

Copiii folosesc o gamă variată de strategii lingvistice şi non-lingvistice pentru achiziţionarea 

înţelesului. Proprietăţile semantice joacă, de asemenea, un rol important în enunţurile din 

perioadele de tranziţie. Enunţurile formate din două cuvinte se construiesc, în mod frecvent, 

pe conexiunile semantice constituite înainte de dezvoltarea şi formarea relaţiilor sintactice. 

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Abstract 

In the context of an ever-growing globalization and multiculturalism, the present paper wishes to 

analyze the methods that evince the acquisition of the native linguistic structures in the case of the 

Romanian and English preschoolers. We shall also try to demonstrate the link between cognitive 

21

development and lexical complexity as well as the different strategies adopted by the preschoolers 

for the production of idiosyncratic words. We consider that it is precisely these primary methods 

that form a reliable basis for the later acquisition of other complex techniques of lexical 

development. 

The semantic evolution, especially of the first words, is a complicated task that depends on the 

cognitive complexity and maturity, on the frequency of use and context. Children use a wide range 

of linguistic and non-linguistic strategies in order to acquire meaning. The semantic properties are 

surely of great importance in the productions of this transition period. Two-word productions 

usually rely on the semantic links that have been formed before the development and establishment 

of the syntactic relations. 

Résumé 

Dans le contexte d’une globalisation et d’un multiculturalisme en plein essor, ce papier se propose 

d’analyser les méthodes qui mettent en évidence l’acquisition des structures linguistiques 

maternelles, dans le cas des préscolaires roumains et anglais. Nous essayeront de démontrer la 

relation entre le développent cognitif et la complexité lexicale aussi comme les différentes stratégies 

adoptées par les préscolaires pour la production de quelques mots idiosyncratiques. Nous 

considérons que ces méthodes primaires jouent le rôle le plus important dans la formation d’une 

base pour l’acquisition, plus tard, des autres techniques complexes du développement lexical. 

L’évolution sémantique, surtout, celle des premiers mots est une tâche compliquée et dépendante 

de la complexité et maturité cognitive, de la fréquence de l’utilisation et du contexte. Les enfants 

utilisent une gamme large des stratégies linguistiques et non-linguistiques pour acquérir du sens. 

Les propriétés sémantiques sont, certainement, très importantes surtout dans le cas des 

productions de cette période de transition. Les productions qui contiennent deux mots, d’habitude, 

se basent sur les relations sémantiques formées avant le développement et l’établissement des 

relations syntactiques. 

Rezumat 

În contextul unei globalizări şi al unui multiculturalism în continuu progress, lucrarea de faţă îşi 

propune să analizeze metodele care evidenţiază dobândirea structurilor lingvistice materne în 

cazul preşcolarilor români şi englezi. Vom încerca să demonstrăm şi legătura dintre dezvoltarea 

cognitivă şi complexitatea lexicală precum şi strategiile diferite adoptate de preşcolari pentru 

producerea unor cuvinte idiosincretice. Considerăm că aceste metode primare joacă rolul cel mai 

important în alcătuirea bazei pentru însuşirea, mai târziu, a celorlalte tehnici complexe ale 

dezvoltării lexicale. Evoluţia semantică, mai ales a primelor cuvinte, este o sarcină complicată şi 

care depinde de gradul de complexitate şi maturitate cognitivă, de frecvenţa utilizării şi de context. 

Copiii folosesc o gamă largă de strategii lingvistice şi non-lingvistice pentru a-şi însuşi sensuri. 

Proprietăţile semantice sunt, desigur, deosebit de importante în cazul producţiilor acestei perioade 

de tranziţie. Producţiile alcătuite din două cuvinte se bazează, de obicei, pe legăturile semantice 

formate înaintea dezvoltării şi consolidării relaţiilor sintactice. 

22




pp. 23-14 

A FEW CONSTRAINTS ON STUDENT QUESTIONING 

Anca Cehan 

23 

Language 

and 

Literature 

In education, it is believed that much of the learning that takes place in the classroom is 

the result of the questions asked by the teachers, and that the better the teacher’s questions, 

the better the teacher’s teaching and the class learning. Aristotle, in Posterior Analitics, 89b 

(quoted by Dillon 1988: 7) says ‘These, then, are the kinds of questions we ask, and it is in the 

answers to these questions that our knowledge consists’. In other words, student questions 

precede teacher questions in the learning process, and when students ask questions, learning 

follows in answer. According to Aristotle, questions arise in ignorance and perplexity, and 

the student’s understanding is shaped by the relation s/he builds between question and 

answer as questions and answers conjoin to form knowledge and understanding. Questions 

invite both a search for answers and other questions which follow from these answers. The 

student’s knowledge consists in the proposition that s/he forms of question and answer. 

Even if asking questions is believed to stimulate thoughtfulness and to encourage 

expression, education is in many ways, an activity similar to other fields where questioning 

is an exercise of power and control. James Dillon (1988) showed that in fields that encourage 

both talking and thinking, such as counselling and personal interviewing, practitioners avoid 

questions. In other fields, such as courtroom advocacy and public opinions surveying, where 

the goal is to limit thoughtfulness and to control the utterances of the people being 

questioned, the practitioners are highly skilled in asking questions. In other words, social 

superiors ask questions and subordinates answer them. This pattern where the questions of 

the social subordinates are rare or miss altogether is normal practice: physicians seldom 

answer questions from patients, lawyers are never questioned by witnesses, adults do not 

always answer questions from children. In the classroom, the student has years of experience 

with only the teachers asking questions and answers being given by self and classmates. 

Although student questions are often mentioned in theory, there is small room for them in 

classroom practice. 

Since Aristotle and before him, questioning by the students has been widely regarded 

by pedagogues as the starting point for effective education. In reality, questioning by 

teachers seems to actually be an exercise of power and control, as it is in other fields, where 

questions limit authentic discussion. In theory, student questioning and questions, together 

with the answers given to them, are encouraged and supported in the classroom, and no 

teachers would admit that they do not design lessons which encourage students’ questions 

and answers. However, although as Aristotle showed, learning follows in answer to a 

question, few student questions are asked aloud in the classroom. 

In normal classroom practice, classes in which no question is asked by students are not 

the exception but the rule. This is explained by the fact that students have few opportunities 

or reasons to ask questions, as they are busy giving answers to teacher questions. Classroom 

activities are organised in ways that do not motivate students to formulate questions, while 

the classroom setting gives students reasons not to ask many questions.

We have never walked into a classroom, irrespective of the level of English of the 

students, where the students asked a lot of questions 1. In fact, the older the students get, the 

fewer questions they ask, although their level of proficiency in a foreign language gets 

higher. Apparently, children ask a lot of questions, but not in the classroom. In 26 classroom 

recordings 2, with approximately 600 pupils participating, only one genuine student 

information question could be heard (“What’s the English for roabă?”), while the questions 

from the teachers account for over 60% of the teacher’s talking time. Such features are not 

uncommon for foreign language classroom practice or for classroom practice in general. 

Even if one could argue that most of class recordings mentioned were done in primary and 

lower secondary schools (18), and that most of these classes were taught in countryside 

schools (14), still we have to admit that this is the rule and not the exception. In fact, the 

teacher’s asking a lot of questions does not by any means guarantee the stimulation of the 

students’ interaction by the latter asking questions. Actually, certain types of teacher 

questions may discourage interactive learning (Kinsella 1991, quoted by Brown, D.H. 2001): 

display questions, obvious questions that may insult the students’ intelligence, vague or 

abstract ones, questions that are too wordy or too complex, rhetorical and random questions 

(i.e., questions that do not fall into a well-planned sequence). 

Although not represented in the corpus mentioned, besides information, knowledge 

and comprehension questions, students use other interrogative strategies, such as 

application, inference, analysis and synthesis, evaluation and procedural questions and 

devices (Dillon, 1988). Procedural questions (e.g.: Is this going to be on the test?) are the most 

strategic, as they are used effectively by students to solve their problems, to execute routines 

and to negotiate over obligations. Conversational questions can also be heard formulated in 

Romanian (e.g. What? I didn’t hear, Poftim?). Self-answered and rhetorical questions are not 

uncommon during student project presentations, used to express some feeling or to make 

some point. They have the role of statements, and a common response to them is a remark 

such as ‘Good point’ or ‘Yeah, but…’ These other interrogative strategies are completely absent 

in the corpus mentioned. 

One can argue that in the classroom, many of the questions that the students formulate 

and keep in their minds, remaining unasked, are answered by something said by the teacher 

or another student later on, as the discussion proceeds. In the same way, an unasked 

question that comes to a student’s mind may be asked in the next part of the lesson. 

However, in classroom interaction, in the talk between teacher and students, it is sensible 

that students ask questions: the non-asking denies the very purpose of interacting. To refrain 

from asking is not to join in the discussion. Questions are due to arise and be shared, and it is 

a failing for a participant in the interaction not to speak his / her mind on the current issue, 

by withholding the questions instead of contributing them. On the other hand, it is true that 

some people learn just by listening and following along, but in a discussion, this defines nonparticipation, 

and is just an alibi. Some unspoken questions may be answered, others are not; 

in either case the answering is accidental. This thwarts the essence of the pedagogical 

activity, whose aim is to teach and to make the student learn that which is taught. The nonasking 

impairs the activity of teaching, turning it into something else. 

Paradoxically, classroom teaching involves planned behaviour, adjusted in the process 

of enacting it. When planning a lesson, the teacher needs to anticipate the questions in the 

students’ minds. If s/he is unable to do so, the teacher can neither plan nor act in accordance. 

In this process the teacher cannot know whose questions will be answered and whose will 

not, or which ones. However, when students do not ask questions, both teaching and 

learning suffer, and classroom interaction is affected. 

However, it is normal and understandable for the students not to ask questions in 

class. A student’s question may be an exceptional event as there are many powerful factors 

accounting for the rarity of student questions. Although all these factors operate in the 

24

classroom, they do not necessarily originate in the classroom; nor are they located in either 

the student or the teacher. They operate systematically, and have to do with the structures 

and conditions of society and schooling, with rules of socialisation in schools and with 

situational authority rules. They include the whole complex of ways that other classrooms 

use with the same students, the curriculum itself, the nature of the subject-matter and the 

character of materials and textbooks. 

Of all these factors, we will examine only the constraints of classroom discourse on 

student questions, showing that student questions are almost excluded by the cycles of 

interaction, rules, and norms of classroom discourse. 

1. The IRF cycle 

Typical classroom interaction leaves little room for the students to ask questions as 

they find it hard to fit a question into the ongoing IRF cycle. When a student bids for a 

question, the teacher has to think how to stop everything in order to let the student start in. 

However, most of the time the teacher has no reason to stop the ongoing cycle, since no one 

seems to have a question when they are all engaged in the ongoing interaction. The teacher 

and students are talking back and forth, and the cycle of talk is closed to everything but 

students’ answers. The cycle typically begins with (a) a teacher’s question, then turns to (b) a 

student’s answer, and then to (c) the teacher’s evaluation of answer plus (a) next question. 

Students can do nothing but answer in this cycle, and there is no turn at talk for them. 

However, when a student asks a question, the cycle turns quite differently. The cycle 

does not begin with a student question, as in his subordinate position, the student must first 

gain permission to ask a question. To do that, the student must first gain the floor. Therefore, 

before the student can formulate a question, two exchanges are required: 

1. Student’s bid for the floor 

Teacher’s nomination of student 

2. Student’s request to ask a question 

Teacher’s permission to student 

These preliminary exchanges are not easy to get going from the position of the student. 

This is because when a student bids for the floor, the teacher’s assumption is that s/he wants 

to give an answer. On the other hand, when the student does get the floor, s/he is in the 

awkward position of having to substitute an answer with a question at that juncture, and 

therefore switch things around. However, the preliminary exchanges are usually smoothly 

executed: 

1. Student’s bid 

Teacher’s nomination: Yes, Anda. 

2. Student’s question: What is the English for ‘roabă’? 

The student may be waving a hand for bidding and the teacher may nod or say the 

student’s name. Permission to ask might be asked for and granted parenthetically instead of 

in actual words. Even so, everyone knows that permission is involved. In our example, the 

question was preceded by a non-verbal bid from the student. Although we haven’t found 

any example in our limited corpus, such exchanges may also involve the student specifically 

asking for permission to ask a question, using formulas like Can I ask (you) a question?, I want 

to ask a question, or even Romanian formulas to the same effect. The teacher’s accord can also 

be verbal or non-verbal: OK, Yes, Go ahead, What is it? or a simple nod. 

While after a teacher question, the next move is always a student’s answer, after a 

student’s question, the next move always belongs to the teacher. This move is more 

unpredictable: it can be either a reply or a non-reply to the question. In the reply, the teacher 

25

may answer the question, but other replies may involve a counter-question, a redirection, a 

reformulation, or even a disparaging of the question or of the student who asked the 

question. This shows why asking a question may sometimes be a demotivating move for the 

student. 

After a student’s answer, the next move is teacher’s feedback. This is most often, the 

evaluation of the student’s answer, which is then followed by the next question. After a 

teacher’s answer to a student’s question, the next move always belongs to the teacher. 

Optionally, the teacher may allocate this turn to the student who asked the question, but if 

the student takes it, s/he can only acknowledge the answer and never evaluates it. More 

typically, the teacher keeps the floor and continues with the next move, which is another 

teacher’s question, and the cycle repeats itself: teacher initiates / asks – student answers – 

teacher provides feedback / evaluation. By contrast, the cycle for a student question turns 

uncertainly at every turn: 

1. Student’s bid 

T’s nomination 

2. (Student’s request to ask question) 

T’s permission) 

3. Student’s question 

4. Teacher’s move 

a. reply 

b. non-reply 

5a. Student’s acknowledgement (optional) 

5b. Teacher’s move (question) 

2. IRF and politeness rules 

General rules of politeness, learnt both at home and in the years of schooling, also 

govern talk in the classroom. These rules do not encourage student questions, either. The 

cycle involving a student question takes remarkable tact and delicacy to find a suitable 

moment to begin, although no teacher would ever institute a rule against the student’s 

questions. A general politeness rule says ‘one speaker at a time’, meaning that a student may 

not interrupt a speaker, whether the teacher or another student, with a question. On the 

other hand, a superordinate school rule holds that the teacher can talk at any time and that 

the teacher can interrupt the student, typically with a question. In other words, the teacher 

always has the floor, and the next turn at talk, and a student cannot take it to ask a question. 

Indeed, the next turn at talk always belongs to the teacher, even when a student is speaking, 

as it is the teacher who allocates the turn to a student, and can take it back at any time. 

Unlike other interactions where speakers negotiate turns and topics, in the classroom 

interaction, the turns are allocated by the teacher, who designates both the next speaker and 

the topic. A consequence of this is that a student cannot, as a rule, interrupt with a question 

when the turn is already taken, and the speaker and topic are designated. As the cycle 

follows its course, it is a real feat for a student to break it and ask a question. The corollary to 

these rules is that a student does not have a right to speak unless s/he is designated to do so 

by the teacher, and then s/he has the obligation to address the teacher and the topic 

specified. In other words, the student is supposed to answer the teacher’s question and then 

stop and wait for the teacher’s evaluation of the answer followed by the next question. 

To conclude, in order for the student to ask a question, s/he must locate an appropriate 

juncture, make a bid to talk, gain the floor, obtain permission to ask the question, and, very 

often, change the topic. This kind of move, determines a change in classroom dynamics, 

which reverses the usual one: from passivity, reactivity, expectancy and dependence to 

26

initiative, independence, proactive attitude, energetic action, and even aggression. All these 

are contrary to habit and violate the norms of classroom behaviour. 

3. Student behaviour norms 

Although not written, the norms of class behaviour are also very powerful. These 

norms do not support the student in the act of asking either, as displaying ignorance in 

school is against the norms. Even when the student has followed all the rules of talk and 

entered the cycle of interaction in the right way, s/he must ask the right question at the right 

time. If the student asks a question too soon or too late, the teacher’s reaction will be We’ll get 

to that later or We have already dealt with that. Moreover, the question should be about 

something that nearly everyone does not know. Otherwise, the student who asks the 

question will lose face when sighs or comments of What a dumb question! will be heard. One 

strategy to avoid this, used by some more advanced students is to deprecate self in the 

asking, prefacing the question by I was just wondering or This may be kind of dumb, 

but…Moreover, the student must take care not to ask one question too many or two 

questions in a row. 

A student’s question is expected to meet with negative reactions on the part of both 

classmates and teacher. A negative reaction may consist in a non-reply or a reprimand from 

the teacher and / or depreciation from classmates. Perplexity, incomprehension and the need 

for asking are disapproved, especially when the topic at hand seems so simple to everyone 

else and only the questioner still does not understand. Moreover, in many classes, it is 

against the group rules to display interest in the subject-matter or the teacher. 

To conclude, powerful social forces inside and outside the classroom make difficult the 

asking of questions by the students. These forces involve peers, teacher, status, language 

proficiency, the IRF cycle and norms of discourse, class dynamics and years of school 

experience. Students have every reason but one not to ask the questions that occur to them in 

class. This one reason is desire of knowledge and understanding. 

Notes 

1. We do not refer here to the practice of foreign language interrogative structures. 

2. The recordings were done in the lessons taught in February and March 2008 by the participants in 

the MA in ELT Programme at the English Department, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi. 

References 

Brown, D. H. (2001). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach of Language Pedagogy, Addison 

Wesley Longman Inc. 

Clark, M. (1972). Perplexity and knowledge: An inquiry into the structures of questioning, The Hague: 

Mouton. 

Dillon, J.T. (1988). Questioning and Teaching. A Manual of Practice, New York: Teachers College Press. 

Malamah-Thomas, A. (1988) Classroom Interaction, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Abstract 

This paper presents the constraints which complicate and restrict the questions the learners 

formulate during the foreign language class. These concern the other participants in interaction, 

the status of the one who risks asking one question, the structure of the cycle initiation – response 

– feedback, the dynamics of the class as well as the general norms of politeness and those of school 

conduct. 

27

Résumé 

L’article présente les contraintes qui rendent difficile et qui limitent la formulation des questions 

par les élèves pendant une leçon. Celles-ci se réfèrent aux autres participants à l’interaction, au 

statut de celui qui risque une question, à la structure du cycle Initiation–Réponse–Feedback, à la 

dynamique de la classe aussi comme aux normes générales de politesse et de conduite scolaire. 

Rezumat 

Lucrarea prezintă constrângerile care îngreunează şi limitează formularea întrebărilor de către 

elevi în timpul lecţiei. Aceste constrângeri se referă la ceilalţi participanţi la interacţiune, la 

statutul acelui participant care riscă şi formulează o întrebare, la structura ciclului Iniţiere– 

Răspuns–Feedback, la dinamica lecţiei precum şi la normele generale de politeţe şi de conduită 

şcolară. 

28




pp. 29-34 

IRONIE ET ALLEGORIE POLITIQUE 

DANS L’ŒUVRE DE 

GRIGORE ALEXANDRESCU 

Ana-Elena Costandache 

29 

Language 

and 

Literature 

Située à la jonction avec des éléments de l’Ouest, d’une part, et des éléments des 

Balkans, d’autre part, à une époque où il y avait de nombreuses sources d’inspiration, la 

littérature roumaine a subi des changements des formes en fonction des événements 

politiques de la première moitié du XIX e siècle (la Révolution, l’Union), mais aussi en 

fonction des affinités des auteurs pour les exemples culturels déjà renommés. Dans ce 

contexte, ce qui a attiré l’attention a été l’abondance des genres et leur influence, alors que les 

troubles sociaux et politiques de l’époque ont fait une marque décisive sur les écrits, en 

dévoilant “des changements imprévus dans la conscience des écrivains”. 1 

Vrai pionnier du genre, confronté avec les difficultés spécifiques aux débuts littéraires, 

surtout celles qui tenaient à la modalité d’expression poétique du XIX e siècle, Grigore 

Alexandrescu aspirait, dès le commencement de son écriture, “à enrichir la langue 

roumaine”. En valorisant la simplicité et la sobriété, en alliant le classicisme et le 

romantisme, l’auteur a été en mesure de se différencier des autres auteurs romantiques 

Roumains de l’époque, mais aussi des romantiques occidentaux. 

Lucia Simona Dinescu, suite à ses études culturelles expliquées dans des discours 

prononcés sur la modernité, a conclu qu’ “en Roumanie, la culture s’est formée à la suite de 

différentes influences [...] et a servi à la politique”. 2 Pourtant, les interdictions brutales et les 

thèmes imposés ont été dépassés de manière diplomatique: 

“En 1840, les principautés étaient trop intégrés dans le domaine intellectuel ou 

économique de l’Europe, et leur développement comprenait trop d’éléments de rupture 

avec l’ordre féodal pour qu’une politique rétrograde, étroite et hostile à l’intérêt national 

ne puisse avoir des chances de réussite”. 3 

Le discours politique de l’époque en question (celle de ’48) a été particulièrement 

connu dans la vie culturelle, dans les œuvres littéraires, par l’intermédiaire de la promotion 

des idéologies libérales et révolutionnaires. Les réactions des groupes d’intellectuels à tout ce 

qui représentait la vie politique n’ont pas retardé, que ce soit au niveau des thèmes et des 

raisons littéraires, ou au niveau des espèces visées. Les variantes étaient multiples: certaines 

satirisaient, comme dans le cas d’Ion Ghica “les mœurs de la société et des pratiques 

rétrogrades de l’époque, [...] la phraséologie et la démagogie politique, les arrangements en 

coulisses, le carriérisme, le faux démocratisme et la corruption des médias” 4, tandis que 

d’autres discours proposaient aux lecteurs un langage assez violent. Parmi les écrivains qui 

ont agi d’une manière où d’autre, Alexandrescu s’est fait remarquer, en proposant des types 

de politiques, mais surtout en créant des “types d’intrigue d’où sa propre imagination 

pourrait tirer les éléments nécessaires à la création d’une histoire, d’un conte...” 5

En participant à la vie politique de l’époque, mais sans une implication particulière 

dans les mouvements révolutionnaires de 1848, Alexandrescu s’est révélé être un simple 

observateur politique et surtout morale. “Esprit Gaulois” 6, (surnom attribué par N. 

Manolescu), Alexandrescu a fait partie de la génération qui 

“a créé deux des paradigmes durables de la poésie roumaine, celui dérivé du latin (sous 

les influences italienne et française, lamartinisme, alexandrin iambique, élégiaque, 

méditation, mélancolie, etc.) et celui du folklore autochtone (mythe national et passé 

historique, militantisme, etc.), sans réduire la valeur de la langue littéraire, restée jusqu’à 

présent sous la même forme, mais en introduisant des espèces et des genres modernes”. 7 

Grigore Alexandrescu n’a pas excellé en reliant les rimes, mais les espèces littéraires 

qu’il a promues à cette époque-là étaient différentes: l’élégie (Minuit, Adieux. A Târgovişte), 

la méditation (L’ombre de Mircea. A Cozia), la satire (Satire. A mon esprit), la fable (La 

hache et la forêt, Le chien et le chiot, La justice du lion). L’attention du lecteur est attirée 

par les œuvres qui versifient l’esprit politique de l’époque, en particulier la fable et la satire 

et, par conséquent, les œuvres de l’écrivain roumain “sont variées et très précieuses. Sa 

composition est réussie et tout à fait claire. Pourtant, la versification n’est pas parfaite”. 8 

Que ce soit de la satire ou de la fable comme espèces prises par connexion française, ou 

que ce soit des productions originales, Alexandrescu a été en mesure d’y ajouter des notes 

personnelles: “Dans ces productions didactiques, le poète démontre une constante affinité 

pour le classicisme plutôt que pour le romantisme français.” 9 Parmi les modèles que la 

littérature occidentale a proposés comme une catégorie d’espèces littéraires à part et 

auxquelles Alexandrescu a accordé une attention particulière s’inscrivent les espèces 

cultivées par La Fontaine. En effet, le fabuliste roumain doit beaucoup au grand poète 

français par certains éléments de technique artistique. Les faits politiques de l’époque ont 

“mis en forme” sa poésie et la fable d’Alexandrescu est tributaire à la fable de La Fontaine, 

quant au niveau des données techniques du genre. Le poète, lui-même, avait dévoilé les 

significations politiques et satiriques, les physionomies et les moralités, par l’intermédiaire 

de certaines de ses œuvres, ce qui lui avait donné l’occasion d’une longue méditation. Mais 

l’allusion satirique est justement une caractéristique du genre, dont le développement est 

soumis à des régimes stricts de despotisme et d’interdiction de la liberté d’expression. Ainsi, 

La Fontaine est actuel par ses fables en présentant, de façon dramatique, les réalités de sa 

nation. Son œuvre constitue la “source” des situations politiques et sociales locales, 

caractéristiques aux réalités de Roumanie à cette époque-là: “Les fables sont aussi célèbres 

dans notre littérature que celles de La Fontaine dans la littérature française ou celles de 

Krîlov dans la littérature russe”. 10 

L’ironie d’Alexandrescu est celle d’un esprit qui se moque de tout et de tous dans des 

épîtres et des satires (dans L’Union des principautés): “Dans leurs tombeaux, Bogdan et 

Mircea ont convenu / D’unir les Roumains…” 11 et sa satire est, par excellence, politique. 

D’ailleurs, la fable était, à cette époque-là, un moyen de contourner la censure et l’ironie 

d’Alexandrescu s’avérait être insensible à l’art des contemporains. Sa prédilection pour la 

fiction est expliquée par les nombreuses possibilités de satiriser les événements politiques. 

Sous le masque de la versification, on pourrait tout dévoiler et, par l’humour, l’auteur 

affirme ce qu’il semble nier - dans L’épître à M. Majeur Voinescu II. 12 Silvian Iosifescu 

appréciait que “le scepticisme adopté dans L’épître D.V.II était en accord avec son style 

ironique. Le poète défend, derrière un sourire, l’innocence de ses fables”. 13 Par ailleurs, dans 

la correspondance, Alexandrescu préfère dissimuler discrètement l’ironie, le dégoût et 

l’amertume qui lui a inspiré le déni, tout aussi que les concessions morales de l’époque. Dans 

son œuvre, l’ironie est une sorte de déguisement de la fable et la “la censure la plus sage”, 

rappelée dans L’Epître à M. Voinescu 14 suggère une telle qualification. 

30

En plus de la mission d’éduquer et de former, la fable a le rôle de divertir. Le conflit 

présenté a un résultat immédiat, ce qui fait que la fable soit presqu’une comédie. Chez 

Alexandrescu, l’histoire est spécifique aux premiers écrits désignés comme des fables, 

prenant la forme d’une croquis de mœurs et de caractères et en culminant dans des écrits 

bien rédigés tels que Le chien et le chiot ou Le bœuf et le veau: “Quoi! Nous, tes frères! / Je 

vais te donner un coup…” 15 Le veau, arrivé chez son oncle, “un bœuf comme tous les 

autres”, mais qui occupait une bonne place «aidé par le destin», reste surpris qu’un parent a 

changé ses habitudes. “Quoi! Il dort, maintenant? / […] il a changé, le monsieur…, non pas 

comme vous le savez…” 16 

Le “spectacle” de la fable est mis en scène avec un excellent sens de la morale et des 

situations, car l’auteur est bien conscient de la “manipulation” par sa langue. 

Habituellement, ses écrits commencent par une mise en question directe du sujet, en attirant 

l’attention par la formule de début, tout comme dans les contes de fées: “Dans les temps 

anciens, toutes les bêtes, / Dégoûtées du Roi lion...” (L’éléphant) ou comme une réflexion: 

“je ne vois plus de miracles à nos jours”. (La hache et la forêt). Parfois, Alexandrescu utilise 

le ton du narrateur, comme un conseiller d’enfants: “Le loup, de toute la bêtise / Gouvernait 

le pays”. (Le chien pourchassé). 

Les animaux personnages mettent en évidence les aspects du comportement humain, 

en particulier la conduite négative. L’éléphant - “tête dure”, chef du royaume, désigne le 

loup comme “ministre des moutons”. Quand les autres animaux viennent se plaindre chez le 

maître que ”les moutons sont malades“ et que ”les agneaux sont abattus“, le roi écoute son 

ministre qui répond sincèrement qu’il ne prend qu’ [...] ”une peau de mouton, comme 

d’habitude“. 17 (L’éléphant) 

Dans une autre fable, Le loup moraliste, le roi loup convoque «une réunion publique», 

car il a entendu que ”les responsables poilus“ font rages et que ”la loi est faite à l’aide des 

griffes“, puis il commence à prêcher sur la modération et les bonnes mœurs, mais portant 

lui-même ”une veste de mouton écorché.“ Ainsi, le loup est demandé par un autre, plus 

vieux, qui ”faisait l’éloge du travail“, d’où il avait acheté ”son manteau en peau de mouton», 

occasion pour l’auteur de conclure: ”Quand votre manteau est en peau de mouton, / 

Assurez-vous ensuite que les juges tirent les boutons. “ 18 

La démagogie est un autre objectif des fables. Le renard dans Le renard libéral parle 

sur le manque de raison, mais il est ”mis au service au département des volailles“ et il cesse 

alors toute critique. Par ailleurs, la morale de la fable d’Alexandrescu concernait directement 

ses contemporains: ”Je sais que beaucoup de libéraux parlent en vain / Mais d’un os ils se 

noient à la fin.“ 19 

La fable La hache et la forêt révèle, de manière allégorique, les circonstances 

répréhensibles de l’époque. Les actes patriotiques, tels que ceux liés à la Révolution de 1848 

et le syndicat ont été sapés non seulement par les étrangers, mais aussi par des ”citoyens 

d’entre nous, devenus des traîtres“. 20 

Un thème de prédilection de Gr. Alexandrescu est représenté par l’arrogance. Le bœuf 

de la fable Le bœuf et le veau ne reconnaît plus son neveu, le veau arrivé pour demander 

”un peu de foin“, en déclarant qu’il n’a pas de tels parents. Alors, il ordonne à ses sujets de 

”l’éloigner.“ 21 

L’égalité entre les adultes de la court est tenue par le grand chien Samson, qui est prêt 

d’appliquer la peine la plus sévère au chiot Samurache; ce dernier avait osé lui s’adresser par 

l’appellation ”frère“ : ”Quoi ! Nous, tes frères! / Je vais te donner un coup…“ 22 (Le chien et 

le chiot) 

Le caractère dominant des fables d’Alexandrescu est représenté par le comique de 

caractère et de situation. Les personnages sont bien individualisés et l’action est bien située. 

L’individualisation est cependant limitée par les espèces spécifiques en jeu, allégoriques. Les 

personnages font partie du monde des animaux auxquels le folklore et le discours normal, 

31

populaire, offrent certains traits (le lion symbolise la force, le renard - la ruse, l’âne et le bœuf 

- la bêtise). Pourtant, il y a dans les fables d’Alexandrescu une telle individualisation et un 

langage comique qui placent les personnages dans une époque différente : les conseillers du 

roi lui s’adressent de manière fausse élégante, ”Vous, monsieur le bœuf“ et, ce dernier, ”au 

cours du Carême“ apprend que son neveu est venu lui rendre visite: il s’agit du fils de Mme 

la Vache. 

Le changement de registre langagier se réalise dans certaines fables qui proposent 

comme thème la presse officielle de l’époque. Ce thème se retrouve comme symbole dans Le 

peintre et le portrait: ”Lorsque le beau devient laid, le peintre prend un bon salaire: / T’es 

noir, il te fait blanc; t’es faible, il te fera grossir…“ 23 

Une place différente occupe Satire. A mon esprit où le commentaire satirique refait 

fidèlement l’image des salons de 1840. Le raffinement du monde occidental – concrétisé en 

jeu de cartes, flirt, danse, mode – est refusé: les dames jouent au whist, conscientes que ”la 

vie passe“. Un jeune homme galant et élégant porte des vêtements cousus à Paris. Le 

bavardage et le snobisme sont propres aux salons; les demoiselles prétentieuses ne parlent à 

personne pendant toute une semaine lorsqu’elles ont l’occasion et l’honneur d’être 

remarquées par un jeune homme ”de bonne famille“. Dans ce contexte, la critique de l’auteur 

prend la forme des reproches faits d’une manière humoristique. Ainsi, le poète fait preuve 

d’une bonne conduite en société: au whist (ou ”vist“), il gagne toujours, tandis qu’à la danse 

il séduit toutes les dames. Au contraire, il ne peut pas ignorer les situations ridicules partout 

où il y en a le cas. 24 Ainsi, la satire devient une série de scènes: les cartes à jouer, le jeune 

homme qui se moque des dames, la danse, la conversation, tout dans le même décor – les 

salons bourgeois d’autrefois. 

La contribution de Gr. Alexandrescu au développement des moyens artistiques est 

incontestable. La critique littéraire a été d’avis que ”son travail a conduit à l’enrichissement 

de la langue roumaine, mais d’une manière négative au niveau de la versification“ 25 ; 

pourtant, le poète s’est avéré être un chercheur de la langue et du langage artistique. Sa 

contribution la plus grande a été au niveau stylistique, sur les moyens comiques, par la 

manipulation de l’ironie et de l’humour, compte tenant de la place que le langage occupe 

dans les versets satiriques écrits à la première personne. D’ailleurs, le comique tient à la 

manière de savoir raconter et d’apprécier, tout aussi que le comique est fourni par 

l’utilisation inattendue du ton familier, léger. 

Pour conclure, on peut affirmer que l’œuvre d’Alexandrescu reste le témoignage d’un 

travail assidu. Son rôle a été important pour ”le destin“ du XIX e siècle, en restant un poète 

toujours actuel. 

Notes 

Şerban Cioculescu, Istoria literaturii române moderne, Eminescu, Bucureşti, 1985, p. 10 

2 Vatra (L’Âtre), no 4/ avril 2008, p. 21 

3 Paul Cornea, Originile romantismului românesc, Cartea românească, Bucureşti, 2008, p. 370-371 

4 Teodor Vârgolici, Aspecte ale romanului românesc din secolul al XIX-lea, Eminescu, Bucureşti, 1985, 

p. 32 

5 Nicolae Iorga, Istoria literaturii româneti. Arta şi literatura românilor, Editura Fundaţiei Culturale 

Române, Bucureşti, 1999, p. 161 

6 Nicolae Manolescu, Poeţi romantici, Editura Fundaţiei Culturale Române, Bucureşti, 1999, p. 76 

7 Al. Piru, Istoria literaturii române de la început până azi, Univers, Bucureşti, 1981, p. 63 

8 Ghe. Adamescu, Istoria literaturii române, Eminescu, Bucureşti, 1998, p. 136 

9Şerban Cioculescu, Vladimir Streinu, Tudor Vianu, Istoria literaturii române moderne, Eminescu, 

Bucureşti, 1985, p. 45 

10 Nicolae Manolescu, œuvre citée, p. 92 

11 Gr. Alexandrescu, Satiră. Duhului meu, Porto-Franco, Galaţi, 1993, p. 44 

32

12 Ibidem, p. 63 

3 Silvian Iosifescu, Gr. Alexandrescu, Editura tineretului, Bucureşti, 1965, p. 100 

4 Gr. Alexandrescu, œuvre citée, p. 45 

5 Gr. Alexandrescu, œuvre citée, p. 84 





20 Gr. Alexandrescu, Opere, volumul I, Editura de stat pentru literatură şi artă, Bucureşti, 1957, p. 75 




24 Ibidem, pp. 190-191 


Bibliographie sélective 

Adamescu, Gh. (1998). Istoria literaturii române, Bucureşti: Eminescu. 

Alexandrescu, Gr.(1957). Opere, tom I, Bucureşti: Editura de Stat pentru Literaturǎ şi Artǎ. 

Alexandrescu, Gr.(1993). Satiră. Duhului meu, Galaţi: Porto-Franco. 

Cioculescu, Ş., Streinu, V., Vianu, T. (1985). Istoria literaturii române, Bucureşti: Eminescu. 

Cioculescu, Ş. (1985). Istoria literaturii române moderne, Bucureşti: Eminescu. 

Cornea, P. (2008). Originile romantismului românesc, Bucureşti: Cartea Româneascǎ. 

Iorga, N. (1999). Istoria literaturii româneşti. Arta şi literatura românilor, Bucureşti: Editura Fundaţiei 

Culturale Roumâne. 

Iosifescu, S. (1965). Gr. Alexandrescu, Bucureşti: Editura Tineretului. 

Manolescu, N. (1999). Poeţi romantici, Bucureşti: Editura Fundaţiei Culturale Roumâne. 

Piru, Al. (1981). Istoria literaturii române de la început până azi, Bucureşti: Univers. 

* * * * * Vatra, no 4/ avril 2008 

Vârgolici, T. (1985). Aspecte ale romanului românesc din secolul al XIX-lea, Bucureşti: Eminescu. 

Abstract 

Grigore Alexandrescu played an important role in the lyrical destiny of the 19 th century, being 

considered as the poet of his time. The content of his work was not only meant to outline opinions 

and to educate but also to entertain. Obviously influenced by La Fontaine’s literary creation, the 

Romanian author succeeded in creating a political satire of his times, presenting a conflict of ideas 

(usually as a dialogue) or imagining dramatic political confrontations which had an immediate 

impact, being, most frequently, unexpected for the reader. The refined allusions and the poetical 

language intertwined with satirical notes reveal an important element peculiar to Alexandrescu: 

the irony of a witty person who knows how to make jokes by means of puns. 

Résumé 

Grigore Alexandrescu a joué un rôle important dans le destin lyrique du XIX e siècle, étant 

considéré comme un poète à l’époque actuelle. Le contenu de son travail a, en plus de la mission de 

former et d’éduquer un rôle différent, plus important encore: celui de divertir. 

Visiblement influencé par l’œuvre de La Fontaine, l’écrivain roumain a réussi à réaliser une satire 

politique de son temps, en présentant un conflit d’idées versifiées (habituellement sous la forme du 

dialogue) ou en imaginant des affrontements politiques dramatiques, mais avec un résultat 

immédiat et, le plus souvent, inattendu pour le lecteur. Les allusions fines et le langage poétique 

entrecoupé de notes satiriques „trahissent” un élément important d’Alexandrescu: l’ironie d’un 

homme d’esprit qui sait plaisanter par des jeux de mots. 

33

Rezumat 

Grigore Alexandrescu a jucat un rol important în destinul liric al secolului al XIX-lea, fiind 

considerat un poet al epocii actuale. Conţinutul lucrărilor sale are, pe lângă misiunea de a forma si 

educa, un rol mai important, acela de a distra. 

Vizibil influenţat de opera lui La Fontaine, scriitorul român a reuşit să realizeze o satiră politică a 

timpului său, prezentând, în formă versificată, un conflict de idei (cel mai frecvent, sub forma 

unui dialog) sau imaginând confruntări politice dramatice, cu rezultat imediat şi, cel mai adesea, 

neaşteptat pentru cititor. Aluziile fine şi limbajul poetic întretăiat de note satirice «trădează» un 

element important al operei lui Alexandrescu : iromia unui om de spirit care ştie să glumească 

prin intermediul jocurilor de cuvinte. 

34




pp. 35-38 

FRACTAL EXTENSIONS WITHIN THE LITERARY TEXT 

Nicoleta Ifrim 

Language 

and 

Literature 

The fractal theory relates to a specific view on the "natural consciousness", now 

focused on as inherently fractal, fragmented and broken up into irregular fragments. 

For a fractal as a geometric figure not only does it have irregular shapes - the zig-zag 

world of nature - but a hidden order of these irregular shapes is lurking in that disorder. The 

irregular patters are self-similar over scales. The overall pattern of a fractal is repeated, with 

similarity, and sometimes even with exactitude, when one looks at a small part of the figure. 

It renders recursive structures. For instance, if one looks at the irregular shape of a mountain, 

and then he looks closer at a small part of the mountain, he will find the same basic shape of 

the whole mountain repeated on a smaller scale. When you look closer still you see the same 

shape again, and so on to infinity. This happens within the Mandelbrot itself where there is 

an infinite number of smaller Mandelbrot shapes hidden everywhere within the zig-zaggy, 

spiral edges of the overall form. 

As Mandelbrot points out, this idea of recursive self-similarity was originally developed 

by the philosopher Leibniz, but it also can be related to Goethe’s organicist view. Another 

basic principle that gives essence to the fractalic perspective is that entropic disorder plays a 

constructive way in creating order. A new approach has been born, as it requires, as N. 

Katherine Hayles says, ”a shift from the individual unit to recursive symmetries between 

scale levels” (Hayles 1990: 13). That means that the reserch discourse is now focused on the 

similarities which are replicated across the scale levels of a system, be it existential, social or 

cultural. The phenomena associated to the scale-dependent symmetries are characteristic to a 

fractal point of view. 

Therefore, the necessary coexistence of the two ways of approaching fractals in 

literature brings about the concept of continuity in rupture which appears to be the only 

productive critical pattern suiting the purposes of our approach. Thus, what mathematics 

and the science of fractals have finally revealed can be applied in interpreting literature, 

namely that: the "microcosm" (the literary text) which is smaller or drawn at a lower-level, is 

essentially similar to the "macrocosm" (the real world) which is larger and/or levelled 

higher; the latter is not somehow superior to the former by virtue of size or level; the 

dynamics of literary development are such that the macrocosm springs from and is 

grounded in the microcosm, not the other way around (the fictionalised real world). What 

Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician and philosopher, observed over three centuries ago 

can now be truly noted: "Nature (n.b. literature) imitates herself. A grain thrown onto good 

ground brings forth fruit; a principle thrown into a good mind brings forth fruit. Everything 

is created and conducted by the same Master - the root, the branch, the fruits, the principles, 

the consequences." 

In our view, literature is a fractal object due to the following arguments: it is subjected 

to specific tensional fields such as unforeseeability, deviation, ambiguity, its critical 

interpretation displays reader-centrism and hazard, being structured as a fragment made up of 

fragments, the literary work creates a fluctuating geometrical space (different interpretations, 

open ends, puzzle-like structures, disseminated characters), the fractal potentiality can be 

35

applied in re-interpreting classical works, the contemporary literature becomes an 

intermediate fractality within the infinite possible fractalities such as the historical, cultural 

or artistic ones. 

One can also notice that fractality is complementarily bi-dimensional. There is an overt 

fractal literarity as well as a covert one. The former occurs especially in the postmodern 

literature, where the skeptical solution of the modernists, who witnessed the failuire of their 

utopias, is replaced by the resurrection of the secondary, the fragment and the marginal, by 

disregarding hierarchies so that new sensibility might be said to be fractal, post-dichotomist and 

post-reductive (Monica Spiridon). The latter is implied by literature in general as its intrinsec 

feature. 

Under these circumstances, the literary work reveals itself as a continuum which 

renders the multiplication of the same root-theme, also structured by means of a collage of 

mises en abyme that can make up a liminal subtext developing the main textual idea in 

infinite variations and inversions. Being a „major mechanism of textual self-reflection”, as 

Stephanie Sieburth puts it, the mise en abyme technique can be defined as a „ textual segment 

which constitutes a microcosm, a schematic, condensed version of the entire text as 

macrocosm” (Sánchez 1992: 259). This concept is compatible with the idea of a fractal, as both 

relate to a textual representation whose complexity can be best approached by regarding at 

its inner self-similarity across textual levels. The recursive symmetries of the text-system turn 

into a puzzle of mutually referential fragments with no dominating voice. From this point of 

view, Sieburth describes the novel as a dynamic, non-liniar system, predominantly fractal, as 

it grows out of the infinite replicas of the main story, thematic variations that always reflect 

the textual whole. The critic illustrates these ideas within Clarín’s novel, La Regenta, where 

she notes that 

”the meaning of any given fragment constantly shifts, changes, even inverts, depending 

on which other fragment is juxtaposed with it (...). Continual dialectic of diversity and 

similarity, and the freedom of juxtaposition resulting from the breakdown of the text’s 

liniarity, cause La Regenta to be a constantly changing body, whose meaning is never 

static and determinable, but always being created and dissolving as different segments 

are juxtaposed.” (Sánchez 1992: 260) 

Dällenbach’s second type of mise en abyme comes into discussion here, namely the 

repeated reflection, as the inner textual secquence not only reflects the enclosing text, but in its 

turn includes a fragment which reflects infinitly the reflecting level. Mandelbrot’s fractals are 

made up in the same way, as they can be projecting a multitude of specular metaphors that 

share the infinite return of cvasi-identical forms.[1] Elisabeth Sánchez says that 

”the internal mirror, regardless of the aspect of the text at which it is aimed, may create 

the impression of a faithful copy, but the duplication will always be inexact – a bare 

outline, a condensation, a partial reflection, perhaps even a polar opposite. The textual 

mirror provides only the suggestion of identity, but minds bent on finding identical 

structures will indeed find them, perhaps at the expense of noting the differences. For 

this reason, I think that the difference I outlined between the self-reflecting text as 

defined by the mise en abyme and the quasi-self-similar, mind-boggling structures which 

constitute a typical fractal is not so much a difference in kind as one of emphasis. The 

shift in emphasis, I believe, corresponds to the transition between structuralism and 

poststructuralism. Because our understanding of literary texts has evolved since the time 

Dällenbach pinned down the mise en abyme, our use of the term has also evolved, and it 

has evolved in the direction of the fractal. Our textual mirrors are no longer smoothsurfaced, 

static reflectors emitting images of unified, regularly self-embedding and 

enclosed structures. They have become turbulent and fractured, and the images they 

project are of a text which is fragmented, dynamic, unpredictable, indeterminate, open, 

36

and much more complex than many of us had once imagined. Fractal, then may be the 

better term (...). Within these textual bounds, an infinite number of texts is possible. This 

is the beauty of the fractal: it allows for the possibility of infinitude circumscribed within 

a finite area.” (Sánchez 1992:261-2) 

Or, in the same sense, 

”All elements in the novel are part of a network of relations and not entities complete in 

themselves. Characters are shown to be merely particular instances of recurring patterns, 

while the text can be seen to break up into mutually reflecting segments which, like the 

characters, participate in an interrelated whole. I realize, of course, that all literary texts 

are networks of relations, but [...] La Regenta invites us to become aware of its reflexive 

structure as well as of the relational nature of its characters.” (Sánchez 1996:6) 

Another novel, Pedro Páramo, makes Elisabeth Sánchez note that 

”In such a novel as Pedro Páramo, where boundaries dissolve and imagined wholes break 

up into fragments that echo each other and one another without ever quite connecting 

(except, perhaps, in the mind of the reader), the notion of fractal spaces – spaces that lie 

in the interstices of our thought categories – is made to order. We might say that Rulfo 

has produced an artistic object that looks very much like a fractal in its unwieldy surface 

structure, and that he has intentionally increased the complexity of his work by first 

breaking the story into bits and pieces, which in turn may contain smaller, self-similar 

bits and pieces, and then ordering the segments in such a manner that they reveal much 

more about his story, and in fewer words, than a traditional sequential ordering would. 

Whereas it is possible to view the novel as a mosaic to be pieced toghether, or as a broken 

mirror, I prefer the metaphor of the fractal, precisely because it brings the idea of the 

mirror into play by inviting readers to look for recursive symmetry, at the same time that 

it suggests a comparison with the mosaic, whose fractured pieces readers must reorder 

one by one if they hope to discover a recognizable form hidden within fragments.” 

(Sánchez 1996: 232) 

The act of reading itself seems to bear spectral and fractal features as well. In this 

perspective, the text to be interpreted surpasses its traditional linear and static characteristics 

to turn into a process, 

”a fractal in motion, an evolving shape (...). Whether we are attempting to represent our 

diachronic movement through the text or our synchronic overview of its parts, we always 

must do so by imagining or drawing forms in space, and, as we have seen, the form that 

best captures the temporal doubling (the spiral) is much more complex than it first 

seemed. It is more complex because we have become aware that it is possible to focus on 

different aspects or levels of the text and to chart their behavior over time. When we 

recognize the correspondences in behavior between the parts and levels (the repetitions 

with variations), we return to a synchronic reading. In this we are very much like the 

fractal geometricians who likewise have shifted their attention to consider what is going 

on between scale levels.” (Sánchez 1993: 203) 

Or 

„we can draw maps of our temporal movement through the text, following the 

plot of a novel, for example, or tracing patterns of imagery or recurring themes; or we can 

draw a model of relationships among parts or between parts and the whole. There are 

many ways that a literary text can be represented as a form moving through space or as a 

form that the critic has frozen momentarily in order to examine the relationships between 

37

its parts. We should not forget, however, that our diagrams will be mere approximations 

of the infinitely rich and complex process of reading–of constructing a world through our 

interpretation of verbal signs and continually restructuring that world as our reading 

progresses.” (Sánchez 1993: 198-9) 

Note 

1) See also Antofi S.: The Poetical Discourse – Galati: Europlus, 2005 

References 

Hayles, N.H. (1990). Chaos Bound: Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and Science, Ithaca: 

Cornell University Press. 

Sánchez, E. (1992). ”La Regenta as Fractal” in Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, 26, 259. 

Sánchez, E. (1992). ”Order/Disorder and Complexity in La Regenta: A Case for Spiraling Outward 

and Upward”, in South Central Review. The Journal of the South Central Modern Language Association, 

13, 4, 6. 

Sánchez, E. (1993). ”Spatial Forms and Fractals: A Reconsideration of Azorín’s Doña Inés”, in Journal of 

Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: Innovative Approaches to Hispanic Literature, 5, 2, 203. 

Abstract 

Against the background of contemporary morphogenetic sciences, the theory of fractals brings up a 

new perspective on natural objects generating different processes which can no longer be discussed 

in terms of the Euclidean geometry. B.Mandelbrot, the founder of this theory, said that various 

natural forms have irregular, fragmented structures so that Nature bears a higher qualitative level 

of intrinsec complexity than the one rendered by the Euclidean geometry. Thus, the theory of 

fractals bears a deeper level of structuring world which turns into a multi-faceted complexity of 

forms and meanings. Mandelbrot shows mathematically and graphically how nature uses the 

fractal dimensions and what he calls self-constrained chance to create the complex and irregular 

forms of the real world. 

Résumé 

Dans le contexte général des sciences morphogénétiques contemporaines, la théorie des fractales 

ouvre une nouvelle perspective sur les objets naturels, en générant des procès qu’on peut plus 

analyser dans les termes de la géométrie euclidienne. B. Mandelbrot, le créateur de cette théorie, 

soutient que les différentes formes naturelles ont une structure fragmentaire et irrégulière, et que 

l’espace naturel relève un niveau qualitatif intrinsèque de complexité tout à fait différente de celui 

montre par le filtre euclidien. Ainsi, la théorie de fractales développe une image ordonnée du 

monde dans un univers avec des multiples facettes des formes et significations. Mandelbrot 

démontre a l’aide des mathématiques et graphiquement la manière dans laquelle la nature utilise la 

dimension fractale pour re-créer les formes complexes et irrégulières de l’univers. 

Rezumat 

În contextul general al ştiinţelor morfogenetice contemporane, teoria fractalilor oferă o nouă 

perspectivă asupra obiectelor naturale, generând diferite procese care nu mai pot fi analizate în 

termenii geometriei euclidiene liniare. B.Mandelbrot, fondatorul acestei teorii, afirmă ca variatele 

forme naturale au structură fragmentară şi iregulată, încât spaţiul natural relevă un nivel 

calitativ intrinsec de complexitate total diferit decât cel evidenţiat prin filtrul euclidian. Astfel, 

teoria fractalilor dezvoltă o imagine a lumii ordonată într-un univers multifaţetat de forme şi 

semnificaţii. Mandelbrot demonstrează matematic şi grafic modul în care natura foloseşte 

dimensiunea fractală pentru a re-crea formele complexe şi iregulate ale universului. 

38




pp. 39-42 

39 

Language 

and 

Literature 

DAS BILD NAPOLEONS IN DER DEUTSCHEN LITERATUR 

Gabriel Istode 

“Egal wie stark sie meine Verdienste vermindern, ob sie mich 

beiseitezuschaffen oder zu verstümmeln versuchen, es wird sehr schwer sein, 

mich ganz und gar zum Verschwinden zu bringen. Der französische Historiker 

wird verpflichtet sein, sich mit dem Kaiserreich zu beschäftigen und, wenn er ein 

Herz haben sollte, wird er gezwungen sein, mir etwas zurückzugeben, und mir 

mein Recht zu gewähren. “ 

Napoleon I. Bonaparte 

Epos, Drama und Lyrik haben sich mit dem Leben Napoleons beschäftigt, sowohl in 

der Zeit seines Lebens als auch nach seinem Tode. Wenn zur Zeit seines Lebens ein 

Hassgefühl bei den feindlichen Völkern sich leicht bemerkbar macht, schon mit dem Tode 

des großen Menschen vermindert und eben verliert sich dieses Gefühl zugunsten des Helden 

und des Genies: “ … die Musen werden bessere Sänger zum Feier ihres Lieblings begeistern, 

und wenn einst Menschen verstummen, so sprechen die Steine…“ 

Hellere oder düstere Farben spiegeln Napoleon nach der politischen Richtung des 

Autors: Einerseits bleiben die begeisterten Dichter Italiens und Polens, die ihn für ein Symbol 

des nationalen Freiheitskampfes hielten, dann die, die in ihm den Mann mit einem Herz für 

sein Volk und für seine getreuen Grenadiere und Invaliden sahen und nicht letzendlich die, 

die das Genie und den großen Helden des Jahrhunderts verstanden und ehrlich schätzen 

wollten. 

Zu dieser III. Kategorie könnten wir auch Heine zählen, wenn man nicht so stark in 

Anbetracht nimmt - wie einige behaupten - dass er Napoleon verehrte, weil er den Juden 

seiner Heimat die bürgerliche Gleichberechtigung gebracht hätte. 

Andererseits standen Bourbonentreue, Liberale und Napoleons Gegner, Anhänger der 

Revolution (in Frankreich) und meistens englische oder politisch gegnerisch - orientierte 

Schriftsteller. Lyriker der Befreiungskriege, wie Kleist, Körner, Arndt, Rückert und 

Schenkendorf entwickelten in Preußen dieses negative Napoleon-Bild. So wurde der Held, 

das Genie, der Titan mit seinen großen Leistungen, der Volkskaiser mit seinem Mythos, der 

Sieger und der Herrscher, dem Renegaten, dem Immoralisten, dem Attila und Tamerlan, dem 

Tyrannen, Nationalfeind, Gotteslästerer und Menschenverächter entgegengestellt. 

Die Zeit und die Geschichte haben doch – so wie es aussieht – den zuerst genannten 

Kombatanten mehr Achtung und Anerkennung erwiesen. 

In der deutschen Literatur belegen Hölderlins Hymnen: Bonaparte und Dem 

Allgenannten (1798), wie sehr der Aufstieg des Generals die Miterlebenden blendete. Wie 

weit sich auch in der jüngst wiedergefundenen Friedensfeier das Bild des Völkerbezwingers 

spiegelt, ist umstritten. Die Lyriker der Befreiungskriege entwickeln das negative Napoleon 

Bild zu einer gewissen literarischen Höhe und zu schärferen Umrissen. Das Bild behielt aber

die einseitig gesteigerten Züge des Nationalfeindes und Tyrannen, des Menschenverchters 

und Gotteslästerers, dessen militärischer Größe man, nach Kleist, erst Bewunderung zollen 

könne, wenn er gestürzt sei. 

Diesem negativen Bild stehen entgegen das zwischen Tyrannenhass und Geniekult 

schwankende Napoleon-Porträt Lord Byrons - “Du mehr als Mensch, im Schlimmen wie im 

Guten” - (Ode to Bonaparte, 1814 ) sowie Goethes Auffassung von dem “Bändiger der 

Revolution” und einem der “produktivsten Menschen”. 

Gedichte auf dem Tod des großen Kaisers entstanden mit der Nachricht von seinem 

Ende (F. Grillparzer, 1821; A.v. Chamisso). Byron (Ode to Napoleon, 1814 und The Age of 

Bronce,1823) benutzter Vergleich Napoleons mit Prometheus, der an den Felsen geschmiedet 

wurde, ist häufig wiederholt worden und er erscheint auch bei Heine in seiner Reise von 

München nach Genua: 

„Vielleicht nach Jahrtausenden, wird ein spitzfindiger Schulmeister beweisen, daß 

der Napoleon Bonaparte ganz identisch sei mit jenem andern Titane, der den Göttern 

das Licht raubte und für dieses Vergehen auf einem einsamen Felsen, mitten im Meere 

angeschmiedet wurde, preisgegeben einem Geier, der täglich sein Herz zerfleischte”. 

Ein richtiger Napoleon - Kult wird deutlich in Heines Buch Le Grand (1827) und 

Nordseebilder (1827). Die großartige Persönlichkeit von Napoleon Bonaparte hat Heine 

eigentlich während seines ganzen Lebens beschäftigt. Das Bild des Kaisers erscheint mit 

einer unablässigen Beharrlichkeit in den verschiedensten Werken des Dichters: Dieses fängt 

mit der berühmten Ballade Die Grenadiere (1820) an, und geht weiter mit Ideen. Das Buch Le 

Grand (1826), Reisebilder (1862-1831), Französische Maler (1831), Französische Zustände (1832), 

Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen (1844), Geständnisse (1854) und die monumentale Lutetia, die 

zwischen den Jahren 1840 - 1846 verfasst wurde und 1854 vollständig erschienen ist. Der 

deutsche Schriftsteller macht dem Kaiser in einer seiner Werken ein Bild, das Napoleon uns 

fast zum Gott vorstellt : 

“…neue Geschlechter werden aus der Erde hervorwachsen, werden schwindelnd an 

jenes Bild hinaufsehen und sich wieder in die Erde legen; -und die Zeit, unfähig, solch 

Bild zu zerstören, wird es in sagenhafte Nebel zu hüllen suchen, und seine ungeheure 

Geschichte wird endlich ein Mythos .“ 

Das sind aber nur die bedeutendsten Werke des deutschen Schriftstellers, in denen 

dieser sukzessive und obsessive Auftritt Napoleons oder seines Namens eine Art Leitfaden 

bildet; es gibt aber noch viele von Heines Schriften, in denen von Zeit zu Zeit der Name des 

großen Mannes mit Bezug auf verschiedene Aspekte und Situationen erscheint. 

Es ist doch nicht nur so, dass Napoleon in den obengenannten Werken erscheint, 

sondern er wird indessen zu einem wahren Wertkriterium seiner Epoche. 

Und wo der Kaiser Napoleon vor unseren Augen in den ersten Schriften Heines wie 

Die Harzreise, Ideen. Das Buch Le Grand, Die Reise von München nach Genua und Englische 

Fragmente unter solchen epopeischen Dimensionen enthüllt wird, wo er sich immer 

irgendwo zwischen einer überschwenglichen und einer pathetischen mit “mythischem 

Faden” gewebten Verherrlichung findet, da zeigt Heine später in seinen Französischen 

Zuständen und Lutetia nur eine abweisende Haltung, die eine stark ausgeprägte Nüchternheit 

bewies. 

So wird Napoleon “der eiserne Mann, fußend auf seinen Kanonenruhm”, so wird er 

nur ein “Genie, in dessen Haupte die Adler der Begeisterung horsteten, während in seinem 

Herzen die Schlangen des Kalküls sich ringelten”, so wird seine “Religion am Ende 

langweilig wie jede andere”, so wird er “Feind der Freiheit”, “Despot und gekrönte 

40

Selbstsucht”, und so wird der “große Kaiser”, “stockblind für jede Erscheinung”, worin sich 

die Zukunft ankündigt. 

Das Bild des Volkskaisers, an den sich anekdotische Züge heften, wurde weiter in 

Ballade (H. Heine, Die Grenadiere, 1827; Frhr. v. Zedlitz, Die nächtliche Heerschau; F.v. Gandy, 

Kaiserlieder, 1835) in Erzählung (W. Hauff, Das Bild des Kaisers, 1828) und im Roman (F. Stolle, 

Napoleon in Ägypten, 1813, Elba und Waterloo, 1838–1844) verbreitet. 

Die Gestalt des französischen “empereur” war bald sieghafter General, bald grimmiger 

Unterdrücker oder einsamer Träumer. Die Dramatiker haben aber einerseits wegen 

Rücksicht auf die Zensur, andererseits wegen des mangelnden Abstandes, den Kaiser nur in 

historischer Verkleidung oder Verschlüsselung darzustellen gewagt (Z. Werner, Attila, 1808; 

A. Müllner, Yngurd, 1817; F. Grillparzer, König Ottokars Glück und Ende, 1825). 

Die erste wesentliche Dramatisierung des Napoleon Schicksals gelang in Grabbes 

Napoleon oder die hundert Tage (1881). 

Hebbel verzichtete nach langem Durchdenken des Stoffes auf eine Gestaltung; er 

glaubte nicht, dem Stoff einen “ideellen Gehalt” einimpfen zu können. 

Nietzsche sah in Napoleon eine Verkörperung seines Übermenschen - Ideals; K. 

Bleibtreu zeigt in der Tragödie Der Übermensch (1896) Napoleons glücks - tragendes 

Geheimnis: seine Verbindung mit Joséphine; die Trennung von ihr wird dem Kaiser die 

Wende seiner Laufbahn bringen. 

Der Übermensch Napoleon präsentiert sich bei R.Voss in dem Drama Wehe dem 

Besiegten (1888) als sentimentaler Schwärmer, als tragischer, in den Gegensatz von 

politischem Genie und leitendem Menschen aufgespaltener Dulder bei E. Ludwig (1906) und 

als seelenvoller bei C. Hauptmann in der Dramen Bürger Bonaparte; Kaiser Napoleon (1911). 

Das Bild des legendären französischen Kaisers, die dominante Figur im Werk Heinrich 

Heines, enthält eine Vielfältigkeit von Eigenschaften: von einem wahren Wertmassstab für 

die Kontemporaneität zu einem “Despoten” und einem “Feind der Freiheit”. Am Anfang 

war er “jeder Zoll ein Gott”, er war der “teure Prometheus”, einer der “Großen dieser Erde”, 

der Gulliver in unsriger “Liliput”-Welt, “der große Kaiser”, “der Riese unseres 

Jahrhunderts”, der “Mann, worin diese Zeit so leuchtend sich abspiegelt, daß wir dadurch 

fast geblendet werden” und der Mann dessen Namen “ein Losungswort unter den Völkern” 

geworden ist. Er war der “sterbende Löwe”, wobei ein Gegner zum “preußischen Esel” wird. 

Auf der anderen Seite aber, H. Essig sieht in Napoleon nur einen Stellvertreter des 

Teufels in seinem Drama Napoleons Aufstieg (1912). 1926 fand B.Blum das Böse nicht in 

Napoleons Charakter, sondern in seinen Wirkungen, und 13 Jahre später stellt ihn uns A. 

Zweig in Bonaparte in Jaffa als Verräter an den Ideen der Französischen Revolution. So ist es 

leicht eine Entidealisierung der Gestalt im 20. Jahrhundert zu erkennen, und Napoleon wird 

- wie gezeigt - als ein Unterdrücker und Räuber der menschlichen Freiheit und ein 

Verhöhner der sittlichen Werte charakterisiert. 

Die privaten menschlichen Züge des großen Mannes werden ebenfalls gezeigt, 

besonders in K. Biesenthals Stern des Korsen (1890), H. Bohrs Josefine (1898), R.H. Bartschs 

Wenn Majestäten lieben (1949) und K. Bartzs Benimm dich, Paulette (1952); die Gestalt wurde 

aber auch ironisch umspielt bei W. Hasenclever (Napoleon greift ein, 1929), G. Kaiser (Napoleon 

in New Orleans, 1941) und H. Menzel (Noch einmal Napoleon ?, 1943). 

Das Napoleon - Epos bildet eine reiche, unerschöpfbare Inspirationsquelle für eine 

große Zahl von den Schriftstellern deutscher, wie auch französischer, italienischer, 

polnischer und russischer Zunge. Die Weltliteratur - man darf es sagen - ist viel reicher 

geworden nach dieser Napoleon - Ära und vielleicht wird Name Napoleon noch lange Zeit 

an von nun an in Schriften vieler Länder erscheinen. Man kann heutzutage ruhig behaupten, 

dass die Zahl der Werke, in denen Napoleon als Vordergrunds-, Rand- oder Neben- und 

Hintergrundsfigur auftritt, kaum erstellbar ist. 

Und wenn wir doch die positiven beziehungsweise die negativen Bezüge auf die 

41

Persönlichkeit Napoleons in der ganzen deutschen Literatur auf Waageschalen setzen 

würden, dürfte man ruhig behaupten, dass man den Ersteren von umfassenden Größen - nur 

viel zu wenig entgegensetzen könnte, dass man die ersteren positiven Bezüge kaum 

aufwiegen kann. 

Referenzen: 

Frenzel, E. (1970). Stoffe der Weltliteratur, Stuttgart:Alfred Kröner Verlag. 

Castelot, A. (1970). Napoleon Bonaparte, Bucureşti: Editura Politică. 

Pigeard, A. (2000). L' armée de Napoléon : 1800 - 1815 organisation et vie quotidienne, Paris: Tallandier. 

Broers, M. (1996). Europe under Napoleon, 1799 – 1815, London: Arnold. 

Tarle, (1964). Napoleon, Bucureşti: Editura pentru Literatură Universală. 

Goethe, J. W. (1962). “Kampagne in Frankreich 1792“, in Goethes Werke, Band 27, München: Deutscher 

Taschenbuch Verlag. 

Carlyle, T. (1921). Napoleon und Cromwell, Freilassing: Panonia Verlag. 

Descotes, M. (1967). L'obsession de Napoléon dans le 'Cromwell' de Victor Hugo, Paris: Minard. 

Fuerst, R. (1926). Heinrich Heines Leben, Werke und Briefe, Leipzig: Tempel-Verlag. 

Heine, H. 1972). Heinrich Heine - Werke und Briefe, 10 Bänder, Verlag Berlin, Weimar. 

Heine, H. (Hrsg. Walzel, O.), (1972). Heinrich Heines Sämtliche Werke, in zehn Bänden, Insel-Verlag, 

Leipzig. 

Abstract 

This work intends to display one of Napoleon’s pictures in the German literature. The reason 

underlying our choice is accounted for by Napoleon’s all-pervasive personality in what has come to 

be known as the Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic era. We could say that for writers as well as their 

literary endeavours, Napoleon was an obsession that they tried to dispose of yet, return over and 

over again. No matter how excessive it may sound, Napoleon’s controversial personality is certain 

to have had a great impact upon the social order in Europe, in his time as well as ever after, 

implying the political and the socio-cultural environment, the world literature being, in fact, 

highly indebted to his life experience as a great emperor. 

Résumé 

Ce papier a l'intention de présenter l‘image de Napoleon dans la littérature allemande. Nous 

traitons ici l‘image de Napoleon parce qu'il nous apparaît une figure dominante dans la littérature 

entière des temps de Napoleon et après lui. On pourrait dire, cette figure est une obsession dont les 

auteurs sortent et auquel ils reviennent à maintes reprises. Pourtant, cela peut sembler comme un 

peu excessif. Quand même, grâce à nombreux refferences sur la personnalité de Napoleon et 

l'impact de Napoleon sur l'ordre social européen entier (avec la relation implicite sur la politique 

et l'environement socio-culturel), est certain que la littérature mondiale entière est hautement 

endetté "à l'empereur" et à les événements de sa vie. 

Rezumat 

Lucrarea de faţă intenţionează să prezinte imaginea lui Napoleon în literatura germană. Tratăm 

aici imaginea lui Napoleon deoarece aceasta apare ca o figură dominantă în întreaga literatură 

napoleoniană şi post-napoleoniană. S-ar putea spune că această figură este o reală obsesie de la care 

autorii pornesc şi la care se reîntorc permanent. Desigur, acest lucru ar putea suna puţin exagerat. 

Cu toate acestea, datorită numeroaselor referinţe la personalitatea lui Napoleon precum şi 

impactului produs de acesta asupra întregii ordini sociale (cu referire implicită la mediul politic şi 

socio-cultural), rămâne cert faptul că întreaga literatură mondială îi este datoare „împăratului“ 

precum şi vieţii acestuia. 

42




pp. 43-46 

IRONISATION DE LA FICTION ET THEMATISATION 

DES 

REFERENCES LITTERAIRES 

Doinita Milea 

Language 

and 

Literature 

Lire un texte littéraire par rapport à un genre littéraire ou à un autre texte qu’on peut 

ou qu’on pourra reconnaître, a pour fonction essentielle de soutenir et d’orienter l’acte de 

lecture par des régularités structurales ou thématiques, qui laissent peu de liberté au lecteur 

,,modèle’’. Les études critiques mettent en évidence les efforts des écrivains pour mettre en 

évidence les effets de l’intertextualité qui puissent offrir à un public dont l’horizon d’attente 

a été touché, la séduction du plaisir de reconnaître les figures des héros, des thèmes ou des 

stratégies issus du dialogue avec les anciennes lectures. Umberto Eco dans La mystérieuse 

flamme de la reine Loana, 2005, semble vouloir expliquer son texte puisque le syntagme 

„roman illustré” désigne en général les productions romanesques destinés aux enfants, 

bandes dessinées, histoires illustrées, mais Eco envoie le lecteur à l'univers romanesque, ainsi 

qu’il l’avait déjà fait en 1992 , en Diario minimo, quand il avait commenté ses stratégies 

d’écriture dans la préface , comme une clé de lecture pour le lecteur qui en aurait besoin. 

La demarche comparatiste permet la mise en relation, dans l’acte de lecture, et le 

dépassement du texte en faveur des modèles qui fonctionnent comme des architextes pour 

les attentes et les compétences génériques. Les méthodes qui visent la superposition des 

textes, l’exploitation des principes des textes secondes, de la parodie et de la pastiches, des 

invariants et des stéréotypes, a permis un changement de la réception et de l’intérpretation 

de l’espace littéraire. 

Les romans métafictionnels de David Lodge, les dialogues intertextuels de John Fowles 

(The French Lieutenant's Woman ,Magus), les colages littéraires intertextuels de Salman 

Rushdie (Haroun and The Sea of Stories), les livres d’un téoricien tel Umberto Eco( Le Nom de la 

Rose),fonctionnent par la reconnaisance des codes littéraires, au XXe siècle,tout comme 

Orlando furioso au XVIe siècle ou Madame Bovary au XIXe siècle. 

Les formes évoluent dans le temps, les thèmes et le goût du public aussi, de nouvelles 

œuvres synthétisent ces transformations pour générer de nouvelles formes. Des parodistes 

comme Cervantes exploitent cette procédure qui transforme les textes du roman de 

chevalerie par la réalité quotidienne, donnant naissance à Don Quichotte. Rabelais, dans son 

Gargantua et Pantagruel propose un dialogue explicite avec les textes et les clichés de 

l’Antiquité, ainsi qu’avec les espaces de la réalité sociale et politique du temps, supposés, 

reconnaissables par ses lecteurs. Le contraste héroï-comique est fondé sur une structure 

imitative, manière qui produit Le Télémaque travesti, parodie du roman pédagogique de 

Fénelon. Au Moyen Âge, aux stratégies parodiques qui opèrent dans le Roman de Renart, 

parodie du monde chevaleresque et courtois, on ajoute l’allégorie, tout comme par 

l’allégorie, en Espagne, au XVIe siècle, Cervantes parodie les romans de chevalerie du 

Moyen Âge, et leurs clichés ; En France, au XVIIe siècle, la mode du burlesque offre en usant 

ces stratégies une parodie, tel le Virgile travesti de Scarron. La parodie, dans ces cas, pourrait 

être le signe qu'une forme ou qu'une convention est en train de devenir usée. Dans Tristram 

43

Shandy, Sterne transmet au lecteur la conscience des clichés de la forme romanesque, par un 

renvoi explicite aux conventions de ce genre, donnant naissance à une autre forme narrative, 

qu'on appelle aujourd'hui ,,métafiction’’, ou la narration est présentée comme un artifice 

démonstratif. En fait, le métaroman, parfois, reprend et commente ses propres thèmes et 

motifs, thèmes et motifs communs à maints textes, comme est le cas d’Alain Robbe-Grillet( 

La Reprise),qui propose ses thèmes à variations: le thème de l’errance dans les rues (et dans le 

labyrinthe), le thème de la pièce, de maisons où le récit prend naissance, toiles, dont les 

personnages semblent traverser la vie réelle en réunissant le passé au présent et aboutissant à 

l’effacement complet des traces de chronologie. À mesure que l’histoire avance, on a le 

sentiment de plusieurs déjà-vu, qui dépasse ses textes, en opérant les stratégies 

intertextuelles: la montée dans le train et le compartiment rappellent Michel Butor (l’incipit 

de la Modification); les deux personnages masculins identiques évoluent selon la formule de 

Poe de William Wilson; l’atmosphère du compartiment de train évoque la sale du procès de K, 

l’obsession des yeux de poupée et les frayeurs de l’enfance déplacées dans ce monde de 

l’adulte; les femmes – poupée redisent L’homme de sable, commenté par Freud. D’autres 

séquences renvoient explicitement à l’univers proustien, commenté par Freud, “ une tasse 

d’infusion de tilleul ‘’, ,, le baiser inespéré de la mère’’, le baiser dont le petit garçon a besoin 

comme de l’air pour retrouver son calme. L’adolescente – sœur, petite fille, fille qui nourrit 

les rêveries érotiques, renvoie explicitement par des reprises obsessives sexuelles à Lolita de 

Nabokov. Les cauchemars où le narrateur reconnaît les thèmes récurrents des rêves qu’il fait 

dès l’enfance: des toilettes introuvables pendant une recherché déroutante et inquiétante, 

l’escalier en colimaçon auquel il manque des marches, peuplent ces jeux textuels, comme si 

au narrateur étendu sur le canapé du psychanalyste et parlant de ses obsessions, on 

corrigerait et annoterait les relations. Les couvertures extérieures offrent plusieurs miroirs 

dans lesquels le roman peut se voir (au-delà du résume sommaire présenté par l’auteur 

comme le schéma d’une histoire d’espionnage et de souvenir nostalgiques. Les chroniques 

de signal de l’édition roumaine y voient soit ,,une reprise” de certains thèmes – fantasmes 

des textes de l’écrivain (le double, l’inceste, Œdipe, l’érotisme) soit un grand roman qui défie 

l’idée que le Nouveau Roman et le mouvement Tel Quel auraient tué la littérature française. 

Dans l’antiroman peut apparaître une transformation textuelle à fonction ludique, si l’on 

prend en compte, d’une part le choix littéraire (transformation, fonction ludique) de l’auteur 

dans la création d’un tel roman, d’autre part, la dimension métadiégétique où 

la transformation ludique repérée par le lecteur est une rupture de l’illusion fictionnelle 

voulue et exhibée par le parodiste. La dimension métatextuelle de la parodie a été mise en 

texte par les romanciers dans les pays anglo-saxons, afin de rendre compte des pratiques 

parodiques modernistes (Joyce) et post-modernes (J. Fowles, J. Barth). 

Dans la pratique, on distingue la parodie du pastiche, bien que le mécanisme ait un 

coté commun, se referant au fait que tant le pastiche que la parodie produisent des textes 

issus des transformations d'un original. La différence consiste dans l’effet particulier du 

décalage comique du texte dérivé par rapport au texte base. L'imitation parodique était 

souvent considérée vulgaire, au Moyen Age ou à la Renaissance, parce qu'elle ne montrait 

pas de respect envers ses modèles, n'hésitant pas à utiliser des procédés comiques assez 

grossiers (tel étant le cas de Rabelais). Les pastiches, en revanche, imposent une compétence 

culturelle, d’autant plus que l'imitation des classiques, à travers les époques, à eu souvent 

une fin pédagogique, travaillant sur l'amplification de texte, la transposition d'un style dans 

un autre, ou la réécriture d'un texte versifié en prose. Dans ces cas, les exercices qui tombent 

sur les pastiches sélectionnent les textes et les auteurs célèbres, dont l'écriture es particulière, 

comme est le cas des démonstration de Prévert dans son poème Cortèges, ou de la 

présentation de la vie idyllique de bergers chez Cervantes, autant de traits pertinents, 

reconnaissables. En parlant du dialogisme et du plurilinguisme propres au roman, Bakhtine 

(Du discours romanesque p. 83), définit la parodie comme un type particulier de stylisation 

44

qui fait partie intégrante de l’écriture romanesque, la stylisation parodique. Selon Bakhtine, 

les discours des personnages caricaturaux, satirique et comique, ainsi que des jargons 

professionnels, comme discours littéraires, entrent dans le champ de la parodie, d’où sa 

conception sur le carnavalesque dans le discours du roman, de Rabelais à Dostoïevski. 

Dans Palimpsestes, G. Genette propose une classification des pratiques qui mettent en 

relation des textes, qu’il appelle ,,hypertextuelles’’, dont la parodie n’est qu’un cas 

particulier. Les critères analysés par Genette sont de types structuraux, mais il prend en 

compte aussi l’intention ou l’effet, qui peut être ludique, satirique ou sérieuse, et la différence 

entre une transformation et une imitation. La parodie est, dans ces termes, une 

transformation textuelle à fonction ludique (Genette 1982 : 40, Détournement de texte à 

transformation minimale, Transformation ludique d’un texte singulier, Genette 1982 : 202). 

Genette décrit et étudie ces transformations à partir du Télémaque travesti de Marivaux, 1714. 

(Une analyse similaire appartient à Daniel Sangsue, dans son essai sur la parodie, 1982). 

Linda Hutcheon parle de la parodie (Theory of Parody, 1986), en analysant les stratégies 

postmodernes. Dans la parodie, le terme relation est important, parce qu’il rappelle que la 

parodie repose sur la relation d'une oeuvre base à une oeuvre seconde, dérivée, et qu'elle 

n'existe que lorsque cette relation est reconnue par le lecteur (ou le spectateur), car le genre 

se trouve également au théâtre. Au-delà de tout indice textuel ou de toute source générique, 

souvent difficiles à identifier, la parodie, notamment celle théâtrale, se définit par un espace 

où se jouent les polémiques de l’actualité. Les pièces de Molière sont remplies de parodies 

ponctuelles où l’auteur se moque du jargon des médecins, des femmes savantes, des 

précieuses. Chapelle, Racine et Boileau parodient le Cid de Corneille (le Chapelain décoiffé, 

1665) et Adrien-Thomas Perdou de Subligny, acteur, écrivain et dramaturge du XVIIe siècle, 

parodie Andromaque de Racine (la Folle Querelle, 1668). Au XVIIIe siècle, Voltaire utilise le 

genre dans ses pamphlets. Pangloss, dans son Candide (1759), est une parodie de philosophe 

optimiste. Les parodies de drames de Victor Hugo apparaissent au siècle suivant: par 

exemple, celle d’Hernani réalisée par le vaudevilliste Augustin Théodore de Lauzanne 

(Harnali ou la Contrainte par cor) est bien connue. 

Les œuvres de Laurence Sterne, suivent les techniques romanesques pour dialoguer 

par la parodie et la pastiche, les textes de voyages cachent la satire chez Jonathan Swift, et 

James Joyce,propose par Ulysse (1922) une parodie allégorique de l’épopée grecque, trouvant 

un écho au XXe siècle chez Samuel Beckett et Harold Pinter (par absurde et par la dérision). 

La transformation parodique répond, chaque fois, à de nouveaux horizons d’attente, 

par rapport à des conventions d’écriture qui commencent à vieillir, et par cela, elle 

s’apparente aux fêtes carnavalesques qui reprennent une figure déjà usée. La parodie, 

postmoderne, dont parle Linda Hutcheon, est à la fois un hommage respectueux et ironique 

à la tradition. C'est ce qu'ont fait Fowles, Barth, Borges, Nabokov, pour lesquels la parodie 

est un acte d'incorporation. 

John Fowles, dans The French Lieutenant's Woman, romancier narrateur, juxtapose les 

conventions du roman victorien et du roman moderne, pour détruire la classique illusion 

mimétique d'authenticité, le jeu des conventions,la réorganisation de ces conventions 

littéraires étant doublée par une reconstruction, qui laisse au lecteur la liberté de choisir une 

variante de l’organisation du sujet, à travers les conventions qu’il aime. La pratique littéraire 

de la réécriture postmoderne, ou la littérature du second degré, selon la formule déjà 

classique de Genette, supposent un texte de base qui s’ouvre dans un nouveau texte par les 

jeux allusives qui s’appuient sur les procédés de l’intertextualité, du palimpseste 

(superposition de textes), et, évidement, la métafiction, comme stratégie qui mette en 

évidence les modèles, délestés de leur sens premier, et leur transplantation. Comme tout 

texte littéraire, une transformation réclame également un lecteur, mais un collaborateur 

particulier. En d'autres termes, outre la reconnaissance des codes littéraires usuels d’un 

genre, le lecteur doit aussi reconnaître que ce qu'il est en train de lire est un texte dérivé, qu’il 

45

soit parodie ou autre type, et qu’il doit également accepter le pacte de lecture, pour s’en 

réjouir. 

Bibliographie 

Aron, P. (2005). Histoire du pastiche, Paris : Presses universitaires de France. 

Bakhtine, M. (1978). Du discours romanesque, dans Esthétique et théorie du roman, Paris : Gallimard. 

Compagnon, A. (1979). La seconde main, ou le travail de la citation, Paris: Seuil. 

Genette, G. (1982). Palimpsestes. La littérature au second degré, Paris: Seuil. 

Hutcheon, L. (1986). A Theory of Parody, London: Methuen. 

Sangsue, D. (1994). La Parodie, Paris: Hachette Supérieur. 

Tomachevski, B. (1965). Thématique, dans Théorie de la littérature, textes des formalistes russes réunis, 

présentés et traduits par T. Todorov, Paris: Seuil. 

Abstract 

As literature has evolved along the centuries, literary conventions have played their crucial role in 

the development of new literary models accepted through the perspective of innovation. The 

intensification of the parodic exploitation of literary forms, the parody itself is a strategy which 

eventually culminates in Postmodernism, where the author may choose to emphasize the 

“literarity” of the illusion created by the text, making use of a certain type of value minimization. 

Against the text background there will always be examples of irony, the main rhetorical 

mechanism which draws the reader’s attention to the possibility of actualization, which in its 

essence, is a kind of process, neither parody nor irony being able to function as such, but creating 

actions and strategies intended for the reader to interpret and assess the texts according to the 

author’s intention. 

Résumé 

Les conventions littéraires au cours de l'évolution littéraire ont leur rôle crucial dans le 

développement de nouveaux modes littéraires, par leur rapport avec le désir d’innovation. 

L'intensification de l’exploitation parodique des formes littéraires, stratégie déjà usée elle-même, 

culmine avec le Postmodernisme où l'auteur peut choisir de mettre en relief la ,,littérarité’’ de 

l'illusion provoquée par son texte, en usant d'un certain type de dévalorisation. À l'arrière-plan de 

son texte sera, toujours, l'ironie –principal mécanisme rhétorique qui attire l'attention du lecteur 

sur cette actualisation, qui est en elle-même, aussi, une sorte de procédé d'actualisation; ni la 

parodie ni l'ironie ne peuvent pas fonctionner comme telle, mais en donnant naissance à des 

actions, à des stratégies destinées à permettre au lecteur d'interpréter et d’évaluer, en relation, 

des textes, peut- être selon l’intention de l’auteur. 

Rezumat 

Convenţiile literare de-a lungul evoluţiei literare îşi au rolul crucial în dezvoltarea noilor modele 

literare, acceptate prin prisma dorinţei de inovare. Intensificarea exploatării parodice a formelor 

literare, ea însăşi o strategie deja culminează cu Postmodernismul, unde autorul poate alege 

punerea în relief a “literarităţii” iluziei provocate de text, utilizând un anume tip de devalorizare. 

In planul secund al textului se va afla totdeauna ironia, principalul mecanism retoric, care atrage 

atenţia cititorului asupra acestei actualizări, care este, în esenţă, un fel de procedeu de actualizare; 

nici parodia nici ironia nu pot funcţiona ca atare, ci dând naştere acţiunilor, strategiilor destinate 

să permită lectorului să interpreteze şi să evalueze textele conform intenţiei autorului. 

46




pp. 47-52 

47 

Language 

and 

Literature 

SOME THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS ON IMAGOLOGY 

Ioana Mohor-Ivan and Michaela Praisler 

Since the nineteenth century, originating from the German concept of a “psychology of 

the peoples”, there has been a long-standing interest in “national characters”. For the most 

part, this interest has been essentialist, stemming from the belief that “nations” were discrete 

and distinguishable groups, each characterised by its own character that could be analysed 

from that “nation’s” cultural activity. In the course of the twentieth century, the essentialist 

implications of “national characteristics” have attracted criticism, and, especially in the field 

of Comparative Literature, they have come to be studied as subjective terms, understood as 

attitudes and perceptions that affect cultural and social praxis. In the 1950s, imagology 

crystallised as a specialization in Comparative Literature in France, and has since gained 

currency among scholars and journalists interested in studying the discursively constructed 

nature of many social and cultural values, as a means of counter-acting re-emergent 

nationalisms. 

Imagology (imago=image + logos=word, account, study) may be defined as the study 

of intercultural relations in terms of mutual perceptions, images and self-images, i.e. the 

ways in which perceived national / ethnic / racial / cultural characters and identities – both 

one’s own and that of others–are expressed in a wide range of discourses, including 

literature, film and the media. Because stress is laid on perception and not on the “truth” or 

accuracy of an image, the aim of imagology is to understand the structures of images and 

demonstrate their conventional nature, by focusing on the intersection between linguistic 

(aesthetic / rhetorical) and historical (ideological / socio-cultural) aspects of discourse 

(Moyle, 2004: 9). 

In recognizing the ideological character of images and drawing attention to their sociocultural 

differences and similarities, imagology considers this mode of reciprocal 

characterization as pivotal in understanding national perception and representation in terms 

of the self-other dichotomy, which also underlies the dialectic of identity and alterity 

(Voestermans 1991: 219). As the identity of a human develops along the line of 

differentiation between (what is considered to be) the ‘self’ and everything which is not the 

self, the two are thus mutually dependable, investing each other with meaning. The same 

dialectic characterises the articulation of cultural and national identities, because 

“all human cultures articulate, situate themselves by categorizing the world […], a 

predicative act [which] involves a distinction between that which is allowed into the 

sphere of culture and that which is excluded” (Corbey and Leerssen 1991: vi). 

“Otherness” is thus created as both the contrastive as well as the cognitive background 

against which a cultural or national identity is circumscribed. 

As its name asserts, image is the main working concept in the field. On the one hand, 

image is understood as communication, especially visual communication or presentation; on 

the other hand, image is understood as a “mental picture” or idea. Imagology has adopted

the latter meaning, whereby image is “the mental or discursive representation or reputation 

of a person, group, ethnicity or ‘nation’” (Leerssen 2003: 342.) In this, it resembles a cognitive 

“knowledge structure” or schema that controls our opinion and behaviour towards the 

“other”. A fundamental distinction is made between auto-image (or ‘self-image’) and heteroimage: 

the first one refers to a characterological reputation current within and shared by a 

group, the latter to the opinion that others have about a group’s purported character. Apart 

from these, imagemes, a term coined by Joep Leerssen, would refer to ambivalent images 

that can be applied to different kinds of situations (Leerssen, 2000). If images change, they do 

so not because the character of the nation changes, but because the attitude towards the 

nation changes, as cultural discontinuities and differences (in the form of languages, 

mentalities, everyday habits, and religions) trigger positive or negative judgements and 

attitudes. 

When an image remains constant despite historical changes, it turns into a stereotype 

or cliché (Schneider, 2005). According to a dictionary definition, a stereotype is “a 

standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that 

represents an oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgement” (Webster 

1996: 1394) about a person or an entire group of people. In the absence of ‘the total picture’ of 

an environment which is “too big, too fleeting for direct acquaintance” (Lippman 1922: 16), 

we build up ‘intellectual images’ that create simplified representations, categories or values 

which help us orient through and make sense of the world. In addition to this, stereotypes 

also play an important role in identity building, because if an individual’s sense of self is 

closely related to the group to which he or she belongs – which may extend from school 

affiliation to race and nationality -, identifying with this ‘in-group’ means internalizing its 

own stereotypes. As such, the same as in the case of “image”, stereotypes may be classified 

into auto-stereotypes (evolved at ‘in-group’ level) and hetero-stereotypes (relating to ‘outgroups’, 

i.e. the other groups to which the individual does not belong or identify with.) The 

dialectic of the two is often based on contrastive stereotyping, because the tendency is to 

assign negative characteristics to the out-group in order to create positive auto-stereotypes. 

National stereotypes, which involve the assignation of specific characteristics to members of 

a given nation, exhibit the same binary nature, often occurring in the oppositional pairs of 

auto- versus hetero-stereotypes, or positive versus negative ones. Because national 

stereotypes transcend the individual, they may be modified by changes in the group 

experience or the context of intergroup relations ranging from conflict to alliances. When 

economic and political rivalry characterizes the relations between two countries, there is a 

marked negativity in hetero-stereotyping, which gives rise to xenophobia. The reverse, 

when positive terms are employed to characterize a national group, leads to exoticism or 

xenophilia. 

Though closely related to the concept of stereotype, the term cliché does not always 

connote the moral and metaphysical implications of the latter, referring rather to stylistic 

turns of phrase, images or gestures that have nothing to do with the expression of racism or 

ethnocentrism, nor do they give rise to prejudice. 

Originally a judicial term, prejudice has become another key concept in imagology, 

referring to “any preconceived and unsupported opinion and attitude that influences our 

perception, description and judgement of others” (Beller 2003: 404). Though in recent 

literature, prejudice and stereotype tend to be used interchangeably, “stereotypes are beliefs 

or opinions about attributes of a social group or members, whereas prejudice is 

conceptualized as a negative intergroup attitude” (Moyle 2004: 22; Stroebe and Insko 1989: 

8). As such, prejudice plays an important part in hetero-stereotyping, being a key to 

deciphering intergroup attitudes and relations. 

In point of the methodology that a critical study of cultural representations and of 

images of national identity presupposes, critics agree that the imagological approach blends 

48

different aims in an integrative type of analysis, sharing thus its concerns with anthropology, 

cultural studies and literary criticism. 

� In common with Cultural Anthropology, imagology starts from the premise that 

groups and cultures differ. One model for assessing differences among national 

cultures considers that four aspects (namely, power distance; collectivism/ 

individualism; femininity / masculinity; uncertainty avoidance) variously combine to 

differently mark mentalities within a given group (Hofstede, 1991, Gavriliu, 2002). The 

specific question that an imagologist asks relates then to how these differences are 

treated in mutual imagery. 

� In common with the field of Cultural Studies, imagology views culture as dynamic, a 

process through which a particular group of people constructs or deconstructs a series 

of maps of meanings to make sense of everyday practices and experience (Mohor-Ivan, 

2004: 4). Given that an image is one means of “mapping” experience, an imagologist 

would be interested in surveying the representational terrain of a given culture, 

investigating the form and function of the image within its discursive context and 

signalling changes in the perception of both in- and out-groups as markers of 

historical/political/social relativity in inter-cultural relations. 

� Given its literary ancestry, imagology works primarily on “imagined discourse”, i.e. 

discourse that lies outside the area of verifiable report statements (Leerssen 2003: 28). 

While the literary text is a primary resource to investigate the formation, perpetuation 

and dissemination of images, other more recent “poetically-ruled and fictionalnarrative 

media” – such as film or some genres of journalism – which “often work[s] 

on the presupposition of a suspension of disbelief and some (at least aesthetic) 

appreciative credit among the audience” (Leerssen 2003: 26) can be searched into for 

patterns of national characterization. 

In analysing such “imagined discourse”, Leerssen (2003: 26-30) considers that other 

methodological assumptions are likely to be at work. According to his survey of the history 

and method of the field: 

� Imagology adheres to a theory of cultural or national stereotypes, concerning itself 

with representations as textual strategies and as discourse, with referentiality 

contained within a textual and intertextual frame and not vis-à-vis empirical reality. 

� Imagology acknowledges the subjectivity of its sources and takes it into account in the 

analysis of the dynamics between auto- and hetero-images, by placing it in the 

perspectival context of the representing text or discourse. Moreover, such images, 

usually categorized in national terms, do not reflect empirical real-world collectives, 

but possible identifications for such groups. 

� Imagology considers that images work effectively in the cultural and communicative 

field because they are tropes, commonplaces turned familiar by repetition and 

resemblance. As such, one must uncover the tradition of a given trope by establishing 

its intertext. The trope becomes thus doubly contextualized: within a background 

tradition, which is echoed, reinforced or negated in the text of its occurrence, and 

within the latter itself, by analysing the given text-based function of the image. 

� Imagology is also interested in contextualizing the image in its socio-cultural context, 

by resorting to a pragmatic-functionalist perspective through which it aims to 

investigate the way in which the rhetoric and deployment of stereotypes is geared 

towards a target audience, or the critical reception and the impact that a certain image 

has. 

� Imagology goes beyond the self-other dichotomy that plays an important role in 

identity formation when it focuses on the role played by auto-images, which thematise 

the filiations between past and present through historical remembrance and cultural 

49

memory, in the maintenance of a sense of national identity. 

� Nevertheless, imagology remains a comparative enterprise, addressing cross-national 

relations by drawing attention to the fact that any image is constructed in accordance 

to a differential principle which restricts identity to particularism. When studied as a 

multicultural phenomenon, dichotomic coordinates like those established between the 

pragmatic North vs. the sensuous South, the backward periphery vs. the modern 

centre, or the masculine West vs. the feminine East become nationally unspecific, 

helping us realize that identity should define one as part of, and not in 

contradistinction to, humanity as a whole. 

As such, the following are meant as practical guidelines for the integrative type of analysis 

that the critical study of our mental images of national character (expressed in terms of the 

Other / Self dichotomy) presupposes. 

� Identify the type of text chosen for analysis. The distinction between fictional (e.g. 

literary works and feature films) and factual (e.g. newspaper articles and 

documentaries) texts is important in establishing “the degree of referential reliability of 

the reality communicated by the text” (Gavriliu, 2002: 101). 

� Identify the author of the text and the audience s/he is addressing. Are they members 

of the same in-group, or are they differentiated along gender, class, ideological, ethnic, 

etc. criteria? This helps clarify the position that the author and her/his text take in 

relation to the target audience: e.g. solidarity/disaffiliation/discord. 

� Identify the type of images constructed by the text in terms of the distinction 

between auto- and hetero-images. This distinction is useful in assessing both the textbased 

function of an image (how the author handles the self-other dialectic in her / his 

text) and its extra-textual one (what the author wants to achieve by employing a given 

image) (Moyle, 2004: 11). It may be further employed to distinguish between the force 

lines underlying the respective cultural groups, which “account for the how and the why 

of a certain representation” (Gavriliu, 2002: 6) of the self vs. the Other in Hofstede’s 

model (1991). 

� Focus on the text’s hetero-images. How is alterity constructed by the text? 

o Isolate the linguistic/visual elements which help circumscribe the Other (e.g. 

consider the distribution of lexical/auditory/visual signs in terms of the rate of 

occurrence of certain units, clusters.) 

o Assess the terms in which Otherness is articulated (national, ethnic, gender, etc.) 

o Identify the underlying attitudes (e.g. xenophilia, tolerance, cosmopolitanism vs. 

xenophobia, ethnocentrism) which lead to positive or negative attribution of 

characteristics to the Other. Such valorisation is also indicative of attitudes such 

as: assimilation, i.e. the appropriation of the Other by turning it into the familiar, 

or rejection, i.e. the exclusion of the Other “into utopia, dystopia or irreducible 

marginalisation” (Gavriliu 2002: 7). 

o Consider the extent to which hetero-images are recognisable as stereotypes. 

Because stereotypes are intertextual constructs, i.e. the referential signification 

process takes place not between text and reality, but between text and text 

(Leerssen 1998), establish their textual tradition. Refer to the function that 

stereotypes play in the text at hand: e.g. a starting point for characterisation; 

ironic markers; identifiers for alterity; invested with symbolic value; used to ‘go 

against the grain’ (Moyle 2004:11). This helps establish the role played by 

stereotypes either in sustaining tradition (e.g. reinforcing myths of otherness or 

prejudices) or, by contrary, in undermining it. 

o Identify the dichotomic coordinates which underlie the representation of the 

Other. Phenotypical features, gestures, speech (e.g. foreign vocabulary or 

onomastic preferences marked by caricatural intentions) may be employed to 

50

cast characters as statements of alterity, triggering oppositions as those 

established between self / other; civilian / barbarian; human / beastly; good / 

evil; superior / inferior (Gavriliu, 2002: 101, Mohor-Ivan, 2004: 19). Indicators of 

place and time may similarly point to contrasts like: North / South, West/ East, 

urban / pastoral, centre / margin, which further connote oppositions such as 

progress / primitivism; pragmatic / spiritual; individualist / collectivist; prosaic 

/ idyllic, development / backwardness, order / chaos (Leerssen 1988, Mohor- 

Ivan, 2004: 86.) Such structural identifications may reveal the extent to which 

alterity is excluded, ascribed a negative role as a manifestation of disorder and 

cultural inadaptability in the out-group or the emitting culture, or, by contrary, 

conceived in more congenial terms, appropriated and included into the patterns 

of the in-group or the receiving culture. Moreover, they may help discern 

whether alterity is represented as continuous and homogeneous, similar to other 

instances of Otherness, discontinuous and contradictory, able thus to become 

fluid and incorporate the Self. 

� Corroborate the investigation of the form and function of images within the text 

with a macro-contextual analysis. Placing an image in its cultural and historical 

context is indicative of political, economic, or diplomatic circumstances that condition 

the apparition of the text (Gavriliu, 2002: 102). As images shift with changing 

contextual circumstances, the identification of the cultural line forces that govern a 

certain period may explain why a particular representation is favoured over a range of 

possible alternatives. It also ensures a clarification of the referential frame, as well as of 

the cultural values and presuppositions that both author and audience involve in the 

communication process in order to encode/decode a given image. Finally, disclosing 

the properties of the context that makes an image available as a pattern of identification 

for a group of people may prompt a better understanding of the difference between 

“an ‘image’ and objective information” (Leerssen 1988), by explaining its role as a 

subjective construct which influences and is influenced by the cultural, historical and 

social praxis. 

Though a specialism rooted in the field of Comparative Literary Study, this technical 

neologism referred to as imagology in many languages has come to transcend the field of 

literary analysis and to provide “a viable and fruitful approach to neighbouring specialisms 

(from cultural studies to postcolonial studies, and from social psychology and anthropology 

to art history)” (Beller 2003, xv). Because it shares the interests in identity constructs and 

cultural stereotypes with so many disciplines within the wider and interdisciplinary area of 

human and social studies, the task of pinpointing the outlines of the field would remain an 

open-ended one, as the on-going dialogue between imagology and its neighbours can only 

enrich both theoretical premises and practical research in the study of different forms of 

cultural representation. 

References 

Beller, M., Leerssen, J. (eds). (2003). IMAGOLOGY: a Handbook on the Literary Representation of National 

Characters, Amsterdam: Rodopi. 

Corbey, R., Leerssen, J. (1991). “Studying Alterity: Backgrounds and Perspectives” in Alterity, Identity, 

Image: Selves and others in society and scholarship. Amsterdam: Rodopi, vi-xviii . 

Gavriliu, E. (2002). Theory and Practice of Imagology. Experiencing the Other in Anglo-Romanian Cultural 

Encounters, Galaţi: Editura Fundaţiei Universitare “Dunărea de Jos”. 

Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and Organisations. Intercultural Cooperation and Its Importance for Survival. 

Software of the Mind. London: Harper Collins Publishers. 

Leerssen, J. (2003). “Imagology: History and Method” in Beller, M., Leerssen, J. (eds). IMAGOLOGY: a 

Handbook on the Literary Representation of National Characters, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 17-32. 

51

Leerssen, Joep (2000) “The Rhetoric of National Character: A Programmatic Survey.” in Poetics Today, 

Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics. 

Leerssen, J. (1998). National Identity and National Stereotype, retrieved from http://cf.hum.uva.nl/ 

images/info/leers.html 

Mohor-Ivan, I. (2004). Representations of Irishness: Culture, Theatre and Brian Friel’s Revisionist Stage, 

Bucuresti: EDP. 

Moyle, L. M. (2004). An Imagological Survey of Britain and the British and Germany and the Germans in 

German and British Cartoons and Caricatures: 1945-2000. Retrieved from http:// elib.ub.uniosnabrueck.de/publications/diss/E-Diss389_thesis.pdf 

Schneider, D. J. (2005). The Psychology of Stereotyping, New York: The Guildford Press. 

Stroebe, W., Insko, C. (1989). “Stereotype, Prejudice and Discrimination: Changing Conceptions in 

Theory and Research” in Stereotype and Prejudice. Changing Conceptions, New York: Spinger (3-34) 

Voestermans, P. (1991). “Alterity/Identity: A Deficient Image of Culture” in Alterity, Identity, Image: 

Selves and Others in Society and Scholarship. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 219-50. 

Abstract 

The paper attempts to facilitate research in different forms of cultural representations by supplying 

a basic outline of imagology, a technical neologism which, though rooted in Comparative Literary 

Studies, has increasingly come to be positioned in the wider and interdisciplinary area of cultural 

and social studies. As such, after some preliminary considerations on the history, definition and 

basic assumptions underlying the field of image studies, the paper enlists and briefly explains its 

basic concepts, to conclude with both theoretical and practical guidelines for the integrative type of 

analysis that the critical study of our mental images of national character (expressed in terms of 

the Other/Self dichotomy) presupposes. 

Résumé 

Cet ouvrage se propose de faciliter l’analyse de divers aspects des représentations culturelles et 

offre un bref exposé sur l’imagologie. Bien qu’émergeant des études de littérature comparée, 

l’imagologie est de plus en plus souvent incluse dans le domaine plus large et interdisciplinaire des 

études sociales et culturelles. Ainsi, après quelques considérations préliminaires sur l’histoire, la 

définition et les prémisses fondamentales des études d’images, l’ouvrage indique et explique 

brièvement les concepts principaux de l’imagologie et s’achève par un guide qui inclus des aspects 

théoriques et pratiques pour l’analyse intégrative que l’étude critique de nos images mentales du 

caractère national (exprimé en termes dichotomiques par l’opposition Moi/ L’Autre) implique. 

Rezumat 

Lucrarea îşi propune să faciliteze analiza diverselor reprezentări culturale, prezentând, succinct, 

principalele direcţii de cercetare ale imagologiei. Avându-şi originea în domeniul literaturii 

comparate, imagologia este din ce în ce mai des inclusă în sfera de interes mai largă şi 

interdisciplinară caracteristică studiilor sociale şi culturale. Aşadar, după o introducere privind 

istoricul, definiţia şi premisele care se află la baza studiului imaginilor, lucrarea trece în revistă şi 

explică pe scurt conceptele sale fundamentale. În ultima parte sunt avansate o serie de consideraţii 

teoretice dar şi practice asupra modalităţilor de explorare, din perspectiva critică, ale 

reprezentărilor identitare asociate unui caracter naţional. 

52




pp. 53-55 

CULTURAL DECONSTRUCTIONS OF 

TRANSLATED LITERATURE 

Lidia Mihaela Necula 

53 

Language 

and 

Literature 

Merely translating literal meaning from one language to another can prove difficult. 

However, translating literature that is written into a certain source language and that is 

naturally and culturally encoded into it is, in some ways, an unattainable venture. 

Literature is an art that exploits words as its tool, as confined to the language, and so to 

the culture in which they exist: one cannot have one without the other: language is culture. 

Consequently, translating a culturally construed piece of art work removes it from what it is. 

Translation is the process of changing something into what it is not so that it will be itself - 

but for another audience, in another time. 

Language is culture, and hence, to translate literature often means to inappropriately 

translate culture. As cultural interpreters, translators are the first to decide what gives 

literature impact in its native language, and then find some analogous way to convert that 

(adapting and altering) into the intended language. According to Bassnet (1989), much of the 

outcome of cultural interpreters depends on how they understand and value not only 

aspects of the original work but also the work itself as a whole in its original language. 

It is known that deconstruction challenges limits of language, writing and reading by 

pointing how the definitions of the very terms used to discuss concepts set boundaries for 

the specific theories they describe. Therefore, while not offering a specific cultural translation 

theory of its own, deconstruction does use translation often both to raise questions regarding 

the nature of language and being-in-language / culture, as well as to suggest that in the 

process of translating texts, one can come as close as possible to that elusive notion or 

experience of (cultural) différence, which underlies their approach. Both Roland Barthes and 

Jacques Derrida (Culler, 1979) started out in the belief that structuralist methodology could 

explain and examine the whole range of cause and effect through language and culture 

implicitly. 

What transpires from deconstructionist translation theory, of course, is the renewed 

pre-eminence of the critic, not only as the almost divinely intuitive cultural interpreter of the 

literary work but also as an artist himself. 

It takes art to talk about art (Lodge, 1966), that is, art cannot be paraphrased or 

translated into any other form. Besides, Barthes’ view that it is the reader and not the author 

who finds meaning in a text leads logically to the conclusion that it is the translator / critic / 

reader that acquires the cultural meaning of a given work. The deconstructionist cultural 

interpreter and critic feel and describe their feelings but there is no objective standard 

measurement with which to state that their feelings are true or illusory. And in the end, the 

cultural translator is left to delineate true from illusory feelings. 

The originality of the initial text is called into question and most importantly, the 

meaning of a text is reconsidered and silenced: the process of cultural conversion resists 

systems of categorization which separate source text from target text or language from

meaning and denies the existence of underlying forms independent of culture. (Holeton, 

1992). 

In English through Translations (2004), Croitoru mentions that in translating literary 

texts, both translation theories, on the one hand, and translation criticism, on the other, have 

to consider a criterion for the analysis of the ST and TT, covering both extralinguistic and 

linguistic factors that are very important in interpreting and translating the text. Due to the 

fact that among the most important coordinates of literary translation, intentionality 

determines the translator’s choices, the author’s intention being as important as the recipient 

that defines the communicative situation and the function of the text, Derrida’s translation 

theory according to which one thinks less in terms of copying or reproducing, and more in 

terms of how languages relate to each other seems to apply to the culture conversion 

phenomenon of translating / translated literature. 

Clearly, there are many drawbacks to face with when translating literature because the 

material is actually a sample of the culture rendered through the language of that source text 

that, most often than not, does not have a correspondent into the cultural labels of the target 

text. For most of the cases these cultural conversions are so different from the original text 

that the new translated text writes back its translator as a cultural construal: the final result is 

a différent text, a culturally re-created original text subjected to a translational individuality 

principle and as such, basically an unrepeated event. 

In a wider sense, this re-creation of the SLT in the TL by different means, reminds of R. 

Jakobson’s likeness in difference. The translators may have a greater or lesser degree of 

competence, but their work also reflects an inevitable element of subjectivity or style which 

can be traced through certain lexical usages and syntactic forms, development of 

mannerisms or a certain approach to translating, i.e. different reactions to the same text or to 

the contact with reality. In general, during such a cultural conversion it is impossible to 

observe one fundamental translation principle, namely, that the translation should 

accurately reflect the meaning of the original texts and nothing should be added or removed 

arbitrarily, though occasionally part of the meaning can be transposed. 

A (cultural) recreation of the SLT would impose an interpretation of the author’s 

universe (the denotations and the connotations of the TL and the meaning they convey) as 

well as a categorization of the author’s universe in the TL system. 

In Contexts in Translating (2001), Nida distinguishes between the referential or cognitive 

meaning of translation, related to the extralinguistic object in its cultural context, and the 

emotive meaning, related to the subjective reactions. A very important aspect in translating, 

interpreting and analyzing literature from a cultural standpoint is that the specific flavor of 

the works, the genius of the language, and the richness of the culture prevents translation 

operators from analyzing the specific source text characteristics, and leads to a conclusion of 

cultural untranslatability. In most cases, untranslatability is somehow supplemented for by 

invented and / or re-created constructions that would fit into the cultural background of the 

SL because culture is a specific collection of features which need examining in each 

translation situation. 

Besides, deconstruction and translation prove to be inexorably interconnected, 

intimating that the process of translation, that elusive impossible presence Derrida refers to 

as cultural différence, may be visible: cultural interpreters are challenged to think and 

rethink every moment a translation solution is posed, an item named, an identity fixed or a 

sentence inscribed. With each naming gesture the cultural interpreter might feel compelled 

to provide explanations for each solution chosen. Thus, the process of cultural conversion of 

literary texts offers a mode of differing / deferring that subverts modes of traditional 

thinking. By applying the deconstructive translation method to literary texts it is possible to 

separate source text from target text or language from meaning: eventually, the discourse of 

the text reveals the de/re-structured cultural discontinuities as brought together under the 

54

cover of a unified, ahistorical, transcendental, original text. In addition (im)possible 

meanings are returned to words, but covered up by the nature of the evolution of the 

discourse. 

Cultural equivalence is a fluid and relative concept, for it has the notion of difference 

inscribed in it, alongside identity (Rosaldo, 1992). Thus, a process of cultural conversion 

rejects the definition of translation as transporting, reproducing, representing or 

communicating the meaning of the original: cultural translation/ projection is viewed as one 

instance in which language can be seen as always in the process of modifying the original 

text, of deferring and displacing for ever any possibility of grasping that which the original 

text desired to name. 

To conclude, different approaches to culturally translated literature may have a 

positive or a negative feedback, i.e. the TT resulted might be original in its treatment of the 

translation and thus tend to break down the power of the transcendental signified and free 

the field from evaluating translations in terms of their proximity to pure cultural 

equivalence. 

References 

Bassnet, S. (1989). “Translation, Tradition, Transmission” in Beyond Translation, New Comparison, 8 

(Autumn). 

Croitoru, E. (2004). English Through Translations, Galati: Editura Fundatiei Universitare ‘Dunarea de 

Jos’. 

Culler, J. (1979). Structuralism and Science, From Lévi-Strauss to Derrida, London: Oxford University 

Press. 

Holeton, R. (ed.) (1992). Encountering Cultures. Reading and Writing in a Changing World, New Jersey: 

Prentice Hall. 

Lodge, D. (1966). The Language of Fiction, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 

Nida, E. (2001). Contexts in Translating, Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing 

Company. 

Rosaldo, R. (1992). “Culture and Truth: The Erosion of Classic Norms” in Encountering Cultures, 

Reading and Writing in a Changing World, Holeton, R. (ed.), New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 

Abstract 

The article aims at investigating the translation of literature from under a cultural lens, with 

particular emphasis on deconstructionist translation theories, according to which not only do 

languages (source and target) relate to each other but also they apply to and are mediated towards 

an entire culture(al) conversion phenomenon. 

Résumé 

L’article se propose d’investiguer la traduction de la littérature d’une perspective culturelle, tout 

en s’appuyant sur des théories de traduction déconstructivistes dont le principe fondamental est 

que les langues (source et cible) se trouvent dans une relation de réciprocité. 

Rezumat 

Articolul investighează procesele de traducere ale literaturii dintr-o perspectivă culturală, 

acordând atenţie deosebită teoriilor deconstructiviste de traducere conform cărora limbile (sursă şi 

ţintă) nu doar relaţionează ci se şi pretează unui fenomen şi sunt mediate către un fenomen de 

conversie culturală. 

55




pp. 56-60 

ON IDENTITY, ALTERITY AND HYBRIDITY WITH 

ENGLISH EPONYMS IN CHEMISTRY 

Floriana Popescu and Carmen Opriţ-Maftei 

Language 

and 

Literature 

Introduction 

Lexicographical approaches to English eponyms may be found in the form of 

dictionaries, encyclopedia, pocket guides and handbooks, most of them describing medical 

eponyms. Since eponymization has also been active in other sciences whose terminologies 

may probably be dedicated specialized dictionaries or glossaries in the future, the current 

paper focuses on one category of such eponyms ‘in waiting’ for an adequate lexicographic 

explanatory volume, i.e., the eponyms in chemistry (chemical eponyms from now on). 

Defined as overlapping three meanings (in McArthur 1996: 350), an eponym refers 

either to (a) “a personal name from which a word has been derived”, or to (b) “the person 

whose name is so used” (also eponymist, in the recent literature on eponyms) or to (c) “the 

word so derived” (the recent terminology has suggested the use of eponymism for this 

meaning). For the last thirty years, English eponyms have interested linguists (Hellweg 1995, 

Crystal 1995, Crystal 2007), lexicographers (Manser 1996, Manser 2005), medical doctors 

(Matteson and Woywodt 2006, Whitworth 2007), and specialists in ethics (Cubelli and Sala 

2008). 

That eponymization tends to become a considerably productive word creating process 

is obvious in the case of LSP. Nevertheless, little has been stated in this regard in the 

lexicological literature. 

In addition, specialized terminologies of sciences (mathematics, physics and chemistry) 

abound in eponyms (most of them became operative in the 19 th and 20 th centuries). 

Specialized eponyms were observed to be either peculiar to one science or to be shared by 

two or all of the three sciences (viz., Boolean geometry is useful both in mathematics and 

physics). Despite the eponym field-specific high frequency of occurrence, none of these 

sciences has benefitted from the compiling of adequate lexicographic instruments to describe 

them. 

The current interpretive perspective will consider the nationality of the eponymist 

whose name was recategorized into a common noun or an element in a set phrase to be used 

in the vocabulary of chemistry, for we think that speaking in terms of identity or alterity with 

respect to the eponymist ensures the hybridity 1 of the English chemical eponyms. The paper 

is the result of joint research carried out on the basis of a long-term research project 

undertaken by the two authors and which has materialized into a lengthy series of 

conference reports and publications (27 studies and articles on specific-field eponyms). 

1. A terminological framework 

The three key terms underlying our linguistic endeavour, identity, alterity and hybridity, 

56

originate in cultural studies, which at a quick glance would seem improper to our research 

background. Nevertheless, language not only “… gives meaning to material objects and 

social practices that are brought into view and made intelligible to us”, but it is equally “the 

medium for the formation and transfer of values, meanings and forms of knowledge” and 

“…the privileged medium in which […] meanings are […] communicated” (Barker 2005: 88). 

Hence, our inspiration in attributing them a linguistic bias. 

Paraphrasing Barker (2005: vii) who assigns the following three meanings to hybridity, 

we shall admit that identity as well as alterity may and will, in our current interpretation, 

stand for “(a) discursive formations, (b) frameworks for intercultural communication” and 

“(c) agenda for research”, i.e., linguistic research, in our case. Historically understood, all the 

three concepts have contributed to the development of vocabularies, specialist terminologies 

included. 

Defined as “… the affirmation of those who we are by contrasting nearly every element 

of our way of life with that of the others” (Voestermans 1991: 220), in what follows, identity 

will apply to eponyms of English extraction, for irrespective of the geographical varieties of 

English (be it British or American), scientific English shows but fuzzy boundaries. 

Alterity, which “came to be broadly defined as discourse on the otherness of people, 

particularly outside one’s domestic ken” (Voestermans 1991: 220), will refer to all those 

eponymisms originating in other cultures but which were adopted by English as well. 

“At its core, hybridity involves the mixing together of previously discrete cultural 

elements to create new meanings and identities” (Barker 2004: 89). We share Kraidy’s (2005: 

1) opinion that “hybridization is one of the emblematic notions of our era […] which 

captures the spirit of the time”. Although most frequently, hybridity refers to culture, as we 

use it from now on, it relates to language, in general and to field-specific vocabularies in 

particular. 

We aim to show that eponymy is transcultural and it etymologically reveals three main 

classes of eponymisms, viz., those originating in the names of famous native eponymists, or 

in the names of those coming from other cultures or in several types of associations between 

eponymists of the otherness and those of the native scientific background. 

2. Materials and methods 

To make a comprehensive inventory of chemical eponyms, four English volumes 

(Holtzclaw and Robinson, 1988a, Holtzclaw and Robinson, 1988b, Pauling, 1964, Chang, 

1984) were scanned and a list of such terms was drawn which resulted in a corpus of fieldspecific 

items to include over 400 illustrations. 

They were etymologically classified to comply with the key words of the current 

approach. The classification considered the structure of eponyms as an element of particular 

interest. This is due to the fact that in the case of set phrases their structure is always the 

same, i.e., chemists will always use the Moseley diagram, the Parkes process or the rule of 

Dulong and Petit and never in any other word sequence. It is worthwhile pointing to the 

practicality of the corpus which was not designed for this research exclusively. In addition to 

its being useful for an intercultural analysis, our multipurpose corpus of chemical eponyms 

will serve for lexicological, lexicographical and translational research, teaching and 

evaluating purposes. 

3. Findings 

The investigation of the chemical eponyms showed common structural features, 

irrespective of their originating in English or other languages. Personal names may be used 

as one-word terms or as combinations including one or more personal names and at least 

57

one common word, most frequently, a noun. 

Our linguistic analysis revealed eponyms which come from British and American 

eponymists to suggest identity. Out of a rich number of examples several are mentioned 

here: brookite (

expressed by personal names without any derivational ornaments and which also preserve 

their capital initial (i.e., London force < Fritz London, who first explained the intermolecular 

force, in Holtzclaw and Robinson, 1988a: 288) and those which behave as the base for the 

process of suffixation with -ite (to denote minerals) and -(i)um (to denote chemical elements). 

Structurally, the eponyms which point to the presence of the ‘other’ in the English 

chemical terminology develop the same two types of pattern, i.e., (elements of the) 

determination (system) and suffixation, whose particularity lies in the loss of capital initials. 

Determiners may refer to simple nouns, as in the Arrhenius equation (Pauling 1964: 499), or 

in compound structures as in the Arrhenius reaction-rate (

signed by Woywodt and Matteson and entitled “Should Eponyms Be Abandoned? Yes”, in British 

Medical Journal, 335, 424 and the latter presented in the bibliography below. 

Bibliography 

Barker, C. 2004 The Sage Dictionary of Cultural Studies, London: Sage Publications Ltd. 

Barker, C., 2005 Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice, Oxford: Alden Press Ltd. 

Chang, R. 1984, Chemistry, New York: Random House 

Crystal, D. 1995, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University 

Press. 

Cubelli, R., Sala, S.D. (2008). Eponyms to Forget, in Cortex, 44, 9, 1137 – 8 

Hellweg, P. 1995. The Wordsworth Book of Intriguing Words, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Edition Ltd. 

Holtzclaw, H.F. jr., Robinson, R.W. 1988a. General Chemistry, Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company 

Holtzclaw, H.F. jr., Robinson, R.W., 1988b. College Chemistry, Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company 

Kraidy, M. 2005, Hybridity or the Cultural Logic of Globalization, Philadelphia: Temple University 

Press 

Manser, M. 1996. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Eponyms, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Reference 

Manser, M. 2005. Chambers Dictionary of Eponyms, Chambers Harrap Publishers 

Matteson, E.L, Woywodt, A. 2006. Eponymophilia in Rheumatology, in Rheumatology, 45, 1328 – 1330. 

McArthur, T. (ed.) 1996. The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press 

Pauling, L. 1964. College Chemistry, San Francisco and London: W.H. Freeman and Company 

Voestermans, P., 1991, Alterity/identity: A Deficient Image of Culture, in Corbey, R., Leerssen, J. 

(eds.), Alterity, Identity, Image: Selves and Others in Society and Scholarship, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 219- 

50. 

Whitworth, J. 2007. Should Eponyms Be Abandoned? No, in British Medical Journal, 335, 425 

Abstract 

The problem of eponyms has been constantly investigated against the background of English for 

specific purposes for several years. This paper continues the series of field-specific observations and 

presents a few remarks regarding the presence of the ‘other’ as compared to the presence of the 

‘national identity’ in the vocabulary of chemistry. 

Rezumat 

Problema eponimelor, amplasate pe fundalul limbii engleze pentru scopuri specifice a fost cercetată 

în mod constant pe o perioadă de câţiva ani. Lucrarea de faţă continuă seria observaţiilor privind 

domenii specifice şi prezintă unele remarci privind prezenţa alterităţii comparativ cu prezenţa 

‘identităţii’ naţionale în vocabularul specific domeniului chimiei. 

Résumé 

Le problème des éponymes a été constamment investigué entre les frontières de l’anglais sur 

objectifs spécifiques depuis quelques années. Ce papier continue la série des observations sur la 

terminologie propre à un objectif spécifique et présente quelques remarques sur la présence de 

l’altérité en comparaison avec l’élément d’identité nationale dans le vocabulaire de la chimie. 

60




pp. 61-65 

STYLISTIC FOCUS ON E.M. FORSTER 

Daniela Şorcaru 

61 

Language 

and 

Literature 

Foster is noted for his use of symbolism as a technique in his novels, and he has been 

criticized for his attachment to mysticism. The characters of Mrs. Wilcox and Mrs. Moore in 

A Passage to India have a mystical link with the past and a striking ability to connect with 

people from beyond their own circles. 

Although he always remained to some extent an Edwardian, E. M. Forster embodied 

more fully than any other imaginative writer of his generation a modern gay-liberation 

perspective. 

Forster’s homosexuality manifested itself in an erotic preference for foreigners and for 

men of the lower social classes. Reflecting an appreciation of the natural vitality he 

connected with working-class men and ambivalence about his own over-civilized 

temperament, this preference helps account for his tendency to romanticize the lower classes 

and for his sensitivity to the injustices of the class system at home and to the effects of 

imperialism abroad. 

Perhaps because of his erotic preference for working-class men, Forster was also 

deeply affected by the belief that homosexuality could serve a positive social function by 

helping to bridge the barriers that separate the classes. 

Forster’s acute consciousness of gay oppression, as epitomized in the persecution of 

Wilde, haunted his imagination throughout his life, fueling his anger at social and political 

injustices of all kinds. 

But notwithstanding his difficulties in making a sexual adjustment and despite recent 

attempts to characterize his attitude toward homosexuality as guilt-ridden and self-loathing, 

the fact is that Forster never felt shame for his sexual orientation. 

What he did feel were a sense of wariness and vulnerability and that sensation of 

standing ‘at a slight angle to the universe’ that he detected in the poetry of C. P. Cavafy. 

Forster’s sensitivity to the pervasive homophobia of his age probably accounts for that tinge 

of sadness so characteristic of the Forsterian voice. His fiction embodies a consistent system 

of values centered on issues of self-realization, individualism, and responsiveness to life, 

nature, and the unseen. 

Forster began writing A Passage to India in 1913, just after his first visit to India. The 

novel was not revised and completed, however, until well after his second stay in India, in 

1921, when he served as secretary to the Maharajah of Dewas State Senior. Published in 1924, 

A Passage to India examines the racial misunderstandings and cultural hypocrisies that 

characterized the complex interactions between Indians and the English toward the end of 

the British occupation of India. 

A Passage to India was the last in a string of Forster’s novels in which his craft 

improved markedly with each new work. After the novel’s publication, however, Forster 

never again attained the level of craft or the depth of observation that characterized his early 

work.

With a view to analyzing E. M. Forster’s role as a precursor of the stream-ofconsciousness 

linguistic techniques at text level, we embark upon a parallel task, namely that 

of proving that the pleating of stylistic functions in literary discourse creates a complex 

network of linguistic devices, no matter the perspective at the core of the analysis. 

Text 1. “So the leave-taking began. Every one was cross or wretched. It was as if irritation 

exuded from the very soil. Could one have been so pretty on a Scotch moor or an Italian 

alp? Fielding wondered afterwards. There seemed no reserve of tranquility to draw upon 

India. Either none, or else tranquility swallowed up everything, as it appeared to do for 

Professor Godbole. Here was Aziz all shoddy and odious, Mrs. Moore and Miss Quested 

both silly, and he himself and Heaslop both decorous on the surface, but detestable 

really, and detesting each other. 

‘Good-bye, Mr. Fielding, and thank you so much. …What lovely College buildings!’ 

‘Good-bye, Mrs. Moore.’ 

‘Good-bye, Mr. Fielding. Such an interesting afternoon. …’ 

‘Good-bye, Miss Quested.’ 

‘Good-bye, Dr. Aziz.’ 

‘Good-bye, Mrs. Moore.’ 

‘Good-bye, Dr. Aziz.’ 

‘Good-bye, Miss Quested.’” (Forster, 1991:67) 

The vocabulary of Text 1 observes the canon of formal discourse, not only at the level of 

individual words, but also at that of collocations specific to formal English. The absence of 

any intrusions of the informal results in clear understanding on the part of the reader, 

whereas the stylistic effect created is that of ‘nice and proper’ language that is meant to 

characterize both the situation at hand and the characters. 

The nouns in the text, whose scarcity is to be noted, as they yield frequency to 

adjectives in this excerpt, reveal a stylistic interplay between the concrete and the abstract. 

Such a linguistic device serves the stylistic function of supporting the idea of tension at text 

level: irritation, soil, moor, alp, reserve, tranquility, College, buildings, surface. 

The idea of tension is enhanced and characterized by the large number of adjectives 

employed with a view to creating a stylistic play upon reality and appearance. Thus, they 

qualify reality as hidden and appearance as out in the open, a type of antonymic social 

prejudice that all characters tolerate, e.g. cross, wretched, pretty, shoddy, odious, silly, decorous, 

detestable, lovely, interesting. 

Enhancing this gap between truth and social mask, the adverbs in the text mostly make 

up superlatives, meant to draw the reader’s attention to the exaggeration of appearance, e.g. 

very , so, Such, with only two intrusions of space and time, e.g. afterwards, Here. 

Moreover, the verbs in the fragment obey the same interplay of reality and appearance, 

as seemed and appeared are contrasted to verbs denoting actions (physical or verbal), e.g. 

began, to draw, swallowed up, to do, thank. The transition is rendered by such ‘intermediating’ 

verbs as those denoting states or mental processes, e.g. was, exuded, Could have been, wondered. 

The sentence structure seems to obey a tension towards end of tension axis, as the 

beginning of the excerpt is made up of simple, short sentences, e.g. 

So the leave-taking began. Every one was cross or wretched. It was as if irritation exuded 

from the very soil. Could one have been so pretty on a Scotch moor or an Italian alp? 

Fielding wondered afterwards. There seemed no reserve of tranquility to draw upon 

India, 

that evolve into longer, compound and complex sentences as the tension dissipates 

with the leave-taking, e.g. 

62

Either none, or else tranquility swallowed up everything, as it appeared to do for 

Professor Godbole. Here was Aziz all shoddy and odious, Mrs. Moore and Miss Quested 

both silly, and he himself and Heaslop both decorous on the surface, but detestable 

really, and detesting each other. 

The repetitive use of Good-bye may be interpreted as stylistically summing up and 

marking the moment when tension diminishes and disappears, as well as completing the 

formal dimension of the language employed when associated with elliptical sentences that 

are characteristic of formal social conversation, e.g. […] thank you so much. … What lovely 

College buildings! Such an interesting afternoon. … 

Text 2. “‘[…] I have had twenty-five years’ experience of this country’ – he paused, and 

‘twenty-five years’ seemed to fill the waiting-room with their staleness and ungenerosity 

– ‘and during those twenty-five years I have never known anything but disaster result 

when English people and Indians attempt to be intimate socially. Intercourse, yes. 

Courtesy, by all means. Intimacy – never, never. The whole weight of my authority is 

against it. I have been in charge at Chandrapore for six years, and if everything has gone 

smoothly, if there has been mutual respect and esteem, it is because both peoples kept to 

this simple rule. New-comers set our traditions aside, and in an instant what you see 

happens, the work of years is undone and the good name of my District ruined for a 

generation. I – I – can’t see the end of this day’s work, Mr. Fielding. You, who are imbued 

with modern ideas – no doubt you can. I wish I had never lived to see its beginning, I 

know that. That a lady, that a young lady, engaged to my most valued subordinate – that 

she – an English girl fresh from England – that I should have lived – –’” (pp. 147-148) 

Text 2 continues the same cultural clash that permeates the entire novel, but it develops 

the perspective of the accuser, as it consists in a plea of the ‘ruler’ against the ‘ruled’. The 

vocabulary in this case is blatantly formal, obeying and exaggerating the norms of high 

society members being appalled at the behaviour of the lower classes or ‘savages’ in foreign 

lands. 

The power of the accuser’s beliefs permeates all linguistic levels of the text, 

manipulating language into stylistically supporting the ideas expressed by artful pleating of 

stylistic functions of language. The clash of two cultures that are very different is to be seen 

in the dominance of nouns marked [+ABSTRACT], e.g. years, experience, country, staleness, 

ungenerosity, disaster, Intercourse, Courtesy, Intimacy, weight, authority, respect, esteem, rule, 

traditions, instant, work, name, generation, ideas. The few intrusions of nouns marked 

[+CONCRETE] seem to merely support the battle of ideas by appointing concrete entities to 

keep the ‘combat’ going, e.g. waiting-room, people, New-comers, District, lady, subordinate, girl. 

In their turn, the adjectives unfold a similar axis of ideas, an axis that may be regarded 

as threefold, namely the accuser defining a) himself and the culture he stands for, deeply 

dependant on tradition, e.g. whole, mutual, simple, good; b) the change that comes with people 

who are open-minded to embrace social development, e.g. imbued, modern; c) the innocent 

victim, still part of the accuser’s culture, e.g. young, valued, fresh. As it can be easily noticed, 

all adjectives serve a clear stylistic function, that of qualifying characters and what they 

symbolize in the complex background of the novel. 

Considering the fact that there are only four adverbs present in the fragment, e.g. 

never, socially, smoothly, aside, mention must be made that their scarcity seems to be made up 

for by the repetitive use of never (4 instances), which may semantically express the accuser’s 

refusal to accept the situation at hand or to reconsider the angle of analysis of the respective 

situation. 

Similar to the previous text, the great variety of verbs, as well as their considerable 

number, account for the stylistic impression of actual conversation taking place, of 

63

conversation dynamics, of discourse vitality, e.g. have had, paused, seemed, to fill, have never 

known, result, attempt, to be, is, have been, has gone, has been, kept, set, see, happens, ruined, can’t 

see, can, wish, had never lived, to see, know, should have lived. 

The formality and appropriateness of long sentences in discourse is disrupted 

strategically by elliptical sentences, meant to dramatize what is being said at the moment the 

disruption occurs. Such stylistic manipulation of language is obvious in: 

‘I have had twenty-five years’ experience of this country’–he paused, and ‘twenty-five 

years’ seemed to fill the waiting-room with their staleness and ungenerosity–‘and during 

those twenty-five years I have never known anything but disaster result when English 

people and Indians attempt to be intimate socially. Intercourse, yes. Courtesy, by all 

means. Intimacy–never, never. The whole weight of my authority is against it. I have 

been in charge at Chandrapore for six years, and if everything has gone smoothly, if there 

has been mutual respect and esteem, it is because both peoples kept to this simple rule.’ 

The same stylistic effect is created by breaking the canon of well-formed sentences, 

with a view to expressing the speaker’s indignation considering the present state of affairs, 

e.g. 

‘New-comers set our traditions aside, and in an instant what you see happens, the work 

of years is undone and the good name of my District ruined for a generation. I – I – can’t 

see the end of this day’s work, Mr. Fielding. You, who are imbued with modern ideas – 

no doubt you can. I wish I had never lived to see its beginning, I know that. That a lady, 

that a young lady, engaged to my most valued subordinate –that she– an English girl 

fresh from England–that I should have lived – –’ 

The text is thus clearly subjective at all levels and the ideas and the concepts expressed 

are, at all times, supported by artful pleating of stylistic functions of language. 

When considering the stylistic peculiarities of the texts analyzed, we cannot deny 

Forster his rightful place as one of the precursors of the stream-of-consciousness. His clever 

combining tradition and innovation resulted in high-quality prose that already displays 

(violent or less violent) disruptions of the formality of the vocabulary used, of the strict rules 

of morphology, syntax, semantics and logics, as already proved in the passages discussed. 

References 

Forster, E. M. (1991). A Passage to India, London: David Campbell Publishers Ltd. 

Abstract 

E. M. Forster’s discourse in A Passage to India may be accepted as subjective at all levels; the 

ideas and the concepts are always supported by the mastery assembling of the stylistic functions of 

language. Taking into consideration the stylistic particularities of the texts in focus, Forster’s 

being a forerunner of the stream-of-consciousness can hardly be denied. His witty juxtaposition of 

tradition and innovation resulted in a high quality prose which already reveals (more or less 

violent) discrepancies regarding the formality of the vocabulary, the strict rules of morphology, 

syntax, semantics and logic, as the analysis of excerpts shows it. 

Résumé 

Le discours d’E. M. Forster dans A Passage to India peut être regardé comme étant subjectif à tous 

les niveaux; les idées et les concepts exprimés sont toujours supportés de l’assemblage artistique 

des fonctions stylistiques du langage. En considérant les particularités stylistiques des textes à 

analyser, nous ne pouvons nier la place méritée de Forster comme l’un des précurseurs du 

“stream-of-consciousness.” Ses combinaisons intelligentes de tradition et innovation ont produit 

64

une prose de haute qualité qui montre déjà les discordes (plus or moins violentes) de la formalité 

du vocabulaire utilisé, des règles stricts de la morphologie, de la syntaxe, de la sémantique et de la 

logique, comme les fragments investigués prouveront. 

Rezumat 

Discursul lui E. M. Forster în romanul A Passage to India poate fi privit ca subiectiv, la orice 

nivel ; ideile şi conceptele exprimate sunt totdeauna consolidate de îmbinarea artistică a funcţiilor 

stilistice ale limbajului. Având în vedere particularităţile stilistice ale textelor analizate, nu putem 

nega locul meritat de Forster, ca precursor al scrierilor marcate de tendinţele curentului “streamof-consciousness” 

sau al fluxului conştiinţei. Alăturarea inteligentă a tradiţiei şi a inovaţiei au 

creat o proză de înaltă calitate care arată deja discrepanţe (mai mult sau mai puţin violente) ale 

vocabularului utilizat, ale regulilor stricte ale morfologiei, sintaxei, semanticii şi logicii, aşa cum 

demonstrează fragmentele analizate. 

65




pp. 66-71 

EXISTENTIAL CHALLENGES. 

A SORESCU-LARKIN INTERCULTURAL CASE 

Daniela Ţuchel 

66 

Language 

and 

Literature 

1. Introduction 

Postmodern man needs ‘metaknowledge’ – knowledge acquired through the 

inferential mode. The following is a free transposition of Nora Iuga’s (2005) statement at the 

Neptun International Festival (“Zile şi Nopţi de Literatură”) in September 2005. She says: let 

us think of the stubbornness of a writer in search of a perfect match between written 

expression and the form of the thought not yet taught to speak out. Just imagine the 

economy. Anything useless would be left out, every ‘noise’ would be retired, every ‘că’, 

‘cum’, ‘care’, ‘căci’, ‘acum’, ‘atunci’, and so forth. We might be floating, continually ellipting 

and spinning out a language pierced like a lace. Readers would be enabled to pull through a 

coloured string off their own silence. It could be unimaginably beautiful! (“Dar ce să facă un 

scriitor care se încăpăţînează să scrie, nu cum se vorbeşte, ci cum se gîndeşte: să scrii ca întrun 

amor perfect cînd forma scrisă a gîndului s-ar suprapune total peste forma gîndului care 

n-a învăţat încă să vorbească. Vă daţi seama ce economie s-ar face? Am elimina tot ce e de 

prisos, am scoate la pensie toţi paraziţii care ne bruiază emisia, pe ‘că’ şi pe ‘cum’ şi pe ‘care’ 

şi pe ‘căci’ şi pe ‘acum’ şi pe ‘atunci’ şi cîte altele; am pluti într-o elipsă continuă – o limbă cu 

găurele ca o dantelă prin care orice cititor îşi poate trasa panglica colorată a propriei tăceri. 

Nici nu vă daţi seama cît ar putea fi de frumos!”) 

The present paper has left behind history and traces contemporary stories and 

identities born out of compactness and not expansion, out of lacunar economy and not of 

periphrastic, reiterated, appositely or appositionally functional pieces. 

By means of the parallel addressed in this article, we will try to manage a “site” in the 

spirit of Christopher Tindale from whom we quote (2004: 3): 

“As a ‘site’, the argumentative situation is a nongeographical space, located in and 

created by discourse. We inhabit such spaces with different facility, some of us with ease, 

others with discomfort. Yet they are crucial to our self-understanding and our 

understanding of others.” 

So much for the operation preliminary to understanding and interpreting space. In 

time, the basic operation suggested by the text of the two poems reproduced below is 

syncopation in a cognitive sense. That means to say that the experience reduces the number of 

events in the temporal string. Marin Sorescu chooses to represent one’s last biographical 

stage by the emergence of the spider’s web, of the bodily weakness and of the soul’s 

separation – an evolutionary development compressed to three moments of observation. 

Philip Larkin has a time-line of two longer and one shorter mid-positioned spans recording 

processes: of darkness setting in, of a sheet slowly drawn over and of hands loaded down. 

These notable process occurrences are compressed by syncopation. Now let us consider the

poetic material: 

M(arin) S(orescu) Scară la cer 

1 Un fir de păianjen 

2 Atîrnă de tavan, 

3 Exact deasupra patului meu. 

4 In fiecare zi observ 

5 Cum se lasă tot mai jos. 

6 Mi se trimite şi 

7 Scara la cer - zic, 

8 Mi se aruncă de sus. 

9 Deşi am slăbit îngrozitor de mult, 

10 Sînt doar fantoma celui ce am fost, 

11 Mă gîndesc că trupul meu 

12 Este totuşi prea greu 

13 Pentru scara asta delicată. 

14 – Suflete, ia-o tu înainte, 

15 Pîş! Pîş! 

P(hilip) L(arkin) Going 

1 There is an evening coming in 

2 Across the fields, one never seen before, 

3 That lights no lamps. 

4 Silken it seems at a distance, yet 

5 When it is drawn over the knees and breast 

6 It brings no comfort. 

7 Where has the tree gone, that locked 

8 Earth to the sky? What is under my hands, 

9 That I cannot feel? 

10 What loads my hands down? 

2. Cognition as unfolded in these poems 

We are asking ourselves what recovery of non-explicit material occurs in Marin 

Sorescu (MS) and Philip Larkin (PL). The shared topic is the passage from closed systems 

(extinction closes upon itself and is studied here as covertness) to open systems, heading 

upward (MS) or heading downward (PL), while the linguistic stuff will be shown to 

outwardly bloom into hosts of meanings. An almost limitless number of presuppositions, 

entailments and implicatures spring up in pragmatic ways. 

On an experiential basis, the poems explored here make use of metaphors grounded 

in the nature of one’s everyday interactions with the world. The process which operates as a 

vital relation is called ‘compression’ in cognitivism (Evans 2007: 30). Let us expand: an outer 

space relation in a distinct input space is ‘shortened’. The connection between counterparts 

67

gets tighter in the process, but this is also contained in the cognitive meaning of ‘vitality’, a 

description with which connectors occur across input spaces and manage the projection onto 

a blended space. In the two poems about extinction, scaled time and syncopated time are the 

effects of time compression. When time in the outer space is compressed in the latter variant 

– see MS’s case – a sequential scanning will serve the mentioned poet towards distinguishing 

between temporal and atemporal relations in the end. The bias shown by PL, instead, is 

towards summary scanning, giving rise to a static scene in a unified final whole. As for 

conceptualized death, MS applies the reverse of the relation between vertical elevation and 

quantity (going ‘up’ is less, contradicting the typical view that ‘up’ is ‘more of it’), whereas 

PL applies vertical descent-and-quantity in reverse (doing ‘down’ is more than ever 

anticipated). And this estimation of quantities develops against a qualitative truth: verticality 

is a movement upwards which points to divinity, whereas the downward movement leads 

the way to darkness (in sus spre Dumnezeu, in jos spre tenebre). 

The study of the two poems can persuade the student that a ‘cognitive environment’ 

signaled by Sperber and Wilson (1986) is by necessity created when audiences assess 

arguments and make their judgements (it is our position now, as readers of MS and PL). We 

may share a physical environment, but our differences are obvious: we represent the world 

differently. Our perceptual and inferential abilities vary. We have different sets of memories. 

We possess different belief structures, and so on. Thus, a Romanian’s cognitive environment 

would be different from an Englishman’s. What is manifest to one is not manifest to the 

other. What phenomena are in our visual field at a particular time may be the same even 

though we may not notice them all. In consequence of Sperber and Wilson’s demonstration, 

we can discard the catchwords ‘mutual knowledge’ or ‘shared information’ and use instead 

the reference to a shared – or not shared – cognitive environment. Thinking of two distinct 

persons, Tindale (2004: 22) says: “Insofar as their cognitive environments intersect, then that 

intersection is itself a cognitive environment.” Nevertheless, the analysis below will reveal 

that for our large communities of Romanians and Britons, respectively, there is no overlap of 

cognitive environments. 

Both texts display logical sequentiality while opposed action takes place: one self 

unwraps (MS) and the other wraps up (PL). The same feeling – sadness – is coupled with 

opposed emotion: relief (MS) and puzzlement (PL). The passage we have already alluded to 

bears contrary but not contradictory conclusive experiences: SEEING IS KNOWING (line 4 ff 

in MS) versus NOT SEEING IS NOT KNOWING (line 3 ff in PL). Hence, the foreseeable 

differentiation in foregrounding devices. MS makes salient the gradability of situations as 

often as he can, being shocked with (a tendency towards) extremes in lines 5, 9, 12, whereas 

PL works out nothing gradable as long as his semantic description stagnates around a zero 

of the level recording neither an excess nor a deficit. We will further point out that the zero 

of negation prevails with him. 

In ancient Greek ‘allegoria’ means ‘other speaking’ and denotes figurative language, 

something other than what one says. Do we have an allegory (one and the same) in the two 

poems? We answer in the affirmative. MS writes about a man lying on his back. The plot is 

that a spider comes and a soul goes, goes up in all probability. In PL the evening comes and a 

lying man goes down, or simply goes, according to the title. In MS, the allegory 

accommodates a symbol, the ladder. In PL, the allegory is set up between the man, the tree 

and Earth, while ‘evening’ is an abstract personification at first, only to melt next into an 

allegorical object, the silken sheet. Allegories in the past centuries were suitably turned into 

representations in painting. We believe the most ekphrastic components visualising for us 

the poetic situation are the ladder and whatever that is which is being drawn over knees and 

breast, perhaps a shroud. Again within the allegory, if the concept of ‘symbol’ carries a 

quasi-religious revelation of the Infinite, the most eligible candidates for it are the spider’s 

thread in MS and the tree in PL. And this interplay of figures can be prolonged. Ultimately, 

68

we need to quote an opinion (Crisp, 2005: 329) in which ‘terms’ should be read ‘figures of 

speech’: “It is not unusual for terms to display instabilities and reversals of meaning in a 

period of semantic change” - and we seem to be spanning such a period now. 

If we make a cognitive claim upon these poems, we can start from an explanation 

envisaging some everyday form of embodied experience, such as climbing a ladder to get 

rescued or to get a reward, and also the experience of making oneself comfortable under a 

blanket. The moment metaphorical thinking is activated, the projection of the source domain, 

more experientially accessible, occurs onto the target domain. If we consider, however, that 

the allegorical meaning is foregrounded rather than the symbolic and the metaphorical, 

allegory in the light of human cognition opens up a challenging perspective which probably 

accounts for the ‘revival’ of allegory in present-day culture. 

3. Ancillary grammar 

To us, MS saliently handles the dash and the exclamation mark. The former occurs 

once for introducing the rephrasing intention (line 7) and the second time for setting up the 

possibility of the double (see Pârvu, 2005: 47) in line 14, with a cognizing I-subject evincing 

the split self: the body-like-a-shadow addressing the soul-like-an-alter-ego. The exclamatory 

punctuation in line 15 clashes with the hushing message of the onomatopoeia, yet manages 

to suggest the passionate drive animating the self. In PL, there is a synecdochically split 

body: knees and breast (line 5) and then hands (lines 8 and 10) in a more intimate fusion with 

the self being accompanied by the possessive determinative. Both MS and PL place in focus 

their last stanzas through their diminished size to two lines and one line, respectively. It is 

also worth noting that both poems allow the blank which is silence to reign supreme at the 

end. 

Additionally, ‘mi se trimite’(line 6) and ‘mi se aruncă’ (line 8) in MS are the Romanian 

instances of reflexivity with the zero-agent to be found in English too with ‘it is drawn’ in PL 

(line 5). They all represent an option for pointing to a taboo, in a situation in which it is 

inappropriate to give a name to the one who saves you or to the one who protectively covers 

you. 

Another grammatical comment is that in MS the zero article for ‘scară’ in the title 

stands out when compared to the same noun with definite determination in lines 7 and 13. It 

could be the progression from something unknown and abstract to the familiarity given by 

the mentioned daily observations. This progression is recorded in PL in the treatment of the 

noun ‘evening’, from the indefinite description of the routine phenomenon (line 1) to 

uniqueness of manifestation (line 2). Then we should note that the present tense encroaches 

into past time territory in MS and equally in PL. The deictic zero-level of here-and-now 

confer a permanent and spatially unlimited perspective to the experience. The vocative (MS, 

line 14) is functional in splitting the individuality of the experiencer, while the unanswered 

self-turned questions in PL (lines 8, 9, 10) set up a split ego as well. In MS, two cases of 

incongruent positioning (lines 6 and 7 with the items ‘şi’ and ‘zic’) are indicative of extreme 

emotion which prolongs its defamiliarizing syntactic jumbling of the clauses constituting 

lines 9, 10 and 11. In PL, the frequency of negative patterns (lines 2, 3, 6, 9), only one of them 

being verbal negation, can trigger an interpretation going through Zero in the direction 

shown by Laurence Horn (1989), namely to take negation as a positive assertion about the 

existence of a relevant difference. The first form of negation is a rejection of external entities. 

Horn says that the fifth form of negation (known as ‘scalar negation’) is the first form, after 

all, but it must necessarily be detached, that is used against an absent entity. Since a 

recognized absence only exists in contrast to a recalled presence, such a form of negation is 

necessarily dependent upon memory. Memory enables what is present to shift attention to a 

stimulus that is not present. In reacting to absence, what was previously ground must now 

69

e interpreted as figure. ‘Evening’, ‘lamps’ and ‘comfort’ are now figure in cognitivism, by 

the side of another effect they bring about, a renewed ability to symbolize in PL. It is actually 

their very role in negative patterns that helped increase their power as symbols. 

In processing the information supplied by grammar arrangements in the two poems, 

we find that through those grammar devices the announcement of a few gaps happens, at 

the same time with a focalized intensity of thought peculiar to the subjectivity of the genre. 

Conclusions 

MS and PL have a novel way of using the adversarial or contentious aspect of 

arguments which are important to an understanding of their poetry. 

Most of the implicatures are found to explore not so much time as the relation 

between space and body. Wavering between positions within a space is an issue of power, 

and also of scale, not to mention the issue of interiority and exteriority. Hence, the interesting 

experience of identification through one viewer being made to go out of himself. 

Eventually, the major distinction between MS and PL is that the former decides on a 

course of action and the latter cannot do so because he finds out that knowledge and proof 

are lacking in what he is concerned. 

We can recast the idea of dialogue (present subtextually in these poems) as a 

conventional situation when two parties reason together for some purpose. The actuality of 

the poems puts forward only arguments by one party. Thus, we are faced with a one-sided 

argumentation in a natural-language setting, a practical and applied task that will make 

legitimate any response as defended by informal logic. 

For his invisible respondent in both cases, the questioner resorts to different kinds of 

sophistical arguments. In MS’s case, the argumentum ad misericordiam (an appeal to 

sympathy) is generated by the wretched situation of a sufferer losing bodyweight. To this, 

the argumentum ad populum draws upon the popular opinion that the weightless soul should 

perform the action of rising to heaven because people say that this is the right thing to do. 

On the other hand, PL has a sophistical way of pressing presumptions ahead in an 

aggressive tactic of many questions – what is known as “the fallacy of complex question” so 

that “any direct answer will trap a respondent into damaging concessions” (Walton, 1998: 

26). In PL’s case, it appears that the questions themselves can be fallacies due to the fact that 

the questions contain presumptions that, in a subtle manner, implicate conclusions tripping 

up the respondent. By pressing the idea of dying as ‘going down into the ground’, the 

answer is contained in the question, but may not be the commitment of a respondent 

resembling, for instance, MS. 

We cannot conclude without remembering the cautious tone of David Crystal (1992: 

386) when assessing that too many zeros or absences in an analysis weaken its plausibility. 

We must hope that our paper has not been excessive in that respect. 

We tried to get a grasp on the two poets’ insight in terms of purpose versus play, 

hierarchy versus anarchy, presence versus absence, epistemology versus ontology. This 

strategy of approach may yield the objectivised differences in the poets’ cultural 

backgrounds, instead of pondering about the genuineness of their personal grasp. PL poses 

questions that cannot be easily answered. MS takes an orientation that is appealing because it 

discharges us of the duty to give answers. We are all philosophers by dabbling, the argument 

of God awaiting us may impress us or may fail to do so. Truth is needed, but the notion of 

truth is not at all a perspicuous one. 

References 

Crisp, P. (2005). “Allegory and symbol – a fundamental opposition?” in Language and Literature. Vol. 

70

14, no. 4 / November. Sage Publications. 

Crystal, D. (1992). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Blackwell Publishers. 

Evans, V. (2007). A Glossary of Cognitive Linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd. 

Horn, L. (1989). Natural History of Negation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 

Iuga, N. (2005). “Dacă inspiri numai ce expiri, mori”, in România literară nr. 39/5-11 oct., p. 3. 

Pârvu, S. (coord.) (2005). Postmodernism. Iaşi: Institutul European. 

Sperber D. & D. Wilson (1986). Relevance. Communication and Cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard 

University Press. 

Tindale, C. W. (2004). Rhetorical Argumentation. Sage Publications, Inc. 

Walton, D. (1998). The New Dialectic. Conversational Contexts of Argument. Toronto, Buffalo, London: 

University of Toronto Press. 

Abstract 

This intercultural study is backed up by current competing motivations in discourse, such 

as economy, clarity, routinization or expressivity. The analysis is hinged on arguments 

about non-geographical space, time compression, metaphysical extinction in two cognitive 

environments: one distinctly Romanian and the other one distinctly British. 

Résumé 

Cette approche, soutenue par des thèmes d’interculturalité, invoque des motivations 

discursives qui concurrent pour assurer les principes de l’économie, de la clarté de 

l’expression, de l’expressivité du message et de son aspect quotidien. On présente des 

arguments en ce qui concerne l’espace qui dépasse la géographie, le temps comprimé, 

l’extinction métaphysique. Le tout est généré par des milieux cognitifs distincts, l’espace 

roumain et l’espace britannique. 

Rezumat 

Abordarea de faţă, susţinută de teme ale interculturalităţii, invocă motivaţii discursive ce 

concură pentru a asigura principial economia exprimării şi claritatea ei, expresivitatea 

mesajului şi formularea lui rutinieră. Se aduc argumente în legătură cu spaţiul 

transgresând geografia, timpul comprimat, extincţia metafizică, totul fiind generat de medii 

cognitiv distincte, unul românesc şi celălalt britanic. 

71




pp. 72-77 

LA DIMENSION INTERCULTURELLE DE L’HUMOUR 

- PISTES PEDAGOGIQUES - 

Angelica Vâlcu 

Tentative de définir l’humour. 

72 

Language 

and 

Literature 

Selon l’Encyclopédie libre Wikipedia, l’humour pourrait être défini comme “une forme 

d’expression permettant de dégager certains aspects cocasses ou insolites de la réalité, 

destinée généralement à provoquer le rire, soit en se moquant des autres, soit en se moquant 

de ses semblables ou de soi-même (autodérision).” 1 

L’humour est un moyen d’expression qui vise la vérité sans la nommer, étant en même 

temps la meilleure possibilité de s’exprimer lorsqu’il est impossible de le faire d’une autre 

manière. L’humour est une forme d’esprit qui se cache sous un air sérieux, pleine d’ironie et 

d’imprévu, et qui consiste à dégager les aspects plaisants de la réalité avec un certain 

détachement. 

Dans son essai sur l’humour, Robert Escarpit 2 donne une définition de l’humour à 

partir de la théorie humorale d'Hippocrate de Cos et de Galien. La notion d’humour apparaît 

dans la littérature avec Ben Jonson (Anglais d’origine), qui définit “le sens of humour” 

comme une “conscience intuitive mais lucide et délibérément souriante de son propre 

personnage caractériel au milieu d'autres personnages” 3. L’humour serait, selon Escarpit, un 

état d’esprit et un comportement qui fonctionne “par un arrêt des jugements affectif, moral 

et philosophique” et qui se concrétise sous la forme d’une interruption (en trois phases) des 

évidences: 

a) la confrontation soudaine entre l’évident et l’absurde; 

b) suspension volontaire de l'évident, tout en continuant à adopter un raisonnement 

formellement logique; 

c) rôle important de la réception et des paramètres culturels. 

Ces trois phases forment un tronc commun avec le fantastique considéré comme un écart par 

rapport au vraisemblable. 

À partir de l’ouvrage de T. Todorov 4, Said Laqabi 5, dans sa thèse de doctorat “Aspects 

de l’ironie dans la littérature maghrébine d’expression française des années quatre-vingts ” soutenue 

à l’Université Paris XIII en 1996, considère que l’humour se définit par un certain côté 

comique dont le grand trait distinctif consiste dans l’ancrage idiomatique et culturel. 

Par le biais de l’humour comme forme supérieure de l’ironie, on peut dire avec plus de 

force ce qui est saisi d’une manière moins ferme, d’une manière traditionnelle ou stéréotypée 

“Elle [l’ironie] déjoue donc un ensemble de conventions de lecture et de communication, 

pour permettre la transmission du singulier. D'une part, elle met à distance le proche et 

permet de le voir, en lui donnant forme. D'autre part, elle bloque le passé d'attentes et 

ouvre un moment d'inspiration dans l'auditeur, comme un présent absolu. ” 6 

Le texte humoristique est un phénomène, par excellence, culturel et son interprétation

prétend la référence à un cadre d’expériences commun aux deux interlocuteurs. 

Il est assez difficile de découvrir la signification d’un texte humoristique. «La 

traduction», l’explication des mots et des référents ne récupère pas entièrement le sens du 

texte en question 

“les intentions de l’auteur et les données du texte se mêlent en général à un ensemble de 

connotations ou de références incluant l’histoire, la politique, les attitudes, les modes de 

vie, les traditions, la littérature, la science, et toutes sortes de domaines dans lesquels les 

locuteurs natifs sont immergés en permanence et qui varient de contrée à contrée, donc 

de langue à langue dans la mesure où la géographie et la linguistique sont solidaire. ” 7 

Par leur thématique, les différents genres de l’humour, blague, anecdote, satire, etc. 

cherchent à raffermir et réaffirmer l’identité du groupe, la spécificité du groupe et donnent 

les preuves de leur vouloir de vivre ensemble: 

“La pratique la plus répandue est alors le choix d'un bouc émissaire qui donne à chacun la 

vision péjorative de l'autre, de celui qui n'est pas partie intégrante de la collectivité 

revendiquée. L'identité mise en exergue varie selon les blagues, elle peut être 

professionnelle, sexuelle, régionale, nationale, ethnique, religieuse... ” 8 

II. Culture et interculture dans l’enseignement du FLE. 

Le concept de culture peut être défini comme une manière de penser et d’être, plus 

précisément comme “un ensemble de significations, valeurs et croyances de nature collective 

et dotées d’une certaine durabilité qui caractérisent un groupe d’individus sur une base 

nationale, ethnique ou autre et orientent leurs conduites. ” 9 

Marie-Thérèse Claes 10, dans l’article cité ci-dessous, définit la culture comme un 

système de significations partagées: lorsque les significations différent, des ambigüités 

apparaissent. L’auteure mentionnée donne l’exemple du mot «mariage» tel qu’il est perçu 

dans différentes cultures: les Américains du Nord associent le mot mariage à l’idée d’amour 

et de partenariat, les Japonais l’associent à la confiance et même au compromis, aux 

restrictions, aux obligations, tandis que les Français associent le mariage à l’amour, à la 

passion et au sexe. Les associations dont parle M. Th. Claes démontrent le fait que chacun 

d’entre nous dispose d’un dictionnaire mental structuré d’une manière particulière et que 

dans ce dictionnaire se trouvent des mots disponibles à n’importe quel stimulus extérieur. 

Le socioculturel est une composante essentielle - à coté des composantes linguistiques, 

paralinguistiques, sociolinguistiques, référentielles, discursives - de la compétence de 

communication. L’enseignement des langues étrangères favorise usuellement la composante 

linguistique au détriment des autres composantes et surtout, des composantes 

sociolinguistique et socioculturelle. Or, on le sait très bien: ces dernières deux composantes 

constituent la dimension interculturelle de la compétence de communication et représentent 

un phénomène essentiel dans ce monde interculturel et globalisé de plusieurs points de vue. 

La conscientisation de l’existence des différences inter-cultures est de plus en plus 

obligatoire. 

La compétence interculturelle n’est pas l’aptitude de décrire la culture de l’Autre 

comme discipline d’étude mais la capacité de se modeler en modifiant justement ses propres 

critères et ses repères. 

73

III. Le décodage de l’image identitaire. 

L’image identitaire des Français qui circule dans les manuels de FLE, découle de 

l’imaginaire patrimonial 11 engendré par un contexte, une histoire, etc. Ces images peuvent 

être produites soit par les sociétés elles-mêmes (autoreprésentation / stéréotype) ou par le 

regard des autres (hétéro représentation / stéréotype). Les stéréotypes des manuels et des 

imaginaires collectifs s’alimentent réciproquement. Par exemple, les blagues sont en même 

temps vecteurs et témoins de ces images et permettent de comprendre pourquoi un 

stéréotype peut être vrai (ou non). 

L’image identitaire des Français est associée, dans beaucoup de textes étudiés en classe 

de FLE, à deux emblèmes: le premier, le drapeau tricolore qui permet d’identifier la France 

comme unité nationale, et le second, le coq gaulois qui n’est pas un symbole officiel de l’Etat 

mais le symbole de la prédilection pour représenter la France et les Français. Le coq gaulois 

accentue “un trait typiquement français, à savoir la fierté nationale, pour ne pas dire l’arrogance”. 

(Goethe Institut). 

Les Français sont un peuple fier. Ils s’enorgueillissent des nombreux succès que 

comporte leur histoire et de leurs contributions au monde de la culture. Leurs dirigeants 

les plus importants ont toujours compris l’importance que revêtait la fierté et l’estime de 

soi pour le Français moyen. De Gaulle, en particulier, a très bien su jouer de cette fibre. Il 

a su les flatter, les cajoler, les motiver, et partant obtenir qu’ils coopèrent et obéissent. 

(Pu Zhihong 2008 : 161) 12 

Prenons ces deux blagues 13 qui pourraient figurer dans un chapitre du manuel de FLE, 

chapitre destiné à l’étude de la culture et de la civilisation françaises. On y peut distinguer 

quelques traits qui caractérisent les Français, tels que: la fierté l’orgueil même l’arrogance. 

a) Comment fait un Français pour se suicider ? 

- Il se tire une balle à 15 centimètres au-dessus de la tête en plein dans son complexe 

de supériorité....... 

b) Comment appelle-t-on quelqu'un qui parle trois langues ? - Un trilingue.. 

Comment appelle-t-on quelqu'un qui parle deux langues ? - Un bilingue. 

Comment appelle-t-on quelqu'un qui ne parle qu'une langue ? - Un Français. 

A une premiere analyse des textes ci-dessus nous nous rendons compte que 

l’apprenant roumain se trouve face à une représentation, disons négative, de l’identité de 

l’Autre, du Français. Mais, selon Nathalie Auger «plus on se côtoie, moins les stéréotypes 

émergent.» 14 Cela veut dire que plus les rencontres sont fréquentes plus les stéréotypes sont 

éliminés (nous comprenons par rencontre non seulement la rencontre face à face des jeunes 

de nationalités différentes mais aussi celle par le biais des livres, de la presse, etc.). 

“Lorsqu’un message quitte la culture dans laquelle il était codé, il contient le sens 

donné par le codeur... Quand un message atteint la culture où il doit être décodé, il subit 

une transformation dans laquelle l’influence de la culture décodante devient une partie 

de la signification du message. Le contenu du message d’origine est modifié durant la 

phase du décodage de la communication interculturelle, car le répertoire culturellement 

différent des comportements et des significations communicationnelles possédé par le 

décodeur ne contient pas les mêmes significations culturelles possédées par le codeur. » 15 

Dans l’enseignement / apprentissage d’une langue - culture étrangère, l’étude des 

documents authentiques a une importance particulière car les énoncés de l’énonciateur- 

auteur permettent, le plus souvent, de légitimer les marques valorisantes et/ou 

74

dévalorisantes que l’auteur met en discours (il s’agit d’une autoreprésentation de l’Autre). 

Nous considérons le terme Autre dans sa double acception: d’opposition et de similitude. 

Pour qu’une identité se réalise, elle doit avoir en vue cette double dimension de l’Autre. 

Les spécialistes en didactique des langues soutiennent que le discours pédagogique, 

quel que soit son contenu, prétend la vérité. Le stéréotype, sous prétexte de vérité du 

discours, peut être infiltré n’importe où dans la séquence didactique, non seulement dans le 

cours de civilisation. Il s’agit de la création des séquences dialogiques qui mettent en 

situation divers actes de parole, de l’analyse des documents authentiques, (écrits par des 

Français à des fins non didactiques) qui peuvent enchaîner des stéréotypes. 

En ce qui concerne les stratégies pédagogiques que nous pouvons mettre en œuvre 

pour que nos étudiants prennent conscience des modèles de la culture d’arrivée, plusieurs 

voies peuvent être envisagées selon une méthodologie progressive. Nous n’en citons que 

quelques unes: le travail sur les stéréotypes, le travail sur la comparaison et troisièmement, 

les cheminements thématiques. Le problème majeur qui peut intervenir dans tous ces types 

de stratégies est celui du risque du préjugé. Pour l’éviter, il faut savoir “comment approcher 

une culture étrangère et évaluer les écarts de façon dépassionnée sans être aveuglé par nos 

références et jugements de valeur” 16. Dans leur démarche de découvrir les réalités de la 

culture française nos apprenants suivront diverses étapes: l’observation de la réalité, 

l’analyse de la réalité et la transformation de la réalité. 

Conclusion. 

La connaissance de la culture de l’Autre est essentielle pour la compréhension, le 

décodage d’un texte/discours en langue étrangère. Dans la didactique des langues-cultures, 

discerner les valeurs d’une culture aide à discerner ce qu’on accepte comme beau, bon et 

juste et ce qui ne l’est pas. La connaissance des valeurs culturelles permet de relativiser ses 

aprioris car la rencontre avec une autre culture offre des images et des situations multiples 

qui sont absorbées dans la représentation unifiante et la construction de l’identité de 

l’individu. 

Notes 

1. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humour 

2. Escarpit R. 1981, L’Humour, Paris - P.U.F. Que sais-je ?- n° 877 - 

3. Idem p. 26 

4. Todorov T. 1970, Introduction à la littérature fantastique, Paris – Seuil, apud note 5, p. 28 

5. Laqabi, Said, « Aspects de l’ironie dans la littérature maghrébine d’expression française des années quatrevingts 

» communication soutenue à l’Université Paris XIII en 1996, (voir l’adresse Internet 

http://www.google.fr/search?q=Said+Laqabi&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz= 1B2GGFB_en 

RO216RO217, p 27) 

6. Marie De Gandt, (2001). «Poétique de l'ironie», in Pierre Schoentjes, Poétique de l'ironie, Paris, coll. 

Points/Essais-Inédits, 2001, 347, adresse Internet : http://www.fabula.org/revue/cr/180.php, site 

consulté le 15 oct. 2009 

7. Anne Marie Laurian, CNSR, France, «Humour et traduction au contact des cultures», Méta, vol. 34, 

n.1, 1989, 5-14, http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/003418ar 

8. Mercier, Arnaud, Laboratoire Communication et Politique, CNRS, Paris/Université de Nice, 

Introduction, «Pouvoirs de la dérision, dérision des pouvoirs», Hermès 29, 2001, 12 

9. Faure, Guy, Olivier et Rubin, 1993, «Approcher la dimension interculturelle en négociation 

internationale», http://www.philippepierre.com/_media/negociation_internationale_et_dimension_ 

interculturelle_rfg.pdf, site consulté le 2 octobre 2009 

10. 

Claes, Marie-Thérèse, «La dimension interculturelle dans l’enseignement du français langue de 

spécialité», www.francparler.org/articles/interculturel_claes.doc, site consulté le 15 sept.2009 

75

11. Debyser F. apud N. Auger, Auger, N., «Du stéréotype à la compréhension de la relation 

interculturelle : autour des manuels de FLE en usage dans l’Union Européenne», communication 

soutenue au Colloque organisé à Paris le 4 et 5 novembre 2005 par le Forum des langues 

européennes, http://www.forumdeslangues.net/forum/manifF.htm, site consulté le 15 sept.2009 

12. Pu Zhihong, Université Sun Yat-sen de Chine, «L’implicite culturel et sa place dans l’enseignement 

d’une langue étrangère», Synergies, Chine, n. 3, 2008, 161-167 

13. http://sireli.canalblog.com/archives/2006/08/29/2565753.html 

14 . Auger, N., «Du stéréotype à la compréhension de la relation interculturelle : autour des manuels de 

FLE en usage dans l’Union Européenne», communication soutenue au Colloque organisé à Paris le 

4 et 5 novembre 2005 par le Forum des langues européennes, http://www .forum des langues .net 

/forum/manifF.htm, site consulté le 15 sept.2009 

15. Hall, E.T, p. 197, apud Martineau, Emmanuelle, Maîtrise F.L.E UFR de Nantes, «Les stéréotypes 

franco-allemands dans la caricature», http://pagespersoorange.fr/chevrel/dossiers/martineau.htm, site 

consulté le 2 décembre 2009 

16. http://www.auf.org/docs/1/pol-ling-edu-2003-07.pdf, site consulté le 2 décembre 2009 

Bibliographie 

Bredendiek, M. (2000). “ Le développement de la reconstruction de l’autre culturel. Vers la réflexion 

anthropologique de l’autrui dans l’interculturel”, in M.Bredendiek et B. Krewer : La dynamique de la 

reconstruction de l’autre culturel dans les situations de coopération interculturelle. Université de la Sarre, 

2000, apud Thomas, M., - Mémoire DESS P.A.I., “Acquérir une compétence interculturelle. Des 

processus d’apprentissages interculturels au quotidien“ http://www.mediationinterculturelle.com, 

p. 30 

Mercier, A. (2001). Laboratoire Communication et Politique, CNRS, Paris/Université de Nice, 

Introduction, «Pouvoirs de la dérision, dérision des pouvoirs”, Hermès, 29 

http://humour-blague.com/blague/belge.php 

www.francparler.org/articles/interculturel_claes.doc 

Thomas, M., - Mémoire DESS P.A.I., “Acquérir une compétence interculturelle. Des processus 

d’apprentissages interculturels au quotidien” http://www.mediation-interculturelle.com, p.37, 

site consulté le 2 oct. 2009 

http://sireli.canalblog.com/archives/2006/08/29/2565753.html 

* * * * (2000). Conseil de l’Europe/Conseil de la Coopération Culturelle, Un Cadre européen commun de 

référence pour les langues: apprendre, enseigner, évaluer, Paris : Didier 2000. 

Abstract 

The mastering of a foreign language involves, in addition to language knowledge, in-depth 

knowledge of the socio-cultural aspects of the community speaking the respective language. 

Starting from de Saussure’s Theory, this traingle may be assimilated to the semiotic triangle 

signifier, signified, referent in the process of generating humour and stating that the signifier 

would represent the linguistic side of the humorous turn, the signified would be the concept and 

the hidden meaning of the turn, while the referent would be the socio-cultural context which 

brings about the humorous turn. This approach focuses on the relationship between the humorous 

text and the socio-cultural referents which determine the decoding of the image of alterity in this 

type of text. 

Résumé 

La maitrise d’une langue étrangère exige, sauf la connaissance de la langue, une très bonne 

connaissance des aspects socio-culturels de la communauté qui parle cette langue. A partir de la 

théorie de Saussure sur le triangle sémiotique signifiant, signifié, référent, on peut assimiler ce 

triangle à la genèse de l’humour et affirmer que le signifiant serait le côté linguistique de la 

76

tournure humoristique, le signifié serait le concept et le sens caché de la tournure tandis que le 

référent serait le contexte socioculturel qui fait naitre la tournure humoristique. 

Notre communication vise à étudier la relation entre le texte humoristique et les référents 

socioculturels qui déterminent le décodage de l’image de l’Autre dans ce type de texte. 

Rezumat 

Stăpânirea unei limbi străine impune, în afara cunoştinţelor de limbă, o bună cunoaştere a 

aspectelor socio-culturale ale comunităţii care vorbeşte această limbă. Pornind de la teoria lui de 

Saussure privind triunghiul semiotic semnificant, semnificat, referent, se poate asimila acest 

triunghi, genezei umorului şi se poate afirma semnificantul ar reprezenta latura lingvistică a 

turnurii umoristice, semnificatul ar fi conceptul şi sensul ascuns al turnurii în timp ce referentul ar 

putea reprezenta contextul socio-cultural care produce turnura umoristică. 

Lucrarea de faţă îşi propune studierea relaţiei dintre textul umoristic şi referenţii socio-culturali 

care determină decodarea imaginii alterităţii în acest tip de text. 

77

Annals of the “Dunărea de Jos” University of GALAŢI 

Fascicle XIII, Language and Literature. New Series. Issue 28, XVI (XXVII), 2009. ISSN 1221-4647 

Book reviews editor: Gabriela Iuliana COLIPCĂ 

BALKANISTICA. VOLUME 17 

Edited by Donald L. Dyer 

Published for the South East European Studies Association 

The University of Mississippi, 2004, 196 p. 

Ce nouveau volume de Balkanistica, dont la publication a été 

différée juste pour qu’elle coïncide avec la célébration du 

trentième anniversaire de ce projet – actuellement soutenu par 

l’Association pour les Études sur l’Europe de Sud-Est, a été mis à la 

disposition des spécialistes qui s’y intéressent à l’ocassion de la 

Quatorzième Conférence Biennale de Linguistique, Littérature et 

Folklore des Peuples Balkaniques et Slaves Sud-Européens, 

organisée par l’Université Oxford de Mississippi, du 14 au 17 

avril 2005. Ayant l’intention première de mettre en relief le 

progrès considérable dans ce domaine d’étude, l’éditeur 

Donald L. Dyer a inclu dans le volume des articles ainsi que 

des compte-rendus de plusieurs livres portant sur de divers 

sujets, jugés en quelque sorte représentatifs des 

métamorphoses des cultures des régions sud-européennes 

dans un climat historique, social et politique très mouvementé. 

La série des articles commence par une étude intitulée Bulgaria’s Divided Minds ? On 

Zhelyu Zhelev’s “Conformist Dissent” (Les esprits divisés de la Bulgarie ? Sur la «dissidence 

conformiste» de Zhelyu Zhelev) que Josette Baer de l’Université Washington de Seattle dédie aux 

thèses philosophiques du premier président démocratiquement élu de la Bulgarie. Pour 

démontrer que la politique de Zhelev a été pronfondément liée à sa conception essentiellement 

phénoménologique, l’auteur se concentre surtout – tel que le titre l’indique – sur l’analyse du 

concept de «dissidence conformiste» et cherche à établir d’étroites connexions entre la théorie 

de l’indestructibilité de l’individu que Zhelev développe dans son livre L’Homme et ses 

personnalités (Man and His Personalities), et la relation entre les intellectuels et le pouvoir d’État 

dans la Bulgarie socialiste des années 1970 et 1980. Relevant plutôt du subjectivisme de 

Heidegger que de l’idée de résponsabilité universelle de Patocka, l’indestructibilité en tant que 

facette capitale de l’individualité semble être au cœur de la conception de contestation 

politique de Zhelev, qui est totallement différente de celle du dissident tchèque Vaclav Havel, 

encourageant la critique ouverte du régime politique, mais s’avérant représentatif pour le type 

traditionnel de réaction critique et pourtant passive des intellectuels bulgares. Le cas de 

Zhelev, avec sa trajectoire dans la vie culturelle du régime de Zhivkov, que présente la seconde 

partie de l’article, témoigne ainsi, dans une certaine mesure, des caractéristiques de toute une 

classe d’intelligentsia bulgare à qui l’évolution de la politique culturelle menée en Bulgarie 

pendant presqu’un siècle, et surtout à l’époque socialiste, a appris à joindre la conformité à la 

dissidence, mais qui, dès que le contexte politique le lui a permis, a ouvertement exprimé des 

idées libérales «indestructibles» et a pu se manifester librement sur la scène politique du 

nouveau régime démocratique. 

Bien qu’il traite des aspects de la même sphère des relations entre le régime politique et 

la vie culturelle, inévitablement influencée par l’idéologie que le pouvoir lui impose, l’article 

suivant, Language and Ideology in the Print Media of Post-Soviet Moldova (Langage et idéologie dans 

la presse écrite de la Moldova post-soviétique), par Matthew H. Ciscel de l’Université Centrale de 

Connecticut, propose un autre type d’approche et un autre espace culturel en tant qu’objet 

78

d’étude. Il s’agit des conséquences des multiples orientations politiques et idéologiques qui se 

manifestent dans la Moldova post-soviétique sur la perception de l’identité nationale et 

linguistique telle qu’elle se reflète dans les médias moldaves et principalement dans trois 

journaux de Chişinău publiés en roumain, Ţara (Le Pays), Săptămâna (La Semaine) et Comunistul 

(Le Communiste). Une présentation détaillée des moments historiques qui ont marqué 

définitivement les relations entre la République de Moldova, la Roumanie et le pouvoir 

soviétique et qui ont conduit implicitement à la crise actuelle d’identité nationale et 

linguistique dans la région, suivie par la discussion et la re-définition des termes-clefs de 

l’étude – langage, pouvoir, idéologie et nation – en partant des théories déjà consacrées de 

Bakhtin, Bourdieu, Woolard, etc., assure le cadre théorique nécessaire pour l’analyse 

minutieuse du discours des trois journaux qui semble jouer encore un rôle essentiel dans la 

dynamique du processus de négociation de l’identité nationale. Ainsi, on démontre que les 

médias, qui portent simultanément les traces linguistiques de plusieurs idéologies (proroumaine 

extrémiste, modérée et pro-russe soutenant la soi-disante idéntité distinctement 

moldave), reflètent et, en même temps, encouragent l’instabilité du climat politique, social et 

culturel. 

On continue avec un bref article, i nëmur ‘poor, (ac)cursed,’ Geg nâmë ‘curse’ (i nëmur 

‘pauvre, maudit’, l’Albanais nâmë ‘malédiction’), dans lequel Eric P. Hamp de l’Université de 

Chicago se donne pour but de démêler, par une rigoureuse analyse lexicologique, le sens du 

mot albanais nâmë (malédiction/ pauvreté) 

L’éditeur invite aussi les lecteurs explorer, avec Christopher Lamont de l’Université de 

Mississippi, l’impact du nationalisme sur la vie politique et l’opinion publique croates dans 

une étude qui se place plutôt à la limite entre les études culturelles et purement historiques (A 

New Croatian Right : Nationalist Political Parties and Contemporary Croatian Politics – Une nouvelle 

droite croate : les partis politiques nationalistes et la politique croate contemporaine). Une présentation 

du système des partis politiques de la Croatie indépendante sert de préambule à l’analyse des 

éléments nationalistes dans la politique des partis de droite (parmi lesquels le plus important 

et le plus large serait l’Union Démocratique Croate HDZ) et de la façon dont ceux-ci ont 

contribué, en plus ou moins large mesure, à leur succès dans les scrutins nationaux. 

Interprétant les données statistiques qui indiquent l’ascension ou, au contraire, la baisse de la 

popularité de certains partis aux yeux de l’électorat croate, Christophe Lamont semble arriver 

toujours à la même conclusion : que la politique et la transition vers un régime démocratique 

en Croatie continuent à être marquées par des tensions (vu la mémoire des crimes de guerre, la 

situation des réfugiés, l’échec du gouvernement dans les négociations avec l’Union 

Européenne et l’OTAN) qui peuvent, à la longue, provoquer l’émergence d’une nouvelle 

vague de nationalisme au début du XXI siècle. 

Les deux derniers articles mettent en discussion les problèmes de la politique 

contemporaine à grand impact sur la vie sociale et culturelle des nations sud-européennes 

après la chute des régimes communistes. L’article Archival Gleanings on Russian Trade and 

Consulates in the Near East (En glanant des données des archives concernant le commerce et les 

consulats russes au Proche-Orient) de Theophilus C. Prousis de l’Université de la Floride du 

Nord est issu de l’intérêt de l’auteur pour l’étude de la politique à multiple facettes de l’Empire 

Russe au XIXe siècle à l’égard des peuples et des régions de l’ancient Empire ottoman, dont le 

but principal était d’étendre l’influence tsariste vers le sud, de renouer avec le monde 

orthodoxe dans les Balkans et d’encourager le développement du commerce dans la Mer Noire 

et la Méditerranée. En fait, le but de cet article n’est pas de simplement décrire des faits 

historiques, mais plutôt d’informer tous ceux qui s’intéressent à ce sujet, surtout les spécialistes 

occidentaux, concernant les nouvelles possibilités de recherche qui se sont présentées dès 

qu’on a permis l’accès aux Archives des Affaires Étrangères de l’Empire Russe (AVPRI) de 

Moscou. Selon Prousis, étudier des archives si vastes et riches en informations permettrait au 

moins d’éclairer d’un jour nouveau la complexité de la politique impériale et l’interaction de 

79

l’empire avec les peuples du Proche-Orient. 

La série d’articles se clôt par une vaste étude purement linguistique, bien structurée, 

intitulée Expressivity and a Pragmatic Constraint on Object Reduplication in Bulgarian (L’expressivité 

et une contrainte pragmatique imposée au redoublement de l’objet en bulgare), dans laquelle Ivelina 

Tchizmarova de l’Université d’État de Ball essaie de mettre en évidence les fonctions 

pragmatiques qu’on attache au phénomène du redoublement de l’objet (RO) dans la langue 

bulgare. Des détails extraits de la littérature de spécialité concernant cette particularité de la 

syntaxe bulgaire et la fonction pragmatique que les linguistes lui ont traditionnellement 

attachée, c’est-à-dire exprimer un sens d’actualité, précèdent une analyse originale qui peut 

relever encore d’autres fonctions, mais aussi des contraintes pragmatiques dans le cas du RO. 

Son argument de base, toujours bien soutenu par des exemples, est celui selon lequel le RO 

peut servir comme marque d’expressivité, par sa capacité de refléter l’attitude et les émotions 

de celui qui parle envers le(s) référent(s), ou comme indicateur du degré d’importance attachée 

à une certaine information dans le processus de communication. On montre de la sorte que la 

fonction expressive du RO est implicitement liée à une contrainte pragmatique à l’égard du 

statut et de la précision de l’information et on ouvre la voie à d’autres investigations plus 

détaillées sur le RO et ses fonctions pragmatiques en bulgare. 

La seconde partie du volume est composée de compte-rendus, détaillés parfois sous 

forme d’articles. Les sujets que les livres présentés développent sont aussi (sinon encore plus) 

variés que ceux des articles déjà mentionnés. Certains traitent des effets des régimes politiques 

et des changements dans la société sur l’identité nationale (et non seulement), surtout dans les 

régions qui, à l’époque post-soviétique et post-communiste, ont été le théâtre de guerre entre 

de diverses ethnies telles que les Serbes et les Croates de l’ancienne Yougoslavie. Il y a, parmi 

ceux-ci, des ouvrages d’anthropologie politique qui se concentrent sur les dernières 

transformations de la vie de ces peuples comme, par exemple, Politics of Identity in Serbia (Des 

opinions politiques sur l’identité en Serbie) par Ivan Čolović. Des études diachroniques des 

relations inter-ethniques comme Kosovo : Background to a War (Kosovo: Théâtre de guerre) par 

Stephen Schwartz, History of the Serbs in Croatia and Slavonia 1848-1914 (L’Histoire des Serbes de 

Croatie et de Slovénie) et Biskup Strosmejer u svetlu novih izvora - ‘Bishop Strossmayer in Light of New 

Sources’ (L’évêque Strossmayer redécouvert à la lumière de nouvelles sources) par Vasilje Dj. Krestić 

et la collection d’essais de Milorad Ekmečić, Dijalog prošlosti i sadašnjosti: Zbornik radova – 

‘Dialogue of the Past with the Present : Collected Studies’ (Dialogues du passé avec le présent : une 

collection d’études) s’y ajoutent. D’autres ouvrages analysent de multiples points de vue des 

réalités historiques et sociales d’autres espaces. Celui de Theophilus C. Prousis continue et 

développe le même sujet introduit dans l’article présenté ci-dessus, c’est-à-dire l’investigation, 

à l’aide des documents recueillis dans des collections et des archives, des relations entre les 

deux empires russe et ottoman dans le Levant (Russian-Ottoman Relations in the Levant : The 

Dashkov Archive – Les relations russo-ottomanes dans le Levant : Les Archives Dashkov). Concerné 

par une partie seulement de l’espace géographique à peine nommé, le volume de Nikolai 

Todorov, Society, the City and Industry in the Balkans, 15th-19th Centuries (La société, la ville et 

l’industrie dans les Balkans, les 15 e-19 e siècles) relève d’une manière diachronique sélective 

plusieurs moments importants du développement de la civilisation urbaine des Balkans. Les 

études d’ethnographie n’y manquent pas non plus: l’une combine avec succès l’approche 

ethnographique à l’antropologie pour souligner particulièrement les conséquences des 

changements des relations entre les deux sexes pour les femmes albanaises (Women Who 

Become Men: Albanian Sworn Virgins – Des Femmes qui deviennent des hommes: Celles qui ont fait 

serment de rester vierges par Antonia Young). La seconde, qui se présente en fait sous la forme 

d’une collection d’essais édités par Ruth Mandel et Caroline Humphrey (Markets and Moralities: 

Ethnographies of Post-Socialism – Marchés et Mœurs: Ethnographies de l’époque post-communiste), 

met l’accent sur la re-négociation des tabous et la re-structuration des codes moraux dans le 

contexte du développement de l’économie de marché dans tous les pays antérieurement 

80

asservis au régime communiste qui s’étendent de l’Estonie vers le nord, jusqu’à la Mongolie 

vers l’est, les Balkans y compris. 

Sont intégrés au volume des compte-rendus de livres qui traitent des aspects de la vie 

culturelle des peuples sud-européens. On fournit par ce biais des précisions sur des ouvrages 

concernés par les architectures hongroise et serbe ou sur l’art juif de Roumanie, tels: The 

Architecture of Historic Hungary (L’architecture de la Hongrie historique), édité par Dora 

Wiebenson et Jozsef Sisa, Modernism in Serbia: The Elusive Margins of Belgrade Architecture (Le 

modernisme en Serbie: Les marges insaisissables de l’architecture de Belgrade) de Ljiljana Blagojevič 

et, respectivement, Treasures of Jewish Art: The 1673 Illuminated Scroll of Esther Offered to a 

Romanian Hierarch (Trésors de l’art juif: le manuscrit enluminé d’Esther offert en 1673 à un hiérarque 

roumain) de Cornelia Bodea. Les succès de la cinématographie de l’ancienne Yougoslavie sont 

popularisés à travers le volume de Dina Iordanova sur la vie et la création du plus grand de ses 

metteurs en scène, Emir Kusturica (Emir Kusturica: BFI World Director Series – Emir Kusturica : 

Collection ‘Metteurs en scène du monde’ de l’IBF). A ceux qui s’intéressent surtout à l’étude des 

langues du Sud-Est de l’Europe, on suggère de consulter, par exemple, un dictionnaire de mots 

d’origine turque entrés dans la langue bulgare (A Dictionary of Turkisms in Bulgarian – Un 

dictionnaire de mots d’origine turque en bulgare par Alf Grannes, Kjetil Rå Hauge et Hazrize 

Sülemanoğlu) et surtout d’approfondir leurs connaissances en dialectologie balkanique, en 

lisant soit l’étude Albanskij gegkij govor sela Muhurr (kraina Dibër): Sintaksis, Leksika, 

Ètnolingvistika, Teksty ‘The Albanian Geg Dialect of the Village of Muhurr (Dibër region) : Syntax, 

Lexicon, Ethnolinguistics, Texts’ – Le dialecte albanais geg du village de Muhurr (région de Dibër): 

syntaxe, lexique, ethnolinguistique, textes coordonné par Dželjal’ Jully [Xhelal Ylli] et Andrej N. 

Sobolev, ou, pour acquérir une vue d’ensemble, la collection d’essais Grundfragen eines 

Südosteuropasprachatlas: Geschichte, Problematik, Perspektive, Konzeption, Methode, Pilotprojekt 

‘Foundational Questions of a Southeast European Language Atlas : History, Problems, Perspectives, 

Conception, Methods, Pilot Project’ (Questions de base pour un atlas des langues sud-est européennes: 

histoire, problèmes, perspectives, conception, méthodes, projet pilote) éditée par Helmut Schaller. 

Enfin, on fait référence à des œuvres littéraires qui représentent des témoignages de 

l’héritage culturel de l’espace roumain. D’une part, l’article compte-rendu de Marina Cap-Bun 

de l’Université Ovidius de Constanţa (The Symbolism of Light in Ion Creangă’s Memories of My 

Boyhood – Le symbolisme de la lumière dans les Mémoires d’enfance de Ion Creangă) rend hommage à 

l’un des plus grands et aimés écrivains roumains, Ion Creangă, dont l’œuvre fondamentale, 

Amintiri din copilărie (Mémoires d’enfance), a enchanté des générations entières de lecteurs. Pour 

que le public étranger découvre pleinement la complexité de ce « roman » d’enfance et qu’on le 

convainque qu’il mérite d’être rangé parmi les autobiographies spirituelles les plus achevées 

de la littérature universelle, l’auteur s’attache à souligner, en particulier, le riche symbolisme 

de la lumière, à valeur thérapeutique, dont les images des enfants, de la famille, des gens et des 

paysages du village sont chargées, par rapport à l’obscurité associée à l’âge adulte, à la 

solitude, à la maladie, à la dépression, à la menace du monde extérieur et, finalement, à la 

mort. D’autre part, bien qu’il ne soit pas écrit par un Roumain et qu’il n’arrive pas, à cause de 

nombreuses exagérations et simplifications inopportunes, à créer l’impression d’objectivité, 

l’ouvrage à saveur de roman d’espionnage de Donald Dunham intitulé Assignment Bucharest: 

An American Diplomat’s View of the Communist Takeover of Romania (Mission Bucarest : Le point de 

vue d’un diplomate américain à l’égard de la prise de pouvoir par les communistes en Roumanie) 

mérite, toutefois, d’être mentionné et devrait être étudié pour déterminer les stéréotypes qui 

dominent la perception des observateurs occidentaux sur la société roumaine après la seconde 

guerre mondiale. 

En somme, cette collection d’articles et de compte-rendus peut être utile à tous ceux qui 

s’intéressent aux études culturelles, plus spécialement quand elles prennent comme objet 

d’étude l’espace sud-est européen. Il est vrai que sa structure peut apparaître plutôt sans 

rigueur, qu’il est parfois difficile à accepter la grande diversité des sujets abordés et qu’une 

81

sélection thématique eût été, peut-être, une meilleure solution pour cette édition anniversaire. 

Mais, en tout cas, il faut remarquer comme un point fort du volume qu’il s’agit d’études 

originales, élaborées avec un grand soin et soutenues par une argumentation cohérente, 

permettant aux lecteurs de s’informer sur des aspects qui - en raison du climat politique - n’ont 

pas pu être ouvertement débattus pendant une longue période de temps. Si, à l’aide de telles 

publications, on réussit à franchir des barrières culturelles et de mentalité, à mieux entendre les 

mécanismes des changements de la société, à faire connaître au monde occidental les 

caractéristiques d’un univers culturel perçu d’abord avec des préjugés, l’hétérogénéité du 

volum ne semble plus un point faible, mais peut être conçu comme un point fort. C’est 

pourquoi nous recommandons chaleureusement une lecture intégrale ou partielle de ce 

dernier volume de Balkanistica. 

THE CULTURAL TURN IN TRANSLATION STUDIES 

Rodica Dimitriu 

Institutul European, Iaşi, 2006, 244 p. 

82 

Gabriela Iuliana Colipcă 

Volumul de faţă se înscrie în seria „Traductologie” a editurii 

ieşene şi le este destinat cu prioritate masteranzilor şi 

doctoranzilor în domeniu. Ei pot beneficia de şapte sinteze 

care trec puntea dintre cercetare şi prelegere. Sunt cele şapte 

capitole ale cărţii, elaborate de autoare după o reţetă 

răsturnată ad-hoc dintr-un adagiu latin: „non multum, sed 

multa”. Fără a face neapărat concesii tineretului studios, prof. 

univ. Rodica Dimitriu adoptă ton tranşant pentru judecăţi de 

valoare şi caracterizări simplificatoare uşor memorabile, 

precum şi atenţie sporită pentru secţiunile intitulate activităţi 

şi dezbateri (“Activities and discussions”) la fiecare final de 

capitol. 

Depistarea turnurii culturale pe care o cunoaşte în 

perioada recentă traductologia se face în următoarea ordine 

tematică: normare polisistemică (Andrew Chesterman, Gideon 

Toury), şcoala manipulării (André Lefevere), abordări filosofice (hermeneutica traducerii la 

George Steiner şi deconstructivismul lui Jacques Derrida), statutul traducătorului invizibil în 

viziunea lui Lawrence Venuti şi al celui subiectiv în viziunea lui Douglas Robinson, 

traducerea şi studiile de gen (strategii feministe la Lori Chamberlain), postcolonialismul cu 

relevantele asimetrii ale puterii (Rosemary Arrojo) şi decolonizarea traducerilor (Gayatri 

Spivak). Subliniem că autorii formând baza documentară a volumului sunt mult mai 

numeroşi decât ne-am permis să enumerăm. Şi încă un aspect: probabil va mai trece ceva 

timp până când ne vom obişnui, urmând propunerea din 1990 a lui Mary Snell-Hornby, să 

privim cultura – şi nu textul – ca unitate de bază în traducere. 

Construind un ansamblu care să îndrume spre reflecţie asupra legăturilor dintre 

traducere, literatură şi cultură, Rodica Dimitriu adoptă un discurs specializat, dar precaut 

totodată, ca să nu descurajeze un cititor mai puţin iniţiat în teoretizări academice. 

Dimpotrivă, cartea poate contribui cu succes la ceea ce-şi doresc toţi dascălii: relansarea 

interesului tinerilor pentru culturi traduse şi, eventual, asimilate prin noi ordini valorice 

propuse de cercetători consacraţi ai ultimelor patru decenii. Textele utile, alese pentru 

exersare sau seminarizare, vin în sprijinul glosării pe idei care aparţin unei memorii larg 

culturale, care să amintească, între altele, de grila de lucru precomunistă, contrapusă grilei 

comuniste; dar şi de postcomunismul care începe să se cristalizeze într-un canon propriu.

Prefaţându-şi volumul, autoarea justifică apariţia în a doua anexă a unui articol 

semnat Walter Benjamin, datat 1923 şi scris în limba germană. Este vorba de un eseu care a 

circulat în limba engleză cu titlul The Task of the Translator şi care a influenţat multe puncte de 

vedere expuse în carte. Eseistul este persuasiv în a arăta că între original şi traducere nu 

trebuie să existe asemănare, ci înrudire. Metaforizând, vasul e spart şi punem cioburile într-o 

închipuire de vas nou. Fidelitatea formei e o eroare, dacă se transformă în intenţie majoră. 

Bucăţelele contează atunci când se potrivesc între ele, ca să satisfacă cerinţe de armonie. Iar 

lingvistul-traducător trăieşte o mare satisfacţie când eseistul-teoretician este în căutarea 

semnificaţiilor culturale recuperabile, nu atât prin asemănarea mai mult sau mai puţin vagă 

între două limbi, ci prin complementarităţile lor din planul inefabilului. 

Subliniem în finalul acestei recenzii că meritele volumului The Cultural Turn in 

Translation Studies sunt rezultatul decantat al unor ani de experienţă „ex cathedra” în 

abordarea problemelor filologice ridicate de perspective diverse asupra traducerii şi 

traducătorului. 

COMUNICARE CULTURALĂ ŞI COMUNICARE LINGVISTICĂ ÎN SPAŢIUL 

EUROPEAN 

Ioan Oprea 

Institutul European, Iaşi, 2008, 455 p. 

83 


A-l citi pe profesorul universitar Ioan Oprea înseamnă a te 

simţi filolog şi când nu eşti. Discursul nu este doar limpede şi 

instructiv, dar conţine de asemenea elemente ataşante în 

formule precum calificativele blagiene de major şi minor, care 

de fapt nu sugerează gradaţii în cultură. Noi, ca români, ne 

liniştim cu aprecierea că „deşi este prima care se manifestă 

din punct de vedere cronologic, cultura minoră poate dăinui 

mai multe milenii, dând impresia atemporalităţii” (25). Ne 

gândim şi regândim poziţia în concertul universal şi, de 

multe ori, ne dă mai multă satisfacţie plasarea noastră în 

lumea europeană decât în contextul globalizării planetare. 

Volumul prof. Oprea ne dă în mod cert un ajutor preţios 

pentru a face această încadrare pe baze de informaţie 

ştiinţifică. 

Textul publicitar de pe coperta a IV-a promite „prima 

lucrare românească extinsă care tratează o sumă de aspecte ce 

dau unitate Lumii Europene”. Cercetătorul îşi fişează materia în trei părţi, spre care ne 

îndreptăm atenţia pentru a descoperi ideile care le dau consistenţă. 

Partea întâi ne „învaţă” cum să analizăm principial o cultură şi o limbă. De fapt, pe 

Ioan Oprea îl interesează cel mai mult maniera de influenţare a acestora. Actualmente nu 

absolut toate etniile europene realizează influenţarea pomenită, ci au întâietate grupul 

romanic occidental şi grupul germanic. Trebuie stabilit cine are statut de superioritate în 

parteneriatele culturale iniţiate. 

Construcţia noastră spirituală a început cu lumea greacă antică, „o moştenire 

intelectuală a libertăţii, toleranţei şi exactităţii” (43). Apoi sunt radiografiaţi celţii şi 

germanicii scandinavi. Accentul cărţii se mută pe creştinarea europenilor şi pe noua religie 

„care are drept dogmă centrală ideea păcatului şi a mântuirii” (55). Epoca modernă – 

Renaştere, Reformă, Ortodoxia est-europeană – sunt parcurse tot în această parte a 

volumului, pentru a se sublinia un model vestic („primatul raţionalităţii şi al ordinii”, 77),

deosebit de modelul orientului slav (însemnând „sentimentalitatea şi gestul inexplicabil,” 

ibidem). 

Partea a doua explică în ce sens există o arhitectură a fiecărei limbi şi ce componente îi 

asigură specificul. Aici, în această parte, îşi face loc şi gramatica, prin descrierea evoluţiilor 

gramaticale de la latină la limbile romanice şi de la limba germanică comună la limbile 

germanice de astăzi. Nu sunt neglijate topica din limbile moderne (205-218) şi creativitatea 

lexicală (219-227). 

Cea mai lungă parte, a treia, este dedicată temeiurilor unităţii lingvistice şi culturale 

din patrimoniul european, dat fiind că la tezaurul general fiecare grup de limbi şi fiecare 

limbă în parte au avut un aport indicat cu acurateţe admirabilă şi exemple relevante de către 

profesorul Ioan Oprea. 

Dată fiind acumularea atâtor informaţii, materialul supraintitulat Addenda şi intitulat 

„Europenismul românilor” (344-398) capătă brusc atractivitate maximă şi reprezintă punctul 

de vedere şi doct şi patriotic al celui care ar dori ferirea spaţiului românesc de „minţi 

ruginite” şi înviorarea lui de către „minţi tinere, care au în faţă deschiderea căilor vieţii” (am 

citat ultimele cuvinte ale cărţii). 

Dacă elementele acestei recenzii sunt insuficiente celui interesat de fenomenele de 

comunicare, o mai amplă edificare asupra direcţiilor şi tezelor volumului se poate obţine 

dintr-un grupaj de rezumate finale în limbile engleză (413-422), franceză (423-432), germană 

(433-444) şi spaniolă (445-455). Iată un util transfer poliglot de elemente, probabil un nou 

indiciu că am început să gândim şi să lucrăm în cadre europene, prin graiuri diferite, cu un 

ansamblu de interese ştiinţifice împărtăşite. 

EMINESCU. NEGOCIEREA UNEI IMAGINI 

Iulian Costache 

Cartea Românească, 2008, 372 p. 

84 


În contextul unei „bătălii canonice” dure între valorile 

culturale şi naţionale promovate, în literatură, de 

generaţiile paşoptiste şi postpaşoptiste, şi fermitatea 

criteriului junimist al autonomiei esteticului, mişcarea de 

impunere a unui nou canon şi de necesară 

redimensionare a celui vechi este înfăptuită cu multă 

ştiinţă şi înţelegere a fenomenului de receptare specific, 

de către Titu Maiorescu, care pune la punct şi execută cu 

precizie etapele unei binecunoscute politici culturale. 

Astăzi, când „naţionalul şi supranaţionalul nu mai 

sunt reprezentaţi prin cei doi versanţi tradiţionali ai 

patrimoniului, între care nu există corespondenţe directe, 

ci numai corespondenţe simbolice” (8), ca şi în epoca de la 

1848, elementele care compun canonul sunt girate de 

raportul dinamic dintre imaginile sinelui şi ale Celuilalt, 

de gradul de reprezentativitate şi de miza identitară pe 

care şi-o poate asuma literatura. Procesul de identificare 

a sinelui, prin mişcarea formelor literare, ascultă de 

aceleaşi comandamente astăzi, când miturile fondatoare – din unghi cultural şi naţional – sunt 

reevaluate, şi în epoca Junimii, când, potrivit lui Iulian Costache, se pun bazele imaginii 

publice a poetului naţional, imagine perpetuată, în datele ei esenţiale, până astăzi. 

Demonstraţia se face, în principal, pe ediţiile de poezie eminesciană îngrijite de Maiorescu,

pe „speciile extra-literare de discurs”, considerate, pe bună dreptate, „ambreiori de imagine” 

(18), ca şi pe formele şi tipurile de receptare a textelor poetice eminesciene în epocă. Dirijarea 

procesului de receptare şi a imaginii publice a poetului – asociate modelului romantic al 

geniului, a cărui operă şi conduită sunt plasate sub semnul excepţionalităţii – dovedesc o 

bună cunoaştere a pieţei culturale şi o practică de management cultural fără fisură. Ca 

urmare, eul liric intră în scenă asumând poza singurătăţii romantice a poetului, poezia 

inaugurală a volumului oferind scenografia simbolică necesară (Singurătate), şi iese 

autentificând imaginea, tot romantică, a poetului neînţeles de contemporani (Criticilor mei) 

(20). 

Negocierea şi acceptarea poetului de către publicul epocii, în virtutea unei ipostaze 

generice (ne)asumate (a se vedea abaterea de la direcţionarea junimistă din Epigonii) 

presupune o dublă orientare retorică, spre „oferta maximei deschideri a poeziei în raport cu 

publicul” – „retorica de maximă accesibilitate a romanţei”, şi spre gnomism, „ca ofertă 

sapienţială menită a construi un orizont de aşteptare comun între cititor şi text, pe baza 

inducerii unui fond de credinţe comune” (20). 

De altfel, dirijată cu mână fermă de către Titu Maiorescu, receptarea – şi imaginea 

publică pe care poetul o dobândeşte – se aşază pe două coordonate ce se vor dovedi esenţiale 

pentru asimilarea în special a poeziei „minore”, de tip romanţă, în epoca marilor Clasici şi 

ulterior. Este vorba despre „conduita poetului romantic”, dezinteresat de cele lumeşti, şi 

despre decalajul dintre structura spirituală şi morală a omului de geniu şi societatea în care 

este sortit să trăiască. 

Înscriindu-se în mişcarea de mare agresiune identitară a Junimii, printre promotorii 

Direcţiei noi, Eminescu – ca poet public – corespunde şi susţine un nou canon literar, şi 

serveşte drept instrument strategiei maioresciene de deplasare a atenţiei de la o identitate 

focalizată – a criticului însuşi, asupra unei identităţi de grup. Colecţia de scriitori ai Direcţiei noi 

îl propune pe Eminescu al doilea, imediat după Alecsandri. Iar „selectarea unui poet cu doar 

trei poezii într-un top literar şi plasarea sa imediat după autorul reprezentativ” (85) 

reprezintă un act de curaj al criticului, dar şi dovada unei excelente intuiţii a valorii. 

Detractorii binecunoscuţi ai operei emineciene semnalează, unii având încă suportul 

ideologiei iluministe, pericolul reprezentat de atitudinea pesimistă şi de tematica erotică a 

poemelor. Preotul greco–catolic Al. Grama se situează, ferm, de partea misiunii sociale a artei 

şi reacţionează, implicit, criticând textele poetice eminesciene, împotriva modelului cultural 

german, cosmopolit şi perceput, tocmai de aceea, ca o alteritate agresivă faţă de ideea de 

românitate. 

Însă la vremea aceea „Eminescu nu este perceput ca fiind scriitorul de care adversarii 

Junimii să se împiedice. El nu are încă un profil proeminent, fiind încă un scriitor de climat, 

elocvent nu atât în sine, cât pentru climatul (şi aşa «discutabil») pe care Direcţia nouă încerca 

să-l promoveze” (141). De fapt, Maiorescu construieşte un model inexistent în realitate, un 

prototip în virtutea căruia fundamentele literaturii şi ale culturii române s-ar fi stabilizat 

graţie principiului adevărului. Asocierea poeziei eminesciene cu structurile virtuale ale 

literaturii române moderne, pe care Direcţia nouă le contura, cel puţin în articolul 

maiorescian cu acelaşi nume, se face în virtutea corespondenţelor tematico–structurale 

evidente. Oferta de participare – îndreptată către scriitori – şi de receptare – adresată 

publicului – viza atât simularea unei noi structuri literare, cât şi stimularea suportului concret– 

literar de care era nevoie. Altfel spus, Maiorescu elaborează o desăvârşită formă fără fond 

căreia îi construieşte, apoi, cu migală, din ceea ce epoca îi pune la dispoziţie, fondul. 

În această ordine de idei, studiul de promovare nu atât a poetului, cât a mizei 

reprezentate de asocierea lui cu Direcţia nouă, Eminescu şi poeziile lui, arată cum „tipul de 

imagine eminesciană propus de Maiorescu se definea în chip polemic în raport cu celelalte 

imagini evocate, urmând să «împartă» cu acestea spaţiul de joc reprezentat de «piaţa de 

imagine» a bunurilor culturale” (158). 

85

După analiza direcţiei de receptare estetice – reprezentată de Mihail Dragomirescu şi 

de Nicolae Petraşcu, cartea lui Iulian Costache evidenţiază particularităţile de receptare 

specifice demersului critic al lui C. D. Gherea, precum şi ascendenţa semiozei socialului – 

Nicolae Iorga şi Garabet Ibrăileanu. 

Aspectele cele mai interesante, însă, vin din direcţia (aproape) deloc exploatată, până 

acum, a semiozei extra-literare, graţie căreia poetul devine un autentic personaj mediatic. 

Raportul firesc dintre viaţă şi operă se inversează, odată cu avansarea bolii poetului, viaţa 

părând că începe să copieze opera care, prin texte devenite foarte populare, ca Mai am un 

singur dor, de exemplu, anticipa simbolic destinul tragic al lui Eminescu şi al omului de 

geniu. Pe măsură ce istoria bolii poetului se va transforma în temă mediatică, în intervalul 

1883 – 1889, „curentul eminescian va putea să devină, simbolic, o paradigmă dominantă şi 

pentru că va fi reuşit să impună, într-o astfel de textură simbolică, imaginea epigonilor ca 

interpretanţi eterni ai operei eminesciene, aşa cum vor fi fost ei acceptaţi în cadrele 

imaginarului colectiv al epocii” (184). 

Dacă ştirile despre starea financiară precară sau despre starea de sănătate a poetului, 

ori despre listele de subscripţie publică reuşesc să construiască o imagine din ce în ce mai 

puternică – având şi argumentul operei – Maiorescu, ce îşi asumă iniţiativa editării operei 

eminesciene, încearcă să preia şi o parte a controlului asupra imaginii larg vehiculate a 

poetului. Modelul eroului exemplar va sta la baza atitudinii criticului faţă de opera şi de 

personalitatea creatoare eminesciană. 

De altfel, „temele criticului” transpar în structura volumelor girate de Titu Maiorescu. 

Prin poezia Singurătate, care deschide volumul din 1883, se instituie cunoscuta poză a 

poetului romantic – cum aminteam deja ceva mai înainte – drept marcă esenţială fondatoare 

a profilului eminescian pe care Maiorescu mizează. Pe baza acestui prim poem, cititorul 

devine „beneficiar al unui rit de iniţiere” ce susţine „instructajul” prefeţei. 

În centrul volumului se află poezia Se bate miezul nopţii, ca „semn al echilibrului 

încremenit în ezitarea dintre două lumi”(288–289). Se ajunge, astfel, la o adevărată mască 

editorială a poetului pe care, ulterior, ediţia Perpessicius o autentifică suplimentar. Este 

imaginea promovată până în zilele noastre de canonul didactic şi, încă rezistent la atacuri, de 

canonul oficial estetic. 

DE LINGUA UNIVERSALIS. 

Petre Rău 

Fundaţia Culturală Antares, 2007, 234 p. 

86 

Simona Antofi 

Literatura care îşi propune popularizarea 

preocupărilor specifice unor domenii de cercetare dintre 

cele mai diverse se bucură de apariţia, la o editură din 

oraşul nostru, a unui mic tratat de lingvistică teoretică pe 

înţelesul tuturor. Lucrarea, asupra căreia ne oprim în 

recenzia de faţă şi, pe care autorul ei, Petre Rău, o consideră 

un eseu (223) impresionează prin elementele particulare cu 

care (cu certitudine se va) impune în literatura lingvistică 

românească. Publicul căruia i se adresează acest volum ar 

putea fi descris ca fiind caracterizat de o diversitate de 

interese profesionale şi extraprofesionale, pasiuni, vârstă şi, 

nu în ultimul rând, de nivel de cunoştinţe. Exprimarea 

simplă şi clară, prezentarea subiectelor în discuţie fără a se 

recurge la complexităţi ştiinţifice (de tipul notelor de

subsol, al notelor explicative amplasate la sfârşit de capitol, al explicaţiilor parantetice), 

tonul direct şi argumentarea susţinută prin citate asigură accesul cititorului la un conţinut 

complex prin problematica abordată. 

Perspectiva istorică de prezentare a limbii (ca fenomen social, istoric, etnic şi cultural) 

şi a limbajelor (naturale, artificiale sau chiar limbajul trupului) se desfăşoară pe parcursul a 

douăzecişiopt de capitole, echilibrat construite şi astfel înlănţuite încât asigură coerenţa şi 

coeziunea scriiturii propuse de autor. Cercetarea sistematică şi amănunţită porneşte de la 

afirmaţiile privind geneza limbajelor, făcând trimiteri la primele noţiuni legate de limbaj care 

sunt întâlnite în Vechiul Testament, respectiv în Cartea Genezei (8-10) şi, mai apoi, în 

capitolul Facerea. Sunt apoi consemnate opinii despre geneza limbajului aparţinând autorilor 

lumii antice (Aristotel, 10, Vitruviu, 11), continuând cu păreri ale autorilor (filozofi sau 

scriitori) mai apropiaţi de zilele noastre (von Herder, Iorga şi Coşeriu, 12-13). 

Odată stabilit cadrul general al apariţiei şi utilizării limbii, oricare ar fi aceasta, autorul 

ia în discuţie legile comunicării, introducând componentele fundamentale ale procesului de 

comunicare, descriind esenţa acestui proces şi insitând asupra celor mai recente principii ale 

comunicării, formulate de reprezentanţii Şcolii de la Palo Alto (15). Demersul istoric este 

evident şi în următoarea secvenţă care se opreşte asupra etapelor dezvoltării comunicării 

umane. După ce vorbeşte depre legăturile dintre gândire şi limbaj, descrise în funcţie de 

diverse teorii, autorul abordează limbajul ca instrument al comunicării (40-47), pentru a 

continua prin sintetizarea în doar un capitol a unui conţinut descris de alţi autori într-un 

întreg dicţionar al ştiinţelor limbajului. Apreciem conturarea în linii cuprinzătoare a acelor 

ştiinţe ale limbajului frecvent menţionate în manualele şcolare şi cursurile universitare şi 

anume, fonetica, gramatica, dialectologia, stilistica, istoria limbii, lexicologia, geografia 

lingvistică, paleontologia lingvistică, semantica, hermeneutica, poetica, retorica şi semiotica. 

Referirile la semiotică se continuă în capitolul despre semn şi comunicare non-verbală, unde, 

pe lângă referirile lui Ferdinand de Saussure la semnificant şi semnificat, se prezintă şi 

clasificarea semnelor avansată de Pierce, unde se au în vedere legăturile dintre semn şi 

referent, distingându-se trei tipuri de semne: (a) iconice, (b) indiciale şi (c) simbolice. 

Procesul de comunicare amplu descris, atât la nivelul omului cât şi la cel al 

necuvântătoarelor (vezi capitolul Graiul animalelor, 62-73), unde, dincolo de anecdotica 

începutului, şi unde se fac referiri la diverse experimente menite a explora posibiliăţile de 

comunicare ale animalelor, scoate în relief şi anumite dificultăţi (vezi capitolul Dificultăţile 

comunicării, 74-80). Dincolo de aspectele tehniciste ale procesului în sine, comunicarea poate 

fi privită şi ca o artă care implică un anumit grad de complexitate sugerat prin limbajul 

verbal sau cel paraverbal, prin personalitatea strictă a vorbitorului care îşi dozează, în funcţie 

de scopul comunicării, fie volumul vocii, care „ne ajută să dominăm sau să fim dominaţi” 

(83), fie accentul, fie articularea, fie ritmul şi implicit pauzele şi, mai ales, prin cuvintele 

folosite. Puterea cuvântului, următoarea secvenţă a eseului, aduce în atenţie nu numai 

limitele cuvântului ca reprezentare a realităţii (cum ar fi, de exemplu, ambiguitatea, 

polisemia, impreciziile, 90), ci şi dinamica oricărui cuvânt, citându-l pe Noica „De îndată ce 

apare pe lume, un cuvânt îşi ia libertatea de a se schimba. Omul, fireşte, îl foloseşte în toate 

felurile şi pentru toate trebuinţele sale ... în aşa fel încât ai crede că istoveşte virtuţile 

cuvântului. Dar cuvântul păstreazî pentru el un rest de libertate...” 

Considerăm de interes secţiunea dedicată evoluţiei limbilor naturale deoarece în ciuda 

faptului că autorul începe cu consideraţii cu un grad evident de generalitate, include totuşi în 

prezentare şi date statistice privind numărul limbilor cunoscute şi utilizate în prezent , 

aspecte legate de limbile pidgin şi creole. Vom puncta aici confuzia referitoare la aceste limbi 

hibride: limbile pidgin şi limbile creole nu derivă unele din celelalte (conform celor susţinute 

la pagina 106) ci sunt produse ale contactului lingvistic realizat între vorbitorii nativi de 

limba engleză şi băştinaşii vorbitori ai unor dialecte specifice şi bine determinate geografic. 

În cazul limbilor pidgin este vorba despre zona Chinei, iar al limbilor creole despre dialectele 

87

ăştinaşilor din zona coastei de vest a continentului America de Sud (pentru mai multe date, 

sugerăm consultarea bibliografiei referitoare la istoria limbii engleze) 1. 

După un periplu prin mai multe experimente lingvistice şi prin limbajul maimuţelor, 

se abordează domeniul limbilor şi al limbajelor artificiale, făcându-se referiri la limbile 

universale de tip esperanto, limbajul trupului, limbajele generaţiilor virtuale, pentru a se 

încheia cu unele consideraţii legate de internet, „autostrada informaţională” (212). 

Referinţe 

Baugh,A., Cable, Th. (1991). A History of the English Language, London, Routledge. 

Floriana Popescu 

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The Annals of “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi. 

Fascicle XIII. Language and Literature. New Series 

Issue 28, XVI (XXVII), 2009 ISSN 1221- 4647 

CONTRIBUTORS 

Dr. SIMONA ANTOFI is an associate professor at the Department of Literature, 

Linguistics and Journalism, Faculty of Letters, “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi. She is a 

coordinator of research projects and an author of papers exploring such topics as “Cultural 

Identity and Multiculturalism. A Romanian Identity Profile” (in Cultural Limits and Literature, 

Galaţi, 2006) or “Les modèles culturels identitaires roumains, des solutions d‘intégration 

européenne et d’autolégitimité” (in CEDIMES, Târgovişte, 2006) to name only two of them. 

Contact: simoantofi@yahoo.com 

Dr. FILIP CRISTIAN BACALU is a young lecturer at Spiru Haret University of 

Bucharest, particulalry interested in studying and performing research in the field of 

bilingualism. Contact:fc.bacalu@yahoo.com 

Dr. ANCA CEHAN is an associate professor of linguistics and applied linguistics at 

the Faculty of Letters, the English Department, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi. 

She has carried out research and published studies in the fields of semantics, ELT 

methodology, discourse analysis and pragmatics. Contact: acehan@uaic.ro 

ANA-ELENA COSTANDACHE is a young academic at the French Department, 

Faculty of Letters, “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi. She is now preparing her doctoral 

thesis and she is actively engaged in several research projects. Contact: lily_anghel@yahoo.fr 

Dr. GABRIELA IULIANA COLIPCĂ is an associate professor at the Department of 

English, Faculty of Letters, “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi. She prepared and 

defended her doctoral thesis at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. She currently 

teaches Renaissance and eighteenth-century English literature, narratology and film 

adaptations. Her research interests are: Renaissance and 18 th-century literature, culture and 

civilisation; comparative literature; literary theory and criticism (psychoanalysis, 

narratology, feminism); film theory; imagology; cultural analysis; trauma and affect theories; 

translation studies. Contact: iuliana75@yahoo.com 

Dr. NICOLETA IFRIM is a young academic at the Department of Literature, 

Linguistics and Journalism, the Faculty of Letters, “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi. She 

defended her doctoral thesis in Romanian literary studies and she now continues her 

research in her field of expertise. Contact: nicodasca@yahoo.com 

Dr. GABRIEL ISTODE is a young academic at the Department of Applied Modern 

Languages, the Faculty of Letters, “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi. He defended his 

doctoral thesis in contrastive studies and he now continues several project research in his 

field of expertise. Contact: gabriel.istode@ugal.ro 

Dr. DOINITA MILEA is a professor of the Department of Literature, Linguistics and 

Journalism, Faculty of Letters, “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi. She teaches 

comparative literature and Romanian literature, and her interests focus on remarkable 

contributions to devising and managing international projects as well as grants funded by 

the Romanian Academy. Contact: doinita.milea@ugal.ro 

Dr. IOANA MOHOR-IVAN is an associate professor at the English Department, 

Faculty of Letters, “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi. The grants she was awarded by the 

89

British Council enabled her to have direct access to Irish culture and literature. Contact: 

ioana_mohor@yahoo.com 

LIDIA MIHAELA NECULA is a young academic of the English Department, Faculty 

of Letters, “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi whose research interests focus on 

contemporary English literature. She is now finishing her doctoral thesis and she is involved 

in several research projects. Contact: lidiamicky_necula@yahoo.co.uk 

Dr. CARMEN OPRIT-MAFTEI, a lecturer at the Department of Applied Modern 

Languages, the Faculty of Letters, “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi, defended her 

doctoral thesis in 2007 at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi. Involved in individual 

research studies, she has published over 20 articles. Contact: c_maftei@ yahoo.com 

Dr. FLORIANA POPESCU is a professor of English Language and Applied Linguistics 

at the Faculty of Letters, “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi, Romania. Her research 

interests cover the fields of lexicology, translation studies and English for specific purposes. 

She has edited 3 books (the latest, Perspectives in Translation Studies, being published in 2009 

by Cambridge Scholars Publishing), has authored 4 books and over 60 articles, studies, books 

and book reviews and she has contributed to 15 textbooks on the English language 

contemporary grammar and other topics. Contact: florianapopescu@yahoo.com 

Dr. MICHAELA PRAISLER is a professor of English Literature at the Faculty of 

Letters, “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi, Romania. Her main research interests are in: 

the contemporary novel in English, literary theory and criticism, cultural and film studies. 

She has published over 45 articles, essays, reviews and books; from among the titles: 

“Media(ted) Discourse. Literary Representations”, “Filmic Translations of Culture”, „The 

Contemporary Novel: Pan-Cultural Symbols, Heroes, Rituals”, “A New Treatment for the 

Self in/of Fiction: David Lodge, Therapy”, “Fighting Medusa: Fay Weldon’s Big Women”, 

“Salman Rushdie’s Wor(l)d: Midnight’s Children”; “On Modernism, Postmodernism and the 

Novel”, “For a Psychoanalytical Approach to Literature. Reality and Fiction with Virginia Woolf and 

Ernest Hemingway”, “The Contemporary British Literary Scene”. 

Contact: mipraisler@yahoo.co.uk 

Dr. DANIELA ŞORCARU is a junior lecturer of English Linguistics in the Department 

of English Language and Literature of the Faculty of Letters, “Dunărea de Jos” University of 

Galaţi, Romania. She has published articles and studies in conference volumes and chapter 

contributions to scientific research volumes, most of them focused on stylistic linguistics. An 

important contribution has been made to the 1400-page English–Romanian Dictionary for 

Mechanical Engineering, published by E.D.P. in 2009. Contact: daniela_sorcaru@yahoo.com 

Dr. DANIELA ŢUCHEL is an associate professor at the English Department, Faculty 

of Letters, „Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi. Her research interests cover media 

discourse, pragmatic approaches, and interculturality. Contact: tucheldaniela@yahoo.com 

Dr. ANGELICA VÂLCU is an associate professor at the French Department, Faculty of 

Letters, „Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi. Her research interests cover textual grammar, 

and French for specific purposes. Contact: a_valcu@yahoo.fr. 

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