ANNALES DE L’UNIVERSITÉ DE CRAÏOVA
ANNALS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CRAIOVAANALELE UNIVERSITĂŢII DIN CRAIOVASERIA ŞTIINŢE FILOLOGICE

LIMBI STRĂINE APLICATEv
ANUL VI, Nr. 1-2/2010

EUC

EDITURA UNIVERSITARIAANNALES DE L'UNIVERSITÉ DE CRAÏOVA
13, rue Al. I. Cuza
ROUMANIE
On fait des échanges de publications avec lesinstitutions similaires du pays et de l'étranger

ANNALS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CRAIOVA
13, Al. I. Cuza Street
ROMANIAWe exchange publications with similar institutions of
our country and from abroad
COMITETUL DE REDACŢIE
Nicolae PANEA: Redactor-şef

MEMBRI
Fabienne SOLDINI Bledar TOSKA Cristina TRINCHERO Angelica VÂLCU
(Aix-en-Provence)(Vlora)(Torino)(Galaţi)Diana DĂNIŞOR

Emilia PARPALĂ

Anda RĂDULESCU Aloisia ŞOROP

SECRETAR DE REDACŢIE
Laurenţiu BĂLĂISSN: 1841-8074

Actele Colocviului Internaţional„Limbă, Cultură, Civilizaţie”
Craiova, 25-27 martie 2010

Actes du Colloque International« Langue, Culture, Civilisation »Craiova, 25-27 mars 2010

Atti del Convegno Internazionale“Lingua, Cultura, Civiltà”
Craiova, 25-27 marzo 2010

Actos del Coloquio Internacional“Lengua, Cultura, Civilización”
Craiova, 25-27 de marzo 2010

Acts of International Colloquium“Language, Culture, Civilisation”
Craiova, 25-27 of March 2010

CUPRINS

Cristina ANDREI: Enhancing Coherence in ESP Classes............................

17

Sultana AVRAM: Coding and Decoding Nonverbal Communication..........

22

Carmen BANŢA: The Staircase in a Block of Flats – A Vertical Rural
Alley. Past vs. Present. (A Case Study: the Craioviţa Nouă District,
Craiova).........

28

Laurenţiu BĂLĂ: Mais où sont les jurons d’antan ? Brassens, lenostalgique...............................................................................................

32

Gabriela BIRIŞ: L’approche des unités phraséologiques dans les manuelsde roumain langue étrangère...................................................................

39

Irina-Janina BONCEA: Difficulties in Translating Epistemic Modal Verbs
from English into Romanian.....................................................................

49

Otilia Doroteea BORCIA: L’Annunciazione nella pittura dei maestri
italiani del Trecento e Quattrocento........................................................

61

Andreea Mihaela BUNICĂ: Linguistic Problems in Old English Texts.
English – a Changing Language..............................................................

75

Felicia BURDESCU: On Palimpsestic Culture in Shakespeare’s Memory
by Jorge Luis Borges................................................................................

80

Adrian-Florin BUŞU: Dealing with Errors in TEFL....................................

84

Nicoleta CĂLINA: Sulle traduzioni di Alfred Alessandrescu dall’italiano
in romeno dei libretti di opera..................................................................

90

Costina-Denisa CERĂCEANU: Complexio oppositorum or the Union of
Opposites from Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound to the Banished One ofPhilippide’s...............................................................................................

97Ştefania Alina CHERATA: Are Dead Metaphors still Metaphors?
Conventionality and Metaphoricity in Lexicalized Metaphors................

102

Ileana Mihaela CHIRIŢESCU: Émile Verhaeren – « poète du paroxysme »116

Maria CHIVEREANU: Rôles narratifs dans la ballade...............................

121

Geo CONSTANTINESCU: “Valencias” del modernismo español.............

129

Ioana Rucsandra DASCĂLU: La découverte de l’altérité dans le roman
Bruges-la-Morte de Georges Rodenbach.................................................

136

Diana Domnica DĂNIŞOR: La traduction juridique en droit civil dufrançais vers le roumain : approche de traductologue, de linguiste etde juriste...................................................................................................

142

5

Daniel DE DECKER: Constantin et le monde païen....................................

155

Ana-Maria DEMETRIAN: It Is All about Numbers......................................

162

Georgiana-Elena DILĂ: Culture, Society and Family Intertwined in Zadie
Smith’s On Beauty....................................................................................

175

Raluca-Nora DRAGOMIR: The Role of Sports Terminology in American
Managerial Communication.....................................................................

181

Ilona DUŢĂ: Pupa russa – l’identité déchirée entre le corps idéologique etle corps sensoriel......................................................................................

187

Oana-Adriana DUŢĂ: Consideraciones sobre el uso de las canciones en
la enseñanza de la traducción..................................................................

198

Gheorghe ENACHE: The Contextualization of Christmas in Old
Ceremonial Songs. Notes on the Archaic Spirituality of the RomanianTraditional Village...................................................................................

204

Mario ENRIETTI: Tedesco pech, slavo pьkъlъ, romeno păcură. Storia esemantica di una parola...........................................................................

213

Ileana-Lavinia GEAMBEI: Pour une pragmatique du texte mémoriel de ladétention politique communiste................................................................

216

Florin-Ionuţ GRIGORE: Great Expectations – The Creation of a Hero.......

225

Ancuţa GUŢĂ, Ilona BĂDESCU: Le mot LIMBĂ (‘LANGUE’) dans les
expressions du roumain courant actuel (organisation sémantique)........

233

Ada ILIESCU: Verbal Expression of Modality in Teaching theConditional, from the Perspective of Romanian as a Foreign Language

240

Andreea ILIESCU: El personaje literario, un mero simulacro o una
individualidad trascendental en la narrativa fantástica de Jorge Luis
Borges y la de Mircea Eliade...................................................................

248

Loredana-Daniela ISPAS: Space Deictic Words in Romanian and English

259

Adriana LĂZĂRESCU: Samuel Beckett's Aesthetics of Failure..................

266

Ghislaine LOZACHMEUR: Les aspects dialogiques de la préface: de larevendication de la subjectivité à l’effacement énonciatif.......................

276

Constantin MANEA, Maria-Camelia MANEA: The ‘Gothic’ Story in
Britain – an Identity Benchmark, and an Ever-Green Asset....................

291

Camelia MANOLESCU: C’était Tunis. 1920 (récit de vie). Le récit de lajeunesse de Maherzia Amira-Bournaz......................................................

300

Diana MARCU: Listening Comprehension in Second Language
Acquisition................................................................................................

308

6

Cristina-Gabriela MARIN: Gender in Romanian and English.....................

315

Cristina Cornelia MĂNDOIU: Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights – A
Romance of Late Victorianism.................................................................

323

Iolanda MĂNESCU: On the Evolution of Theological Terms......................

331

Maria MIHĂILĂ: Les fonctions pragmatiques du pronom dans la langue
roumaine parlée actuelle..........................................................................

338

Armela PANAJOTI: The Language of Literary Texts as a Cross-Cultural
Construct..................................................................................................

343

Nicolae PANEA: La ville subtile. Le bruit....................................................

351

Emilia PARPALĂ: The Crisis of Truth in the Postmodern Poem................

356

Iuliana PAŞTIN: La solitude de l’homme moderne dans l’œuvre de J.M.G.
Le Clézio...................................................................................................

367

Ecaterina PĂTRAŞCU: History and Prejudice in John Updike’s Terrorist

378

Horia PĂTRAŞCU: Acedia – the Anchoretic Bovarism. Gustave Flaubert
and Evagrius Ponticus..............................................................................

390

Silvia PITIRICIU: Les noms communs issus des noms propres dans laterminologie de la géologie......................................................................

404

Elena PÎRVU: Il gerundio passato italiano e i suoi corrispondenti romeni

410

Ana Cristina POPESCU: Rhetoric Features of the Journalistic Style..........

417

Mihaela PRIOTEASA: Edgar Allan Poe’s Cosmological Theory – Eureka

421

Frosina QYRDETI: Diffusione e promozione della lingua e della cultura
italo - albanese. Esperienze di studenti e docenti del Dipartimento
Italianistica dell’Università di Valona, Albania......................................

430

Frosina QYRDETI: Educazione linguistica degli studenti stranieri. Lo
sviluppo delle abilità orali con i media....................................................

439

Mihaela-Sorina ROIBU: The Double in the Limelight..................................

446

Adrian SĂMĂRESCU: A Tragic Event and its Alternative ‘Stories’: The
1930 Costeşti Fire.....................................................................................

453

Daniela SCORŢAN: Comment enseigner l’accord du participe passé auxétudiants économistes...............................................................................

457

Mădălina STRECHIE: Personnages féminins dans la comédie de Plaute,
Le Soldat fanfaron....................................................................................

463

Ramona ŞENDRESCU: Le Curriculum vitae en français – étude de cas à
la Faculté d’Education Physique et de Sport, la Section Kinésithérapie,
Université de Craiova...............................................................................

470

7

Aloisia ŞOROP: The Picturesque between the Sublime and the Beautiful.
The Birth of Romantic Sensibility.............................................................

477

Nicoleta-Mihaela ŞTEFAN: Tradition and Innovation in Present Day
Romanian Legal-Administrative Language..............................................

483

Emilia TOMESCU: Dan Puric – the Therapeutic Lesson............................

489

Bledar TOSKA: Sociocultural Aspect of Illocutionary Acts.........................

494

Cristina TRINCHERO: Pierre-Louis Ginguené e la difesa e illustrazionedella lingua italiana.................................................................................

500

Lelia TROCAN: Écriture et authenticité......................................................

513

Alina ŢENESCU: Les grands espaces de circulation en tantqu’hétérotopies chez Frédéric Beigbeder................................................

518

Rodica VELEA: Speaking Skills in Teaching English to Medicine Students

531

Alina-Maria ZAHARIA: Nominalizations in Legal Language.....................

539

Roxana ZAMFIRA: Rhetorical Figures in the Advertising Text..................

547

8

SOMMAI RE

Cristina ANDREI: Renforcement de la cohérence dans les classesd’anglais sur objectifs spécifiques............................................................

17

Sultana AVRAM: Sur la codification et la décodification de lacommunication nonverbale......................................................................

22

Carmen BANŢA: L’escalier de bloc – une ruelle rurale verticale. Passé
vs. Présent. (Étude de cas : le quartier Craioviţa Nouă, Craiova)..........

28

Laurenţiu BĂLĂ: Mais où sont les jurons d’antan ? Brassens, lenostalgique...............................................................................................

32

Gabriela BIRIŞ: L’approche des unités phraséologiques dans les manuelsde roumain langue étrangère...................................................................

39

Irina-Janina BONCEA: Difficultés de traduction en roumain des verbes
modaux épistémiques de l’anglais............................................................

49

Otilia Doroteea BORCIA: L’Annonciation dans la peinture des maîtres
italiens du Trecento et Quattrocento........................................................

61

Andreea Mihaela BUNICĂ: Problèmes linguistiques des textes en ancien
anglais – une langue en changement........................................................

75

Felicia BURDESCU: Sur la culture palimpsestique dans La Mémoire de
Shakespeare de Jorge Luis Borges...........................................................

80

Adrian-Florin BUŞU: Sur les erreurs dans l’enseignement de l’anglais
langue étrangère.......................................................................................

84

Nicoleta CĂLINA: Sur les traductions de l’italien en roumain des livretsd’opéras d’Alfred Alessandrescu.............................................................

90

Costina-Denisa CERĂCEANU: Complexio oppositorum ou l’union desoppositions du Prométhée déchaîné de Shelley à celui bannid’Alexandru Philippide............................................................................

97Ştefania Alina CHERATA: Les métaphores désémentisées sont-elles
encore des métaphores ? Tradition et métaphoricité dans lesmétaphores lexicalisées............................................................................

102

Ileana Mihaela CHIRIŢESCU: Émile Verhaeren – « poète du paroxysme »116

Maria CHIVEREANU: Rôles narratifs dans la ballade...............................

121

Geo CONSTANTINESCU: «Valences » du modernisme espagnol.............

129

Ioana Rucsandra DASCĂLU: La découverte de l’altérité dans le roman
Bruges-la-Morte de Georges Rodenbach.................................................

136

9

Diana Domnica DĂNIŞOR: La traduction juridique en droit civil dufrançais vers le roumain : approche de traductologue, de linguiste etde juriste...................................................................................................

142

Daniel DE DECKER: Constantin et le monde païen....................................

155

Ana-Maria DEMETRIAN: Il ne s’agit que des nombres..............................

162

Georgiana-Elena DILĂ: Culture, société et famille enchevêtrées dans leroman De la beauté de Zadie Smith..........................................................

175

Raluca-Nora DRAGOMIR: Le rôle de la terminologie sportive dans lacommunication managériale américaine.................................................

181

Ilona DUŢĂ: Pupa russa – l’identité déchirée entre le corps idéologique etle corps sensoriel......................................................................................

187

Oana-Adriana DUŢĂ: Sur l’utilisation des chansons dans l’enseignement
de la traduction.........................................................................................

198

Gheorghe ENACHE: La contextualisation de Noël dans les ancienneschansons rituelles. Notes sur la spiritualité archaïque du village
roumain traditionnel.................................................................................

204

Mario ENRIETTI: Histoire et sémantique d’un mot : all. pech, sl. pьkъlъ,roum. păcură.............................................................................................

213

Ileana-Lavinia GEAMBEI: Pour une pragmatique du texte mémoriel de ladétention politique communiste................................................................

216

Florin-Ionuţ GRIGORE: Les Grandes espérances – la création d’un héros

225Ancuţa GUŢĂ, Ilona BĂDESCU: Le mot LIMBĂ (‘LANGUE’) dans les
expressions du roumain courant actuel (organisation sémantique)........

233

Ada ILIESCU: L’expression verbale de la modalité dans l’enseignement
du conditionnel en roumain langue étrangère.........................................

240

Andreea ILIESCU: Le personnage littéraire, un simple simulacre ou une
individualité transcendantale dans la narration fantastique de Jorge
Luis Borges et de Mircea Eliade..............................................................

248

Loredana-Daniela ISPAS: Les déictiques spatiaux en roumain et en
anglais......................................................................................................

259

Adriana LĂZĂRESCU: L’esthétique de l’échec chez Samuel Beckett.........

266

Ghislaine LOZACHMEUR: Les aspects dialogiques de la préface : de larevendication de la subjectivité à l’effacement énonciatif.......................

276

Constantin MANEA, Maria-Camelia MANEA: L’histoire « gothique » en
Grande Bretagne – un point de référence identitaire et une valeurpérenne.....................................................................................................

291

10

Camelia MANOLESCU: C’était Tunis. 1920 (récit de vie). Le récit de lajeunesse de Maherzia Amira-Bournaz......................................................

300

Diana MARCU: La compréhension orale dans l’acquisition d’une langue
seconde.....................................................................................................

308

Cristina-Gabriela MARIN: L’expression du genre en roumain et en
anglais......................................................................................................

315

Cristina Cornelia MĂNDOIU: Les Hauts de Hurlevent d’Emily Brontë –roman d’amour du victorianisme tardif...................................................

323

Iolanda MĂNESCU: Sur l’évolution des termes théologiques.....................

331

Maria MIHĂILĂ: Les fonctions pragmatiques du pronom dans la langue
roumaine parlée actuelle..........................................................................

338

Armela PANAJOTI: La langue des textes littéraires comme construction
culturelle...................................................................................................

343

Nicolae PANEA: La ville subtile. Le bruit....................................................

351

Emilia PARPALĂ: La crise de la vérité dans le poème postmoderne..........

356

Iuliana PAŞTIN: La solitude de l’homme moderne dans l’œuvre de J.M.G.
Le Clézio...................................................................................................

367

Ecaterina PĂTRAŞCU: Histoire et préjugé dans Terroriste de John Updike 378
Horia PĂTRAŞCU: L’acédie – un bovarysme ermitique. Gustave
Flaubert et Évagre le Pontique................................................................

390

Silvia PITIRICIU: Les noms communs issus des noms propres dans laterminologie de la géologie......................................................................

404

Elena PÎRVU: Le gérondif passé italien et ses correspondants roumains....

410

Ana Cristina POPESCU: La rhétorique du style journalistique...................

417

Mihaela PRIOTEASA: La théorie cosmologique d’E.A. Poe – Eureka.......

421

Frosina QYRDETI: Diffusion et promotion de la langue et de la culture
italo-albanaise. Expériences des étudiants et des enseignants duDépartement de langue italienne de l’Université de Vlore, Albanie........

430

Frosina QYRDETI: Éducation linguistique chez les étudiants étrangers.
Le développement des habiletés orales par l’entremise des media..........

439

Mihaela-Sorina ROIBU: Le double en premier plan....................................

446

Adrian SĂMĂRESCU: Un événement tragique et ses « histoires »alternatives : L’incendie de Costeşti de 1930..........................................

453

Daniela SCORŢAN: Comment enseigner l’accord du participe passé auxétudiants économistes...............................................................................

457

11

Mădălina STRECHIE: Personnages féminins dans la comédie de Plaute,
Le Soldat fanfaron....................................................................................

463

Ramona ŞENDRESCU: Le Curriculum vitae en français – étude de cas à
la Faculté d’Éducation physique et de sport, Section Kinésithérapie,
Université de Craiova...............................................................................

470

Aloisia ŞOROP: Le pittoresque entre le Sublime et le Beau. La naissancede la sensibilité romantique......................................................................

477

Nicoleta-Mihaela ŞTEFAN: Tradition et innovation dans le langage
législatif et administrative roumain contemporain..................................

483

Emilia TOMESCU: Dan Puric – la leçon thérapeutique..............................

489

Bledar TOSKA: Aspects socio-culturaux des actes illocutoires...................

494

Cristina TRINCHERO: Pierre-Louis Ginguené et la défense et illustrationde la langue italienne...............................................................................

500

Lelia TROCAN: Écriture et authenticité......................................................

513

Alina ŢENESCU: Les grands espaces de circulation en tantqu’hétérotopies chez Frédéric Beigbeder................................................

518

Rodica VELEA: Les habiletés d’expression orale dans l’enseignement del’anglais aux étudiants en médecine.........................................................

531

Alina-Maria ZAHARIA: Les nominalisations dans le langage législatif.....

539

Roxana ZAMFIRA: Figures de rhétorique dans le texte de publicité..........

547

12

CONTENTS

Cristina ANDREI: Enhancing Coherence in ESP Classes............................

17

Sultana AVRAM: Coding and Decoding Nonverbal Communication..........

22

Carmen BANŢA: The Staircase in a Block of Flats – A Vertical Rural
Alley. Past vs. Present. (A Case Study – The Craioviţa Nouă District,
Craiova)....................................................................................................

28

Laurenţiu BĂLĂ: But Where Are the Swears of Yester-Year? Brassens,
the Nostalgic Poet.....................................................................................

32

Gabriela BIRIŞ: Phrasal Units in Textbooks Teaching Romanian as a
Foreign Language....................................................................................

39

Irina-Janina BONCEA: Difficulties in Translating Epistemic Modal Verbs
from English into Romanian.....................................................................

49

Otilia Doroteea BORCIA: The Annunciation in Italian Paintings of theTrecento and the Quattrocento.................................................................

61

Andreea Mihaela BUNICĂ: Linguistic Problems in Old English Texts.
English – a Changing Language..............................................................

75

Felicia BURDESCU: On Palimpsestic Culture in Shakespeare’s Memory
by Jorge Luis Borges................................................................................

80

Adrian-Florin BUŞU: Dealing with Errors in TEFL....................................

84

Nicoleta CĂLINA: On Alfred Alessandrescu’s Translations of Opera
Libretti from Italian into Romanian.........................................................

90

Costina-Denisa CERĂCEANU: Complexio oppositorum or the Union of
Opposites from Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound to the Banished One ofPhilippide’s...............................................................................................

97

Stefania Alina CHERATA: Are Dead Metaphors still Metaphors?
Conventionality and Metaphoricity in Lexicalized Metaphors................

102

Ileana Mihaela CHIRIŢESCU: Émile Verhaeren – “the Poet of Paroxysm” 116
Maria CHIVEREANU: Narrative Roles in the Ballad..................................

121

Geo CONSTANTINESCU: “The Values” of Spanish Modernism..............

129

Ioana Rucsandra DASCĂLU: Discovery of Otherness in Bruges-la-Morteby Georges Rodenbach.............................................................................

136

Diana Domnica DĂNIŞOR: Civil Law Translation from French into
Romanian – the Translator’s, the Linguist’s and the Lawyer’s
Perspectives..............................................................................................

142

13

Daniel DE DECKER: Constantine and the Pagan World............................

155

Ana-Maria DEMETRIAN: It Is All about Numbers......................................

162

Georgiana-Elena DILĂ: Culture, Society and Family Intertwined in Zadie
Smith’s On Beauty....................................................................................

175

Raluca-Nora DRAGOMIR: The Role of Sports Terminology in American
Managerial Communication.....................................................................

181

Ilona DUŢĂ: Pupa russa – Identity Torn between the Ideological and theSensory Bodies..........................................................................................

187

Oana-Adriana DUŢĂ: On the Use of Songs in Teaching Translation..........

198

Gheorghe ENACHE: The Contextualization of Christmas in Old
Ceremonial Songs. Notes on the Archaic Spirituality of the RomanianTraditional Village...................................................................................

204

Mario ENRIETTI: The History and Semantics of a Word: pech inGerman, pьkъlъ in Slavic, păcură in Romanian.......................................

213

Ileana-Lavinia GEAMBEI: The Pragmatics of the Testimonial Text on
Political Imprisonment in Communist Countries.....................................

216

Florin-Ionuţ GRIGORE: Great Expectations – The Creation of a Hero.......

225

Ancuţa GUŢĂ, Ilona BĂDESCU: The Word LIMBĂ (‘Language’) in
Contemporary Romanian Idioms (Semantic Organization).....................

233

Ada ILIESCU: Verbal Expression of Modality in Teaching theConditional, from the Perspective of Romanian as a Foreign Language

240

Andreea ILIESCU: The Literary Character, a Mere Simulacrum or the
Individualized Transcendental in the Fantastic Narrative of Jorge Luis
Borges and Mircea Eliade.......................................................................

248

Loredana-Daniela ISPAS: Space Deictic Words in Romanian and English

259

Adriana LĂZĂRESCU: Samuel Beckett’s Aesthetics of Failure..................

266

Ghislaine LOZACHMEUR: Dialogical Aspects of the Foreword: from
Claiming Subjectivity to Self-Effacing Utterance.....................................

276

Constantin MANEA, Maria-Camelia MANEA: The ‘Gothic’ Story in
Britain – an Identity Benchmark, and an Ever-Green Asset....................

291

Camelia MANOLESCU: C’était Tunis. 1920 (récit de vie). Narrative ofMaherzia Amira-Bournaz’s Youth............................................................

300

Diana MARCU: Listening Comprehension in Second Language
Acquisition................................................................................................

308

Cristina-Gabriela MARIN: Gender in Romanian and English.....................

315

14

Cristina Cornelia MĂNDOIU: Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights – A
Romance of Late Victorianism.................................................................

323

Iolanda MĂNESCU: On the Evolution of Theological Terms......................

331

Maria MIHĂILĂ: Pragmatic Functions of the Pronoun in Contemporary
Spoken Romanian.....................................................................................

338

Armela PANAJOTI: The Language of Literary Texts as a Cross-Cultural
Construct..................................................................................................

343

Nicolae PANEA: Subtle City. The Noises.....................................................

351

Emilia PARPALĂ: The Crisis of Truth in the Postmodern Poem................

356

Iuliana PAŞTIN: Modern Man’s Solitude in J.M.G Clezio’s Works.............

367

Ecaterina PĂTRAŞCU: History and Prejudice in John Updike’s Terrorist

378

Horia PĂTRAŞCU: Acedia – the Anchoretic Bovarism. Gustave Flaubert
and Evagrius Ponticus..............................................................................

390

Silvia PITIRICIU: Proper Names Changed into Common Nouns inGeology Terminology...............................................................................

404

Elena PÎRVU: The Perfect Gerund in Italian and Its RomanianCorrelatives..............................................................................................

410

Ana Cristina POPESCU: Rhetoric Features of the Journalistic Style..........

417

Mihaela PRIOTEASA: Edgar Allan Poe’s Cosmological Theory – Eureka

421

Frosina QYRDETI: Spreading and Promoting the Italian-AlbanianLanguage and Culture. The Experience of the Undergraduates andTeaching Staff of the Department of Italian at the University of Vlora,
Albania.....................................................................................................

430

Frosina QYRDETI: Overseas Students’ Linguistic Education.
Development of Oral Skills through the Media........................................

439

Mihaela-Sorina ROIBU: The Double in the Limelight..................................

446

Adrian SĂMĂRESCU: A Tragic Event and its Alternative ‘Stories’: The
1930 Costeşti Fire.....................................................................................

453

Daniela SCORŢAN: How to Teach Concord of the French Past Participle
to Romanian Students in Economics?......................................................

457

Mădălina STRECHIE: Feminine Characters in Plautus’ Comedy Miles
Gloriosus...................................................................................................

463

Ramona ŞENDRESCU: The Curriculum vitae in French – A Case Studyat the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Kinetotherapy Section,
University of Craiova...............................................................................
Aloisia ŞOROP: The Picturesque between the Sublime and the Beautiful.
15

470

The Birth of Romantic Sensibility.............................................................

477

Nicoleta-Mihaela ŞTEFAN: Tradition and Innovation in Present Day
Romanian Legal-Administrative Language..............................................

483

Emilia TOMESCU: Dan Puric – the Therapeutic Lesson............................

489

Bledar TOSKA: Sociocultural Aspects of Illocutionary Acts........................

494

Cristina TRINCHERO: Pierre-Louis Ginguené and the Defence andIllustration of the Italian Language.........................................................

500

Lelia TROCAN: Texts and Authenticity........................................................

513

Alina ŢENESCU: Large Traffic Spaces as Heterotopia with FrédéricBeigbeder..................................................................................................

518

Rodica VELEA: Speaking Skills in Teaching English to Medicine Students

531

Alina-Maria ZAHARIA: Nominalizations in Legal Language.....................

539

Roxana ZAMFIRA: Rhetorical Figures in the Advertising Text..................

547

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Enhancing Coherence in ESP Classes
Cristina Maria ANDREIUniversity of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages

ABSTRACTPerhaps one of the most important issues when talking about effective ESL teachingis how to determine students become fluent both in writing and speaking. No doubt
grammar knowledge as well as vocabulary acquisition are essential in a foreign
language (especially in ESP classes where besides general vocabulary we also haveto deal with specific vocabulary) but they are absolutely worthless if the student
cannot make use of them in a coherent way. That is why the teacher has to identify
means of generating and improving communication in order to make students
become successful interlocutors in a media governed society.
KEYWORDS: coherence, fluency, cohesion, oral and written communication

Expressing fluently in a foreign language is probably one of the most important
aims any learner wants to accomplish but it is a difficult mission which requires
much attention and preparation from both teachers and students. Fluency andcoherence are two essential elements that have to be part of the teaching process.
Although they may appear to be similar in meaning, there is an importantdistinction between them. In the New Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of the
English Language, to cohere or cohering is defined as “to stick together; hold fast,as parts of the same mass (…); to be logically connected”, while to be fluent is “tobe able to speak or write smoothly, easily or readily.” (1997: 131, 259)
The two concepts, coherency and fluency, are strongly connected to each other,
being part of the act of speaking both in one’s native language and in foreign
language. Compared to the ability of being coherent in one’s own language, whichis easier to be acquired due to the environment a person functions within,coherence in a foreign language should be perceived as a distinct aspect to beemphasized upon. At the same time, a distinction may be drawn between“coherence” and “cohesion,” since, even if a text includes several cohesion items,
it doesn’t mean that it is coherent, and, on the other hand, a coherent text needs
cohesion elements in order to bond or to relate ideas and fragments one to another.
It is generally accepted, however, that cohesion refers to the grammatical and lexicalelements on the surface of a text which can form connections between parts of the
text. Coherence, on the other hand, resides not in the text, but is rather the outcomeof a dialogue between the text and its listener reader. (Tanskanen, 2006: 7)

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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

When we say “coherence,” we refer not only to the coherence in speaking, butalso in writing, two skills of high importance in the acquisition of any foreign
language. Thus, linking words or ideas together is a task that a teacher needs toinclude in the process of teaching speaking and writing skills. In ESP classes, whatshould be taken into consideration is the fact that students will use English in their
future professional environments.
When trying to form coherency in speaking and writing, teachers need toemphasize upon language in use, upon language as discourse and the genre of thewritten text or of the spoken situation.
The concern has been not so much to study the bits of language (words andgrammar, for example) but to see how they are used in discourse (language used incontext over an extended period), since it is at this level of discourse that we canreally see how people operate. (Harmer, 2001: 25)

Coherence in speaking and writing is connected to the discourse competence ofthe learner, and that is the ability to sustain coherent discourse with another speakeror reader. In order to talk about a degree of communicative competence, students
need to acquire not only discourse competence but also grammatical andsociolinguistic competence.
There is a general misconception with any person who begins to study a foreign
language, namely that mastering the rules of the English grammar as well as somebasic vocabulary automatically leads to fluent communication. As an ESP teacher
in the business field I have noticed that students, who possess a satisfactory level ofthe English language, expect to make use of their knowledge in a coherent way in avery short period of time. Unfortunately, achieving proficiency in communication
may be considered one of the most difficult tasks they have to carry on requiring
special training, patience and time. Being able to decode a message listened on arecording or having good vocabulary and grammar knowledge do not necessarily
lead to an accurate speech.
However good a student may be at listening and understanding, it need not followthat he will speak well. A discriminating ear does not always produce a fluent
tongue. There has to be training in the productive skill or speech as well. (Broughton
et alii, 1980: 76)

Thus, oral fluency may be achieved only by means of massive practice. The
teacher plays the most essential role in developing speech competence by carefully
choosing the materials and guiding the lesson in accordance with the students’level of the English language and their ability to talk. Still, the authors of the book
Teaching English as a Second Language draw attention on the problems that may
appear when teaching oral communication, problems that can seriously affect theteaching act:

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Cristina Maria Andrei: Enhancing Coherence in ESP Classes
However, conversation classes often do not do as much as they might, and of allclasses seem to lead most quickly to boredom and a high dropout rate. The reason isusually that not enough thought on the part of the teacher goes into them and thestudent’s own expectations are often wrong. The moderately experienced teacher
feels that a conversation class is a soft option and that he will have no problem
filling an hour with chat and talk. The student expects to do far more for him than it
is capable of doing. The best approach is to give as much attention and preparation
time to conversation classes as to any other lesson. (Broughton et alii, 1980: 84)

Speaking about conversational coherence, Stephen Littlejohn reminds some of
the theories taken into consideration. The Sequencing Approach is based on thefact that “a conversation consists of a series of rule-governed speech acts, andcoherence is achieved by making sure that each act is an appropriate response to
the previous act.” (Littlejohn, 2002: 83)
Based on this definition, teachers may think of activities that may help students
become aware of the rules of conversations. Thus, during English classes, teachers
may come up with models of dialogues between different persons on different
subjects. To be more specific, during a Business class in English, teachers may
offer students the possibility of both reading and listening to telephone dialogues
on making, changing or postponing appointments. After the acquisition of somestandard phrases used in telephone conversations, after a discussion upon theappropriateness of the language used, students are asked to participate in their own
telephone conversations. It is a great opportunity for them to practice not only thestandard language used in such conversations but also to become competent incommunication.
Role-plays are a great opportunity for students to interact with one another, toanticipate the response of the interlocutor and to choose the right words dependingon the situation. Thus, teachers may offer students cards with their roles to beplayed. For example, the students are divided into pairs and are asked to role-play arefusal situation. The choice they make influences the success of the conversation.
Teaching conversation is therefore beneficial providing that the English teacher
pays much attention to the preparation of the lesson stages and guides the practiceactivities with confidence and flexibility. He/she should also be primarily
interested in searching for attractive materials that include topics which can beeasily interpreted or expanded. Vivid pictures may also be highly suggestive forinventing a story or producing short talks and comments (for instance, in the caseof business students, pictures may represent business partners that shake hands orattending a meeting, students being asked to imagine the conversations they bear or
the negotiations they take part at, etc.). A less serious attitude on the part of theteacher may also be of great help in provoking eager involvement in conversation
as well as in creating the impression of an entertaining activity.
Writing in ESP classes is connected to the genre approach of the speech act.
Students in Economics are mainly interested in the business correspondence, in
economic articles; those in Tourism are interested in travel journals and so on.

19Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
In a genre approach to writing, students study texts in the genre they are going to bewriting before they embark on their own writing. Thus, if we want them to write
business letters of various kinds we let them look at typical models of such letters
before starting to compose their own. If we want them to write newspaper articles
we have them study real examples to discover facts about construction and specificlanguage use which is common in that genre. This forms part of the pre-writing
phase. (Harmer, 2001: 258-259)

Another way of becoming competent in discourse is the research article. The
teacher may ask students in Economics to work in groups and elaborate an article
on successful businesses. But this task needs a preparatory phase when bothteacher and students discuss the rules and strategy of a written text. First, students
need to become aware of the importance of cohesion elements in their writing. The
teacher needs to explain to his/her students the importance of using transition
markers (such as and, but, thus), of frame markers (first, next, in conclusion), as
well as endophoric markers (as previously mentioned, as noted above). Whenelaborating their own articles, students may also use quotations.
The idea of simply presenting these items to the students brings no evidence
that the students have understood when and how to use the above-specified items.
Thus, teachers may provide specific exercises that ensure the practice of thepresented items. The students are given a text and are asked to remove the linkers
from it and see if the text preserves its original meaning anymore. At the sametime, the students may be given paragraphs that they need to put in order, paying
attention to link words as well.
Not only cohesion is important but also the message that their writing offers.
Students need to be aware that their text has to achieve a powerful communicative
effect that is a response from the part of the reader or listener.
Paying attention to coherence in English classes does not mean passing over thestages of a typical lesson; on the contrary, during the Presentation stage, teachersoffer examples of written or spoken messages to their students; during the Practicestage, students are usually asked to place in order lines of conversations orparagraphs in a written text; during the Production stage of the lesson, the students
are asked, in the end, to produce their own speaking or writing acts.
Just like oral fluency, written fluency may also produce anxiety if the teacher
doesn’t try to create a comfortable and enthusiastic environment in the class.
Organizing the writing course may be as difficult as the approach of an oral
session. The main issue in both cases is whether accuracy should precede fluency
or the other way round. Opinions vary a lot among methodologists, some being infavour of the traditional premise which promotes accuracy before fluency or bothof them at the same time:
In the early stages, there is a tendency to emphasize accuracy at the expense offluency which can add genuine pleasure to the process of composition, particularly
for the able student, I a foreign language. In practice it may be sensible at the earlystages to divide the aims and to tell students that the purpose of main writing course

20Cristina Maria Andrei: Enhancing Coherence in ESP Classes
is to develop accuracy in the first instance, but the teacher will be delighted to lookat – for example – a diary or anything else written solely for pleasure in English.
(Broughton et alii, 1980: 129-130)

Others pleading for fluency in the first place since only this way students can
put their ideas on paper without constantly thinking of the correctness of what they
writes. Being no longer focused on the linguistic rules, students can rely on theirspontaneity:
Indeed, I maintain that only by fostering fluency along with and even ahead of
accuracy in composition courses can the ESL student develop linguistic self
confidence and lose his linguistic self-consciousness. However, this does not meanthat compositions should be accepted with numerous mechanical inaccuracies; but
fostering fluency to accuracy, however, does encourage the ESL student to focus on
the meaning of what he wants to write about, not how he must write it and creates anatmosphere where the student can express in writing all of his ideas on the topic.
(Wedel, Di Pietro, & Frawley, 1983: 317)

Developing fluency and coherence in a foreign language is thus a complex issue
which needs to be seriously taken into consideration by all teachers. Besides this,they also have to be aware of the meaning, definition as well as of the difference
between “coherence”, “cohesion”, “fluency”, and “accuracy” in order to be able toturn the communicative activities into successful ones.
In conclusion, while teaching productive skills, teachers should always
remember to draw attention upon the items that form the coherency of a written or
spoken text. If the teacher deals with an ESP class, then this task becomes a “must”
of the lesson, since, in their future careers, students will face different situations
they will have to professionally function within.
BIBLIOGRAPHY*** (1997). The New Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language.
New York: Gramercy Books.
Broughton, Geoffrey, Christopher Brumfit, Roger Flavell, Peter Hill, and Anita
Pincas (1980). Teaching English as a Second Language. New York: Routledge.
Di Pietro, Robert J., William Frawley, and Alfred Wedel (eds.) (1983). The First
Delaware Symposium on Language Studies: Selected Papers. Newark:
University of Delaware Press.
Harmer, Jeremy (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Third
Edition. London: Longman.
Littlejohn, Stephen W. (2002). Theories of Human Communication. Thomson
Learning.
Tanskanen, Sanna-Kaisha (2006). Collaborating towards coherence: lexicalcohesion in English discourse. John Benjamins Publishing, Netherlands &USA.
21

Coding and Decoding Nonverbal Communication
Sultana AVRAM
University “Lucian Blaga” of Sibiu,
Faculty of History and Patrimony

ABSTRACT
Little attention has been given to Nonverbal Communication’s importance incommunication over periods of time, or through objects that involve nonverbal
codes, despite major differences in cultural use and interpretation thereof. Moreover,there are nonverbal differences across cultures that may be a source of confusion forforeigners. Nonverbal communication can be specific to a particular culture and may
not have the same meaning in other cultures, thus leading to misunderstandings.
They can use not just body language but artefacts to send a message. The use of timeand space for messages also means to use signs and symbols to be understood byothers.
KEYWORDS: communication, specific, behaviour, education

Sending and receiving messages through body language or objects is regarded as
nonverbal communication. Research shows that the majority of our communication
is nonverbal. All of our nonverbal behaviours, the body language, that includes thegestures we make, the way we sit, how fast or how loud we talk, how close we
stand, how much eye contact we make , then clothes, dance, silence and even smell
send, consciously or unconsciously, strong messages. Nonverbal communication
expresses meaning or feeling without words. Universal emotions, such as
happiness, fear, sadness, are expressed in a similar nonverbal way throughout theworld.
The first scientific study of nonverbal communication was published in 1872,
by Charles Darwin in his book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man andAnimals. Since the mid-1800s thousands of research projects in archaeology,
biology, cultural and physical anthropology, linguistics, primate behaviour,
psychology, psychiatry, and zoology have been completed, establishing a generally
recognized corpus of cues. Scientists in neurology have provided a clearer pictureof what the unspoken signs in this corpus mean. Because we now know how thebrain processes nonverbal cues, body language came of age in the 1990s as ascience. Centers for nonverbal studies have been founded to help understandhuman behaviour. Desmond Morris1 is one of the scientists that studied the humananimal to discover how our instincts and behaviour, including body language, arerooted in our animal past, giving us a new understanding of the way we live.
Nonverbal communication has received much attention in the areas of business
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Sultana Avram: Aspects Concerning Codes and Decoding Nonverbal Communication

presentation, sales and marketing, and the development of social skills, thousandsof books helping people to deal with such means of communication in a conscious
way. All these are taken into consideration in a face to face communication, where
the functions of nonverbal messages are to reinforce the verbal messages, tocontradict them, or to replace the verbal messages. Intentionally or unintentionallypeople all over the world used and still use nonverbal communication through theirbody language.
In 1989 an International conference held in Utrecht, Holland gathered
historians, specialists in art history, philologists, anthropologists and folklorists todebate on History of Gestures. They considered that gestures are the result of socialand cultural differences. (Bremmer & Roodenburg, 2000: 13). In every country
there is a code of manners intended to teach youngsters how to behave in certain
circumstances, how to control their body movements. (Ibidem: 15) The importanceof human manners in different societies was stressed by Peter Collett in his book A
guide to European Mannerism, published in 1993.2
Little attention, however, has been given to NVC’s importance incommunication over periods of time, or through objects that involve nonverbal
codes, despite major differences in cultural use and interpretation thereof.
Moreover, there are nonverbal differences across cultures that may be a source ofconfusion for foreigners. Nonverbal communication can be specific to a particular
culture and may not have the same meaning in other cultures, thus leading tomisunderstandings. They can use not just body language but artefacts to send amessage. The use of time and space for messages also means to use signs andsymbols to be understood by others.
In Romanian culture for example, a certain object may tell you that a specificritual had been taken place, the purpose of that object being to transmit a message,
to communicate that a certain act had been fulfilled. When somebody sees on a
grave, near the cross, a wooden stick striped with 40 stripes, called “răboj,” that is
a message that a special ritual has been done for the soul of the deceased; it meansthat 40 buckets of water had been carried out to 40 people as a symbolic offering.
Such means of communication can be found in every culture, from the so called
wampum used by the American Indians (Stanciu, 1970: 11), to audible and visualsignals as the sound of church bells that communicate some events, the bugle call,or the fires lit on top of the hills during certain ceremonies.
In modern times the signs used by the coach to transmit messages to his teammembers, the signs made by policemen at crossroads, the signs made on airports tocontrol the planes on tarmac, can be considered means of nonverbal
communication.
Messages and emotions can be sent also through art, dance being one of them,in countries as Japan or India for example, as such performances are highly
appreciated. Pantomiming is another way to transmit messages and emotions to an
audience in special performances or even on streets. Some sculptures and paintingsneed to be decoded by art critics in order to be understood by common people.
Others “speak” an international language through emotions and messages. The
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human body, as a whole can be seen as a symbol: to understand the others you
should first understand yourself, to judge and understand the others with your brain
and heart. (Souzenelle, 1996). Clothes also give hints about one’s age, interests,
and attitudes. Information about one’s status can be judged from the clothes’ age,condition, and fashion. Clothing also indicates about a person’s confidence,character, and sociability.
In politics nonverbal communication can be done even through caricatures,
which transmit strong messages and emotions. This form of art has been used notjust in exhibitions and papers but also on the Internet, leading sometimes tocontroversies, violent reactions or approvals. Not just politicians are caricatured,
but sacred symbols of other countries too, the notorious caricature of the Prophet
Mohamed in some European newspapers generating rage and violent responses, theMuslims world considering that people who disrespect the Prophet have to pay for
their acts.
Some caricatures can be decoded in a different way by different people
according to the relevance to their culture, or to the level of understanding of eachviewer. Political caricatures are very common as they are used to portray theshortcomings of the individuals or the system in a way that attracts the attention of
the general public. Such caricatures may be considered as a safety valve being used
to deflect social tensions. By ridiculing authority in this symbolic form andpublicly expressing their views, without threatening the political status quo, theartists send messages easy to be understood by common people. The people willlighten up the mood, to break away from the more serious issues out there in theworld.
One of these artists is Könczey Elemér, a Hungarian Romanian, born in 1969 in
Odorheiu Secuiesc. He graduated Visual Arts Academy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania
in 2001, and as an illustrator he had many exhibitions in Romania, Hungary andCroatia. His first volume entitled Szöveg nélkül (‘No comment’) was printed in
2002 in three languages (Hungarian, Romanian and English) and contained 222
caricatures.
The second volume contains 365 caricatures, being a selection of drawings
published between 2002 and 2008. Most of ‘No Comment’ caricatures send
messages that can be interpreted from different perspectives. One of them forexample shows 3 people with the mouth open and one with the mouth shut. The
wider the mouth, the smaller the brain they had. Most people asked, interpreted it
as a caricature of politicians, even if the artist might or might not intend to send
this message. The political circumstances in nowadays Romania led the audience tothat conclusion.

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Sultana Avram: Aspects Concerning Codes and Decoding Nonverbal Communication

Another caricature presents a man with a flag, a small piece of the cloth of theflag being sewn on his mouth. It may be decoded as a lack of liberty, resignation,or even cowardice, as he continues to hoist the flag unwillingly.

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Finally another caricature presents the TV set in the form of a Trojan horse; thatcaricature could be interpreted according to the level of knowledge of the viewer,
as a poisoned gift, a tentative to manipulate TV programs, or a toy.

Silence can be used as a form of nonverbal communication, too, as a form ofrespect in the memory of someone deceased, as a form of protest in Silence
marches, or as a form of mourning in some cultures. It can send strong messages
and despite some wrong perceptions it does not always mean approval to thequestions asked by the interlocutor.
A sign of protest in nonverbal communication is the go-slow strike. Instead of
striking, workers with demands that the bosses are unwilling to meet cancollectively decide to start a go-slow, by deliberately slowing the rate of work. It isa message that may cost the employer a lot. In Romania workers generally choose
the so called Japanese strike, wearing a white banderol on their arms as a sign of
their protest, without stopping work. It is a message to their employers that they
have certain demands, or a threat that they will go on a real strike if their requests
continue to be disregarded.
Nonverbal communication is found in every society under one form or another,but some people choose to use it, others are forced to use it. Unfortunately, there26

Sultana Avram: Aspects Concerning Codes and Decoding Nonverbal Communication

are people who are disregarded, ignored or patronized, simply because they use asign language, due to a physical disability. People who are deaf-and-mute/dumbare sometimes considered “idiots”, despite their level of intelligence. The language
they use is not understood by the hearing people and they are taught to read lips inorder to understand what they are told. Their complex spatial grammars aremarkedly different from the grammars of spoken languages, and there are hundredsof sign languages in use in the world.
Education reduces cross-cultural misunderstanding of nonverbal behaviour.
Children are taught to decipher some messages by their parents, and then in schools
they may discover the importance of nonverbal communication and how to sendcorrect signals to the others. Nonverbal communication can be improved by special
courses taken especially by those who want to work in public relations, business orother fields that involve understanding behind words.
We like it or not, consciously or unconsciously, Nonverbal communication willcontinue to be a very important part of our lives.
NOTES
1Desmond Morris, zoologist, author of The Naked Ape and The Human Animal, studied for 8 years inmore than 60 countries the ‘human behaviour’ versus ‘animal behaviour’; Desmond Morris, Peter
Collett, Peter Marsh, Marie O’Shaughnessy, Gestures: Their Origins and Distribution, Stein andDay, New York, 1979.
2
Romanian translation by Alexandra Borş: Peter Collett, Cartea gesturilor europene, Bucureşti,Editura Trei, 2006.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bremmer, Jan, & Herman Roodenburg (eds.) (2000). O istorie culturală agesturilor. Din antichitate şi până în zilele noastre. Bucureşti: Polimark.
Collett, Peter (2006). Cartea gesturilor europene. Traducere Alexandra Borş.
Bucureşti: Trei.
Morris, Desmond, Peter Collett, Peter Marsh, & Marie O’Shaughnessy (1979).
Gestures: Their Origins and Distribution. New York: Stein and Day.
Souzenelle, Annick de (1996). Simbolismul corpului uman. Timişoara: Amarcord.
Stanciu, Ilie (1970). Călătorie în lumea cărţii. Bucureşti: Editura Didactică şi
Pedagogică.

27

The Staircase in a Block of Flats – a Vertical Rural Alley.
Past vs. Present1.
(A Case Study: the Craioviţa Nouă District, Craiova)
Carmen BANŢA
University of Craiova,
Faculty of Letters

ABSTRACTThe building staircase of a neighbourhood in the suburbs of Craiova (Craioviţa Nouăneighbourhood), represents for our research a well-defined space that can becompared to an alley in the traditional Romanian village. Moving to a block of flats
since 1970-1975 of a population mostly relocated from the rural area, caused
relationships of socializing and co-living and developed neighbouring relationships
among these who share a staircase. In a flat, 2 or 3 generations can live and the
inhabitants are mostly characters that can lead to the creation of typologies that canbecome generic names.
KEYWORDS: building staircase, vertical rural alley, generic names

The forced industrialization during the instauration of communism between 19601975 led to a more pronounced increase of population attracted by the new jobs.
Due to the industrial development the city of Craiova needed the building ofcollective houses2 where the city party peasants could move to, peasants that were
working on the enterprises’ great platforms from that time.
If, generally, in big urban cities, the accommodation of manpower was solvedby the massive destroying of the individual houses and their replacement withcollective houses thickly build and without needed conveniences. Craioviţa Nouădistrict had its own destiny.
The building of the first blocks in the workers’ district in the suburbs of Craiova
that was lying on 160 hectares full of weeds, started in 1971 and followed theGeorgeta and Viorel Voia architects’ plans then, employed by the District Instituteof designing IPJ. The scale model of the district, finished the same year when thebuilding started and laurelled in 1970 with the National Prize of urbanism predicted
the building of overlapped houses for almost 120,000 people who profited byschools, high schools, hotels, shops, general hospital, even a park with swimmingpool where people could practice swimming sports, namely everything that isnecessary for a true city included in another city. The building of a block was
taking about three months (people were working during the day and also during the28Carmen Banţa: The Staircase in a Block of Flats - A Vertical Rural Alley. Past vs. Present.

night at lamps), people being moved to their flats sometimes even before finishing
the construction.
If on paper, the district promised to be one of the most succeeded from Craiova,
in reality things proved to be different from what the family Voia planned. Worksin the district began from its suburbs, area which was predicted to have only blocks
and during the years the project for the civic centre of the district which included
the store, the general hospital schools and high schools was abandoned. Georgeta
Voia remembered that from the beginning of 70s until December 1989 authorities
always postponed the working in the central area preferring to increase thefrequency of blocks around it.
Neither were the inhabitants from the working class too delighted by the resultof the great plans from the beginning of 70s nor has the district been avoided for along time. From data offered by the Regional Direction of Statistics Dolj results thefact that nowadays not even half of the number of inhabitants written in initialplans doesn’t populate the District Craioviţa Nouă.
Living in a flat in the district Craioviţa Nouă during the socialism continued theclearly rural lifestyle of its inhabitants. Due to a very reduced mobility (flats being
almost entirely the state property, the possibility of moving to another place wasrestrained to a change of flats, change that may or may not be approved),neighbourhood relations become very strong. People were almost blocked in
distributed flats, so the building of such interhuman vertical relations was natural.
The individual enter an urban space partly inappropriate and forced by thesituations with his own cultural stock that he tries to keep but which despite hiswill, deteriorates. The district is made up of two categories of blocks, on the one
hand, the houses in system of location distributed to those originated from thedestroyed houses or those who were working in the great enterprises of the time
and were running to and fro the flats were bought by instalments.
Moving to the blocks of flats personal property had individual motivation
namely it was generated by what Pierre Merlin calls “demographic events thatmark out the life cycle” (1998: 94).
Beyond the rural cultural features, practical necessities of daily life led tostraighten these relationships through which a great variety of needs were covered:socialization, taking care of babies, information, and mutual change of food.
People from the block staircase visited each other (fact that today rarely happen,
appearing a major element: isolation, lack of communication due to social
elements) without a previous schedule people were having fun in common they
were supporting each other when suffering, were the becoming relatives. In otherword living in a block that time supposed a maximum transparency of private life
determined both by the common cultural stock and by an identical lack of chances
concerning the social or economical rising.
There is no doubt that the development of neighbourhood relationships wasn’t
specific to the district of Craioviţa Nouă where an urban style of living didn’t
appear but a little (and, by extending, to the working districts similar to this one).

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The lifestyle based on the transparent neighbourhood wasn’t only necessary but
also enough. Visible fact during the period by the way in which the public spacearound the blocks was appropriated. Social changing that took place after 1990
didn’t solve too much among the problems of the biggest district of Craiova. In the
period after December, due to a lack of a civic centre that district inhabitant could
enjoy had disastrous effects on the general aspect of the district. By lack ofanything else Craioviţa citizens began to improvise everything. In this way, shops
full of Chinese things in the bus stations and the ground floor flats weretransformed little by little in medical cabinets, beauty salons, and anything else thatman needed so it wasn’t necessary for him to go to the neighbouring districts. The
nowadays problems of the district are the same as in the other city areas build in
the last 50 years.
The block staircase is a micro universe situated on the limit of including andexcluding it’ a world that wants to prove its own identity. Being a typical form ourban association it hasn’t urban personality it is a serial position, it is included andexcluded at the same time (Panea, 2001: 218-232).
Generally in many blocks of Craioviţa Nouă we meet three generations that livein the same flat. The first generation, the emigrant generation left the village for thecity. As a rule, they would have to abandon the cultural stock to adopt a new
cultural model. It appears the phenomenon of acculturation, this time between theurban culture and the rural one. These cultural systems in contact led to a coming
out of an interference culture a hybrid culture generally named the neighbourhood
culture (Fifor, 1999: 18) specific to the new space developed in the city suburbs.
The first generation is today maladjusted it feels urbanized but the city didn’t
fully adopt them. They feel like suffering a social evolution but they hardly adapted
to the determined and very narrow space of the flat where they compressed their
entire rural universe. The first generation individuals were forced to adapt.
The second generation grew up in a total urban environment and space. They
were grown up and educated depending on many elements: financial possibilities,
social and intellectual level of the family. Today the second generation is mature
they grew up their own families but they live together with their families in a space
where the universe and the intimacy of the couple are affected. Some try to detachthemselves from the neighbourhood band that they grew up with. The second
generation integrates in no system which represents the reference framework of
their existence. He now becomes the block inhabitant and the district inhabitant toothat he feels like a unique guide of identification with the others (Ibidem).
The last generation are the children grown up in a minimalized universe, who
go out daily in front of the block to make up for the lack of space and not only.
This generation tends to mark the limits of the area the territory becomes closed
and the identity is build by a reference to, sometimes violent, the reality of a social
system in chaos. As a part of this generation we meet the neighbourhood boy as asocial representant of the neighbourhood culture.
The block inhabitants are mainly characters that can lead to the creation oftypologies. So, by their behaviour and by their actions we can distinguish general
30

Carmen Banţa: The Staircase in a Block of Flats - A Vertical Rural Alley. Past vs. Present.

names of a block staircase. All these people who identify themselves with astaircase characters have specific features everybody’s profile is met mainly inevery block of the district Craioviţa Nouă.
We meet authorized persons that may be:- Indicator landmarks: the manager, the staircase boss, the woman on duty thepostman or the postwoman;- Behaviour landmarks: animal lover, the redeemer, the alcoholic, thehousekeeper, the slanderers (old ladies called gossips) the sentinel;- Social landmarks: the retired man, the widows, the house women, the tenants,
the staircase children.
The structure of the typologies has a pronounced rural feature the citizens’
urban education being little adopted. The epitome of the block staircase is thebench. This means the only link with the world beyond the concrete and thewindow. If they are sick of soap-operas matches or interactive games the good
citizen sits down on the bench in font of the block where he creates social
relationships. The talk’s subject is generally sterile and without meaning but it
helps to the interhuman communication of those who live in an imposed
determined space that they try to substitute (especially those from the first
generation) to the rural liberty of space.
This space of living together is constituted at the same time as a surveillance
space: even the person who wanted to escape it had to cross it at least being
noticed, analyzed, and judged. All these landmarks characters are caught in a thick
network of relationships and collective representations wanted or not which to acertain extent force the behaviour and push to the conformism. Whatever the social
origin the working district inhabitants from Craioviţa Nouă share the same
experience of life and the multiple forms of sociability of living together andhelping each other make possible the community life in a staircase block.
NOTES
1

The current study is based on a direct research, founded on interviews, which allowed the formationof a typology of those who live in the flats of the district Craioviţa Nouă.
2
European fashion is actually after the Second World War has been applied in Romania.

BIBLIOGRAPHYBanţa, Carmen, & Cătălin Petrişor (2008). Trecutul cartierului Craioviţa Nouă –până la 1970. Craiova: Aius PrintEd.
Fifor, Mihai (1999). “Omul nou şi cultura de cartier.” Mozaicul, seria nouă, anul II,
nr. 6-7.
Merlin, Pierre (1998). L’urbanisme. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Panea, Nicolae (2001). Zeii de asfalt. Antropologie a urbanului. Bucureşti: Cartea
Românească.
Popoiu, Paula, & Sanda Larionescu (eds.) (2006). Relaţii de vecinătate în
localităţile urbane din sudul ţării. Bucureşti: Paideia.
31

Mais où sont les jurons d’antan ? Brassens, le nostalgique
Laurenţiu BĂLĂUniversité de Craiova,
Département de Langues étrangères appliquées

ABSTRACT: But Where Are the Swears of Yester-Year? Brassens, the Nostalgic
Poet
Basing its approach on George Brassens’ song A Round of Swears that he recorded
in 1958, this presentation tries to explore the so-called ‘happy swearwords’ which
go like ‘the beads of a rosary,’ as Brassens himself said. He considered himself ‘adamned medieval man’ thus revealing his admiration for his great predecessor,
François Villon’s poetry. He implicitly expressed his regret of ‘having been born
five hundred years later’.
KEYWORDS: Georges Brassens, swears, archaic words

Il y a plusieurs façons de dire des gros mots. J’aime assez
ça quand même, il faut dire les choses comme elles sont1.
Georges Brassens

Partout dans l’œuvre poétique de Georges Brassens on rencontre des mots anciensou vieillis, des mots populaires ou bien argotiques, des mots crus et des motsinventés, ce qui fait du poète sétois un grand orfèvre des mots, un artisan de laparole.
Mais parmi ses textes il en existe un où les mots anciens, inconnus ou seulement
oubliés, les expressions difficiles à comprendre ou voire sibyllines pullulent : ils’agit de La ronde des jurons. Cette chanson – sur laquelle nous allons nous arrêter
afin de déchiffrer les sens de toutes ces constructions –, prouve le penchant deBrassens pour le français ancien, sa nostalgie pour une époque où le langage desgens était beaucoup plus proche de leur pensée qu’au temps du poète.
Voilà le texte de la chanson :Georges Brassens, La ronde des jurons2
Voici la ronde des jurons
Qui chantaient clair, qui dansaient rond,
Quand les Gaulois
De bon aloi (a)3
Du franc-parler (b) suivaient la loi,32

Laurenţiu Bălă: Mais où sont les jurons d’antan ? Brassens, le nostalgique
Jurant par-là,
Jurant par-ci,
Jurant à langue raccourci’ (c),Comme des grains de chapelet
Les joyeux jurons défilaient :RefrainTous les morbleus (1), tous les ventrebleus (2),Les sacrebleus (3) et les cornegidouilles (4),Ainsi, parbleu (5), que les jarnibleus (6)Et les palsambleus (7),Tous les cristis (8), les ventres saint-gris (9),Les par ma barbe (10) et les noms d’une pipe (11),Ainsi, pardi (12), que les sapristis (13)Et les sacristis (14),Sans oublier les jarnicotons (15),
Les scrogneugneus (16) et les bigre’ (17) et les bougre’ (18),
Les saperlott’s (19), les cré nom de nom (20)Les pestes (21), et pouah (22), diantre (23), fichtre (24) et foutre (25),Tous les Bon Dieu (26),Tous les vertudieux (27),
Tonnerr’ de Brest (28) et saperlipopette (29),
Ainsi, pardieu (30), que les jarnidieux (31)
Et les pasquedieux (32).
Quelle pitié !
Les charretiers
Ont un langage châtié !
Les harengères (d)Et les mégères (e)Ne parlent plus à la légère (f) !
Le vieux catéchisme poissard (g)N’a guèr’ plus cours chez les hussards (h)…
Ils ont vécu, de profundis (i)Les joyeux jurons de jadis :Refrain(a) de bon aloi. Locution qui signifie « de bonne qualité ». Ce mot est dérivé,
au XIIIe siècle, du verbe « aloier », forme ancienne du verbe « allier ». Il s’appliquedonc à l’alliage des métaux précieux et aux monnaies. Il existe aussi la locution demauvais aloi qui signifie, évidemment, « de mauvaise qualité ».
(b) franc-parler. Nom masculin qui signifie « liberté de langage ; absence decontrainte et de réserve dans ses propos ». Notion apparue quelques années avant laRévolution. Une remarque intéressante : le portail de la communauté mondiale desprofesseurs de français porte ce nom (www.francparler.org) !
33

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010(c) à langue raccourcie. C’est une expression très suggestive que Brassens
dérive de tomber sur qqn ou frapper à bras raccourcis (c’est-à-dire « avec les braspliés pour frapper »), en changeant… l’instrument !
(1) morbleu. La terminaison -bleu, est un euphémisme qui évite laprononciation du nom de « Dieu », et donc de blasphémer. Dire mordieu !
signifiait jurer « par la mort de Dieu ! ». Ce juron a connu différentes évolutions :« morbieu », « morbeuf », puis « morbleu » au XVIIe siècle.
(2) ventrebleu. C’est un juron qui vient de « ventre dieu », au XVe siècle, puis ilconnaît les variantes « ventredies », « ventregné », « ventreguienne » et
« ventrebille », étant utilisé jusqu’au XVIIe siècle.
(3) sacrebleu. Signifie « Sacré Dieu » au XVIe siècle, « par la sacrebleu », unsiècle plus tard, et « sacrebleu » au XVIIIe siècle.
(4) cornegidouille. C’est le juron préféré d’Ubu, le célèbre personnage d’Alfred
Jarry. De « corne » et de « gidouille », qui signifie ‘bedaine’.
(5) parbleu. « par Dieu » sous la plume de Rabelais. Utilisé aujourd’hui pourmarquer ironiquement une évidence.
(6) jarnibleu. Déformation de « jarnidieu », c’est-à-dire « je renie Dieu ».
(7) palsambleu. Signifie « par le sang de Dieu » (XVIIe siècle).
(8) cristi. Abrégé de « sacristi » (XIXe siècle).
(9) ventre saint-gris. Héritier, au XVIe siècle, de « ventredieu » en passant par« ventrebleu ».
(10) par ma barbe. Tiré de « faire la barbe à quelqu’un » (se moquer de lui).
(11) nom d’une pipe. Euphémisme qui remplace « nom de Dieu » (XVIIIe
siècle).
(12) pardi. C’est aussi un juron édulcoré, signifiant « par Dieu ». Bizarrement,
il s’est spécialisé dans le sens de « évidemment » !
(13) sapristi. Dérivé de « sacré », évoluant en « sapristie », « sacristi », puis
« cristi ». Comme « saperlotte » et « saperlipopette », « sapristi » commence par« sapré », déformation de « sacré ». Le jeu de mots avec « sacristie », la pièce où leprêtre s’habille avant la messe, n’est sans doute pas entièrement dû au hasard.
(14) sacristi. Ce juron represente l’ancêtre de « sapristi ».
(15) jarnicoton. L’histoire de ce juron est très intéressante : lorsqu’Henri deNavarre devint roi de France (sous le nom d’Henri IV), en prononçant (ou non !) lacélèbre phrase Paris vaut bien une messe (c’est-à-dire, être roi de France valait lesacrifice de se convertir au catholicisme), il eut besoin d’un confesseur. Et ce fut unJésuite, le père Coton qui reçut cette lourde tâche… Et cela parce qu’Henri jurait à
langue raccourcie (comme chante Brassens), à grands coups de « jarnidieu » ou
autre « jarnibleu »… Le père Coton suggéra au roi de substituer son propre nom…
à celui de Dieu dans ses jurons, donc « jarnicoton » vient de « je renie Coton » !
(16) scrogneugneu. Altération de « sacré nom de dieu », le juron prend
naissance, vers la fin du XIXe siècle (1884, plus exactement), dans la bouche ducolonel Ronchonnat, personnage décrit par un certain Gustave Frison dans toute34

Laurenţiu Bălă: Mais où sont les jurons d’antan ? Brassens, le nostalgiqueune série de brochures intitulée Les Aventures du colonel Ronchonnat. D’après
Romain Vaisserman, l’évolution de ce juron serait la suivante :« sacré nom de Dieu » > « sacrégnongnieu » [1884] > « scrongneugneu » [1884] >« scrogneugneu » [1884 ; nom en 1933, à pluriel en « -x »] > « grogneugneu » >« rogneugneu »4(17) bigre. C’est une interjection qui date du milieu du XVIIIe siècle, unetransformation euphémique de « bougre ».
(18) bougre. Datant de 1172, le mot « bougre » signifie à l’origine « Bulgare ».
L’hérésie des Albigeois, ou Cathares, avait été en effet importée de Bulgarie. Leurs« prêtres » allaient par deux (on les appelait les Parfaits) et certains en avaientconclu qu’ils s’adonnaient à la sodomie. « Bougre » était donc à l’origine unedénomination péjorative signifiant « hérétique, sodomite ». Au temps de Rabelais,
le mot désignait un hérétique à mœurs homosexuelles. « Bougre » a été longtemps
marqué comme injure à caractère sexuel, notamment dans l’expression, archaïque
aujourd’hui, « les bougre et les foutre ».
(19) saperlotte, on écrivait également « sacrelotte » puis « saprelotte » (milieu
du XVIIIe siècle).
(20) cré nom de nom. Évolution récente (milieu du XIXe siècle) du juron« sacré nom », sous-entendu, « sacré nom de Dieu ».
(21) peste, exclamation fort en vogue au XVIIe siècle.
(22) pouah, marque de dégoût et s’écrivait « pouac » ou « poac » au XVe siècle.
(23) diantre, avant que Rabelais n’en fasse une interjection, le mot désignait,
par déformation, le « diable ». Comme pour Dieu, on évitait de prononcer
directement son nom par crainte d’ennuis graves.
(24) fichtre, produit de la rencontre de « fiche » et « foutre » pour exprimer unétonnement empreint de contrariété (début du XIXe siècle). C’est la version… softde « foutre ».
(25) foutre, utilisé depuis le début du XVIIe siècle. À partir de la Révolution,l’interjection marque l’étonnement à la place du caractère sexuel qui lui était
attaché jusque-là. « Foutre » est un vieux verbe qui signifie simplement « baiser »,mais qui a perdu beaucoup de sa virulence depuis un demi-siècle (c’est le « fuck »qui est resté beaucoup plus longtemps tabou chez les Anglo-Saxons, mais serépand aujourd’hui partout). « Va te faire foutre ! » est on ne peut plus clair.
Accessoirement, le « foutre », substantif, signifie le « sperme ».
(26) Bon Dieu, juron probablement utilisé depuis que certains doutent de son
existence.
(27) vertudieu. Signifie : (par la) « vertu de Dieu » (XVIe siècle). Rabelais
utilise lui aussi cette construction dans Le quart livre des faicts et dicts heroiques
du bon Pantagruel, chapitre LXVII :Je suys par la vertus Dieu plus couraigeux, que si j’eusse autant de mousches
avallé, qu’il en est mis en paste dedans Paris, depuys la feste sainct Jan jusques a la
Toussains. [Rabelais, 1971 [1552] : 233]

35

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

Mais dans « Briefve declaration d’aucunes dictions plus obscures contenues on
quatriesme livre des faicts et dicts heroicques de Pantagruel », qui finit Le quart
livre, il précise :Par la vertus Dieu. Ce n’est jurement ; c’est assertion : moyennante la vertus deDieu. Ainsi est il en plusieurs lieux de ce livre. Comme a Tholose preschoit frere
Quambouis : « Par le sang Dieu nous feusmes rachetez. Par la vertus Dieu nous
serons saulvez. » (Ibidem : 262)

(28) tonnerre de Brest. De temps à autre, un détenu s’évadait du bagne deBrest. Pour alerter la population, les chasseurs de prime et les sycophantes, on tirait
un coup de canon… Ici, juron dérivé de « tonnerre de Dieu » et de « mille
tonnerres » (fin du XVIIIe siècle).
(29) saperlipopette, Arthur Rimbaud tira de « saperlotte », « saperlipouille »,« saperpouillette » et… « saperlipopette ».
Ah ! saperlipotte de saperlipopette ! sapristi ! moi je serai rentier; il ne fait pas si bonde s’user les culottes sur les bancs, saperlipopettouille ! (…) Dieu merci, je n’enveux pas, moi, saperlipouille ! (…) Ah ! Saperpouillotte !...
(Premières proses – Récit)(30) pardieu. Signifie « par Dieu » et sert à renforcer une affirmation ou une
négation (XIIe siècle).
(31) jarnidieu. De « je renie Dieu ». À propos de ce juron qui finit une série detrois mots assez proches du point de vue phonétique (voir au-dessus jarnibleu etjarnicoton), il faut remarquer que dans son roman La Tour des miracles desconstructions semblables abondent. Louis-Jean Calvet (2001 : 128) en donne laliste :
Jarniprobité, jarnicoutume, jarnimuraille, jarnibougnat, jarnicorne, jarnicomestible,
jarnifesse, jarnipoubelle, jarnifleurdelis, jarnilibitine, jarnipute, jarnilistenoire,jarnifigue, jarnidieu, jarnicordon, jarniconjugo, jarnireve, jarniroutine, jarnirevenant,jarnimuraille, jarniclochedebois, jarnimatrice…

Et il observe que « Chaque fois, le ‘juron’ vient ponctuer un passage qu’il
résume sur le modèle plaisant : on parle de cocu et c’est jarnicorne, de bordel etc’est jarnipute, de mariage et c’est jarniconjugo. »(32) pasquedieu. Juron qui vient de « par la pâque Dieu » (XVe siècle).
(d) harengère. Nom féminin. Ici, femme criarde et grossière (XVIIe siècle),
vendeuse de harengs présumés avec odeur(s)...
(e) mégère. Un autre nom féminin qui signifie « femme hargneuse » (XVIIe
siècle). À l’origine, c’est le nom de l’une des divinités des Enfers.
(f) à la légère. Locution qui signifie « de façon peu pesante, sans réfléchir »(XVIe siècle).
36Laurenţiu Bălă: Mais où sont les jurons d’antan ? Brassens, le nostalgique(g) catéchisme poissard. Le syntagme catéchisme poissard, utilisée parGeorges Brassens dans ce texte nous met sur la piste d’un personnage hors ducommun… Né en 1720 à Ham (Somme), Jean-Joseph Vadé est le créateur dulangage poissard, littéralement populaire et réaliste reproduisant le truculent
langage des Halles, en réaction à la fadeur mondaine des poètes et romanciers à lamode à son époque. Il fit représenter vingt opéras-comiques et comédies. Sa piècemaîtresse est un recueil, publié en 1758 (un an après sa mort), Le catéchisme
poissard5, sorte d’arsenal d’injures à l’usage des femmes de la Halle et,particulièrement, des marchandes de poissons. Une ordonnance du 10 février 1830en a interdit la vente.
(h) à la hussarde. Locution qui signifie « brutalement, sans délicatesse » etqualifie, généralement, le comportement érotique d’un homme brutal.
(i) de profundis. C’est le début d’un psaume exprimant le deuil, la tristesse dela disparition de quelqu’un, tiré du latin ecclésiastique : « De profundis, clamavi at
te Domine » (‘Du fond de l’abîme où je suis plongé, Seigneur, j’ai crié vers vous.’)Conclusions
Tous ces jurons ont vieilli, c’est vrai, mais non pas pour Brassens, qui aimait tantles archaïsmes, « les mots qui veulent dire quelque chose ». Pour lui « Aujourd’hui,
on est en pleine confusion et en pleine inflation du langage. » Il considérait les
mots nouveaux « Terminologie à la con ! » et il ajoutait : « J’ai horreur des mots
nouveaux. » (Monestier et Barlatier, 2006 : 161).
Presque tous ses exegètes s’accordent à reconnaître en lui un vrai génie du mot.
Agnès Tytgat, par exemple, observe que :Le langage même de Brassens l’isole du « commun des mortels » car il n’appartientqu’à lui : « foutremnet moyennâgeux », nostalgique d’un art du dire plus encore qued’un art de vivre, Brassens, s’il puise à de multiples sources langagières – ancien ou
vieux français, langue classique, argot ancien et contemporain – opère un constanttélescopage entre elles et les fait fusionner dans un verbe unique dont il est le seul
grammairien. (2004 : 28)

tandis que René Fallet – l’auteur des uns des plus avisés commentaires surl’œuvre de Brassens –, dit, en parlant de la chanson que nous avons essayé dedéchiffrer, qu’elle « sort tout droit du Pont-Neuf et des Trois Mousquetaires (…) En fait de Gaulois de bon aloi, il ne demeure que Brassens,
admirable marchand de quatre-saisons. (2001)
NOTES
1
2

Apud Martin Monestier, Pierre Barlatier (2006). Brassens – le livre du souvenir. Paris : Tchou, 160.
Chanson enregistrée le 13 octobre 1958. Elle figure sur le CD 5 de l’Intégrale 2006. Le texte cidessus reproduit la variante du volume Georges Brassens (2007). Œuvres complètes. Chansons,poèmes, romans, préfaces, écrits libertaires, correspondance, Édition établie, présentée et annotéepar Jean-Paul Liégeois, Prologue de Jacques Prévert, Collection « Voix publiques » dirigée par37

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
Jean-Paul Liégeois. Paris : Éditions « Le Cherche Midi », 116-117. Dans l’interprétation deBrassens, le refrain est repris encore une fois.
3
Afin de retrouver plus facilement les constructions analysées, nous avons noté avec (a), (b), etc. lesexpressions et les vocables plus ou moins vieillies, ou bien plus ou moins difficiles à comprendre.
Les chiffres ont été employés pour noter les jurons avec lesquels Brassens a parsemé le texte decette chanson, ou plus exactement son refrain.
4
Cf. Romain Vaissermann, « La famille de ‘sacré’ : analyses formelles et sémantiques ». URL :<http://romain.vaissermann.free.fr/08/sacre.htm>.
5
Voir à ce sujet Oeuvres choisies de Vadé et de ses imitateurs, contenant différens sujets pour les
Halles, ports, marchés, rencontres de poissardes, couplets grivois, etc. Paris : Tiger, 18..,
disponible sur le site de la Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Gallica : <http://gallica.bnf.fr>.

BIBLIOGRAPHIE*** (2005). Le CD-ROM du Grand Robert, version électronique du Grand Robertde la langue française, version 2.0.
Arthur Rimbaud. URL : <http:// http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud>.
ATILF (2004). Trésor de la tangue française informatisé. Paris : CNRS Éditions.
Brassens, Georges (2007). Œuvres complètes. Chansons, poèmes, romans,préfaces, écrits libertaires, correspondance, Édition établie, présentée et annotéepar Jean-Paul Liégeois, Prologue de Jacques Prévert, Collection « Voix
publiques » dirigée par Jean-Paul Liégeois. Paris : Le Cherche Midi.
Bruant, Aristide (1889-1895). Dans la rue – chansons et monologues, dessins de
Steinlen, 3 volumes. Paris : Aristide Bruant, Auteur éditeur.
Calvet, Louis-Jean (2001) [1991, 1993]. Georges Brassens. Paris : Payot &Rivages, Petite Bibliothèque Payot.
Dauzat, Albert, Jean Dubois, et Henri Mitterand (1977) [1964]. Nouveau
dictionnaire étymologique et historique. Quatrième édition revue et corrigée.
Paris : Larousse.
Fallet, René (2001) [1967]. Brassens. Paris : Denoel.
Monestier, Martin, et Pierre Barlatier (2006) [1982]. Brassens – le livre dusouvenir. Paris : Tchou.
Rabelais, François (1971) [1552]. Le quart livre des faicts et dicts heroiques dubon Pantagruel, Introduction Jean-Yves Pouilloux. Paris : Garnier Flammarion.
Tytgat, Agnès (2004). L’univers symbolique de Georges Brassens. Paris : Didier
Carpentier.
Vaissermann, Romain (s.d.). « La famille de ‘sacré’ : analyses formelles etsémantiques ». URL : <http://romain.vaissermann.free.fr/08/sacre.htm>.

38

L’approche des unités phraséologiques dans les manuelsde roumain langue étrangère
Gabriela BIRIȘ
Université de Craiova,
Département de Langues étrangères appliquées

ABSTRACT: Phrasal Units in Textbooks Teaching Romanian as a Foreign
Language
The theoretical aspects concerning the way a phraseological unit is defined ordelimited in relation with expressions, phrases, idioms, etc. still represent a
controversial topic for linguists, authors of dictionaries or textbooks. In the absenceof solid lexicographic criteria for the validation of phraseological units as dictionary
entries, a heterogeneous, non-unitary and unsystematic approach of phraseologicalunits can be noticed in academic textbooks for Romanian as a foreign language. In
general the phraseological units are recorded in alphabetical order according to the
support verb (a da, a face, a (-i) fi, etc.) which is considered to be also theirsemantic nucleus. This article focuses on corrective proposals for a more efficientapproach of phraseological units in academic textbooks for Romanian as L2.
KEYWORDS: phraseological units, Romanian as L 2, academic textbooks

Les aspects théoriques liés à la définition et à la délimitation des unités
phraséologiques en relation avec les expressions et les locutions continuent à êtrel’objet de controverses entre linguistes, entre auteurs de dictionnaires ou demanuels de langue roumaine. En l’absence de conventions lexicographiques claires
concernant la façon dont sont entrées les unités phraséologiques, ces unités sonttraitées de façon non-unitaire et non-systémique dans les manuels de Roumain
Langue Etrangère, où le critère prédominant est le regroupement en fonction duverbe support (a da / ‘donner’, a (se) face / ‘(se) faire’, a se / -şi pierde / ‘(se)perdre’). Dans cette communication, nous nous proposons de présenter les études
internationales les plus récentes dédiées aux unités phraséologiques, en essayant dedéceler des critères pertinents de systématisation et d’enseignement aux étudiantsétrangers.
Par unité phraséologique nous désignerons dans ce communication, lesstructures lexicales de type collocations, locutions, expressions, tout comme lesénoncés phraséologiques. Nous optons pour un terme générique de dénomination
des groupes de mots solidaires, puisque c’est la perspective didactique relative à
ces derniers qui nous intéresse, au-delà des critères de délimitation et declassification utilisés par les différents auteurs. Tout en adoptant cette option
39Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

terminologique, nous avons essayé d’éviter les nombreuses controverses apparues
entre linguistes et lexicographes au sujet de la définition et de la classification desgroupes de mots solidaires1.
Le problème de l’approche des UF dans les manuels de langue roumaine pourétrangers (RLS) vise le niveau B2 et les niveaux supérieurs tels que désignés dansles descriptifs européeens2, dans la mesure où il s’agit d’un critère essentiel dansl’évaluation des compétences linguistiques pour une langue étrangère. Dans lesmanuels de RLS, les unités phraséologiques (abrégées UF dans le contenu del’article) sont abordées et sont enseignées dans des listes de mots associées auxleçons, comme des « entrées » par ordre alphabétique, non accompagnées dedéfinitions proprement dites, sans observations concernant leur distribution, leurstructure interne, leur fréquence d’usage ou les éventuelles restrictions d’usage.
Disposées autour de thèmes généraux (les achats, la famille, chez le docteur), lesUF sont un genre de présences accidentelles à côté du vocabulaire minimum3
qu’un étudiant étranger doit s’approprier.
Par la suite, nous illustrerons l’approche des UF par des exemples tirés de deux
manuels de RLS utilisés dans l’enseignement supérieur : Româna de bază / ‘Le
roumain essentiel’ (Dorobăţ şi Fotea, 1999) et Limba română: manual pentru
studenţii străini / ‘Le roumain pour les étudiants étrangers’ (Brâncuş et alii, 2003).
Dans Lecţia 16 / ‘La leçon 16’ du premier manuel on nous propose un texte adaptéd’un fragment du roman Enigma Otiliei / ‘L’Énigme d’Otilia’, dans lequel sontintroduits les adjectifs qualificatifs utilisés pour décrire le caractère d’une
personne, par exemple: onest / ‘honnête’, ciudat / ‘étrange’, înfumurat / ‘infatué’,etc. Le texte contient également deux unités phraséologiques: a-i fi ciudă / ‘être
mécontent’, ‘enrager’ et a-şi strica viitorul / ‘gâcher son avenir’, qui sontaccompagnées d’une courte définition : « se sentir gêné » dans le cas de lapremière unité, et d’une traduction en anglais : « ruin one’s future » dans le cas dela deuxième unité. Dans un glossaire des verbes utilisés dans le manuel, ces UF
manquent, seuls les verbes a fi / ‘être’ et a strica / ‘gâcher’ étant discutés dansleurs sens de base. D’autres unités phraséologiques sont groupées autour des verbes
support4. Par exemple, comme entrée, le verbe a petrece / ‘passer’ comprend aussi
les UF a-şi petrece timpul / ‘passer son temps’, a-şi petrece vacanţa / ‘passer ses
vacances’, bien que le polysémantisme du verbe impose des définitions et desexplications supplémentaires. Toujours dans Lecţia 16 / ‘La leçon 16’ sontintroduits également quelques proverbes qui peuvent difficilement être reliés authème de la leçon : Apa, vântul şi gura lumii nu le poţi opri / trad. litt. ‘On ne peut
pas arrêter l’eau, le vent et les commérages’ ; Apa cât de mare vine, piatra tot în
vad rămâne / trad équiv. ‘La lune passe, les étoiles restent’.
Dans le manuel coordonné par Grigore Brâncuş, dans Lecţia 33 / ‘La leçon 33’,
on nous propose un texte sur le thème de l’enfance, du développement, de lamaturation, adapté d’après Lucian Blaga. Sont introduites ici deux unités
phraséologiques : a da lămuriri / ‘faire comprendre’ doublée d’une autre unité
phraséologique : a da explicaţii / ‘donner des explications’ et a da de gândit /‘donner à penser’, qui n’est accompagnée d’aucune explication sémantique. Le
40

Gabriela Biriş: L’approche des unités phraséologiques dans les manuels de roumain…

glossaire à la fin du manuel inclut la première unité phraséologique tant sous
l’entrée a da / ‘donner’ que sous lămurire / ‘explication’, ‘éclaircissement’, et ladeuxième unité phraséologique sous l’entrée a gândi / ‘penser’, ‘réfléchir’. DansLecţia 34 / ‘La leçon 34’, la seule unité phraséologique est a pune bazele / ‘fonder’,‘jeter les fondements’, non accompagnée d’explications sémantiques, et inclusedans le glossaire à la fin du manuel tant sous le verbe a pune / ‘poser’ que sous
l’entrée bază / ‘base’, ‘fondement’, où elle bénéficie de la traduction en français et
en anglais. Le texte de Lecţia 35 / ‘La leçon 35’ : Brâncuşi / ‘Brancusi’, une
adaptation d’après Petre Pandrea, contient deux unités phraséologiques: în
exclusivitate / ‘en exclusivité’ et a face parte / ‘faire partie’, qui ne sont pas
expliquées, mais qui bénéficient d’exemples supplémentaires. En général, leglossaire de ce manuel regroupe les unités phraséologiques autour des verbessupports :(se) faire : a se face bine / ‘guérir’, a se face noapte / frig / ‘la nuit tombe’ / ‘il fait
froid’ ;être : a fi de acord / ‘être d’accord’, a fi vorba despre / ‘s’agir de’, a-i fi foame / sete /somn / frig / ‘avoir faim / soif / sommeil / froid’, a-i fi greu / uşor / ‘être difficile / facile’,
a-i fi poftă / ‘avoir envie’, a-i fi ruşine / ‘avoir honte’ ;donner : a da înapoi / ‘reculer ‘, a da în folosinţă / ‘donner en usufruit’, a da voie /‘donner la permission’, a da o telegramă / un telefon / un exemplu / un examen / ‘envoyer
un télégramme / passer un coup de fil / donner un exemple / un examen’, a da dreptate /‘donner raison’, a da o petrecere / ‘faire une fête’, a da lămuriri / ‘donner des explications’,a-şi da seama / ‘se rendre compte’.

Dans le cas des entrées formées d’éléments nominaux, le regroupement se fait
autour d’un élément-clé, par exemple, sous atenţie / ‘attention’ sont également
regroupées les UF în centrul atenţiei / ‘au centre de l’intérêt’, cu atenţie / ‘avec
attention’, ‘attentivement’, a atrage atenţia / ‘attirer l’attention’.
On peut donc observer que le traitement des UF n’est pas unitaire, parfois il est
redondant ou circulaire, gouverné par le critère de la forme des mots et par l’ordre
alphabétique, sans trop d’explications d’ordre sémantique, pragmatique ou
stylistique.
En général, dans le cas des UF, on parle de l’existence d’un noyau sémantiqueet d’un noyau d’expressivité (Teodorovici et Pisot, 2008 : 8). Ainsi, dans a batemăr / trad. litt. ‘battre comme une pomme’ ; trad. équiv. ‘battre à bras raccourcis’
le sens principal est donné par le verbe a bate / ‘battre’, mais l’élément qui
transforme le syntagme en expression est măr / ‘pomme’ ; dans quelle mesure
cependant le traitement de cette UF dans une leçon sur... les fruits est-il adéquat ?
De même dans l’exemple de Stelian Dumistrăcel : a înghiţi găluşca / trad. litt.
‘avaler la quenelle’ ; trad équiv. ‘gober l’appât’, dans lequel le noyau sémantiqueest găluşca / ‘quenelle’ (Dumistrăcel, 1980 : 134). En voilà l’origine des difficultésde traitement lexicographique des UF, qui balance entre leur enregistrement selon
41Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

des critères formels ou selon des critères sémantiques. Du point de vue d’une L2, letraitement des UF à base métaphorique ou métonymique est tout aussi
problématique, pouvant générer chez les étudiants étrangers des difficultés decompréhension et d’appropriation, si l’on propose exclusivement des approches
formelles, morphologiques. Quel critère serait plus efficace dans l’apprentissage
d’une langue : un enseignement basé sur des substantifs / adjectifs / adverbes /pronoms qui forment les UF, ou des approches selon des critères sémantiques(enseignement du point de vue des noyaux sémantiques des UF) ?
Des solutions de classification et d’approche des UF peuvent être décelées dansdes études récentes de neuro- et de psycholinguistique cognitive visant directement
ou indirectement la question des UF, par la recherche des mécanismes decompréhension, de mémorisation, de traitement mental des UF, de leur rôle dans lalangue, de leur fréquence.
En comparant les métaphores cognitives qui dirigent les UF en polonais et en
anglais, on a identifié quatre types de variations :1. la même métaphore conceptuelle et le même équivalent linguistique,
2. la même métaphore conceptuelle et des expressions linguistiques différentes,
3. des métaphores conceptuelles différentes, 4. des mots et des expressions à lasignification littérale similaire mais avec des sens métaphoriques différents(Deignan et Solska, 1997, apud Andreous şi Galantomos, 2008 : 16).
Du point de vue conceptuel, la majorité des UF renvoient à des moments del’expérience humaine, à des universels de connaissance (Coseriu, 1994, apud
Dumistrăcel, 2009), étant présents dans la majorité des langues. Elles ne soulèvent
pas de problèmes au niveau de leur enseignement / de leur compréhension, mêmesi elles ne sont pas utilisées au sens concret : a strânge cureaua / ‘se serrer laceinture’, a fi ochi şi urechi / ‘être tout yeux tout oreilles’, a da în clocot /‘bouillir’, etc. En systématisant les unités phraséologiques de la langue anglaise dupoint de vue de la sémantique cognitive, on a constaté que les domaines source(angl. source domains) de celles-ci sont : LE CORPS HUMAIN, LA SANTÉ ET
LA MALADIE, LES ANIMAUX, MÉCANISMES ET OUTILS,CONSTRUCTION ET BÂTIMENT, PLANTES, JEUX ET SPORT, NOURRITURE ET CUISINE, ÉCONOMIE, FORCES, LUMIÈRE ET OBSCURITÉ,CHAUD ET FROID, MOUVEMENT ET DIRECTION, tandis que les domaines
cible (angl. target domains) seraient : L’ÉMOTION, LE DÉSIR, LA MORALITÉ,LA PENSÉE, LA SOCIÉTÉ, LA RELIGION, LA POLITIQUE, L’ÉCONOMIE,
RELATIONS HUMAINES, COMMUNICATION, ÉVÉNEMENTS ET
ACTIONS, TEMPS, VIE ET MORT. Les métaphores conceptuelles sont ainsi
unidirectionnelles, allant du concret à l’abstrait, les domaines source les plus
communs étant ceux concrets, tandis que les domaines cible sont abstraits(Kővecses, 2002 : 25). En même temps, les UF ne sont plus regardées comme des« métaphores mortes » aux interprétations figuratives; on considère que celles-ci
ont des significations motivées par des métaphores conceptuelles présentes dans lapensée quotidienne (Grant et Bauer, 2004 : 38). L’organisation lexicale en fonction42Gabriela Biriş: L’approche des unités phraséologiques dans les manuels de roumain…

des thèmes métaphoriques et des domaines source peut donc faciliter la retenue
d’expressions figuratives non-familières (Boers, 2000 : 553).
En fonction de l’origine linguistique, les UF peuvent être classifiées enformations indigènes et phraséologismes communs à d’autres langues, apparues enparallèle dans plusieurs langues ou traduites d’une langue dans l’autre, laphraséologie européenne étant pleine de calques. On parle même d’un paneuropéenisme, qui s’explique par l’héritage commun des langues classiques. Demême, le roumain a un fond de phraséologismes commun avec la région
balkanique, plus précisément avec les langues néo-grecques, l’albanais, le bulgare,le serbe, mais aussi avec l’italien ou le français, par contacts livresques et culturels
traditionnels (Dimitrescu, 1958 : 145).
Les UF spécifiques à une langue nécessitent, pour être décodées, desconnaissances culturelles spécifiques à une communauté de locuteurs, en l’absence
desquelles des problèmes de compréhension dans une L2 peuvent apparaître. Uneétude comparative des UF basées sur des métaphores en anglais et en chinois a misévidence des valeurs et des croyances différentes pour les deux cultures:orientation vers le sport et les affaires dans le cas de l’anglais, et vers la famille etla table pour le chinois (Liu, 2008 : 125). Pour l’espagnol on a identifié une taurine
phraseology, caractéristique du langage figuratif de l’espagnol qui fait siennes
environ 500 expressions idiomatiques basées sur le concept de lutte avec lestaureaux (Luque et Manjón, 1999, apud Piirainen, 2008 : 216). Il existe donc desspécificités culturelles et conceptuelles dans chaque langue, au-delà du fondcognitif commun universel humain des unités phraséologiques.
Le roumain a des UF générées par l’expérience des professions et traditions
agricoles ou artisanales, par les éléments traditionnels de l’imaginaire ou du fondethnologique autochtone, qui posent différents problèmes du point de vue du RLS,
tant au niveau grammatical, contenant ainsi des formes sorties de l’usage – lepluriel roate / ‘roues’ : a merge ca pe roate / ‘aller comme sur des roulettes’, apune cuiva beţe-n roate / ‘mettre des battons dans les roues’, qu’au niveau
sémantique, par la conservation d’anciens sens des mots : rost / ‘bouche’ dans alua la rost / ‘demander compte à qqn’, pe de rost / ‘par cœur’ ou par la présenced’archaïsmes dans leur composante : a da în vileag / ‘rendre public’, a da iama /‘se ruer’, a nu avea habar / ‘ne pas s’en faire’, etc. En général, les UF indigènes
ont une base concrète, sont faciles à capter et nécessitent une lecture presquelittérale si l’on détient les connaissances de base dans les domaines énoncés : apune boii înaintea carului / trad. litt. ‘mettre les bœufs avant la charrue’, a trage laplug / ‘tirer la charrue’, a o lua la vale / ‘dévaler’, etc. Des connaissances
encyclopédiques peuvent cependant être inaccessibles à des locuteurs, par exemple
celles liées à la transhumance ou celles liées aux anciennes réalités historiques
reflétées dans les expressions a bate câmpii / ‘battre la campagne’, a înţărca
bălaia / trad. équiv. ‘je ne mange pas de ce pain-là’, a nu-i fi boii acasă / trad.
équiv. ‘ne pas être dans son assiette’, a-şi aprinde paie în cap / trad. équiv. ‘secréer des ennuis’, a-i tăia nasul cuiva / trad. litt. ‘couper le nez à qqn’ ; trad. équiv.
‘rabattre le cachet’, etc. (cf. Dimitrescu, 1958 : 154-155).
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

Du fait des contacts historiques, le roumain contient aussi des expressions avec
des noms de nationalités ou de groupes ethniques, les plus nombreuses comprenantl’ethnonyme turc / turci : a fuma ca un turc / ‘fumer comme un turc’ / ‘comme un
dragon’, a se bate turcii la gura cuiva / trad. équiv. ‘bouffer à en crever’, cum eturcul şi pistolul / trad. équiv. ‘tel maître, tel valet’, turcul plăteşte / trad. litt. ‘c’est
le Turc qui paie’, doar nu dau turcii / trad. équiv. ‘le ciel ne tombe pas sur nostêtes’. Leur motivation conceptuelle est transparente pour les Roumains, mais peut
sembler contradictoire et même offensante pour les étudiants originaires de laTurquie par exemple. Le problème n’est sans doute pas un problème de nature
linguistique, mais un problème de communication interculturelle, l’altérité étant
rendue différemment sous le rapport linguistique dans différentes langues
européennes. Les unités phraséologiques composées d’ethnonymes ou de noms delangues utilisées dans le même espace culturel dans lequel elles sont nées sontrelativement transparentes au niveau du sens, conservant la signification de leurscomposantes lexicales. Elles peuvent toutefois poser problème aux locuteurs d’une
L2 du fait qu’elles synthétisent un type autoréférentiel de mentalité, une autoperception parfaitement opaque pour ceux qui proviennent d’autres cultures. Leurdéfinition lexicographique ou l’explication didactique devrait synthétiser aussi letype de mentalité lexicalisé par ces unités phraséologiques. L’altérité est rendue parl’intermédiaire d’ethnonymes motivés par des contacts historiques plus anciens ou
des interférences linguistiques et culturelles entre les différentes populations :Roumains et Turcs / Tatars, Espagnols et Arabes / Français, Anglais et Hollandais :ţara moare de tătari şi el bea cu lăutari – se dit de quelqu’un qui ne se soucie derien ; esp. estar algo en arabígo – littéralement : ‘être en arabe’ – être quelquechose dur à comprendre, a la chinesca – ‘comme en Chine’, ‘selon l’habitude
chinoise’ ; a la francesa, despedirse / irse / marcharse a la francesa, roum. a oşterge englezeşte – ‘selon les habitudes françaises’, ‘comme les Français’ ; trabajar
para el ingles – littéralement : ‘travailler pour un Anglais’, familier, figuré,‘travailler pour rien’, roum. a face muncă patriotică ; a la inglesa – 1. ‘selon les
habitudes anglaises’, 2. familier, ‘à parts égales’ ; roum. (a plăti) nemţeşte, angl. be
in Dutch with sb – ‘avoir des déboires avec quelqu’un’ ; beat the Dutch – ‘être
extraordinaire, fantastique’, double Dutch – ‘incompréhensible’, roum. chinezeşte ;Dutch courage – ‘courage procuré par l’alcool’, roum. a bea pentru a-şi facecuraj ; Dutch treat – ‘fête où chacun paie sa part’, roum. a plăti nemţeşte ; get in
Dutch – argotique, ‘commencer à avoir des ennuis’, roum. a da de dracu’. Lesespaces culturels éloignés, perçus comme « exotiques », sont lexicalisés dans desunités phraséologiques connotées négativement, mais qui ne doivent pas êtrecomprises dans leur sens littéral, puisque les ethnonymes de ces unités ont perdu
leur origine sémantique, ne contribuant aucunement au sens général de l’unité
phraséologique. En espagnol on dit agarrar una turca – ‘s’enivrer comme un
Turc’, dur à expliquer de façon conceptuelle étant donné l’affiliation à une religion
qui interdit la consommation d’alcool. L’identité des groupes ethniques est
lexicalisée tant de façon positive que négative, pouvant être lue aussi littéralement,
tout du moins dans le cas de la langue roumaine, parce qu’elle reflète les habitudes
44Gabriela Biriş: L’approche des unités phraséologiques dans les manuels de roumain…

traditionnelles, réelles, plus anciennes de groupes minoritaires, devenues
stéréotypes, comme le nomadisme ou le plaisir de chanter et de danser de lapopulation rom : a cinsti ţigăneşte – ‘inviter tout le monde à une fête’, a mâna caiiţigăneşte – ‘mener les chevaux au galop’, a se muta ca ţiganul cu cortul –‘déménager d’un endroit à l’autre’. L’enseignement des ces UF doit êtreaccompagné d’explications, d’informations à caractère historique et social, car laconnaissance de l’origine d’une UF accroît considérablement les chances decompréhension et de mémorisation du texte (Liu, 2008 : 143).
La façon dont les UF sont analysées mentalement et comprises a conduit à laformulation de nombreuses théories qui ont privilégié, dans l’ordre chronologique,le caractère littéral des expressions, les représentations lexicales, le sens figuratif
ou l’analyse des composantes (Ibid. : 47). La plus récente hypothèse nommée« modèle de représentation duale » (angl. dual idiom representation model) a étéémise par Titone et Connine (1994, 1999) et ultérieurement par Abel (2003), et
considère que la compréhension des expressions dépend en réalité du fait quecelles-ci soient décomposables ou non. Une expression décomposable dont lesconstituants contribuent à la signification de l’expression sera initialement traitée
comme une « entrée » normale, comme tout syntagme non-idiomatique, devenantentrée à part entière si elle est rencontrée de façon répétée. Une expression nondécomposable, dont les constituants ne contribuent pas à la signification
idiomatique, sera comprise et représentée comme une entrée dès le début. On
accède aux représentations conceptuelles en même temps qu’aux connaissances
pragmatiques et qu’à l’information contextuelle (Liu, 2008 : 55) Du point de vue
de la neuro-linguistique, Peterson et Burgess (1993) considèrent qu’au cours duprocessus de compréhension d’une expression, le traitement sémantique peut
suspendre le traitement littéral lorsqu’il existe suffisamment d’informations
contextuelles indiquant qu’il existe une UF (Ibid. : 57). Il en résulte donc que, dansla compréhension et l’apprentissage des UF, le contexte et la fréquenced’utilisation détiennent un rôle essentiel. D’autre part, les UF sont beaucoup plus
expressives que les mots simples et plus fréquentes dans le registre de laconversation. Elles seront donc plus souvent rencontrées dans la fiction / littérature
et dans les conversations. Ainsi, les contextes utilisés dans l’enseignement des UF
seront choisis parmi des textes littéraires et des échantillons de langue parlée.
Les problèmes liés à la didactique des UF sont centrés sur des principes desélection des unités enseignées, de l’ordre de l’enseignement et du typed’information concernant leur utilisation. On enseignera initialement les structurestransparentes sur le plan sémantique, décomposables et à base cognitive
universelle. Ainsi s’impose donc la réalisation des manuels centrés sur l’étudiant,sur les principes de mémorisation et d’apprentissage mis en évidence par les études
cognitivistes, groupant les UF autour de concepts / métaphores / métonymies
universelles ou spécifiques à la langue roumaine, en incluant les éléments morphosyntaxiques adjacents, les observations relatives aux particularités de style et defréquence des UF ou des éléments pragmatiques qui peuvent être mis en relation.

45

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

Pour rendre les notions de CRAINTE / PEUR / FRAYEUR en roumain on peutgrouper, pour les enseigner, les UF du roumain comme a i se înmuia genunchii /trad. équiv. ‘ses genoux tremblent’, a-i clănţăni dinţii / ‘claquer des dents’, a-i săriinima din piept / trad. équiv. ‘tressaillir de peur’, a i se face inima cât un purice /‘son cœur se serre de peur’, a-i îngheţa inima (în piept) / ‘se glacer de peur’, a i seface pielea de găină / ‘avoir la chair de poule’, a i se face părul măciucă / ‘sentir
dresser les cheveux sur la tête’, etc, le concept étant lexicalisé de la même façon en
anglais.
Les UF formées avec des parties du corps peuvent constituer une autre
catégorie :YEUX : a fi ochi şi urechi / ‘être tout yeux tout oreilles’, a nu avea ochi pentru
cineva / decât pentru cineva / ‘couver du regard’, a avea ochi buni / ‘avoir de bons
yeux’ / (fig.) ‘voir d’un bon œil’, a creşte în ochii cuiva / ‘apprécier, tenir qqn enestime’, etc. ;MAIN : a fi mână spartă / ‘avoir la main ouverte’, ‘être gaspilleur’, a avea
mâna lungă / ‘chiper qch. en un tour de main, a fi strâns la mână / ‘être avare’, pe
sub mână / ‘en cachette’, a fi peste mână / ‘être difficile, compliqué’, a avea mânăbună / ‘être habile de ses mains’, etc. ;TÊTE : a se da peste cap / ‘se mettre en quatre’, a-şi pierde capul / ‘perdre latête’, a-şi lua lumea în cap / ‘prendre le large’, a cădea pe capul cuiva / ‘tomber
sur la tête de qqn’, etc.
La plupart du temps, comme locuteurs natifs, nous utilisons les UF comme desréponses-type, comme des énoncés prédictibles dans l’exercice de lacommunication, par lesquels sont transmis des jugements sur la valeur de vérité despropos énoncés par l’interlocuteur ou par lesquels se règle la conversation. Pour
exprimer un DÉSACCORD on peut grouper, par niveau, en fonction desconnotations supplémentaires, les UF suivantes :1. le simple désaccord : Nici vorbă!, Nici pomeneală! / ‘Pas question !’2. le désaccord et l’irritation : Asta-i culmea! / ‘C’est le comble !’3. le désaccord et la résignation : Asta-i situaţia! / ‘C’est comme ça !’4. le désaccord et l’interruption de la conversation : Până aici! / ‘Arrête !’, Şi cu
asta basta!, Atât şi la revedere! / ‘En point c’est tout !’5. le désaccord et l’ironie : Spune-i-o lui mutu! / ‘À qui le dis-tu ?’NOTES
1Pour une discussion relative aux termes et concepts d’unité phraséologique, expression, locution,
voir Groza (1994), Bilaucă (2008).
2
Description des niveaux d’études selon le passeport européen, <http://www.coe.int/portfolio>.
3
Le concept de vocabular minimal a été introduit par Maria Iliescu (1994, 2001).
4
Le concept de verbe support est utilisé au sens de la linguistique générative.

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Gabriela Biriş: L’approche des unités phraséologiques dans les manuels de roumain…

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andreou-galantomos.pdf>.
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universală.” Analele Universității ”Ștefan cel Mare” din Suceava. Lingvistică,2, 45-52.
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Linguistics, 21, 553-571.
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Lingvistică din perspectivă spațială și antropologică. Trei studii. Chișinău:Știința, 129-156.
Deignan, A., D. Gabryś, & A. Solska (1997): “Teaching English metaphors using
cross-linguistic awareness-raising activities.” ELT Journal, 51, 352-360.
Dimitrescu, Florica (1958). Locuţinile verbale în limba română. Bucureşti: Editura
Academiei.
Dorobăț, Anca, & Mircea Fotea (1999). Româna de bază. Iași: Polirom.
Dumistrăcel, Stelian (1980). Lexic românesc. Cuvinte, metafore, expresii.
Bucureşti: Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică.
——— (2001). Până-n pânzele albe. Expresii româneşti. Iaşi: Institutul European.
Grant, Lynn, & Laurie Bauer (2004). “Criteria for re-defining idioms: Are webarking up with the wrong tree?”. Applied Linguistics, 25, 38-61.
Groza, Liviu (1994). “Despre conceptul de unitate frazeologică.” Analele
Universității din București, XLIII, 52-63.
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gramaticale complete tradus în germană, franceză, italiană, spaniolă.
București: Demiurg.
Kővecses, Zoltán (2002). Metaphor: A practical introduction. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
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fraseológica: universales y particulares.” In: J. de D. Luque Durán, and A.
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during idiom comprehension: Neurolinguistic and psycholinguistic
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dissociation.” In: Cristina Cacciari, and Patrizia Tabossi (eds.). Idioms:
Processing, structure, and interpretation. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum, 201225.
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and F. Meunier (eds.). Phraseology: an interdisciplinary perspective.
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expressions.” Journal of Pragmatics, 31, 1665-1674.

48

Difficulties in Translating Epistemic Modal Verbs
from English into Romanian
Irina-Janina Boncea
University of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages

ABSTRACT
Considering the crucial differences between the modal systems in English andRomanian, this paper attempts to identify some of the greatest challenges
experienced in translation. It is also of the utmost importance to decide what must be
sacrificed in order for the translation to work in either of the languages, especiallysince translation theories seem to avoid this entangled manifestation of social factors
reflected in language through modality. Good translation practices can only be
acquired by means of establishing a common frame of social, pragmatic, culturaland semantic networks between the two languages eventually resulting in linguistictransparency. After all, the purpose of a good translation is not to merely rendermeaning from one language to the other but rather to decode meaning from one
culture and recode it into the other culture.
KEYWORDS: epistemic, fidelity, fluency, equivalence, interpretation

1. An overview of epistemic modality
Epistemic modality is preferred when dealing with sensitive topics such as
controversial points of view in potentially dangerous social contexts, speakers
speaking about themselves, to engulf the speaker’s sensitivity in relation to theaddressee, to negotiate sensitive situations and to facilitate social compromise andopen discussions. This social dimension of epistemic modality is present in all
languages but in quantities and under forms that are culturally bound and sociallyacceptable for each language in turn.
There are a number of ways in which epistemic modality is realized in English
and Romanian and it is generally the case that it is enacted by similar lexical
categories in both languages. Since modality is the expression of cultural fact andof cognitive expression, it behaves heterogeneously across languages.
Consequently, a modal choice in language A does not necessarily trigger a direct
correspondent in language B (for instance, a modal adverb in English may betranslated by means of a modal verb in Romanian).
When analyzing epistemic modality in interaction between the two languages, it
is evident that despite the fact that lexical categories tend to overlap, i.e. there are49

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

similar modal adverbs, nouns, verbs, there are cases in which translation should not
be carried out word for word, but rather use equivalent phrases that best render thevarious shades of meaning, style and register that may differ between the two
languages. After all, the purpose of good translation is to sound perfect to a native
speaker in the target language.
Also, languages may differ in the grammatical constructions, prosodic systemor the various strings of modal markers they use in order to render epistemic
modality. Even within the same language differences may emerge in using acertain lexical category instead of the other:E.g.

He is an idiot, I suppose.
‘(El) este idiot, presupun.’- Speaker is committed to his/her personal opinion formulated on known
facts.
E.g.

He is an idiot, supposedly.
‘Se presupune că (el) este un idiot.’- Speaker no longer voices a personal opinion but rather speaks on behalf ofthe community, on the basis of hearsay.
Linguistic processes and higher cognitive processes have proven to be closelyinter-related. As part of higher cognitive functions of the brain humans display thefeature of being able to express abstract or hypothetical events or descriptions ofstate of affairs known as irrealis:
In addition to the lexical and syntactic equipment to formulate simple first-orderstatements and descriptions of state of affairs, all human languages comprise devices
to communicate degrees of reality, possibility, probability, and desirability or to
attribute elements or descriptions to another source. (Setton, 2001: 13)

In language, the categories represented as irrealis are manifested under theform of negation, deontic and epistemic modalities, idioms, the conditional, thesubjunctive and even verbal tenses.
Research speaks of two traditions regarding the analysis of modals from asemantic point of view: on the one hand there is the view that modals aremonosemous or at least displaying a core meaning that is evident in all other uses,
according to Ehrman - 1966, Perkins - 1983, Klinge - 1993, Papafragou - 2000.
The various interpretations of a modal verb are accounted for, in their view, byinterpreting the same unified meaning in various contexts.
A second approach to modality was the polysemous stance taken by Lyons 1977, Coates - 1983, Palmer - 1990, Huddleston and Pullum et al. - 2002, resulting
in the view that modals have two or more independent meanings with thepossibility of the same modal expressing meanings that are not necessarily distinct.

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Cases of ambiguity triggered great debate with the polysemist view claimingthat ambiguities emerged independent from the context between root and epistemic
meanings.
For example, ‘John may visit’ is ambiguous if interpreted outside its context,
which may even be inexistent and it is difficult to decide whether ‘John is allowed
to visit’ or ‘It is possible that John will visit’ is the correct interpretation for it.
Similarly ‘John can’t live here’ is either an expression of inability or an
expression of impossibility without context binding factors.
The claim of polysemists is that these contexts have distinct syntactic, semantic
and periphrastic features, therefore the meanings are clearly distinct and aninterlocutor would be unable to decide which meaning the speaker had in mind
unless he/she were aware of the intended meaning.
Supporters of monosemy, on the other hand, claimed that “apparent ambiguities
are a result of the interpretation of an utterance containing the modal in a particular
context” (Groefsema, 1995: 55) thus assigning power to contextual clues andtreating ambiguities as accidental and infrequent.
Moreover, resulting from the monosemantic view is the claim that two different
modals cannot express the same meaning, thus forcing semantic distinctions incases where a modal can be used instead of the other with nothing more in mind
than varying degrees of formality.
E.g.

May I take your car?//Can I take your car?

Bald (1988) noted that modal verbs represent one of the most challenging areasof teaching in an EFL classroom, especially since it has become all too clear inrecent years that even native speakers of English are experiencing difficulty in
explaining why they use a certain modal or why they interpret a certain context as
requiring one modal verb instead of another.
Despite the fact that research has agreed that modals “are used mainly incontexts where the speaker is talking about states of the world which he cannot
assert to be true or real” (Mitchell, 1988: 173-4), there is similar agreement on thefact that there are no clear-cut categories into which we can pin down theinterpretation of the various modals, especially in language classes.
Teachers in EFL classes tend to use some commonly accepted labels such ase.g. ‘possibility’, ‘necessity’, ‘intention’, ‘ability’, ‘permission’, and‘appropriateness’ (cf. Hermerén, 1978; Leech, 1971; Palmer, 1990). Nonetheless,Bald (1991: 348) identifies some difficulties in pinning down the precise
characteristics of modals. Among these problematic areas he discusses:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Setting up a descriptive system for problematic categories,
Using a rich terminology,
Discussing/negotiating meaning- definitions through paraphrases,
Explaining semantic and syntactic indeterminacy of contextual elements,

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5. The obvious discrepancy between the use of certain modal verbs or
specific modal values in textbooks and their actual occurrence in a corpus ofcontemporary British English.
Epistemic modality associated with the expression of a proposition, i.e. thespeaker's thoughts poses an even greater range of problems in interpretation since
this is mainly conditioned by the correct interpretation of contextual clues but also
by the linguistic experience of the interlocutor when faced with the challenge ofinterpreting an epistemically modalized utterances. It has been agreed that speechacts and more precisely their felicity and appropriateness conditions vary from one
culture to the other and these differences are considered to correspond to various
cultural norms which are mirrored in the language spoken (cf. Wierzbicka, 1985:
145-6).
Some linguists have noticed that speakers of English “prefer agreement andsupport to dispute and disagreement” (Bald, 1991: 357). Studies on politeness inEnglish (e.g. Brown & Levinson, 1987; Leech, 1983) relate to this state of fact by
debating the concepts of ‘positive politeness’ (approval of the other person) and‘negative politeness’ (avoidance of imposition) as Anglo-American culturalvalues1.
Therefore, personal opinions and evaluations (referred to as expressions ofepistemic modality) and also requests, orders, the granting of permission(representative of deontic modality) are pragmatically speaking expressed in
English by formulae which demonstrate the speaker’s taking into consideration the“principle of personal autonomy”, as discussed by Wierzbicka (1991: 80).
The assumption claims that one can speak of pragmatic unmarked utterances if
the verbalization of the speaker’s desires and thoughts does not involve uttering
what the addressee is supposed to desire or think as a result of this.
Wierzbicka identifies and discusses the dichotomy between the use ofpredicates based on the semantic primitives I THINK (THIS) – epistemic, having
to do with the speaker’s judgements (also called propositional), and the usage ofpredicates comprising an I SAY (YOU DO THIS) component, deontic in natureand referring to the speaker’s directives (called illocutionary).
Thus, she proposes that some contexts that had previously been qualified as‘epistemic’ vs. ‘deontic’ be interpreted henceforth in contrast between
propositional and illocutionary forms in addition to their qualification as epistemicor deontic. Therefore, instead of imposing action, thought or desire on theaddressee (illocutionary forms) English speakers prefer to verbalise demands onother people i.e. fulfill deontic functions under the form of expressing that demand
as a personal opinion or speculation i.e. using indirectness and suggestive context
clues in epistemic form with deontic purposes. It is, therefore, safe to assume that
deontic modality based on the illocutionary I SAY predicates is rare in English incomparison to propositional I THINK predicates which occur more frequently andfulfill a function of politeness as well.

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Moreover, modal auxiliaries expressing I THINK predicates convey
pragmatically unmarked propositions in English (going back to freedom of selfexpression) and consequently occur more frequently.
Because English language users are unlikely to impose their views on theirinterlocutors (according to the principle of personal autonomy) one could assume
they prefer a propositional I THINK predicate even if they wish to influence theinterlocutor’s future actions2 (directive illocution). In other words, it is very
common for them to express orders or demands under the form of providing apersonal opinion. Simply put, an epistemic form (i.e. “speaker’s judgments”) isused to replace or to generate a deontic function (i.e. “speaker’s directives”).
2. Difficulties in translation
This section analyzes some of the epistemic English modals in contexts that may
pose some interesting questions when requiring translation into Romanian. Theseobservations are an attempt to explain why the modal system of English is sochallenging for teaching or translation. Few languages display modal systems withsuch heterogeneous behaviour, and Romanian is even more disadvantaged becauseof the poor modal equivalents it displays. Moreover, the social functions ofpoliteness in Romanian do not stretch so far as their English equivalents, nor do
speakers of Romanian use indirectness with epistemic modals as the English do.
Can
The modal auxiliary can is used to convey various clusters of meaning:a) The embodiment of epistemic 'possibility', corresponding to the semantic
primitive CAN as in the sentences:E.g.

It can happen.
It is possible for it to happen.
‘Se poate întâmpla.’
If it rains, we can hold the meeting indoors.
It is possible to hold the meeting indoors.
‘Şedinţa se poate ţine înăuntru.’

Translation into Romanian is carried out with the help of the impersonal phrase
Se poate as the preferred option instead of the passive English paraphrase. The
passive translation is awkward and most times is avoided:
Este posibil ca asta să se întample// este posibil ca şedinţa să fie ţinută înăuntru.

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Broadly the same cluster of meaning is rendered by could but as a weaker
expression of possibility. The emergence of epistemic could introduces a new
option and of course weaker for translation: (S)-ar putea.
E.g.

It could be him.
‘S-ar putea să fie el.’Epistemic doubt is very strong in questions and could prevail over can in thisrespect:
E.g.

Could it be true? Ar putea fi adevărat?

b) An I THINK predicate corresponding to the speaker's judgment of possibility
is exemplified in the following paraphrases:
I think: this can happen
I think: I/you/someone can do it
The epistemic reading is not the most obvious choice, but such contexts do
display the notion of possibility despite their evident causative (deontic) value:
E.g.

You can get them to do it for you.

An alternative view would be to interpret these I THINK predicates as instancesof can for ability in non-1-st person contexts. The notion of epistemic possibility is
still there, though, allowing the utterance to be paraphrased as – ‘It is possible foryou to get them to do it for you.’
Romanian counterparts allow for both a deontic and an epistemic translation:
Tu poţi să îi determini să o facă în locul tău. – deontic
Este posibil să îi determini să o facă în locul tău. – epistemic

Colloquially, epistemic can is used as a suggestion for a future course of action:
E.g.

We can see about that tomorrow- it is possible to discuss that further tomorrow.

In Romanian, a possible translation with the modal counterpart a putea isblocked (‘*Putem să mai vedem mâine.’). The corresponding adverb is usedinstead: ‘Poate mai vedem mâine.’
Negative forms also render some epistemic uses in which the speaker is fullycommitted to the truth of the negated utterance:
E.g.

That can’t be him.
Nu se poate/Nu este posibil să fie el.

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Irina-Janina Boncea: Difficulties in Translating Epistemic Modal Verbs from English...

Can is also believed to express theoretical possibility, as opposed to may whichis restricted to factual possibility:
E.g.

The road can be blocked.
= It is possible for the road to be blocked/It is possible to block the road.

The Romanian counterpart with ‘Se poate/este posibil ca drumul să fie blocat’vaguely conveys the English intentionality and when translated with a modal in thepassive with its own subject, things don’t become much clearer: ‘Drumul poate fi
blocat.’Further specifications (How can it be blocked? By using large boulders) may
be required in order to clarify what the intention of the speaker was or the
explanation of potentiality and theoretical possibility:
E.g.

This illness can be fatal. It has the potential to kill you.

‘The road may be blocked’, on the other hand renders no confusing meanings as
to the existence of a possibility that the road could be unusable.
Conventionally, can is preferred in generalizing statements, whereas may is
chosen when particularizing a situation:
E.g.

A friend can betray you.
‘Un prieten te poate trăda.’A friend may betray you.
‘Un prieten s-ar putea să te trădeze.’ (warning in a horoscope about a particularperson)May
The modal auxiliary may doesn’t display a primitive counterpart but can occur
both with the propositional and with the illocutionary primitive predicate in thepresence of MAYBE and WANT:The expression of the speaker judgments corresponds to interpreting it as anunderlying I THINK predicate, then combined with the primitive MAYBE, which
in turn generates the notion of ‘possibility’ (Wierzbicka, 1996: 106):
I think: maybe X can happen
E.g.

It may (not) rain tomorrow.

orI think: maybe you can do X
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
E.g.

You may (not) find the love of your life one day.

In both examples, the Romanian equivalent is either the impersonal ‘se poate’or the passive ‘Este posibil’ ca with no significant differences in meaning:
Se poate să (nu) plouă mâine/să-ţi găseşti iubirea într-o zi.
Este posibil să (nu) plouă mâine/să-ţi găseşti iubirea într-o zi.

A less formal option functions in both languages equally, i.e. the use of theepistemic adverb ‘Perhaps/maybe’ – ‘Poate (că)’.
This use of may is restricted to assertions only and some limited negative
contexts because in questions, may shifts to deontic values.
There is a colloquial concessive use of epistemic may that has an interestingand equally colloquial counterpart in Romanian:E.g.

The building may be old, but it’s an excellent school.
‘O fi clădirea veche, dar este o şcoală grozavă.’The epistemic reading is demonstrated by the possible paraphrases showing the
speaker’s lack of commitment to the truth of the statement: ‘Isuppose/presume…’
Written style abounds in phrases containing epistemic may the purpose ofwhich is to hide the auctorial personality. Word-for-word translations can prove to
be disastrous since similar idiomatic phrases exist in Romanian also and should be
employed as equivalents.
E.g.

It may be noted.
‘Se poate* nota = observa.’

E.g.

We may now consider.
‘*Putem acum considera = Se poate lua în calcul…’

Another interesting use of may is in constructions resembling the archaic use of
the subjunctive, i.e. in subordinate clauses beginning with whatever, whenever,
however:E.g.

Our task is to deal with the customers’ complaints, however unreasonable they maybe.

The Romanian modal equivalents are blocked here and are replaced by an odd
couple: the conditional with subjunctive value (…oricât de nerezonabile ar fi) orby a fixed phrase (fie ele cât de nerezonabile).
Both in English and in Romanian, the speaker refuses to commit to the opinion
that any customer complaints are unreasonable. If the indicative were used insteadof may, the epistemic value would be lost:56

Irina-Janina Boncea: Difficulties in Translating Epistemic Modal Verbs from English...
E.g.

(...) however unreasonable they are.

Must
Must can similarly be decomposed into an I THINK predicate relating more to(logical) reasoning about a past event rather than to an estimate of probability. Itsparaphrase will thus include the semantic primitive BECAUSE as in:
I think: something has happened because of thisI think: X cannot not happen
E.g.

Somebody must have been there.
You must have put it in yourself.
You must have done it.

Epistemic must refers to knowledge that was obtained via inference orreasoning rather than by means of direct experience. The notions of logicalnecessity or the weaker reasonable assumption denominate this epistemic usage ofmust where the speaker is fully committed to the truth of the statement since thestatement was generated by the speaker’s own reasoning system and set ofavailable premises.
Translation into Romanian takes 2 aspects:- one possible counterpart is the modal equivalent ‘Trebuie să’:E.g.

Cineva trebuie să fi fost acolo.
Trebuie să o fi pus acolo chiar tu.
Trebuie să o fi făcut chiar tu.

- In recent years, Romanian has seen the rise of a new modal construction thatworks rather well with this intention of the English must, i.e. ‘Trebuie că’equivalent to ‘Probably’ – ‘probabil că’.
As opposed to the already established Romanian phrase ‘trebuie să’, this recent
phrase has not yet earned equal rights since it is not acknowledged as belonging tostandard Romanian and it behaves as if it were a modal adverb instead of a verbal
form in the sense that it does not interact with the subject but rather is placed in
front of it, in adverbial position: ‘Trebuie că cineva a fost acolo.’/‘Trebuie că tu ai
pus-o acolo’ etc.
Epistemic must refuses negative forms and questions because these structuresfulfill deontic functions.
Shall
Shall also displays an I THINK predication employed for predictions as in:
I think: I/you can do X. (and I want to do X/I want you to do X.)
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E.g.

I know, but you shall have to bring it home, won’t you?

The Romanian translation is by means of a simple future ‘Va trebui să…’
Will
Will is closely related to shall, but shows an almost complementary
distribution. Translation is also done by a future simple but the epistemic reading isthere: the speaker expresses a high degree of certainty and states this degree ofcommitment that the action will take place.
The modal will prevail in I THINK predicates and is used for predictions withhigh probability rates as in:
I think: at some time after now X will happen.
I think: at some time after now I/you/someone will do X.
E.g.

It will rain tomorrow.
John will come, don’t worry.

Apart from mere predictions about the future, will displays an interesting
contextual ability to shift meaning and be similar to must and render logicalnecessity:
E.g.

(On hearing the doorbell): That will be the electrician.
‘trebuie să fie electricianul/Probabil că este electricianul.’

Also, in combination with perfect forms, will acquires strength and can beequated to must:
E.g.

They will have arrived home by now.
‘Trebuie să fi ajuns acasa până la ora asta.’

Predictable or characteristic behaviour with will can also generate some odd
meanings in Romanian but which stand in perfect accordance to the rhetorical style
implied by the English counterpart:E.g.

She’ll go all day without eating.
‘Ea poate să stea toată ziua nemâncată.’ ‘Stă nemâncată zile întregi.’

Romanian doesn’t have as many shades of meaning as to convey the English
complexity of modal nuances; therefore, there can be situations when thetranslation may be unable to render the exact intention of the original text. Finding
a descriptive equivalent is particularly difficult with epistemic modal elements andthey generally refuse paraphrasing or descriptive approaches since that refer to the
speaker’s degree of commitment to the truth of the utterance rather than toprocesses, actions or states.
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NOTES
1

Brown and Levinson (1987), and Leech (1983) consider the concept of ‘face’ to be of universal
validity, whereas Wierzbicka (1991) noticed some Anglo-centric bias in this assumption.
2
Wierzbicka (1996: 140) proposes that “I” should be the prototypical subject so that constructions
such as YOU CAN may be considered to express a proposition/a speculation about theaddressee’s ability to act.

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Perkins, Michael (1983). Modal Expressions in English. London: Frances Pinter.
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik (1985). A
Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.
Setton, R. (1994). A Cognitive-Pragmatic Analysis of Simultaneous Interpretation,
Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
——— (2001). “Deconstructing SI: A Contribution to the Debate on Component
Processes.” The Interpreters’ Newsletter, Università degli Studi di Trieste,
Scuola Superiore di Lingue Moderni per Interpreti e Traduttori, No. 11, 1-26.
Tytler, A.F. (1791). Essay on the Principles of Translation, reprint Amsterdam:
John Benjamins B.V. 1978.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1972). Semantic Primitives. Frankfurt: Athenäum.
——— (1985). “Different Cultures, Different Languages, Different Speech Acts.”
Journal of Pragmatics, 9, 145-78.
——— (1987). “The Semantics of Modality.” Folia Linguistica, 21, 25-43.
——— (1991). Cross-cultural Pragmatics. The Semantics of Human Interaction.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
——— (1992). Semantics, Culture, and Cognition. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
——— (1995). “Universal Semantic Primitives as a Basis for Lexical Semantics.”
Folia Linguistica, 29, 1-2, 149-69.
——— (1996). Semantics. Primes and Universals. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.

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L`Annunciazione nella pittura dei maestri italianidel Trecento e Quattrocento
Otilia Doroteea BORCIA
Università Cristiana “Dimitrie Cantemir”, Bucarest
Facoltà di Lingue e letterature straniere

RÉSUMÉ : L’Annonciation dans la peinture des maîtres italiens du Trecento et
Quattrocento
Dans cet ouvrage on présente le motif de l’Annonciation dans la peinture des maîtres
italiens du Trecento et Quattrocento. Célébrée par la tradition chrétienne le 25 mars
(9 mois avant Noël), l’Annonciation correspond aux anniversaires de la mortd’Adam. Mystère central du culte chrétien, c’est le moment où le divin s’incarne en
homme: l’archange Gabriel annonce à Marie – selon l’évangéliste Luc – qu’elle
portera en son sein le Fils de Dieu, tout en restant vierge. Mais grâce à sa pureté, ellelavera aussi le péché originel d’Adam et Ève. Privilégié dans l’art chrétien,
occidental et byzantin, depuis le IVe siècle, ce thème a été particulièrement
développé dans l’iconographie du Moyen Âge, en Orient et en Occident, au cours duQuattrocento et des siècles suivants. Dans l’art chrétien il y a deux traditions
picturales : dans la première et la plus ancienne, illustrée par le Christianisme
oriental, Marie est représentée filant de la laine, tandis que dans l’art occidental, elle
tient en général un livre ouvert à la main, ce qui traduit son origine lettrée et donc sa
connaissance des Saintes Écritures (dans les Annonciations de Simone Martini,
Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Léonard de Vince, Botticelli, et autres). Dans lespeintures le groupe d’Adam et Ève chassés du Paradis est souvent représenté enarrière-plan (comme chez Fra Angelico), pour rappeler l’origine de la faute.
MOTS-CLÉS : volonté divine, cloître, chambre, pieuse contemplation, objet deméditation, peinture, retable, fresque

L’umanità vive dai cicli naturali che includono anche la morte e sopravvive dagli
avventi e personaggi straordinari che i popoli hanno fatto diventare miti ed eroi. Da
migliaia d’anni l’esperienza umana si è consolidata in due capitoli dai quali è natala storia universale: la mitologia e la religione. Il passaggio dalla prima alla
seconda si è prodotto con il cambiamento dei riti e delle pratiche. Così, il 25
dicembre, che a partire dal IV secolo rappresenta la nascita di Gesù, o il Natale,nell’antichità egiziana e siriana era festeggiato come giorno in cui nasceva il Sole1e di Mitra, identificato con il Sole invincibile. Ma il sole simboleggiava non solol’intelligenza degli dei del mondo greco-orientale: Apollo, Giove, Osiris, Orus e
Adone, ma anche l’intelligenza degli uomini, nella loro continua lotta contro letenebre e la morte (Vita, 1995: 11-12).
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Nel calendario Giuliano questa data – del solstizio d’inverno – era dedicata alsole, perché da quel momento i giorni cominciavano ad allungarsi e la luce solare
ad essere più forte. Nei primi secoli del cristianesimo la nascita del Salvatore (chenon è accennata nei Vangeli) si celebrava il 6 gennaio. Per impedire ai popoli dipraticare il culto pagano solare, i Padri della chiesa decisero che il 25 dicembre
diventasse il giorno del Natale, mentre il 6 gennaio il giorno dell’Epifania. Lo
attestano le parole con le quali Sant’Agostino esortava i cristiani a celebrare non ilsole, ma Colui che aveva creato il sole e tutto l’universo:
Il simbolo del Natale è la nascita splendente e miracolosa dell’Uomo, Figlio di Dio,
quasi in contrapposizione alla natura che, in questo periodo di freddo e tenebre, èaddormentata. Ma le tenebre verranno squarciate dalla nascita di un umile Bambino,
piccolo sole, che sconfiggerà il buio facendo trionfare la vita sulla morte. (DeSimone, 1979)

Stabilita questa data, il 25 marzo (nove mesi prima del Natale) divenne il giornodell’Annuncio fatto dall’Arcangelo Gabrielle a Maria, che conformemente
all’Evangelista Luca, porterà nel suo grembo il Figlio di Dio, pur essendo vergine.
Entrato nella sua stanza, l’angelo la saluta chiamandola “piena di grazia” e le dice:“Il Signore è con te”. Quando Maria gli chiede come sarà possibile diventar madre“senza conoscer uomo”, l’angelo le spiega: “Lo Spirito Santo scenderà su di te, su
te stenderà la sua ombra la potenza dell’Altissimo. Colui che nascerà sarà dunquesanto e chiamato Figlio di Dio...” (Luca, I, 26-37). Meravigliata e turbata all’inizio,
Maria accetterà, con le mani crociate sul petto, la volontà divina: “Allora Mariadisse: «Eccomi, sono la serva del Signore, avvenga di me quello che hai detto.”(Idem)
Nel Vangelo di Matteo l’arcangelo Gabrielle appare nel sonno a Giuseppe, che
non volendo ripudiare sua futura sposa, aveva deciso di licenziarla in segreto per
assicurarlo che Maria, per la sua purezza, è stata scelta dal Signore per diventare
madre di Suo figlio che salverà il popolo dai peccati: “Ecco, la vergine concepirà epartorirà un figlio che sarà chiamato Emmanuele, che significa «Dio è con noi.»”(Matteo, I, 18-25). Anche i testi apocrifi narrano questo momento che finisce con
l’accettazione di Maria: “Ecco l’ancella del Signore davanti a lui. Mi avvenga
secondo la tua parola.” (Giacomo, 11)
Ignote inizialmente, sia quella dell’Annunciazione, sia quella del Natale, queste
date furono legate ai momenti astronomici benefici dell’anno: l’equinozio diprimavera e il solstizio invernale. La casa di Maria, in cui avvenne l’incontro conl’angelo, è stata identificata con la grotta che oggi si trova nella cripta della
Basilica dell’Annunciazione a Nazaret2. Nell’arte cristiana occidentale e bizantina,
le prime rappresentazioni di questo momento datano dal sec. IV, nelle catacombe
di Priscilla e dei santi Piero e Marcellino a Roma3. Sviluppatosi soprattutto nel
medio Evo, sia nell’Oriente che nell’Occidente, questo momento ha due tradizioni
pittoriche: nella prima, la più antica, del Cristianesimo orientale, Maria è
rappresentata filando la lana (Wasowicz, 1990: 163-177), mentre invece, nell’arte
occidentale, essa tiene un libro aperto nella mano. Questo libro, che non è altro che
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la Santa Scrittura4, indica la sua istruzione, la sua fede in Dio e la sua devozione,
come accenna San Bonaventura, secondo il quale essa stava leggendo il passaggiodelle profezie d’Isaia, che annunciavano proprio la venuta di Cristo. Per lamediazione della Vergine sarà possibile il riscatto del peccato originale e perquesto la raffigurazione di Adamo ed Eva cacciati via dal paradiso che appaiono in
molte pitture in un secondo piano, come in alcune Annunciazioni di Fra Angelico5,
vuole ricordare l’origine dalla colpa dei primi uomini.
Il tema è stato trattato da molti artisti di varie nazionalità, scuole e correnti, ma
nella pittura, i maestri italiani dal Trecento al Cinquecento gli dedicarono famose
tele ed affreschi ora presenti nei musei d’Italia e di tutto il mondo. I nomi di questi
artisti sono celebri come le loro opere: Giotto, Pietro Lorenzetti, Ambrogio
Lorenzetti, Simone Martini, Agnolo Gaddi, Masolino da Panicate, Beato Angelico,
Jacopo Bellini, Filippo Lippi, Antonello da Messina, Gentile Bellini, Sandro
Botticelli, Pietro Vannucci il Perugino, Leonardo da Vinci, Tiziano Vecellio,
Raffaello Sazio, Lorenzo Lotti (Lorenzzetto), Agnolo Bronzino di Cosimo,
Tintoretto, Jacopo Robusti, Guido Reni, Michelangelo Merisi detto il Caravaggio,
Federico Fiore Barocci ed altri.
L’Annunciazione è stata studiata nella teologia e nell’arte (Colosio, 2003). Per
decifrare il mistero del “passaggio dell’Incommensurabile divino nel finito” grazie
alla fede, Arasse ha dimostrato che la prospettiva è stata lo strumento perfetto usato
dagli artisti. Nell’iconografia occidentale, gli artisti sono riusciti a sorprendere lanatura serafica dell’Angelo e l’effetto prodotto dalla Sua notizia sul volto esull’atteggiamento della Vergine, che turbata prima, accetta poi chinandosi, lavolontà divina.
In maniere e stili diversi (dal gotico, all’umanistico-rinascimentale, dal barocco
al classicismo ed alle correnti moderne), essi hanno presentato la scena alla quale a
volte partecipano anche altri santi (come nell’Annunciazione fra Sant’Ansano eSanta Massima, di Simone Martini) o persone (l’ancella, nell’Annunciazione diFilippo Lippi, opera custodita dall’Alte Pinakothek di Monaco), e persino Dio (inuna tela di Filippo Lippi), prodotta in ambienti diversi: la cella di un monastero,
una sala o la stanza da letto della Vergine, un chiostro o un giardino.
L’arredamento, semplice o ricco, i vestiti dell’angelo annunciante e della
Vergine alludono alla vita ed alle sofferenze di Gesù. Non mancano dal quadro ilgiglio che l’arcangelo tiene nella sua mano, come segno della castità di Maria, o i
fiori e gli alberi del giardino, nel secondo piano, specialmente l’olivo, chepreannunciano la domenica delle palme prima della Crocifissione; il rosso
purpureo, che è di solito il colore della veste della Vergine – simboleggia il sangue
di Gesù che sarà versato per l’umanità; il rosso è anche il colore del vestito
dell’Angelo o delle sue ali. Il blu degli stessi indumenti, come il cielo sereno che sivede nella stanza dalle finestre, esprime la purezza dei due personaggi e delparadiso.
Nell’ambiente è quasi sempre presente la colomba, che incarna lo Spirito Santo.
A volte essa gode una posizione speciale, sopra il raggio di sole mandato dal

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Signore con il suo messaggero. Le mani dei due interlocutori chinati uno davantiall’altro si trovano in un epicentro che suggerisce la loro intesa.
In molte raffigurazioni sono presenti Adamo ed Eva mentre lasciano il Paradiso,
inseguiti da un angelo guardiano, come nell’Annunciazione di Beato Angelico, ora
al Museo del Prado di Madrid. Gli arcangeli di Beato Angelico, il pittore che “hafatto piangere santi ed angeli”, hanno delle ali di una bellezza straordinaria, di una
varietà cromatica indescrivibile.
In fine, la stanza o il giardino chiuso da una palizzata (“hortus conclusus”), o ilvaso trasparente e lo stesso giglio, sono tutti simboli della purezza cristallina di
Maria e della sua virginità, come nelle pitture non solo di Beato Angelico, maanche di Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, ed altri.
Dopo Giotto6, che nella Cappella Scrovegni di Padova dipinse scene della vita
di Gesù, dalla Sua nascita, fino al Giudizio Universale, comprendendo purel’Annunciazione, Simone Martini7 fu uno dei più famosi artisti che trattò questo
argomento. Lavorando in Francia, egli fu il primo a portare gli stilemi artistici
italiani fuori del paese, contribuendo alla nascita di un gotico internazionale,diffusosi grazie all’opera dei miniatori. Egli stesso miniatore8 compose per lacattedrale di Siena, insieme a Lippo Memmi, l’Annunciazione fra Sant’Ansano eSanta Massima9, che è un capolavoro d’arte gotica.
Le linee e la cromatica del dipinto esprimono con un’eccezionale eleganza la
psicologia dei personaggi, che su un fondo d’oro appaiono come figure quasi
irreali. La Vergine, timida e schiva, si ritira turbata e quasi spaventata, con un gesto
scontroso delle spalle e del braccio destro, dinanzi al fulgido arcangelo Gabriele,
con il mantello ancora svolazzante, e con una veste di colore dorato (che spiega il
suo appellativo di “messaggero della luce”), e tenendo nelle mani un ramoscellod’ulivo, simbolo della pace universale che sarà portata dalla nascita del Salvatore.
Il volto della Vergine è fine ed aristocratico, mentre sta seduta su un ricco trono
con motivi decorativi e con un prezioso drappo ornato con fiori dorati su fondo
rosso; accanto c’è un vaso con gigli mentre in alto, in volo, circondata da una
corona di cherubini, appare la colomba, simbolo dello Spirito Santo, della grazia
divina dispensata sulla terra dall’amore della Vergine10.
Simone Martini fu molto ammirato dal Petrarca che, come accenna il Vasari
nelle sue “Vite”, gli dedicò alcuni versi:
Per mirar Policleto a prova fiso
con gli altri ch’ebber fama di quell’arte;…
Quando giunse a Simon l’alto concettoch’a mio nome gli pose in man lo stile.
(Vasari, 2002: 120)

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Simone Martini e Lippo Memmi, Annunciazione tra i santi Ansano e Margherita,Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi

Carlo Argan vede definito in questo dipinto il proprio ideale di bello spiritualedell’artista espresso “nelle figure e negli oggetti, nelle stoffe, nei rami e nei serti difronde e di fiori. Non si tratta di realtà poetizzata, idealizzata, ma di un discendere
del bello assoluto, o ideale, fino a precisarsi nella “natura eletta” delle cose: i tipi
ideali nascono proprio da quella relazione di linee e di colore.” (1995: 28)
L’Annunciazione per l’ufficio della Gabella 11 (oggi a Siena, nella Pinacoteca
Nazionale) di Ambrogio Lorenzetti12 è notevole per l’impostazione prospettica.
Maria, presentata già come Madonna, con il vestito blu, sopra la sottoveste rossa,
con le mani incrociate sul petto e con la corona aurea come i capelli, “non è più
storta e turbata davanti all’angelo inginocchiato, con il vestito rosso e giallo,
tenendo nella mano sinistra il giglio, simbolo della purezza della bella notizia. Lo
sfondo della stanza illumina tutto il quadro con lo stesso colore aureo come nella
pittura omonima di Simone Martini, per simboleggiare la stessa atmosfera
paradisiaca.” (Argan, 1995: 29)
Guido di Pietro Tirosini, detto Beato Angelico13, che prese, entrato nel convento
di San Domenico a Fiesole, il nome di Frà Giovanni da Fiesole, dipinse quadri diun cromatismo delicato e di una grande illuminazione14. Per il convento di Firenze,
dove la pittura è di una maggiore austerità e misticismo, creò la tavola con il
Giudizio Universale e gli affreschi del Crocifisso, della Trasfigurazione e di San
Domenico. Egli dedicò sei opere al tema dell’Annuncio fatto a Maria15. Da queste,
forse le più famose sono: l’Annunciazione del Museo Prado di Madrid in cui si
vede:

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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
La Nostra Donna Annunziata dall’Angelo Gabrielle” con un profilo di viso tanto
devoto, delicato, e ben fatto, che par veramente non da un uomo, ma fatto in paradiso;
e nel campo del paese è Adamo ed Eva, che furono cagione che della vergine
incarnasse il Redentore. (Vasari, 2002: 293-294)

e l’Annunciazione del Convento San Marco, nel corridoio settentrionale, che
presenta come elemento d’innovazione la disposizione dei protagonisti lungo una
diagonale, per partecipare meglio allo spazio. Le parole dell’annuncio divino sono
dipinte in basso, vicino alla base della colonna centrale. Sotto si trova
un’incitazione alla preghiera: VIRGINIS INTACTAE CUM VENERIS ANTEFIGURAM PRETEREUNDO CAVE NE SILEATUR AVE (“Quando passerai
davanti alla figura della Vergine intatta, stai attento di non dimenticare di direl’Ave Maria”). Il pittore vi usò la costosa azzurirte e mise anche inserti in oro.

Beato Angelico, Annunciazione, Madrid, Museo del Prado

Come Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi16 dipinse molti quadri con questo tema.
Quella di San Lorenzo a Firenze è una splendida Annunciazione di un fresco
naturalismo, ispirata all’Angelico, ma di un colorismo più caldo e vivace. L’artista,
dipinse con “fluide eleganze lineari e delicate trasparenze cromatiche”17 insieme
anche a suo figlio, Filippino e a Fra Diamante gli affreschi con le Storie della
Vergine nell’abside del Duomo di Spoletto.
L’Annunciazione Doria è un’altra dalle sette opere dedicate all’annuncio fatto
dall’arcangelo Gabrielle a Maria. E’ molto originale perché qui, a differenza degli
altri quadri, l’angelo giunge da destra, non da sinistra. La scena mostra il momento
preciso in cui la Vergine interroga l’Angelo sul come essa possa rimanere incinta,
avendo fatto voto di castità; lei ha in mano il libro chiuso e l’altra mano aperta insegno d’interrogazione, e l’Angelo ha una mano sul petto in segno di saluto,
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mentre nel cielo si scorgono le mani di Dio che fanno scendere la colomba,
simbolo dello Spirito Santo.

Filippo Lippi, Annunciazione, Washington, National Gallery of Art

La descrizione che il Vasari fa di Domenico Veneziano – soprannome di
Domenico di Bartolomeo18 si riferisce alla luminosità, alla raffinata eleganza
intellettuale delle sue figure, alla fresca atmosfera primaverile in cui le fa vivere.
Nella sua Annunciazione19 i due protagonisti occupano ognuno il suo posto, ma
vivendo l’evento ognuno per conto suo, ma anche in relazione uno all’altro. Il
chiostro, parzialmente aperto, che dà al giardino (dove si vedono le piante e ilcielo) fa intuirsi il mondo esterno, al di là del basso muro merlato e della porta
chiusa da un paletto.
Sandro Filipepi, detto il Botticelli20 dipinse nella bottega di Filippo Lippi, le sue
prime opere21. A Roma affrescò assieme a Cosimo Rosselli, al Ghirlandaio e al
Perugino, la cappella Sistina22 e verso la fine del secolo cambiò il suo stile
influenzato dalle predicazioni di Savonarola. Le sue opere a carattere
profondamente mistico sono la Calunnia, la Natività, La Pietà e l’Annunciazione,
che rispecchiano un’alta tensione spirituale in forme arcaicizzanti23.
L’Annunciazione di Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi24, è uno dei suoi capolavori.
Maria e l’angelo s’incontrano in uno spazio le cui pareti di pietra grigia contrastanocon le lastre rosse accese, del pavimento, separate da strisce chiare. L’abito mossodell’angelo inginocchiato davanti a Maria rivela lo slancio del suo movimento,
mentre la Madonna, eretta, con un atteggiamento di ritrosia, si piega verso l’angelo,
il suo corpo, descrivendo, simile ad una scultura gotica, una “S”. Ella ha le mani
leggermente alzate in un gesto di saluto, come anche l’angelo inginocchiato. Nel
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centro del quadro, le loro mani, separate da una distanza che sembra
insormontabile, vogliono pure toccarsi.

Sandro Botticelli, Annunciazione, Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi

Negli scritti teologici del XV secolo l’Annunciazione di Maria era articolata indiverse situazioni spirituali successive, descrivendo le reazioni sue al messaggio
celeste. All’inizio c’era la “conturbatio”, cioè il suo turbamento, poi lameditazione, seguita dalle domande fatte all’angelo e dalla sottomissione alla
volontà divina. I pittori dell’epoca, nelle loro Annunciazioni, erano influenzati daquesta sequenza, e anche Botticelli nella sua rappresentazione sembra attenersi alprimo stadio, il turbamento della Vergine. Ma non a tutti i pittori piaceva larappresentazione di una Maria turbata, come a Leonardo, che dichiarava d’avervisto in un quadro un angelo che “nella sua Annunciazione, sembrava trascinare
Maria fuori della sua stanza”, con certi movimenti che sembravano “un attaccoquale si potrebbe fare contro un nemico”, mentre Maria sembrava ”volersi gettare
dalla finestra, come sconvolta”. L’artista raccomandava ai pittori di “non cadere inquest’errore.”25. Nell’Annunciazione di Glasgow26, proveniente dalla chiesa
fiorentina di San Barnaba, l’ambiente è scandito dalla successione delle colonne e
dei quadri sul pavimento, che servono anche ad evidenziare lo schema prospettico.
L’angelo e la Madonna si trovano in due stanze separate dalle colonne, la luce dellaprima penetrando, con il raggio divino, quella di Maria, che si piega davanti al
Messaggero di Dio.
Antonello da Messina (soprannome di Antonio di Giovanni de Antonio) 27 siformò a Napoli, nella bottega di Colantonio e in contatto con esperienze
fiamminghe, spagnole e provenzali, raggiunse “il difficile equilibrio di fondere laluce, l’atmosfera e l’attenzione al dettaglio della pittura nordica e dellamonumentalità e spazialità razionale della scuola italiana. I suoi ritratti sono celebri
per vitalità e profondità psicologica.”28. Nell’Annunciazione del Museo Bellomo di68

Otilia Doroteea Borcia: L’Annunciazione nella pittura dei maestri italiani del Trecento e…

Siracusa lo spazio non è unificato dalla prospettiva, ma dalla sottile graduazione
luminosa.

Antonello da Messina, Annunziata di Palermo, Museo Nazionale di Palermo

Celebre è la sua Vergine annunziata, o l’Annunziata di Palermo, siciliana nelle
caratteristiche fisiche, nella serietà morale, nella cosciente accettazione del dramma.
Il titolo del dipinto è significativo e di un profondo rinnovamento. Il quadro nonpresenta più la solita scena dell’incontro tra la Vergine e l’arcangelo Gabriele,
essendo solo un ritratto di Maria che guarda silenziosa l’immagine prospettica dopo
aver ricevuto la notizia. L’espressione psicologica di Maria nasce dalla severità
costruttiva della forma, compresa entro la piramide del manto azzurro, checoprendole la testa, le copre forse anche il corpo, che non si vede. Il tavolo e illeggio con il libro appena sono visti, determinando un’impostazione tridimensionaledella scena. Il suo viso sembra tagliato verticalmente da una linea ideale che scendedalla piega del manto sulla fronte attraverso il naso, il mento, il collo, fino alla
mano. L’ovale perfetto incorniciato dal manto, sottolinea le sopracciglia arcuate,
gli occhi con le palpebre ombrate, le narici, le labbra. L’opera rappresenta uno dei
traguardi fondamentali della pittura rinascimentale italiana. Lo sguardo magneticodella Vergine e la mano sospesa in una dimensione astratta ne fanno un capolavoro
assoluto.
Leonardo da Vinci29 lavorò, oltre alle pitture, a numerosi disegni. Il suo ingegno
lo portava a conoscere profondamente la realtà, dando valore all’esperimento e
all’osservazione diretta: “l’esperientia” sola “è madre di ogni certezza” accennava
l’artista-scienziato nel suo Trattato sulla pittura30. Le sue due Annunciazioni – laprima, conservata agli Uffizi, e in cui si nota ancora l’influenza della scuolaverrocchiana, e l’altra, che faceva parte della predella di un’opera dipinta da
Lorenzo di Credi, e che si trova al Louvre – sono ritenute abbastanza tradizionali
per l’ambiente fiorentino, come la posizione dell’angelo a sinistra e della Vergine a
destra. Una concezione nuova la rappresenta però l’ambientazione in un giardino
fiorito in un vasto paesaggio, invece che nell’intimità della camera verginale o,69Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

come nella pittura d’Angelico o di Domenico Veneziano, in un chiostro lontano
dalla vita del mondo. La Madonna si trova in un angolo dell’edificio che è alle sue
spalle, come il giardino separato da un muretto. Il significato è chiaro: il miracolo
che si sta svolgendo (la concezione divina ad opera dello Spirito Santo) nel
momento stesso in cui coinvolge la vita futura di Maria, diviene un fatto che
trascende la persona di lei, per investire tutto il mondo, redento dalla nascita delfiglio. Leonardo, contraddice in parte l’iconografia tradizionale, interpretando inmaniera molto più profonda la narrazione evangelica, perché “parla all’intelletto”,
dimostrando che “la pittura è una poesia che si vede e non sì sente”. 31
La scena dell’Annunciazione di Uffizi si svolge davanti ad una villa toscana deltardo Quattrocento, che non è il castello medievale dalle forti mura in pietra, ma una
costruzione civile, aperta verso l’esterno, in un mondo in cui tutto è calmo, sereno,
perché gli ideali umanistici fanno sì che “la ragione supplisca le grida” (Adorno,
1997: 504). Il prato è ricco di piante e fiori reali, perché tutto deve essere visibile,“certo”, come le ali dell’angelo, che, per la prima volta, invece che simboliche, sono“battenti”32, e restano ancora aperte, colte un attimo prima che si ripieghino inriposo: l’angelo appena giunto, si è inginocchiato, pronunciando fervidamente leparole divine, mentre la Madonna, con la destra appoggiata sul libro per impedireche si richiuda, ascolta e già mostra, alzando la sinistra, la propria consapevole
accettazione. Questa poetica leonardiana degli “affetti”, vuole rivelare chiaramente“ciò che i personaggi stanno pensando.” Altri elementi presenti sono la luce e laprospettiva. La luce non è piena, ma attenuata, per ammorbidire i tratti, e laprospettiva lineare colloca gli oggetti secondo la distanza, facendoli più piccoli. La
convergenza delle linee nel «punto di fuga» è geometrica, quindi astratta33.
Leonardo scopre le prospettive lineare, cromatica ed aerea: i colori diminuisconod’intensità e i volumi si riducono mentre s’allontanano, perché fra loro e l’occhio
dello spettatore s’interpone l’aria in spessore sempre maggiore; in questo modo laluminescenza si diffonde ed appare un “controluce” che avvolge le immagini inmodo piacevole. La tavola preannuncia un modo nuovo d’intendere la pittura, separagonata ad opere pressoché coeve di un pittore come Botticelli, per esempio laPrimavera, ove predomina la linea. Qui, nell’Annunciazione la linea è usata percerti particolari; senza essere protagonista, perché protagonista è “la vastità
spaziale.”

Leonardo da Vinci - Annunciazione – Firenze, Gallerie degli Uffizi

70

Otilia Doroteea Borcia: L’Annunciazione nella pittura dei maestri italiani del Trecento e…

Conclusioni
Il tema dell’Annunciazione ha privilegiato un ampio spazio nelle opere dei pittori
di diverse epoche e nazionalità, di varie scuole e correnti artistiche. In Italia gli
furono dedicati veri capolavori (in stile gotico, umanistico o rinascimentale) dai
maestri del Trecento fino al Cinquecento. Ma non potendo esaurire un argomentocosì vasto ci siamo limitati a presentare in questo lavoro solo le più note
Annunciazioni dipinte dai maestri del Trecento e Quattrocento italiano: Simone
Martini, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Beato Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Domenico
Veneziano, Sandro Botticelli, Antonello da Messina e Leonardo da Vinci, in un
tentativo di decifrare nelle loro pitture gli aspetti comuni e diversi della trattazione
cromatica e prospettica, che riesce a sciogliere, grazie al genio di questi autori, leeffimere frontiere spazio-temporali, che storicamente le separano.
NOTE
1

Ritiratisi in certi santuari, a mezzanotte i celebranti ne uscivano gridando: «La Vergine hapartorito!». Per gli egiziani il sole appena nato aveva l'immagine di un infante e la Vergine, cheaveva dato alla luce il bambino divino era la gran dea orientale, chiamata dai Semiti “Vergine
Celeste” o, semplicemente, “Dea Celeste”. In: M. Ruggiero, Il presepe italiano. Storia di un
costume, Torino, 1988, p. 20.
2
Questa casa aveva anche una parte costruita in muratura, che fu trasferita alla fine del XIII secolo
prima a Tersatto (Trsat, Croazia) e poi a Loreto, nelle Marche, per non essere distrutta durante larioccupazione della Terrasanta dai mussulmani. Secondo la tradizione, essa fu miracolosamente
portata in volo da alcuni angeli (perciò la Madonna di Loreto è venerata come patrona degli
aviatori). Dai documenti dell'epoca risulta che in realtà il trasporto, avvenuto per nave tra il 1291
e il 1294, fu opera della famiglia Angeli Comneno, un ramo della famiglia imperiale bizantina. La“Santa Casa”, com’è chiamata, si trova tuttora all'interno della Basilica di Loreto, ed è
continuamente visitata da numerosi pellegrini, cfr. Vita E., op. cit.
3
La scena appare anche nei mosaici dell’arco di trionfo di Santa Maria Maggiore a Roma, dove la
Vergine tesse la porpora destinata al velo del tempio, conformemente ai testi dei vangeli apocrifi.
Alla stessa epoca risale anche la sua presenza nelle ampolle di Monza e di Bobbio, cfr. Gaston
Duchet-Suchaux, Michel Pastoureau, La Bible et les saints, guide iconographique Paris:
Flammarion, 1994, 30-32.
4«Combien d’artistes ont représenté l’Annonciation avec Marie tenant un livre, tenant Le Livre?»
Homélie d’Alexandre Guérin: diacre de L’Ile-Bouchard, église paroissiale Saint-Gilles Vêpres del’Immaculée Conception Vendredi 8 décembre 2006, 59e pèlerinage à Notre-Dame de la Prière.
5
Annunciazione di San Giovanni Vladarno, Annonciation de Cortone.
6
Vespignano, Vicchio di Mugello, Firenze, 1267 – Firenze, 1337.
7
Siena, 1284 – Avignone, 1344, allievo di Duccio di Buoninsegna, che influenzò gli esordi della sua
opera. Autore delle Maestà del Duomo e del Palazzo pubblico di Siena, decorò la cappella di San
Martino con le Storie del santo nella Basilica Inferiore di San Francesco ad Assisi. A Pisa dipinse
un polittico per la chiesa del convento di Santa Caterina e poi molti altri politici di pregio, oggi
presenti nei musei di numerose città del mondo, da Orvieto a Boston e Cambridge. Tornatosi aFirenze, per creare l'Annunciazione (oggi agli Uffizi), si trasferì poi ad Avignone, dove trascorse
il resto della vita, lavorando presso la corte papale di Benedetto XII, opere in gran parte perdute,
cfr. Le Garzantine, Enciclopedia dell’Arte, maggio 2009.
8
Come lo prova il frontespizio di un manoscritto di Virgilio con note di Petrarca.
9
Oggi agli Uffizi, fu dipinta nel 1333 insieme a Lippo Memmi per la Cattedrale di Siena; purtroppo,
la raffigurazione del Padreterno nel tondo centrale, si è perduta.

71Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
10

Nel medio evo il giglio (che fu anche il simbolo di Firenze, verso la quale Siena nutriva da sempre
una grande ostilità) divenne attributo dell’arcangelo, segno di purezza e castità; un altro attributo
gli venne dato dalla luna, sulla quale Gabriele esercitava il suo dominio.
11
Oggi a Siena, nella Pinacoteca Nazionale.
12
Siena, 1285 – 1348, che dipinse, insieme al fratello Pietro, a Firenze ed a Siena. La più antica opera
sua è la Madonna della parrocchiale di Vico d’Abate presso Firenze. Insieme a Pietro affrescò poi
il chiostro e il capitolo del convento di San Francesco a Siena, di cui restano oggi solo il Martirio
dei Francescani e l’Udienza di Bonifacio VIII a Ludovico d’Angiò. La Madonna del latte, il
trittico di san Procuro (ora agli Uffizi) con Vergine, san Nicola e san Procuro, le tavolette con
Storie di san Nicola di Bari e gli affreschi (purtroppo perduti) con Storie di Maria, e tante altre
opere (Allegorie, Effetti del buono e del cattivo governo in città e in campagna, Maestà e
Mappamondo, Presentazione al tempio e la splendida Crocifissione), le varie Madonne,
dimostrano l’interesse del pittore per la rappresentazione spaziale dei solidi volumi, mediante ilchiaroscuro suscitatore di effetti plastici, in larghi piani di puro colore, cfr. G.C. Argan, op. cit.
13
Vicchio, Firenze, 1395 ca – Roma 1455. Della sua formazione e delle sue prime opere di pitturache sono andate perdute, non si conosce niente. Già da miniatore, egli compose la Madonna dei
Domenicani del Messale e da pittore giovanile, il Trittico di San Pietro martire e la Madonna con
Bambino e santi, tutti al museo di San Marco a Firenze.
14
Alcuni capolavori nacquero già prima degli affreschi del convento di San Marco: L'Incoronazione(oggi al Louvre), la Deposizione di Santa Trinità e il Trittico di Perugina (al museo di San
Marco). A Roma affrescò per Papa Eugenio IV una cappella in Vaticano oggi andata perduta e
per Papa Niccolò V la cappella Niccolina, con le Storie di Santo Stefano e San Lorenzo. Ad
Orvieto decorò la cappella di San Brizio nel Duomo.
15
Annunciazione di Cortona, 1430 circa, tempera su tavola, Museo diocesano, Cortona;
Annunciazione di San Giovanni Valdarno, 1430-1432, tempera su tavola, Museo della basilica diSanta Maria delle Grazie, San Giovanni Valdarno; Annunciazione, 1433-1435, tempera su tavola,
Museo del Prado, Madrid; Annunciazione della cella tre, 1431 circa, affresco, Museo nazionale di
San Marco, Firenze; Annunciazione e Adorazione di Magi, 1430-1434, tempera su tavola, Museonazionale di San Marco, Firenze; Annunciazione del corridoio Nord, 1450 circa, affresco, Museonazionale di San Marco, Firenze; Annunciazione dell'Armadio degli Argenti, tempera su tavola,1451-1453 circa, Museo nazionale di San Marco, Fireze.
16
Firenze 1406 – Spoleto, Perugina, 1469, subì l’influenza di Masaccio, come attestano le pitture
dalla Chiesa del Carmine a Firenze (la “Conferma della regola dei carmelitani”).
17“Incoronazione della Vergine” a Firenze, Uffizi “Adorazione dei Magi” a Metropolitan Museum
di New York, la “Madonna” di Palazzo Medici Riccardi.
18
Venezia, 1410 – Firenze, 1461.
19
Nella parte centrale della predella della Pala di Santa Lucia dei Màgnoli.
20
Firenze, 1445 – 1510.
21
La Madonna con Bambino (nel museo di Capodimonte a Napoli), la Fortezza e San Sebastiano,ecc.
22
La Punizione dei ribelli, le Prove di Mosè e le Prove di Cristo
23
Le sue pitture sono tantissime, dai Ritratti di papi e di personaggi illustri (come Dante), ai dipinti
con argomenti mitologico (le Venere …) o biblico (Adorazione dei Magi, Washington, National
Gallery of Art, Sant’Agostino nello studio, Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi, Miracolo di sant’Eligio,
Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi, ecc.) ed alle Madonne (col Bambino e san Giovannino, della
Melagrana, con il Bambino e tre angeli) ed Incoronazioni (della Vergine e santi), ma la sua famegli venne data dalle bellissime allegorie la Primavera e dalla Nascita di Venere.
241489-1490.
25
Trattato della pittura, condotto sul Cod. Vaticano Urbinate, 1270, I, 33-39.
26
dipinto a tempera su tavola realizzato nel 1490 circa e conservato alla Kelvingrove Art Gallery andMuseum di Glasgow.
27
Messina, 1430 ca – 1479.
28
Attento alle città che visitava, offri importanti contributi autonomi, che arricchirono le scuole
locali, come quella di Venezia. Dipinse dieci tavolette con Beati francescani per la pala della72

Otilia Doroteea Borcia: L’Annunciazione nella pittura dei maestri italiani del Trecento e…
chiesa di san Lorenzo Maggiore, la cosiddetta Crocifissione di Sibiu, conservata al Muzeul deArtă di Bucarest, e tantissime altre; la Crocifissione di Anversa (del Musée Royal de Beaux Arts),
la Madonna Salting, Abramo servito dagli angeli e San Girolamo penitente, di Reggio Calabria(Pinacoteca civica), Madonna col Bambino, il Ritratto d’uomo di Cefalù del Museo Mandralisca
di Cefalù, Il Salvator mundi, l'Annunciazione del Museo Bellomo di Siracusa, il San Girolamo
nello studio, conservato alla National Gallery di Londra e poi l'Ecce Homo, San Sebastiano, la
Crocifissione e varie Pietà e Ritratti d’Uomo, ecc., cfr. Giorgio Vasari, op. cit., p. 312 e Le
Garzantine, Enciclopedia dell’Arte.
29
Vinci, Firenze, 1452 – Amboise, 1519.
30
Da questo metodo di lavoro nacquero: il paesaggio l'Arno, dipinto in collaborazione con il
Verrocchio, il Battesimo di Cristo e le famosissime tele ora custodite dai più grandi musei delmondo – Gioconda e La Vergine delle Rocce a Parigi, Louvre, il Ritratto di Ginevra Benci a
Washington, National Gallery, la Madonna Benois a San Pietroburgo, Ermitage, la Madonna delGarofano a Monaco, Alte Pinacoteck), San Girolamo alla Pinacoteca Vaticana, l’Adorazione dei
Magi a Firenze, Uffizi ed altre.
31
Trattato della pittura, condotto sul Cod. Vaticano Urbinate, 1270, I, 33-39.
32
Forse quelle degli uccelli che Leonardo indagava mentre progettava il volo umano, cfr. Pitro
Adorno, op.cit.
33“Il primo principio della scienza della pittura è il punto, il secondo è la linea, il terzo è la superficie,
il quarto è il corpo [...] il secondo principio della pittura è l’ombra»; e si estende alla prospettiva,
che tratta della diminuzione dei corpi, dei colori e della «perdita della cognizione de’ corpi invarie distanze”. Dal disegno, che tratta della figurazione dei corpi, deriva la scienza “che si
estende in ombra e lume, o vuoi dire chiaro e scuro; la qual scienza è di gran discorso”., cfr. il
Trattato della pittura, condotto sul Cod. Vaticano Urbinate, 1270, I, 33-39.

BIBLIOGRAFIA E REFERENZE BIBLIOGRAFICHE*** (1980). La Sacra Bibbia. Edizione ufficiale della Conferenza Episcopale
Italiana, Roma.
*** (1997). La pittura italiana. Milano: Electa.
*** (2009). Enciclopedia dell’Arte. Collana Le Garzantine. Milano: Garzanti.
*** (2003). Enciclopedia “La grande storia dell’arte”, Vol. 2, “Il Gotico”. Roma:
Edizioni Scala Group, Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso.
*** Annunciazione Wikipedia. <http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annunciazione>*** Il Protovangelo di Giacomo, 11.
*** Il Vangelo secondo Luca, 1, 26-37.
*** Il Vangelo secondo Matteo, 1, 18-25.
*** Sapere.it. <http://www.sapere.it>.
*** Wikipedia, l’enciclopedia libera. <http://www.it.wikipedia.org>.
Adorno, Piero (1997). L’arte italiana, vol. II, tomo primo, Il rinascimento dalle
origini alla sua piena affermazione. Messina, Firenze: Casa editrice G. D’Anna.
Arasse, Daniel (2009). L’Annunciazione italiana – una storia della prospettiva,
con un saggio di Omar Calabrese. Firenze: Usher.
Argan, Giulio Carlo (1995). Storia dell’arte, vol. 2. Firenze: Sansoni per la scuola.
Casalini, E. (2007). Il beato Angelico e l’Armadio degli Argenti della ss.
Annunziata di Firenze. Firenze: Libro Co. Italia S.r.l.
Colosio, Gianni (2003). L’annunciazione nella pittura italiana da Giotto a Tiepolo,
Roma: Teseo editore.
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da Vinci, Leonardo. Trattato della pittura. <http://libri.pelagus.org/it/libri/
TRATTATO_DELLA_PITTURA_di_Leonardo_da_Vinci_1.html>.
De Simone, Roberto (1979). “Tra leggenda, tradizione e realtà del Natale. Un
viaggio nel presepio”. Il Mattino, 27 dicembre, Napoli.
Duchet-Suchaux, Gaston, & Michel Pastoureau (1994). La Bible et les saints :guide iconographique. Paris: Flammarion.
Lăzărescu, George (2001). Italia – Cultura e civiltà. Bucureşti: Editura Fundaţiei
„România de mâine”.
Ruggiero, Michele (1988). Il presepe italiano. Storia di un costume. Torino: Il
Capitello.
Saviano, Pasquale. Il presepio nella storia della fede e della devozione. <http://
www.prolocofratta.it/natale/presepio.pdf>.
Vasari, Giorgio (2002). Le vite dei più eccellenti pittori scultori e architetti, a curadi Jacopo Recupero. Roma: I Classici Rusconi.
Vita, Emilio (1995). Il Presepio, Ascendenze pagane nel rito cristiano del Natale.
Ravenna: Edizioni Essegi.
Wasowicz, Aleksandra (1990). “Traditions antiques dans les scènes de l’Annonciation”. Dialogues d’histoire ancienne, Vol. 16, No 2, 163-177. DOI: 10.3406/
dha.1990.1484. URL: <http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/ prescript/article/dha_0755-7256_1990_num_16_2_1484>.

74

Linguistic Problems in Old English Texts.
English – a Changing Language
Andreea Mihaela BUNICĂ
University of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages

ABSTRACTIf we were to go back in time, we would realize that the English language that weknow and use in nowadays is different from the English used by Chaucer or even
Shakespeare. In the attempt of reading old English texts, we became aware of thefact that over time, every facet of this complex language changed: the morphology,
the vocabulary, the syntax, the sounds and the semantics. These changes make usaware of the fact that the Old English should be learned as a foreign language. Thisbold idea finds its sense in many Old English texts – I will mention only one:
Aelfric’s Colloquy. This literary work is written in the form of a transcript of animaginary interview with a hunter. Here is a small sample from the work mentioned
above, sample which demonstrates that we as English readers need special studies inorder to decode the meaning of this text:“ Teacher: Ne canst thu huntian butan mid nettum?
Not canst thou hunt apart-from with nets?
Hunter: Yea, butan nettum huntian ic mǽg
Yea, apart-from nets I can [lit. may]”. (Blake, 2008: 205)
KEYWORDS: Old English, modern English grammar, inflections, spelling

As readers of English literature and not only, we realize that the English language
has suffered a lot of changes. Starting with the literature form the 17th century,
continuing with that of the 18th and 19th century, ending with the English literaturethat is created in nowadays, we notice a permanent changing process. The changes
should be seen as a “general trend, the result of thousands of minute shifts in the
vocabulary, diction, grammar, sentence structure, word order, idiom, and over-allorganization in many kinds of texts over the course of the years.” (McIntosh, 1998:
3) All these shifts in the English language resulted from crucial historical or social
moments, form cultural transformation in politics, in demography, in clothes, inmusic, in the ways of production and consumption, etc.
In 1858, the Oxford English Dictionary divided the evolution of English literarylanguage into three periods: the first one dates from 1250 to 1526 and represents
the beginning of Middle English, the second one starts from 1526 and ends in 1674
– being known as Early Modern English, and the third starts from 1674 up to thepresent.
75

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

Each of these periods has its own characteristics which can be appreciated fortheir true value only if they are studied separately. Referring to the complexity of
Old English, let us imagine for a second we are transported back in time and set
down in Winchester, where we would have the possibility to express ourselves “ina kind of ungrammatical form of Old English.” (Blake, ibidem)
It is obvious that it would take us more than a few days to master the various
inflections and meanings of words; for example the word “hund” (Blake, ibidem)
refers to dogs and “wil(d)-deor” (Blake, ibidem) may look like wild deer but in“Old English it could refer to any animal” (Blake, ibidem). These two examples
show the drastic changes that occurred in the English language. Some otherchanges occurred in the inflectional endings of Old English – if in this case there
were three vowels, Middle English uses only one. Many of the cases of distinctions
from Old English disappeared and the number of endings was reduced. Old English
had separate inflections for the singular persons as well as a different form for theplural.
Moreover, Old English had acquired an irregular plural used for the words
which had a Greek influence like:e.g.: sg. – criterion; phenomenon

pl. – criteria ; phenomena.

For these examples we must mention that in nowadays the tendency is to keep
only the plural form and to consider it the singular form. In fact, this kind of
regularization can take place on a larger scale. Old English had two categories ofverbs: strong and weak. The strong verbs were the ones that had a vowel
alternation in the past participle and past tense. For example the verb helpan (tohelp) had the past tense – healp and past participle – holpen. Most of the threehundred or so strong verbs have been lost, and all new ones entering the language
around the 17th century have been passed in the category of weak verbs.
As for the weak verbs which have been the majority throughout the history ofEnglish language, they formed the past tense by adding the termination that we also
use in the present – that is ed. For example, in Old English the past tense for theverb timbran (to build) is timbrede.
When it comes to word order, those who knew and used Middle English refused
to place an object before a verb as it happened in Old English. Therefore, whereas
in Old English, word order was fairly flexible, in Middle English, the regular order:
subject – verb – object became a rule in most cases. Generally, Old English syntax
usually placed the verb as the second constituent or at the end of the sentence – forexample:Verb as a second constituent:Tha seah Eadrid thæt scip.
Then saw Edric that/ the ship.

Verb at the end of the sentence:76Andreea Mihaela Bunică: Linguistic Problems in Old English Texts. English – a Changing
Thæt scip Eadrid, ær he thone cyning sohte.
That ship saw Edric, before he the king visited. (Blake, 2008: 218)

Placing the verb in the second position meant that the first position could be
filled by an adverb, the direct object, a noun or a prepositional phrase.
Nevertheless, if the sentence order did not survive, there are some words especiallyarticles, prepositions and pronouns which survived and were transferred from Old
English into Middle English. For example: “almost, thousand, everyday, middle,
but, by, come, more, most, than, such, kingdom, etc.” (Baker, 2003: 9) The word
kingdom can be found in Old English under another form – as a compound word –formed by cyning and dom. Dom meant judgement and in nowadays it is strictly
used as a suffix, proving itself to be a very productive one. It appears at the end ofsome modern formations such as: stardom, serfdom or gangsterdom. In fact, oldwords and old meanings often survive in compounds or in fixed expressions.
The meaning of a word often changes, for example in the past to want meant tolack and today it has completely changed its sense, representing a desire or a need.
Curiously, the old meaning of this word still lives in something like: My car wants
a wash. One of the most common ways in which words acquire new senses isthrough metaphorical extension. This is a normal and natural process throughwhich almost every word from a language acquires different meanings or it is usedin another field of activity.
In Modern English, we can find many metaphorical extensions in computer
terminology – spam, for instance, formerly referred to canned meat, but now theterm is applied to “computer – multiplied junk e-mail.” (Blake, 2008: 220)
Another example, although the transformation in the meaning meant theacquisition of a new sense occurs to the word hit – it can be used when it comes tothe visits made on a web-site. Widening the meaning of a word is a common
process and occurs in trivial ways. Take for instance, the word alibi – a Latin word
which means elsewhere, while in the law terminology it refers to someone who cantestify in your favor.
Unlike Middle English, Old English had distinct parts of speech that were notinterchangeable. For example: “… the OE noun drinc has a corresponding verb
drincan whereas today ‘drink’ is both a noun and a verb. Similarly the OE adjective
open and the verb openian are both represented by MnE ‘open’[…]” (Mitchell, &Robinson, 2007: 136)
All these morphological, syntactic and semantic changes are continuing due tothe fact that language updates itself all the time and “…is doing so more quickly
now than ever, thanks to the spread of new technologies. Visual media distract us
from the written word; advertising bombards us with disjunctive grammar; e-mails
threaten the death of spelling and punctuation as we know it.” (Russel, 2002: 230)
Therefore, Old English could be considered the first step in the evolution ofStandard or Modern English. The English vocabulary increased a lot, also with thehelp of the loan words which entered in the English usage since ancient times.

77Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

Loan words in old and middle English
Even if England could be considered an insular country, Europe was always too
close, so the English people and their language had to be influenced. This
accessible England is situated near the borders that separate the Romanic languages
from the Germanic ones. Therefore, England was designated to receive just as wellas the Latin and Roman culture messengers, the messengers of the Teutonic
culture. This particular feature will help England to combine elements from allthese cultures in order to obtain its own geniality.
English language has a myriad of loan words. This transfer was a result ofEngland’s tumultuous history. English language is profoundly different from the
French, the Italian and the German one. If the French and Italian languages kept
their Latin influence, for Germany, the Latin culture was just an ornament, being
often rejected.
England had contact with the Latin world during three different circumstances: through the Roman conquest, through Christianity and then through the Normans.
In the year 1066 – the time of the Norman Conquest, the English language began toborrow Latin words. These Latin loans had to do with Christianity, and they werewords like: epistle, angelus, disciple or apostle. This process of borrowing Latinwords occurred in England between the second half of the 16th century and the firsthalf of the 17th century. Overall, English borrowed over 10.000 words from Latin,some of them directly others through the French affiliation.
English also borrowed words from the Vikings. Although the Vikings settled in
the north, they had a huge influence in the everyday English vocabulary. They
introduced words like: egg, skirt, kick, sky, bulk, mistake, etc. Despite the fact that
Old English had its own words for the referents of these words, the Old English
version disappeared in favor of the Viking one.
England came to be ruled by French-speaking Normans after William theConqueror won the Battle of Hastings. During this period, English language
acquired thousands of words from French. These words were related toadministration (minister, chancellor, government, administer etc), to the learning
process (geometry, epilogue, grammar, archetype), the military activity (battle,
aggression, bomb, annihilation, lieutenant etc.), the spiritual life – religion(sanctuary, salvation, insurrection, Jew, cardinal etc), and many other domains.
Although French language has been the main source for borrowings, English
speakers have been in contact with speakers of numerous other languages since theearly 17th century. This means that English has acquired words from more than fifty
languages, including Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Turkish or even Chinese.
Conclusions
Every language is a strong marker of identity, therefore, knowing its essential
periods of transformation becomes the key for decoding its grammar, spelling andsyntax. Old English is an essential part of the English we use today and moreover78Andreea Mihaela Bunică: Linguistic Problems in Old English Texts. English – a Changing

it is the basis of Modern English. Although many of its rules and words
disappeared due to several linguistic changes, other rules or words survived, being
often modified and transferred in the other stages of the English language.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baker, Peter S. (2003). Introduction to Old English. London: Blackwell Publishing
UK.
Blake, Barry J. (2008). All About Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McIntosh, Carry (1998). The Evolution of English Prose 1700-1800 – Style,
Politeness and Print Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mitchell, Bruce, & Fred C. Robinson, (2007). A Guide to Old English. Seventh
Edition. London: Blackwell Publishing Ltd UK.
Russell, Shirley (2002). Grammar, Structure and Style. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.

79

On Palimpsestic Culture in Shakespeare’s Memory
by Jorge Luis Borges
Felicia BURDESCU
University of Craiova,
Faculty of Letters

ABSTRACT
Shakespeare’s Memory by Borges is an example of palimpsestic cultural universe inwhich the first and the bottom layers are deliberately erased. In a Post-modern
reconsideration of the short story there is both a reading concerning the authorial
dismantled self of the discourse (Paul De Man) and a socio-political approach on
fiction, along institutions (Michel Foucault). The Argentinean poet gives a text withan artistic representation of language limits in the 20th century, as these would be in
Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The author’s weakened subjectivity appears when trying tobridge the truth to writing in the correct mimesis. The Borgesean protagonist passes
through physical torture and madness like Hamlet, the Prince of Words, whose
memory is a supreme challenge.
KEYWORDS: palimpsestic, layers, self, mimesis, memory

There are lines like monsters […] A singular line has no
significance, a second one is required in order to give it expression.
(Eugène Delacroix)

To reconsider Shakespeare’s Memory by Borges means another line that one
wishes to mark in the reading of the famous short story by Borges. The quotation
seems appropriate for Borges himself that appears overwhelmed with the memoryof the great Elizabethan poet three hundred years past the latter’s death. The
Argentinean born writer, Jorge Luis Borges belongs to the group of Postmodernist
artists whose formation used to be multicultural from the beginning. He would
develop his international themes as well as the South American ones on attending
school in Europe, by plunging into languages and cultures in Switzerland or Spain.
Later the writer would devote himself to reading and continued to be a bookinist
for a lifetime like his father. He also inherited a large collection of world masters’
works, classical and modern, which Borges kept translating into Spanish for the
emancipation of Argentineans.
An ample reception of Borgesean works came to the readers, to the critics in theend of the 20th century, by which not only his name got validated, but also themature culture of a vast stretch of South American land uniting the borders of80

Felicia Burdescu: On Palimpsestic Culture in Shakespeare’s Memory by Jorge Luis Borges

Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, that asked to be artistically communicated. In that
respect Borges had to appear on the writers’ map, paving the way for another greatSouth American, Gabriel García Márquez.
For a Post-modern reconsideration of Shakespeare’s Memory one can apply
Paul De Man’s Allegories of Reading by which along Roland Barthes’ concept
before him, the critic reinforces the idea of subject decentring from the literary
discourse and even the dismantling of the I, the dismembering of the authorial self:“The Self, which was at first the centre of the language, its empirical referent, now
becomes the language of the centre as fiction, as metaphor of the self.” (De Man,
1996: 4) The fictional representation of such weakened subjectivity that gets spread
into the literary composition of the short story by Borges is Herman Sörgel, a
Shakespearean critic, later replaced by Daniel Thorpe, a Shakespearean lover. The
protagonists meet at a fair first, which is no doubt quite common for hand crafted
objects in Latin America. Finding each other for mediums of Shakespeare’s works,
they talk about a ring Thorpe had bought, as they are going to a Shakespeare
conference. The ring is but a detail only Sörgel finds it enough for passing
Shakespeare’s memory to Thorpe. Through the ring energy they seem to haveentered into the miraculous world of the great Elizabethan poet, whose memory
appears to govern both.
In the end of the 20th century, Post-modernism and Deconstruction become
interesting to artists and critics alike. They no longer split the Being in theircommentaries, to establish the ontology of the work of art and they rather
reconsider literatures within refocused language philosophy. Besides close reading
practised in the academic critique and along the social interpretation of fiction
Michel Foucault comments on the author’s biography structuring the literary works
through mimesis the works configurating a life for the writer. Institutions become
highly important in their social activity for the pragmatic concept of post Marxist
Foucault.
Coming back to Borges the author, he seems to be aware and knowledgeable inPost-modern critical trends whose implicit poetics he gives with La memoria de
Shakespeare. One may comment on the language of Post-modern fiction in thewriting of texts, by which a few of Borgesean meanings of memory can berevealed, for the theme round which the short story is orbiting. When writing ashort story, the artist has a different challenge with the discourse. Why theArgentinean had chosen the genre of short fiction for his creation besides poetry is
debatable. Fact is that he polished form so much in that particular work, that one
might compare it to a museum manneristic piece.
The older he grew Borges was suffering from a severe eye disease that turned
him almost blind. For that Shakespeare’s Memory has been associated with
Hoffman’s The Sandman. It appears that Shakespeare’s memory used to be suchchallenge for Borges himself that by reading and writing, activities of an
accomplished subject in the classical sense, he also got a monster affecting his
sight. Otherwise the shorter fiction allows the writer to infuse suffering, passion,
myth into the story, so that epiphanic values of the text should reach transcendence.
81Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

Besides being a stylistic treasure, the Borgesean text becomes an artistic
representation of both physical and mental torture that Shakespeare’s Hamlet used
to have in his sadomasochistic approach on language.
The palimpsestic argument of cultural layers in the fictional universe of thenovella unites a much larger cultural background than the European and Latin
America of Borges’ beginnings to write. There is a combination of worldwide
resonance in which Borges lived his mature age of a famous writer when touringother continents, either as a visiting professor, or when his short stories became
successful film scripts. In the text proper, the more Thorpe enters Shakespearean
technique and poetic achievement, the more he finds himself on the verge ofdiscentering his critical self. The writer establishes a parallel drama for his hero in
the 20th century to that of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
An exegete of Foucaultian works, Simon During gives a commentary on
language vs. memory in the institutional/social/political functioning of the written
texts, about which Borges is so intuitive as to create a work of art on that Postmodern idea. For the demonstration one should start from Plato’s theory of writing(Phaedrus) by which words carry with them a feigned truth vs. reality and throughmimesis the entire truth cannot reach us. Hamlet is the first modern hero, aRenaissance Shakespeare in fact who tries to write by bridging the textual meaning
to socio-political reality. While Hamlet writes on the book, he also writes on his
mind from memory that is through his father’s ghost’s message and that is why heis generally referred to as the Prince of Words. The aftermath of Shakespeare’s
heritage meant more a philosophical challenge than a linguistic or an artistic one.
What is left for Hamlet during Renaissance and for Sörgel or Thorpe in the endof the 20th century by being unable to encompass truth versus reality into language?
Madness, physical torture representing mental suffering constitutes their drama:“More generally still, in exploring the border at which discontinuity, madness andorder, life and death are joined and separated, the writer is repeating the limits ofrepresentation.” (During, 1980: 209) Hamlet is the first to enter the trammelling
about language that cannot be solved when passing into the puzzling language
description, prescription and to prediction in the end. He tries to the absolute inwilling to give the people of Denmark the correct mimesis in a text /book. Then heresorts to acting and makes use of a play within a play, but partly succeeds inrestoring truth or changing social evil, political crime. And by challenging Laertes
he finds revenge only not in a religious sense, for in the Script truth has never been
fully revealed by God. So Hamlet has to face a second madness, this time notfinding his own identity either. “This is I, Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark” is more
uncertain a soliloquy on jumping into Ophelia’s grave than the voiced: “To be, toseem” in the beginning.
“Hamlet has served as a classic model for claims that literary texts obey nogeneral laws, that each is unique and that therefore literature captures reality mostfinely.” (During, ibidem) Therefore the Borgesean short story captures the dramaof the Post-modern hero for whom in reality there is not even one opportunity toenter critique or writing any biography of Great Will, as Shakespeare’s memory82Felicia Burdescu: On Palimpsestic Culture in Shakespeare’s Memory by Jorge Luis Borges

becomes the ghost of too heavy a challenge. It seems the death of the subject has
been encountered in the literary text, while Thorpe, almost mad with his insideorgans outside and his mind racing, cannot but pass Shakespeare’s memory tosomeone unknown on the phone. It also appears that the technical means of anothercentury have entered into the story.
Borges’ eyesight gone into blindness, one might say the monster devoured his
most intelligent sense and what is left for the writer, there is only a rhapsody ofwords in the short story, the one that Hamlet gets in the end, too. He also tries asadomasochistic approach on language like the Elizabethan character that istransferred a text by the ghost, thus turning the finitude of language into sensation.
It is not surprising for Borges to have imagined human existence, including thework of art in the perfectly organized form and content of a book. A modern
Pythagorean concept, by replacing golden numbers with letters. Infinity and the set
theory enter that book, too, the future represented simply on a blank page, in
between the written ones. And by discarding the first and the bottom layers of his
cultural universe, the writer seems to have left, like the Navajo tribes a small holein one corner of the carpet, through which the arché of art, a remote god should
enter to transform the materiality of the threads into genuine art. (Amy Greenfield)
There is a humanitarian message in artistic form, behind which the writer
disappears. Should all the effort of creation or blindness he suffered be devoted toart for art’s sake? The answer is to be found by one last photo of Borges, old andblind in the lobby of the L’Hôtel de Paris the place where, one century before,
Oscar Wilde had died, rejected by contemporaries.
REFERENCESDe Man, Paul (1996). Allegories of Reading. London: Yale University Press.
Dean, Carolyn J. (1992). The Self and Its Pleasures. Bataille, Lacan and theHistory of Discentered subject. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
During, Simon (1980). Foucault and Literature. London: Routledge.
Hassan, Ihab (1987). The Postmodern Turn, Essays in Postmodern theory andCulture. Ohio: Ohio State University Press.
Iser, Wolfgang (2000). The Range of Interpretation. New York: C.N.P.
Norris, Christopher (1991). Deconstruction theory and Practice. London:
Routledge.
Vattimo, Gianni (1995). Dincolo de subiect. Constanţa: Pontica.

83

Dealing with Errors in TEFL
Adrian-Florin BUŞUUniversity of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages

ABSTRACTThis article is an attempt to discuss the nature of errors that are often encountered
while teaching English as a foreign language and the ways of dealing with them.
The paper tackles the difference between mistakes and errors as Noam Chomsky
defined and focuses upon the methods that can be applied during the process ofteaching. It also analyses the professor’s attitude to errors, as nothing will undermine
a learner’s confidence as much as a series of derogatory comments on his language.
Therefore the professor should have a positive attitude to errors and be prepared to
do something about it.
KEYWORDS: error, mistake, strategies, correction, positive attitude

As teachers of English as a foreign language, we are members of an establishedworldwide profession. It is our position as practicing professors that gives us theopportunity of noticing the errors our students frequently make. This issue has
definitely been going on for quite some time, yet theorists have only recently tried
to explain who should accept responsibility. Naturally, there are two main
approaches regarding this topic: some consider students as mainly responsible,
whilst others consider teachers to be responsible. Yet, it seems that all thisbickering has missed the point. On one hand, teachers can be blamed for causing
errors by careless teaching or planning, but on the other hand, if teachers blame thestudents, their accusations will be directed at lack of motivation or self-discipline.
But no matter how much truth there may be on either side, students do make errors,even when learning under the best possible conditions. We think it would me more
useful to analyze the cause of errors rather than trying to find who is to blame.
Learning a foreign language is a gradual process, during which mistakes are to
be expected in all stages of learning. Mistakes will not disappear simply because
they have been pointed out to the learner, contrary to what some language learners
believe. Language acquisition does not happen unless the student is relaxed andkeen on learning. Fear of making mistakes prevents students from being receptive
and responsive. In order to overcome learners’ fear it is essential to create afriendly and relaxed atmosphere in language classrooms, to encourage cooperation
through peer work or small group work and apply techniques for language
acquisition that suit and involve individual learners.
84Adrian-Florin Buşu: Dealing with Errors in TEFL

Another aspect of overcoming fear of mistakes is the way mistakes can be
remedied. Majority of EFL professors assume an active role in error rectification,
while learners prefer being passive and rely on professors to point out their
mistakes. In the long run, as M. Lewis (1993) observed, this approach is neither
efficient nor efficacious, particularly in treating the so-called fossilized errors. The
contemporary emphasis on learner-centeredness and autonomy suggests that insome settings learner’s self-correction of errors might be more beneficial for
language learning than professor’s correction. This assumption has neither been
confirmed nor disproved in the relevant literature.
We will start our demonstration by making a distinction between errors andmistakes. One of the most distinguished American linguists, Noam Chomsky(1986: 107), separated errors from mistakes as two distinctive notions. He
observed that native speakers make many mistakes when speaking. However, anative speaker has by definition a perfect command of his language, more precisely
a perfect knowledge of grammatical rules, lexis and sound system. Mistakes are acommon problem, which can occur when we speak too fast, think too quickly, or
are nervous or tired. Mistakes are caused by psychological restrictions, memory
lapses, distractions, changes of direction half-way through the sentence, hesitation,
slips of the tongue, confusion etc. Errors, on the other hand, are a systematically
produced problem, which is usually the result of ingrained patterns of language that
we are not aware of. Errors are caused by lack of knowledge about the target
language.
It is a well known fact that learning a foreign language is, naturally, moredifficult than one’s mother tongue. Grown-ups or students in our case areadvantaged as they have already acquired complex structures while learning
mother tongues, thus developing strategies for learning in general. Having reachedthis point of our demonstration, it is worth remembering that the behaviourists haveconsidered the process of language learning as the acquisition of skills, comparable
to the process of learning to do something practical, such as riding a bicycle.
Theoreticians observed that main skills are divided into smaller logical parts,
intended as logical actions that would avoid errors. Still, students do make errors.
Why then? A plausible explanation might be that students, if faced with a difficult
task, are unable to concentrate or control their performance on every aspect of thetask at the same time. Other explanations refer to incomplete knowledge of thetarget language, mother-tongue interference, overgeneralization or simply errors
caused by teaching materials or methods.
In his book, Language and Language Learning, Nelson Brooks considered error
to have a relationship to learning resembling that of sin to virtue: “Like sin, error is
to be avoided and its influence overcome, but its presence is to be expected.”(1960: 58).
Brooks suggested an instructional procedure that would, ostensibly, help
language students produce error-free utterances:85

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
The principal method of avoiding error in language learning is to observe andpractice the right model a sufficient number of times; the principal way ofovercoming it is to shorten the time lapse between the incorrect response and thepresentation once more of the correct model. (1960: 60)

If students continue to produce errors using this stimulus-response method,
inadequate teaching techniques or unsequenced instructional materials are toblame.
Having said that, we will observe that there is one crucial aspect regarding
errors: the professor’s attitude towards it. A series of derogatory comments on
student’s language performance will end in undermining learner’s confidence.
Moreover, insensitive correction during oral work can be particularly damaging
because it encourages a withdrawal attitude in the student. Some researchers,
Sullivan and Lingreen for example, argue that students tend to focus more on
correcting errors than on developing learning techniques, such as self-assessment
and reflection, which will give them skills to become more effective autonomous
learners. In light of this, in his article Error and Corrective Feedback Theory,
Ancker refers to a consistent pattern of errors. In his study, 76% of the students
interviewed conveyed that the teacher should always correct their errors, otherwise
they wouldn’t learn to speak English correctly. For teachers, the opposite was true:
75% of the teachers interviewed in Ancker’s study agreed that errors “shouldn’t
always be corrected because in doing so the student’s confidence and motivation
could be negatively affected.” (2000: 68).
We should not forget that when the teacher corrects a speaking error, what he or
she is actually doing is providing a correct model for the learner to emulate.
Nevertheless, the professor must have a positive attitude to errors and be prepared
to do something about it. Correcting errors should be made with extreme caution:
too much correction produces a class of students whose fluency suffers. They
become overly concerned with grammatically correct responses. They produce
lengthy pauses before answering even the most simple of questions, focusing too
much on word order, verb tense etc. If the professor swings the pendulum the otherway and corrects too little, then words tumble out of the mouths of students. What
comes out is full of problems with grammar and vocabulary. Too much and too
little correction can hinder communication.
When errors occur as a result of mother-tongue interference, they may beremedied by a bombardment of correct forms. This activity can be achieved by theuse of intense over-teaching. If errors occur as a result of overgeneralization, errors
are not to be regarded as signs of failure, but as evidence that the student isworking his way towards the correct rules.
There are essentially three basic forms of error correction:- Self-correction- Peer correction- Professor correction
Of these the most effective in English or foreign language skills acquisition isself-correction. When students realize and correct their own mistakes, they are86Adrian-Florin Buşu: Dealing with Errors in TEFL

more effectively internalizing the language. The next most desirable and effective
form is peer correction. When students are able to recognize and correct their
mistakes collectively, they actually help each other to develop English language
skills with less interference of their respective Affective Filters (Krashen, &Terrell, 1983: 106). Finally, there is correction of errors by the professor. An
effective means, but one that should be last and the least frequently used form ofEnglish or other foreign language correction. In cases where the EFL professor
may not be a native or near-native speaker, has grammar or pronunciation
problems, heavy accent or speech traits or may otherwise desire to do so, recorded
audio or video materials could be used to provide corrective modelling.
Here are some ideas on error correction in ELT, according to Adrian Doff
(1988):
1. Distinguishing between serious and minor errors may be a good guide inchoosing what to correct.
2. The professor should prioritize what they are correcting and grading. We
should not focus only on grammar because students start to think that grammar isthe only thing that counts in writing. Most professors react primarily to surface
errors, treating the composition as if it were “a series of separate sentences or evenclauses, rather than as a whole unit of discourse.” (Zamel, 1985: 86)
3. It is a good idea to distinguish between writers who have tried and who havenot. Presentation, obvious spelling, punctuation, and capitalization mistakes may
be there because the student did not bother to edit and proofread own paper. The
student could be asked to edit it before checking the assignment.
4. Lower level learners particularly will have trouble with finding theappropriate word and they need more modelling. We should provide correct
vocabulary choices. Most of the time word choice is idiomatic or conventionallyagreed upon and it is difficult for the learners to come up with the correct orappropriate word even if they consult the dictionary.
5. When correcting prepositions, a very common error in the writing of foreign
learners of English, it is a good idea to provide the correct preposition if it isintroduced the first time. For recurrent errors, indicating wrong preposition use andexpecting the learners to self-correct would be a good idea.
6. Professors should use consistent and standardized methods to indicate to theirstudents the type and place of errors. Correction legends, lists of symbols often
prove useful if the professor first trains students on their meaning and what is
expected from the students when a certain symbol is used.
7. Written comments on content should be consistent. Professors must use a setof clear and direct comments and questions, and also should familiarize students
with these comments. These comments must address the strategies required to
improve the essay and not just indicate what the professor found lacking orinteresting. It has been reported that without training, students just tend to ignore
written comments on their essays.
8. Lower level learners have been found to benefit from more direct correction
rather than indirect correction in which symbols are used or the place of error has
87

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

been indicated. Another thing that has to be kept in mind in teaching beginninglevel students is, because the students are struggling with both linguistic structure
and writing conventions, the professor has to stress different things at different
times. When the learners are making so many mistakes, it may be futile for the
professor to try to correct every error on the paper: it will be a waste of both timeand effort for the professor and very discouraging and unmanageable for the
student. Sometimes the we should wait for the students to reach some fluency, thenstress correctness.
9. It has been found that students who receive feedback and self-correct their
mistakes during revision are more likely to develop their linguistic competence
than those who receive no feedback and those who are not asked to do re-writes.
Therefore, revision in the form of re-writes is a must if we want any improvement.
10. Conferencing is a particularly useful technique to show the learners theerrors in their papers. Students can directly ask the professor questions on theissues they have trouble with. At the same time the professor may check thestudents’ meaning and understanding.
However, it seems that the most difficult task is to have the right balance oferror correction. There are some recognizable signs that tell us whether we’ve got itright or wrong:- Students are losing their fluency when they speak because they are scared ofmaking mistakes;- Many of the errors we correct are things they knew but were just slips of the
tongue;- Students show with their facial expressions or body language that they are notopen to correction;- Feedback after a speaking or writing task means mainly error correction, witha lack of suggesting more complex language, making encouraging comments etc;
- Students make many false friend errors;- The professor does not consider which errors could lead to miscommunication
before correcting them.
It is generally agreed that correction is part of the teaching/learning process, but thatover-correction and poor correction techniques can be demotivating for the learnerand may lead to a reluctance to try out new language or even to speak at all.
According to Bartram and Walton (1991), professors need to make informed
decisions about what, when and how to correct in order to help students improvetheir speaking skills without damaging their confidence.

It is vital that the language professor be concerned about what is going on in thelearner’s mind and prepared to discuss language problems. He must be prepared tohelp students sort things out for themselves and should not be too hasty in rejecting
a controlled amount of grammatical terminology and mother tongue explanation.
Grammatical explanation alone, however, is most unlikely to be effective; it isbetter used as a back-up device or extra strategy at the revision stage. Anyway, we
88Adrian-Florin Buşu: Dealing with Errors in TEFL

should not forget that students do their best to sort things out for themselves andsometimes they require both intellectual and mechanical help.
To conclude with, we should add that the process of learning a language is along and challenging one during which a learner will inevitably make errors. In
other words we take countless tiny steps going from not speaking a language tobeing fluent in that language. As shown above, students who are continuallycorrected become inhibited and cease to participate. This results in the exact
opposite of what the teacher is trying to produce – the use of English tocommunicate. To avoid such an end, error correction should not be regarded as aneither/or issue. Correction needs to take place, and is expected and desired by
students. However, the manner in which teachers correct students plays a vital rolein whether students become confident in their usage or become intimidated.
Correcting students as a group, in correction sessions at the end of activities, andletting them correct their own errors, all help in encouraging students to use
English rather than allowing them to worry about making too many errors. Yet, themost effective way to correct learners’ errors can be made only with a thoroughanalysis of the needs and expectations of the learners.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ancker, William (2000). Error and Corrective Feedback Theory. Hove: L. T.
Publications
Bartram, M., & R. Walton (1991). Correction: A positive approach to language
mistakes. Hove: Language Teaching Publications.
Brooks, Nelson (1960). Language and Language Learning. New York andBurlingame: Harcourt, Brace and Company.
Chomsky, Noam (1986). Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use.
Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press.
Doff, A. (1988). Teach English: A training course for teachers. Trainer’s
handbook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Krashen, S.D., & T.D. Terrell (1983). The natural approach: Language acquisitionin the classroom. London: Prentice Hall Europe.
Lewis, M. (1993). The lexical approach: The state of ELT and a way forward.
Hove: Language Teaching Publications.
Zamel, V. (1985). Responding to Student Writing. TESOL Quarterly.

89Sulle traduzioni di Alfred Alessandrescu dall’italiano inromeno dei libretti di opera
Nicoleta CĂLINA
Università di Craiova,
Facoltà di Lettere

ABSTRACT: On Alfred Alessandrescu’s Translations of Opera Libretti from
Italian into Romanian
Alfred Alessandrescu was a Romanian composer, conductor, pianist and musicalcriticist (b. August 2, 1893 - d. February 18, 1959). He was musical correspondent
for the magazine Comoedia from Paris, Il pianoforte from Torino, Musical Courier
from New York, and The Chesterian from London. After 1947, is the moment when
the librettos of the most famous and most frequently performed opera on the
Romanian stages will be translated into Romanian: among other titles, Traviata andAida, by Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, translated from
Italian into Romanian by the grandmaster Alfred Alessandrescu.
The paper will focus on the characteristics of these translations and on the links ofthe translator with the Italian cultural world.
KEYWORDS: translation, Italian opera librettos, European culture

Alfred Alessandrescu è stato un compositore, direttore d’orchestra, pianista e
critico musicale romeno (2 agosto 1893 – 18 febbraio 1959). Ha studiato con
Dimitrie G. Kiriac (teoria, solfeggio, armonia) e dal 1905, quando a Bucarest si
fonda la prima classe di composizione, con Alfonso Castaldi, un compositore,
professore di musica e direttore d’orchestra di origine italiana, stabilitosi in
Romania all’età di 20 anni. Si è perfezionato presso la Schola Cantorum di Parigi e
ha frequentato anche la Facoltà di Giurisprudenza di Parigi che ha interrotto acausa della prima guerra mondiale.
Dopo un debutto di successo come compositore all’età di 17 anni, Alfred
Alessandrescu si è sempre occupato dell’attività di direttore d’orchestra e di critico
musicale. Ha cominciato come direttore d’orchestra presso l’Orchestra Filarmonica
di Bucarest (20 dicembre 1915) dove vi ha lavorato (1926-1940) come VicePreside (1926-1937), e come pianista di musica da camera (1919-1945). Diventa
direttore d’orchestra al Teatro di Opera di Romania a Bucarest (1921-1959),
professore di teoria e solfeggio (1932-1934) e di armonia-contrappunto (19381939) presso il Conservatorio di Musica di Bucarest, direttore musicale della Radio
Romania (1933-1938, 1945-1947), direttore artistico e direttore permanentedell’Orchestra Sinfonica Radio di Bucarest (1933-1959). La sua attività di critico
musicale diventerà complementare a quella di corrispondente musicale delle riviste
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Nicoleta Călina: Sulle traduzioni di Alfred Alessandrescu dall’italiano in romeno dei…

Musica e Comoedia di Parigi, Il pianoforte di Torino, Musical Courier di New
York e The Chesterian a Londra.
Ha concertato, come pianista accompagnatore e come direttore d’orchestra,
insieme ai più grandi artisti del mondo: George Enescu, Jacques Thibaud, Arthur
Rubinstein, Claudio Arrau, Sviatoslav Richter, Nathan Milstein, ecc. ed ha direttopiù di 1500 spettacoli di opera, operetta e balletto. Come direttore d’orchestra, giratutta l’Europa, e come pianista di musica da camera, collabora intensamente
soprattutto con George Enescu e Jacques Thibaud. Laureato del I Premio (1916) al
concorso di composizione “George Enescu”, l’Ordine del Merito Culturale nel
grado di Cavaliere, I classe (1940), e di Cavaliere della Legione francese d’Onore(1930), diventa persino Maestro Emerito Dell’Arte nel 1954.
Verso la fine della sua vita, ha firmato numerose orchestrazioni e trascrizioni diopere di Bach, Brahms, Canteloube, Tchaikovsky, Handel, Rossini, Verdi, ecc. che
mettono in evidenza la sua grande raffinatezza come orchestratore. Per l’Opera
Romena ha tradotto i libretti delle opere: Parsifal, Aurul Rinului (Das Rheingold)
di R. Wagner, Don Juan di Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Thais di Jules Massenet,
La forza del destino (Forţa destinului), Aida di Giuseppe Verdi e Madame
Butterfly di Giacomo Puccini (Alessandrescu, 1977: 10). Su quest’ultima
traduzione del libretto Madame Butterfly1 parleremo nella nostra relazione.
Facendo un breve excursus temporale tra le varie personalità del mondo
culturale romeno che si sono occupate delle traduzioni dei libretti delle opere
italiane in romeno, cominciamo dal fatto che nel 1838 gli studenti delConservatorio Filarmonico Drammatico di Iasi daranno la prima rappresentazione
di opera in romeno, con la Norma di Vincenzo Bellini su un libretto di Felice
Romani. Questo è uno dei primi libretti d’opera tradotti in romeno, nelle traduzioni
consecutive di Gh. Asachi e di I. Heliade Rădulescu.
Iniziando dagli anni 1885-86, anche il creatore della scuola romena di cantoGeorge Stephănescu (nato nel 1843) – fondatore e direttore dell’Opera Romena di
Bucarest e poi della Società Lirica Romena (Compania Lirică Română) – si occupadella traduzione in romeno dei libretti d’opera, operetta e oratori, testi di arie e dicanzonette. (Şerban-Pârâu, 2003)
Il libretto dell’opera buffa Falstaff di Giuseppe Verdi su un libretto di Arrigo
Boito viene tradotto nel 1939 dal compositore, direttore d’orchestra e direttore delConservatorio di Musica di Bucarest, il romeno Ioan Nonna Otescu.
Gheorghe Dima, compositore, direttore d’orchestra ed insegnante romeno(1847-1925) ha lavorato intensamente anche come traduttore in romeno dei librettid’opera, dei testi di cantate e di canzonette.
George Drumur, scrittore, publicista, musicologo e traduttore romeno (19111992) tradurrà nel 1967 in romeno il libretto di Felice Romani del L’elisir d’amore(Elixirul dragostei) di Gaetano Donizetti e darà alle stampe, nel 1968, un’altra
versione romena del libretto, sempre di Felice Romani, di Norma, di Vincenzo
Bellini, ambedue per L’Opera Romena di Timişoara.
Soffermandoci solo sul periodo e sull’atmosfera culturale del secondo
dopoguerra e dei motivi per cui i testi in romeno dei libretti stranieri d’opera
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saranno indispensabili, dobbiamo accennare al fatto che l’arte musicale, come tutte
le altre, ha sofferto enormemente sotto il totalitarismo. In Romania, dopo la
Seconda Guerra Mondiale, quando la propaganda comunista comincia a sfiorare
anche il mondo culturale, è obbligatorio cantare in romeno anche all’opera.
Nell’epoca del proletcultismo2, non era ammissibile l’interpretazione delle
opere nella lingua originale, considerandosi in questo modo che l’accesso delle“masse” alla cultura Slogan demagogico dei comunisti sia limitato. (Tuchilă,2008). Il massimo delle atrocità contro la musica è stato raggiunto negli anni dellostalinismo. Dopo il 23 agosto 1944, quando la Romania ha aderito alla coalizionedelle Nazioni Unite, lo stalinismo fa sentire la sua presenza, che diventa sempre più
forte con il passare degli anni e con la consolidazione del regime comunista. Comein ogni altro campo culturale, anche nella musica ci sono stati dei cambiamenti:
dalle Filarmoniche e dalle orchestre furono espulsi molti professionisti, e si
considera che cantare in una lingua straniera è segno di cosmopolitismo (Lambru,
2010). Nella sua intervista per il Centro della Storia orale della Radio Romena, nel
1994, il direttore d’orchestra Emanuel Elenescu ricorda l’interrogatorio dellacomissione di tre persone accaduto durante la dittatura comunista: accanto a
Theodor Rogalski e Constantin Bobescu, Alfred Alessandrescu è uno dei musicisti
considerati più cosmopoliti che sono interrogati dalla comissione comunista.
Questa è una delle ragioni per cui i libretti delle opere straniere saranno tradotti
in romeno, per rendere cioè possibile l’interpretazione del testo delle arie o delle
opere in romeno. E’ il momento in cui si tradurranno i libretti delle opere più
famose e più rappresentate sui palcoscenici romeni: tra gli altri titoli, Traviata eAida, di Giuseppe Verdi e Madame Butterfly di Giacomo Puccini, tradotte
dall’italiano in romeno dal grande maestro Alfred Alessandrescu presso la Casa
Editrice “Editura Muzicală” di Bucarest.
Alfred Alessandrescu è un buon conoscitore della lingua italiana (e non solo – è
ben noto il fatto che parlava perfettamente il francese), ma è anche un traduttore
talentato, mostrando ad ogni frase la buona padronanza delle due lingue, la sua
straordinaria competenza linguistica attraverso il modo in cui si muove conraffinatezza tra il prototesto e il metatesto.
Prendiamo per primo la bellissima traduzione della frase di Suzuki del primo
atto, che colpisce per la sua raffinatezza dell’espressione:
Dei crucci la trama smaglia il sorriso. Schiude alla perla il guscio, apre all’uom
l’uscio del Paradiso. Profumo degli dei… fontana della vita…
A mâniei spaimă-ntrerupse surâsul. Deschide perlei scoica, deschide omului poarta
paradisului. Parfumul zeilor... Fântâna zeilor...

Nel caso delle traduzioni dei libretti di Alfred Alessandrescu non parliamo solo
di uno stile molto elegante nell’esprimersi, ma anche di una fedeltà al testo molto
ampia dell’atto di tradurre, e questo lo possiamo rintracciare in frasi come:… è un facile vangelo che fa la vita vaga ma che intristisce il cor.
Uşoară evanghelie ce face viaţa largă, dar inima-ntristează.

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Negli anni ’50-’60, rendere una traduzione fedele al testo di partenza non era la
principale preoccupazione di quei traduttori che erano loro stessi eccellenti
scrittori. La tendenza a riscrivere il libro o il libretto d’opera nel loro proprio stile avolte superava la preoccupazione di rendere un servizio totalmente fedele
all’autore. Un merito a parte di questo compositore-traduttore è quello che non si
allontana affatto dal significato del testo di partenza, rendendolo in romeno
integralmente dal punto di vista semantico:Gran perla di sensale!
Eşti piatră nestemată!
Bimba dagli occhi pieni di malia ora sei tutta mia. Sei tutta vestita di giglio.
Dulce copil cu ochi plini de farmec... da, eşti a mea, a mea eşti. Eşti încununată de crini.

Qualche volta gioca sulla topica della frase che viene cambiata per mantenere
però, la musicalità del brano:
Vinto si tuffa, la sorte riacciuffa.
Cu sânge rece sfidează el soarta.

Il fatto che lui stesso è l’autore dei versi messi sulle note/solfeggio lo aiuteranno
a dare la soluzione ottimale rispetto non solo all’equivalenza linguistica, ma anche
al mantenimento del ritmo della frase:
Trema, brilla ogni favilla col baglior d’una pupilla. Oh! quanti occhi fisi, attenti,d’ogni parte a riguardar! Pei firmamenti, via pei lidi, via pel mare… ride il ciel!
Ah! dolce notte! Tutto estatico d’amor, ride il ciel!
Tremur’, străluce orice scânteie în lumina lor cea vie. Ah! Câţi ochi fixaţi atenţi
sunt! De colo, sus, privesc! Din depărtare şi pe ţărnuri şi pe ape... Priviri multe...
Râde cerul ! Ah! Dulce noapte! Totul e plin de-amor, sublim amor!...

Oppure:Tutta la primavera voglio che olezzi qui.
Iar primăvara caldă dulce miros va răspândi.
E affascina i cuori…
… e li prende, e li avvolge in un bianco mantel. E via se li reca negli alti reami.
Şi farmecă firea ...
... şi le fură şi le-nvăluie în mantie albă ... departe ea le duce pe-alte ţărmuri...
Di strapparvi assai mi costa dai miraggi ingannatori.
Greu îmi vine să vă-ntorc de la iluzia-nşelătoare.
E la canzon giuliva e lieta in un singhiozzo finirà.
Şi cântul vesel şi aşa de trist, într-un suspin el va sfârşi.

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Scuoti quella fronda di ciliegio e m’innonda di fior. Io vò tuffar nella pioggia
odorosa l’arsa fronte.
Adu ramuri de cireşi în floare şi-nconjură-mă cu flori. Vreau să mă-ncânt într-un văl
de miresme ameţitoare.
Anime sante degli avi! Alla piccina s’è spento il sol!
Doamne sfânt din ceruri! Vai, micuţei pământul i s-a deschis acum!
Addio, fiorito asil di letizia e d’amor… Sempre il mite suo sembiante con strazio
atroce vedrò.
Adio, înfloritor lăcaş de plăceri şi amor... mereu dulce întristată plină de spaimă ovăd...
Sotto il gran ponte del cielo non v’è donna di voi più felice.
Sub marea boltă a cerului nu-i suflet aşa de ferice.

Ritornando allo scopo di questo breve studio comparatistico tra i due libretti,
quello in italiano e quello in romeno, dobbiamo fare riferimento alla chiarezza e
alla freschezza del modo di esprimersi del traduttore.
Gli ostacoli più difficili per una traduzione rimangono quelli che riguardano il
dialogo interculturale, ma nel caso di Alfred Alessandrescu possiamo parlare delsuperamento di questi ostacoli sin dall’inizio della sua attività musicale, dovuta
all’orizzonte culturale del traduttore, alla sua intuizione corretta, alla sua
vocazione, all’ispirazione e alla sua ampia mobilità nel mondo della cultura
europea, ottenuta sia attraverso i viaggi con l’orchestra, sia attraverso le sue vaste
letture culturali.
Nella sua attività di editorialista musicale, i suoi articoli sono stati notati perl’elegante stile letterario e trasparente, privo di durezza, ma anche di concessioni.
Questa impronta si manterrà anche per la sua traduzione, che si caratterizza per ilrispetto verso lo stile del libretto. Un elenco statistico fatto dal compositore stesso
riporta alla nostra curiosità delle cifre impressionanti: 1528 spettacoli di opera e diballetto e 111 concerti con solisti dimostrano un ottimo e intenso studio del librettodell’opera da tradurre.
Per quanto riguarda il collegamento col mondo artistico italiano, sappiamo disicuro dalle cronache del tempo che egli ha collaborato con il compositore italiano
Pietro Mascagni che incontrò durante la sua visita a Bucarest nel 1928. Un altro
nome che appartiene al mondo musicale e a cui si collega l’attività di Alfred
Alessandrescu è quello di Alfredo Casella, musicista torinese, anche lui amico diGeorge Enescu.
Sempre nell’ambito dei collegamenti tra le due culture segnaliamo che scriverà
in italiano la cronaca musicale per Il Pianoforte – la rivista mensile di Torino –cronache intitolate ogni volta Lettera da Bucarest, dove non poche volte accenneràa degli spettacoli tenuti all’Opera Romena di Bucarest in cui si accosterà a dei
nomi di artisti italiani venuti per concerti nella capitale romena: ad esempio ai due
concerti di musica italiana organizzati da Alceo Toni di Milano, al violonista Remy94

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Principe (Alessandrescu, 1977: 72), ai direttori d’orchestra: i maestri Egisto Tango
ed Umberto Pessione (Idem: 61).
Mostrando una profonda conoscenza della letteratura del teatro lirico, questi hadato sempre valore alla frase musicale, tenendo conto del contenuto del testo e delsuo inquadramento ottimale nella trasposizione musicale. Le sue traduzioni
servono tanto al testo quanto alla musica, perché sono l’espressione della serenità edella grazia di un grande talento.
Oggi, quando si canta in italiano su tutte le scene dei teatri romeni d’opera, si
sottotitolano in gran parte le versioni espressive del valentissimo Alfred
Alessandrescu che si dimostrano essere un importantissimo contributo dal punto divista linguistico nell’incontro delle due culture.
La personalità artistica di Alfred Alessandrescu occupa un posto singolare nella
storia della musica del ventesimo secolo romeno. Musicista complesso ed
intellettualmente eccezionalmente dotato (si sa che leggeva a prima vista lepartiture più complesse di opera e sinfoniche, raffinato e sensibile critico
musicale), ha stimolato la vita musicale romena per più di mezzo secolo,rimanendo uno dei musicisti più attivi della Romania nel processo di maturazione e
di affermazione della scuola romena moderna di musica e uno dei più raffinati
traduttori della librettistica italiana.
NOTE
1

L’opera Madame Butterfly è stata scritta sul libretto di G. Giacosa e di L. Illica secondo la versione
drammatizzata di David Belasco della novella di John Luther Long. L’opera la cui premiera èstata alla Scala di Milano il 17 febbraio 1904 e, dopo l’insucceso, rifatta da Puccini nel maggiodello stesso anno e rappresentata al Teatro Grande di Brescia.
2
Corrente sorta dopo la Rivoluzione russa dell’Ottobre 1917 che negava ogni cultura del passato.

BIBLIOGRAFIA
Alessandrescu, Alfred (1977). Scrieri alese. Ediţie îngrijită şi studiu introductiv deIleana Raţiu. Bucureşti: Editura Muzicală.
Buga, Ana, & Cristina Maria Sârbu (1999). 4 secole de teatru muzical. Bucureşti:Style.
Chelaru, Carmen (2007). Cui i-e frică de istoria muzicii?. Iaşi: Artes.
Florea, Anca (2001). Opera Română. Bucureşti: INFO-TEAM.
François-Sappey, Brigitte (2008). Istoria muzicii în Europa. Bucureşti:GRAFOART.
Iliuţ, Vasile (1995-2001). De la Wagner la contemporani, 5 vol. Bucureşti: Editura
Muzicală.
Lambru, Steliu (2010). “Musique et stalinisme: qu’en était-il en Roumanie?”.
IDEOZ, Magazine d’information sur les Voyages, Cultures & Loisirs, 8 février.
Ocneanu, Gabriela (1993). Istoria muzicii universale. Iaşi: Centrul de Studii
Bizantine.

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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

Oltea Şerban-Pârâu (2003). “Aniversarea unui simbol muzical autohton”. Atelier
LiterNet, 30 oct.
Pascu, George, & Maria Boţocan, (2003). Carte de istoria muzicii. Iaşi: Vasiliana.
Stoianov, Carmen, & Mihaela Marinescu (2007). Istoria muzicii universale.
Bucureşti: Editura Fundaţiei România de Mâine.
Stoianov, Carmen, & Petru Stoianov (2005). Istoria muzicii româneşti. Bucureşti:Editura Fundaţiei România de Mâine.
Ştefănescu, Ioana (2002). O istorie a muzicii universale. Bucureşti: Editura
Fundaţiei Culturale Române.
Tomescu, Vasile (1962). Alfred Alessandrescu. Bucureşti: Editura Muzicală.
Tuchilă, Costin (2008). “Istorii mai puţin ştiute”. Informaţia, 20 sept.
Vancea, Zeno (1979). Creaţia muzicală românească, secolele XIX-XX. Bucureşti:Editura Muzicală.

96

Complexio oppositorum or the Union of Opposites from
Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound to the Banished One
of Alexandru Philippide’s
Costina-Denisa CERĂCEANU
University of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages

ABSTRACT
Starting from Hesiod and Eschil, both Shelley and Philippide thought of a
Prometheus barely rooted in the Greek source, but in whose absence the poets could
not have had a pattern for their later physiological investigation of the humanity
advocate. It is necessary to observe how the Romanian poet grasps Shelley’s
influence and when he separates, in his creation, both from the Greek source as well
as from the English one. The contamination with the biblical source allows poets theemploy of a tragically point of view which “(...) acquires a human pattern ofrebellion and sacrifice altogether.”1 – thus, through poetical revelation, the two
Prometheus mourn their faith subjected to physical and psychic oppression. The way
Alexandru Philippide plays with symbols and the amount of Shelley’s influence ispresented in a thorough study, starting from classic roots up to the final pattern inwhich we discover a complexio oppositorum Prometheus.
KEYWORDS: sacrifice, complexio oppositorum, black and white, demon anddivinePoetry has passionately portrayed, from ancient times, the most rebel of the world’s
titans, Prometheus: “– No, I will not obey!” 2 – the iconic figure who shows loveand pity for the humans by stealing the fire form the heights of the Olympus. Either
he is banished or unbound, the titan Prometheus will always be the spokesperson
for the human sufferings and humanity altogether, humanity who, too often, forgets
or is malicious. No matter the masks he puts on, either is that of Adam, Noah,
Christ, Satan, or the Creator himself, or bears the mask of the suffering poet –Philippide – Prometheus borrows form each the most beautiful attributes, the ones
which suit him best.
This titan is firstly described by Hesiod, and then by the parent of the Greek
tragedy Aeschylus, who completes the already existent portrait with newhumanistic features for the titan. He sees the titan like an immortal god, who offers
the humans the most important gift – the fire, the foundation of the civilization
itself, gift for which the titan ultimately pays and if inflicted great pain, chained ona rock, in Caucasus.
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Francis Bacon believes Prometheus is the Providence, a divine Creator, a God
born with the gift of creation, for Bacon thinks: „Prometheus clearly and expressly
signifies providence; for all the things in nature, the formation and endowment ofman was singled out by the ancients and esteemed the peculiar work ofProvidence.”3 The new features transform the titan into a martyr and a hero, whoreceives Zeus’ punishment, a Zeus, who resembles more the Gnostic Yahwe, aCreator-Destroyer God, who wants to eradicate humankind. Plato – in his dialogue
with Socrates, in Protagoras – filters the image of the titan through his enormous
contribution to mankind. Over these classic sources, which create the overallarchetypal Promethean image, one might add, and thus intensifying his complexity,
the poems of Shelley, Goethe, Al. Philippide, or Byron, for “The Promethean myth
has always been the myth of human culture (...)”4
Prometheus becomes with P.B. Shelley “the symbol of the rebelled genius.” 5and Philippide sketches another ending for the great titan. Transcending Space andTime, the titan becomes the archetype of sufferings, of the rebelled, of the creatorand of the crucified, putting on, subsequently, and these different masks.
Shelley writes, in the preface of the Prometheus Unbound poem that, from therebelled point of view of, Prometheus may be comparable to Satan:
Prometheus, (...) in my judgment, a more poetical character than Satan, because, in
addition to courage, and majesty, and firm and patient opposition to omnipotent
force he is susceptible of being described as exempt from the taints of ambition,
envy, revenge, and a desire for personal aggrandisment, which, in the Hero of
Paradise Lost, interfere with the interest.6

Prometheus can firstly be, a Creator, a fallen angel- Satan, the angel rebelledagainst divine domination- an Adam- the first man who doesn’t listen to the wordof God and unconsciously steals knowledge for himself by accepting the apple, or aCain, the jealously murderous brother, or a Noah, the renewal of the human race
after the flood. Lastly, he is Jesus Christ, The Son of Man, crucified by thosewhom he had created before, but for whose sin He ultimately dies, in the name of
the faith and of the renewal of bound with all mighty God.
Situated between the satanic features – because of the rebellion: “Obedient, youknow I shan’t be”7, and the Nazarene ones – because of the self deliberate sacrificegiven to men, Prometheus represents a fluctuation of the two extremes, seen as anunion of the opposites that dwell within his being, a complexio oppositorum
reserved only for divinity. Like Jesus Christ, in the Gethsemane Garden, Shelley’stitan is perfectly aware of his opposite feelings which make him despair and hopealtogether, such hope that time has come and the liberation from the blind
divinity’s claws is about to happen. The titan could have unchained his body suchas Christ could have descended from the cross in order to save Himself, because,
this power surely exists within the two great icons of human suffering. But, if thatunchain or descend had happened, would there have been any meaning in thewords sacrifice, love and belief?
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Costina-Denisa Cerăceanu: Complexio oppositorum or the Union of Opposites from...

Prometheus is a mixture of opposites and the union of these incongruities was
defined by Carl Gustav Jung, as complexio oppositorum. Jung exemplifies that:
The Holy Spirit is one, a complexio oppositorum, in contrast to YHWH after the
separation of the divine opposites symbolized by God’s two sons, Christ and Satan.
(...) The soul is paradoxical like the Father; it is black and white, divine and demon
like, in its primitive and natural state. By the discriminative function of its conscious
side it separates opposites of every kind, (...). Thereby the soul’s spiritualdevelopment creates an enormous tension, from which man can only suffer. 8

Duality comes from God Himself, and if we were to interpret the Holly Bible
according to this theory, we find in Job’s book a possible answer, for God
summons his sons, amongst whom there was Satan: “Again there was a day when
the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also
among them to present himself before the LORD.”9Superior Creator, Prometheus is the archetype of the creative genius, anantagonist, encompassing both a complexio oppositorum and a coincidentia
oppositorum that is a cohabitation of the masculine and feminine dissimilarities ina single hermaphrodite10, being, carrying both sexes, the same way Adam and Eveused to be, after creation, before marriage:
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: So God created
man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created
he them.11

to be parted later as the Holly Bible shows us:
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and hetook one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the
LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall becalled Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave hisfather and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.12

According to Louis Ginsberg’s opinions illustrated in his book, The legends of
the Jews: From the Creation to Jacob, the hermaphrodite being is like a body with
two faces: “Adam originally had two faces, which were separated at the birth ofEve”13 – thus, Ginsbers says creation may have been possible and Adonai – “thename by which the angels call Him”14 created Eve only from Adam’s rib, refusing
to choose the head, the eyes or the ear of the First Man to complete the process ofcreation. Again, Ginsberg shows the name Man (Romanian for Is) and Woman(Romanian for Isă) are the first names of the heaven dwellers and come from
Yahve Himself, who may have called the first beings after His name. These names
have been dropped later and changed to Adam – „Adamah –dust of the earth”15 andEve.
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Asia is not just an Oceanide, she symbolizes the eternal feminine, “the golden
chalice”, “the Holly Grail”, a Mary Magdalene of the Gnostic scriptures or the firstfemale being, Eve, from whose womb come all the nations of the world. She,
Prometheus and the love she has for him make up a mystic triangle of Eros, of pure
love, of creation. Prometheus and Asia wear not only the masks of Adam and Eve,but also the burden of original sin:
Asia!, who, when my being overflowed,
Wert like a golden chalice to bright wine
Which else had sunk into thirsty dust.16

The chalice, as Northrop Frye says “has female associations in his chalice shapeand in its functions as a provider of food and as the container of the body or bloodof Christ.”17 Asia, is the one, who, through love, reminds Prometheus of his divine
nature, whom he had forgotten, as did Adam, when he forgot he was one being
attached to another, a hermaphrodite from which his two faces got divided: woman
and man. Consequently, Prometheus, remembering his hermaphrodite origins,when he was united to Asia, is Adam, First Man, the being from which anotherbeing – Eve, descends, making the Bible an intensive debated subject, filtered into
poetry. Prometheus shares with Adam this metaphysical divorce, because throughthe stealing of the fire, the titan is deprived of his divine rights and banished, like
Adam-himself banished from the Garden of Eden, because he dared to bite fromthe tree of knowledge; for it is God Himself the One who recognizes the newly
achieved powers of his first creation:
And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know goodand evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat,and live for ever.18

We can say that Adam, the humanity’s first revolutionary, falls from Heaven,being deprived of his status and thrown away in the chains of famine, pain andfear.
Just as Zeus punishes Prometheus but makes no demand for the restitution of fire,the Hebrew God banishes Adam but does not rescind his knowledge of good end
evil and decree that it once again must belong to Himself alone. The theft ofknowledge can be punished but not reversed.19

Adam, as well as Prometheus, must wait the unbound promised through Jesus
Christ, as Shelley’s titan waits for Heracles. It is another story with Philippide’s
Prometheus, who no longer awaits the divine intervention and frees himself fromthe chains.
George Călinescu shows that the antagonism, which is present in Luceafarultoo, is made up on duality: “the duality soul – matter, good – evil, makes up thebogomilism, pointing thus, here, both faces come from the supreme being.”20 God,100

Costina-Denisa Cerăceanu: Complexio oppositorum or the Union of Opposites from...

in Gnostic view, would have two sons, through which He rules the world, the firstone is Satan, who sits at the left of the Father and encompasses the darkest features
and the supreme evil, and the second one, Christ, who comes to balance the evil,
the superior eon sitting at the right side of the Father, hence God rules the world
through his sons.
Elena Loghinovski gives four attributes which characterize the rebelled:“Demon and Lucifer, Genius or Prometheus.”21 attributes which can be often foundunder the mask of one person.
Ileana Berlogea sees in the promethean torments glimpses of Sisif and sparkles
from Luceafar: “The solitude, incapacity of being understood, the situation of
Camus’ Stranger or Sisif are initially felt by Prometheus.”22
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
1

Florin Mihăilescu (1975). Tradiţie şi inovaţie: idei şi atitudini literare; studiu şi antologie.
Bucureşti: Eminescu, 381.
2
P.B. Shelley (1965). Prometeu descătuşat şi alte poeme, Actul Întâi. Bucureşti: Minerva, Col.
“Biblioteca pentru toţi”, 371.
3
Francis Bacon, Spiers Alexander, Montagu Basil (1861). “Prometheus or the state of man”. In: The
essays, or, Counsels, civil and moral: and, The wisdom of the ancients. Boston: Little, Brown andCompany, 335.
4
Tudor Vianu, Alexandrescu Sorin, Călinescu Matei, Ionescu Gelu, Alexandrescu Vlad (1971).
Opere: Studii de filozofie a culturii, Bucureşti: Minerva, 314.
5
Petru Caraman, Drăgan, Gheorghe (1984). Pământ şi apă: contribuie etnologică la studiul
simbolicei eminesciene. Iaşi: Junimea, 308.
6
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1820). “Preface” to Prometheus Unbound: a lyrical drama in four acts withother poems, Oxford University: C. and J. Ollier, IX.
7
P. B. Shelley, op. cit., 370, Actul Întâi.
8Carl Gustav Jung, Read Herbert, Fordham Michael, Adler Gerhard (1979). The collected works of
C.G. Jung. London: Routledge, 689.
9Job’ s Book, 2: 1.
10James Hillman, C.G. Jung (1985). Anima: an anatomy of a personified notion. Spring Publications.
11
Genesis, I; 26.
12
The Creation of woman, 2: 21.
13
Louis Ginzberg, Szold Henrietta, Radin Paul (1998). The Legends of the Jews: From the Creation
to Jacob. JHU Press, 66.
14
Ibidem, 62.
15
Ibidem.
16
Percy Bysshe Shelley, op. cit., 60.
17Northrop Frye: The Stubborn Structure: Essays on Criticism and Society, p. 268, Taylor & Francis,
1970
18
Banishment from Heaven, 3: 22.
19
Luigi Zoja (1995). Growth and guilt: psychology and the limits of development. London:
Routledge, 145.
20
George Călinescu, Andrei Rusu (1976). Opera lui Mihai Eminescu: Descrierea operei. Cultura.
Eminescu în timp şi spaţiu. Filozofia teoretică. Bucureşti: Minerva, 655.
21
Elena Loghinovski (1979). De la demon la Luceafăr: motivul demonic la Lermontov şiromantismul European. Bucureşti: Univers, 7.
22Ileana Berlogea (1983). Teatrul românesc, teatrul universal: confluenţe. Iaşi: Junimea, 128.

101

Are Dead Metaphors still Metaphors?
Conventionality and Metaphoricity in Lexicalized MetaphorsŞtefania Alina CHERATAFriedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany,
Department of German as a Foreign Language

ABSTRACTThe traditional opposition between living and dead metaphors has been the subjectof much debate in the metaphor theory of recent decades. The appropriateness of theterms living and dead has been repeatedly questioned. In addition, some authors
have argued that, due to acquiring a high degree of conventionalization, deadmetaphors no longer qualify as metaphors from a synchronic point of view. This
paper presents lexicalized metaphors - roughly corresponding to the traditional classof dead metaphors, but renamed to obviate terminological ambiguity - as nonprototypical members of the metaphor category. It starts from the premise that
metaphoricity is gradable, and locates lexicalized metaphors with reference to a
metaphor prototype, according to a number of parameters.
KEYWORDS: lexicalized metaphor, conventionality, prototype, metaphoricity
clines

1. Introduction
It has long been acknowledged by linguists and philosophers of language that
metaphors are not merely an attribute of literary texts, but also a prominent featureof everyday speech (Nerlich, 2003: 51-57). In recent decades, the omnipresence of
metaphors in ordinary communication has been advocated with particular emphasis
in cognitive linguistics, ensuing the publication of George Lakoff’s and MarkJohnson’s landmark monograph Metaphors We Live By (1980).
Everyday metaphors are typically lexicalized. In a broad sense, lexicalization
can be defined as a “process by which new linguistic entities, be it simple orcomplex words or just new senses, become conventionalized on the level of thelexicon” (Blank, 2001: 1603)1. One indicator of lexicalization is the adoption of aword or sense into the dictionaries of a language (Skirl, Schwarz-Friesel, 2007:35). Instances of lexicalized metaphors include expressions such as touched (Shewas touched by her friend’s loyalty), crane (in its machine sense), or cackle (Shecackled with laughter) (OED 2003).
Lexicalized metaphors exhibit a high degree of conventionality and familiarity.
As a result, language users tend to be unaware of their metaphoric nature (Skirl,
Schwarz-Friesel, 2007: 29). Moreover, since conventionalized linguistic entities102Ştefania Alina Cherata: Are Dead Metaphors still Metaphors? Conventionality and…

acquire fixed, context-independent meanings (Brinton, Traugott, 2005: 45-46),
lexicalized metaphors seem to be closer to the realm of literal language than to thatof figurative expressions. The present paper explores the question whether – and towhat extent – lexicalized metaphors can be synchronically regarded as genuinely
metaphorical.
The next section presents two contrasting answers, as provided by Black (1993[1977]) on the one hand, and Lakoff & Johnson (1980), Lakoff & Turner (2001[1989]) on the other. Section 3 proposes an alternative view, by defining a
prototype for the metaphor category, and discussing the degree of closeness to theprototype displayed by lexicalized metaphors.
2. Lexicalized metaphors: dead husbands or dead bodies?
Traditionally, conventional metaphors were described as dead, whereas ad hocones received the label of live (or living) metaphors. This terminology is indicativeof a difference in ‘vitality’ between the two categories. Itself a metaphor, the wordvitality can be understood as an umbrella term covering three different concepts:
conventionalization, awareness and transparency2 (Müller, 2008: 179). The
exponents of the live-dead dichotomy often seem to conflate these three aspects,
while focusing on the criterion of consciousness: “The conventionalization of
metaphors is supposed to lead automatically and instantaneously to a loss oftransparency and of awareness of metaphoricity” (Ibid.). Conventional metaphors
are dead in the sense that in the perception of native speakers their metaphoric
force is greatly diminished by frequent usage. In contrast, ad hoc metaphors
typically generate novel and surprising associations; their metaphoric character istherefore easily recognizable synchronically. Due to the strength of their impact,
such metaphors are described as being ‘alive.’
In modern metaphor research, the distinction between dead and live metaphors
has been the subject of overt criticism and more or less extensive modifications,due to the vagueness of the underlying criteria and the ambiguity of theterminology (cf. Loewenberg, 1973; Black, 1993 [1977]; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980;
Lakoff, 1987; Lakoff & Turner, 2001 [1989]; Fraser, 1993; Goatly, 1997;
Kövecses, 2002; Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca, 2004; Skirl & Schwarz-Friesel,2007). Some authors have also been concerned with the question whether deadmetaphors still qualify as metaphors from a synchronic perspective, or, in Cooper’s
playful terms, whether they resemble “dead bodies, which are certainly still bodies;or […] dead husbands, who are no longer husbands” (Cooper, 1986: 119).
The following sub-sections introduce two solutions to this dilemma: one offeredby Max Black (1993 [1977]), who maintains that dead metaphors are no longer
metaphors, and a second one by Lakoff & Johnson (1980) and Lakoff & Turner(2001 [1989]), who favour the opposite view. The former perspective builds on
linguistic metaphor theory (LMT), while the latter is based on the so-called
conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) (Müller, 2008: 178). In his interaction model,
Black regards metaphor as a linguistic phenomenon with a conceptual dimension.
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According to Lakoff, Johnson and Turner, on the other hand, metaphor is primarily
conceptual in nature, but exhibits certain linguistic instantiations. It is against thistheoretical background that the opposing viewpoints should be interpreted.
2.1.

The ‘dead-husband’ approach: BlackBlack (1993 [1977]) contests the relevance of the live-dead opposition. In his
view, dead metaphors are no longer genuine metaphors:
For the only entrenched classification is grounded in the trite opposition (itself
expressed metaphorically) between ‘dead‘ and ‘live‘ metaphors. This is no more
helpful than, say, treating a corpse as a special case of a person: A so-called deadmetaphor is not a metaphor at all, but merely an expression that no longer has apregnant metaphorical use. (Black, 1993 [1977]: 25).

Instead, probably by analogy with volcanoes, he suggests dividing metaphors
into extinct, dormant and active. Extinct metaphors are those whose metaphoricity
is no longer transparent, e.g. muscle, derived from lat. musculus ‘little mouse’ (dueto the fact that some muscles were thought to be mouse-like in shape). Dormant
metaphors are conventional metaphors which can still be ‘resuscitated,’ e.g.
obligation as involving the idea of bondage (< lat. obligare, ob- ‘towards’ + ligare‘to bind’). Unlike expressions belonging to the first two categories, active
metaphors are easy to recognize, and are the only ones which, according to Black,deserve an attentive analysis: “I shall be concerned hereafter only with metaphorsneeding no artificial respiration, recognized by speaker and hearer as authentically‘vital’ or active” (Ibid.).
Black’s classification is a refinement on the original dichotomy between deadand live metaphors. It has the merit of highlighting a significant distinction basedon the transparency criterion, by pointing out that some conventional metaphors are
fully opaque without additional etymological information (for instance because
their original literal meaning can no longer be detected), whereas others can still be‘brought back to life’ on a synchronic basis. This clearly has consequences for thelevel of awareness manifested by language users with respect to the metaphoricity
of such expressions.
2.2.

The ‘dead-body’ approach: Lakoff/Johnson and Lakoff/Turner

Lakoff & Johnson (1980) and Lakoff & Turner (2001 [1989]) also contest thetraditional division into dead and live metaphors. Nevertheless, their line ofargumentation differs significantly from Black’s. The starting point of theirapproach is the distinction between conceptual metaphors and metaphoricalexpressions. Conceptual metaphors are entrenched thought patterns taking the formof mappings between conceptual domains and manifested among other things inlinguistic expressions. Thus, for example, conventional metaphoric statements suchas Your claims are indefensible, He attacked every weak point in my argument, His
104Ştefania Alina Cherata: Are Dead Metaphors still Metaphors? Conventionality and…

criticisms were right on target, I demolished his argument, If you use that strategy,
he’ll wipe you out, He shot down all of my arguments illustrate, according toLakoff and Johnson, the conceptual metaphor ARGUMENT IS WAR, described asa mapping between the domains of ARGUMENT and WAR (Lakoff & Johnson,
1980: 4).
The ability to shape thought is crucial to conceptual metaphors. Therefore,recurrence in linguistic expressions is regarded as a measure of their vitality; inother words, they qualify as live metaphors if used repeatedly and automatically ineveryday discourse (Lakoff & Turner, 2001 [1989]: 62). Accordingly, metaphoricalexpressions are ‘alive’ when they can be subordinated to prolific conceptual
patterns, i.e. when they are “metaphors we live by” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980: 55).
Lakoff & Johnson and Lakoff & Turner argue that most metaphors traditionallylabelled as dead occur systematically in everyday language, and thus exert asignificant influence on our perception of reality. For this reason, the term dead ismisplaced. If it can be used at all, it should only refer to isolated metaphors that do
not correspond to any productive conceptual mappings, e.g. foot of the mountain(Ibid.). The dead-live opposition is thus nearly reversed:
Expressions like wasting time, attacking positions, going our separate ways etc., arereflections of systematic metaphorical concepts that structure our actions andthoughts. They are ‘alive’ in the most fundamental sense: they are metaphors we live
by. The fact that they are conventionally fixed within the lexicon of English makes
them no less alive” (Ibid.: 55).

Unlike Black, who concentrates on ad hoc metaphors due to the strength of theirimpact, Lakoff & Johnson and Lakoff & Turner are mainly concerned withconventional metaphors in their quality as systematic evidence for the existence of
metaphorical concepts. Lakoff/Johnson stress the ubiquity of conventional
metaphors in everyday communication, and use the term literal metaphor (Ibid.:53) to show that such expressions are in fact “normal ways of talking” (Ibid.: 51),
as opposed to “poetic, fanciful or rhetorical” devices (Ibid.: 5). In contrast, poetic
metaphor is termed “imaginative (or nonliteral) metaphor” (Ibid.: 53). The
oxymoron literal metaphor has been vehemently criticized in the literature. It waspointed out that by abolishing the literal-metaphoric opposition Lakoff and Johnson
cancel any meaningful concept of linguistic metaphor and thus undermine theirown empirical basis (cf. Jäkel, 2003: 43-44).
Strictly speaking, the distinction between synchronically opaque metaphors andconventional metaphors which can still be re-etymologized is not essential for
CMT, as the focus is on the overarching conceptual mappings: “[...] the issue of
whether a term is dead or conventional3, or somewhere between the two, becomes
relatively unimportant for a theory of ‘metaphors we live by’ if we focus on theschemata” (Traugott, 1985: 31). It is, however, relevant for the dead-metaphor
debate, since modifying the dead-live distinction to refer solely to the conceptual
sphere can lead to bizarre conclusions. For instance, if we agree that only those
metaphors acting as instantiations of prolific conceptual patterns are ‘alive’, it105Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

follows that one-shot poetic metaphors should be considered ‘dead.’
Lakoff and Turner address this objection by incorporating the transparency
criterion in the discussion. They postulate that metaphors can be dead at one or twolevels. For example, the word pedigree is a historical metaphor, which can nolonger be identified as a metaphor without knowledge of the etymology, and whose
underlying conceptual mapping is also no longer active. Consequently, we are
dealing with a dead metaphor at both the linguistic and the conceptual level:
The word pedigree [...] came from the Old French pied de grue, which meant ‘footof a crane’. It was based on an image-metaphor which mapped the shape of a crane’sfoot onto a family tree diagram. That image-metaphor no longer exists at theconceptual level, and at the linguistic level we do not use pedigree to mean ‘crane’s
foot’. This is a truly dead metaphor at both levels” (Lakoff & Turner, 2001 [1989]:
129).

Other metaphors are dead at only one level, like the verb comprehend, derived
from the Latin word comprehendere, which originally meant ‘to grasp,’ and was
metaphorically extended to cover the more abstract sense ‘to understand.’ The
literal sense of comprehend is no longer available in modern English; as such, its
metaphoricity is synchronically obscured. At the same time, the corresponding
conceptual metaphor UNDERSTANDING IS GRASPING is still very much alive,
for example in the metaphoric use of the verb grasp in contexts referring tounderstanding. Therefore, comprehend is dead at the linguistic, but not at theconceptual level (ibid.). Although Lakoff and Turner do not mention any examples,it should also be possible to identify metaphors that are only dead at the conceptual
level, such as Lakoff’s and Johnson’s foot of the mountain.
In conclusion, there are significant differences between Black’s use of the term
dead metaphor and the way in which the same expression is employed by Lakoff &Johnson and Lakoff & Turner. Perhaps the main factor leading to thisterminological laxness is the fact that the adjective dead is itself a metaphor, andthus allows for a variety of interpretations. Black defines it in such a way as to fit
his purposes, and so do Lakoff & Johnson, and Lakoff & Turner. Similarly, thequestion regarding the metaphoricity of dead metaphors receives nearly opposing
answers, depending on the employed metaphor theory. LMT focuses on the effectof metaphor on language users, which is why according to Black dead metaphors
do not count as authentic metaphors, even though they can exhibit various degreesof transparency; for CMT, on the other hand, the cognitive function of metaphor iscentre-stage, and so dead metaphors in the traditional sense are still metaphorical tothe extent that they correspond to productive conceptual patterns (and/or can besynchronically re-etymologized).
3. Lexicalized metaphors as non-prototypical metaphors
The fact that such diverging conclusions are possible hints at a certain
terminological flexibility, but also at the high degree of complexity of the issue at106Ştefania Alina Cherata: Are Dead Metaphors still Metaphors? Conventionality and…

hand. In the present section I will provide an alternative perspective, which is lessradical than either of the approaches described above. In doing so, I will replace thecontroversial term dead metaphor with that of lexicalized metaphor, by which I
mean a linguistic metaphor conventionalized through repeated use and present in
the dictionaries of a language, irrespective of its degree of transparency and theawareness of language users with regard to its metaphoricity. I will argue that
lexicalized metaphors are still metaphors, if not prototypical ones.
My approach is based on the idea that metaphoricity cannot be reduced to amatter of duality (metaphoric vs. non-metaphoric), but is in fact a gradable
phenomenon. As a consequence, one way of ‘measuring’ to what extent a certain
expression can be described as a metaphor consists in defining a prototype of
metaphoricity and benchmarking the relevant expression against this prototype. It
is the method I shall be employing in my assessment of the metaphoricity level
exhibited by lexicalized metaphors.
3.1. Outlining the prototype

Taylor (1990) distinguishes two ways of defining a prototype:
We can apply the term to the central member, or perhaps to the cluster of central
members, of a category. Thus, one could refer to a particular artefact as the
prototype of CUP. Alternatively, the prototype can be understood as a schematic
representation of the conceptual core of a category. On this approach, we would say,
not that a particular entity is the prototype, but that it instantiates the prototype.
(Taylor, 1990: 59)

I will adopt the second definition, which, nevertheless, raises the question of
how the core of a category is to be identified. According to Osherson and Smith(1981: 57), one should discriminate between the core of a concept, given by its
definition in abstract linguistic features, and an identification, or recognition
procedure, which involves information that facilitates rapid judgments about
category membership. Such information need not be essential to the core of thecategory; rather, as Taylor points out, it arises “from an interaction of core meaning
with non-linguistic factors like perception and world knowledge” (Taylor, 1990:
70). So what characteristics define the core of the category metaphor, and whatfeatures does the recognition procedure rely on?
In its quality as a linguistic phenomenon, metaphor is generally understood as aform of figurative language use involving a similarity or analogy relation4 (Skirl &Schwarz-Friesel, 2007: 4). In keeping with this definition, the core of the metaphor
category can be said to consist of two essential features: non-literalness and theproperty of conveying a similarity.
As far as the recognition procedure is concerned, there does not appear to be
any one sufficient criterion for the identification of metaphor (Black, 1993 [1977]:
34). It has nevertheless been suggested that contradiction or absurdity at thesemantic level (Beardsley, 1962), which emerges as a by-product of non107

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literalness, could act as a signal of metaphoricity, and facilitate metaphor
recognition. This is due to the fact that semantic anomaly is accompanied by what
Weinrich (1976: 320) termed counterdetermination [Konterdetermination], aconflict between the expectations of language users based on the semantic potentialof the metaphorically employed word/phrase in its literal lexeme sense and thecontext of its metaphoric appearance. This conflict manifests itself at first as adeviation at the denotative/referential level. In the famous example Achilles is alion, the word lion is used to refer to a man, which clashes with its denotative
function as a literal lexeme (pointing to the class of lions as animals) (Netzel, 2003:
107). In order to resolve this contradiction, the recipient will try to find an
appropriate interpretation of the metaphor at the conceptual level; in other words,(s)he will (re)construct a metaphor meaning that fits in with thecounterdetermination effect.
Semantic anomaly is not a sufficient ‘diagnostic criterion’ for metaphor
identification, as it is not a necessary or even a characteristic feature of metaphor.
Although a large number of metaphors do indeed involve semantic contradiction,
there are others that do not (e.g. He does […] live in a glass house can be used both
metaphorically and literally of someone living in such a house); at the same time,other tropes (e.g. hyperbole or oxymoron) may also exhibit logical absurdity(Black, 1993 [1977]: 34). This is the reason why some authors have modified thecriterion of strict semantic contradiction, and added contextual anomaly andviolation of Gricean maxims (pragmatic anomaly) as further indicators of
metaphoricity (cf. Way, 1991: 41).
However, although semantic anomaly is not a necessary or sufficient conditionof metaphoricity, it does seem to be a typical feature of metaphor, which in manycases acts as a catalyst for the latter’s recognition. In conjunction with pragmatic
anomaly, it is therefore a plausible component of the metaphor prototype.
Summing up, the prototype delineated in this section comprises the following
elements: (1) category core: non-literalness and conveyance of similarity; (2)recognition procedure: semantic/pragmatic anomaly. Let us now turn to lexicalized
metaphors and their relation to the prototype.
3.2. Non-literalness

The absence of rigid boundaries between literal and non-literal language has been
repeatedly stressed in metaphor theory; metaphoricity and literalness are not clearcut opposites, but refer to positions on continua defined by a variety of parameters.
In other words, metaphoricity is a matter of degree (Richards, 1996 [1936]; Goatly,
1997; Hanks, 2006). Goatly (1997: 38) mentions five criteria which can serve as afoundation for literalness-metaphoricity clines: conventionality, semantic distance,
contradictoriness, markedness, and explicitness.
Conventionality motivates the division of the literalness-metaphoricity
continuum into a number of categories: at one end of the spectrum are the so-called
innovative metaphors, which represent ad hoc metaphors introducing novel concept108Ştefania Alina Cherata: Are Dead Metaphors still Metaphors? Conventionality and…

associations; somewhat lower on the metaphoricity scale are ‘creative metaphors’,
another subgroup of ad hoc metaphors, which nonetheless build upon alreadyconventionalized conceptual patterns. The other extreme of the continuum is
occupied by lexicalized metaphors (Skirl & Schwarz-Friesel, 2007: 28-31). The
criterion of conventionality clearly positions lexicalized metaphors in the vicinityof literal language. Their high level of conventionality manifests itself in fixed
meanings explicitly laid out in dictionaries, and in their quality as one of the chief
polysemy-generating linguistic mechanisms (Taylor, 1990: 122):
The original sentence meaning is bypassed and the sentence acquires a new literalmeaning identical with the former metaphorical meaning. This is a shift from themetaphorical utterance [...] to the literal utterance. (Searle, 1982 [1979]: 122)

However, despite their fixed target meaning, which makes them akin to literalexpressions, a large number of lexicalized metaphors still exhibit synchronically
identifiable source meanings5 (e.g. foot in foot of the mountain, leg in leg of thetable), an unmistakable trait of figurative language. This does not apply tohistorical metaphors, whose source meanings can no longer be recognized without
additional etymological information (e.g. muscle, pedigree). In this case, it would
be inappropriate to speak of a synchronically available non-literal use (howmeaningful is the phrase non-literal use without the possibility of a literal use forthe same expression?). Even when it is synchronically available, the source
meaning of a lexicalized metaphor can be more or less transparent, depending on
various factors: form, difference from the target meaning, number of additional(abstract) meanings of the polysemous lexeme in question etc. Therefore, based on
the degree of synchronic identifiability of their source meaning, lexicalized
metaphors can occupy various positions on the literalness-metaphoricity
continuum.
Semantic distance as a metaphoricity criterion is dealt with by a number ofauthors (Goatly, 1997; Hanks, 2006; Tourangeau & Sternberg, 1982). Hanks
summarizes the relation between semantic distance and metaphoricity as follows: ametaphor conveys a certain concept (the primary subject) with the help of anotherconcept (the secondary subject); the lower the number of features shared by thetwo ‘subjects,’ the stronger the metaphoric character of the expression (Hanks,
2006: 31, 22). One of the examples provided by Hanks refers to the lexeme oasis in
its various uses. Literally, oasis designates a place in the desert, where water andvegetation are found. Also literally, though not prototypically, it can be combinedwith the attribute Antarctic (Antarctic oases).
As a metaphor, the word may be associated with typical properties of literaloases and contrasted with metaphorical deserts, e.g. one of the several oases ofgreen in the city, or: an oasis of timeless calm only a few paces from the crowded
pavements of the city centre. Stronger metaphors link oasis to abstract entities,
which are not connected with the usual meaning potential of the literal lexeme, e.g.
oases of control, oases of human contact in the desert of my loneliness (Ibid.: 2931). The criterion of semantic distance cuts across the distinction between ad hoc
109Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

and lexicalized metaphors, though it is dependent on the synchronic transparencyof the source meaning. However, as long as the latter is recognizable, any metaphor
characterized by a large distance between primary and secondary subject, whether
novel or lexicalized, is highly metaphorical. Conversely, any small-distancemetaphor has a low level of metaphoricity6.
Contradictoriness is another criterion which fails to differentiate between
lexicalized and ad hoc metaphors. Expressions belonging to both categories can(and many of them do) exhibit semantic contradictoriness; the only difference mayarise from the availability of a source meaning.
Both markedness and explicitness refer to perceived metaphoricity. Markedness
is a formal criterion regarding the presence or absence of markers, explicit
linguistic elements which signal metaphoricity or lack thereof, e.g.
metaphorically/figuratively speaking, so to speak, in more than one sense, like,
image, likeness, literally, actually, veritable (Goatly, 1997: 174-175). Nevertheless,such markers are not consistent indicators of metaphoricity (cf. Stefanowitsch,
2006: 5). Explicitness concerns the extent to which the co-text of a metaphor
provides clues as to its interpretation; the less explicit the co-text, the higher themetaphoricity (Goatly, 1997: 38). Generally speaking, this criterion is irrelevantwith respect to lexicalized metaphors, since their interpretation is already fixed.
This discussion shows that, as far as the attribute of non-literalness isconcerned, lexicalized metaphors behave differently depending on the selected
criterion. The parameter of conventionalization locates them in the proximity ofliteral language, whereas the availability of a source meaning places many of themin the category of metaphors. Historical metaphors behave like literal expressions
according to both criteria; their metaphoricity is only detectable throughetymological analysis. Other parameters (semantic distance, contradictoriness)show lexicalized metaphors on the whole to be no more and no less metaphoricalthan their ad hoc counterparts, at least as long as a source meaning is
synchronically available; rather, they give rise to distinctions in metaphoricity levelwithin the category of lexicalized metaphors.
3.3. Similarity

The second element of the metaphor prototype is the property of expressing asimilarity. This is a trait which distinguishes metaphor from other tropes, and ischaracteristic not only of ad hoc, but also of lexicalized metaphors. Diachronically,
metaphoric similarity is readily detectable, since both the source meaning and the
motivation behind the emergence of a metaphor are apparent; the discussion
becomes more intricate when applied to a synchronic perspective. In many cases,
the similarity relation and the motivation behind it are synchronically transparent(e.g. key in the key to someone’s behaviour, immersed in She was still immersed inher thoughts (OED, 2003)). Other lexicalized metaphors have a clear source
meaning, and so it can be inferred that they convey a similarity, yet the motivation
cannot be synchronically reconstituted, for instance due to changes in the cultural110Ştefania Alina Cherata: Are Dead Metaphors still Metaphors? Conventionality and…

background leading to the creation of the respective metaphor (e.g. red herring,white elephant). With historical metaphors, the similarity issue becomes
synchronically irrelevant, given that the source meaning (and consequently one
term of the ‘comparison’) is missing.
3.4. Semantic/pragmatic anomaly

In the case of lexicalized metaphors, the level of synchronic awareness of
metaphoricity is clearly influenced by the high degree of conventionality. The
fixity of metaphor meaning, as well as the ubiquity of lexicalized metaphors ineveryday language and the resulting familiarity tend to obscure the existence of anunderlying source meaning. Thus, the counterdeterminative effect is low or nonexistent, as hardly any tension can be perceived between target and source
meaning; for the same reason, it is difficult to identify any contradiction between
lexicalized metaphors and the context in which they occur, or any clashes with
Gricean conversational maxims. This results in a reduced awareness of
metaphoricity, which can nevertheless be enhanced via a process of remetaphorization (Skirl & Schwarz-Friesel, 2007: 29; Perelman &Olbrechts-Tyteca, 2004: 576).
The postulated low level of metaphoricity awareness seems to be confirmed bya series of empirical studies demonstrating that conventional metaphors requireroughly the same processing strategies and speed as literal expressions (Ortony,
Schallert, Reynolds, & Antos, 1978; Glucksberg, Gildea, & Bookin, 1982; Gildea& Glucksberg, 1983; Gibbs & Gonzalez, 1985).
In contrast, novel, poetic metaphors, whose sense has to be ‘worked out’ by therecipient and is notoriously difficult to paraphrase (cf. Netzel, 2003: 101-113 for an
in-depth discussion), necessitate a more elaborate and time-consuminginterpretation, in keeping with processing models devised by Beardsley (1962) and,more notably, Searle (1981 [1979]).
Of course, awareness of metaphoricity may vary depending on the form of themetaphor, the transparency of its source meaning, the semantic distance between
source and target meaning, the context of use, the ‘age’ of the metaphor, thestylistic level, the frequency with which it is employed, overlaps with other stylistic
devices etc. It may also vary across individuals, due to different levels of linguistic
awareness, membership in certain groups (e.g. in the case of scientific jargon), or
more or less clear notions of what a metaphor represents. What is meant here is a
general tendency, which refers to the level of awareness that can be assumed toexist in the average member of a speech community: not in the sense of a sharedawareness of metaphoricity, but in the sense of shared expectations regarding thatawareness 7.
4. Conclusions
The issue of whether lexicalized metaphors can still be regarded as metaphors froma synchronic point of view is more complex than it might appear at first sight, as111

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

demonstrated by the diverging views advanced in the literature. I have suggested
that metaphoricity can be assessed in relation to a prototype of the metaphor
category. This prototype comprises a category core, consisting of two mainfeatures (non-literalness and conveyance of similarity), as well as a recognition
procedure, very likely connected with the property of metaphors to be semanticallyor pragmatically anomalous.
Lexicalized metaphors are less prototypical category members than ad hoc
metaphors. In some respects, they represent a borderline phenomenon between
literal and metaphoric language, whereas in others they behave similarly to ad hoc
metaphors. It should also be noted that not all lexicalized metaphors are equally
non-literal; there is a significant amount of intracategorial variation, depending on
a series of criteria. The attribute of conveying a similarity is sometimes
synchronically concealed either by the unavailability of a source meaning or by theopacity of the motivation. As far as the recognition procedure is concerned,
lexicalized metaphors are relatively difficult to identify, as the recognition ofsemantic/pragmatic deviance is hampered by their high level ofconventionalization.
The subgroup of historical metaphors is the only one for which an almost
complete loss of metaphoricity can be maintained: their metaphoric features only
become apparent diachronically. The category of lexicalized metaphors as a whole,
however, cannot simply be discarded as irrelevant to synchronically oriented
metaphor research. In many ways, lexicalized metaphors are still metaphors, even
if, in Black’s terms, the identification of their metaphoricity may require “artificial
respiration.”
NOTES
1

In this paper I am using the term lexicalized metaphors as a loose synonym for conventional
metaphors.
2
Awareness is a psychological criterion, and refers to the capacity of language users to distinguishthe metaphoric nature of a certain expression. Transparency, on the other hand, is determined bymorphological and semantic metaphoricity cues, e.g. the form of a metaphor or the synchronic
availability of its source meaning acting as facilitators in the recognition of metaphoricity.
Though transparency may influence awareness, the two terms are not interchangeable.
3
Traugott’s dead-conventional distinction corresponds in Black’s terminology to the difference
between extinct and dormant metaphors.
4
Analogy is defined by Ortony (1993: 343-344) as a similarity between relations rather than objects,
e.g. the metaphoric statement My head is an apple without any core implies that “the relationshipbetween my head (or at least someone’s) and something or other, is the same as the relationshipbetween an apple and its (removed) core.” I shall therefore use the term similarity in a broad
sense, which also includes analogy.
5
The phrase target meaning is used to refer to the meaning of a metaphor, whereas source meaning
designates the sense from which the target meaning was derived. The source meaning can beliteral or figurative.
6
One problem with this criterion is the fact that in many cases semantic distance is difficult to define
and measure.
7
In referring to shared expectations with respect to the metaphoricity awareness of the ‘average’
language user, I am drawing on an analogy with Wierzbicka’s (1985) notion of folk concepts:

112Ştefania Alina Cherata: Are Dead Metaphors still Metaphors? Conventionality and…
A person’s concept of cow or dog contains this person’s ideas of what people in general could say
about cows or dogs. The English words cow and dog are in common use, and they cannot be
defined in terms of specialist knowledge of cows or dogs. But neither can they be defined in termsof ‘shared knowledge’ [...]. What matters is not so much the shared knowledge as the shared
stereotype: people’s ideas of what people in general (‘anybody’) could say about cows or dogs
(Wierzbicka, 1985: 215).

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115

Émile Verhaeren – « poète du paroxysme »Ileana Mihaela CHIRIŢESCU
Université de Craiova,
Département de Langues étrangères appliquées

ABSTRACT: Émile Verhaeren – “the Poet of Paroxysm”
There are three types of poets: intellectuals, mystics, rebelled and Verhaeren waspart of the last category. But he didn’t rebel against the world as a whole but against
the nearly impossible to achieve dream, against the idea of happiness. Verhaeren
was the kind of poet that needed “an heroic exaltation of thought”, who proved averitable heroism by refusing to dream, refusing happiness, refusing the idea of God.
For him pessimism represented the overreaching of a common step, for achieving a
special state of mind. Verhaeren went beyond the decadents and other minor poets.
After Baudelaire, Verhaeren cultivated the idea of “anguish”. His temper, the needfor action leads him to rebellion. And the more he meditated the more he discoveredin himself duality and this duality between his own desires and the rules of society is
the source of all human conflicts, of all inner dramas. With Verhaeren, it seems likea conflict between life and happiness, life full with hazard and contradictions,
happiness that at the level of desire and dream.
KEYWORDS: inner drama, rebellion, contradictions, anguish, visionary

Émile Verhaeren a été l’un des premiers poètes qui ont accepté les théories del’école symboliste dont le chef incontestable était Mallarmé. Verhaeren est une
personnalité complexe, avec un œuvre énorme, diverse où on trouve des idées
modernes, sociales, littéraires et philosophiques qui sont l’écho de son esprit
lyrique. L’expression est parfois si passionné qu’elle dépasse consciemment ou
non les limites de la mesure. Le poète est un véritable innovateur, il a untempérament violent qui va au-delà des frontières, des dogmes et des formules
classiques littéraires. « Verhaeren a bouleversé les formules littéraires classiques.
Il fait le scalpel de la syntaxe. » (Giraud, 1904 : 59) « Verhaeren est le ‘barbare’qui proclame l’art libre. Il est le poète qui vise à détruire les stéréotypes classiques
reconnus. Parmi ses nombreux portraits, on distingue celui qui présente le poètecomme un innocent rebelle. » (Lemonnier, 1905 : 206) « Il serait dommage de nepas reconnaître Émile Verhaeren comme le prototype du décadent contemporain,
vu le nombre des révolutions littéraires où il a participé. Cette seule qualité serait
suffisante pour reconnaître la valeur du poète dans le cadre de l’école poétique. »(Dumont-Wilden, 1901)
L’influence romantique se distingue dans ses premiers poèmes : Les Flamands
et Les Moines sont des extraits de l’épopée que Verhaeren devrait écrire en116

Ileana Mihaela Chiriţescu: Emile Verhaeren – « poète du paroxysme »l’honneur du pays. Le style est neuf, mais le vers est classique. Aucun poète n’a
prouvé mieux que lui l’amour pour sa patrie.
Le thème de la beauté du pays belge a été utilisé à partir de son volume dudébut – Les Flamands – et il l’a continué dans la série intitulée Toute la Flandre,d’où font partie : La Guirlande des Dunes, Les Héros, Les Tendresses Premières,Les Plaines, Les Petites Villes à Pignon. Celui est un chant en l’honneur despaysans de sa patrie, fils de la terre fertile. Sa vision de vie n’a pas été toujours
optimiste. Après son début littéraire, il a eu une hallucination terrible, une maladie
mentale habitait son cerveau et le poète voyait des images de la terreur, de la mort
et du désespoir. Celui a été le point de départ de la mystérieuse trilogie Soirs,
Débâcles et Flambeaux Noirs.
L’automne de l’année 1883 a représenté le début de la crise intellectuelle etmorale qui lui a inspiré pendant huit années des poèmes hallucinantes de la
Trilogie et des Apparus dans mes chemins. En 1883, Verhaeren était vraimentmalade. On parle d’une maladie du siècle, « le mal décadent » qui était plus
baudelairien que verlainien. Sa maladie n’a jamais vraiment préoccupé le médecin:
une douleur d’estomac et une dépression qui a attaqué son cerveau. Il avait peur dela mort. Il était certain qu’il vivait une expérience magnifique à travers cettemaladie. En 1887, il a écrit à René Ghil, qu’il était difficile pour lui de semartyriser : « C’est une chose atrocement difficile que de se martyriser soi-même,par dilettantisme de courage et de volonté. » (Verhaeren, 2008 : 37)
En 1889, dans la Confession de poète, Verhaeren a dit qu’il a cultivé sa maladie,
car elle l’a conduit dans des situations morales qu’il cherchait dans sa bataillelittéraire : « La maladie qui n’est que physique, je l’ai cultivé, parce qu’elle me
jetait en des situations morales que je recherchais pour ma bataille. » (Michaud,
1966 : 236)
En 1884, il a dit à un ami qu’il pensait aux questions qui l’ont intrigué et qu’il
ne pouvait pas renoncer à cette sorte de « tourment intérieur » (Fontaine, 1929 :
16). Son tempérament et la nécessité d’action l’ont mené vers la révolte. La dualité
entre les désirs et les règles de la société est la source de tous les conflits humains,
du drame intérieur. Dans le cas de Verhaeren, elle se transforme en conflit entre lavie et le bonheur: la vie chargée des contradictions et le bonheur qui reste au stadedu désir et du rêve. Pour Verhaeren l’idée du bonheur se confond avec celle duDieu. Face à ces contradictions, certains peuvent se résigner, d’autres peuvent
inventer leur propre réalité et en sont satisfaits, et d’autres sont rebelles et serévoltent contre ceux qui croient dans le bonheur et Verhaeren faisait partie decette dernière catégorie. Les trois catégories de poètes sont : les intellectuels, lesmystiques et les révoltés et Verhaeren faisait partie de la dernière catégorie(Michaud, 1966 : 237). Mais il ne se révolte pas contre le monde en général, mais
contre l’idée du bonheur. Verhaeren est le type de poète qui avait besoin d’une« exaltation héroïque de la pensée » (Ibidem), montrant un héroïsme authentique en
refusant le rêve, le bonheur, en refusant l’idée du Dieu. Verhaeren est allé plus loinque les décadents et les autres poètes mineurs. Après Baudelaire, Verhaeren acultivé l’idée du « mal ». Cela montre une expérience surnaturelle, presque117

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

inhumaine, ce qui a déterminé Albert Mockel de le nommer « le poète duparoxysme » (apud Estève, 1928 : 16). Son art a été comme un cri qui venait dufond de l’être. L’idée poétique personnelle venait de sa pensée; c’était une formule
spéciale qu’il la trouvait dans sa personne, et pas dans un livre. (Michaud, 1966 :238)
En 1891 le volume Apparus dans mes chemins a préparé la terrible crise qui aété cultivée dans la succession de 1887, 1888 et 1890, dans les trois volumes de la
Trilogie. D’abord Verhaeren a tenté d’évader vers idéal, vers le rêve, il a été « lepoète de l’orgueil et des désirs sauvages, il a cherché une existence qui peutintégrer le miracle. » (Ibidem) Après Baudelaire, Verhaeren a essayé la grande
aventure, l’évasion impossible :Impossible ! – voici la boue et puis la noire
Fumée et les tunnels et le morne beffroi
Battant son glas dans la brume... (Ibidem)

Verhaeren n’a pas renoncé dans sa poésie au décor mélancolique, au silence del’horizon, à l’immense plaine, aux chapelles, aux cloches. Chez lui, le thèmeromantique se transformait en état d’esprit. (Ibidem) Les Soirs ont une âme, ils« Saignent, dans les marais, leurs douleurs et leurs plaies. » (Ibidem), ils sont lestémoins de la vie quotidienne. Ils symbolisent la fatigué de celui qui revient del’aventure avec le regret :Il n’était plus la vie,
Il n’était point encore la mort...
(Celui de la Fatigue)

La seule « science » du poète reste la fatigue et il en trouve la joie parce qu’ill’en veut. La désillusion a conduit Verhaeren vers un nihilisme absolu. Celui durien est le poète des Débâcles et des Flambeaux noirs. Dans le contexte des Soirs
est apparu un cercueil sur lequel on entend la prière :Mourir ainsi, mon corps, mourir serait le rêve ! (Ibidem)

Le poète se trouvait face à face avec la mort et il s’est égaré « Dans le hallier
des lois et des systèmes. » (Ibidem) Depuis lors, il n’existait aucune certitude, et lepoète est resté dans « le tombeau des idées ». Le décor se transformait etsymbolisait l’angoisse :Et des gueules d’égout engloutissant la nuit. (Ibidem)

Et puis... le silence... et sa voix ne sonnait plus :Un silence total dont auraient peur les morts. (Ibidem)

118

Ileana Mihaela Chiriţescu: Emile Verhaeren – « poète du paroxysme »Ce décor a démasqué l’âme du poète :Je suis l’halluciné de la forêt des Nombres. (Ibidem)

L’hallucination conduit le poète vers la démence :La démence attaque son cerveau.

Son sommeil a été agité à cause de la fièvre et des cauchemars. Tout autour delui suggère la mort : les doigts immobiles, le ciel plein des nuages, le cortège
funèbre :Les funérailles de la lune.

Débâcles est le volume de sa croyance, de ses idées et Flambeaux noirs
représente la folie, la vision finale :Le cadavre de ma raisonTraîne sur la Tamise.

Pour situer la Trilogie dans le cadre de la poésie décadente, il devrait ressuscitercette aventure unique, ce voyage au bout de la nuit. Personne n’est arrivé si loin etpersonne ne vivait comme lui le pessimisme absolu. Mais surtout, personne n’a
créé une formule si nouvelle. Chez lui, la plainte se transforme en angoisse et lavision est hallucinante.
Une fois la crise dépassée, le poète a été préoccupé du problème del’épanouissement social. Le cadre de sa poésie s’est élargi, « dans la deuxième
trilogie, il a fait la somme de ses idées, les idées qui auraient du constituer lestraités de sociologie qu’il n’a pas voulu écrire. » (Gourmont, 1904 : 159) Surpris
par l’exode de la population des villages vers les villes où chaque jour, ils perdent
leurs forces physiques et la patience dans les chantiers, usines, ports ; dans levolume Aubes, le poète à essayé de résoudre le problème du bonheur humain à
l’aide de son œuvre.
Enfin, dans les volumes Visages de la vie, Forces tumultueuses, Multiple
splendeur, le poète trouve l’apogée de son lyrisme. Maintenant, sa vie lui semble
heureuse, il vit des sensations intenses. Le poète a été tendre dans Les Heuresclaires et Les Heures d’après-midi mais ces volumes sont seulement « des oasis depaix » au cours de sa tumultueuse création.
Son œuvre est une immense cathédrale avec des tours qui regardent le ciel, avec desombrages où on peut nous égarer facilement et ensuite on peut nous retrouver
miraculeusement devant un vitrail qui enchante nos yeux. Ici règne l’ombre
lumineuse qui séduit le lecteur pendant la lecture de ses vers chargés de spiritualité.
(Liebrecht, 1909 : 325)

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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

BIBLIOGRAPHIE
Bazalgette, Léon (1913). « Émile Verhaeren ». In : The North American Review,
University of Northern Iowa, Vol. 198, No. 694, Sept.
Estève, Edmond (1928). Un grand poète de la vie moderne, Émile Verhaeren.
Paris : Boivin.
Fontaine, André (1929). Verhaeren et son œuvre. Paris : Mercure de France.
Gourmont, Remy de (1904). Promenades littéraires. Paris : Mercure de France.
Liebrecht, Henri (1909). Histoire de la littérature belge d’expression française.
Bruxelles : Librairie Vanderlinden.
Michaud, Guy (1966). Message Poétique du Symbolisme. Paris : Librairie Nizet.
Mockel, Albert (1897). « Les Lettres Françaises en Belgique ». Revue
Encyclopédique, 24 juillet, citée par E. Estève, dans Émile Verhaeren.
Walch, G. (1959). Anthologie des Poètes Français contemporains, III. Paris :Delagrave.
Zweig, Stefan (1913). Émile Verhaeren, sa vie, son œuvre. Paris : Collection Livrede Poche.

120

Rôles narratifs dans la ballade
Maria CHIVEREANU
Université de Piteşti,Faculté des Lettres

ABSTRACT: Narrative Roles in the Ballad
This article aims to emphasize the extent to which the character met in the epic folk
ballad is a structural element of this, having as a scientific support what Claude
Bremond called narrative roles. Before one can see who we are dealing with in theepic folk ballad, a review of the research on the corpora of texts and also theclassifications made by folklorists, which exist in the specialized studies werenecessary. Therefore, following the typology that has been achieved over the years,
one can notice the inexhaustible variety of themes that the collective minds have increating these literary species. In presenting the theoretical evidence, an approach of
the epic speech viewed from the perspective of the character’s narrative functions is
also followed, having as a support the already existing theories in the literature. It
should be stressed that the dissection of the actantial component has value on theaxiological orientation direction of the story. Also, whether speaking of functions(Vladimir Propp), or of narrative roles (C. Bremond) or of Greimas’ actantial theory,the character is a structural element of the epic. The essential discovery of thefunction, understood as “the action of a character, defined in terms of its
significance for the conduct of proceedings” (Propp, 1970: 234) can also be
rendered valuable at the level of the epic text, being essential to any structure of thenarrative message. It should be noted that firstly, knowing the basic co-ordinates
which refer to the general theory of functions provides the premises of only aminimal research on the functional level of heroic epic. As a result, an analytical anda comparative research of the structure of narrative ballads has been carried out justto create the possibility of drawing a functional sui generis model for the heroic
epos.
KEYWORDS: narrative roles, epic ballad, actantial component, narrative
message, heroic epos

Dans le cadre de la création populaire, la chanson épique joue un rôle important, sedistinguant par le pathos héroïque, par l’amplitude des sentiments, par la forced’esquisser certains héros qui abordent, dans un registre grave, des drames sociaux
et historiques et des aspirations de l’âme collective. À une analyse attentive desâges de la pensée, on peut constater que ceux-ci ont généré les structures qui
maintiennent les caractéristiques spécifiques de l’époque. Par conséquent, on a
précisé qu’au premier âge de l’humanité correspond la création épique fantastique.

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Selon Paul Ruxǎndoiu, cette catégorie développe des sous-divisions : la chansonépique fantastique à fonction coercitive et la création épique fantastique-héroïque.
Donc de la catégorie héroïco-fantastique on dégage la chanson épique du braveou du héros, autrement dit la chanson épique proprement dite. Un autre aspectremarqué dans notre recherche est constitué par le passage de la chanson épique à
son correspondant réaliste, moment marqué par l’apparition de la chanson
historique ou du haïdouk. On trouve, dans la descendance de la chanson épiquefantastique à fonction coercitive, qui développe la fonction moralisatrice, ce quel’on a appelé la ballade nouvellistique. Pour arriver au thème présenté dans le titre,il faut d’abord rendre les classifications opérées dans les corpus de textes. Il fautsouligner, dès le début, que dans la littérature de spécialité on a consigné desdisputes en ce qui concerne la terminologie de cette espèce littéraire d’une part, etque d’autre on a crayonné l’instabilité des systèmes proposés. G. Dem. Teodorescu
en distingue quatre classes : ballades solaires et superstitieuses, ballades
historiques, ballades des haïdouks, ballades domestiques. I.C. Chiţimia se situe, ence qui concerne la manière d’envisager le phénomène, dans le sillage de lapremière proposition, lorsqu’il parle de ballades légendaires, héroïques (du brave
et du haïdouk), de conflit familial et social, et historiques. À une analyse plus
attentive, Gh. Vrabie et Al. I. Amzulescu augmentent le nombre des classes à six.
Gh. Vrabie identifie la ballade légendaire, la ballade bergère, la chanson
historique ou courtoise, la ballade anti-ottomane, anti-feudale, familiale, tandis
que Al. I. Amzulescu les regroupe en ballades fantastiques, du brave, bergères,traitant de la cour feudale, familiales et journaux intimes oraux.
D’après d’autres chercheurs (M. Pop et Pavel Ruxǎndoiu) il y a une autreclassification qui comprend quatre types de ballades : la création épiquefantastique-mythologique, la création épique héroïque, la chanson épique
historique ou du haïdouk, la ballade nouvellistique. Ovidiu Bârlea tente uneclassification triadique, à savoir : ballades fantastiques, ballades héroïques,
ballades nouvellistiques – sur divers thèmes, soit familiaux, soit professionnels.
Par conséquent, à travers les classifications faites le long du temps, on peut
observer la variété thématique inépuisable que détient le mental collectif pour lacréation de ces espèces littéraires.
Dans le présent travail, on est parti de l’idée, déjà exprimée dans la littérature despécialité, que discuter de n’importe quelle espèce du folklore littéraire en dehors
du contexte qui la génère signifie placer le chercheur dans un point qui détruit toutson élan. Comme on l’a affirmé le plus souvent, la chanson épique institue
certaines relations avec le méta-texte folklorique, s’inscrivant dans un processus
gouverné par les lois de l’oralité.
En partant de cette prémisse, on observe, à une analyse plus attentive, que lacréation épique populaire, et non seulement, peut être investiguée conformément àdes paquets de relations établies entre le texte, le contexte d’actualisation,l’interprète, le récepteur. Autrement dit, « acest cântec povestit destinat ascultării »(‘cette chanson racontée destinée à être écoutée’) [notre traduction] était souvent
interprétée sur demande, ce qui prouve que les participants à l’échange culturel
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Maria Chivereanu: Rôles narratifs dans la ballade

savaient ce qui convenait au moment, intervenant parfois dans le déroulement
interprétatif, au cas où des fautes apparaissaient. Donc, la chanson épique connaît
un régime spécial, dans le sens que les écouteurs sont spécialisés au niveau de lacommunauté ; « ei exercită o presiune constantă asupra emiţătorului de suprafaţă –performerului (emiţătorul de adâncime fiind creatorul, în accepţiunea Sandei
Golopenţia Eretescu) » [‘ils exercent une pression constante sur l’émetteur desurface – sur le performer (l’émetteur de profondeur étant le créateur, dansl’acception de Sanda Golopenţia-Eretescu’)] (Sǎmǎrescu, 2009 : 67) [notre
traduction].
Dans la présentation de la démarche théorique on a en vue une approche dudiscours épique considéré de la perspective des fonctions narratives despersonnages, ayant comme support les théories déjà existantes dans la littérature despécialité. Il faut souligner que la dissection de la composante actantielle a de lavaleur dans la direction de l’orientation axiologique du récit. Soit que l’on parle desfonctions (V. Propp), soit des rôles narratifs (C. Bremond) ou de la théorie
actantielle de Greimas, le personnage constitue aussi un élément structural du genreépique. En partant de cet aspect, les chercheurs ont affirmé que « majoritatea

cântecelor epice eroice activează arhetipurile comportamentale ale
excelenţei» (‘la plupart des chansons épiques héroïques activent les archétypes
comportementaux de l’excellence’) (Sǎmǎrescu, op.cit. : 64) [notre traduction].
Dans ce sens, « semnificativ este cazul lui Iovan Iorgovan care reactivează
o veche paradigmă mitică, aceea a eroului omorâtor de monştri » (‘le cas deIovan Iorgovan, qui réactive un paradigme mythique ancien, est significatif’)(Ibidem) [notre traduction]. Ainsi, dans ce contexte, il est facile à remarquer lamanière dont la chanson épique recours au cumul d’attributs du héros, ces marques
comportementales ou physiques revêtant le modèle de la formule.
La fonction, comprise comme « acţiunea unui personaj, definită din punctde vedere al semnificaţiei sale pentru desfăşurarea acţiunii » (‘l’action d’unpersonnage, définie de point de vue de sa signification pour le déroulement del’action’) (Propp, 1970 : 234) [notre traduction], une fois découverte, peut êtrevalorisée aussi au niveau du texte épique, étant indispensable à la structure den’importe quel message narratif.
Il faut mentionner que, dans un premier temps, la connaissance des coordonnées
de base qui visent la théorie générale des fonctions offre les prémisses d’une
recherche minime seulement au niveau fonctionnel de l’épopée héroïque. En
d’autres termes, ce n’est qu’en cherchant, dans ce que l’on a appelé discours
narratif, ces éléments fondamentaux de la fonctionnalité narrative, « se poateobţine modelul funcţiei esenţiale ale eposului nostru eroic » (‘on peut obtenir
le modèle de la fonction essentielle de notre épopée héroïque’) (Amzulescu, 1986 :295) [notre traduction].
Autrement dit, le modèle fonctionnel peut constituer un phénomène de catégoriede la langue, tandis que la phénoménologie des variantes est étudiée au niveau dela parole. Selon Propp, cela représente une recherche de grammaire de la narration.
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C’est à remarquer que la structure de l’épopée héroïque comprend, dans lavision du même auteur, la situation initiale et le déroulement fonctionnel
proprement-dit, regroupés en trois séquences successives et oppositives : laséquence du préjudice / du manque ; la séquence de la confrontation desadversaires ; la séquence de la correction. On a affirmé aussi qu’il y a desfonctions-noyau autour desquelles en gravitent d’autres, « definirea fiecăreia
făcându-se în raport de urmările ei (este mai important ce fac personajele decâtcine şi cum). În această idee tematică se înscrie, s-ar putea spune, şi Georges Polti
care în opera L’art d’inventer les personnages mărturiseşte: “personajele nu suntdecât ceea ce fac” » [‘chacune d’elles se définissant par rapport à ses conséquences(c’est plus important ce que font les personnages que qui et comment). À cette idéethématique souscrit aussi, on pourrait dire, Georges Polti qui, dans l’ouvrage L’art
d’inventer les personnages, témoigne : “les personnages ne sont que ce qu’ils font”»] (apud Adam & Revaz, 1999 : 64) [notre traduction].
À une analyse du corpus de chansons épiques roumaines, on peut constater quela descendance de Propp y est adaptée avec succès. Al. I. Amzulescu propose, dansce sens, un modèle qui contient plusieurs paliers, structurés sous forme d’arbres
binaires. Donc, le nœud-racine, c’est-à-dire le niveau zéro de l’arbre est constitué
par l’épopée héroïque, dont se détachent, au premier niveau, l’épopée de lalibération – de la vengeance et celle de l’audace, ou, dans une autre terminologie,
utilisant la vieille suggestion de Caracostea, « Hybris et Némésis » (Amzulescu,
op.cit. : 300).
À un autre niveau, comme on peut l’observer, suit une nouvelle duplication qui
active le couple Lutte – Victoire (L – V). En conséquence, la première séquence aen vue la victoire, comme suite à la lutte telle quelle, et la deuxième séquence faitde la lutte les épreuves rudes auxquelles le héros est soumis par l’ennemi. Dans ce
sens, il faut préciser que « structura funcţională a eposului eroic rezultă dininterdependenţa strânsă dintre secvenţele prejudiciere – confruntare –remediere, inclusiv secţiunea pivot, intermediară între prejudiciere şi
confruntare » (‘la structure fonctionnelle de l’épopée héroïque résulte del’interdépendance étroite entre les séquences préjudice – confrontation –correction, y compris la section pivot, intermédiaire entre préjudice etconfrontation’) (Ibidem : 301) [notre traduction].
Les textes où l’on peut saisir la phénoménologie de la première séquence sontnombreux. Ainsi, les nombreuses variantes de la chanson épique Corbea présentent
la même situation initiale – celle où l’on précise le fait qu’il est en prison depuis
longtemps. L’apparition et les questions de la mère, avec la réponse du héros,constituent la communication du préjudice, par laquelle commence l’action
proprement-dite.
Un parallélisme évident il y a aussi dans le cas des variantes du sujet « Şarpele »‘Le Serpent’, beaucoup de celles-ci contenant la même situation initiale – le jeune
homme avalé par le serpent. Dans ce cas aussi, l’action commence par la fonction
de la médiation, le jeune Iortoman, à qui la personne préjudiciée fait appel pour lasauver, fait son apparition, mais à qui le serpent communique les antécédents du124

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préjudice (la mère a donné sa malédiction à son enfant dès le berceau). En ce qui
concerne la malédiction, il faut préciser que celle-ci représente un instrument
mentalitaire, transposé discursivement, qui, une fois activée, a des répercussions
sur la personne visée, la finalité éthique motivant les actions de réparation.
Dans la présentation de plus haut, on a rappelé l’importance détenue par lafonction Lutte, envisagée en tant que confrontation violente à laquelle participe lehéros. On a souligné, dans ce sens, que la fonction en question peut bénéficier del’expansion (elle peut se doubler, se tripler), occupant une place privilégiée dans denombreux sujets tels : Iovan Iorgovan, Mihu Copilul ‘Mihu l’Enfant’, Chira
Chiralina.
En prolongeant et en systématisant les principes de Propp, A.J. Greimas opère
une première distinction entre les Actants, qu’il réduit à six grands rôles, d’unepart, et d’autre, les Acteurs ou les personnages qui, doués d’un nom et d’une
identité, peuvent occuper ces places selon le modèle des trois cas passés en revue
par l’auteur rappelé. D’après C. Bremond, il y a deux types de rôles narratifs :« pacienţii, afectaţi de procesele modificatoare, şi agenţii, iniţiatori aiacestor procese. » (‘les patients, affectés par les procès modificateurs, et lesagents, initiateurs de ces procès’) (Bremond 1981 : 170) [notre traduction].
Il faut préciser que le regard des personnages à des yeux fonctionnels (en tantque participants accomplissant certains rôles fonctionnels) fait que de la multitude
d’hypostases concrètes des personnages on retient l’actant. Dans cette situation« personajele se repetă tot aşa cum se repetă funcţiile» (‘les personnages se
répètent comme se répètent les fonctions ’ (Propp, op.cit. : 117) [notre traduction].
Il est nécessaire, donc, de souligner que l’actant constitue, en fait, le deuxième
degré d’abstraction. Toma, Manea aussi bien que Iorgovan sont des personnages –le premier degré d’abstraction. Mais les personnages, regroupés en classes depersonnages, sont des actants au niveau de la totalisation typologique et de laréduction fonctionnelle.
On a remarqué aussi que « cele două nivele, funcţional şi actanţial îşi aufiecare propria lor distribuţie, dar sunt în acelaşi timp izomorfe şi reciproc
integrative » (‘les deux niveaux, fonctionnel et actantiel, ont chacun leur propre
distribution, mais ils sont en même temps isomorphes et réciproquement
intégratifs’) (Amzulescu, op.cit. : 319) [notre traduction]. La nature complexe de lastructure opère simultanément aux deux niveaux de la composition de la narration,
à côté desquels il faudrait imaginer d’autres aussi, comme le niveau verbal. Si
l’attaque et la défense représentent les principales formes d’expression narrative ducode de ce message, l’une de ses formes spécifiques de manifestation est le détour
et l’encerclement de l’adversaire. C’est la raison pour laquelle naît la nécessité del’apparition de l’actant Médiateur, expression personnifiée de la fonction demédiation. Dans le plan actantiel, le médiateur joue le rôle de canal de contact et de« contrôle phatique » entre les deux partenaires principaux, qui peuvent êtreconsidérés, à tour de rôle, Emetteur et Récepteur dans l’évolution du message
héroïque. (Jakobson, 1964 : 88).
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Un autre aspect digne d’être signalé dans le cadre de la chanson épique
populaire est constitué par la transformation des éléments diégétiques en discours.
Pour mettre en évidence tout cela, il faut partir de l’idée surprise par Ovidiu Bârlea
dans son étude « Procesul de creaţie al baladei populare româneşti » - ‘Le procèsde création de la ballade populaire roumaine’ [notre traduction], qui saisissait lesmécanismes qui sont à la base de la conversion d’une personne factuelle enpersonnage fictionnel :în decursul unei jumătăţi de secol se observă cum pe măsură ce eroul se ştergea din
amintirea oamenilor ca fiinţă reală pentru ca numele lui să impresioneze imaginaţia
populară, exagerându-i-se calităţile. Apar noi trăsături de nobleţe şi bunătate
sufletească, elementul mitic ce a apărut, sigur, odată cu naşterea epicii populare, se
conturează mai puternic, se insistă asupra lui şi, ca să-i ridice în cel mai înalt gradvaloarea de erou, este pus faţă în faţă cu Domnul ţării; aprecierea acestuia constituie
cea mai bună dovadă că Radu Anghel a fost un supra-om cu atari calităţi sufleteşti şiputeri fizice.
‘pendant un demi-siècle, on observe comment […] le héros s’effaçait de la mémoire
des gens en tant qu’être réel pour que son nom impressionne l’imagination
populaire, exagérant ses qualités. De nouveaux traits de noblesse et de bonté d’âme
apparaissent, l’élément mythique qui est apparu, seul, en même temps que lanaissance de la création épique populaire, prend un contour plus ferme, on insiste
sur lui et, pour augmenter au plus haut degré sa valeur de héros, il est mis face à face
avec le roi du pays ; l’appréciation de celui-ci est la meilleure preuve que Radu
Anghel a été un tel homme, possédant de telles qualités d’âme et de force
physique.’ (Bârlea, 1941 : 43) [notre traduction]

En conséquence, Radu lui Anghel (‘Radu, fils de Anghel’) [notre traduction]
appartient à la création épique du haïdouk et peut être représentative en ce qui
concerne la transformation que nous avons rappelée plus tôt. Il est facile à saisir, au
niveau du discours, l’une des caractéristiques qui relèvent de cette organisation,celle des détails abondants, constituant en même temps une stratégie
communicative par laquelle l’interprète capte l’attention. La liste des camarades duhaïdouk est complétée par celle des hôtes ou celles des victimes. De longueur
variable sont aussi les textes qui parlent de traitres. Certaines variantes du texte
introduisent dans la texture poétique des séquences – enclave, telles : des méthodes
de torture qu’applique Radu, certains stratagèmes pour pénétrer dans la cour duprêtre – victime.
On peut identifier, dans un tel texte, le motif de la mère qui cherche son fils,
motif qui valorise les ressources du dialogue. La fin de telles séquences contient lereproche du héros adressé à sa mère :Tăiam boi şi furam cai,
Tu o vorbă nu ziceai. (Varianta 85)‘Je sacrifiais des bœufs et je volais des chevaux,126

Maria Chivereanu: Rôles narratifs dans la ballade
Tu ne disais mot’ (Variante 85)
Când eram de nouă ani,
Furam miei de la ciobani
Şi-i vindeam la măcelari
Şi-ţi umpleam poala cu bani…
De ce nu mi-ai dat povaţă,Când mă ţineai în braţă?
De ce nu m-ai învăţat
Când mă legănai în pat? (Varianta 87)‘Lorsque j’avais neuf ans,
Je volais des agneaux aux bergers
Et je les vendais aux bouchers
Et je remplissais tes poches d’argent …
Pourquoi ne me donnais-tu pas de conseils,
Lorsque dans tes bras tu me serrais fort?
Pourquoi ne m’as-tu pas conseillé
Lorsque dans mon lit tu me berçais ?’ (Variante 87) [notre traduction]

Le plus souvent, le dénouement consacre l’assassinat du haïdouk. Dans ce
contexte, on fait appel à la technique du portrait, considérée comme composantepoétique de la création épique populaire. La description est saisie aussi au moment
de l’interprétation, plus exactement au moment où le haïdouk est accueilli avec
l’appellatif « căpitane » ‘mon capitaine’ :– Zi-mi pe nume Răducane! (...)
Eu sunt Radu cel din crângCare mă port cu opinci,
Cu opinci, cu cataramă
Să nu-mi bage lumea samă;Înfăşurat cu curele
Şi la gât cu tapangele
Şi la brâu cu focuri grelePă pofta inimii mele. (Varianta 29)– Appelle-moi de mon nom, Rǎducan ! (...)
Je suis Radu de la forêt
Qui chausse des sandales,
Des sandales à boucle
Pour que le monde ne m’observe pas ;Enveloppé dans des courroies
J’ai au cou des pistolets
Et à la ceinture des passions ardentes
Comme mon cœur les aime. (Variante 29) [notre traduction]

Un autre procédé de mise en relief poétique du message est constitué par lesinvectives, les interrogations rhétoriques : Dară Radu ce zicea ‘Mais Radu, que127Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

me disait-il ?’ [notre traduction]. Le dialogue jouit d’un traitement à part, étant
organisé conformément aux stratégies conversationnelles populaires, les répliquessont déclenchées à l’aide des verbes de dire.
Il faut rappeler, et non dernièrement, qu’il y a beaucoup de variantes où l’on
trouve insérée dans le discours évocateur une chanson de facture lyrique ; on y
trouve même des métaphores de la mort et des fragments d’oraison funèbre :Bucură-te mănăstireCe garoafă-ţi intră-n tine
Nu vine să înflorească
Vine doar să putrezească.
‘Réjouis-toi monastère
Qu’une belle fleur vient à toi :Elle ne vient pas pour fleurir,
Mais elle vient pour pourrir.’ [notre traduction]

Productions épiques et lyriques destinées à être écoutées, les ballades
folkloriques sont des créations appartenant à certaines époques, ayant une valeur
esthétique incontestable. Leur dénomination populaire « cântece bătrâneşti »(‘chansons des anciens’) suggère leur ancienneté et le fait qu’elles s’inscrivent dans
un certain complexe culturel. Pour conclure, on peut affirmer que ces créations
représentent le bien culturel d’une communauté, ayant le but de rendre présents à lafois, dans un échange social, l’émetteur et le récepteur.
BIBLIOGRAPHIE
Adam, Jean-Michel, & Françoise Revaz (1999). Analiza povestirii. Traducător
Sorin Pârvu. Iaşi : Editura Institutul European.
Amzulescu, Alexandru I. (1986). Cântecul nostru bătrânesc. Bucureşti : Minerva.
Bârlea, Ovidiu (1941). « Procesul de creaţie al baladei populare româneşti ».
Revista fundaţiilor, 8.
—— (1966). « Folclor şi istorie (despre reflectarea evenimentelor istorice înfolclor) ». Revista de Etnografie şi Folclor, 11, 13-25.
Bremond, Claude (1981). Logica povestirii. Bucureşti: Univers.
Fochi, Adrian (1985). Cântecul epic tradiţional al românilor. Bucureşti : EdituraŞtiinţifică şi Enciclopedică.
Ionescu-Ruxăndoiu, Liliana (1995). Conversaţia: structuri şi strategii. Bucureşti :All.
Propp, Vladimir (1970). Morfologia basmului. Bucureşti : Univers.
Sămărescu, Adrian (2009). Contexte genetice şi modele poetice în legenda
populară. Piteşti : Tiparg.
Todorov, Tzvetan (1975). Poetica. Gramatica Decameronului. Bucureşti : Univers.
Ursache, Petru (1976). Poetică folclorică. Iaşi : Junimea.

128

“Valencias” del modernismo español
Geo CONSTANTINESCU
Universidad de Craiova,
Facultad de Letras

ABSTRACT: “Values” of Spanish Modernism
The paper Valencias del modernismo español presents the moments of the literary
movement in its evolution from the Royal Restoration (the last quarter of the 19th
century) until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, in 1936. It is brought into
discussion the direct influence of decadentism and French symbolism on ManuelSerna’s work as well as on Ricardo Gil’s, etc. and then, the paper focuses on theinfluence of Hispanic American modernism, represented by the activity in the
Peninsula of the Nicaraguan poet, Rubén Darío. It has been taken into account his
evolution in the framework of the Spanish Vanguard movements from the 1927s, theUltraist movement and creationism. The originality of modern Spanish poetry lies in
the ingenious taking over and processing of the traditional poetry motifs, achieving acomplex of high-value works in the European and universal context.
KEYWORDS: modernism, creationism, the Ultraist movement, traditionalism

El temblor de la renovación poética en la literatura española se siente durante lacrisis de la sociedad de la Restauración (el último cuarto del siglo XIX), a travésdel espectacular crecimiento de las ciudades, con la migración de las masas de loscampesinos pobres, seducidos por aquel milagro del bienestar, prometido por eldesarrollo de la civilización industrial. Los artistas viven a su vez su fascinación, su
crispación, su visión crítica sobre aquella sociedad y, más tarde, sus aspiraciones abuscar alternativas espirituales frente a este sumergimiento de los demás hombres
en las olas ciegas de la civilización material. Los poetas viven su propia mística deseres marginados que tienen el don de crearse un reino interior donde los valoresdel alma puedan sobrevivir.
Frente a esos cambios los poetas buscan su propio estilo, con una clara
conciencia colectiva de asentamiento cultural y de mejorar la condición humana.
Al mismo tiempo, se nota la influencia de la poesía decadentista y simbolista
francesa que llama la atención sobre las vivencias minadas por el mal del fin delsiglo. Así, el poeta español Ricardo Gil (1853-1907) en su volumen La caja demúsica (1898) expresa un sintomático sentimentalismo que profundiza en lossueños y en los recuerdos en confrontación con una experiencia dolorosa de lavida. A ello se añade la preocupación por experimentar distintos ritmos (deldodecasílabo, los ritmos de la seguidilla, o los sextetos agudos). El libro mismo es
concebido como una caja que encierra la música eterna del corazón. Todo esto es
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muy diferente al filisteísmo burgués, imperante en aquellos tiempos de visible
progreso técnico. El malestar intelectual provocado por la crisis de siglo aparecido
con éste, le permite al artista su única y divina libertad de crear mundos
alternativos de la belleza pura que desprestigien el omnipresente y el enajenantemito del progreso.
Manuel Reina (1856-1905) publica Andantes y allegros (1877) y Cromos yacuarelas (Cantos de nuestra época, 1878) donde reactualiza los motivosrománticos del andalucismo, motivos nórdicos y orientales, medievales ymitológicos, desprovistos del retoricismo, mezclándolos con el de la mujer fatal, yevocaciones de personajes marginales malditos y vinculaciones de la poesía con lamúsica y con la pintura. En el volumen La vida inquieta (1894) su aportación es
más significativa. Se nota aquí una brillantez sensorial nueva en la poesía española
de aquel tiempo, vinculada con los motivos de la bohemia, el alcohol y elsensualismo. También se nota su interés por personajes marginados por su genio yla clara conciencia del papel del arte como amparo frente al spleen vital.
Salvador Rueda (1857-1933) experimenta también la música de los versos enlas construcciones métricas, practica una riqueza verbal sin la retórica
declamatoria, introduce lo coloquial por la vía del popularismo y la temática de lanaturaleza es vista desde la perspectiva del sensualismo.
Estos son considerados los precursores del modernismo antes de la llegada a
España de Rubén Darío. Una de las lecciones que dio a sus coetáneos españoles fue
la de actualizar el lenguaje poético, ensancharlo en direcciones muy distintas y deofrecer a este lenguaje la flexibilidad perdida. Dice él mismo:
Se necesita que el ingenio saque del joyero antiguo el buen metal y la rica pedrería,
para fundir, montar y pulir a capricho, volando al porvenir, dando novedad a laproducción, con un decir flamante, rápido, eléctrico, nunca usado, por cuando nunca
se han tenido a la mano como ahora todos los elementos de la naturaleza y todas las
grandezas del espíritu. (Darío, 1989: 32)

Otra lección fue la métrica, en la que utilizó el repertorio más rico de la poesía
en español, en experimentos que provocaron una etapa muy saludable deespeculaciones formales a través de sus discípulos. Todo esto fue realizado como
resultado de su propia experiencia de vida y de cultura.
La llamada Generación del 98, muy vinculada a la realidad española de aquellos
tiempos, construyó su universo situando a ésta en el centro de su creación. Su obra
fue más bien un gran esfuerzo para llegar a esta realidad y tratar de comprenderla.
Pero la tierra de España del noventayocho les permitió su propia interpretación, no
la invención. Dice Azorín sobre la poesía de Unamuno: “Casi no son paisajes, casi
no vemos lo que pretende pintar el autor. Vemos el corolario moral, místico
muchas veces, que el autor hace oponiéndose en las ciudades, en los bosques, enlas montañas.”Así que, aunque se opone al modernismo como mero experimento musical delos versos, no le es extraño el conflicto intelectual del momento. Pero él pide a sus
coetáneos que esculpan, “pues, la niebla”. Es su punto de vista respecto de la130

Geo Constantinescu: “Valencias” del modernismo español

renovación de la expresión poética, y, sobre todo, de la perspectiva de enfocar larealidad de España de aquel momento. Unamuno se define como entidad individual
por aquella realidad profunda de su pueblo anónimo, disipado por las vicisitudes dela gran historia en el empeño de trabajar rudamente una tierra tosca y seca parasacar provecho no para ellos, sino para los demás. Los valores que definen a
Unamuno como hombre y como poeta son: familia, patria y religión. Pero despuésde la crisis religiosa vivida en la juventud, se da cuenta de que Dios existe sólocomo una proyección del yo. Dios tiene realidad en cuanto el hombre cree en él.
Tiempo, eternidad, sentimiento, historia, Dios, son temas permanentes de esta
poesía. El poeta se debate entre la angustia y la consolación por la belleza de unmundo insuficiente. Su búsqueda de los otros y análisis de la conciencia interior
con un fondo metafísico forma parte no sólo de las preocupaciones suyas sinotambién de todos los grandes poetas de la época. Así que, en las preocupaciones
más profundas, Unamuno no es exento a las de los modernistas.
Antonio Machado, el otro gran poeta de la Generación del 98, busca, en elpaisaje de Castilla, su interior propio y su condición efímera en aquella realidad
perenne. La melancolía de las estaciones, de los campos, de los estanques, de loscaminos se confronta en un diálogo permanente con la propia existencia del tiempoy de su devenir como individuo y su partida, un día, no se sabe donde. Las
descripciones del paisaje sentimental erosionado por la experiencia del tiempo vitalsirven de contrapunto para realzar la experiencia de un tiempo que sólo se puede
vivir desde lo colectivo. Así, la crisis de la moral estética va coincidiendo con la dela moral histórica.
El hermano mayor de Antonio, Manuel Machado ha estado en París al inicio desu carrera dos veces (1899-1900 y 1902) estancias que le permitieron conocer las
diversas corrientes de la poesía y, en particular, la obra de Verlaine qué traducirá alespañol en 1908. Su obra se va a dejar influir por el simbolismo francés con sus
rasgos decadentistas (Yo, poeta decadente). Así, él arremetió contra la moral y las
costumbres burguesas, vivió una vida estética bohemia en Paris y en Madrid ycultivó la alquimia verbal, nacida de la alucinación de los sentidos. Pero, despuésde casarse con Eulalia Cáceres, en 1910, representa la imagen criticada antes, delbuen burgués. Pero su primer volumen individual, Alma (1900) está en la base detoda su obra posterior y es una mezcla de lo francés y la tradición, la historia y lo
vivido, lo frívolo y la filosofía amarga, lo concreto y lo vago. “Y, por encima detodo, melancolía, tristeza libresca y concreta, ligereza y gravedad, elegancia.”(Carballo, 1967)
Ramón María del Valle-Inclán (1866-1936) contribuye a la evolución delmodernismo hacia el paisajismo y el bucolismo. En su primer volumen de versos,
Aromas de leyenda (1907) se dirige a la búsqueda de lo arcaico gallego como
forma propia de exotismo, enlazada con la tradición poética de Galicia. Libro desíntesis artística y sublimación del arte, los versos suenan distintamente porqueexperimentan los ritmos de su tierra. En el Pasajero (1920) desvela la bellezaoculta que se esconde tras la senda ascética del dolor. El pecado y elremordimiento, el placer y el ascetismo, la conciencia del tiempo destructor y la fe131Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

en la eternidad del ser invitan al goce del presente como compensación de lalimitación de la vida.
Pero el mejor poeta de la época suele ser considerado Juan Ramón Jiménez(1881-1958). En toda su creación, Jiménez busca eternizarse en la Belleza a travésde la palabra. En sus primeros dos volúmenes de versos Almas de violeta y Ninfeas
expresa el repertorio poético del primer modernismo en el que se amalgama lo
alegórico, lo visionario, en su enfrentamiento entre la realidad y el ideal. Con
Rimas (1902) y Jardines lejanos (1904) encontramos muestras de la introspección
simbolista, elementos sugerentes de melancolía y tristeza. Todo esto sirve comolanzadera hacia la depuración sentimental, conceptual y formal de la poesía
desnuda desarrollada en los volúmenes posteriores.
Como notamos, el modernismo español en su búsqueda de la originalidad
expresiva, la aproximación de la literatura a la música, preferencia por lo vago
impreciso, exotismo, renovación de los recursos expresivos continua elsubjetivismo romántico, como proyección del pensamiento idealista que serádestruida por la estética de las vanguardias.
Con la aparición del futurismo y el surrealismo como corrientes de lasvanguardias europeas se supone la creación de un nuevo sujeto objetivado más alládel propio yo del artista. Así, el poema se dirige a los sentimientos del lector, quedebe ser conmovido por la belleza, la musicalidad y el misterio, el hermetismo queemanan del pensamiento encerrado en estos recursos. No importa comprender.
Cuenta sólo el ansia de expresión del sentir profundo, del grito y la protesta, deldolor, de las pasiones, del loco amor humano.
La primera corriente vanguardista española, el Ultraísmo, se nutre de los rasgos
propios del Futurismo, Cubismo y Dadaísmo, muchos de ellos difundidos a travésde la revista Prometeo (1908-1910) dirigida por Ramón Gómez de la Serna. Su
primer manifiesto apareció en 1918, en El Parlamentario y fue escrito por Rafael
Cansinos Anséns. El autor expresó la voluntad de romper con el modernismo y decultivar una literatura Ultra, en el sentido de más allá, en conexión con lasvanguardias en auge. Otro promotor fue Guillermo de Torre, también poeta. Entre
sus principales características figuran el antierotismo y el antisentimentalismo, elgusto por la abstracción y lo irracional, por lo industrial, lo deportivo y lo
mecánico. Rehúye lo anecdótico, lo personal y se predica la independencia de lametáfora y de la imagen que han de ser provocativas e insólitas. Jorge Luis Borges
trasladó el movimiento a Latinoamérica.
El creacionismo fue introducido en Francia por el poeta Pierre Reverdy y por el
poeta chileno Vicente Huidobro en 1912, que le difundió con gran éxito en España.
Huidobro considera el poema como algo autónomo, desligado de la realidad, en elque deben rechazarse la mimesis, lo sentimental y lo anecdótico. Necesitará porello dos capacidades básicas, la imaginativa y la expresiva. Trata de crearse unálgebra superior del lenguaje que lleve a un mundo de absoluta belleza en el que elpoeta es el creador de su propia realidad, mediante las metáforas sin base lógica
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Huidobro inclina hacia esta corriente a Juan Larrea y Gerardo Diego, el máximo
exponente del Creacionismo en España.
Vicente Huidobro, el poeta, en su volumen Altazor, o el viaje en paracaídas(1931) aboga por una nueva religión, la de la poesía, destinada a definir y salvar alhombre “colgado al paracaídas de sus propios prejuicios”. Aboga por una poesía
que sea libre de cualquier retórica, de la prosa de la civilización alienadora, de lasredundancias de una cultura superada por el tiempo “Yo probaré para mil años los
sueños de los hombres/Y os daré un poema llano de corazón/En el que me
despedazaré por todos lados.”
El poeta se propone crear una nueva poesía, “una música de espíritu/Música que
hace pensar en el crecimiento de los árboles”. Esta es la esencia del modernismo yde las vanguardias del tiempo, el reto procediendo de Baudelaire y Verlaine,continuado también por Huidobro y sus coetáneos. Al mismo tiempo, el poeta
chileno quiere ofrecer con su poesía la unidad inicial del mundo: “El mundo se me
entra por los ojos/Se me entra por las manos se me entra por los pies/Me entra porla boca…”
Huidobro quiere dar una nueva mística a la creación. Su sacrificio debe ser
creador. En Canto II se dirige a la mujer a la cual le pide el amor. Este llamamiento
constituye el primer escalón para el cuajar de esta unidad: “Mujer el mundo está
amueblado por tus ojos/Se hace más alto el cielo en tu presencia/La tierra se
prolonga de rosa en rosa/Y el aire se prolonga de paloma en paloma”. Canto II es
una canción de la plenitud, de la pasión, de la promesa de la dicha, es decir de laeternidad del ser individual.
En general, de los escritos teóricos de su mayor discípulo en la Península,
Gerardo Diego, se desprende la idea moderna de la vinculación de las artes,
matizada en tanto que la Poesía habita en todos los lenguajes de expresión artística,
siendo susceptible, por ello, de ser tomada en cuenta dentro del ámbito de lacreación musical. Además, siguiendo la tradición idealista, la música ocupa elprimer puesto en el escalafón jerárquico de las artes.
Como los demás poetas europeos quiere superar viejas y gastadas formas
decadentistas, inaugurando una nueva sensibilidad, que es la de su propia
expresión. Su creación tiene como postulado clave luchar contra todo lo caduco ylo viejo. Ellos quieren sorprender lo nuevo, el vitalismo de su época. Se crea una
imagen autónoma, ajena a la realidad exterior, que permita la creación de una
nueva realidad, complementaria a la existente. “Imagen, esto es, la palabra. La
palabra en su sentido primitivo, ingenuo, de primer grado, intuitivo, generalmente
ahogado en un valor lógico de juicio, de pensamiento”.
Juan Larrea, discípulo y amigo de los dos, uno de los máximos creacionistas
españoles y europeos de su tiempo (escribió muchos poemas en francés) quiso“dejar todas sus viejas fórmulas de civilización (europea, n.n. G.C.). Quedarme
desenvuelto y desnudo para encontrarme digno de bañarme en el manantinal de lainocencia del mundo. Con esta mira empieza mi aventura”. Así él creó una poesía
cósmica, liberada de los convencionalismos culturales europeos. En su poesía, el
mismo poeta, como sujeto, no existía aún, sino la realidad superior de las palabras
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que pregonaban otro mundo, el de las altas esferas de los Andes, donde había
buscado la inspiración.
Así el Cosmos adquiere substantividad frente al yo o al tú, convertido en sujeto
pasivo, receptor, que vibra ante las sensaciones que le llegan y es capaz de reflejar
las maravillas del mundo. Su discurso no presenta organización asociativa lógica.
Es intricado, autosuficiente, sin un significado básico más profundo que el valor
externo del formalismo.
Pero no todos los poetas de la Generación del 27 continúan en esta línea. La
mayoría recoge las diversas tradiciones poéticas del pasado y quieren más bien
esclarecer la realidad existente y humana. Uno es éstos es Gerardo Diego, el
teórico del Creacionismo que, en la segunda frase de su creación cultiva una poesía
humanizada, dirigida a un lector tradicional de poesía.
En Versos humanos el poeta busca el absoluto dentro de la vida, dentro de lo
concreto. También conoce la fascinación de la belleza del mundo sencillo, surgido
casi humilde delante de los ojos del poeta: “Levanta el rostro y mira en las
praderas/celestes las perennes primaveras/de aquellas inmortales margaritas”(Envío).
Como su antecesor andaluz, Antonio Machado encuentra lo bello en los parajes
de Soria, en las canciones folclóricas y en la amistad. Dice el poeta en A Juan
Larrea: “Eran los años frescos y eran los meses turbios/de nuestras primaveras deflores poéticas./y nuestras charlas líricas paseaban los suburbios,/fermentadas deodios a los dioses miméticos”. Por consiguiente, la poesía de Gerardo Diego haempezado con los “odios a los dioses miméticos”, con la fascinación por la belleza
pura y el anhelo de construir un mundo estético junto al mundo creado por Dios.
Con estos Versos humanos el poeta vuelve a la tradición y continúa su carrera
poética a través de las dos vías: creacionista y tradicional. Aparentemente distintas,
ellas permiten al poeta a encontrar lo absoluto en lo humilde, en lo común delentorno y de la vida. Así la poesía de Gerardo Diego llega a ser un Universo
completo.
Lo mismo ocurre con Federico García Lorca que encuentra en el cante jondo
andaluz y en la música y el baile flamenco la fuente de inspiración para el volumen
Poema del cante Jondo (1931) y en Romancero gitano (1928) los mitos y labrillantez del discurso andalucista, revelando antiguos sustratos de su propia
cultura.
Jorge Guillén descubre el goce del vivir en un mundo supuesto más bien a una
visión trágica de la vida y Pedro Salinas, que cultiva el más profundo sentimiento
humano, el amor, como la esencia y la eternidad del hombre. En esta línea cultiva
su poesía Vicente Aleixandre, pero mucho más aproximado al discurso surrealistay Luis Cernuda más bien los sentimientos y el estado de desamor en un mundo
convencional y represivo.
Rafael Alberti cultiva también lo popular andaluz y Miguel Hernández y León
Felipe la condición humana en los tiempos de crisis social, la guerra civil española.
El fenómeno español de la generación poética del 27 de compaginar los valores
vanguardistas con los valores tradicionales de la poesía, marcó uno de los134Geo Constantinescu: “Valencias” del modernismo español

momentos de gloria y de gran originalidad de la poesía española y universal de laprimera mitad del siglo XX.
BIBLIOGRAFIA
Alvar, Carlos & José-Carlos Mainer (1998). Breve historia de la literatura
española. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
Carballo, Picazo (1967). Introducción a M. Machado, Alma. Apolo. Madrid:
Alcalá.
Dámaso, Alonso (1965). Poetas españoles contemporáneos. 3-a edición
aumentada. Madrid: Gredos.
Dámaso, Alonso (1969). “La poesía de Gerardo Diego”. In: Poetas españoles
contemporáneos. Madrid: Gredos.
Darío, Rubén (1989). El modernismo. Madrid: Alianza.
Debicki, Andrew P. (1968). Estudios sobre la poesía española contemporánea.
Madrid: Gredos.
Gaos, V. (1994). Antología del grupo poético de 1927. Madrid: Cátedra, Letras
hispánicas.
Gerardo, Diego (1995). Manual de espumas. Versos humanos. Madrid: Cátedra,
Letras hispánicas.
Martínez Nadal, Rafael (1970). El público. Amor, teatro y caballos en la obra de
F.G. Lorca. Oxford: The Dolphin Book Company Ltd.
Rozas, Juan Manuel (1974). La Generación del 27 desde dentro. Madrid: Alcalá.

135

La découverte de l’altérité dans le roman Bruges-la-Mortede Georges Rodenbach
Ioana-Rucsandra DASCĂLU
Université de Craiova,
Faculté des Lettres

ABSTRACT: Discovery of Otherness in Bruges-la-Morte by Georges Rodenbach
In the present study I intend to achieve an interdisciplinary study on a novel of theBelgian literature: Bruges-la-Morte written by Georges Rodenbach, emphasizing its
passional specificity (especially in the pathology of melancholy, which the main
character – Hugues Viane – lives after his wife’s death, by retiring to thiswaterland), also the exchanges taking place between the human soul and the Belgian
urban environment, that mean theoretically cultivating his alter-ego andtransforming the unknown into known. The passage from “another” to “the other”
will determine the appearance of the double by meeting a woman identical to thecharacter’s former wife-Jane Scott and by the decision to establish in Bruges. The
novelist will choose the town as character, describing it with his best artistic means.
The photos taken in Bruges in 2005 present this town nowadays as a very
appreciated European space, designated European capital of culture in 2002.
KEYWORDS: Alter ego, melancholia, Doppelgänger, town of Bruges

Le roman Bruges-la-Morte présente les caractères spécifiques des poèmes enprose, par les descriptions en détail du milieu naturel, du décor urbain et des états
d’âme des personnages, d’un lyrisme sensible et compréhensif. Le personnage
Hugues Viane se confronte à la découverte et à l’éducation de sa propre altérité,
c’est-à-dire la capacité d’assimiler l’autre dans autrui, de transformer le milieu
social, les personnes rencontrées dans une expérience déjà connue et proche. Par laperte de sa première femme, le personnage principal essaie de refaire son propre
moi et de maintenir son intégrité d’âme par le passage de l’autre en autrui, par lafamiliarité avec une ville qu’il connaissait du vivant de sa femme-Bruges, par larencontre d’une autre femme, qui rappelait parfaitement la première, réussissantainsi la transformation de l’inconnu en connu, la réduction de l’inconnu effrayant,de la différence radicale avec l’appui de l’Autre (Baudrillard/Guillaume, 2002 :10). Cette assimilation de l’autre à autrui a été considérée par ailleurs un trait
spécifique de la civilisation occidentale. (Baudrillard & Guillaume, 2002 : 6)1
Georges Rodenbach appelle son œuvre étude passionnelle (Rodenbach, 2005 :7), ce qui ouvre des perspectives relatives au corps et à l’âme, entre la physiologie
et la psychologie2. La ville évoquée devient personnage, qui soutient et entre en
vibration avec les sentiments vécus par les personnages. La ville est imbue de136

Ioana-Rucsandra Dascălu: La découverte de l’altérité dans le roman Bruges-la-Morte…

mélancolie, la tristesse permanente de Hugues étant une partie de l’atmosphère
spécifique de ces endroits. L’échange et le modelage réciproque se passent en
double sens, le sentiment humain créant un milieu foncé et transmettant lamélancolie à la réalité environnante, de même que la ville :Dans cette étude passionnelle, nous avons voulu aussi et principalement évoquer une
Ville, la Ville comme un personnage essentiel, associé aux états d’âme, quiconseille, demande, détermine à agir. Ainsi, dans la réalité, cette Bruges, qu’il nous
a plu d’élire, apparaît presque humaine... Un ascendant s’établit d’elle sur ceux qui yséjournent. (Rodenbach, 2005 : 4)

Par son excellence architecturale, par ses canaux et quais, la ville détermine desactions et devient un personnage vivant (Rodenbach, 2005 : 5) ; c’est un but
hypocrite de l’homme de chercher un appui dans le public, à l’extérieur de soi.
Voilà ce que nous avons souhaité de suggérer : la Ville orientant une action : ses
paysages urbains, non plus seulement comme des toiles de fond, comme des thèmesdescriptifs un peu arbitrairement choisis, mais liés à l’événement même du livre.
(Rodenbach, 2005 : 5)

Dans les traités scientifiques, la mélancolie est décrite comme obscurcissement,
inondation de noir, tristesse et atmosphère lugubre3. L’âge de l’architecture dégage
une atmosphère mystérieuse et lourde. Par expérience personnelle je considère
Bruges un trésor de la civilisation, qui porte le fardeau pesant de l’histoire del’homme et de l’art à même de remplir et de soutenir une âme de veuf. Son deuilrésonne merveilleusement avec ce milieu nordique, ombragé et aggloméré deculture : « quais, rues désertes, vieilles demeures, canaux, béguinage, églises,orfèvrerie du culte, beffroi. » (Rodenbach, 2005 : 5)
Les adjectifs qui décrivent la mélancolie sont : negro, denso, frío, seco y ácido
(Tausiet & Amelang, 2009 : 7). La mélancolie du personnage Hugues Viane est
causée par le veuvage qui le frappe. Il ne voulait pas se séparer de la douleur. Mais,à la tombée du soir, il aimait marcher et chercher au bord des canaux solitaires etdans le silence triste des béguinages des douleurs entremêlées à sa douleur.
Il se décida pourtant à sortir, non pour chercher au-dehors quelque distraction
obligée ou quelque remède à son mal. Il n’en voulait point essayer. Mais il aimait
cheminer aux approches du soir et chercher des analogies à son deuil dans desolitaires canaux et d’ecclésiastiques quartiers. (Rodenbach, 2005 : 9)La mélancolie se manifeste comme attraction vers le double, comme le besoind’expériences identiques et de vie en solitude, par lesquelles la douleur aiguë secristallise et se purifie. À ce sentiment foncier de la mélancolie s’associe la tristessecomme état permanent où la douleur, la faiblesse et la méditation transforment laville en endroit mort, un décor mort, où s’identifient la personne décédée et lemilieu urbain.
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138

Ioana-Rucsandra Dascălu: La découverte de l’altérité dans le roman Bruges-la-Morte…

Hugues ne garde que l’ombre de la corporalité de sa bien-aimée, son espritcomme « spectralité » et évocation, comme souvenir qui se fond dansl’environnement. Je le considère un indice du besoin d’altérité, par la fixation del’image de la femme dans cette ville parcourue par des canaux, comme un tombeauoù le personnage Hugues vit sa propre mort intérieure, l’incapacité de se régénérer
spirituellement. Les pensées pessimistes noires, les quais déserts, les maisons etponts hantés décrivent un milieu morbide et clos : la dernière phase du romantransforme en incertitude la notion de réalité même, la métaphore de la cloche
comme de vieilles femmes qui répandent des fleurs de fer sur la ville renfermel’interrogation si sa vie quotidienne à Bruges ne représente en fait, comme un rêve,un tombeau où Hugues revit et ré-évoque son passé.
…avec la cadence des dernières cloches, lasses, lentes, petites vieilles exténuées, quiavaient l’air – est-ce sur la ville, est-ce sur une tombe ? – d’effeuiller
languissamment des fleurs de fer ! (Rodenbach, 2005 : 158)

En attribuant à la mélancolie les traits suivants : negro, denso, frío, seco y ácido
(Tausiet/Amelang, 2009 : 7), on traduit le poids du milieu urbain qui influence lestempéraments et les événements, traversés par les hommes individuellement. Dès
le début, cet environnement est présenté comme personnage vivant-la Ville,
contenant l’histoire de sa construction et des générations passées qui ont déterminé
son existence. La conception littéraire du romancier est si moderne, parce qu’elle
anime un entier univers ou justement parce que son auteur a la capacité de voir lesdeux univers : l’univers infini et l’univers bâti, social. Étant la création deshommes, l’assortissement entre les sentiments personnels et le choix de la ville derésidence est un raffinement d’intellectuel sensible et compréhensif.
Partir à la recherche du double représente la manœuvre lâche et incorrecte dupersonnage dépourvu de courage et stabilité, qui peut utiliser tout ce qui est bâti
autour de soi à son profit. Dans ce cas, le besoin d’altérité se manifeste par lacréation d’une doublure de la personne démesurément aimée et d’un appui figédans le milieu naturel, qui devient personnage littéraire. Dès l’introduction de sonroman, Rodenbach avoue avoir créé son oeuvre comme étude passionnelle où il avoulu évoquer une ville.
En considérant la modernité comme une succession de générations, où lesnouvelles générations sont appuyées et propulsées par les générations antérieures,
la ville décidera et contrôlera les événements exposés.
Ayant l’intention d’écrire une étude passionnelle, le romancier belge entre dansune zone obscure et profonde qui a suscité l’intérêt des philosophes et des érudits
pendant plusieurs siècles. Les spécialistes ont défini les passions commesouffrances passagères qui affectaient les hommes pour une période finie,
s’encadrant dans la classe des accidents d’âme (Tausiet & Amelang, 2009 : 8), à ladifférence de l’âme même, qui constitue une existence permanente ; certaines
directions philosophiques, d’essence stoïque, conseillent la suppression de touteémotionnalité ; d’autres directions, par contre, d’origine augustinienne, considèrent
que les émotions doivent exister et être positivement dirigées 4. La passionnalité se139

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

dirige vers la mélancolie dans une direction descendante, de la tristesse et dupessimisme. La douleur, la tristesse, l’obsession sont des états d’âme vécus par ce
personnage qui s’efforce avec tant d’obstination de vivre des expériences quil’élèvent spirituellement. La réalité du roman Bruges-la-Morte est un domaine créé
comme une célébration solennelle de la souffrance, comme un artifice auquel nous
avons recours pour que le personnage Hugues se fortifie en éprouvant une
expérience identique à la perte de son premier mariage.
La relation entre le passé et le présent est souvent représentée, le romancier
utilisant des passages narratifs et descriptifs en vue de décrire le passé (Drescher,2003 : 189, apud Cigada, 2008 : 38). Hugues Viane avoue que cinq années étaientpassées depuis la mort de sa première femme et depuis le moment où il s’était
établi à Bruges. Nous comprenons qu’il avait visité la ville dans sa première
jeunesse, avec son épouse, qu’il l’avait aimée et y était revenu pour vivre avec
intensité et passionnalité les souvenirs du passé. La recréation artificielle de ce
passé, impossible à oublier, s’associera à la recherche de la femme aimée sur levisage d’autres femmes qu’il rencontrait.
Pour avoir vécu dix ans auprès d’une femme toujours chère, il ne pouvait plus sedésaccoutumer d’elle, continuait à s’occuper de l’absente et à chercher sa figure surd’autres visages. (Rodenbach, 2005 : 57-58)

Le roman représente un exemple admirable pour la description destempéraments introvertis, où les causes et les principes des actions résident enfacteurs subjectifs, ayant aussi d’autres conséquences à ce niveau. Les introvertis
vivent selon leurs sensations intérieures, tandis que les extrovertis s’orientent selon
les données du monde concret : que pensent-ils faire pour les autres, comment
peuvent-ils changer le monde, s’aidant ainsi eux-mêmes ?5 Après la perte de sa
femme, Hugues se décide à déménager à Bruges pour vivre avec plus de dignité sasolitude. Entre l’intérieur et l’extérieur ont lieu des échanges intenses : à la douleurd’âme correspond la douleur répandue par la ville dans des canaux et couvents ou
la tristesse ressentie les après-midis vers le soir et la mélancolie de la mort.
La réalité psychique devient dominante, créant de vraies hallucinations où lamort apparaît du décor, en enveloppant et en charmant le veuf. De l’identification :« Bruges était sa morte. Et sa morte était Bruges. Tout s’unifiait en une destinéepareille. » (Rodenbach, 2005 : 17), nous comprenons la réduction de son existence
à des stimules, sensations et sentiments intérieurs, qui guideront ses pas ettransformeront sa vie. La traduction roumaine du livre Bruges-la-Morte avec letitre Bruges, a doua moarte, appartenant à un grand écrivain (Fănuş Neagu),
constitue une merveilleuse lecture, un véritable monument littéraire (Rodenbach,2008).
NOTES
1

J. Baudrillard, M. Guillaume, Figuri ale alterităţii, Piteşti, Bucureşti : Editura Paralela 45, p. 6 :Pentru a spune lucrurile în mod simplu, în fiecare altul (“autre”) există celălalt (“autrui”) –140

Ioana-Rucsandra Dascălu: La découverte de l’altérité dans le roman Bruges-la-Morte…
ceea ce nu este eu, ceea ce este diferit de mine, dar pe care-l pot înţelege, chiar asimila-şi există
de asemenea o alteritate radicală, inasimilabilă, incomprehensibilă şi chiar inimaginabilă. Iar
gândirea occidentală nu încetează să-l ia pe altul drept Celălalt (“autrui”), să-l reducă pe altul
la Celălalt.
2
M. Tausiet, J.S. Amelang (eds.), Accidentes del alma (Las emociones en la Edad Moderna),
Madrid: Abada Editores, 2009, p. 8: Según el famoso diccionario de Sebastián de Covarrubias,
publicado en 1611, los afectos o pasiones non serían sino perturbaciones o alteraciones delánimo que causan en el cuerpo “un particular movimiento”, ya sea compasión o misericordia,
ira, venganza, tristeza o alegría.
3
Idem, ibid., p. 72: La melancolía es un humor negro, denso, frío y ácido. El melancólico tiene la tez
morena (a causa de la excedencia de humor negro) y es muy delgado; se halla provisto de venas
sobresalientes y de una abundante pilosidad obscura – como si el humor negro superabundantequisiera emerger, salir a la superficie de la piel, hacerse perceptible a la mirada exterior –, sueleestar triste y pensativo. Se le representa con la mano pegada a la mejilla y la cara orientada
hacia la tierra, que es su elemento de predilección. Su planeta es Saturno.
4
Idem, ibid., p. 8: En los siglos XVI al XVIII se hablaba sobre todo de afectos o pasiones, esto es, depadecimientos pasajeros que afectaban (alteraban) al individuo, para después permitirle volver asu ser. El título del libro expresa con claridad esta visión pesimista de las emociones, entendidascomo accidentes, es decir, como algo contingente, que podía existir o no, a diferencia del almaque, de acuerdo con la definición de Aristóteles, constituía la sustancia-algo necesario ypermanente. (…) Dentro del pensamiento cristiano, coexistían dos posturas básicas hacia lasemociones: una, estoica, según la cual lo ideal sería desterrarlas por completo y fomentar un
estado de apatía deliberada que garantizara la paz espiritual; la otra actitud, que podríamos
llamar agustiniana, asumiendo la importancia de las emociones, lo que pretendía era manejarlas,de forma que las pasiones negativas fueran reconvertidas en sus opuestos, mediante un granesfuerzo de autocontrol.
5C.G. Jung, Puterea sufletului. Antologie, vol. 2, Bucureşti : Editura Anima, p. 17 : Dacă orientareadupă obiect şi după datele obiective predomină, astfel încât cele mai frecvente şi cele mai
importante hotărâri sau acţiuni sunt determinate nu de păreri subiective, ci de condiţii obiective,
atunci vorbim de o atitudine extravertită. (…) p. 71 : Tipul introvertit se deosebeşte de cel
extravertit prin faptul că nu se orientează cu precădere după obiect şi după datul obiectiv, cidupă factori subiectivi.

BIBLIOGRAPHIE
Baudrillard, Jean, & Marc Guillaume (2002). Figuri ale alterităţii. Traducere de
Ciprian Mihali. Piteşti, Bucureşti : Paralela 45.
Cigada, Sara (2008). Les Émotions dans le discours de la construction européenne.
Avant-propos de Christian Plantin. Milano : Università Cattolica del Sacro
Cuore.
Jung, Carl Gustav (1994). Puterea sufletului. Antologie, Texte alese şi traduse dinlimba germană de S. Holan, 2 vol. Bucureşti : Anima.
Rodenbach, Georges (2005). Bruges-la-Morte. Éditions du Boucher, URL :<http://books.google.ro>, site consulté entre le 10 janvier 2010 et le 20 mars
2010.
Rodenbach, Georges (2008). Bruges, a doua moarte. Traducere de Fănuş Neagu şi
Florica Dulceanu, Postfaţă de Fănuş Neagu. Bucureşti : Semne.
Tausiet, María, & James S. Amelang (eds.) (2009). Accidentes del alma (Lasemociones en la Edad Moderna). Madrid : Abada Editores.

141

La traduction juridique en droit civil du français vers leroumain : approche de traductologue, de linguiste
et de juriste
Diana Domnica DĂNIŞOR
Université de Craiova,
Département de Langues étrangères appliquées

ABSTRACT: Civil Law Translation from French into Romanian: theTranslator’s, the Linguist’s and the Lawyer’s Perspectives
In my activity as a translator, I have been confronted with numerous difficulties infinding equivalence of meaning between the original French text and its translationin Romanian. Juridical translation is a very important field in the present-day
Romanian society. The lack of specialized bilingual dictionaries makes the juridicaltranslator an important factor in the implementation of the new law theories. The
importance of translation in Civil Law is marked by the fact that the Romanian Civil
Code is inspired from the French one and, consequently, the analyses, the debates
and the regulations regarding the application of the Civil Code are applicable to the
Romanian law also. The Romanian Civil Code has suffered many modifications
based on the argumentation of theory and of the French practical law. This is why
the communication of the theoretical contribution is very useful; translation helping
with the development of the Romanian juridical theory and offering the practitioners
access to information. When the translation is juridical, the translator will encounterconcepts specific to a juridical culture and his own language. This is the reason forwhich in a juridical translation, the translator has to have a triple specialization:translator, linguist and jurist, without which the translated text cannot be identified
with the original text and will bring about confusions related to terminology andmeaning.
KEYWORDS: law, translator, equivalence of meaning, choice, doctrine

Depuis 2008, j’ai fait la traduction de trois livres de droit civil, respectivement :- Nicolae Titulescu, Eseu despre o teorie generală a drepturilor eventuale (‘Essai
sur une théorie générale des droits éventuels’), Bucureşti : C.H. Beck, 2008, 173
pages ;
- Philippe Malaurie, Laurent Aynès, Pierre-Yves Gautier, Contractele speciale(‘Les contrats spéciaux’), Bucureşti : Wolters Kluwer Romania, 2009, 690 pages ;- Philippe Malaurie, Laurent Aynès, Philippe Stoffel-Munck, Obligațiile (‘Lesobligations’), Bucureşti : Wolters Kluwer Romania, 2010, 910 pages.
À cette occasion je me suis confrontée avec plusieurs difficultés pour trouverl’équivalence de sens entre le texte original et sa traduction en roumain. La
142

Diana Domnica Dănişor: La traduction juridique en droit civil du français vers le roumain

traduction juridique est un domaine très important dans la société roumaine
actuelle. Le manque de dictionnaires bilingues de spécialité fait du traducteur
juridique un facteur important pour l’implémentation de nouvelles théories endroit. Jusqu’en 1945, il existait en Roumanie une vive préoccupation pour la
traduction des livres de spécialité du français. Depuis, l’intérêt à diminué etjusqu’en 2008, il n’a pas existé une politique visant les traductions en doit civil.
Mais l’orientation a changé. L’importance de la traduction en droit civil est
marquée par le fait que le Code civil roumain est d’inspiration française et, enconséquence, les analyses, les débats et les règlements sur l’application du Codecivil sont applicables aussi en droit roumain. Le Code civil roumain a connu
beaucoup de modifications, basées sur l’argumentation de la théorie et la pratiquejuridique française. C’est pourquoi, la communication du support théorique est très
utile, la traduction aidant au développement de la théorie juridique roumaine et
donnant ainsi accès à l’information juridique aux praticiens.
Lorsque la traduction est juridique, le traducteur va être confronté à desconcepts propres à une culture juridique et à son langage propre. Voilà pourquoi
pour la traduction juridique le traducteur doit avoir une triple spécialisation: detraductologue, de linguiste et de juriste. Sans cela, le texte traduit ne pourras’identifier avec le texte original et donnera lieu à des confusions terminologiques
et de sens.
À partir de la constatation que « le Droit présente, dans le concert des langues
de spécialité – et des systèmes notionnels qu’elles expriment –, une caractéristiqueessentielle qu’il partage avec peu d’autres et qui consiste à n’avoir pas de référent
universel »1, je me suis permis de distinguer quelques difficultés de la traduction
juridique et des equivalences en droit qui, pour être résolues, demandent un triple
approche : de traductologue, de juriste et de linguiste. Traduire du français au
roumain signifie trouver les équivalences non seulement entre les deux langues,
mais aussi entre les deux droits. La difficulté de la traduction juridique consiste ence que Marie Cornu appelle « la charge conceptuelle d’une notion » 2, car il est
difficile de traduire d’une langue et d’un droit à l’autre, surtout lorsque les concepts
juridiques ne sont pas toujours les mêmes ou lorsqu’une notion existe dans les deux
langies mais ne correspond pas exactement à la notion de l’autre langue.3 Le
problème de mise en équivalence et leur solution est fonction de la distinction entreles équivalences qui s’établissent entre les systèmes juridiques entiers et leurs sousensembles, et les équivalences terme à terme.
Pour chaque « vide notionnel » j’ai essayé de créer des notions etdénominations manquantes car, il existe un espace intermédiaire où les spécialistes
du domaine cessent d’avoir juridiction exclusive : il existe un aspect du travail du
traducteur qui cesse d’être du pur droit pour déboucher en langue.
Je voulu établir un système de symétrie : en cas d’équivalence parfaite desnotions ou des groupes de notions, ainsi qu’en cas d’absence totale d’équivalence,la création compensatrice de l’absence comblant alors le vide et assurant lasymétrie. J’ai résolu le problème de la traduction par la règle de lacomplémentarité : parallélisme de forme et respect des différences.
143

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

Le cas idéale est celui dans lequel à une notion donnée dans un système
juridique doit correspondre une autre équivalente dans l’autre système – c’est le casde l’équivalence parfaite – qui ne pose pas de problème en termes de traduction.
Les problèmes surgissent en cas d’équivalence partielle ou d’absenced’équivalence.4
1. L’équivalence parfaite
L’équivalence notionnelle parfaite est doublée d’une équivalence notionnelle
littérale, morphologique. L’explication est fondée par l’origine latine commune desdeux langues et par l’origine commune des deux droits en question: le droit romain
et le code civil français de 1804.
Le terme accord a été traduit par ‘acord’ partout dans le texte : accord
commercial ‘acord comercial’ ; accord de coopération entre deux États ‘acord decooperare între două state’ ; accord de libre échange ‘acord de liber schimb’ ;accord de paiement ‘acord de plată’ ; accord de principe ‘acord de principiu’ ;accord de rachat ouvert ‘acord de răscumpărare deschis’ ; accord de volonté‘acord de voință’ ; accord portant sur l’utilisation d’un nom ‘acord ce poartă
asupra utilizării unui nume’ ; accords collectifs ‘acorduri colective’ ; accords deswaps: devises contre devises ‘acorduri de swaps: valută contra valută’ ; accord surla composition de la masse indivise ‘acord asupra compunerii masei indivize’ ;accord sur la manière de répartir la masse indivise ‘acord asupra modului derepartizare a masei indivize’ ; accord sur le prix ‘acord asupra preţului’ ; accords
verticaux ‘acorduri verticale’; accord transactionnel ‘acord tranzacţional’ ; accord
ultérieur ‘acord ulterior’ ; accord verbal et confirmé par simple lettre ‘acord verbal
şi confirmat prin scrisoare simplă’ ; conclure un accord ‘a încheia un acord’ ;négocier un accord ‘a negocia un acord’ ; signer un accord ‘a semna un acord’.
Dans le cas du verbe accorder, la traduction est faite par le verbe roumain ‘aacorda’ et pour la voix pronominale, par ‘a cădea de acord’, ‘a se pune de acord’ :accorder un simple droit de jouissance « à temps partagé » à des vacanciers ‘aacorda un simplu drept de folosință pe o durată repartizată unor turiști’ ; les juges
peuvent d’ailleurs, en ce cas, n’accorder que des dommages-intérêts ‘judecătoriipot, de altfel, în acest caz, să nu acorde decât daune-interese’ ; elle ne dispense pasde recourir au juge, mais en limite les pouvoirs qui ne peuvent plus accorder dedélai de grâce au vendeure ‘ea nu dispensează de recurgerea la judecător, dar îi
limitează puterile, acesta nemaiputându-i acorda vânzătorului termenul de grație’ ;la loi lui accorde alors le moyen de se défendre contre tout danger ‘legea îi acordă
atunci mijlocul de a se apăra împotriva oricărui pericol’ ; le Code civil accorde au
mandant une action contre le sous-mandataire ‘Codul civil îi acordă mandantului oacțiune contra sub-mandatarului’ ; la protection qu’accordent aux preneurs lesstatuts spéciaux ‘protecția pe care le-o acordă locatarilor statutele speciale’ ; lesstatuts spéciaux n’accordent de droit au maintien dans les lieux ‘statutele specialenu acordă dreptul la menținerea pe proprietate’ ; les parties sont libres de144

Diana Domnica Dănişor: La traduction juridique en droit civil du français vers le roumains’accorder pour fixer le loyer du bail renouvelé ‘părțile sunt libere să se pună deacord pentru a fixa chiria contractului de locațiune reînnoit’.
Le terme acheteur est traduit par ‘cumpărător’ et l’acquéreur est traduit dans la
majeure partie du texte par ‘cumpărător’ mais, il existe des cas où il a été préféré leterme ‘dobânditor’ ; acquérir n’est pas toujours traduit par ‘a cumpăra’ mais aussipar ‘a dobândi’ : acheteur à domicile ‘cumpărător la domiciliu’ ; acheteur à
tempéraments ‘cumpărător în rate’ ; acheteur déçu ‘cumpărător decepționat’ ;acheteur forclos de son action en responsabilité ‘cumpărător căruia îi este respinsă
acțiunea în răspundere’ ; acheteur insolvable ou en faillite ‘cumpărător insolvabil
sau în faliment/falit’ ; acheteur occasionnel ‘cumpărător ocazional’ ; acheteurprofane ‘cumpărător profan’ ; acheteur professionnel ‘cumpărător profesionist’ ;acheteur professionnel de même spécialité ‘cumpărător profesionist din aceeaşi
specialitate’ ; l’acheteur doit être curieux, le vendeur doit être loyal ‘cumpărătorul
trebuie să fie curios, vânzatorul trebuie să fie loial’ ; l’acheteur professionnel est
présumé connaître les vices de la chose, sauf ceux qui sont indécelables‘cumpărătorul profesionist este prezumat a cunoaște viciile lucrului, cu excepția
acelora care sunt imperceptibile’.
Dans le cas de l’acquéreur, la traduction dépend du contexte. Voilà quelques
exemples où le choix est libre : acquéreur du produit emballé ‘cumpărător al
produsului ambalat’ ; acquéreur éventuel ‘cumpărător eventual’ ; acquéreur
intermédiaire ‘cumpărător intermediar’ ; acquéreur non professionnel d’un
immeuble d’habitation ‘cumpărător neporfesionist al unui imobil cu destinație delocuință’ ; acquéreur ou donneur d’ordres ‘cumpărător sau ordonator’ ; acquéreuremprunteur ‘cumpărător împrumutat’ ; acquéreurs des biens nationaux‘cumpărători ai unor bunuri naționale’ ; acquéreurs potentiels ‘cumpărători
potențiali’ ; acquéreurs successifs ‘cumpărători succesivi’ ; elle impose au vendeurde faire figurer des mentions obligatoires dans le contrat, destinées à informerl’acquéreur ‘ea-i impune vânzătorului să înscrie în contract mențiuni obligatorii,
destinate să informeze cumpărătorul’ ; la vente a pour objet de transférer àl’acquéreur la propriété de la chose appartenant au vendeur ‘vânzarea are drept
obiect să-i transfere cumpărătorului proprietatea asupra lucrului ce-i aparține
vânzătorului’.
Il y a, par contre, des situations où on ne peut traduire que par ‘dobânditor’. Par
exemple : l’efficacité du pacte de préférence doit être appréciée dans les deuxrapports qu’il met en cause : promettant-bénéficiaire ; bénéficiaire-tiers acquéreur
‘eficiența pactului de preferinţă trebuie să fie apreciată în cele două raporturi pe
care le pune în cauză: promitent-beneficiar; beneficiar-terţ dobânditor’.
J’ai trouvé la situation où on pourrait utiliser les deux traductions, mais j’ai
choisi la traduction par ‘dobânditor’ pour la cohérence du texte, du fait que leparagraphe s’appelait Bénéficiaire-tiers acquéreur ‘Beneficiar terț-dobânditor’.
Dans le cas des mots composés j’ai privilégié la traduction par ‘dobânditor’.
Ainsi, le sous acquéreur est traduit par ‘subdobânditorul’. Voilà les exemples
contextuels : le bénéficiaire ne peut faire annuler la vente qu’en cas de mauvaise
foi, c’est-à-dire s’il démontre que l’acquéreur connaissait le pacte ‘beneficiarul nu145

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

poate face să se anuleze vânzarea decât în caz de rea-credinţă, adică dacădemonstrează că dobânditorul cunoştea pactul’ ; être substitué à l’acquéreur demauvaise foi ‘să fie substituit dobânditorului de rea-credinţă’ ; elle ne s’appliquepas, cependant, au sous-acquéreur de bonne foi, puisque la publicité est ici
essentiellement personnelle et non réelle ‘ea nu se aplică totuşi subdobânditoruluide bună-credinţă, deoarece aici publicitatea este esenţialmente personală şi nureală’.
De ces exemples, il en résulte que les deux termes sont parfaitement
remplaçables au niveau du sens, le choix se faisant en fonction du terme préféré parla terminologie juridique actuelle ou par le contexte.
Dans le cas du verbe acquérir, la situation de la traduction est identique : car il
existe des produits qu’il est nécessaire d’acquérir pour vivre ‘căci există produse
pe care este necesar să le cumperi pentru a trăi’ ; le bénéficiaire peut librement« lever l’option » : acquérir ou renoncer à la vente ‘beneficiarul poate, liber, să
ridice opțiunea: să cumpere sau să renunțe la vânzare’ ; le pouvoir d’acquérir par
un acte de volonté unilatérale ‘puterea de a cumpăra printr-un act de voință
unilaterală’ ; la levée de l’option manifeste la volonté d’acquérir et forme donc lavente ‘ridicarea opțiunii manifestă voința de a cumpăra și formează deci vânzarea’;le bénéficiaire n’acquerra la propriété du bien que si deux conditions sont réunies‘beneficiarul nu va dobândi proprietatea asupra bunului decât dacă sunt reunitedouă condiţii’ ; acquérir par prescription ‘a dobândi prin prescripție’ ; acquérir
par un acte de volonté unilatérale ‘a dobândi printr-un act de voință unilaterală’ ;acquiert la propriété d’un bien à titre d’intermédiaire ‘dobândește proprietatea
unui bun cu titlu de intermediar’.
Il y a des situations similaires où il est préféré pour la traduction le terme retenu
par la doctrine. Par exemple : la source peut être traduit par ‘sursă’ ou par ‘izvor’.
J’ai utilisé ce deuxième terme, vu que la doctrine l’utilise de manière quasigénérale. Aussi le terme responsabilité, pour lequel j’ai choisi la traduction par‘răspundere’ et irresponsabilité par ‘nerăspundere’ pour ne pas la confondre avec
‘iresponsabilitate’, « le manque de jugement », et pour garder au niveau del’antonymie la symétrie ‘răspundere’ / ‘nerăspundere’ sur le modèle exécution /inexécution (‘executare’ / ‘neexecutare’) : Cette faveur à la gratuité a pourconséquence une indulgence dans l’appréciation de la faute, sans pour autant
entraîner une irresponsabilité ‘Această favoare acordată gratuităţii are drept
consecinţă o indulgenţă în aprecierea culpei, fără ca, din această cauză, să
antreneze o nerăspundere’ ; le dépositaire est également exonéré de sa
responsabilité si avait été stipulée une clause d’irresponsabilité, courante en lamatière ‘depozitarul este de asemenea exonerat de răspundere dacă fusese stipulată
o clauză de nerăspundere, curentă în materie’.
J’ai rencontré dans la traduction de multiples cas d’equivalence parfaite. Ainsi,
acte dans tous les sintagmes a été traduit par ‘act’ : acte à titre gratuit ‘act cu titlu
gratuit’ ; acte authentique ‘act autentic’ ; acte autonome ‘act autonom’ ; acteconclu par un mandataire sans pouvoir ‘act încheiat de un mandatar fără putere’ ;acte consenti en vertu de la procuration nulle ‘act consimțit în virtutea unei
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procure nule’ ; acte constitutif d’un groupement ‘act constitutiv al unei grupări’ ;acte constitutif de la sûreté ‘act de constituire a garanție’ ; acte créateur d’une
obligation ou d’une sûreté ‘act creator al unei obligații sau al unei garanții’ ; acted’administration ordinaire ‘act de administrare obișnuită’ ; acte d’administration,de saine gestion ‘act de administrare, de gestiune înțeleaptă’ ; acte d’aliénation ‘actde alienare’ ; acte d’une exceptionnelle gravité ‘act de o excepțională gravitate’ ;acte de cautionnement ‘act de garantare; acte de concurrence déloyale ‘act deconcurență neloială’ ; acte de disposition ‘act de dispoziție’ ; acte de fructification‘act de fructificare’ ; acte de gestion normal ‘act normal de gestiune’ ; acte delotissement ‘act de lotizare’ ; acte de mission ‘act de misiune’ ; acte de purecomplaisance ‘act de pură complezență’ ; acte déclaratif à l’égard des droits enlitige ‘act declarativ față de drepturile în litigiu’ ; acte écrit antérieur ou
contemporain de la remise des fonds ‘act scris anterior sau contemporan cu
remiterea fondurilor’ ; acte extinctif ‘act extinctiv’ ; acte extinctif del’obligation ‘act de stingere a obligației’ ; acte illicite ‘act ilicit’ ; acte libre ‘act
liber’ ; acte modificatif ‘act modificativ’ ; acte notarié ‘act notarial’ ; acteostensible ‘act ostensibil’ ; acte précis ‘act precis’ ; acte recognitif ‘act
recognitiv’ ; acte rituel ‘act ritual’ ; acte sacré ‘act sacru’ ; acte solennel ‘actsolemn’ ; acte sous seing privé ‘act sub semnătură privată’ ; acte translatif parnature ‘act translativ prin natura sa’ ; actes conclus pour le compte d’une société enformation ‘acte încheiate în contul unei societăți în formare’ ; actes
d’administration graves ‘acte grave de administrare’ ; actes de bienfaisance ‘actede binefacere’ ; actes de disposition ‘acte de dispoziție’ ; actes de générosité ‘actede generozitate’ ; actes du mandataire faits dans la limite de ses pouvoirs ‘acte ale
mandatarului făcute în limita puterilor sale’ ; actes émanant d’autorités
administratives indépendantes ‘acte ce emană de la autorități administrative
independente’ ; actes lésionnaires ‘acte lezionare’ ; actes préparatoires ‘actepregătitoare’ ; actes purement matériels accomplis par l’intermédiaire ‘acte purmateriale realizate de către intermediar’.
Un autre cas d’équivalence parfaite c’est le cas du terme action, traduit par‘acțiune’ tout au long du texte : action appartenant au maître de l’ouvrage ‘acțiune
ce-i aparține proprietarului lucrării’ ; action civile ‘acțiune civilă’ ; action
contractuelle contre le sous-traitant ‘acțiune contractuală contra subcontractantului’ ; action contractuelle directe fondée sur la non-conformité de lachose ‘acțiune contractuală directă fondată pe neconformitatea lucrului’ ; action
contre le sous-mandataire ‘acțiune contra submandatarului’ ; action de la loi‘acțiune a legii’ ; action directe du bailleur contre le sous-locataire ‘acțiune directă
a locatorului contra sublocatarului’ ; action directe du maître ‘acțiune directă aproprietarului’ ; action directe du sous-traitant contre le maître del’ouvrage ‘acțiune directă a subantreprenorului contra proprietarului lucrării’ ;action directe ne pas prévue par la loi ‘acțiune directă neprevăzută de lege’ ;action directe imparfaite ‘acțiune directă imperfectă’ ; action disponible ‘acțiune
disponibilă’ ; action en défaut de conformité ‘acțiune pentru neconformitate’ ;action en dommages-intérêts ‘acțiune în daune-interese’ ; action en exécution
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010acțiune în executare’ ; action en exécution forcée ‘acțiune în executare silită’ ;action en garantie des vices cachés ‘acțiune în garanție contra viciilor ascunse’ ;action en garantie des vices irrecevable ou mal fondée ‘acțiune în garanție contra
viciilor inadmisibilă sau prost fondată’ ; action en garantie du sous-acquéreur
contre le fabricant ‘acțiune în garanție a subdobânditorului contra fabricantului’ ;action en justice ‘acțiune în justiție’, ‘acțiune în instanță’ ; action en nullité‘acțiune în nulitate’ ; action en nullité imprescriptible ‘acțiune în nulitate
imprescriptibilă’ ; action en nullité pour cause d’erreur ‘acțiune în nulitate pentrucauză de eroare’ ; action en paiement des arrérages passés ‘acțiune în plataarieratelor trecute’ ; action en payement des loyers dus par le crédit-preneur‘acțiune în plata chiriilor datorate de credit-locatar’ ; action en réduction de ladurée du bail ‘acțiune în redurerea duratei chiriei’ ; action en répétition ‘acțiune în
restituire’ ; action en résolution pour non-conformité ‘acțiune în rezoluțiune pentru
neconformitate’ ; action en résolution tenant à une délivrance défectueuse ‘acțiune
în rezoluțiune ce ține de o predare defectuoasă’ ; action en revendication ‘acțiune
în revendicare’ ; action estimatoire ‘acțiune estimatorie’ ; action exercée parl’acquéreur contre l’architecte ou l’entrepreneur ‘acțiune exercitată de cumpărător
contra arhitectului’ ; action future en paiement d’obligations ‘acțiune viitoare în
plata obligațiilor’ ; action oblique ‘acțiune oblică’ ; action praescriptis verbis‘acțiune praescriptis verbis’ ; action prescrite ‘acțiune prescrisă’ ; action
prétorienne ‘acțiune pretoriană’ ; action publique naissant d’une infraction‘acțiune publică născută dintr-o infracțiune’ ; action quanti minoris en cas de vice
caché ‘acțiune quanti minoris în caz de viciu ascuns’ ; action rédhibitoire ‘acțiune
redhibitorie’ ; actions contractuelles ordinaires ‘acțiuni contractuale ordinare’ ;actions en augmentation ou en diminution du prix ‘acțiuni în majorarea sau în
diminuarea prețului’ ; actions en exécution et en répétition qui sont refusées au
joueur ‘acțiuni în executare și în restituire refuzate jucătorului’ ; actions en
garantie ‘acţiuni în garanţie’ ; actions en résiliation et en expulsion ‘acțiuni înreziliere și în evacuare’ ; actions gratuites ‘acțiuni gratuite’; actions ou partssociales ‘acțiuni sau părți sociale’ ; actions relatives au domaine public ou à lapuissance publique ‘acțiuni relative la domeniul public sau la puterea publică’.
Le même cas d’equivalence parfaite est rencontré dans les syntagmes
construites avec le verbe agir, traduit par ‘a acționa’, du nom arbitrage traduit par‘arbitraj’, et la liste peut continuer jusqu’à la dernière lettre de l’alphabet.
Le terme bail a été traduit par ‘locațiune’, ‘închiriere’, ‘contract de locațiune’,‘contract de închiriere’ mais aussi par ‘leasing’ ou ‘arendare’ : bail à cheptel‘locațiune pe șeptel’ ; bail à complant ‘locațiuni în parte ale culturilor şi plantațiilor
de viță-de-vieţ ; bail à construction ‘locațiune spre construire’ ; bail à domaine
congéable ‘locațiune a locatarului pe domeniu reziliabil contra indemnizaţie’ ; bail
à ferme ‘contract de arendare’ ; bail à long terme ‘contract de închiriere pe termenlung’ ; bail à loyer ‘leasing imobiliar’ ; bail annulé à la demande de l’époux nonconsentant ‘locațiune anulată la cererea soțului care nu consimte’ ; bail ànourriture ‘locațiune pe hrană/pe alimente’ ; bail assorti d’une promesse de vente‘locațiune însoțită de o promisiune de vânzare’ ; bail à vie ‘locațiune pe148

Diana Domnica Dănişor: La traduction juridique en droit civil du français vers le roumainviaţă/perpetuă’ ; bail commercial ‘locațiune comercială’ ; bail conclu en vue de lavente ‘locațiune încheiată în vederea vânzării’ ; bail consenti aux deux époux,
indivisément ‘locațiune consimțită ambilor soți, indiviz’ ; bail consenti moyennant
un loyer ‘locațiune consimțită în schimbul unei chirii’ ; bail consenti par certains
indivisaires seulement inopposable aux indivisaires non consentants ‘locațiune
consimțită doar de unii dintre indivizari inopozabilă indivizarilor care nu au
consimțit’ ; bail consenti par un indivisaire seul ‘locațiune consimțită de un singur
indivizar’ ; bail de dix années ‘contract de închiriere pe zece ani’ ; bail de la chosed’autrui ‘locațiune a lucrului altuia’ ; bail d’habitation ‘locațiune cu destinație delocuință’ ; bail d’habitation ou professionnel ‘locațiune cu destinație de locuință
sau profesională’ ; bail dont la durée est indéterminée ‘locațiune pe perioadă
nedeterminată’ ; bail d’une chose indivise ‘locațiune a unui lucru indiviz’ ; bailemphytéotique ‘locațiune emfiteotică’; bail en cours lors de la cessation del’usufruit ‘locațiune în curs în momentul încetării uzufructului’ ; bail forcé‘locațiune silită’; bail incorporel ‘locațiune incorporală’ ; bail indivis entre
plusieurs preneurs ‘locațiune indiviză între mai mulți locatari’ ; bail normal‘locațiune normală’ ; bail ordinaire à long terme ‘locațiune ordinară pe termenlung/de lungă durată’ ; bail ou crédit-bail du matériel ou de l’outillage ‘locațiune
sau credit-locațiune/leasing al materialului sau al utilajului’ ; bail ouvertement
perpétuel ‘locațiune deschisă perpetuu’ ; bail par écrit ‘locațiune în scris’ ; bailpastoral ‘locațiune pastorală’ ; bail portant sur un meuble incorporel ‘locațiune cepoartă asupra unui mobil incorporal’ ; bail qui garantit un crédit ‘locațiune degarantare a unui credit/ce garantează un credit’ ; bail reconduit ‘locațiune
confirmată/reînnoită/relocațiune’ ; bail rural ‘locațiune rurală’ ; bail rural verbal‘locațiune rurală orală’ ; bail rural, personnel au preneur et incessible ‘locațiune
rurală, personală locatarului și necesibilă’ ; bail sans écrit ‘locațiune fără înscris’ ;bail soumis à un statut spécial d’ordre public ‘locațiune supusă unui statut special
de ordine publică’ ; bail tacitement reconduit ‘locațiune reînnoită prin tacita
relocațiune’ ; bail verbal exécuté ‘locațiune orală executată’ ; bail verbal ‘locațiune
verbală, orală’ ; baux à durée indéterminée ‘locațiuni pe durată nedeterminată’ ;baux à loyer ‘leasing-uri imobiliare’ ; baux à loyer et baux à ferme ‘leasing-uri
imobiliare și contracte de arendă’ ; baux à usage mixte, professionnel etd’habitation ‘locațiuni cu destinație mixtă, profesională și de locuință’ ; bauxcommerciaux ‘locațiuni comerciale’ ; baux consentis par un usufruitier ‘locațiuni
consimțite de un uzufructuar’ ; baux de locaux destinés exclusivement à l’exercice
d’une profession non commerciale ou artisanale, c’est-à-dire d’une profession
libérale ‘locațiuni de localuri destinate exclusiv exercitării unei profesii
necomerciale sau artizanale, adică a unei profesii liberale’ ; baux des maisons etdes biens ruraux ‘locațiuni de case sau de bunuri rurale’ ; baux d’habitation‘locațiuni cu destinație de locuință’ ; baux immobiliers destinés à l’exploitationd’une clientèle commerciale ou artisanale ‘locațiuni imobiliare destinate
exploatării unei clientele comerciale sau artizanale’ ; baux irréguliers ‘locațiuni
neregulate/în neregulă/anormale’ ; baux mobiliers et immobiliers ‘locațiuni
mobiliare și imobiliare’ ; baux perpétuels ‘locațiuni perpetue’ ; baux relatifs aux
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logements... construits avec l’aide du crédit foncier... ou conclus avec lesorganismes de HLM ‘locațiuni relative la locuințe... construite cu ajutorul
creditului funciar... sau încheiate cu organisme ale HLM’ ; baux ruraux etcommerciaux ‘locațiuni rurale şi comerciale’ ; baux saisonniers (faites pour ladurée des vacances) ‘locațiuni sezoniere (făcute pe durata vacanţelor)’ ; donner àbail ‘a da cu chirie’ ; le bail cesse lorsque survient le terme ‘locațiunea încetează
atunci când se împlinește/se realizează termenul’ ; le terme d’un bail ‘termenul
unui contract de închiriere; l’expiration d’un bail expirarea unui contract deînchiriere’ ; prendre à bail ‘a lua cu chirie’ ; reconduire un bail ‘a reînnoi uncontract de închiriere’ ; renouveler un bail ‘a reînnoi un contract de închiriere’ ;résilier un bail ‘a rezilia un contract de închiriere’.
2. L’équivalence partielle5
L’absence d’équivalence peut être due à une triple cause : soit que manquent à lafois notion et dénomination, ou bien, tantôt la seule dénomination, ou tantôt encore
la notion seule. L’absence de la dénomination est le plus habituel. La modalité dela traduction passe par la création d’un néologisme de sens et de forme.
Le second cas, absence de la dénomination seule est moins rare qu’on ne peut lepenser, c’est celui des notions innomées, repérables dans un droit par lacomparaison avec un autre droit qui les nomme.
Il y a le troisième cas où manque la notion seule. C’est le cas des termes
empruntés à d’autres droits, sans que les notions que ces dénominations
représentent n’aient d’existence réelle ou légitime dans le système du droit
emprunteur. La solution a consisté dans l’inscription de la notion dans le système
juridique qui l’ignore.
Dans les deux derniers cas d’équivalence partielle, l’inéquivalence provientdes différences d’emploi linguistique des termes appariés. Les catégories
grammaticales que peuvent présenter les termes d’une paire bilingue dans leurlangue respective peuvent être, à leur tour, sources d’inéquivalences notionnelle.
Ainsi, pour coupable la traduction a été différente en fonction de la catégoriegrammaticale : pour l’adjectif j’ai privilégie le roumain ‘culpabil’ et pour lesubstantif, le roumain ‘vinovatul’ : l’accusé est déclaré, reconnu coupable‘acuzatul este declarat, recunoscut culpabil’ ; plaider coupable ‘a pleda culpabil’ ;rechercher, trouver les coupables ‘a căuta, a găsi vinovaţii’ ; se reconnaître
coupable ‘a se recunoaşte vinovat’ ; se sentir coupable ‘a se simţi vinovat’.
Le terme faute a été traduit par ‘culpă’, ‘greșeală’ : la concurrence déloyale est
une faute ‘concurenţa neloială este o culpă’ ; faute grave/lourde ‘culpă gravă’ (lat.
culpa lata) ; il commet une faute engageant sa responsabilité ‘el comite o greşeală
care-i angajează răspunderea’ ; ce vice présumé serait, selon les uns, un vice duconsentement, selon les autres, une faute ‘acest viciu prezumat ar fi, după unii, un
viciu de consimţământ, după alţii, o greşeală’.
L’adjectif irrégulier,-ière a été traduit de diverses manières selon le contexte :baux irréguliers ‘locațiuni neregulate’ ; dépôt, mandat irrégulier ‘depozit, mandat
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neregulat’ ; stipulation d’intérêts irrégulière ‘stipulația unor dobânzi anormale’ ;a le droit de critiquer un contrat irrégulier ‘are dreptul de a ataca un contract
incorect’ ; amputation de son élément irrégulier ‘amputarea elementului său
neregulat’ ; démolition de l’ouvrage irrégulier ‘demolarea lucrării în neregulă’.
2.1. Absence et création d’équivalent

Il importe que les solutions traductives soient toujours dûment justifiéesnotionnellement. La création de la dénomination peut avoir pour solution :l’emprunt, le calque et la périphrase. Tout au long du texte j’ai rencontré descontrats qui n’existent pas en droit roumain. Pour la traduction j’ai choisi entre
deux solutions : là où le terme traduit signifiait par lui seul la même chose enfrançais et en roumain, j’ai donné simplement la traduction du terme français, bienque le contrat n’existait pas en roumain (faisant partie des contrats innommés) ; làoù la traduction du terme ne signifiait rien en roumain, j’ai donné la définition ducontrat, entre paranthèses.
Ainsi :- le contrat de généalogue a été traduit par ‘contractul de genealog’.
Initialement, j’ai voulu donner la définition du contrat, mais avec le coordonateurde l’édition roumaine on est tombé d’accord de ne pas lui donner la définition, àcause du fait qu’on peut bien comprendre sans définir le terme ‘généalogue’ ce quece contrat veut signifier : ‘Contractul de genealog este un contract prin care opersoană (genealogul) este însărcinată de către un notar sau de către un client (încaz de succesiune fără moştenitor direct sau cu moştenitor al cărui domiciliu este
necunoscut sau atunci când sunt mulţi moştenitori) să întreprindă toate cercetările
şi demersurile necesare, să furnizeze toate actele de stare civilă şi toate
documentele justificative care să-i permită moştenitorului să culeagă succesiunea.’- le contrat de gemmage a été traduit par ‘contractul de extragere a rășinei’ sansle définir parce que le sens commun de la langue permet de distinguer ce que cecontrat peut signifier ;- le contrat de déménagement par ‘contract de demenajare’ ;- pas de porte a été traduit par ‘supliment de chirie’, étant aussi dénommé droit
d’entrée ‘taxă de intrare pe proprietate’ ;- l’Administration de l’enregistrement ou l’Enregistrement a été traduit par‘Oficiu de cadastru și de publicitate imobiliară’.
La convention de croupier, par contre, a été traduite par ‘convenţia de crupier’,en lui donnant entre paranthèses la définition, vu le fait que du nom de laconvention on ne pouvait pas se rendre compte de quoi s’agissait : ‘contract princare titularul unor drepturi sociale, numit cavaler, se angajează, în schimbul unor
diverse prestaţii, faţă de o persoană, numită crupier, terţ la societatea în carecavalerul este asociat sau acţionar, să împartă profiturile şi riscurile financiare
rezultate din totalitatea drepturilor sociale sau dintr-o parte din ele, veritabilă
societate în participaţiune, în care unul dintre asociaţi se ridică în secret „în crupă”,în spatele cavalerului care va fi singurul asociat en titre al societăţii terţe, în care151

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

stau interesele lor comune’, car en roumain crupier est un terme qui tient du casino
et ne peut signifier la même chose qu’en français.
2.2. Les faux-amis

Je me suis confrontée avec des situations où le terme existait en roumain, mais
signifiait tout autre chose qu’en français. Par exemple, le contrat de restauration
est traduit non pas par ‘contract de restaurare’, mais par ‘contract de restaurant’parce que le contexte impose cette traduction. Par conséquent, le restaurateur ettraduit par ‘patron de restaurant’ (c’est ‘le patron de restaurant’) : le contrat derestauration n’est pas une vente de nourriture, mais un contrat d’entreprise, parcequ’il comporte plus de services (cuisiniers et serveurs) que de fournitures dechoses (les aliments) ‘contractul de restaurant nu este o vânzare de mâncare, ci uncontract de antrepriză, deoarece cuprinde mai mult servicii (bucătari şi ospătari)decât furnizare de lucruri (alimente)’ ; le restaurateur (le professionnel qui tient un
restaurant) est responsable envers le client de l’intoxication causée par le vicemême indécelable d’un mets ‘patronul unui restaurant (profesionistul care ţine un
restaurant) este responsabil faţă de client de intoxicaţia cauzată de viciul chiar
imperceptibil al unei mâncări’.
Le cas du nom substitué a été traité avec beaucoup d’attention, à cause du fait
que la doctrine a utilisé depuis longtemps un terme incorecte pour désigner lapersonne qui se substitue a une autre. Ainsi le substitué c’est le terme par lequel est
désigné celui qui substitue le mandataire. Les auteurs roumains, ainsi que lajurisprudence roumaine, parlent du sous-mandataire, en le désignant par le nom de‘substituit’. En fait, le terme correct est celui de ‘substituitor’, car ce qu’on doit
désigner c’est la personne qui remplace une autre dans l’exécution du mandat.
Lorsque cette personne exerce une fonction publique, elle est appellée ‘substitut’.
Selon le DEX, ‘substitutul’ signifie « Persoană care înlocuiește temporar pe
titularul unei funcții » (‘Personne qui remplace temporairement le titulaire d’une
fonction’). ‘Substituit’ désigne toujours en roumain la personne qui est remplacéeet jamais la personne qui remplace.
L’erreur linguistique provient d’une faute de traduction du français. Il est vrai
qu’en français le terme sustitué, participe passé substantivisé du verbe substituer,
pour désigner le sous-mandataire, a le sens de personne qui substitue une autre,sens que le roumain ‘substituit’ n’a pas. La traduction correcte du substitué semble
donc être « persoană care substituie » ou « substitut ».
Pourtant, dans les deux livres que je viens de traduire j’ai choisi le terme‘substituitor’, pour marquer une distinction entre le terme utilisé en droit public etcelui utilisé dans le cas du mandat. Cette option est justifiée du point de vue
linguistique, car en roumain, celui qui supporte l’action est désigné par le participe,
et celui qui réalise ou concoure à la réalisation de l’action, est désigné par un nom
formé du participe passé auquel on ajoute le suffixe -or. Voilà pourquoi, pourdésigner le sous-mandataire, c’est-à-dire celui qui remplace le mandataire dans152

Diana Domnica Dănişor: La traduction juridique en droit civil du français vers le roumainl’exécution de son mandat, on doit utiliser le terme ‘substituitor’, et non pas leterme ‘substituit’.
La disposition du Code civil roumain est déroutante lorsqu’elle affirme que« mandatarul este răspunzător pentru acela pe care a substituit în gestiunea sa ».
Cette utilisation atypique du verbe ‘a substitui’ est présente dans le Code parce quel’acte normatif veut souligner que le mandataire initial est celui qui se fait
substituer par une autre personne. Ce qui est important pour le Code est quel’action de substitution a pour source la volonté du mandataire.
En roumain, le verbe à la voix pronominale a le sens de « a se situa în locul
altuia (‘se situer à la place d’un autre’) », et non pas celui de « a-l pune pe altul în
locul tău (‘mettre quelqu’un à ta place’) ». D’ailleurs, la manière dont le Codeutilise le terme, peut se comprendre, bien que l’acte normatif soit tributaire à une
traduction forcée du Code civil français. Ce dernier dispose que « le mandatairerépond de celui qu’il s’est substiué dans sa gestion », qui pourrait être traduit par« mandatarul răspunde de cel pe care şi l-a substituit în gestiunea sa ». L’utilisation
du participe, dans la forme du Code est faite selon le modèle de l’utilisation duparticipe du verbe ‘a învăţa’ pour désigner celui qui a atteint par sa propre volonté
un niveau maximum d’instruction : ‘învăţat’. Pourtant, même dans ce cas, celui qui
apprend les autres est désigné non pas par le participe passé, mais par ‘învăţător’, àl’aide de la suffixation du participe passé.
Le projet du Code civil élaboré corrige jusqu’à un certain point l’erreur detraduction initiale, en utilisant la forme « mandatarul care (…) îşi substituie o altăpersoană ». Pourtant, le problème du nom de la personne qui substitue lemandataire n’est complètement résolu, car les formules « persoanei care l-a
substituit » et « persoanei substituite mandatarului » sont correctes mais ne donnent
pas la solution pour le nom du remplaçant, en l’évitant par une formule qui devinel’erreur de la formule consacrée par la doctrine, mais ne la corrige
qu’indirectement.
L’actuel Code civil ne change en rien la formulation du Projet antérieur. Tous
ces arguments linguistiques et la volonté de marquer une différence terminologiquepar rapport au droit public, laissant de côté le caractère suggestif du terme, m’ont
fait privilégier le terme ‘substituitor’, pour désigner celui qui remplace lemandataire dans l’exécution de la mission lui confiée par le mandant. Je suis
consciente que toute la doctrine utilise le terme ‘substituit’, mais cette regrétabletraduction doit être corrigée.
3. Conclusion
De tout ce qu’on vient de présenter ne peut résulter qu’une seule conclusion : fairede la traduction juridique n’est pas chose aisée, le traducteur devant avoir une triple
spécialisation : de traductologue, de linguiste et de juriste, pour ne pas donner lieu
à des confusions terminologiques et de sens.

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NOTES
1

Bernard Thiry, « Problèmes de jurilinguistique contrastive : les équivalences interlinguistiques endroit ». URL : < http://www.hec.ulg.ac.be/FR/recherche/activites/workingpapers/documents/WP_HECULg_20080805_Thiry.pdf>, 1.
2Marie Cornu, « Applications thématiques : terminologie et droit comparé dans le domaine de laculture ». In : Droit de la traduction et traduction du droit, Actes du colloque international, 15 et
16 octobre 2005, Faculté de Droit de Poitiers.
3
Sylvie Monjean-Decaudin, « Approche juridique de la traduction du droit ». URL :<http://www.tradonline.fr/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/sylvie-monjean-decaudin-traductionjuridique-2010.pdf>, 5.
4
Bernard Thiry, op. cit, 6.
5
Ibidem, 8-12.

BIBLIOGRAPHIE*** (2010). Code civil, version consolidée au 5 juin.
*** (2010). Noul Cod civil, 31 mai.
Cornu, Gérard (2000). Linguistique juridique. Paris : Montchrestien.
—— (2007). Vocabulaire juridique. Paris : PUF.
Dănișor, Diana (2008). Dicționar juridic român-francez, francez-român.
București : C.H. Beck.
Dicţionar explicativ al limbii române/DEX on-line. URL : < http://dexonline.ro>.
Consulté entre 2004-2010.
Malaurie, Philippe, Laurent Aynès, & Philippe Stoffel-Munck (2007). Les
obligations, 3e édition. Paris : Defrénois.
Malaurie, Philippe, Laurent Aynès, & Philippe Stoffel-Munck (2010). Obligațiile,
traducere Diana Dănișor. București : Wolters Kluwer.
Malaurie, Philippe, Laurent Aynès, & Pierre-Yves Gautier (2007). Les contrats
spéciaux, 3e édition. Paris : Defrénois.
Malaurie, Philippe, Laurent Aynès, & Pierre-Yves Gautier (2009). Contractele
speciale, traducere Diana Dănișor. Bucureşti : Wolters Kluwer.

154

Constantin et le monde païen
Daniel DE DECKER
Université de Bielefeld,
Allemagne

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: Kaiser Konstantin und die Heiden
Unter der Herrschaft vom Kaiser Konstantin des Grossen, nach der missglücken
christlich-freundlichen Religionspolitik des Gegenkaisers Maxentius († im Jahre
312) öffnen sich für das Römische Reich brandneue Wege: Das Christentum früher
bekämpft, wird jetzt nicht nur zuerst staatlich-rechtlich geduldet, sondern begünstigt,
sogar selbst bevorzugt, dann später ab Kaiser Theodosianus dem ersten als offizielle
Religion des römischen Staates anerkannt. Aber bis dahin war der Weg noch sehrlang, schwierig, unsicher und strapaziös. Unter dem Kaiser Konstantin wurde esnoch nicht so weit: da dieser sich nur auf seinem Sterbebett taufen läßt, da er sichnur dann kirchlich-amtlich gesehen zum christlichen Glauben bekehren liess, da er
auch sein lebenlang das römisch-kaiserliche Amt des Pontifex Maximus getragen hat
und auf diese Titulatur vorher nicht verzichtet hatte – ein Schritt, der nur vom
christlichen Kaiser Gratian im Jahre 382 erst gemacht wurde –, blieb es Kaiser
Konstantin damals auch nichts anderes übrig, als sein Lebenslang die
Religionsfreiheit der Heiden zu dulden.
SCHLÜSSELWÖRTER: Kaiser Konstantin der Grosse, Frühchristentum undHeidentum, die Christianisierung des römischen Reiches

Les travaux d’érudition portant sur l’ère constantinienne procèdent aujourd’hui
d’une littérature si vaste qu’il s’avère bien agréable de pouvoir, à l’occasion, en
prendre connaissance par le biais d’une monographie attrayante et bien
documentée1. Par ailleurs, la densité de ces études, tant par leur qualité que par leurnombre, impose aujourd’hui aux lecteurs consciencieux, d’en recueillir
périodiquement les données substantielles, de les soumettre ensuite au jugement
critique afin d’en présenter le bilan sous la forme d’une bonne et solide
monographie. À ces conditions seules, l’information scientifique sera à même debriser, à bon escient, le cadre parfois étroit, mais souvent si redouté, de quelques
spécialistes étriqués et solitaires.
Mais que nous révèle la manne des données collectées présentement par M.
Lucio De Giovanni ? Tentons, en compagnie de l’auteur, de percer les sentiments
qui animèrent Constantin à l’endroit du paganisme, lequel en ces temps demeureencore la religion officielle de l’État romain, dès l’instant où mettant un terme aurègne de l’empereur Maxence sur la ville de Rome, il échut au nouveau maître dela Ville de s’emparer, du même coup, de la quasi totalité des provinces occidentales
155Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

de l’Empire. À ce moment précis, nous sommes en 312, les actes du gouvernement
constantinien laissent apparaître subitement les premiers indices d’une sympathie
du souverain pour la foi chrétienne, entendez celle de la « grande Église », à savoir
l’Église catholique2. Sans doute, cette forme particulière du christianisme, réputéepour la cohésion de sa doctrine et la qualité de son organisation ecclésiale eut-elle
le don d’inciter la sympathie personnelle de l’empereur.
Mais elle pouvait aussi répondre aux intérêts politiques de l’heure du monarque,
ajouterons-nous in petto. Candidat à l’empire universel, Constantin inclinait
naturellement à faire œuvre de pacificateur, à établir la concorde entre ses sujets
frappés durement par la guerre civile. Il put ainsi trouver en pareille unité ecclésiale
une réponse à ses aspirations personnelles, mais aussi un adjuvant puissant pour laréalisation de son programme politique et religieux de réconciliation nationale.
Toutefois, cette inclination du souverain pour la religion chrétienne, qui nedevait l’amener à y adhérer officiellement qu’au terme de sa vie en 337, nel’empêcha point de se montrer déférent envers la divinité de Sol Invictus, ce
dangereux concurrent du christianisme et de lui manifester une fidélité qui
s’amenuisa au fur et à mesure pour ne s’effacer définitivement qu’après lafondation de Constantinople, en tant que nouvelle capitale de l’empire romain enl’année 330.
Nous gageons que pareille confusion entre la croyance au Dieu des chrétiens, le« maître de justice » par excellence et à « Sol Iustitiae », une divinité païenne
séculaire pourrait paraître bien étrange pour qui en jugerait d’après la mentalité
chrétienne actuelle. Or, l’amalgame ainsi réalisée n’était point pour déplaire ni augoût ni aux convictions des anciens Pères de l’Église universelle, qu’ils soientd’expression latine, grecque ou orientale, tels Tertullien, Origène ou Eusèbe deCésarée pour ne citer qu’eux3. Du reste, le souvenir du « Christ-Hélios » est lié,dans toutes les mémoires, aux découvertes archéologiques consécutives auxcélèbres fouilles qui furent entreprises naguère, à partir des années 1950, dans lanécropole de la Basilique Saint-Pierre du Vatican.
Ainsi, l’on ne peut s’y méprendre, Constantin n’est point Théodose. Le premier
ne s’est jamais complètement départi d’une politique de réelle tolérance envers lareligion païenne et ses adeptes, indépendamment d’une déférence bienveillantequ’il entendit étendre à l’égard des sectateurs du christianisme, ses coreligionnaires
présumés. En tout cas, le Codex theodosianus (9, 16, 2) atteste que Constantin crut
devoir imposer sans ambages ce programme politico-religieux par voie légale dèsl’année 319 au plus tard : « Car nous entendons autoriser formellement le libre
exercice de l’ancienne religion ! 4»
Et cela est vrai. Nous ne savons dire, ce qui poussa l’empereur à agir de lasorte ? Fut-il amené à pareille idée par suite d’une défection de ses sujets pour lareligion ancestrale et son culte ? Fût-il qu’il y ait eu alors, à un tel point, péril en lademeure ?
Une telle attitude nous fait immédiatement songer à la personne de l’empereur
Octave Auguste qui, en son temps, œuvra de son mieux afin de restaurer
l’ordonnance de la religion et des cultes païens sévèrement mise à mal en raison de
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la longue et désastreuse guerre civile qui sévit dans le monde romain
consécutivement au meurtre de Jules César.
En tout cas, l’on n’est pas sans savoir non plus qu’à la différence de ses
successeurs, Constantin ne cessera, sa vie durant, de porter le titre de « pontifex
maximus », entendez qu’il supervisera et assurera le contrôle absolu des cultes
religieux païens, n’hésitant pas à se considérer, pour cette raison, à l’égal destitulaires de la fonction épiscopale dans les Églises chrétiennes5.
Il s’en suit que les entraves apportées occasionnellement par l’empereur
Constantin à la tenue de quelque cérémonie du culte païen, comme celuid’Asclépios en Cilicie ou d’Aphrodite en Phénicie, et telles que rapportéesincidemment par l’évêque, Eusèbe de Césarée doivent être ramenées à leursignification réelle : l’on y verra que de simples mesures de police, dictées par lasauvegarde des bonnes mœurs6. L’on fera bien de se souvenir, à ce propos, quepareil souci fut partagé par nombre d’empereurs païens qui, bien avant le règne deConstantin, présidèrent aux destinées de l’empire romain.
À notre estime, cette politique religieuse de Constantin qui fut axée sur le fait dela tolérance et que l’on a qualifiée parfois d’ambigüe parce qu’inclinant volontiers,
estimait-on, à des vues réputées syncrétistes, trouve, à n’en point douter, sa
meilleure illustration dans le Discours à l’assemblée des saints, une œuvre jugée,
naguère encore, comme apocryphe par la plupart des critiques 7.
Dans ce document, d’une importance primordiale, composée peu avant lepremier concile œcuménique de l’histoire, à savoir le premier concile de Nicée,
Constantin entend conférer un sens chrétien à la révélation prophétique de la IVe
Églogue du grand poète latin Virgile. Ce faisant, il s’efforce, ni plus ni moins, devider ainsi le message païen de sa substance religieuse en y substituant uneinterprétation chrétienne. Certes, le recours à un tel procédé n’avait rien departiculièrement surprenant pour l’époque, il pouvait s’inspirer naturellement de laméthode dite « typologique » chère aux Pères de l’Église dans leur exégèse del’Ancien Testament, qui entendaient exploiter la veine prophétique contenue dansce dernier, afin de pouvoir, en œuvrant de semblable façon, majorer toujours
davantage les faits jugés plus mémorables encore, selon eux, qu’ils trouvaientmentionnés dans le Nouveau Testament.
Nous dirons encore à ce propos qu’en confondant l’empereur Constantin avec
son futur collègue Théodose Ier et en considérant le premier comme le véritable
instigateur, autant que propagateur du catholicisme comme religion officielle,
c’est-à-dire d’État, comme on dit aujourd’hui, l’historien moderne, tel notre auteur
privilégié dans le cadre de cette étude, entendez M. Lucio De Giovanni, nous paraît
accréditer dangereusement, à l’heure où nous parlons, une thèse apologétique,laquelle trouve sa source dans les Actes apocryphes du bienheureux Silvestre, cidevant évêque de Rome. L’on n’est pas sans savoir, en effet, que l’invention de cet
ouvrage de fiction, suscitée de toute pièce, par la chancellerie épiscopale romaine
au Ve siècle, n’est vraisemblablement pas sans rapport avec l’élaboration de lafable de la Donation à Constantin qui, comme on l’a supputé fort justement, dut
servir d’assise juridique à l’édification postérieure de l’État pontifical.
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Dès lors, l’on se gardera bien, de sous-estimer, toujours à l’instar de notre
auteur susnommé, l’ampleur des manifestations religieuses d’attachement deConstantin au paganisme et ce, même après que ce dernier eut triomphé de sonrival Licinius, considéré comme le dernier rempart de la religion ancienne. Certes,s’il n’est point impossible qu’en Orient, Constantin se soit efforcé, dès l’année 324,
d’enrayer quelque peu la prolifération des représentations figurées des divinitéspaïennes8. Mais l’on ne pourra nier, pour autant, la réalité, historiquement bien
attestée quant à elle, à savoir celle de la célébration des imposantes cérémonies
religieuses d’inspiration païenne qui entourèrent la consécration solennelle deConstantinople comme nouvelle capitale de l’Empire romain en 330 par Constantin
Ier dit Le Grand9. L’historicité de ces derniers faits nous semble d’autant moinscontestable qu’Eusèbe, l’évêque de Césarée, l’un des thuriféraires du régime et dela personne de Constantin, atteste, sans conteste aucune, de l’attachement que
l’empereur portait jusque dans l’intimité de son palais à certaines divinités dupaganisme10. Non content d’avoir commerce avec les philosophes païens11,
Constantin assurera, en effet, une sympathie non dissimulée aux sectateurs de lareligion officielle de l’empire romain jusqu’au crépuscule de sa vie12. Pour preuve
déterminante de pareille volonté, il nous suffira de citer la décision législative
ultime ─ puisque celle-ci fut prise par ce souverain sur son lit de mort ─, visant à
accorder l’immunité fiscale à un collège de prêtres païens chargés de pourvoir dansles provinces d’Afrique du Nord à l’entretien du culte impérial 13.
Reprenant à son compte une thèse assez récente et sans cesse ressassée depuis
lors, L. De Giovanni incline à penser également que les membres de ce collège deFlamines provinciaux, auxquels nous venons de faire allusion, étaient alors en
réalité privés déjà de toute fonction religieuse véritable et ne constituaient plus, enfait, au moment du décès de Constantin, qu’un corps d’apparat et que l’exercice
d’une telle prêtrise païenne n’était donc plus en mesure de heurter la conscience
religieuse des chrétiens qui pouvaient être appelés à remplir pareille charge jugéealors purement et simplement honorifique. À lui seul pourtant, le témoignage descanons 2, 3 et 55 de la collection canonique consécutive au concile d’Elvire
promulguée peu de temps auparavant, constitue, selon nous, un argument
absolument dirimant contre le bien fondé d’une semblable hypothèse14.
Personnellement, nous pensons que si donc la croyance religieuse de Constantin
relève proprement, ainsi qu’il l’affirme lui-même communément, d’une dévotion àla « summa divinitas », pareille déclaration de foi paraît relever bien plutôt d’une
définition monothéiste que d’une conviction religieuse intime et profondément
spirituelle qui puisse conduire à une adhésion franche et massive à la religion
catholique, stricto sensu15. En tout état de cause, une déclaration d’intention
assurément aussi vague, aussi diffuse relève d’une pratique courante dans lechristianisme ancien avant que les instances conciliaires de Nicée I n’aient posé lespremières bases théologiques du dogme orthodoxe. Par ailleurs, on ne peut exclure
totalement dans le chef de Constantin une sympathie personnelle enversl’Arianisme.
On s’explique ainsi, entre autres, aisément la probabilité de la convocation
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d’une seconde session du concile de Nicée, qui fut chargée de corriger lesdispositions antérieurement prises et jugées, après coup, trop sévères envers ladoctrine d’Arius et dont les motivations pourraient, sinon, paraître aussi étranges
que mystérieuses 16.
En outre, l’on insistera jamais assez sur le fait que Constantin veilla, tout aulong de son règne, à conserver des relations de civilité empressées et durables avec
les membres de l’aristocratie romaine dont on sait qu’elle demeurera longtemps
encore le bastion du paganisme, de ses traditions et de ses croyances religieuses.
L’empereur prouve ainsi, à suffisance, qu’il ne chercha jamais à pourfendre lessectateurs de la religion ancienne et qu’il n’a nullement tenté de prohiber cettedernière entièrement dans ses États. Pareille étape ne fut jamais franchie sous sonégide, elle sera réservée à ses successeurs qui, de surcroît, ne la réaliseront qu’avec
prudence, après mille atermoiements ou en s’y résignant et en y recourant, de toutefaçon, que par paliers successifs. Sur ce dernier point donc la thèse fondamentale
soutenue dans l’ouvrage de L. De Giovanni paraît viciée de prime abord, puisquefaisant violence au témoignage des sources.
Hormis cette considération générale, cet ouvrage nous paraît devoir susciter denotre part quelques remarques annexes. Dans son livre, l’auteur se plaît à opposerl’opinion des chrétiens d’alors qu’il entend assimiler à ceux que l’on qualifie
aujourd’hui de « progressistes », au « parti des païens » auxquels il réserve une
autre dénomination moderne d’essence politique, à savoir celle de« conservateurs ». Ce faisant, Constantin aurait soutenu activement le mouvementdes « luttes populaires et démocratiques » (sic) lesquelles auraient constituél’acquit social primordial et incontestable, toujours selon notre auteur, de la grandecrise, une de plus, que traversa le monde romain dès le milieu du IIIe siècle. Pareils
clivages, durent-ils aisément séduire les lecteurs d’aujourd’hui, nous paraît
procéder, d’un anachronisme flagrant, ce qui n’est nullement l’apanage de ce seulauteur, ainsi que nous croyons le savoir17. De plus, cette vue manichéenne deschoses repose, selon nous, sur un postulat peu acceptable, puisqu’il semble
admettre comme une évidence, la supériorité intrinsèque du fait chrétien sur lareligion païenne. Sans doute pareille assertion incombe-t-elle, tout simplement, au
fait que notre auteur semble quasiment limiter son information scientifique aux
seules études publiées en langue italienne. De ce choix, il découle un déséquilibre
parfois manifeste, ainsi dans l’examen opéré par ses soins de la problématiqueentourant la Vita Constantini d’Eusèbe de Césarée, les travaux et autres
contributions importantes sur ce sujet dus à Fr. Winkelmann ont-ils été tout
simplement passés sous silence.
Par ailleurs, n’y-a-t-il pas quelque témérité, comme le fait notre auteur dans lecadre de son étude, à étayer une argumentation en s’appuyant sur les témoignages
essentiellement recueillis dans les Scriptores Historiae Augustae, lesquels
comptent parmi les récits les plus controuvés de l’Antiquité tardive, sanss’interroger préalablement le moins du monde sur la crédibilité historique qui
puisse être accordée aux textes incriminés ?
Enfin, nous croyons tout autant erronées les dimensions sociales que notre
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auteur estime également pouvoir déceler dans la politique religieuse de l’empereur
Constantin. En effet, de l’examen des sources il ne nous semble nullement résulterque Constantin se soit efforcé de trouver un appui envers sa politique surtout
auprès de la population citadine en se privant, de la sorte, désormais de la
sympathie que pouvaient lui porter ses sujets originaires des contrées rurales de son
empire. Une telle thèse laisserait supposer, en effet, qu’à l’époque de Constantin,l’implantation du christianisme en Orient, par exemple, fût encore un phénomène
essentiellement urbain. Or, cela ne semble pas être conforme à la réalité. En outre,
il nous paraît difficile d’imaginer qu’un empereur romain digne de ce nom ait pu,
un tant soit peu, songer à faire si peu de cas des ressources naturelles de l’empire,constitués principalement par la terre, et donc à mettre ainsi dangereusement en
péril l’approvisionnement même de son empire.
À la réflexion, il nous paraît ainsi resurgir en filigrane de la présente lecture
l’alternative posée jadis déjà par Jakob Burckhardt, en son maître livre18 :Constantin fut-il ou non un grand réformateur ?
La réponse pourrait s’avérer affirmative, mais pour autant que l’on consente,
pour ce faire, à galvauder la notion même de révolution.
RÉFÉRENCES BIBLIOGRAPHIQUES1

La référence bibliographique primaire de notre étude repose sur la publication majeure sur cette question
due aux soins de L. De Giovanni, Costantino e il mondo pagano : Studi di politica e legislazione,(Koinônia, collana di studi e testi a cura dell’associazione di studi tardoantichi, 2), Naples, 19771,
1982², 1983³, voir ici passim.
2
Nous avons pu montrer qu’en ce domaine Maxence servit pour Constantin véritablement deprécurseur (cf. D. De Decker, La politique religieuse de Maxence, Byzantion, 38, 1968, 472-562).
3
Voir notamment, à ce propos, la monographie de M. Wallraff, Christus Verus Sol Sonnenverehrung und
Christentum in der Spätantike, Münster, 2001.
4
Dans le texte : nec enim prohibemus praeteritae religionis officia libera luce tractari.
5
Cf. notre contribution « L’épiscopat de l’empereur Constantin », Byzantion, 50, 1980, 118-157.
6
Ainsi, N. Belayche, « Constantin a-t-il légiféré contre des pratiques rituelles à Héliopolis (Baalbek) ? »,Dieu(x) et Hommes (S. Crogliez, & Fr. Thélamon, ed.), Mont-Saint-Aignan, 2005, 101-112.
7
Voir D. De Decker, « Le "Discours à l’assemblée des Saints" attribué à Constantin et l’oeuvre deLactance ». In : Lactance et son temps. Recherches actuelles. Actes du IVe Colloque d’études
historiques. Chantilly 21-23 septembre 76 (Théologie historique, 48), Paris, 1978 (J. Fontaine, & M.
Perrin, ed.), 75-87. Cf. aussi la dernière publication en date à propos de ce texte : M. J. Edwards,« Notes on the Date and Venue of the Oration to the Saints (CPG 3497) », Byzantion, 77, 2007, 149169.
8
Cf. Eus., Vit. Const., II, 44.
9Ainsi, en dépit des ans, les deux contributions de D. Lathoud, « La consécration et la dédicace deConstantinople ». Echos d’Orient, 27, 1924, pp. 289-314 & 28, 1925, pp. 180-201 méritent-elles
toujours considération aujourd’hui.
10
Ibidem, IV, 54, 2.
11
Ibidem, IV, 55.
12
Cf. Eus., De laudibus Const., 7, 12.
13
Cod. Theod., XII, 1, 21.
14
D. De Decker, « Historicité et actualité des canons disciplinaires du concile d’Elvire ». Augustinianum,
37, 1997, 311-325 et tout particulièrement, 320-321.
15
Idem, « Une "première" dans l’histoire de l’Église ancienne. La prière aux armées de l’empereur
Licinius ». In : La preghiera nel tardo antico dalle origini ad Agostino, XXVII Incontro di studiosi

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Daniel De Decker: Constantin et le monde païen
dell’antichità cristiana Roma, 7-9 maggio 1998 (Studia Ephemeridis Augustinianum, 66), Rome,
1999, 480-482.
16
Sur les raisons de cette nouvelle session dudit concile, voir D. De Decker, « Eusèbe de Nicomédie.
Pour une réévaluation historique-critique des avatars du premier concile de Nicée », Augustinianum,
45, fasc. 1, 2005, 161-162.
17
Ainsi il nous revient, entre autres, que M. Albert Deman fut l’auteur d’une thèse universitairesoutenue à Bruxelles en 1965 et portant sur l’histoire politique grecque jusqu’au temps desguerres médiques, où il fut question notamment de l’importance déterminante des idées politiques
et de la pensée grecques, entendez de la politique qualifiée radicalement de gauche et de droite àl’époque susdite.
18
Zur Zeit Konstantins des Großen, Leipzig, 1924.

161

It Is All about Numbers
Ana-Maria DEMETRIAN
University of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages

ABSTRACTThis article is a journey through the life of numbers and it shows that even if
numbers are precision personified they do not have a precise, clear, satisfying andcomplete definition. The notion of number is not a fixed idea; it is ever-evolving.
Numbers have moved throughout time from the simple tools of counting, defining
quantities and amounts, expressing time to their use in complex mathematicalreasoning, in the representation of history, to their current state as signs of
independent interest related to the scientific reading of the universe, the foretellingof the future, the revelation of different cultural and global ideas, and their presencein our language and daily life. Hence, our knowledge of the world has expanded andour capacity for abstract thinking has grown and so have our views of what numbers
mean. Numbers must definitely be presented in context to be correctly learned andmore easily understood.
KEYWORDS: numerals, mathematical numbers, mathematical reasoning,
numbers as signs, astrology, numerology

Teaching or learning ‘numbers’ is a much more complex task than it would appear.
‘Numbers’ are connected with many aspects of a person’s life; we may even saythat sometimes they govern our lives. Knowing ‘numbers’ implies far more thanknowing how to count or than being good at mathematics. The ability of handlingnumbers refers not only to defining amounts or identifying quantities, to using
numbers mathematically, to interpreting graphs but also to reading them and theirmessages, to writing them correctly. In time, they have stopped being only some
simple measuring tools and have also become abstract notions through which rules,
regulations or laws can be made known; the universe can be read and events can beforetold; the weather phenomena can be understood and forecast; culture andhistory can be transmitted. Both practical and abstract, ‘numbers’ help us
understand, guide and live our lives. They are so much part of our lives that people
have introduced them in expressions and set phrases which, they believe, express
their thoughts and ideas better than any other combination of words.
Since the moment we start to become aware of ourselves and of the surrounding
environment we realize the necessity and the importance of numbers for us. Thevery first thing we learn about numbers is that they can help us ask for a certain
quantity of something we want. So we can say how many/much we want and/or if
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we desire more or less. Gradually, we learn that quantity needs not or cannot be
always precise and in such cases we use words to describe quantity because
numbers can be used only when we are dealing with precision. Therefore, whenteaching or learning to express quantity in English we should not limit ourselves to
the grammatical category of the numeral because once we get to the point of theuse of numbers to express quantities we will definitely ponder over the possibilityof describing quantities in the case of uncountable nouns or of describing
approximate quantities, and we will continue by seeing that quantities can be
expressed through certain words which hint at a number or approximate amount.
Thus to be able to fully grasp the notion of ‘number,’ it has to be presented as
being part of the numeral, the partitives, the quantifiers. Then, an immediateconnection has to be made with the problem of grammatical agreement without
which the communication will be deficient and the others will lose interest in
listening to you, the result being at the very least the loss of confidence.
Taking into consideration all these aspects in relation to expressing quantity in
English, we should first understand that it can be done with the help of the cardinal
numeral, the fractional numeral, the distributive numeral, the collective numeral,and the multiplicative numeral. The cardinal numeral, which is a numericaldetermination of things, is the only one which can express quantity pure andsimple: two companies, 250,000 pounds, two million books, twenty computers, one
hundred and thirty exercises, thousands of people. The other numerals enumerated
above describe something more than quantity.
The examples above prove that the cardinal numeral is not as simple as it may
appear. One has to be careful when using it because the numerals hundred,thousand, million, billion do not take an ‘s’ in the plural but they take the ‘s’ if they
are used as nouns or if they are followed by the preposition ‘of’: “You can earn
about four thousand and five hundred euros if you work as a translator for the E.U.
but this is not an easy job to get because there are far too many tests and hundredsof people are competing for only a few places.” Moreover, we have to be aware of
the fact that ‘million’ does take the ‘s’ in the plural form when it does not precede
another numeral, therefore making an exception: “The real estate agent says thatyour house and the yacht are worth almost two millions, not two million and five
hundred.” Further on, Romanians have to observe the difference between
Romanian and English when writing and reading these numerals. The English use acomma to separate thousands from hundreds or millions from thousands unlike
Romanians who use a point. Actually, the English use a comma where Romanians
use a point as in the examples above and a point where the Romanians use thecomma as we shall see in the writing of decimal fractions.
The fractional numeral shows “one or more parts of a whole”1 thus referring toa certain quantity from whole. These numerals can be ‘simple fractions’(1/2 =one/a half, 1/3=one third, 1/4=one forth or one quarter, 1/8=one eighth,
5/9=five ninths, 3 ½=three and a half) where the numerator is expressed through a
cardinal numeral and the denominator through an ordinal numeral or ‘decimal
fractions’ (0.25= zero point two five, 12.72=twelve point seven two, 6.5=six point
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five) where the whole numbers and the decimals are cardinal numbers.
Furthermore, the examples above show that special attention has to be paid to theway of reading these numerals as well as to the grammatical agreement. Example:“Only 50.75 meters of cable have been paid, i.e. a little more than a half of theorder; the remaining 49.27 are to be paid at delivery.”If we were to talk about the way whole parts are distributed quantitatively wewould have to use the distributive numeral. Ecaterina Comişel defines the
distributive numeral as that numeral used to express “the numerical grouping ofobjects”2 while Leviţchi adds that they express allocation too. For example: “Every
day and sometimes every two days, these pupils come two or three at a time tocomplain about something or to ask me to solve their problems.”
Unlike the distributive numeral, the collective numeral shows that “the objects
are considered in a group and not separately” 3 and that this group can be made up
of two objects (couple, pair, team, yoke), of twelve objects (dozen), or of twenty
objects (score). In the question “Can you wait for a couple of minutes until I get
the two dozens of bottles of water you have asked for?” the speaker wants his
interlocutor to wait for two minutes to be brought the two groups of twelve bottles
of water. We notice that the collective numerals are preceded by a cardinal
numeral. If they are not preceded by such a numeral they have the same function
but they are used in the plural or are followed by the preposition ‘of’ as EcaterinaComişel points out and only approximate quantities. The sentence “I have told you
dozens of times to work with them in couples!” does not specify exactly theamount of time, it refers to the fact that there have been many times/occasions
when somebody has been told to work with two people at a time.
The multiplicative numeral, according to Leon Leviţchi’s definition, helps us toincrease a certain quantity in proportion. He and Ecaterina Comişel draw thelearner’s attention to the fact that this numeral can have an adjectival or anadverbial function. When used as an adjective the multiplicative numeral indicates
how many times a quantity has increased and when it is used as an adverb it shows
how many times an action takes place. Whether an adjectival numeral or anadverbial numeral their form is the same. Nonetheless, Comişel points out that thisnumeral can have different forms according to style: once, twice/double, thrice (oldform) or three times, four times, one hundred times a.s.o. – used in spoken
language and single, twofold, threefold, fourfold, a hundredfold etc. – found in theliterary, technical or official style. For instance: “According to his declaration he isready to offer double the amount you want for each share.” or “The contract makes
it clear that if you fail to pay the installments three times consecutively, the leasing
company will take your car.”
There is also another adverbial numeral that both Ecaterina Comişel and Andrei
Bantaş mention in their studies but which does not express quantity. It shows theplace occupied by somebody/something in a series. These adverbs are also “linking
adverbials”4 because they are “numbering words”5 in an enumeration. They areformed from the ordinal numeral plus the suffix ‘ly’: firstly, secondly, thirdly,
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somebody/something in a series or to make clear in what order entities/items/ideascome, they are not to be confused with adverbial numerals. ‘Ordinal numerals’ areused as determiners before a noun (eg. the tenth chapter, my second day, the fourthweek, the seventh student) to refer to something/someone in a sequence and also
imply the existence of an amount/quantity – the tenth chapter meaning that thechapter under discussion occupies the position number ten and that there are tenchapters or at least ten; as nouns (eg. a third, the first) again to point out to an
amount/quantity or bring information about order and implicitly about amount/quantity; or are part of fractions as we have seen above whereas ‘adverbial
numerals’ are used – as the name suggests – as adverbs. There are obvious
differences in the following example: “On the first date, I always ask my partner acouple of questions: firstly who his family is and secondly where he works but thistime I have been so bewildered that I let him do the talking. It was a first.” What ismore, the Longman Student Grammar draws our attention to the fact that adverbial
numerals are to be found under other forms too: finally, lastly, in the first/second
place, first of all; with the same role of connecting and placing entities/items/ideas
in an enumeration. The same grammatical study brings forward the fact that adding
a new item of discourse to the previous one, thus stressing the idea of having moreof something, can be done with the help of other adverbials such as: in addition,
similarly, moreover, furthermore, besides, also, likewise.
Taking into consideration the last examples, it is interesting to see or actuallyrealize that numerals are not the only way of expressing quantity. They are precise
in describing quantity but so can other words be. Grammarians call these words
quantifiers and even if not all quantifiers describe the exact quantity of something,
they nonetheless bring information about quantities signaling the absence of acertain quantity, denoting a “large quantity” 6 and a “moderate or small quantity,” 7
referring to the different or all parts of a quantity, imposing a limit, or
approximating. These words, named by most simply ‘quantifiers’ and by theLongman Student Grammar ‘quantifying determiners’ – a more revelatory title –,“specify nouns in terms of quantity or amount.”8 So, for example no, none of the,neither have a negative meaning and speak about the absence of something
whereas more, other, another, most, plenty and many/much with their combinations
such as so/too many/much, a great/a good many point out to a plenitude ofsomething or something in abundance without being clear about the quantity.
Moderation is indicated by some, small but sufficient quantities are describedthrough a few/a little, several, not so/too many/much and small quantities arereflected in few/little, not many/much. Measuring something by referring to an
already existing quantity is done with “inclusive quantifiers”9 such as all, the wholemeaning the entire quantity known/mentioned; both hinting at the two parts of aquantity taken together; half hinting at only one of the two equal parts forming awhole; either stressing the idea of choice between two parts ‘one or the other;’each, every reflecting the importance of an individual or item in a group with thedifference that each is more frequent with smaller groups – often made up of two
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separately while every is synonym with ‘all the people/items’ and can therefore
denote big quantities nonetheless focusing on each one of a group of people/items
but taken together; or any allowing for the random choice or for the arbitrarychoice of one or more member(s)/item(s) of a group. Limitation of quantity can be
expressed with the help of enough and no. Approximation, unlike the other types ofmeasurement, can be reflected not in a certain quantifier but in certain adverbs suchas about, almost, approximately, around, nearly, roughly, thereabouts which are
obviously not common with nouns but with quantities, measurements, andnumbers. Approximation or speculation about a quantity in positive terms can bedone with the adverbs above, over signifying abundance and in negative terms withthe adverbs below, under. Quantity can also be rendered through set phrases suchas a lot of, in plenty, the majority of indicating abundance, a number of indicating
not a generous quantity but a sufficient one, the remainder, the rest indicating aclear though not precise quantity when considered within known/given boundaries.
Referring to quantity is thus a complex process of handling meaning and becomeseven more so when it comes to communication because agreement plays a crucialrole in the transmission of the message in a coherent way. For instance: “Everyminute of every day, no matter if the temperature is below 10˚C or above 30˚C, alot of shares are being sold and bought. Almost always, a number of brokers win a
lot of money but the majority of them also lose many times. Nevertheless, any
broker would say that each and every person working in the stock exchange market
is more than 100% in love with the job even if a lot of their time at work means
much stress. Moreover, many agree that this job requires certain abilities andqualities which must be innate because they cannot be acquired. It is obvious thatall (these people) are optimistic and daring persons or at least this is what the
majority believes.” The approximation quantifiers do not influence agreement but
the other quantifiers play a vital role in the construction of agreement. ‘Every’ inthe first case refers to all minutes in a day without exception and in the second
case, ‘every’ connected with ‘each’ by ‘and’ stresses the idea of a rather large
group whose individuals must and are taken both separately and together as for theagreement, unlike ‘all’ which refers to the whole of a group and which can be
combined with plural nouns taking thus a plural verb no matter if it stands alone orin combination with a noun, ‘each’ and ‘every’ combine only with singularcountable nouns and their verbs are in the singular. ‘Any’ also occurs withcountable nouns. Depending on the noun with which ‘any’ is combined, the verb isin the singular or in the plural. ‘A number of’ is a synonym of ‘several’ signifying
a sufficiently large quantity but not too large and its verb is in the plural as opposedto ‘a lot of’ which describes a great quantity but whose verb agrees with the noun it
is combined. ‘Many’ and ‘much’ can be used to speak about abundance but theiruse is restricted in the sense that ‘many’ goes only with plural nouns while ‘much’with uncountable nouns so the verb is in the plural and in the singular respectively.
The noun ‘the majority’ when followed by ‘of’ + a plural noun/pronoun and thus
refers to a collection or group of persons/objects seen as formed by many
individual people/objects takes a plural verb; if it is not followed by ‘of’ + a plural
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noun/pronoun then it must describe a collective group taken as a whole and in thiscase it accepts a singular verb. From our text it is clear that some quantifiers canbe used as subjects on their own and their verb may be in the singular or in theplural according to the noun they substitute – for instance ‘many’ – and according
to logic and semantic meaning like in the case of ‘all’ from our example.
The text from above, used to exemplify the role of quantifiers, shows that
uncountable nouns can be described in terms of quantity too, with the help ofspecific quantifiers like ‘a lot of,’ ‘much’. Other quantifiers which can modify
uncountable nouns are: ‘no,’ ‘none of,’ ‘any (of the),’ ‘(a) little (of the),’ ‘half (ofthe),’ ‘some (of the),’ ‘most (of the),’ ‘all (of).’ For instance: “No news is good
news. If you allowed me to give you some advice, I would say that any of theinformation you give will be used against you. Under the circumstances, most of
the trouble you may get into will be your own fault.” But quantifiers are not the
only ones which can be used with uncountable nouns to speak about quantity.
Numerals can also be used as determiners to quantify uncountable nouns if thesenouns are put into a fixed structure: countable noun + of + uncountable noun.
These countable nouns from the structure must have certain qualities: allow us todivide a substance (eg. water, juice), a material (eg. wood, gold), and even an
abstract noun (eg. news, advice) into individual parts which can obviously be
counted (eg. ‘sip, bit, piece’); or directly refer to measure (eg. pint, gallon, meter,kilo), amount (packet, pinch, drop), size (lump, blade, grain), shape (pile, cube,ball, heap), or container (cup, basket, box) and thus enable us to further speak
about such nouns in the plural; or be a specific countable noun that always
collocates with a particular uncountable noun (eg. a rasher of bacon, a beam oflight, a pad of paper, a stroke of luck). The expressions that help us count the noncount nouns are called ‘partitives’ by Mihai Zdrenghea, ‘partitive expressions’ by
the Cambridge grammar and ‘quantifying expressions’ by the Longman Student
Grammar. Example: “I need a sip of water and a piece of advice to be able to find astrategy and continue the competition so that I win the rest of the prizes: a bit ofgold, ten gallons of petrol, a huge pile of good quality wood, two boxes of
expensive soap. I also pray to God to have a stroke of luck and find all the clues
before the others.”
Numerals are thus a well proven and acknowledged way of expressing exact
quantities but to talk about numerals only in relation with quantity would mean toreduce their function. Some of them have other roles too. Ordinal numerals areused to express the date or more exactly the day. It can be placed before or after thename of the month: the 25th of January, May (the) 25th. It must be mentioned herethat in American English the order in a date is the month – the day – the year. In
both British and American English, the year, if used in full and for exact reference,is expressed with the help of cardinal numerals and it can be read in three ways:
For example 1981 can be read either nineteen eighty-one (spoken language) or
nineteen hundred and eighty-one (more formal language) or one thousand nine
hundred and eighty-one (old use) – the last variant being the least frequent. When
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nineteen eighties, or the short form – the ‘80s = the eighties. As for the writing
aspect, numerical figures are preferred to written numbers when decades are
expressed in complete numerals but when we use incomplete numerals we have a
choice with the condition of being consistent throughout the text. When speaking,the numbers in a date are normally pronounced in full.
Cardinal numerals are not only used for everyday dates and historical dates,
they are also used to indicate temperature (eg. 0 ˚C, 5 ˚C below zero); age (eg. 4
years old); the number of a bus, a flat, a house/block of flats, a page (eg. bus no.
25, flat 8, block of flats no. 4, page 265) and sometimes – like the ordinal numeral– the number of a chapter, lesson, an act (eg. Chapter 7, Lesson 21, Act 2);
telephone numbers (eg. 0351 433 269 – read oh three five one (pause) four double
three/ four three three (pause) two six nine); room numbers (e.g room 307 – readroom three oh seven); table numbers (eg. table 4 – read table four). Cardinal
numbers are crucial in the description of chronological time (eg. “It’s eight o’clock.
I usually have to be at work at half past eight (Br.E.)/eight thirty (Am.E.) but today
we start sometime between a quarter to eleven (Br.E.)/a quarter before eleven(Am.E.) and ten past eleven (Br.E.)/ten (minutes) after eleven (Am.E.),
immediately after the protest meeting.”). Time can also be referred to as follows:
3:20 a.m./p.m. – read three twenty a.m./p.m. (especially when we speak of TV orradio programs, of train schedule), 17:00 – read 5 p.m. in English, 7:00 – read 7
a.m. in English. In sports, cardinal numbers are indeed used in time tables but wealso have to pay attention to the digit ‘0’ as it can be read in different ways when it
comes to scores: love – in tennis, nil/nothing – in football, duck – in cricket. For
example “Ţiriac leads by fifteen to love.”
So far we have emphasized and proved the importance of numerals in our life.
There are many types of numerals and each one has a determined role but they are
all signs depicting a number and thus express or refer to a number, therefore all
numerals can also be used in the field of mathematics. The cardinal numerals arecalled natural numbers or whole numbers or integers by mathematicians. Thesenatural numbers include in their category what in mathematics is referred to as
prime numbers – those numbers greater than one that can be divided by only one
and itself, as the dictionary of mathematics explains. Example of prime numbers:
11, 67, 191. Further on we have to stress, as Vygodsky explains in his
Mathematical Handbook, that mathematicians consider natural numbers the mostelementary notions representing units which need not or should not be subdivided
as it is impossible in certain cases (placing half of stone near three other stones
yields to four stones, not 3 ½ stones; or making up a football team of 10 ½ players
is impossible). However, Vygodsky continues, mathematicians also say that incertain cases unites have to be divided into parts – for example when measuring or
weighing something. So they have come up with the notion of fractional number
which is the same with what grammarians call the fractional numeral. These are
only the beginnings of the concept of number in mathematics. Over time there has
been introduced the notion of irrational number i.e. a number that cannot be
expressed as a simple fraction m/n where ‘m’ and ‘n’ are integers – eg. √5; and the168

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concept of negative number which is a number smaller than zero. These two typesof mathematical numbers do not have a clear correspondent in English grammar
but we can say that they are cardinal numerals used under a different form. The
other numerals not mentioned here, except the multiplicative numeral which canalso be used in arithmetic operations – eg. two times three is six, twice two is four,are not used as such in mathematics but are used in mathematical reasoning. For
instance in reading and solving mathematical problems, in reading and interpretinggraphs. This does not mean that cardinal numerals and fractional numerals are
excluded from mathematical and logical reasoning. For example: “Every day they
will be given double the initial amount offered in the third and fourth game and at
the end the winner will also take one half from everything that the remaining
competitor acquired. How much money will the winner get if the initial amount forgame three and four was 300 euros and if in the race there are eight people left.
One person will be eliminated each day during the week of the competition,
starting today.” The answer is 3150 euros. / “If the professor listens two at a timefrom a score of students, how much time does he offer each team knowing that the
total amount of time spent with all of them was one hour and forty minutes and thatthe time for each team is the same.” The answer is ten minutes.
So, mathematics is not necessarily an abstract field. The mathematical problems
can very well be inspired from day to day activities where numbers areencountered at every step. Life offers us the possibility to think in mathematicalterms everyday when we go shopping and we must make a choice from the sea ofcommercial offers, whenever we sign a contract for a loan at a bank, every time welisten to a survey, the moment when we decide to make measurements and build or
decorate a house, and so on. Having the ability to think in terms of numbers helps
us understand and interpret information displayed in graphs, charts, and tables.
Being good at numerical reasoning may increase our chances to get a good andusually well-paid job. Nowadays it is becoming more and more necessary to havethis ability as many jobs require you to take tests in numerical reasoning andlogical reasoning because everybody is looking for people capable to think fast,
make quick and correct estimations. We need to know how to use decimals,
percentages, ratios, fractions i.e. how to work with numbers easily and this is not
only for the technical and craft jobs, for the management and the accounting
professions but also for the professional job of a translator or interpreter, of alawyer, of a PR. An example of numerical reasoning test: “If there are 205,920
doctors; 965,250 nurses; 319,176 pharmacists; 160,875 dentists in the urban area of
Poldavia and from this medical staff they have for 100,000 inhabitants 160 doctors;
750 nurses; 248 pharmacists and 125 dentists, how many inhabitants does Poldavia
have in urban areas?” “a. 82,824,080; b. 84,200,000; c. 128,700,000;
d. 165,922,000.” The correct answer here is c.
It is worth mentioning here that with time mathematics has also developed into
a complex science dedicated to the understanding of the universe, of weather
phenomena, etc. Moreover, mathematics and especially numbers are also used in
the science of astrology and numerology. Mathematics, being a way of thinking
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based on logic and/or axioms (self evident truths), is often used in astrology to readand interpret the stars and the planets. Mathematical thinking helps an astrologist to
analyze a birth chart – a data source about a person’s place, date and time of birth –and the planets’ influence and positions on this person’s life. Furthermore,
knowledge of mathematics enables astrologists to do the necessary and common
degree measurements to find out the planets’ position. Numerology is anotherscience based on the mathematics of the universe. It is 4,000 years old and offers
insight into the personality by assigning numeric values to names – each letter has
a number value – and by interpreting the results. In addition, numerology offers
insight to events or even foresees events or reads information about a person’s life
by using the value and meaning of numbers. Encyclopaedia Britannica defines
numerology as the “use of numbers to interpret a person’s character or to divine thefuture.”10 Further on it clarifies this definition: “The theory behind numerology isbased on the Pythagorean idea that all things can be expressed in numerical terms
because they are ultimately reducible to numbers. Using a method analogous tothat of the Greek and Hebrew alphabets (in which each letter also represented anumber), modern numerology attaches a series of digits to an inquirer’s name anddate of birth and from these purports to divine the person’s true nature andprospects.”11 Tim Glynne – Jones, in his book of numbers, speaks of numerology
as “the study of the supernatural influence of numbers on human life.”12 He
stresses the fact that it has grown from the influence of ancient astrologers andmathematicians, coupled with religious mysticism and the occult; so it is nowonder that today numerology “seeks to find significance in the repeatedoccurrence and patterns of numbers.”13 For example “000 means you are at one
with the universe”14 while “222 tells you to carry on doing what you’re doing.”15
Given all this, there is no surprise in the fact that, over the years, people havedeveloped the well known ‘number symbolism’ which has become a real andcomplex culture. The idea is that people strongly believe that certain numbers havesacred meanings and/or significances. For instance, seven is very rich inconnotations. In Judaism and Islam, seven has a sacred meaning as Heaven is said
to be formed of seven levels, the seventh heaven being generally accepted as theheight of bliss. This is probably how the English expression “the seventh Heaven”,
meaning ultimate happiness, entered the language. Seven has a religious
significance in Japan too. According to Japanese Buddhism there are Seven LuckyGods and people are reincarnated seven times. Another sacred number in Buddhist
but also in Hindu culture is 108. The Buddhist rosaries have 108 beads, the total
number of Buddhist saints is 108, the cowgirls enamoured of Krishna were 108 in
number. But such cultural beliefs, besides encouraging unity and order in a society,have made people look for more significance in numbers and for evidence tosustain their ideas. A strong desire to find meanings in numbers or to discover a
way of reading the future and the universe has led to many superstitions which canindeed become reality if the human mind accepts them as unquestionable reality.
For example it is said that if you break a mirror you will have seven years of badluck unless you bury the pieces or run them in a stream. The only proofs to sustain
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such a thing are the testimonies of people who say they lived such an experience.
On the other hand there are also the studies according to which there is a law of theuniverse called ‘the law of attraction’ and this law makes it possible for things tohappen if you strongly wish for them or fear them because the more you think ofsomething and see that something constantly with the eyes of your mind the more
likely it is for that something to be part of your life sometime. It is the same as in
the case of number 13 which according to popular culture is a number that triggers
great misfortune. Actually, it has been proven that 13 is an unlucky number. Many
surveys have made it clear that on the 13th of each month, especially if it is a Friday– the Americans say or a Tuesday – the Romanians say, the economy of many
countries is suffering because people refuse to sign contracts and to go on businesstrips on such days or they cancel business meetings and postpone things. The fearof number 13 has reached such a high level that many tall buildings in U.S. skip
from level 12 to 14, certain highways have no exit 13, sports team leave out
number 13, cricket players fear number 87 because it is 13 short of 100, andairlines have no row 13 and tend to exclude a flight number 13 as Glynne – Jones
tells his readers. So, indeed 13 is bad omen, but it is because we allow it to be. And
as 13 is unlucky, 7 and 11 are considered lucky numbers for the Americans. They
even have flights 777 and 711 to L.A. But Glynne – Jones notes the irony that the
9/11 terrorists chose to hijack flights 77 and 11.
It is interesting to see how the mere presence of a number makes us think of somany things. A simple number written or spoken can be understood is so many
ways. There is no need for sentences or for elaborate explanations just for it to be
put in context. Many numbers have acquired universal meanings or have turned
into common knowledge, cultural knowledge or general knowledge. Some
numbers with universal meanings would be 10 – the 10 commandments given by
God in the Bible that tell people how they must behave; 18 – universally regarded
as the age of majority, 100% – the number of completion, 666 – a sinister number
being the Devil’s number in Christianity. A few of the numbers belonging tocommon knowledge are: 5 – the 5 senses: to taste, to smell, to see, to hear, to feel;
9 – the number of months spent in the womb; 12 – the months in a year; 17 – themaximum age at which somebody can be judged as a minor according toInternational law; 24 – the number of hours in a day; 25 – the silver wedding
anniversary; 37 – 37˚C is the body temperature in a healthy human being; 40 – themid life crisis or the crisis of 40 year old man; 50 – the golden wedding
anniversary; 90 – 90˚ has a right angle in mathematics; 360 – 360˚ has a circle; 365– the days in a year. It must be mentioned here that the meaning of some of thesenumbers has been established by the course of nature and some have been fixed by
man and respected as such by everybody. Cultural knowledge or generalknowledge related to numbers refers to the meanings some numbers have received
in certain parts of the world and which are not valid in other parts or to thesignification attached to some numbers in time. For example 9/11 – the terrorist
attack on the Twin Towers in America; 12 – “The Twelve Days of Christmas” isan English Christmas carol that enumerates a series of increasingly grand gifts
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given on each of the twelve days of Christmas starting from Christmas day or the
day after and finishing with the day before the Epiphany or the Feast of Epiphany;
14 – the 14th of February is known as Valentine’s Day, a day internationallyrecognized as a time of celebration of love and affection, still not everybody
accepts it as their day of love celebration; 24 – the 24th of February is known as the
Dragobete Day for Romanians who celebrate love and the idea of man-woman
union on this occasion; 50 – U.S.A. is made up of 50 states, Hawaii included; 80 –the 80s is a decade of social and political change: the idea of Political Correctness
was promoted and the mobile phone, the CD, the personal computer appeared
while the Iron Curtain, the Berlin Wall, the Communist Party disappeared, 101 – anumber children associate with a Disney cartoon called “101 Dalmatians;” 800 –the prefix for free calling numbers; 1776 – the year of the Declaration of
Independence; 1984 – George Orwell’s famous novel; 1001 – “1001 ArabianNights” is a collection of stories concerning the cunning Queen Scheherazade of
Persia, who invents stories as a way of preserving her life.
Reading meanings into numbers has become so common that people have evenmade a habit out of interpreting numbers and of using numbers in day to day
expressions. Interpretations and expressions with numbers are usually based on
logical thinking and common experience. For example number 1 stresses the ideaof loneliness but also that of uniqueness and from here we have such expressions as“being the one,” “being number one.” Number 2 makes us immediately think of aunion, of love and romance or of rivalry and of opposites, so this number is by nomeans a number of loneliness. This being said, the expressions containing it are
more than logical: “two hearts that beat as one;” “two make it better;” “it takes two
to tango.” Number 16 carries our thoughts to the expression “sweet 16” referring to
the first real step into adulthood and freedom (16 being the age when you may
leave school and find a job or even drive in some countries while in others this is
the age of consent). Number 110 is very often used in the expression “to give110%” meaning to give everything and a little bit extra or to do more than one’s
best. Number 180 reminds us of mathematics and so we easily use it in “to do a
180˚ turn” meaning to turn and face the opposite direction. The number 1001 is anumber like 101 or 110 which implies the idea of a big quantity plus something
extra and that is why the English have the expression “I have told you a thousand
and one times.” Nevertheless, the meaning of a number is not always related toclear and logical thinking or to some kind of knowledge. There are numbers whose
meanings are constructed or invented by the users or are simply chosen by people
under certain circumstances. For instance number “420” is, according to Glynne –Jones, the slang for the user of cannabis and it is thus used in the expression “420
friendly.” Number “555” is the usual fake telephone exchange number in movies.
Numbers are most definitely in all aspects of our life and knowing how to usethem or/and place them into the right context or/and read them is not everything.
There is one more aspect that should never be ignored because it can create
problems. This aspect has to do with writing numbers. We must follow at least
some basic rules to avoid embarrassing situations or misinterpretations. In written
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Ana-Maria Demetrian: It Is All about Numbers

communication, numbers one through nine should be spelled out while thenumbers 10 and above should be written down in figures. If the numbers in a
sentence refer to the same thing and one is above nine it is indicated to use only
figures. If all related numbers are below 10 words may be used. Simple fractions
are always spelled out and hyphenated while a mixed fraction is expressed infigures unless it is the first word of the sentence and in fact all numbers are spelled
out if they begin a sentence. Decimals should definitely be written in figures.
Moreover, we have seen above in the examples with numerals that in English,
before the decimals there is a point not a comma like in Romanian and the numbers
placed after the point are read figure with figure not as a whole number. Foreigners
should also pay attention, as it was already showed, to the writing of whole
numbers of four, five or more digits because in English a comma divides thefigures into groups of three not a point which we have seen is used for writing
decimals. The exception to this rule is the four digit number where the comma is
not necessarily put after the third figure from the end. The reading part must also
be handled with care because the numerals representing hundreds, thousands andmillions should be connected with the ones representing the tens and the units
through the word ‘and’. Using dates and writing about time of the day can alsopose problems. When writing the date we either use the whole formula “the + theordinal numeral + of + the month” or we write first the month and then the day
expressed through the cardinal numeral or ordinal numeral. When we refer to thetime of the day we use numbers in writing if we want to emphasize the exact time(eg. 7:23 a.m.; 10:30 sharp) otherwise we use words even with half and quarter
hours and especially with o’clock. Moreover noon and midnight are preferred to
12:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.
In conclusion numbers are more complex than they appear to be and they are
quiet difficult to define or describe because handling numbers means more thanknowing how to count. Numbers are a necessary part of our life and the only way
to correctly understand and learn them is in context as presented above.
NOTES
1

Georgiana Gălăţeanu-Fârnoagă & Ecaterina Comişel, Gramatica limbii engleze, 126.
Ibidem, 128.
3
Ibidem, 127.
4
Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English, 389.
5
Ibidem, 4.
6
Ibidem, 75.
7Ibidem.
8
Ibidem, 74.
9Ibidem.
10
E n c y c l o p ed i a B r i t a n n i c a. URL: <h t t p :/ / www. b r i t ann i ca . co m/ EBch e ck ed / t op i c/
4 2 2 4 1 3 / n u m e r ol o g y> .
11
Ibidem.
12
The Book of Numbers, 157.
13
Ibidem, 11.
14
Ibidem.
2

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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
15

Ibidem.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bantaş, Andrei (2004). Învaţă Engleza cu Andrei Bantaş. Bucureşti: Teora.
Biber, Douglas, Susan Conrad, & Geoffrey Leech (2002). Longman Student
Grammar of Spoken and Written English. England: Pearson Education Limited.
Carter, Ronald, & Michael McCarthy (2006). Cambridge Grammar of English: A
Comprehensive Guide – Spoken and Written English – Grammar Usage.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Clapham, Christopher, & James Nicholson (2005). Concise Dictionary ofMathematics. Third Edition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Encyclopedia Britannica. URL: <http://www.britannica.com>. November 2009.
Foley, Mark, & Diane Hall (2003). Advanced Learners’ Grammar: A selfreference & practice book with answers. England: Pearson Education Limited.
Gălăţeanu-Fârnoagă, Georgiana, & Ecaterina Comişel (1992). Gramatica Limbii
Engleze pentru uz şcolar. Bucureşti: Omegapres.
Glynne-Jones, Tim (2007). The Book of Numbers. London: Arcturus.
Leviţchi, Leon (1971). Gramatica Limbii Engleze. Bucureşti: Editura Didactică şi
Pedagogică.
Leviţchi, Leon (1997). Gramatica Limbii Engleze. Bucureşti: Teora.
Vygodsky, M. (1975). Mathematical Handbook: Elementary Mathematics Mir
Publishers: Moscow.
Zdrenghea, Mihai M., & Anca L. Greere (1999). A Practical English Grammar
With Exercises. Second Edition. Cluj-Napoca: Clusium.

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Culture, Society and Family Intertwinedin Zadie Smith’s On Beauty
Georgiana-Elena DILĂUniversity of Craiova,
Faculty of Letters

ABSTRACT
Zadie Smith’s inspiration in E.M. Forster’s Howard End is projected in her 2005
novel, which brings forth a world of academia and personal desires that are
restrained by theories related to aestheticism and art. The twisted plot is a postmodern parallel of Forster’s novel, but it is also engaged in a post-colonial search
for Afro-American acceptance in the society and for personal development.
KEYWORDS: aesthetics, binary, academic world, theory

Zadie Smith’s novel, On Beauty (2005), represents a sort of homage for E.M.
Forster and his Howards End (1910). One can find some obvious parallels between
the two writers’ protagonists, because the characters are portrayed out of the samedesire to establish both differences and resemblances in society. Not only did
Smith find stand-ins for Forster’s Schlegels and Wilcoxes, namely the Belseys andKippses, but she brought in a legacy that represented the bound between two strong
women, who cherished friendship and company more than competition andacademic values. However, Forster was not the only one to influence Smith; Elaine
Scarry’s On Beauty and Being Just gives the title of Zadie Smith’s novel. But theinspiration she drew her plot from does not exclude Zora Neale Hurston, who is
one of the author’s favourite writers. Smith uses as guidance both Hurston’s novel
Their Eyes Were Watching God and her study of voodoo, Tell My Horse. Having
various starting points, Smith places the characters in a web of human relations, as
she wants the readers to reject binary paradigms and connect across sociallyconstructed differences, and so admire the full beauty of humanity.
While Howards End has the well known “Only connect” phrase as central idea,
On Beauty borrows a line from Zadie Smith’s husband, the poet Nick Laird “there
is such a shelter in each other.” She wants to emphasize the growing relationshipbetween Kiki Belsey and Carlene Monty. They are two women from very different
worlds, who find pleasure in dealing with each other, with sharing bits and piecesof their personal experience.
On Beauty bears the imprint of the time passing and decolonization process
being installed both in real life and literature. The binaries of aesthetic value allow
an alternative universe to develop and make way for blackness, fatness, middle
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age, and all other sorts of non-canonical, postcolonial beauty function. In this way,
the postmodern characters do not try to come together; they just acknowledge once
again that a rigorous critique of binary aesthetics is part of their way of viewing theworld. There are more types of narratives because each character has his/her wayof looking at the world. Only when the radical anti-aesthetic values of thedecolonized world in On Beauty find a way of combining themselves with theharmony of its Forsterian predecessor, does the plot manage to balance the crises
its characters have.
On Beauty separates itself from the aesthetic connectivity of Forster when thetwo plots achieve their most striking parallelism and afterwards suddenly diverge,
following different patterns out of the same narrative event. This is the scene thattakes place at the public classical music concert: the Schlegels immersed in
Beethoven’s Fifth and the Belseys in Mozart’s Requiem. In both novels, theconcert becomes a site of tension between the contingencies of domestic life on
one hand and transcendental aesthetic appreciation on the other.
The main male character of the novel is Howard Belsey, a middle-aged British
professor of aesthetics. He has been married to the beautiful Kiki, an AfricanAmerican, for thirty years. They have three children, Jerome, Zora, and Levi,
whom he cannot understand. Howard is quite a strange man, who despite his careerand his name refuses to see beauty. The beginning of On Beauty is similar to
Forster’s, but instead of telegrams this time one is brought to the 21st century andcan read e-mails. Jerome, the eldest son, is writing to his father about the love hehas started feeling towards Monty Kipps’ daughter, Victoria. Their so called
engagement is a brief one, but it triggers all sorts of encounters between themembers of the two rival families. The mothers in the novel are the ones who starta friendship and break the binary opposition existing between their husbands’
opinions.
The novel opens with Howard reassuring his wife that his one-night stand wassomething that could never alter his feelings towards her. She seems to believe hiswords and not allow this marital problem to have bigger proportions than it should.
Even though Kiki is quite supportive of both their marriage and Howard’s career,
one cannot help noticing that nothing in his life has the structure it should. If his
marriage is holding on up to some level, his position at the university is not such asecure one. “He is somehow still untenured after ten years at Wellington College,
and the pages of the book he has been writing lay scattered on the floor of his
study, rather than bound between covers” (Smith, 21). Howard believes inmaterialist analysis and does not leave aside the deconstructive, genealogicalapproach that is attentive to the workings of power. His ideas are really strong andhis scepticism toward aesthetics is much harsher than before so he has become astrong believer in anti-aesthetics. He does not only criticize the idea of the artistic
genius, but also the attempt to glean meaning from texts.
Howard’s crisis is represented by his complete inability to distinguish between
his academic theories and the principles according to which he leads his domestic
life. Howard has strongly banned representational art in his home and encourages
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his family to listen only to atonal music. His children are the ones who suffer mostand are deeply affected by the disdain toward meaning that pervades their family,
although they react to it in different ways. The familial dysfunction existing in theBelsey home is brought about by aesthetic crisis that Howard has installed as a wayof living in the house.
Kiki, especially, although she does not consider herself as belonging to theintellectual world of the Wellington community, is affected by her husband’s refusal of canonical aesthetic categories. Initially, her husband’s politics regarding art
coincide with her own refusal to be defeated by the physical signs of her middle
age, which are increasingly replacing the stunning physical beauty of her youth
with the uncontrollable extra weight of a drastic menopause. Yet at the same time,
Kiki’s alienation from Howard comes exactly at those moments when, despite his
stubborn adherence to theory in the domestic sphere, he is in fact unable to take hisanti-aesthetic politics to their logical conclusion with regard to his wife. While thisis initially a minor annoyance, it seriously threatens their marriage when Kiki
discovers that Howard’s affair was not an anonymous, one-night stand but a threeweek stint with a close friend of them both, Claire Malcolm.
As we see, the discourse in which the couple’s discord is articulated isoverdetermined by the problem of aesthetics that structures the narrative as awhole. Given that their marriage was not without its own aesthetic obstacles, Kiki
immediately recognizes that Howard’s affair with Claire entails not only a rejectionof her, but an infuriating disconnect between his anti-aesthetic theories and his
actions. Even Levi, generally unattained to the subtleties by which aesthetic norms
make themselves felt within the domestic sphere, senses the injury to his mother:“He felt the unfairness and illogic of the substitution. He made a decision to cut theconversation [with Claire] short as a sign of solidarity with his mother’s moregenerous proportions” (Smith, 219-20).
The incongruity between Howard’s sudden admission that he can and has
succumbed to canonical norms of beauty and his strident theorization of thematerial and political conditions under which such norms are established unsettles
the harmony of his character, in what is otherwise a relatively normal domestic
scene. But his actions do not have an end in his admitting his guilt. He only
manages to get things go on in an even more dramatizing manner. He has a shortand pathetic sexual encounter with Victoria Kipps, the daughter of his conservativearchrival and a student in his class. Her beauty is unflinchingly canonical, and in
this way so overpowering that it is able to express itself only in a misguided andundiscriminating sexuality. Howard is infatuated with Victoria’s beauty only
because this can lead him to rediscover the full form of the unraveled norms ofbeauty. Howard’s theoretical sophistication is complicit with the depth of his
sexual perversity, having already violated every ethical instinct in having sex with
Victoria. He is able to theorize away the guilt of doing so in language supremely
alienated from the reality of his domestic existence. The affair between the middleaged professor and his young beautiful student brings his flawed character in frontof the readers. Victoria is a young lady who has not only charmed Jerome; she has
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also slept with him. The incorporation of Victoria into Howard’s critical apparatus
for deconstructing aesthetic value marks a final recognition of the moral
viciousness, and profound lack of truth in Howard’s theory. It is for this reason that
unlike his affair with Claire, the discovery of Howard’s affair with Victoria
provokes no argument enough to be represented within the domestic space of thetext, but results only in unnarrated action occurring in the break between the two
members of the couple.
The aesthetic problem is not just Howard’s preoccupation. All his family
members seem to be infected by it. Kiki can feel her beauty fading away as time
passes by and her obesity stepping in. She is not the attractive woman she
considered herself to be before and this is also obvious in the way that people
behave around her. Jerome, her eldest son is attracted by religion and the perfect,
the alignment of art and the divine. He sometimes appears as living in his own
universe, suffering after his relationship with Victoria and separating himself fromthe family. Zora, on the other hand feels the need to mitigate her sharp intellectagainst a mode of habitation that will allow her to live aesthetically and fit in with aworld she does not completely understand. She wants to be seen and admiredalthough she never stops and to think about what is missing in her attitude andbehaviour. For Levi the political oppression is something barring his desire to feel
free in a society where there should be equal rights for everyone.
All the issues that each and every character in the novel face manages tounderline subplots of the main storyline. The combination of characters and items
brings forward binary pairs such as: white/black, thin/fat, Mozart/hip-hop,
Rembrandt/Haitian art, and beautiful/ugly. This way of structuring the novel serves
as a philosophical chronotope to the novel as a whole. The world of the novel is
one in which aesthetics still makes demands on the characters’ lives.
Understanding the interplay between the novel’s structure and its plot is essential to
the novel’s critical commentary on beauty: “Because... we’re so binary, of course,
in the way we think. We tend to think in opposites, in the Christian world. We’restructured like that—Howard always says that’s the trouble.” The set of binaries
present in the novel divide the traditionally beautiful from the traditionally ugly.
The Forsterian influence can be noticed by the presence of a house at the centreof the novel. Even though the house is not inherited by one of the two female
characters is still does represent a legacy from precious generations. The place
where the Belseys live in named Wellington, Massachusetts. The town is mostly
middle-class, with an academic orientation. This is very important for Howard’s
career, but also for their children’s human development. The house they own ispassed down from generation to generation on Kiki’s maternal line. It represents a
special house, which has a certain personality imprinted by its inhabitants.
Although there seems to be a sort of harmony between the Belseys and they place
they own, some discrepancies do exist. One clear example is the fact that Levi, theyoungest son lives in the basement and tries to find his identity by having as muchcontact as possible with the black people he encounters. Howard, on the other handfears discussing any of the black issues with his son. He could never feel178

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comfortable dealing with race conversations. Even if Howard’s marriage to Kiki
has been a long one, he represents the white American fearing the idea of facing
the burden of slavery and slave ownership. Although the Belseys stand as a symbolof multiracial families, they never seem to feel comfortable embracing this reality
and facing the facts.
There is also an issue raised by the attitude other people have towards some of
the Belseys. One example is the time when Levi approaches the house on the dayof his parents’ anniversary party and his sister notices the way some people in thestreet are looking at him. She cannot refrain herself from yelling at a white woman,because she believes the look on that person’s face was one of surprise andinvestigation: “Thank you! Yes, move along now – he lives here – yes, that’s right– no crime is taking place – thank you for your interest!” (Smith, 83).
The Belsey house is one lacking colour just like the lives of its inhabitants.
There is a real inability to see beyond the binary of black and white. There are theblack and white photographs of the children and those of Kiki predecessors. The
last photos are the ones bringing Kiki and Howard forward. It ends with aphotograph of Howard and Kiki in Eatonville, Florida, in which Kiki is “shielding
her eyes from either Howard or the sun or the camera” (Smith, 19). The houseseems more to be Howard’s than Kiki’s by the way things are placed and left
behind. It was built in 1856, when the tension over slavery was at fever pitch. It is
not something clearly stated that Smith wanted to emphasize the events of 1856 orjust the ideas related to slavery. However some other dates are most certainly wellselected: 1910, the year of the publication of Howards End and September 11, thedate of Kiki and Howard’s wedding anniversary and also the moment when it allcomes to an end. Moreover, by bringing into the novel some elements related toAmerican history such as the year 1856 and September 11, Smith signals thedangers of binary and dehumanizing ideological divides. The division is also
reflected in the wider world of Wellington. Both Howard Belsey and Monty Kipps
are representatives of the destructive divisions in the American academy andsociety. While the novel focuses on the self-inflicted unravelling of Howard’s
personal and professional lives, the events are larger than Howard himself.
On Beauty raises the question of how individual lives can unfold if theory,
however well-intentioned, is allowed to overtake the domestic setting to the extent
that it betrays its own politics. Smith’s novel reasserts the partial autonomy ofdomestic life as a counter to its unthinking politicization, suggesting that arejection of the aesthetic can be as destructive to an individual life as awholehearted capitulation to it.
The novel makes its most radical claim for redemption of form and aesthetic
sensibility in a postcolonial world in which the complicity of aesthetic norms withpower and oppression has been so thoroughly exposed. The novel thus achieves its
thematic and narrative closure, as the relations are resurrected between love andart, reality and image, and life and theory, to generate the will for the reunificationof Kiki and Howard.

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REFERENCES
Allen, Graham (2000). Intertextuality. London: Routledge,
Armstrong, Isabel (2000). The Radical Aesthetic. Oxford: Blackwell.
Kemp, Peter (2005). “On Beauty by Zadie Smith.” The Sunday Times, September 4.
Sanders, Julie (2006). Adaptation and Appropriation. London: Routledge.
Smith, Zadie (2005). On Beauty. London: Hamish Hamilton.

180

The Role of Sports Terminology
in American Managerial Communication
Raluca-Nora DRAGOMIR
University of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages

ABSTRACTAmericans think of themselves as open and friendly. They want to show that “weare in this together”. To demonstrate this openness and friendliness, they use jargon,
colloquialism and sports terminology. The foreign counterpart, who can use theseterms, has a clear advantage because he is perceived as fitting in and playing thesame game. But the significance of the sports terminology goes away beyond themere use of special terms. The specific sports terminology also provides information
about the mindset of the manager who uses it. For example, a manager who
describes his organization and employees by using baseball terminology may have avery different concept of teams than the manager who uses basketball terminology.
The purpose of this article is to categorize some of the sports terminology and give adescription of its meaning to the uninitiated.
KEYWORDS: sports terminology/jargon, strategic terms, American manager

Sports terminology is around us everywhere, many of us use it, and we all assume
that everyone understands it. Sports terminology is a staple item in the jargon ofAmerican managers; their language would just not be the same without it.
Americans simply assume that managers will understand sports jargon, but the useof jargon can result in costly mistakes and misunderstandings. Therefore,
communication researchers typically advise to eliminate the use of jargon as one of
the stylistic elements hindering effective communication. Typically authors
concentrate on two types of jargon: stylistic jargon and technical jargon, and advice
to use technical jargon sparingly.
The literature says very little about a third type of jargon, the use of sports
jargon and the implication for clarity of meaning. Yet, foreign business people
frequently complain that they just don’t understand the references to America’s
most popular sports. They don’t understand the sport, and as a result, they don’t
understand the meaning this terminology takes on in the business world. Clearly,that presents a problem. One approach is to cut out the jargon but with it we would
lose very descriptive and vivid images. Things just would not be the same. In asecond approach, we might introduce people from other cultures and backgrounds
into the uniqueness of American managerial sports terminology, but can we justify
the cost of training in something so seemingly frivolous?
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So, this article has the purpose to categorize some of the sports terminology andto give a description of its meaning to the uninitiated. A manager, who uses
metaphors from baseball, football, and basketball on a regular basis, may want to
let foreign counterparts know what the meaning is. Multinational companies might
consider including training in sports terminology into their training programs.
When using sports terminology in business, the self-reference criterion is atwork at two levels. Users of the jargon who are mostly American males assume:- Foreign business people who speak English automatically speak andunderstand American English. They are easily lulled into the belief that correct
English grammar and clear pronunciation also mean understanding of slang andidioms. This is not a conscious point, the assumption that good English speak andunderstand American English works at the subconscious level.
- The majority of American business people have grown up with sports either
as spectators or participants. They assume that everyone is familiar with the typical
American sports such as baseball, football, and basketball. Generally, businesspeople do not reflect on their use of language because the assumption us thateveryone has the same reference points. In turn, foreign business people getfrustrated because they realize they don’t understand.
Let us look at the terms in the following examples, where they come from andwhat they mean:
9th inning
fumblerookiestarting gatequarterbackbases are loaded
home runhitterhome stretch
strike out
pitchpinch hitbaseballfootballfor all sports
horse racing
footballbaseballbaseballbaseballhorse racing
baseballbaseballbaseballlast part of game, end is in sightlosing the ball to other side, setback
new person, inexperienced
beginning“brain” of the game, most important person
good chance of scoringscoring points, excellent results
someone who does welllast phase of competitioninterruption
getting the game goingtrouble shooter

The terms in the example come from four sports: baseball, football, basketball,and horse racing. In practice, most sports jargon that American business people use
relates to baseball and football. Occasionally other sports will enter, but baseballand football provide by far the richest source of sports metaphors in business.
These sports are popular American team sports. While basketball and baseball,and even football are gaining in popularity in other parts of the world, they are inmany ways still considered American sports. In order to understand the jargon
connected with the sports, it is therefore helpful to explain the basic concepts
behind the sports to a foreign person.
A first step in the training should focus on an understanding of the basics of the
sport so that the foreign person can understand the sports jargon in the context of182

Raluca-Nora Dragomir: The Role of Sports Terminology in American Managerial...

the sport. This will make it easier to remember the metaphorical meaning. If theperson simply tries to memorize the jargon, the context is missing which will makeretention more difficult. Let us briefly look at the underlying approach to the threemajor team sports: baseball, football and basketball. A basic understanding will
help outsiders comprehend the meaning and remember the metaphorical meaning
better. When the foreign counterpart starts using terms such as: home plate, pinch
bitter and curve ball, you have reached a new level of understanding.
In baseball two teams oppose each other. At any time one team has 9 players
on the field. The other team has one player. Each player plays a preassigned
position, and there is minimal interaction between the players on the defensive
team (catcher, pitcher, field positions). The player from the offensive team, thehitter, is out there by himself. There is minimal cooperation within the “defensive”
team and even less on the offensive (hitter) side. The success of the offensive teamdepends on the individual performance of the hitter who has four chances to get on
base. Each player plays a predetermined position. As a result, overall game strategy
becomes very important, the line-up of players is crucial because the sequencing of
excellent and weaker players can have a definite impact on the outcome of thegame. The effective baseball manager is a tactician. Since baseball players work as
individuals, they are traded fairly easily from one team to another. A team can buy
a star and realistically expect that this star will perform. A manager who uses lotsof baseball metaphors in describing his approach to teamwork may actually thinkof individual accomplishments rather than team cooperation.
In football the two opposing teams are divided into an offensive and adefensive team. The offensive and defensive team of one side operates
independently of each other. They are never on the field together. The gameconsists of a sequential progression down the field. Each team has four attempts at
advancing ten yards. If the team gains the ten yards, then it has another chance. The
goal is to score a touchdown, getting the ball into the end zone of the opposing
team. The most important person is the quarterback.
Job descriptions are very narrow. Each player knows exactly what to do, anddetailed rules prescribe who can carry the ball. Football requires planning;
therefore, scouts will watch games of potential opponents and analyze strategy.
The game also requires a well thought-out strategy during the game because theplayers have to anticipate what the other side will do. The final determination of
who is national champion is based on the game, the Superbowl, rather than who
won four games out of seven as is the case in the World Series of baseball. A
manager using predominantly football terminology may believe in rules andprocedures. Team takes on the meaning of following prescribed paths, a well-oiled
machine rather than free team interaction.
In basketball each player plays both offensive and defensive positions.
Furthermore, the switching between offensive to defensive positions is fast andcontinual. All players on the court interact. The goal is to get the ball into thebasket of the opposing team. While there are stars – just think of Michael Jordan –the outcome requires team interaction and cooperation.
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The game requires adaptation, fast reflexes, and a willingness to sacrificeindividual glory for the team. In this environment, trades are more difficult. It takes
a long time to build a team chemistry that leads to success. In this environment,
team play means everyone needs to adjust to team needs at a moment’s notice.
The American manager who like the color of sports terminology whendescribing business situations, might be well advised to introduce his/hercounterpart to the sports and the meaning. Once the trainees understand the games,
it is time to move to specific terms. This part of the training can be a lot of fun with“translating” from jargon to straight business language and from straight businesstalk into sports jargon. For example, what does it mean a manager says, “He
stepped up to the plate”? The term comes from baseball and means: he was ready,or, he volunteered.
We can group sports terminology into categories. Some of the terms arenegative, some positive. Some refer to beginnings, some to endings. Some arepeople-oriented, some refer to strategic decisions.
Beginning Terms
The following terms can all be used to describe the beginning of a task or event:Batter-up
Tee-off
Get the ball rolling
Get out of the starting gate
Get out of the blocks

beginning of baseball game
beginning of golf gamestarting
beginning of horse race, requires concentration
beginning of track event

Ending Terms
These terms are used to describe closure, last efforts and attempts to get things
done:
Last inning
Ninth inningHome stretch
Last stretch
Finish line
Two-minute warning

last chance for your team to scoresame as last or 9th inningit’s almost over - give it your best shotsame as home stretch
final decision, results are dosein football, telling players 2 min. are left, last chance

Positive Terms
These terms signify varying degrees of success and hope:Hole-in-one
Score
Touchdown

success at first (golf)
winning a pointscore in football184

Raluca-Nora Dragomir: The Role of Sports Terminology in American Managerial...

HomerunTwo-points
Getting a rain check
Getting to first baseSlam dunk
Shut-out

score in baseball, hitting ball out of park
football, after touchdown, taking a chance for extra point
baseball, getting money back if rained out, future benefit
first step to success but no guarantee
basketball, being in control
super success, other side does not get any points

Negative Terms
The negative terms can indicate personal fault, bad luck, bad results cause bysomeone else. Throw a curveball and foul also have the connotation of being
somewhat sneaky or unfair:
Send him down to the minors
FumbleStrike-out
TurnoverThrow a curve
Foul
Sudden death

demote someone
giving up an opportunity
not successful at trying to scorelosing the opportunity and giving other side achancebaseball, keeping others off balance, unexpected
unfairovertime, who scores first wins

People Terms
The people terms tend to be positive; the player is in control, has experience, issucceeding:RookieVeteranQuarterback
Homerun hitter
Pitcher

beginner
experienced person
the one in charge, calling the shots
very successful person
throwing the ball, has some control

Strategic Terms
The following terms relate to planning the strategy of the game. Managers whoemphasize strategic planning like to use these terms if they use sports terminology:
Punt
One-on-one
Time-outLong ballSingle hitter

football, kicking after not making first down,turning over to other sidebasketball, defense, very exhausting but thoroughregrouping, rethinking
baseball, if very long may result in homerun but
gives other side chance to prepare for catch
good at start, getting going but not scoring
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Pinch hitter
Double play
Grid ironGame plan
Running out the clock
Bases are loaded
Lengths ahead
Down to the wire
Hard ball
Big league

takes over, someone who gets things done in criticalsituations
baseball, getting two players out with one ball
football, layout of field
strategic plan
not playing last seconds, being sure of win
chance for 4 points
better than the competition
horse racing, last seconds, competition is very close
meaning business, compare to softball
good group, people who are at the top, successful

Understanding those terms obviously is helpful in understanding the meaning ina business context.
It seems that successful training has to concentrate on learning in three areas:
1. The understanding of the various sports, the games, and the pageants goingalong with them. This can be accomplished through the use of diagrams, videos, orfilm clips, and descriptions of the sports.
2. The business meaning of the sports terminology. Trainees can practice theuse of sports terminology in training sessions. The instructor may illustrate thewidespread use of sports metaphors by showing quotes from magazines andnewspapers.
3. The implications of the use of terminology from certain sports for the teamconcept of an organization. Managers are likely to use phrases from a variety ofsports; however, the preponderance of terminology from one sport may provide
some indication on a manager’s definition of team. The foreign business who
understands these implications may be better able to read between the lines and geta clearer picture of what the American is really saying.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Beard, Adrian (1998). The Language of Sport. London: Routledge.
Danner, Mark (2000). “The Lost Olympics.” The New York Review of Books, 17,
66-67.
Fraleigh, Warren P. (1984). Right Actions in Sport: Ethics for Contestants.
Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Pub.

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Puppa Russa : l’identité déchirée entre le corps idéologiqueet le corps sensoriel
Ilona DUŢĂUniversité de Craiova,
Faculté des Lettres

ABSTRACT: Puppa Russa: Identity Torn between the Ideological and theSensory Bodies
The novel Pupa Russa by Gheorghe Crăciun organizes in themes the construction
and deconstruction of identity through the category of corporeality. The identity isrevealed as the difference in a field of tensions involving several body shells, andnamely, the homogeneous body (structured on the principle of equality withthemselves and immanence, degraded into a tonality of obscene), the sensory body(differential and somatic) and the ideological body (a sclerosing superstructure of
massifying the identity). The obscene body deformation occurs in contact with andunder the pressure of the imposed ideological body, and the release from thisoppressive mechanism occurs through the tonality of innocent and pure sensority.
KEYWORDS: identity, corporeality, ideological, sensory, difference, subjectivity,
ontologicalL’obsession de l’identité et de la corporalité, récurrente dans toute la littérature deGheorghe Crăciun, révèle dans le roman Pupa Russa un mécanisme identitairecomplexe, tout en évoquant les métaphores postmodernes de la trans-configuration
et de la décentralisation, mais il le fait en insistant de façon originale, sur une
dynamique conflictuelle entre les diverses réseaux et strates de son identité, sur lesrapports inégaux entre les couches sociales, idéologiques et personnelles coincées
dans un système de répercussions, projections, exclusions, récupérations, etc.
Décentralisé et problématisé, transposé de la position d’une raison qui cherche lacause sur une qui cherche l’effet, en la contextualisant pour la mieux insérer dansle langage courant, démultiplié et fragmenté, le sujet postmoderne est une êtrecomposée dont on décèle des insertions dans l’architecture, dont les configurations,les dépôts idéologiques, sociaux, symboliques, sont un tout unitaire et en mêmetemps irrégulière, contradictoire. La sublimation de la vision subjective synthétiqueet contextualisante devient un vrai cible programmatique de la littérature et l’art
postmoderne :Remettre le sujet dans le cadre de sa propre parole et se activités significatives(conscientes et inconscientes) dans un contexte historique et social signifie mettre enroute une puissante redéfinition, autant du sujet lui-même, que de l’histoire.1

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L’insertion de la subjectivité dans l’histoire et dans le réel, la problématisation
des rapports envers ceux-ci conduisent à une recherche dans l’histoire sémiotiquedu sujet et de ses components sociaux, idéologiques, personnels,sur l’investigationde la façon dont le sujet acquiert des significations fortes socialement, comment il
se laisse aller, représenté et marqué idéologiquement, comment il fait avec,
comment il négocie les positionnements dans le registre de l’intimité et del’extériorité dans lesquelles il se produit. La négociation de l’identité entre lesdiverses positions non définies ou contradictoires remplace un retour cohérent etsynthétique de son parcours biographique, la biographie devenant le lieu propice detoutes ces négociations où on empile des strates psychosomatiques et idéologiques
avec autres pratiques significatives. Insister sur le viscéral, sur le corporel, commezone de l’impact du je des structures supérieures sociales et idéologiques, c’est
l’une des traits dominants de l’écriture de Gheorghe Crăciun, car il est intéressépar- dessus tout de surprendre les mouvements à travers lesquelles tout individu
s’inscrit dans le sens, dans l’histoire, dans la résistance, l’acceptation, le travail,mais aussi est-il attentif aux conflits rencontrés sur ce parcours, aux aspects qui
donnent un sens personnel à toute dynamique de stockage et de permutation desens. Les insertions autobiographiques dans les constructions biographiques de ses
personnages constitue une stratégie de la recherche de soi dans les corps desautres :Tout ce que j’ai écrit depuis ’73 n’a été qu’une aventure de la recherche du corps,
des phantasmes qui lui donnent sa consistance journalière, une recherche désespéréed’une corporalité irréductible, coïncident même, à la limite, avec ma propre
personne.2

Le modèle qui nous informe sur la construction identitaire dans le roman c’est« la différence de corps », que Gheorghe Crăciun a souvent théorétisé et qu’il achoisi de mettre dans un ouvrage biographique ponctué par des interventions
auctorielles métafictionnelles à caractère autobiographique : la non congruence, ladémultiplication, l’atomisation, l’hybridation, la dissémination, tout ce qui
compose le paquet de la subjectivité souterraine postmoderne, sont en train de se
libérer d’un trait et de concerter ensemble dans ce roman biographique,autobiographique ponctuellement, à travers un acte scriptural qualifiable comme
une poétique de l’incision ; cela marque, avant tout, une grammaire Roumaine.
C’est la coupe chirurgicale appliquée à l’identité réifiée dans la catégorie duprésent, c’est le défeuillage systémique conçu sous un angle corporel, catégorie
ambivalente, porteuse autant d’une différence spécifique, sensorielle perceptive,
que responsable de l’effet homogénéisant et de la répétition. La poupée russe,
métaphore de l’identité évacuée de façon ontologique et dévoilée (dans le sens ducorps dépourvu de ses organes et conceptualisé par Deleuze-Guattari)3, marque lescénario biographique de Leontina Guran, tout en déconstruisant la mise en routedans le corps hétérogène, de façon continuelle, à travers une esthétique dugrotesque, poussée à l’extrême de l’obscène, à la déformation violente, exécutée àtravers un déchirement :188

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Elle était une poupée comme un enfant née prématurément, à mains mobiles, dansdes coquilles de caoutchouc des épaules, à jambes raides et grosses, chaussées avec
des chaussures à bouts rond, comme des vieux sabots. Rose jadis (la peau), verte (lesyeux), bleu foncé (la jupe plissé de pionnier), noire (ces chaussures atroces), elleportait une marmotte quelconque, qui laissait apparaître des poignées de boucles
châtaignes, brûlée par le soleil et lavée par la pluie, cette poupée-là avait derrière unpetit orifice coincé dans un cercle métallique. C’était par là que l’air sortait. Son
mécanisme sonore fonctionnait encore. (…) Elle tirait furieusement de ce petit boutde caoutchouc et elle a réussi de lui enlever les mains, les pieds, la tête, qu’elle
jetait, aveuglée par dépit, dans les touffes de valériane et l’herbe haute de la lisière
de la forêt. Il faisait frais, mais elle transpirait. Sa peau chaude et humide se couvrait
avec l’air frais des herbes autour comme d’un vêtement étrange, piquante eténervante. Elle avait mis ses doigts dans l’orifice où il y avait auparavant la tête ets’appliquait à déchirer le torse de gomme épaisse. Le matériel s’y opposait, sesdoigts étant trop petites, ses mouvements trop nerveuses, le silence était devenu
soudain trop pressante, trop inattendu.4

Fragmenté dans des morceaux insulaires, dans une étanchéité chromatique,éviscéré, le corps de la poupée comme analogue de l’image unificatrice de soimême, consolidée de façon spectaculaire et autocentrée (stade du miroir dans la
psychanalyse), devient représentatif pour l’identité morcelée de Léontine, réduite
au degré zéro dont on part récupérer dans la pureté différentielle mise à disposition
par la corporalité somatique ; la défiguration du corps comme un tout identitairepar égalité à soi-même, vise la renaissance de la corporalité somatique commerégion de la disparité, de la non ressemblance, de la naissance, du multiple. On
oppose au Corps comme base du Moi et d’une catégorie anthologique d’uneprésence tel que l’Entier, le Même, L’Identité, Le Ressemblant, L’Égal (mentionné
par G. Deleuze dans la Différence et la répétition5), la corporalité informelle,
irrégulière, chaotique, espace pulsionnelle et intensive des différences pures.
L’identité de Léontine Guran, personnage dont la biographie se construit et sedéconstruit, ici sur un trajet plein d’obstacles et insolite, fracturé, qui s’exerce
continuellement (elle ne se ressemble pas, ne se configure pas, elle se ne pose pas,
mais finalement, se pulvérise à travers la disparition étrangement violente dupersonnage) comme interface de trois corps : corps homogène (défiguré, déchiré,
violé plusieurs fois à travers une chaîne sans fin des aventures frisant l’érotomanie
et l’obscénité), corps sensoriel (différentiel, somatique, espace germinatif desénergies individualisantes) et le corps idéologique (extérieur, aplatissant et formel,
une machine infernale de massification et un générateur de stéréotypies).
Le dispositif biographique se met en route de façon violente, sous la coupe
défigurant de regard de l’autre / d’une autre, surgissant de façon sentimentale àtravers un montage de l’envie ; expropriée dans une vision complètement
extérieure, le corps est possédé, exfolié, jeté par terre, dégradé, morcelé, mutilé, àl’aide d’un instrumental d’une rhétorique de l’obscène :J’étais, comme d’habitude, dans la salle de méditation, dans un après-midi terned’octobre, quand le pédagogue chef, l’antipathique Kolontany, à sa marche de chat

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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010boiteux, entra suivi par une nouvelle élève, une sorte de petite créature effrayée etvêtue d’un pardessus datant de l’époque de ma grand-mère. (…) Elle a du rester
avec nous, dans la salle de méditation, jusqu’à la fin du programme, elle du enleverson survêtement et c’est seulement à ce moment là que je l’ai véritablement vue, que
j’ai sentie que je devais en avoir peur et qu’il me fallait la regarder avec méfiance, àpartir de ce moment-là même. C’était pas seulement le fait de lui avoir deviné sousla jupe bleu son cul insolent de nymphomane et le dessein parfait de ses cuisses,
mais j’ai aussi vu sa taille haute (un homme aurait dit enivrante), étranglée d’une
fine ceinture, rouge, brillante comme un serpent. Et ses collants en coton – j’enrigole encore ! Elle avait des belles jambes, de topmodel (des jambes type
Neckerman, comme on avait dit ce soir-là dans notre dortoir). Elle s’appelait
Léontine. 6

La destinée de Léontine Guran, tel qu’il découle dans une dimension extérieurfactuelle, à travers l’optique narratologique d’une vision extérieur, autant réductive
et dominatrice, réside sous le signe de cette double figure mutilante, tantôt del’Autre féminin, incisif dans l’horizon de l’envie, que de l’Autre masculin,
dévorateur, lubrique, charnel, mortifiant le corps dans le registre de l’obscène et en
exhibant son anatomie via une dissection spectaculaire ; vulgarisé, jeté par terre,dégradé, possédé et consumé, le corps annule l’identité, devenant une massecharnelle informe, d’une viscosité terrifiante où s’exposent à un regard glissant lescuisses, la taille, les seins etc. Enviée par les femmes et possédée de façon sérielle
par les hommes (sa vie est une série d’expériences érotiques auxquelles elle assistepassivement), Léontine Guran se soumet à une défiguration violente sous la loupe
de l’altérité composée d’un paquet générique complet (masculin et féminin), carétant obligée de se replier à ce niveau extérieur factuel vers une zone del’immanence somatique de son propre corps, là où l’identité régénère de façon
sensorielle et se reformule comme différence. Ce double schéma, dont le signedéclanche le dispositif biographique, est aussi l’envie dévoratrice (le déchirement
et la consommation du corps charnel), qui prends des traits unificateurs dans unconcept défini en psychanalyse comme marque symbolique récurrente tout au longde l’histoire du sujet, dans ses articulations sur le fond : tous les projections de soi
contournées sur les femmes dégénèrent dans un narcissisme primaire, polymorphe
et ambigu, comme formule de self-défense sous le bistouri des regards envieuses
martelant le corps, en lui enlevant toute illusion d’intégration et unité (Melanie
Klein7 interprète l’envie comme expression sadique-orale et sadique-anale desimpulsions destructives orientées contre l’objet bon, unifiant et sécurisant dont lesujet se sent privé et menacé) ; le corps de Léontine Guran naît ainsi sous la lame
du regard envieux, se baptise, dans un rituel orgiaque, dans un acte de lesbianismequi l’enfonce dans une formule d’auto-érotisme inhibant pour l’identification(l’épisode consommé dans la mansarde du foyer, durant le premier an de lycée,sous le titre Imago, évocateur de l’image de soi-même compromise, détruite), se
heurte après, suite aux aventures avec le professeur Horatiu Malinas, des regards
jalouses de sa femme, la série des rencontres aux regards féminines guillotinantes
continuant tout au long du parcours biographique ; quant à l’autre genre, masculin,
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toutes les projections imaginaires de soi sont engrossées de façon obscène via une
carnation qui attend les regards dévorateurs, libidineux, lascives.
Le signe qui produit l’authentification de l’image corporelle de soi dans lechamps du regard de l’Autre masculin et féminin fonctionne de façon discontinue,
à travers des mécanismes contradictoires informées via une tension agressiveorientée de façon bipolaire : d’une côté, un surinvestissement narcissique spéculéedans la région du regard masculin, excessif, sensuel, intense, à effets réifications
sur le corps exposé, visionné, approprié ; d’autre part, une régression narcissiquedans un auto-érotisme non différencié sous la menace de l’autre féminin rivalisant,préparé à mutiler le corps étalé sensuellement sous les regards masculines,
intensifié et fixé excessivement par ceux-ci. Le corps imaginaire explose et s’autodétruit à travers l’intersection de ces deux regards polaires qui le reflètent de façon
contrastive, l’une en la projetant comme une unité rigide et permute sous le rayon
des impulsions libidinaux qui le visent autant charnellement qu’ils l’ôtent du circuit
symbolique de la communication à travers le langage, en l’aplatissantvégétativement, le réduisant au silence, l’autre en la menaçant justement pour laplénitude muette dans laquelle les regards masculines le fixe indestructiblement ;l’image du corps fragmenté de la poupée traduit ce schéma contrastif dans lacaptivité duquel le corps se désintègre de façon spasmodique.
Désorganisé dans l’imaginaire du jeux des regards dévorateurs libidineux , lecorps de Léontine Guran s’aplatie et s’exhibe, en se vidant des organes et en
grossissant l’épiderme, afin de devenir simple surface d’inscription marquée par lavolupté du fantasque social, représentée sous la forme de l’altérité, de l’Autre ; lesdésirs des autres (féminins et masculins) se connectent voluptueusement à cettesurface épidermique pleine (où l’intériorité s’est aplatie) se couplentmachinalement (conformément à la terminologie de Deleuze et Guattari) avec ledésir qui compose et traverse le sujet en lui absorbant l’intérieur organique et en leroulant sur la peau. Le Corps sans les organes théorétisé par Deleuze et Guattari est
la surface apparemment objective sur laquelle glisse, s’aventure, en se composant
et en se décomposant à travers des nouvelles synthèses, le sujet schizophrène, est la
station non-productive d’un procès alimenté par le libido :Le corps sans les organes se rabat sur la production désirante et l’attire vers soi, enl’approchant. Les machines organes s’y attrapent comme d’une veste floristique ou desmédailles sur le t-shirt d’un athlète en le faisant tressaillir. Une machine d’attraction sociale
lui succède ainsi peut-être, à la machine répulsive ; une machine miraculante venant après lamachine paranoïaque. Le corps sans organes, l’improductif, le non-consummable, sert commesurface pour l’enregistrement de tout le procès de production du désir, ce qui fait que lesvoitures du désir paraissent émettre du mouvement apparent qui s’en rapportent. C’est
essentiel l’établissement d’une surface ensorcelée d’inscription ou d’enregistrement qui
s’attribue toutes les forces de production et toutes les organes productives et qui agissent
comme une quasi-cause le transmettant le mouvement apparent (le fétichisme).8

Projeté de dehors, à partir de l’Autre –social, le corps d’un érotisme lubrique,obscène, de Léontine Guran fonctionne comme une soupape ouverte à laproduction désirante codifiée, inscrite et enregistrée par le socius (la machine191

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

sociale) sur le corps sans organes, construction débarrassée de toute prétentiond’originalité ou de la source et formulée comme surface résiduelle d’un socius
déteritorialisé. L’érotisme et l’autoérotisme maniacal à travers lesquelles ils se
filent intégralement, à ce niveau, le corps traduit ce gestuel des inscriptions
désirante projetés dans le champs social sur la surface fantastique, fétiche,
ensorcellante du corps plein, induisant l’illusion de l’unité sans être constitué parcelui-ci :Le corps sans organes est produit comme un tout, mais à sa place, dans le produit deproduction, à côté de parties qu’il n’unifie pas et qu’il ne totalise pas. Et quand il
s’applique, quand il s’en rabat, il induit des communications transversales, dessommes transfinies, des inscriptions polyvoques et translinguistiques sur sa propre
surface que les interruptions fonctionnelles des objets partiaux n’arrêtent d’êtremélangées et coupées par les interruptions des chaînes significatives et de celles
appartenant à un sujet qui cherche encore et trouve ici ses repères. 9

La composition du corps obscène étalé sur la surface du discours roumain (lestrois corps, obscène idéologiquement et sensuellement se construisent sur despaliers discursives disposés via palimpseste, interférence et verticalité) comprend
les ingrédients forts du corps sans organes deleuzian-guattarian, la protectionsociale et le désir en état exhibé, pure :Nous soutenons au contraire, que le champ social est parcouru sans faute par ledésir, qu’il est le produit historiquement déterminé de celui-là et que le libido n’abesoin d’aucune médiation ou sublimation, d’aucune opération psychique, d’aucunetransformation pour arriver à investir les forces de production. Il n’y a que le désir et
le social, rien d’autre.10

Simplifié à l’extrême et schématisé comme un jeu de projections déchargés del’extérieur sur une surface charnelle, le corps inscrit à travers des expériences
répétés d’un érotisme lubrique se réduit à un concept essentialisant, dont les piècesde base sont une masse d’énergie sexuelle et une direction d’où se réalisel’absorption, le prélèvement. L’esthétique du grotesque et de l’obscène auquelsouscrit la représentation du corps dégradé, réduit à une corporalité lubrique, fait
dynamiter le modèle de la cohérence immanente du corps structuré à travers une
disposition hiérarchique d’organes et replié autour d’un arrangement subjectif del’intériorité ; l’aplatisation du corps interne à travers une exhibition de ses organes
et sa connection à une source externe, le chiffonnage grotesque obscène du corps
organique et la réduction à une carnation informe, la dissolution pulsionnelle detoutes formations organiques dans un flux érotique débordant, constitue desstratégies d’évacuation de l’intériorité et de la raison subjective, commereprésentations générateurs de l’illusion formelle cultivée d’une esthétique du beau.
L’excès grossier de matérialité agresse et pulvérise le formalisme imminent dubeau, s’oriente de façon polémique contre la totalité idéologique affirmative, enconnectant la crise du beau dans l’art à la crise de l’ontologie et de la raison
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dominante du sujet, conformément à l’interprétation de l’esthétique du laid par Th.
Adorno :L’image du beau se transforme dans l’ensemble du mouvement général de
Aufklarung en vertu de cette dialectique. La loi de la formalisation à constitué unmoment d’équilibre, submergé progressivement par la relation avec le disparate,
que l’identité du Beau essaie en vain de tenir à distance. L’Affinité de toute labeauté avec la mort trouve refuge dans l’idée de la forme pure, que l’Art impose à ladiversité du vif qui s’y éteint.11

Comme geste polémique à l’adresse de l’idéologie utopique affirmative,
totalitaire, l’esthétique soutire le corps de Léontine Guran à un projet Significatif
oppressif par grandeur et conciliation dominante ; appareil tentaculaire menaçantcontinuellement de devenir une sur-couche symbolique de son corps, l’idéologie
totalitaire est intrusive sur tout le parcours biographique à travers des insertions
systémiques de son corpus textuel (marqué graphiquement via des caractères
différenciés) dans le corpus de la biographie (le nom même de Léontine plane defaçon incomprise sur la petite fille et, ultérieurement sur le femme soumise à une
investigation identitaire, comme une donation étrange de la part de la marraineéchappée aux Etats Unies pendant le communisme). Le corps idéologique tranchele corps biographique gravant de façon oppressive la Lettre et en la violentant, dans
un essai de localisation, de fixation, de matérialisation de tissus glissantes du corps
biographique dans une structure sur ordonnée, légiférante. Comme support matériel
de l’ordre symbolique (lieu de dépôt) , la lettre soutient formellement le nom
propre et le trait unitaire en assurant une typologie et en donnant de directions
d’identification au sujet ; en informant sur le nom de Léontine Guran, la lettre del’idéologie totalitaire grave et agresse l’identité en la déstabilisant sous le signe dela course, seul acte conservé comme une trace mnésique fondatrice de labiographie et l’identité de sa marraine :Leontina ! Leontinusa !..Nusa, Tinusa, Tinoaica de merde !(comme l’appelait
Violeta qui se fâchait beaucoup). Leontinica, Tina, Leonica, cette salope deLeonica ! Qui lui avait donné ce nom insensé ?Elle avait appris « de chez les gens »,elle non plus ne savait pas comment, qui lui avait dit, quand, peut-être elle en avaitrêvée, peut-être une rumeur lui était passée à côté l’oreille, le fait est qu’elle avait
une marraine qui s’était échappée aux Etats Unies.C’était elle qui lui avait donné ce
nom-là.12

Mise en route comme incompression, non-responsabilité, dérive interprétative
du nom, le conflit identitaire transposé niveau corporel se représente comme unmécanisme basé sur palimpseste, au cadre duquel le cadre idéologique, sur ordonné
littérairement, déclanche oppressivement le corps obscène (comme marque de laviolence du premier et réaction charnelle, pulsionnellement sexuelle à celui-ci),
ouvrant dans un final, via un système de soupapes successives, le corps sensoriel,différentiel, rafraîchi à travers un raccord à la nature :193

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
Quand elle entendit le mot « échappée », elle avait tout réalisé. Comme dans unfilm, comme à travers la fenêtre d’un diascope, les doigts collés au visage,bougeantles images, ah, la friction énervante de la roue de bakélite ! L’effort de suivre le colétendu la lumière de la fenêtre, pour que la pellicule de cellulose devienne
transparente.13

La supra structure de cette identité palimpseste se manifeste, pas seulement
comme une couche symbolique extérieur et formel (revendiquant son statut decorps idéologique à travers des blocs textuels différenciés graphiquement), maiss’infiltrent à travers la biographie de Léontine Guran, tantôt sur le palier dusymbolique (le nom garde la trace de la fuite de sa marraine en Amérique), tantôt
sur le palier du réel, à travers un épisode biographique passé dans l’enfance (latrouvaille d’une parachute enterrée dans la lisière de la forêt, l’enquête réaliséedans la station locale de police et les répercussions dramatiques sur le destin etl’évolution de la petite, âgée alors de huit ans). La défiguration obscène du corps deLéontine Guran se passera en contact avec l’appareil idéologique totalitaire (sondestin sexuel se construira sous la forme d’un viol en série de la part des membres
du parti communiste, dans des contextes et par des relations marquées par la
lubricité). L’évacuation de l’intimité d’un destin exposé à une sexualité lubrique etbrutale, l’éviscération du corps personnel sous la pression du corps social etidéologique constitue une des stratagèmes de l’appareil communiste de pression etde contrôle, en obligeant via des successives pertes de dignité à la dégradationépuisée dans le corps désarticulé, naturel et spontané, de la perception sensorielle
pure ; l’exfoliation de l’identité, sa composition stratifiée et hétérogène se dévoile
sur ce trajet biographique dans une manière conflictuelle, par un enchaînement
séismique, dont le résultat est l’identité différentielle comme rapport de forces,
dynamisme et processus symbolique du réel, du social et de l’horizon personnel,
comme réseau à l’intersection de ces textures. Le corps idéologique coupe le noyau
intime, personnel de Léontine Guran (la division générique du nom en Léon et Tina
se produit sous l’angle de l’incident de la trouvaille de la parachute et à sonenquête ultérieure), imprègne les rapports de celle-ci avec le réel et le social, en
vidant le Moi et en le transformant dans la surface des enregistrements desprojections étrangères, extérieures, produites de façon impersonnelle. L’altérité
sociale idéologique occupe l’espace de l’identité et de l’intimité, à travers une
subtile stratagème, d’infiltration et substitution du corps personnel avec le corps
idéologique (les blocs textuels qui découpent et exposent l’idéologie communiste,en étalant des monstres de ce type de construction sociale deviennent, à travers
l’insertion graphique spéciale, des noyaux de substitution de l’intimité, des fauxcentres inoculées à l’aire du moi).
Le vidange du moi et l’invasion du champs personnel par le remplacement del’intime avec l’extime (l’intimité avec l’extériorité) détermine des reliages
sporadiques, fragmentaires dans le domaine de la sensation exclusivement
sensorielle, à l’intersection du champs épidermique avec le réel vidé d’idéologie,
naturel. Les tombées dans une mémoire sensorielle, en ressuscitant le plus souvent,la pureté de la perception non déformé de l’enfance (l’invasion proustienne des194

Ilona Duţă: Puppa Russa: l’identité déchirée entre le corps idéologique et le corps...

images casanières, le souvenir du grand-père, des premiers rapports avec le langage
et le réel, etc.), respectivement la prolongation de ces états réceptaculaires,
perceptives, tout au long de son parcours biographique surviennent comme deslibérations spasmodiques contre le poids du corps idéologique imposé, sur posé,
injecté dans le centre de la personnalité (au lieu du moi) ; le corps sensoriel,épidermique, sauve l’être éviscérée sous la pression de l’appareil idéologique, enremplaçant le corps obscène (produit du contact avec l’horizon totalitaire) avec un
flux d’un sentiment régénérateur, reviviscente. Dans cet espace de la rencontre
non-déformée, sans philtre idéologique, du réel se met en route les exercices del’incorporation du réel dans le langage, sa transformation en capsule, dans un
horizon de significations tissues, toujours comme un palimpseste, dans l’esprit de
Léontine Guran : les paroles sont décomposées dans des syllabes et des sons, sessignifications permutent sous diverses couches phonétiques et confrontées à amatière du réel dans son état brut, on essaie diverses philtres imaginaires pourcertains représentations, on construit et on déconstruit courtes histoires
sémantiques des choses, on opère des sublimations symboliques et désublimations,on essaie la consistance de l’identité projetée à travers une rencontre entre lelangage, la pensée et la réalité. Les significations se construisent sur un fondaffectif, correspondent avec les états mentales, sont surprises dans le travail detraduction des représentations, essaient des formes d’organisation à la limite entre
une syntaxe mentale (originale, personnelle, intime) et une syntaxe conventionnelle(publique, extérieure).
La problématisation de l’identité implique, au niveau de cette infrastructure
sensorielle perceptive, une problématisation avec le réel et le langage, l’exercice dela fixation de la référence, le plongeon dans un état mental du langage où on essaie
la fixation de la référence de la parole linguistique, respectivement la fixation de laparole mentalement, la recherche de soi devenant la recherche des possibilitésd’expression du langage. En passant en revue les principales traits du langage
mental (différent de celui conventionnel, publique), M. Devitte et K. Sterelny14
mentionnent les rapports que la théorie de Greyce de la signification les établit
dans une signification standard littérale ou conventionnelle et ce que le locuteur
veut dire dans une situation donnée ; dérivée de la signification conventionnelle à
travers le processus de l’emprunt, de la référence, la signification du locuteur ladépasse, l’accord entre les deux types de signification sollicitant un travail detraduction et approximation. Les structures complexes des intentions du locuteur
reflètent la vie mentale souconsciente de ceux-ci, le fond intuitif, psychosomatique
sur lequel on insiste dans les déconstructions opérées au niveau du langage dans ce
substrat biographique de Léontine Guran. La phénoménologie du langage réalisée àtravers la perception par Merleau Ponty souligne la composante gestuelle, donc
corporelle à travers laquelle le langage engage des relations intersubectives etexistentielles :Le langage possède un intérieur, mais celui-ci n’est pas une pensée renfermée enelle-même, consciente de soi-même. (…) Il se présente, il est plutôt une prise deposition de la part du sujet dans le monde des significations.15

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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

Décentralisé sensuellement et sémantiquement, le sujet coincé en conflits
idéologiques et symboliques (comme l’oscillation de l’autodéfinition génériqueentre masculin et féminin, entre Léon et Tina), on découvre au niveau corporel une
région pour des possibilités de ré sémantisation et ré symbolisation, une soupaperégénérative. La force du geste phonétique de reconfiguration existentielle réside,
conformément à la même phénoménologie sensorielle du langage dans son
investissement corporel :Le geste phonétique réalise, tantôt pour celui qui parle tantôt pour celui qui écoute,une certaine structuration de l’expérience, une certaine modulation de l’existence,
tout comme un comportement de mon corps investit les objets autour de moi d’une
certaine signification, autant pour moi que pour l’autrui.16

Gravée idéologiquement et déviée à travers l’image d’un corps déformé defaçon obscène, l’identité de Léontine Guran est récupérée ainsi dans sa pureté
différentielle psychosomatique au niveau du corps sensoriel, où les racines intimes
du langage annoncent la possibilité de la régénération et du salut.
NOTES
1Linda Hutcheon (2002). Poetica postmodernismului, traducere de Dan Popescu. Bucureşti : Univers,
256.
2
Gheorghe Crăciun (1993). Frumoasa fără corp. Bucureşti : Cartea Românească, 331.
3
Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari (2008). Capitalism şi schizofrenie. Anti-Oedip, traducere de Bogdan
Ghiu. Piteşti : Paralela 45.
4
Gheorghe Crăciun (2004). Pupa Russa. Bucureşti : Humanitas, 308.
5Gilles Deleuze (1995). Diferenţă şi repetiţie, traducere de Toader Saulea. Bucureşti : Babel.
6
Gheorghe Crăciun, op.cit., 11.
7
Melanie Klein (2008). Invidie şi recunoştinţă, traducere de Anacaoana Mîndrilă. Bucureşti : Trei.
8
Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, op.cit., 17.
9Ibidem, 57.
10
Ibidem, 39.
11
Theodor W. Adorno (2006). Teoria estetică, traducere de Andrei Corbea, Gabriel H. Decuble,
Cornelia Eşianu. Piteşti : Paralela 45, 77-78.
12
Gheorghe Crăciun, op.cit., 11.
13
Ibidem, 11-12.
14
Michael Devitt, Kim Sterelny (2000). Limbaj şi realitate, traducere de Radu Dudău. Iaşi : Polirom.
15
Maurice Merleau Ponty (1999). Fenomenologia percepţiei, traducere de Ilieş Câmpeanu, GeorgianaVătăjelu. Bucureşti : Aion, 238.
16
Ibidem, 239.

BIBLIOGRAPHIE
Adorno, Theodor W. (2006). Teoria estetică, traducere de Andrei Corbea, Gabriel
H. Decuble, Cornelia Eşianu. Piteşti : Paralela 45.
Crăciun, Gheorghe (1993). Frumoasa fără corp. Bucureşti : Cartea Românească.
——— (2004). Pupa Russa. Bucureşti : Humanitas.

196

Ilona Duţă: Puppa Russa: l’identité déchirée entre le corps idéologique et le corps...

Deleuze, Gilles (1995). Diferenţă şi repetiţie, traducere de Toader Saulea.
Bucureşti : Babel.
Deleuze, Gilles, & Felix Guattari (2008). Capitalism şi schizofrenie. Anti-Oedip,
traducere de Bogdan Ghiu. Piteşti : Paralela 45.
Devitt Michael, & Kim Sterelny (2000). Limbaj şi realitate, traducere de RaduDudău. Iaşi : Polirom.
Hutcheon, Linda (2002). Poetica postmodernismului, traducere de Dan Popescu.
Bucureşti : Univers.
Klein, Melanie (2008). Invidie şi recunoştinţă, traducere de Anacaoana Mîndrilă.
Bcureşti : Trei.
Merleau Ponty, Maurice (1999). Fenomenologia percepţiei, traducere de Ilieş
Câmpeanu, Georgiana Vătăjelu. Bucureşti : Aion.

197

Consideraciones sobre el uso de las canciones
en la enseñanza de la traducción
Oana-Adriana DUŢĂUniversidad de Craiova,
Facultad de Letras

ABSTRACT: On the Use of Songs in Teaching Translation
In teaching, songs are traditionally used in low age students (in kindergartens or
primary schools), for the acquisition of words or simple phrases. This is why they
are generally considered a trivial corpus, not worthy of much academic attention.
However, songs may be a very effective resource in high school or even universities,
if properly used. In translation classes, songs involve as many difficulties as anyother text and they represent an extremely valuable item of corpus, combining thedevelopment of the intellectual aptitudes of students and the affective motivation
thereof. Even though, at first sight, the translation of songs may seem a simple task,
this activity may raise issues of grammar, adaptation (maintenance of register,highly colloquial songs, jargon, regionalisms, and intentional errors), equivalence or
prosody, among others.
KEYWORDS: translation, corpus, songs, teaching

En el espacio extremadamente variado y complejo de las competencias lingüísticas
que se pueden enseñar, la traducción ocupa un lugar controvertido, pero
privilegiado. Es superfluo decir que en la enseñanza de la traducción el profesor es
más que un simple emisor de informaciones que se pueden apuntar, comprender,
memorizar y después reproducir, de una manera más o menos correcta. En elproceso de aprender a traducir, se tienen que desarrollar ciertas competencias y,por lo tanto, una participación activa tanto del profesor, como del estudiante es
vital para tener éxito. Como se ha observado frecuentemente, la traducción sepuede considerar un arte o una habilidad y las escuelas de artes y habilidades se
centran en prácticas y más prácticas. Claro, se puede hablar de la enseñanza de la
traducción desde una perspectiva teórica, ofreciendo informaciones sobre lahistoria de la traducción, estudios de traducción, técnicas o enfoques
traductológicos, entre otras.
De todas formas, la mayoría de las clases de traducción se centran en losaspectos prácticos. Un profesor no puede pretender haber enseñado traducción si
los estudiantes no pueden hacer la traducción de un texto real o si, al final de laclase, los estudiantes se sienten desorientados y desamparados al enfrentarse conuna experiencia real de traducción. Para este fin, el uso de corpus es altamente
necesario en la enseñanza de la traducción. Las oraciones o los textos artificiales, o198

Oana-Adriana Duţă: Consideraciones sobre el uso de las canciones en la enseñanza de la...

sea creados especialmente con este propósito, el de subrayar dificultades detraducción, de hacer que los estudiantes tomen conciencia de ciertas construcciones
o de plantear varios problemas que pueden surgir, podrían servir en un principio,
pero, a largo plazo, los elementos reales de corpus son mucho más eficaces, tanto
desde un punto de vista académico, como motivacional: al estudiante se le tieneque demostrar que lo que está estudiando tiene una aplicación en la vida real.
Los estudiantes de hoy ya no se conforman con asistir a una clase en la cualsólo se les proporcionen las informaciones impartidas por el profesor o el libro detextos y piden que la enseñanza tenga un enfoque más integrativo y práctico. La
sociedad humana está progresando constantemente hacia la libertad y la educación
no se queda atrás. Los estudiantes del siglo XXI son mucho más pretenciosos de loque solían ser sus padres: ponen preguntas, tienen una visión más abierta de la viday rechazan intrínsecamente los temas que se basan exclusivamente en la
acumulación de conocimientos. Dada la situación, los profesores deberían afrontar
este reto y proponer actividades interesantes.
Durante un curso de traducción, se pueden proponer tipos de textos de lo másvariados, empezando por textos generales y siguiendo con textos especializados(técnicos, económicos, jurídicos, medicales, sobre construcciones, automóviles,
nutrición, psicología, medio ambiente, química, productos de belleza y muchas
otras opciones). Claro está, en un principio los estudiantes tienen que
acostumbrarse a textos bastante generales, que tengan un lenguaje común yasequible y en este caso las opciones ya no son tan ilimitadas. El profesor puede
escoger fragmentos de libros, artículos de periódicos o bien puede hacer uso deotros recursos más modernos y más atractivos para la juventud de hoy: textos
publicados en Internet (en blogs por ejemplo) y letras de canciones. En este
artículo nos enfocaremos en la eficiencia del uso de las canciones en la traducción.
Hay que subrayar desde el principio que es posible que algunos estudiantes notomen esta tarea demasiado en serio y la consideren extremadamente fácil, si no seles proporciona orientación adecuada. El profesor tiene que ser capaz de convertir
estos elementos de corpus en materiales educativos eficaces. Consideramos que,aunque las canciones se utilizan generalmente en las edades menores (en la escuelade párvulos o en la escuela primaria), para aprender palabras o construcciones
sencillas, también pueden representar un método útil de enseñar traducción aestudiantes de universidad. Por más triviales que parezcan, las canciones implican
tantas dificultades como cualquier otro texto de factura general y son un recurso
muy valioso si quiere mantener la atención de los estudiantes hacia los modelos
gramaticales de diversas estructuras lingüísticas y hacia los varios significados que
puede tener una palabra, según el contexto en el cual aparece.
Hemos observado un nivel muy alto de interés en los estudiantes cuando se les
ha propuesto este nuevo tipo de actividad, mucho más alto que en el caso de textos
literarios o columnas de periódicos. Esto se debe a la poderosa componente
afectiva involucrada: los estudiantes estaban familiarizados con las canciones, éstas
eran más cercanas a sus edades y trataban de temas populares (amor, tristeza,melancolía, las diferencias generacionales etc.). Desde luego, los conocimientos
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

académicos y lingüísticos no son ignorados. La traducción de canciones puedelevantar problemas gramaticales, pero también de adaptación (mantener el registro,
regionalismos, lenguaje coloquial, errores intencionados) o equivalencia (elegir untérmino específico según el contexto, sinónimos, equivalencia fraseológica,elementos culturales específicos que deben ser trasladados a la cultura meta).
Para ilustrar el uso de las canciones en una clase de traducción de español arumano y para demostrar que este tipo de corpus puede ser tan útil para laadquisición de las competencias traductológicas como cualquier otro tipo de texto,
vamos a utilizar el siguiente recuadro. Tomaremos como ejemplo sólo cinco
estructuras sintácticas presentes en la canción “Rosas” del grupo español La Oreja
de Van Gogh y veremos como las han traducido varios estudiantes de español (lastraducciones son reales), haciendo unos breves comentarios sobre tales
traducciones.

Texto original

Traducciones

Comentarios

într-o zi în care mă gândesc„asta va fi ziua negândită” neam întâlnit

Construcción ilógica en rumano,intenta mantener la metáfora deloriginal, pero sin lograr el mismo
efecto.
El texto en español sólo contiene
una repetición parcial (pensarpensado), sin embargo el texto
rumano contiene dos repeticiones
totales (astăzi, gândesc), cosaque, aun no afectando la correctitud de la traducción, afecta la
carga estilística intencionada.
Confusión entre dos palabras:
pensado y pesado. Uso algo
forzadoe
impropiodelneologismo rumano “a seintersecta”, para el verbo español“cruzar”, que pertenece al léxico
común. Se pierde el complemento
temporal.
Traducción
erróneade laperífrasis iterativa “suelo pensar”,
tal vez por la similitud entre“suelo” y “sólo”.
Incoherencia de los tiempos(futuro en la subordinada ypretérito perfecto en la oración
principal).

în ziua de astăzi mă gândesc
că astăzi va fi ziua la care mă
gândesc cel mai puţin şi ne-amîntâlnit

en un día de estos enque suelo pensar:“hoy va a ser el día
menos pensado”, noshemos cruzadoîntr-o zi din astea mă tot
gândesc: „azi va fi o zi maipuțin încărcată”, ne-am intersectatîntr-o bună zi doar când o sa
te gândeşti „azi o sa fie ziua
cea mai puţin gândită” ne-amîntâlnit

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Oana-Adriana Duţă: Consideraciones sobre el uso de las canciones en la enseñanza de la...
din momentul în care te-am
cunoscut, reluând cu grabă
timp de tăcere

desde el momento enel que te conocí, resumiendo con prisas
tiempo de silencio

din momentul în care te-am
cunoscut, rezumând cu grabă
timpul de linişte
din momentul în care te-am
cunoscut, într-o perioadă grăbită de linişte
din momentul în care te-am
cunoscut, adunând grăbit momentele de tăcere

de asta aşteptam cu nerăbdare
sa vii cu trandafiri, cu mii detrandafiri pentru mine

por eso esperaba conla carita empapada aque llegaras con
rosas, con mil rosas
para míde aceea aşteptam cu faţaîmbibată să vii cu trandafiri,
cu mii de trandafiri pentru
mine
de aceea aşteptam cu faţaîmbujorată sa vii cu trandafiri,
cu mii de trandafiri pentru
mine
acolo am rămas, cu mâna peinimă şi scuze pe care nici tu
nu le înţelegi

allí me quedé, en una
mano el corazón, y enla otra excusas que ni
tú entendías

aici am rămas, cu inima într-omână, iar în cealaltă scuze cenici tu nu le înţelegeai
acolo am rămas, cu o mână peinimă şi în cealaltă ţineam

201

Traducción incorrecta del español “resumir”, quizá por su similitud con el verbo inglés “toresume”, que significa “reanudar”. Traducción palabra por
palabra, que no mantiene ni elsentido, ni la impresión artísticadel original.
Equivalencia errónea de “silencio” por “liniște”. La preposición“în” hubiera sonado más naturalen romano que “cu”.
El estudiante intenta eludir la traducción del verbo “resumir”, pero
el resultado no es de los mejores.
Muy buena equivalencia de“tiempo de silencio” con “momente de tăcere”. El verbo “aaduna” no es la mejor opción eneste caso.
Traducción errónea del participio“empapada”, que se refiere a un
rostro lleno de lágrimas. En elprimer ejemplo de traducción sehace una adaptación (no se
mantiene la equivalencia, pero
suena natural), en el segundo(“îmbibată”) falta el completentode agente que es imprescindible
en este caso y en el tercero secambia por completo el sentido(no hay equivalencia entre
empapada – llena de lágrimas yîmbujorată – ruborizada).
La traducción pierde el sentido decorrespondencia del original: “enuna mano… y en la otra”.
Además, no es lo mismo tener elcorazón en la mano que tener lamano sobre el corazón, como se
deduciría según la traducción.
Uso incorrecto del relativo rumano. Lo correcto sería “pe care”.
El mismo comentario sobre laequivalencia incorrecta de “enAnalele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
scuze pe care nici tu nu leînţelegeaişi încep să bănuiesc că ceilalţi
sunt doar pentru a fi uitaţi
y es que empiezo asospechar que losdemás son sólo para
olvidarşi încep să cred că ceilalţi suntdoar pentru a-i uitaîncep să suspectez că celelaltesunt doar pentru a fi uitate

una mano el corazón”.
Introducción forzada del verbo
rumano „a ţine”, que sería
aplicable en el caso de objetos,
pero no suena natural con
conceptos abstractos como las
excusas.
Falta de coherencia con un verso
anterior de la canción (“losdemás” se refiere al sustantivo“amores”, que pertenece algénero femenino en rumano).

El registro de la canción no es
apropiado para el verbo rumano“a suspecta”, hace falta untérmino mucho más coloquial.

Aunque los ejemplos presentados arriba no son muchísimos, sí son lo
suficientemente relevantes para ilustrar que la traducción de canciones no tienenada que envidiar a la traducción de otros tipos de textos generales. Aunqueparezcan fáciles de traducir y muchos menosprecien su importancia, los estudiantes
cometen el mismo tipo de errores que en el caso de cualquier otro texto que tenga
un lenguaje no especializado, porque las estructuras lingüísticas son las mismas.
Además, con estudiantes más experimentados, se podría llegar a desarrollar
esta actividad hasta intentar lograr una similitud muy fuerte con el original desde
un punto de vista prosódico (el profesor les puede pedir a los estudiantes que
mantengan el número de sílabas, el ritmo, la rima, las aliteraciones, asonancias,
cesuras etc.). Desde luego, no hay que suponer que la traducción de una canción
tiene que tener las mismas rimas que el original. Este punto de vista es erróneo en
cuanto concierne las estrategias y eliminaría otros cuatro aspectos importantes deesta tarea tan compleja: el sentido, la naturalidad (que son requisitos de una
traducción normal), el ritmo y la cantabilidad.
Hemos intentado demostrar en esta presentación que las canciones pueden
representar elementos importantes de corpus en las clases de traducción, de loscuales los profesores podrían echar mano con más frecuencia, ya que son un tipo
de textos que combinan la transferencia estándar del significado y la motivación
afectiva. Las canciones son un recurso que no se debería menospreciar; todo lo
contrario, se debe aprovechar el hecho de que los estudiantes se identifiquen conellas (porque es importante que los estudiantes empaticen con lo que están
aprendiendo), para, así, utilizarlas con fines constructivos.

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Oana-Adriana Duţă: Consideraciones sobre el uso de las canciones en la enseñanza de la...

BIBLIOGRAFÍA
Bahr, Donald (1983). “A Format and Method for Translating Songs.”. Journal of
American Folklore, 96, 380, 170-182.
Low, Peter (2008). “Translating Songs That Rhyme.” Perspectives: Studies inTranslatology, 16, 1-2, 1-20.
Moote, Shawn (2002). “Evaluation Considerations for On-line ESL Courses.” TheInternet TESL Journal, VIII, 3, URL: <http://iteslj.org/Articles/MooteEvaluation.html>. Consultado 03.05.2010.

203

The Contextualization of Christmas in Old Ceremonial Songs.
Notes on the Archaic Spirituality of the Romanian Traditional
VillageGheorghe ENACHE
University of Bucharest,
DPIPP Buzău,Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences

ABSTRACT
Father Christmas takes the attributes of an old pre-Christian deity who used toensure the passage from the old year to the new one, renewing and refreshing theworld order. In the carols influenced by the early Christianity, the protagonist can beseen at the birth of Christ, hostile at first and later converted to the new faith. In
other, older carols, he is depicted lying in a beautifully adorned bed, fallen into thedivine sleep, sometimes compared with drunkenness. Waking up, i.e. passing into
the New Year, is done by characters manifesting the sacred, as dictated by a script
found in the funeral ceremonial songs, where, however, the act fails. One canunderstand in both cases the mythical representation of the transition from one
world to another, from one temporal state to another, from one existential state toanother.
KEYWORDS: the wonderful horse, the “dark” attire, blind drunk in thebeautifully adorned bed, the Cuckoo’s fight with Death

Despite its long and complicated history, Christmas retains its mainly transitional
character, according to a universal model to represent being. It marks a passage
from one temporal unity to another, from one world to another. The name of thefeast, during which the Christian Church celebrates the Nativity, is given to one ofits key figures – Crăciun (‘Christmas’) or Moş Crăciun (‘Father Christmas’). Its
etymology might be Latin (creationem), being borrowed from Old Romanian by
the Slave populations in the area. The presence of this word in the denomination ofseveral sequences of the feast stresses the importance of the character and its
model: Ajunul Crăciunului (‘Christmas Eve’), Buşteanul Crăciunului (‘Yule Log’),
Colacul Crăciunului (‘Christmas Pretzel’), Crăciunul Mare (‘Big Christmas’) andCrăciunul Mic (‘Small Christmas’).
Its recent urban and cult features concern the coming of Santa Claus who brings
gifts to the children on the night before Christmas. Father Christmas’ image fromour carols (Rom. colinda) and legends, some of them inspired from the ancient
Apocrypha, mostly from the Protoevangelium of James 1, is much older, a204

Gheorghe Enache: The Contextualization of Christmas in Old Ceremonial Songs...

contemporary with Christianity’s initial forms. In most of our texts, Crăciun
appears as a strict and uncommunicative person, who sends Virgin Mary to givebirth in his stables. The scene in which Crăciuneasa’s (Father Christmas’ wife)
hands are healed reminds of not only the healing of Salome’s hand in the
Protoevangelium, but also about the custom of giving “the midwife’s sleeves” as a
gift by the child’s mother after birth for cleansing purposes.2 Thematically, thehero’s final conversion “entered carols because it was in keeping with thefundamental religious motivation of caroling and because, ideologically, it
corresponded with the texts about the Nativity, being based on the dialectic
between being a believer or an unbeliever.”3 We should add that what we arereferring to is the conciliation of two different worldviews, accomplished by theincorporation of the old deity into the new religion.
The conciliation is, however, incomplete as old beliefs can be read in thepalimpsest of the new religion. The latter is an adapted version becoming
something different from the official Christian view, i.e. a “popular Christianity”.
Thus, in some texts, wishing, which is the main function of caroling, is done by the
invocation of either God or Father Christmas in the middle of the carolers, that isby the coexistence of the sacred and the profane, like in the following carol inwhich Father Christmas is similar to Mythra because of his solar features.
Ia, sculaţ’ fata śįa mari,Sî apriñz-o lumânari,Să mă uįt la dįal, divali,Sî văd soari câñ’ răsari,
Da nu-i soari câñ’ răsari,Śi ń-i Moş Crăśįuñ călari.
Da śi felį di cal îńi-ari?
Ia, uñ cal cañ gălbior.
Şî nu-i galbân di făpturî,Şî-į galbân dį-alergăturî.4

One should be less interested in the identity of the one who is coming alongwith the group of carolers – God, Father Christmas, Saint John – since no matterthe name, he generically represents the deity who descends into the community tomake sure the new year starts in auspicious circumstances. The hero’s “dark”
attire, which is frequently worn by the other heroes as well, is a sign of hissacredness:Căci vouă v-a nimerit
Buni junei colindători,
Printre ei şi Moş Crăciun,Dacă voi nu mă credeţi,Ieşiţi afară şi-l vedeţi.
Frumos mi-este-mpodobit
C-un veşmânt nemohorât,
Larg mi-e-ntins peste pământ;205

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
Jur, prejurul trupului,
Scris cerul cu steleleŞi câmpul cu florile;
Cam din spate şi din piept,
Scrisă-i luna cu soarele;
Cam pe-ai lui doi umerei,Joacă doi luceferei.5

The detailed description of the hero’s beautifully adorned attire, in which astral
symbols predominate, is achieved through hypotyposis, being the sign of theuniversal harmony under whose auspices the New Year begins.
Other contexts in which Father Christmas or other biblical characters appear in
carols, such as the hierarchy of saints (Father Christmas is described as “bigger”
owing to his size and old age), bathing in the river of ointment, hosting thecarolers, deciphering the host’s augural dream or lying in a flowery bed, are also
signs of the world’s auspicious starting point. Every manifestation of Father
Christmas or of the above mentioned biblical characters is a hierophany, whose
purpose is to establish an order to the universe and to integrate the ones who arecaroled in a propitious world.
One can understand the mythical representation of world’s periodical creation at
the beginning of each year by analyzing the motif of the beautifully adorned bed
where Father Christmas or other mythical characters can be seen resting. This
analysis alongside the interpretation of other motifs might indicate the mythicalscenario in which the passage from one temporal horizon to another, from one
world to another occurs. Our further analysis will seek to offer a better grasp of theimagery of both carols and funeral songs which share a similar feature, i.e. to makesure that the dead will integrate successfully in the afterlife.
The image of Father Christmas, God or Saint John lying in the beautifully
adorned bed is a sign that the family who has just been caroled will be perfectly
integrated in the new world order:
La tulpina măruluį
Um pat mari mohorâtuCu ţorţurį pânî-m pământu.
Dar îm pat śini hodinįa?
Moş Crăśįun cu baba lui.6

However, there is a radical change in the analytical perspective if we compare
the adorned bed in the carols with the deathbed of funeral songs. The detailed
description of the latter is also done by hypotyposis, but funeral symbols
predominate this time:Înaintia ceştei curţî
Iesti-on măr şi iesti-on păru.
Pe tulkina măr şi-on păruIesti-oñ pat marie de bradu.

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Gheorghe Enache: The Contextualization of Christmas in Old Ceremonial Songs...
Dar ăñ pat ce-i aştiernutu?
Iarbă verdie die pe râtu.
De cosât, cin’ i-o cosit-o?
I-o cosât-o tatăl său.
Di-aşternut, cin’ i-o-aşternutu?
I-o aşternut maică-sale.
Dar în pat cinie-i culcatu?
Dară Ionu răposatu.7

In both situations the beautifully adorned bed is near the house of the one who
is being caroled, i.e. the deceased, close to the tree (the Axis Mundi) because it is
now that a new world is established: the monumental aspect, which is in keepingwith the solemn situation, points to the fact that bed is not just a mere piece offurniture, but a fundamental ritualistic element. The function of the bed in the
mythical scenario becomes even clearer if one notices that it is replaced by acarriage, a horse or a cradle fastened between the horns of an ox in similar
contexts. In funeral songs, all these elements assure the deceased’s smooth passage
to the afterlife.
However, if the beautifully adorned bed has this ritualistic function as well, thenit means that all the characters that inhabit the mythical world are similar, which isdifficult to admit. This is the problem we will be trying to shed light on: is there asimilarity between Father Christmas, the other characters from carols and thedeceased? It might be a rather complicated discussion as in the beautifully adorned
bed also lay the hosts, whom one should assign similar attributes.
In all the cases that have been mentioned above, the protagonists’ sleep is notbiological. It is different because it can’t be interrupted or it might provoke unusualtransformations. God’s prolonged sleep is similar to a union with abundant
vegetation, pointing to a pagan view of the world.
Mândru-i Domnul d-adormit
Sub un pom mândru-nflorit.
Scoală, Doamne, nu dormi,
Că de când ai adormit
Iarba verde te-o-ngrădit,Florile te-or cotropitŞi lumea s-o păgânit:Suduie fecior pe tatăŞi mamele-şi fac păcate,D-atunci nu-i rod în bucate.8

Even if the attempts to wake up God are unsuccessful in some texts, Saint John
does manage to rouse God from sleep by pouring water on his face. This baptism
leads to the purification and invigoration of the sinful world:
Vine Ioan şî sfânt Ioan
Cu găleata dge bot’ez

207Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010Răurân şi-mpreurândPăstă lume, păstă toată,Păstă faţa Domnului.9

The incipit of several carols, in which people are told to wake up, is a bid toawaken people to a new spiritual life according to the above mentioned model. The
same thing can be said about the unusual sleep of the hosts during which the wife
believes it is snowing white apple flowers over them:
Vânt de vară ne-a bătut
Prin pomeţii Raiului,
Flori de vară de-a scuturat,
Peste noi, peste-amândoi,
Peste dalbi de coconaşi [...]
Până soare-o răsări,Feţele s-or rumeni.10

The apple flowers descending from the heavens and the reddish faces of thehosts – a sign of good health – symbolize the new existential quality people acquire
after their miraculous sleep.
The sleep might also be regarded as a transition from one existential state toanother, like in the following carol from the Romanian region called Dobrogea:
Sub munţi negri, văi d-adânci,Văi d-adânci, izvoare reci [...]
Tot pe Gheorghe mi-l zărea,Răsturnat cu faţa-n sus
Să mi-l strige, nu se crede,Să mi-l lase, nu se-ndură

The young man from the text falls asleep after riding his horse, is then searchedby his parents, brothers and sisters. It is his lover that eventually finds him, but isunable to wake him up. However, after the young man is awoken by the horse’s
sneeze, the young couple decides to get married11. The unusual sleep of the hero
seems to be a temporary integration in the afterlife. It is similar to the sleep of thelion the young hunter doesn’t dare to wake up. The sudden interruption of sleep
would have meant a dangerous passage from one state to another12, a hazardous
flow of energy. The horse functions as a psychopomp, so this is why the mediationof the animal is a fundamental requirement in either case. Falling asleep is a prestage of the initiation process. It is an analogue of the cycle of death and rebirth, ofthe communication with the divine.13 The imagery of the Holy Son is similar, too.
He is sleeping in a beautifully adorned bed under a tree and he can only be woken
up by two special agents, the pigeons that provoke the beneficial manifestation of
the sacred. The deceased is, however, not able to wake up as he has been put tosleep by God Himself even if the birds still serve a mediatory function:
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Gheorghe Enache: The Contextualization of Christmas in Old Ceremonial Songs...
Cutare mi-a adormit
Supt un pom mare-nflorit.
Veniră doi porumbei
Şi cântară cât cântară,Şi prin casă, şi pe-afară
Pe cutare nu-l sculară.
Dacă văzură, plecară.14

Sleep is a liminal stage for all the characters that have been mentioned so far.
Both the young hunter’s becoming mature and the “white wanderer’s” integration
into the afterlife are preceded by sleep. Christmas, God or Saint John – sacredfigures – often make their appearance in the profane.
Surprisingly, sleep is often compared with drunkenness in many carols andfuneral ritual songs. Christmas, God and the white wanderer (Rom. Dalbul depribeag) appear in contexts similar to the ones mentioned above:Supt-un măr şi supt-un păr,Ieste-un pat mândru de brad.
Dar în pat cine-i culcat?
Ia’ Crăciunu-i mort de bat;Nu ştiu batu-i, o’ beteag. 15

The sleep of the one who is lying in “the beautifully adorned bed” (i.e. thecoffin), a feature of funeral songs called “The Dead’s Round Dance” by the
inhabitants of Bihor (a region in the North-West of Romania), has two different
meanings, i.e. death and drunkenness, which help us to leave behind everythingelse but the Truth.
Iar în pat cinie-i culcatu?
Eă Mihai, i mort dă batu.
D-a fi bat, iel s-a scula,D-a fi mort, l-om îngropalie,
C-are oki şi nu clipieştie,Cu gura nu vorveştie...16

On a mythical level, sleep is similar to death while drunkenness is associatedwith forgetting anything else but the Truth. In Gnostic literature, however, sleep
and drunkenness have different connotations, unlike those that the Celts, the Gauls
or the Dacians used to give them: in Gnostic literature, ignorance and sleep arereferred to as ‘drunkenness’ as well. The Gospel of Truth compares the one who
has knowledge (gnosis) with somebody who “on getting home drunk, states once
again something which is peculiar to him.” Waking up is similar to an anamnesis, adiscovery of the spirit’s true nature, i.e. of its celestial origin.”17
In the above-mentioned contexts, sleep and drunkenness are somehow in
keeping with the sacred. The Romanian language still retains this connotative value
in words and expressions such as mort de beat (blind drunk), tămâiat, afumat,
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

aghesmuit (tipsy). We might therefore say that if, before Christ, Romanians
acknowledged the spiritual value of drunkenness, then ritual drunkenness is one of
the specific manifestations of Father Christmas.
Sleep or divine drunkenness is mediated by special actors that impersonate theconflict between the principle of life and the principle of death represented by Ene(Eng. the Sandman), the Sun (in Oltenia, a region in the south of Romania) by
Death respectively, like in the following carol from Maramureş, in which themythical scene is set under a “beautifully adorned bed” above which one can hear
the song of the cuckoo:- Da sub pom cine-i culcat?
- Moş Crăciun îi mort de batŞi cucu-i cântă la capŞi mortiţa la picioare
Şi-l întreabă, că ce-l doare?
Zice moartea către cuc:- Ori îi cântă, ori ţi-l duc!

The song of the bird foretells the beginning of spring, when people begin workon the land:Pă unde cântă cucu,
Mândru înverză codru,
Ies oameni cu plugu,Păcurari cu fluieru [...]
Pă mine a mă asculta
C-o sosât primăvara.18

The conflict between Ene and Death is triggered by the ancient bipolar
representation of the Universe, in which summer comes after winter, death occurs
after life, the world of the living is paralleled by the world of the dead and so on.
The beliefs about the ambivalent nature of the cuckoo’s song are older than theabove mentioned conflict and change according to the location the tune comesfrom: from right-left, front-back, east-west, a green tree- an unfruitful tree and soon. In carols, the cuckoo’s role is similar to the birds’, who wake up Father
Christmas to a new life, giving birth to the Universe on an annual basis. In funeral
ceremonial songs the cuckoo’s tune has a similar role, but the way is reverse,
leading us to the afterworld. The zero hour is, in either case, the hero’s “sleep” or“drunkenness”.
NOTES
1

N. Cartojan, Cărţile populare in literature românească. Vol. II. Bucureşti: Editura Enciclopedică
Română. 1974, 82-83; Dan Octavian Cepraga, Graiurile Domnului. Colinda creştină tradiţională.
Antologie şi studio. Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, 1995, 44-50. The text of the Protoevangelium can be210

Gheorghe Enache: The Contextualization of Christmas in Old Ceremonial Songs...
found in Evanghelii apocrife. Traducere, studiu introductive, note şi prezentări de CristianBădiliţă. Ediţia a II-a, complet revizuită şi ilustrată. Iaşi: Polirom, 1999, 31-59.
2
Simion Florea Marian, Naşterea la români. Studiu etnografic. Ediţie critică de Teofil Teoha, Ioan
Serb, Ioan Ilişiu. Text stability de Teofil Teoha. Bucureşti: Editura Grai şi Suflet – CulturaNaţională. 1995, 176-179; Elena D.O. Sevastos, Literatura Populară. Vol. II. Ediţie îngrijită şi
prefaţată de Ioan Ilişiu. Bucureşti: Minerva, 1990, 188.
3
Dan Octavia Cepraga, op. cit., 48.
4
Ion Diaconu, Ţinutul Vrancei. Etnografie – Folclor – Dialectologie. Vol. II. Bucureşti: Editura
pentru literatură, 1969, nr. DCCCXCII, 406 (Păuleşti – Hăuleaşca, 1928). The young man who isriding the horse has solar features and, by the gallop of his horse, he greens the mountains, thehills or the plains and makes the waters flow. See the type-70 carol in Monica Brătulescu,
Colinda românească. The Romanian Colinda (Winter-Solstice Songs). Bucureşti: Minerva, 1981.
5
C. Brăiloiu, Emilia Comişel şi Tatiana Găluşcă-Cârşmaru, Folclor din Dobrogea. Studiu introductiv
de Ovidiu Papadima. Bucureşti: Minerva,. 1978, nr. 1, p. 5. To understand the symbolysm of the„dark attire”, see Al. Rosetti, “Colindele religioase la români.” Analele Academiei Române, seria
II, XL, Bucureşti, 1920, 45; Dan Octavian Cepraga, op.cit., 29-31.
6
Ion Diaconu, Cântăreţi şi povestitori populari. Câteva criterii asupra monografiei folclorice.
Bucureşti: Minerva, 1980, nr. XVIII, 258. The motif of the “beautifully adorned bed” can also befound in the type-9 carol, 10 A, 11 pass., 119, 121, 189 in Monica Brătulescu, op.cit.
7
Mariana Kahane, Lucilia Georegescu-Stănculeanu, Cântecul Zorilor şi Bradului (Tipologie
muzicală). Bucureşti: Editura Muzicală, 1988, nr. 311, 696.
8
Petre Uglişiu, Basme şi poezii populare. Bucureşti: România Press, 2000, nr. 6, 213-214.
9
Iosif Herţea, Colinde româneşti. Bucureşti: Editura Muzeul Literaturii Române, 2000, 103.
10Constantin Brăiloiu, Emilia Comişel, and Tatiana Găluşcă-Cârşmaru, op.cit., Nr. 104, 115.
11
Ibidem, nr. 75, 88-89.
12Mihai Coman, Izvoare mitice. Bucureşti: Cartea Românească, 1980, 39.
13
Ibidem, 159.
14
Mariana Kahane, Lucilia Georgescu-Stănculeanu, op.cit., nr. 54, 542.
15
Dumitru Pop, Folclor din zona Codrului. Centrul de îndrumare a creaţiei populare şi a mişcării
artistice de masă a judeţului Maramureş. Baia Mare, 1978, nr. 413, 348.
16
Mariana Kahane, Lucilia Georgescu-Stănculeanu, op.cit., nr. 242, 656.
17
Mircea Eliade, Istoria credinţelor şi ideilor religioase. II De la Gautama Budda până la triumfulcreştinismului. Traducere de Cezar Baltag. Bucureşti: Editura Stiinţifică, 1992, 350.
18
Petre Lenghel-Izanu, Doina mândra prin Bârsana (Schiţă monografica). Baia Mare, 1979, nr. 301,
193-194.

BIBLIOGRAPHY*** (1999). Evanghelii apocrife (Ediţia a II-a). Iaşi: Polirom.
Brăiloiu, Constantin, Emilia Comişel, & Tatiana Găluşcă-Cîrşmariu (1978).
Folclor din Dobrogea. Bucureşti: Editura Minerva.
Brătulescu, Monica (1981). Colinda românească. The Romanian Colinda (Winter– Solstice Songs). Bucureşti: Minerva.
Campbell, R. J. The Story of Christmas of by... London and Glasgow, n.d.
Cartojan, N. (1974). Cărţile populare în limba română, vol. II. Bucureşti: Editura
Enciclopedică Română.
Cepraga, Dan Octavian (1995). Graiurile Domnului. Colinda creştină tradiţională.
Antologie şi studio. Cluj-Napoca: Clusium.
Coman, Mihai (1980). Izvoare mitice. Bucureşti: Cartea Românească.
Danielou, Jean (1993). La signification des rites. Paris: Désiris.
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Diaconu, Ion (1969). Ţinutul Vrancei. Etnografie – Folclor – Dialectologie, vol. II.
Bucureşti: Editura pentru Literatură.
——— (1980). Cântăreţi şi povestitori populari. Câteva criterii asupramonografiei folclorice. Bucureşti: Minerva.
Eliade, Mircea (1992). Istoria credinţelor şi ideilor religioase II: De la Gautama
Budda până la triumful creştinismului. Bucureşti: Editura Ştiinţifică.
Enache, Gheorghe (2006). Călătoria cu roua-n picioare, cu ceaţa-n spinare. Studiu
asupra ceremonialului de cult funebru la români. Bucureşti: Paideia.
Herţea, Iosif (2000). Colinde româneşti, Bucureşti: Editura Muzeul Literaturii
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Kahane, Mariana, & Lucilia Georgescu-Stănculeanu (1988). Cântecul Zorilor şi
Bradului (Tipologie muzicală). Bucureşti: Editura Muzicală.
Lenghel-Izanu, Petre (1979). Daina mândră prin Bârsana (Schiţă monografică).
Baia Mare.
Marian, Simion Florea (1995). Naşterea la români. Studiu etnografic. Bucureşti:Editura Grai şi Suflet – Cultura Naţională.
Milles, Clement A. (1990). Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian andPagan. Detroit.
Pop, Dumitru (1978). Folclor din zona Codrului. Baia Mare.
Rosetii, Al. (1920). “Colindele religioase la români.” Analele Academiei Române,
seria II, XL. Bucureşti.
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Uglişiu, Petre (2000). Basme şi poezii populare. Bucureşti: România Press.

212

Tedesco pech, slavo pьkъlъ, romeno păcură.
Storia e semantica di una parola
Mario ENRIETTIUniversità degli Studi di Torino, Italia,
Dipartimento di Scienze del Linguaggio e Letterature Moderne e Comparate
RÉSUMÉ : Histoire et sémantique d’un mot : all. pech, sl. pьkъlъ, roum. păcură
Le roumain ne continue pas le lat. classique pix, picis, mais la forme populaire picula(attestée aussi dans l’italien pegola, par exemple). Cette forme populaire est entrée enslave aussi, où elle a acquis le sens de « goudron » et « enfer » sous l’influence del’allemand pech. Cette influence a été possible en Pannonie, région où les Slaves ont
été christianisés, dans une période antérieure à Cyrille et Méthode, par desmissionnaires provenant de Salzbourg.
MOTS-CLÉS : linguistique, slavistique, romanistique

Quando Costantino - Cirillo, Metodio e i loro discepoli giungono in Pannonia la
popolazione locale è già cristianizzata, come espressamente affermato nelle loro
Vitae (Vita Constantini, cap. XIV, Vita Methodii, cap. V) Sul luogo della loro
missione le opinioni degli studiosi divergono. Tradizionalmente si afferma che essi
siano andati nella Moravia oggi ceca, tuttavia in epoca relativamente recente (apartire da Boba, 1971) il luogo dell’azione missionaria dei due fratelli è stato
spostato in Pannonia, secondo il Boba in una città chiamata in slavo Morava,
corrispondente alla Sirmium romana, oggi Sremska Mitrovica, per l’Eggers (1995,
1996) a Marosvár/Cenad/Csanád, per il Lunt (2000: 272), in un’area non
precisamente definibile, ma comunque non lontana dalla zona di SirmiumBelgrado. Io aderisco a questa seconda opinione per vari motivi, uno dei quali saràprecisato piú sotto.
Per quel che riguarda la conversione degli slavi di Pannonia al cristianesimo,
essa è in parte dovuta ai contatti con la popolazione locale cristiana, a influssi
provenienti dall’Italia (Aquileia) e soprattutto a missioni partite da Salisburgo,
specificamente dirette a convertire gli slavi di Pannonia; “usque ad fines Pannoniae
inferioris” riferisce la Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum.
Il risultato di queste influenze sono un lessico cristiano elementare composto da
prestiti da dialetti romanzi o da parole latine e tedesche. Per esempio križь “croce”,kaležь “calice” provengono da forme dialettali romanze croze, càleze, židъ“giudeo” < giudeo, olъtar’ь < lat. altāre o dall’a. ted. a. altāri, poganъ < lat.
pagānus, postъ “digiuno” < a. ted. a. fasto, papežь “papa” < bav. ant. pāpes, ecc.

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Animatori della missione salisburghese erano stati Virgilio, di origine irlandese,
abate del monastero di S. Pietro a Salisburgo e poi Arno. Queste missioni erano
formate da tre componenti etniche: irlandesi, tedeschi e latini. Salisburgo, lat.
Iuvavum, era ancora in parte romanizzata e latina era la lingua della liturgia. I
missionari di Salisburgo si sono trovati dinnanzi al compito, comune ai predicatoridi una nuova religione, di creare una terminologia coerente adatta a spiegare aglislavi i concetti fondamentali del cristianesimo. Questa terminologia, in partespontanea, in parte introdotta dai missionari, doveva avere un carattere popolare,essere comprensibile ai semplici. Una riprova l’abbiamo dai nomi dei giorni dellasettimana. Le chiese, sia latina che greca, incominciano la settimana con ladomenica, feria prima, mentre il lunedí è il secondo giorno: feria secunda, in greco
deutevra (ancora in greco moderno). Ma accanto a questa si era creata una
concezione popolare, diffusa nell’àmbito romanzo, per la quale la settimana
cominciava col lunedí. Fa eccezione il portoghese, lingua periferica che conserva
l’uso ecclesiatico, per cui il lunedí è segunda feira. E i missionari di Salisburgo,
uomini di chiesa, che, in teoria, avrebbero dovuto seguire l’uso di quest’ultima, per
non innovare troppo adottano la concezione popolare con inizio al lunedí. Altro
indizio del sovrapporsi della concezione popolare su quella ecclesiatica è il nomedel “mercoledí” sl. srěda “metà, il giorno che sta in mezzo”. Il mercoledí sta inmezzo solo se la settimana comincia con la domenica, mentre se comincia collunedí, srěda è fuori posto. I missionari, zelanti nel propagare la nuova religione,
non dovevano essere linguisti troppo provetti.
Un sostrato romanzo popolare è piú verosimile in Pannonia che nella lontana
Moravia. È questo uno dei motivi, a cui accennavo sopra, per preferire la Pannonia
come luogo dell’attività di Costantino-Cirillo e Metodio (Enrietti, 1994).
L’inferno in una rappresentazione popolare viene raffigurato come una pozza
ripiena di pece bollente e zolfo nella quale bollivano per l’eternità i dannati. Questa
concezione la si ritrova già in tedesco nel quale il lat. pix, picis > ted. pech, oltre al
significato di “pece” ha assunto anche quello di “inferno” (Grimm 1838 sgg., s. u.
pech). Lo stesso procedimento di usare la parola latina per “pece” nel significato
suo proprio, conservato in varie lingue slave, ma con estensione semantica asignificare anche “inferno”, è avvenuto pure in slavo, certamente sotto l’influsso
del tedesco (Machek, 1968, s.u. peklo). Però lo slavo, a differenza del tedesco, non
ha usato il lat. class. pix, picis, ma il diminutivo picula che diventa in slavo pьkъlъ/pьcьlъ (quest’ultimo attestato nel Suprasliensis) (Vaillant, 1957: 137 sg.). Il lat.
picula è attestato nello pseudo Apuleio e continuato nell’ital. pégola, per esempio
in Dante, Inferno, XXI, 17: “bollia là giuso una pegola spessa”, nella quale
vengono gettati i peccatori e nei derivati italiani impegolare “spalmare di pece” oimpegolarsi “mettersi in situazioni spiacevoli”. L’uso di una parola del latino tardo
ci riporta alla Pannonia e ai missionari di Salisburgo la cui terminologia cristiana
aveva, come s’è detto, un carattere popolare.
Ugualmente di carattere popolare è il romeno păcură < lat. picula. Il romeno è
innovatore rispetto al latino classico in quanto riceve un latino imperiale

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relativamente recente (del II sec. d. Cr.) ricco di innovazioni, il mediocre latinodell’età d’argento. E ciò spiega bene l’uso di picula invece del class. pix, picis.
Pure in romeno păcură ha, oltre al significato di “bitume, nafta”, anche quellodi “inferno” e ciò è avvenuto o spontaneamente o sotto l’influsso dello slavo. Alloslavo ci riporta anche un’altra parola per “inferno”, il rom. iad, dallo sl. adъ, a sua
volta dal gr. ᾅδης. Quest’ultimo termine di origine greca si è poi diffuso
prevalentemente presso gli slavi ortodossi.
Ciò importa mettere in rilevo è la concordanza tra romeno e slavo pannonico
nell’usare una parola latina popolare al posto di una parola latina classica.
BIBLIOGRAFIA
Boba, Imre (1971). Moravia’s History Reconsidered. A Reinterpretation ofMedieval Sources. The Hague.
Eggers, Martin (1995). Das “Großmährisches Reich” - Realität oder Fiktion? Eine
Neuinterpretation der Quellen zur Geschichte des mittleren Donauraums im 9.
Jhdt. Stuttgart.
Eggers, Martin (1996). Das Erzbistum des Methods. Lage, Wirkung und Nachleben
der kyrillomethodianischen Mission. München: Otto Sagner.
Enrietti, Mario (1994). “Considerazioni sulla settimana slava”. Europa Orientalis,13, 137-155.
Grimm, Jacob und Wilhelm (1838 sgg.). Deutsches Wörterbuch. Leipzig.
Lunt, Horace G. (2000). “Thoughts, Suggestions, and Questions about the Earliest
Slavic Writing Systems”. Wiener slavistisches Jahrbuch, 46, 271-286.
Machek, Václav (1968). Etymologický slovník jazyka českého. Praha.
Vaillant, André (1957). “*Pĭkŭlŭ et *pĭcĭlŭ ‘poix’”. Revue des Études slaves, 34,
137-138.

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Pour une pragmatique du texte mémoriel de ladétention politique communiste
Lavinia-Ileana GEAMBEI
Université de Piteşti,Faculté des Lettres

ABSTRACT: The Pragmatics of the Testimonial Text on Political Imprisonmentin Communist Countries
In the space of Romanian literature, one speaks openly about a literature ofcommunist prisons only after 1990, including detention poetry and memorialistic
prose. The two branches which represent a significant aspect of our contemporary
literature, although based on the same experince, differ not only in genre andspecies, but also pragmatically, as time of statement, intentionality as well as
intensity of feelings.
The present work aims to demonstrate the need to approach the pragmatic
perspective of memorialistic texts in the Romanian literature of political detention
under communism, showing that the studies and articles devoted to this literature
regarded it particularly as a document of living history or they were essays on
mentality.
KEYWORDS: detention, memorialistic, pragmatics, intentionality, reflexivity

Après 1989, on observe l’intérêt accru manifesté par les écrivains aussi bien quepar les lecteurs vis-à-vis de la littérature mémorielle en général, vis-à-vis desjournaux intimes, des collections de documents, cela montrant combien grande ettorturante était la soif de vérité en Roumanie. De plus, une preuve supplémentairedans ce sens est, comme le souligne Alex Ştefǎnescu dans Istoria literaturii
române contemporane (‘Histoire de la littérature roumaine contemporaine’), lalecture frénétique des journaux pendant les premières années postcommunistes.
Cette situation a favorisé, elle aussi, l’apparition de la prose mémorielle de ladétention, parce qu’après quarante-cinq ans de dissimulation de la vérité, dansl’écriture des anciens détenus politiques, écrivains ou non écrivains, est décrit
l’enfer créé par les autorités communistes en vue de l’extermination non seulement
des adversaires politiques mais aussi des gens de valeur en général, dans tous lesdomaines.
Alors, dans le paysage de la littérature roumaine ce n’est qu’après 1990, enmême temps que l’abolition de la censure, que l’on parle ouvertement d’unelittérature des prisons communistes, l’existence de ce chapitre représentant l’un desaspects les plus significatifs de notre littérature contemporaine et une expérience
particulière dans toute l’histoire de la création littéraire roumaine. Cette littérature216

Lavinia-Ileana Geambei: Pour une pragmatique du texte mémoriel de la détention...

comprend la lyrique de la détention et la prose mémorielle. Les deux branches,bien qu’elles aient leur point de départ dans la même expérience, se différencient
non seulement en tant que genre et espèce, mais aussi de point de vue pragmatique,en tant qu’intentionnalité, temps de l’énonciation, intensité des émotions. La
lyrique de la détention sous le communisme comprend des vers créés pendant laréclusion même, pendant les années de prison lourde, de travail forcé dans lescamps de concentration par ceux qui sont devenus des poètes derrière les barreaux(celui-ci étant le titre de cinq volumes de tels vers), c’est pourquoi on peut dire quela poésie garde d’une manière plus vive l’intensité des émotions qui lui ont donné
naissance. Ce chapitre de la poésie, en est un clos, son élaboration a eu lieu il y aquelque temps, surtout pendant la période comprise entre les années 1945 et 1964,même si on fait de grands efforts pour découvrir cette lyrique à une physionomie
particulière, pour la rendre à la contemporanéité, pour l’inscrire dans l’évolution
normale de la littérature et de la culture roumaines.
Pendant que la prose mémorielle de la détention, qui occupe un espace plus
large que la lyrique, a été écrite ultérieurement, rétrospectivement, souvent avec un
fatal détachement par ceux qui ont survécu au calvaire des prisons et des camps deconcentration communistes et ont eu la force de mettre sur du papier destémoignages épouvantables, qui nous effraient. Fait exception à cette situation de laprose rétrospective le journal intime tenu par Onisifor Ghibu et rédigé pendant lapersécution même, au lieu de l'expiation, lorsqu’il connaît le camp de concentrationde Caracal, en 1945, mais lorsque le Goulag roumain n’était pas encore pensé etorganisé méticuleusement, pouvant être considéré un pré-Goulag.
Ce chapitre n’en est pas un clos, il y aura probablement d’anciens détenus
politiques que le temps épargnera et dont les blessures seront guéries plus
difficilement par celui-ci, et qui auront le « courage » de narrer leurs souffrances,
de nous faire partager leur douleur.
Cette littérature démasque un mensonge historique monstrueux. Il est tout à faitbouleversant d’apprendre, comme le remarque Lucian Pintilie, que les Roumains
ont eu une résistance anticommuniste des plus consistantes de l’Est.
L’intérêt pour ce type de textes, si important pendant les premières années
postrévolutionnaires, n’a pas arrêté de diminuer avec le temps. Nicolae Baltǎ, dansson article « Sertarul şi tipăriturile » (‘Le tiroir et les impressions’) souligne le fait
qu’après 1990 le lecteur roumain est passé brusquement d’une littérature del’hypocrisie à une littérature de la vérité infernale, suivie de « la monotonie de laterreur », de l’habitude à l’horreur du Goulag (Baltă, 1994 : 6). La vérité est que sile lecteur occidental est averti sur une telle littérature, le lecteur de l’Est, engénéral, le lecteur roumain en particulier, a été obligé de récupérer un retard étique
et moral explicable de point de vue politique.
C’est pourquoi une approche pragmatique de cette prose s’impose, lapragmatique se caractérisant par l’interdisciplinarité, se présentant comme unconglomérat de domaines divers, qui se trouvent dans une permanente interaction,qui étudient le langage en contexte, car du sociologue au logicien, lespréoccupations pragmatiques traversent l’ensemble des recherches liées au sens et217

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à la communication. La pragmatique est une discipline qui dépasse souvent lecadre strict du discours, devenant une théorie générale de l’action humaine. Donc,
une telle investigation se caractérise par un haut degré d’interdisciplinarité, parcequ’elle traite d’un phénomène littéraire à part, où se mêlent, dans des proportions
immensurables, des éléments éthiques, esthétiques, psychologiques, philosophiques, politiques, historiques. Comme le montre Rǎzvan Codrescu, dans son« Avant-propos » au volume de vers de Demostene Andronescu, Peisaj interior(‘Paysage intérieur’), une telle littérature
trebuie judecată cu măsuri diferite de producţia literară curentă: ne aflăm în faţa unuialt raport cu esteticul, a unei noi relaţii între creator şi operă. Spiritul critic trebuie sa
devină mai maleabil şi mai nuanţat, spre a nu risca posibilele confuzii de planuri sau
chiar impietăţile (Codrescu, 1995 : 8).
(‘doit être jugée avec des mesures différentes de la production littéraire courante :nous nous trouvons en présence d’un autre rapport à l’esthétique, a une nouvellerelation entre le créateur et l’œuvre. L’esprit critique doit devenir plus malléable etplus nuancé, pour ne pas risquer de possibles confusions de plans ou même desimpiétés’) (notre traduction, L.G.)

La littérature mémorielle de la détention politique roumaine sous lecommunisme a fait, jusqu'à présent, l’objet de quelques analyses, investigations,mais d’autres perspectives. Les études les plus nombreuses l’ont regardée surtout
comme un document historique. Un ouvrage inédit et d’une grande importance est
celui de Mihai Rǎdulescu, ancien détenu politique, lui aussi, Istoria literaturii
române de detenţie (‘L’Histoire de la littérature roumaine de la détention’), en
deux volumes, 1998, la première histoire littéraire de ce genre. L’ouvrage dépassele cadre strict de l’histoire littéraire, devenant aussi un ouvrage de stylistique, parceque, comme il est indiqué dans la préface, il envisage, dans cet ample matériel dela littérature mémorielle de la détention politique (non seulement sous lecommunisme, mais avant celui-ci aussi),
ordonarea, scoaterea în evidenţă a diferenţei specifice, distingându-se glasurile
auctoriale implicate în concertul general, judecarea contribuţiei fiecărui scriitor laînaintarea cunoaşterii prin mijloacele osebite ale literaturii, ca şi a timbrului, tonuluişi modalităţilor estetice variate ce apropie sau separă un memorialist de altul(Rădulescu, 1998 : 11)(‘d’ordonner, de mettre en évidence la différence spécifique, distinguant les voix
auctoriales impliquées dans le processus général, le jugement de la contribution dechaque écrivain à l’avance de la connaissance par les moyens divers de la littérature,aussi bien que du timbre, de la tonalité et des modalités esthétiques variées qui
rapprochent ou séparent un mémorialiste d’un autre’) (notre traduction, L.G.)

Une autre contribution remarquable pour la connaissance et la compréhension
de cette littérature est l’ouvrage de Ruxandra Cesereanu, Gulagul în conştiinţa
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românească (‘Le Goulag dans la conscience roumaine’), qui a comme sous-titre
Memorialistica şi literatura închisorilor şi lagărelor comuniste (‘La littératuremémorielle et la littérature des prisons et des camps de concentration
communistes’), publié initialement en 1998 et réédité en 2005. Comme le précise
l’auteur, sa démarche n’est ni purement littéraire, ni purement historique, mais unedémarche de mentalité. Le livre est une étude de morphologie comportementale, unessai phénoménologique de reconstitution de l’univers concentrationnaire duGoulag roumain, à partir du modèle soviétique. Un autre ouvrage de ce genre estÎnchisoarea în România comunistă ca realitate memorialistică (‘La prison dans la
Roumanie communiste en tant que réalité mémorielle’), de Cǎtǎlina Mârza, où l’on
mélange l’essai de mentalité à l’analyse du point de vue de l’historien, parce que,dans l’introduction, l’auteur dévoile que le choix du thème a été dicté par le désirde connaître le plus d’aspects concernant la vie des détenus politiques dans lesprisons communistes et la tragédie qu’ont vécue eux et leurs familles.
De tels ouvrages n’ont pas en vue une approche pragmatique, ils deviennent
parfois une histoire des souffrances subies par les anciens détenus. L’apparition detels ouvrages à partir de ces textes était inévitable, surtout des ouvrages traitant dela mentalité, parce qu’ils offrent du matériel psychologique et anthropologiqueconcernant l’homme dans les conditions d’une sous-humanité. Mais ce sont deslivres qui nous aideront à connaître ce chapitre de la littérature, à comprendre lecontexte historique et social, les causes de l’apparition de celle-ci, sa spécificité,
tout en essayant d’être gouvernés par l’esprit critique, l’objectivité et la lucidité,
pour éviter les jugements partisans.
Adrian Marino, ancien détenu politique lui aussi, dans l’article « O carte desertar » (‘Un livre de tiroir’), paru dans Tribuna Ardealului (1993), étudie ces
textes des prisons communistes de la perspective de l’homme de lettres. Directif etclassificateur, il découvre deux manières essentielles d’aborder la détention en tantque thème littéraire :prin literaturizare, stilizare, întreg ansamblul de procedee literare tipice, şi prinmărturie directă, documentară, pe cât posibil obiectivă (Marino, 1993 : 7).
(‘par la mise en littérature, la stylisation, tout l’ensemble des procédés littéraires
spécifiques et par le témoignage direct, documentaire, le plus objectif possible’)(notre traduction. L.G.).

Mais, un peu plus loin, il ajoute :Că şi această relatare rece se transformă, poate fi recuperată până la urmă tot ca
literatură este o altă poveste (Ibidem).
(‘le fait que ce témoignage froid se transforme, qu’il peut être récupéré finalement
toujours en tant que littérature, cela est une autre histoire’) (notre traduction. L.G.).

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Donc, il touche à un problème controversé et pas encore épuisé, celui de laplace occupée par le genre mémoriel en général et celui mémoriel de la détentionen particulier, situé entre la littérature et l’histoire.
Dans l’article « Rezumatul unei detenţii » (‘Le résumé d’une détention’), publié
dans la revue Contrapunct, no 25, 1991, Nicolae Baltǎ traite ces textes toujours dela perspective du critique et de l’historien littéraire. Il opère une classification dansle cadre de cette littérature, d’après le critère de la vision des auteurs, distinguant
cinq types différents : une vision détachée (Constantin Noica), une autre
sarcastique et furibonde (Paul Goma), ou infernale et désespérée (Teohar
Mihadaş), une vision profondément chrétienne (Nicolae Steinhardt) et une autre
objective et neutre (Ioan Ioanid et Max Bănuş).
Le livre de Michael H. Impey, Mărturii de după gratii. Experienţe române şi
italiene (‘Témoignages de derrière les barreaux. Expériences roumaines etitaliennes’) – paru chez les Éditions Sédan, en 2007, traduit en roumain par Dan
Brudaşcu –, est une étude comparatiste, surtout de mentalité. Dans le planinternational, surtout dans l’espace occidental, l’apparition de cette littérature et
implicitement son interprétation ce sont passées beaucoup plus tôt que chez nous.
Bernadette Morand, dans son livre Les écrits des prisonniers politiques, de 1976, a
fait des recherches sur cette « littérature de frontière » (selon le syntagme deSilvian Iosifescu) de point de vue thématique et elle a observé qu’il y a certaines
constantes et des similitudes thématiques dans les écrits des détenus politiques,qu’on trouve aussi dans les écrits roumains de plus tard : l’arrestation, la torture, ladifficulté de s’adapter à la vie carcérale, les techniques de survie, les rapports desdétenus avec les autorités, l’affrontement de la mort, la foi, la perspective sur lalittérature, la libération.
Nous insistons ici, donc, sur l’idée que les études et les articles traitant de cettelittérature sont apparus surtout du désir de connaître la vérité sur une période noire
de l’histoire nationale, cette littérature représentant l’une des sourcesd’information, un document d’histoire vécue.
Par conséquent, une pragmatique du texte mémoriel de la détention politiquesous le communisme vient remplir une lacune dans la connaissance et lacompréhension de cette littérature à un statut à part.
Le matériel qui doit être soumis à l’analyse pragmatique en est un ample,
comprenant l’écriture non fictionnelle (monographies de détention, souvenirs etjournaux de détention, mais aussi des romans-document), comme l’appelle
Ruxandra Cesereanu dans la classification qu’elle a établie. Dans une telle
investigation, on ne peut pas ignorer les deux autres catégories de cette littérature
des prisons : l’écriture réaliste, ayant comme principe le vraisemblable (des romans
ayant comme point de départ l’expérience concentrationnaire) (Galeria cu viţăsălbatică (‘La Gallérie de vigne sauvage’), de Constantin Ţoiu, le roman de « ladécennie obsédante », Patimile după Piteşti (‘Les souffrances d’après Piteşti’), dePaul Goma), et l’écriture parabolique-allégorique (anti-utopies – Adio, Europa !
(‘Adieu, L’Europe !’), de I.D. Sârbu).

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Mais, malheureusement, il nous sera difficile d’avoir à notre disposition une
bibliothèque complète et professionnelle de la littérature mémorielle de ladétention, à cause de son volume très grand, du flux éditorial continu, mais surtout
à cause de la diffusion défectueuse et des tirages confidentiels d’une partie de ces
livres. Certains ouvrages ont été publiés de manière improvisée et non
professionnelle, sans le nom de la maison d’éditions ou du lieu où ils ont été
imprimés.
L’investigation pragmatique, pour laquelle nous plaidons, aura en vue le faitque dans le discours littéraire l’accent est mis sur la dissymétrie entre les positionsd’énonciation et de réception. C’est pourquoi l’un de ses objectifs serait ladécouverte (dans les textes) du type de public que les auteurs ont eu en vue
lorsqu’ils ont élaboré ces textes mémoriels, bien que l’essence de la littérature
consiste en la possibilité de l’œuvre de circuler dans des époques et dans desespaces éloignés par rapport au temps et au lieu de sa production. Alors, onessaiera de trouver une réponse à la question : ces textes, se caractérisent-ils par ladécontextualisation ?
À partir de l’idée que, pour aborder un texte, le lecteur s’appuie d’abord sur uneconnaissance, même minimale, du contexte énonciatif, on analysera le problème dela réception de cette littérature. On parle d’un phénomène littéraire à part,
témoignage d’une période de notre histoire pas si éloignée, et alors, même lelecteur de ces écrits en est un à part. Il dispose de certaines connaissances, plus ou
moins complexes, sur le régime et l’époque démasqués. Le problème de lacoopération avec le lecteur est très important dans le cas de cette littérature, mais
ce qui rend l’analyse difficile c’est la charge sémantique du terme lecteur, qui peut
recevoir les connotations les plus variées, de l’historique au cognitif. Le lecteur est
soit le public effectif d’un texte, soit le support de certaines stratégies dedéchiffrement. C’est en fonction de tout cela qu’on parlera de lecteur invoqué,
lecteur institué, public générique, public attesté, et surtout de lecteur modèle, dansla terminologie d’Umberto Eco, c’est-à-dire la figure qui résulte du déchiffrement
du texte. L’investigation aura pour but de trouver des indices fournis par le texte
par la manière dont ils se conforment aux exigences et par ses prescriptions
virtuelles de déchiffrement, car l’activité de coopération n’a pas comme base lesintentions de l’écrivain, mais ces indices. Donc, dans ce cas, l’objectif de ladémarche sera l’étude de l’activité de coopération, qui détermine le destinataire
non pas à extraire du texte ce que celui-ci ne dit pas, mais ce qu’il suppose, ce qu’il
promet, implique et implicite, à remplir les espaces vides. Le lecteur est contraint à
entrer en jeu, pour produire un certain effet pragmatique, assurant la réussite dumacro-acte de langage dominant. C’est toujours de la perspective pragmatique,envisageant la lecture comme énonciation, qu’on abordera l’analyse descomposantes de la lecture.
Pour voir avec quelles attentes ou avec quels préjugés vient le lecteur de ce
genre de textes nous considérons qu’il serait nécessaire de questionner des lecteurs
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manière dont le public module ses attentes en fonction du genre en cause. Ensuiteon aura en vue la manière dont ces textes se rapportent au genre en question.
En utilisant des classifications de la pragmatique littéraire et le principe de lacoopération, on identifiera dans la prose mémorielle trois types de contrats : ceux
qui s’inscrivent exactement dans les limites de ce genre ; ceux qui utilisent descontrats génériques (combinant plusieurs genres, les respectant sur le mode
ironique, les parodiant) ; ceux qui dépassent les modèles, prétendant définir ungenre unique.
L’auteur, en général, d’autant plus l’auteur d’un texte mémoriel de la détention
politique, ressent souvent le besoin de se justifier. Cette « partie de négociation »du texte se retrouve, en général, dans les préfaces, les avant-propos et les divers
types de préambules. Pour cela, l’auteur fait appel aux stratégies les plus diverses :le plus souvent, dans ce cas, des formules d’autodépréciation, même des offresd’amitié etc. C’est pourquoi ces parties des textes, qui ont affaire à la présentationdes œuvres, seront soumises aussi à l’investigation. La stratégie à laquelle fait
appel, par exemple, Gheorghe Stǎnescu, dans Jurnal din prigoană (‘Journal del’exil’), représente une illustration de la condition de l’auteur. On exprime ici,comme dans la plupart de ces textes mémoriels, une idée sur la concession quel’auteur assume. L’épigraphe-même de l’argument le démontre : « Quamquamanimus meminisse horret, luctuque refugit, incipiam » – Virgile, L’Eneide, Chant II(‘Bien que mon âme soit horrifiée par le souvenir et recule devant la douleur, je
commencerai’). Et ensuite, le témoignage de l’auteur :Nu mi-am propus până acum – la 69 de ani, mai mult răbdaţi decât trăiţi – să scriuproză. (Stănescu, 2000 : 6).
(‘Je ne me suis pas proposé jusqu'à présent – à 69 ans, plutôt endurés que vécus –d’écrire de la prose’) (notre traduction, L.G.)

Une phrase qui, comme l’auteur le sait bien, fera naitre chez le lecteur laquestion : alors, pourquoi écrit-il, pourquoi maintenant ? C’est pour cela que, ayant
à la base le principe de la coopération, à une distance de quelques phrases de ce
témoignage, apparaît la question : « Pourquoi maintenant ces pages de prose ? », àlaquelle il donne une réponse ample, qui contient en fait trois arguments solides
liés à la nécessité d’un tel texte : pour remplir, dans l’histoire des Roumains, unvide de presqu’un demi-siècle, dont il manque les témoignages desanticommunistes du pays ; pour que les jeunes générations sachent qu’avant les« dissidents » roumains du pays et de l’exil il y a les anciens détenus politiques
anticommunistes, « parmi lesquels il y a eu des personnalités de la vie culturelle,religieuse et politique, mais aussi des anonymes exceptionnels » (2000 : 6) ; enfin,
parce que l’histoire des Roumains doit être réécrite avec un profond respect pour lavérité, avec une douloureuse horreur vis-à-vis des crimes commis délibérément parle communisme contre ce peuple » (Ibidem : 6-7). La nécessité de l’acte del’écriture apparaît avec prégnance à côté de la revendication de la sincérité :« … pour que nous témoignions en faveur de la Vérité » (Ibidem : 7). On observe
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Lavinia-Ileana Geambei: Pour une pragmatique du texte mémoriel de la détention...

ce pluriel, qui fait de l’auteur le représentant de toute une catégorie d’auteurs delittérature mémorielle de la détention politique communiste. Le besoin intense de
se justifier ressort de la présentation d’une « image-symbole », comme l’appelle
Gheorghe Stǎnescu, une image qui a bloqué « le recule naturel, d’autodéfense del’âme, évoqué dans l’épitaphe de Virgile » (Ibidem). Il s’agit du médecin Costin
Cazacu, qui, à Aiud, en 1950, à cause de la malnutrition, était tombé malade depellagre et, conscient, en tant que médecin, de l’évolution de la maladie – avant dedevenir fou et de mourir – cognait contre la porte de la cellule, en criant aux
geôliers :Dacă nu-mi daţi lapte ca să mă vindec, daţi-mi hârtie şi creion ca să scriu ce simt
acum! Sunt medic şi trebuie să scriu ce simt acum! Pentru voi, mă, şi pentru copiii
voştri, să scriu despre pelagră! (Ibidem : 8).
(‘Si vous ne me donnez pas de lait pour que je guérisse, donnez-moi du papier et un
crayon pour que j’écrive ce que je ressens en ce moment ! Je suis médecin et je doisnoter ce que je ressens en ce moment ! C’est pour vous, euh, et pour vos enfants,
que je dois écrire sur la pellagre !’) (notre traduction, L.G.)

Gheorghe Stǎnescu exprime son propre credo de la manière suivante : tout
comme Arghezi, il veut laisser aux générations futures « un nom écrit sur unlivre », un livre qui est né de la souffrance, de la douleur, mais qui se veut uneleçon à travers le temps, un livre qui ait la fonction de témoigner, mais aussi desauver et de purifier, un « don » :Această scenă – povestită la Jilava de unul dintre colegii lui de celulă – m-a urmărit,obsesiv, ca o încercare, disperată, de a face din însăşi cauza apropiatei morţi proprii
un dar pentru vieţile celorlalţi, cei liberi. (Ibidem).
(‘Cette scène – racontée à Jilava par l’un de ses camarades de cellule – m’a hanté,obsessivement, comme une épreuve, désespérée, de faire de la cause même de sa
propre mort un don pour les vies des autres, les gens libres’) (notre traduction, L.G.)

Nous arrivons de nouveau à l’idée exprimée par Bernadette Morand,
conformément à laquelle témoigner par écrit signifie faire signe au monde etsignaler : « Les mots restent le seul pouvoir du détenu ; sa seule arme » (Morand,
1976 : 14). C’est pourquoi la fonction thérapeutique de ces écrits est inhérente.
Dans les textes mémoriels sur le Goulag roumain, les mots ne sont pas seulement
une arme, mais un devoir. C’est pour cela que Ruxandra Cesereanu (2005 : 87)
considère que les témoignages sur la détention politique roumaine sous lecommunisme équivalent les écrits sur l’Holocauste, parce qu’ils représentent« l’Enfer qui témoigne », d’après la formule d’André Glucksmann, de Bucătăreasa
şi mâncătorul de oameni. Eseu despre raporturile dintre stat, marxism şi lagărele
de concentrare (titre original La Cuisinière et le Mangeur d’hommes. Essai sur lesrapports entre l’État, le marxisme et les camps de concentration).
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Par l’importance accordée au phénomène de la réflexivité (autoréférence), lapragmatique se détache nettement de la conception traditionnelle de l’acted’énonciation, considéré invisible derrière le message. Dans le cas de cettelittérature à une physionomie à part, l’analyse doit montrer combien la différence
entre la représentation spontanée, qui exige que le texte soit subordonné à son
créateur, et la littérature, qui démontre que l’œuvre peut agir sur l’auteur, que l’acted’énonciation peut transformer son énonciateur, est visible. Parce que l’auteur sefixe comme objectif la réalisation de son propre portrait, le moi est à la fois objet
décrit et sujet qui décrit. Et alors un autre objectif envisagé sera de trouver laréponse à la question : que signifie parler de soi, surtout dans de telles conditions ?
Ainsi, le travail plaide-t-il pour une approche pragmatique du texte mémoriel dela littérature de la détention politique roumaine sous le communisme, la période
1945-1964, ayant pour objet l’intentionnalité de ces textes, leur réception, lamanière dont le public modèle ses attentes en fonction du genre en cause, laréflexion immédiate du principe de la coopération, la manière dont ces textes serapportent au genre en question, la manière dont l’auteur d’un tel texte ressent lebesoin de se justifier (la partie de négociation du texte), le phénomène de laréflexivité, par lequel le discours renvoie à sa propre activité énonciative.
BIBLIOGRAPHIEBaltă, Nicolae (1994). « Sertarul şi tipăriturile ». Luceafărul, no 16.
Cesereanu, Ruxandra (2005). Gulagul în conştiinţa românească, ediţia a II-arevăzută şi adăugită. Iaşi : Polirom.
Codrescu, Răzvan (1995). « Cuvânt înainte ». In : Demostene Andronescu, Peisajlăuntric. Sibiu : Puncte Cardinale.
Marino, Adrian (1993). « O carte de sertar ». Tribuna Ardealului, no 68.
Morand, Bernardette (1976). Les écrits des prisonniers politiques. Paris : Presses
Universitaires de France.
Rădulescu, Mihai (1998). Istoria literaturii române de detenţie: Memorialisticareeducărilor (vol.I). Bucureşti : Ramida.
Stănescu, Gheorghe (2000) Jurnal din prigoană, ediţia a II-a. Bucureşti : Venus.
Ştefănescu, Alex (2005). Istoria literaturii române contemporane 1941-2000.
Bucureşti : Maşina de Scris.

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Great Expectations – The Creation of a Hero
Florin-Ionuţ GRIGORE
University of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages

ABSTRACTCharles Dickens is one of the world’s best-loved writers, and Great Expectations
may be Dickens’ most autobiographical work. Although an earlier novel, David
Copperfield, followed the facts of Dickens’ life more closely, the narrator David
seems a little too good to be true. The narrator of Great Expectations, Pip, is, incontrast, a man of many faults, who hides none of them from the reader. If Pip is aself-portrait, Dickens must have been a reservoir of inferiority complexes, guilt andshame. His personal life, however, was not so magical. Perhaps this is why Dickens
was so eager to hold onto his reading public; he felt closer to them than to his own
family and friends. His cast of characters was drawn from all social classes.
KEYWORDS: Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, novel

The title of my paper is “Great Expectations – The Creation of a Hero”. Why?
Because Pip wanted to be a hero, just like Dickens wanted to be a hero – a hero of
their time. The novel is autobiographical to an extent. Sight Great Expectations
seems to be a bildungsnovel. But a bildungsnovel presents the life of an individual
following a natural, organic course according to his/hers personality. Great
Expectations presents the life, the maturization of Pip according to a standard,
according to a model, a pattern of that age. This pattern is not part of Pip’s
personality, but something imposed by the society. This model is the Victorianman, the new man (Delaney, Ward, & Fiorina, 2003).
Just like Pip, Dickens took a novel in its youth not to be poor. And they bought
succeeded. But in the end they failed to be a genuine Victorian man, becoming
victims of Victorianism. In his novels, Dickens criticised the stereotypes ofVictorianism, but he remains a man of his time. He didn’t openly criticised
Victorianism. I’m not sure why he did this whether he was afraid to publicly
criticised Victorianism, or be too wanted to be a New Man? (Idem) Instead hedidn’t criticise a system, but only its flaws.
Although bought Pip and Dickens become important men, this didn’t makethem happy because this creation of a hero was made because they were pressured
by external factors. But, in same respect, Dickens did become a hero. To
understand this, we need to understand the lines which Dickens lived that time,
there were no TV, no radios and the only means to entertain was reading.
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Dickens wrote commercial novels, the kind that was read in the evening in frontof the fire place with the whole family (Cotsell, 1990). Soon Dickens became
popular, like today’s rock stars lightly appreciated. But despite this, Dickens
managed to put some dept in his writing, powerful insights about love, abouthuman nature, a mixture of misery, joy, hope and despair.
But, at the same time bought Pip and Dickens lost the battle with Victorianism.
Pip, after becoming an important man did not recognize the ones who helped him
when he was a boy because he was ashore of them, and Dickens life was not a
happy one either, being separated with 10 centuries.
The greatness of Charles Dickens is of a peculiar kind. He was, at the sametime, the great popular entertainer and the great artist, his greatness and his popular
appeal being inseparable. The reasons for this lie deep in the man’s nature. He wasa born orator and actor. His lifelong enthusiasm for amateur dramatics and themaniacal intensity with which he read aloud his own works were both significant(Slater, 2009). He was never a pure artist. Like a great political orator, he drew
strength from his audience; he delighted to please them, he accepted the validity of
their judgement.
So, Dickens was in many respects the ordinary English man of the middle classtransformed by a unique unrepeatable genius. In his own person he fulfilled andexemplified many dominant myths of the mid-19th century. He was a self-mademan, like the heroes of the immensely popular and influential Samuel Smiles.
Without proper education, without a loving and secure home, he had made himself
a household name by the time he was in his early twenties. In an age more notable
perhaps than any other for deep feeling about childhood, he had been a rejectedchild, forced to find his own lodgings and earn his own living by the time he was
10 years old.
Then he was typical of his great middle-class public in being a practical man of
the world, not particularly bookish, with a double share of the extraordinary
exuberant energy and humour of that expansive age. Like his public he was a bit ofa philistine; his views on art were much nearer to those of the crowds than they
were to those of John Ruskin.
Like his public, too, he was interested in reform. Like them, he was very certainthat reform should work in the direction of reducing aristocratic privilege; like
them, he was much more dubious about extending middle-class privileges to thoselower down. Like them he was very keen on a strong police force and theprevention of crime and like them he took an unholy delight in the breathless
drama of a murder story. Like other popular writers he was deeply melodramatic,
but there was nothing cynical or calculating in this. In expressing their aspirations,fears and prejudices he was simply expressing himself.
Dickens was a man of obsessions, which can be traced all through his work. He
was haunted by the idea of the lonely child, because he had been one. He washaunted by the idea of the prison because his father had been in the debtors’ prison.
He was deeply obsessed by the thought of violence. These themes occur
constantly, but this does not make his work repetitive. His development consists
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Florin-Ionuţ Grigore: Great Expectations – The Creation of a Heropartly in the perpetual deepening of these themes. The prison of Pickwick Papers isthe same debtors’ prison as the one in Little Dorrit (and the same in which his own
father was confined), but as literary experiences the two could hardly be moredifferent, and the latter one is immensely the more brilliant and profound (Calder,1981). Occasionally, two of his obsessions meet in the same passage, such as theburning of the prison by the mob in Barnaby Rudge (prison and violence) or the
exclusion of Dorrit at night from her only home, the Marshalsea prison (prison andlonely child) and such passages often have a particularly intense power or pathos.
Balancing this constant recurrence of the same facts and ideas, we have his
extraordinary inventiveness, variety, and mastery of significant detail. His world isfuller and richer than other novelists’ worlds. His imagination finds poetry,humour, and significance in the most ordinary things. That physically filthy
Victorian London, which struck intelligent foreign visitors as almost a hell on
earth, was his natural home as man and artist. He drew strength and inspirationfrom his long solitary walks (often at night) through the dingiest and strangest
areas (Carlisle, 1996). His pathos, his wild, extravagant humour, his zeal forreform, his serious indignation was all rooted in this vision of the strangest city inthe world, and the one with most bizarre contrasts.
In general one may say that in his early works, up to about 1845, his
exuberance, whether comic or melodramatic, predominates. Plots are widely
improbable; coincidences abound; deeds often lack their natural outcome. At times
we seem to be almost in the world of fairy-tale, not about princesses, but aboutorphans and chimney-sweeps.
Dombey and Son (1848) is a land-mark of change. The old features are stillpresent in some degree, but so are those that became more and more dominant in
his later work, psychological insight, serious thought about society, and above all asense of the consequences of things and of the complexity of moral choices(Meckier, 1990). In Nicholas Nickleby, an early work, two philantropical brothers
diffuse joy and peace all round them by giving away their money (Idem). In Our
Mutual Friend, his last completed novel (Idem), Boffin, a kindly man anxious to dogood with his large fortune, finds himself thwarted and deceived, and unable toproduce beneficial effects. The later books are in places just as funny as the earlier.
But the humour is more satirical, even savage. The soaring, high-spirited nonsenseof Pickwick is gone. Finally we would stress the inexhaustible variety of Dickens.
In him alone among later English writers, we can, without absurdity, find alikeness to the fecundity of Shakespeare.
In short Dickens may be described as a humanitarian novelist and journalist. His
literary activity may be structured in four main periods of creation.
Great Expectations (1860-1861) is one of his most artistic novels, restrained
both in its melodrama and romantic atmosphere. It is Dickens’s tenth novel,
published nine years before his death. As in David Copperfield, the hero tells his
own story from boyhood. Yet, in several essential points Great Expectations ismarkedly different from David Copperfield, and from Dickens’s other novels(Bradbury, 1990). Owing to the simplicity of the plot, and to the small number of227

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characters, it possesses greater unity of design. These characters, each drawn withmarvelous distinctness of outline, are subordinated throughout to the central
personage Pip, whose great expectations form the pivot of the narrative.
But, the element that most clearly distinguishes this novel from the others is thesubtle study of the development of character through the influence of environmentand circumstance. In the career of Pip, a more careful and natural presentation of
personality is made than is usual with Dickens.
He is a village boy who longs to be a “gentleman.” His dreams of wealth andopportunity suddenly come true. He is supplied with money and sent to London to
be educated and to prepare for his new station in life. Later he discovers that his
unknown benefactor is a convict to whom he had once rendered a service (BrooksDavies, 1989). The convict, returning against the law to England, is recaptured anddies in prison his fortune being forfeited to the Crown. Pip’s great expectations
vanish into thin air.
The changes in Pip’s character under these varying fortunes are most skillfully
depicted. He presents himself first, as a small boy in the house of his dearly loved
brother-in-law Joe Gargery, the village blacksmith, having no greater ambition’than to be Joe’s apprentice. After a visit to the house of a Miss Havisham, thenature of his aspirations is completely changed. Miss Havisham is one of thestrangest of Dickens’s creations. Jilted by her lover on the wedding night, she
resolves to wear her bridal gown as long as she lives, and to keep her house as it
was when the blow fell upon her. The candles are always burning; the molderingbanquet is always spread. In the midst of this desolation, she is bringing up, abeautiful little girl, Estella, as an instrument of revenge, teaching the child to use
beauty and her grace to Fortune men. Estella’s first victim is Pip. She laughs at hisrustic appearance, makes him dissatisfied with Joe and the life at the forge. Whenhe finds himself heir to a fortune, it is the thought of Estella’s scorn that keeps himfrom returning Joe’s honest and faithful love. As a “gentleman” he plays tricks
with his conscience, seeking always to excuse his false pride and flimsy ideals of
position. The convict’s return and the consequent revelation of the identity of his
benefactor, humbles Pip. He realizes at last the dignity of labour, and the worth ofnoble character. He gains a new and manly serenity after years of hard work.
Estella’s pride has also been humbled and her character purified by her
experiences. The book closes upon their mutual love.
Great Expectations is a delightful novel, rich in humour and free from false
pathos. The character of Joe Gargery, simple, tender, quaintly humorous would
alone give imperishable value to the book. Scarcely less well – drawn are Pip’s
termagant sister, “Mrs. Joe”; the sweet and wholesome village girl, Biddy, whobecomes Joe’s second wife, Uncle Pumblechook, obsequious or insolent as the
person he addresses is rich or poor; Pip’s friend and chum in London, the dear boy
Herbert Pocket; the convict with his wistful love of Pip; bright, imperious Estella,these are of the immortals in fiction.
Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865), besides the frequent criticism concerning thedubious grammar of the title, is overcomplicated in plot (Meckier, 1990). The
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Florin-Ionuţ Grigore: Great Expectations – The Creation of a Heroscene is laid in London and its immediate neighborhood. All the elaboratemachinery dear to Dickens’s heart is here introduced. There is the central story of
Our Mutual Friend, himself the younger heir to the vast Hermon estate, who buries
his identity and assumes the name of John Rokesmith, that he may form his own
judgment of the young woman whom he must marry in order to claim his fortune.
There is the other story of the poor bargeman’s daughter, and her love for reckless
Eugene Wrayburn, the idol of society; and uniting these two threads in the history
of Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, the ignorant, kind – hearted couple, whose innocent
ambitions and benevolent use of money intrusted in their care, afford the author’s
opportunity for the humour and pathos of which he was a master.
Among the characters which this story has made famous are Miss Jenny Wren,
the doll’s dressmaker, a little, crippled creature whose love for Lizzie Hexamtransforms her miserable life; Bradley Headstone, the schoolmaster, suffering
torments because of his jealousy of Eugene Wrayburn, and helpless under the
careless contempt of that trained adversary – dying at last in an agony of defeat at
his failure to kill Eugene; and the triumph of Lizzie’s love over the social
difference between her and her lover; Bella Wilfer, “the boofer lady” cured of her
longing for riches and made John Harmon’s happy wife by the plots and plans of
the Golden Dustman, Mr. Boffin; and Silas Wegg, an impudent scoundrel
employed by Mr. Boffin, who is, at first, delighted with the services of “a literary
man with a wooden leg”, but who gradually reorganizes the cheat and impostor,
and unmasks him in dramatic fashion (Slater, 2009). As usual, Dickens finds toincite his readers to practical benevolence. In this book he has a protest against thepoor – laws in the person of old Betty Higden, whose dread of the almshouse
haunts her dying hours. By many, this volume, published among his later works, iscounted as among the most important.
Dickens is one of the world’s best-loved writers, and Great Expectations may
be Dickens’ most autobiographical work. Although, an earlier novel, David
Copperfield, followed the facts of Dickens’ life more closely, the narrator David
seems a little too good to be true. The narrator of Great Expectations, Pip, is, incontrast, a man of many faults, who hides none of them from the reader. If Pip is aself-portrait, Dickens must have been a reservoir of inferiority complexes, guilt,
and shame.
Victorianism is not just a historical and a literary period or an era of great
technological advances. Victorianism is, more important, a way of life, a standardof living, that had influenced the behavior of the society during the rule of Queen
Victoria and also after she’s dead. One of the social impacts of Victorianism wasthe creation of a “New Man”. When we talk about “the creation of a new man”, wethink about Communism, because it is closer to us – historically speaking. But,
when we talk about systems, that tried to change human mentality, Victorianism is
one of them.
Of course, there are many differences in the way in which this change ofmentality worked in Victorianism and in Communism. This change also worked onhuman nature and tried to alternate it. In Victorianism, this way of life, full of229

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stereotypes was inherited, transmitted from generation to generation. It was the
public pressure that “forced” you to behave in a certain way, not a rule imposed byan authority. In Communism, the “New Man” was a creation of the authorities whowanted to change the man into a humble servant of the state.
Victorianism was embraced mainly by the intellectuals and aristocrats. It
became a way of showing that you are a superior man. But for the lower classes workers, servants etc. – Victorianism meant nothing, the impact of it on the lower
class’ mentality was close to zero. So, Victorianism was a label of upper classes(Delaney, Ward, & Fiorina, 2003).
In Communism, it was the other way around. The intellectuals refused this wayof life and became the system’s most feared enemy (Idem). The lower classes,
however, became the back-bone of the System and they quickly embraced this new
way of life. Victorianism cultivated individualism; it was a great era of progress
and personal achievements. However, this individualism was permitted only within
the borders of society’s stereotypes. If you tried to escape these boarders you faced
public damnation. But, in Victorianism, you were not punished for yourindividualism and personal remarks by the authorities, but by your fellow man, thesociety.
Individualism was not a concern for Communism because it tried to totally
destroy man as a single human being. We all became part of a huge machine,
forced to think and to act in the same way. What had in common this two ways oflife is the fact that they were both destroyed by intellectuals and by the repulse
society. In Victorianism, literature was only a consequence of the social life. And
the social life was determined by two factors that changed humanity forever. In my
opinion, Victorianism meant two things:
I. The first factor is the Industrial Revolution. Of course, the Industrial
revolution started earlier, but, in Victorianism, the level of scientificprogress was at its height. This progress is embodied so well in Carlyle’s
God of the Machine, because “The Machine” dominated human life andsoon begun to replace the God from religious beliefs.
II. The second factor was a consequence of the first one. Humans
always wanted to be masters of their life and destiny and our lives was aconstant battle against superior and implacable forces. This force was
embodied and still is by Gods.
But an era of enlightenment and progress couldn’t accept these ancient myths of
damnation. So, scientists tried to replace popular believes with scientific facts in
explaining the events that occur in our lives. The best symbol of this antireligious
movement was Darwin’s “theory of evolutionism”. This theory was a huge blow to
Christianity and to all religions. Darwinism destroyed one of the most important
religious myths, the myth of creation.
In my opinion, in all our history this moment was the hight of Atheism withconsequences in all the following history. But both these factors were exaggerated.
Victorianism didn’t mean only milk and honey. Despite this progress, VictorianEngland had its problems. The society and authorities were not able to distribute230

Florin-Ionuţ Grigore: Great Expectations – The Creation of a Hero

this welfare to all classes, so many public Unrest followed. The most importantmoment probably was the earliest movement.
In literature, writers began to show these negative aspects of Victorians society
and to subtle criticize it. But although the writers started by criticizing this society,in the end they embraced it and accepted it. So, their works were not revolutionary,
didn’t contain programs or manifests, they simply showed the life that was – arealistic image of Victorian era.
Victorianism didn’t limit itself to England. It was exported first in the colonies
and then in other countries, mainly European countries. The symbolic end of
Victorianism, as a way of life, was the sinking of the Titanic. The end of the 19th
century was a time when people considered themselves to be Gods and thought
they could defeat nature. The symbol of this power and of this knowledge was the
Titanic, which was thought to be invincible; it became the personification of
Human industrial Might.
But the Titanic was sank on its first journey and with it all humans’ belief in our
invincibility. This proved that we are still little and have much to learn and thedefeat of nature was still far away. Today, even the theory of evolutionism isconsidered to be an exaggeration and ever more people reject it. So, perhaps themost important legacies of Victorianism, Darwinism and Industrial Might – proved
to be only exaggerations and a proof of human arrogance.
We are still very much attached to the mystical side of the world and religion is
an important part of our existence. Although Victorianism was a period of great
technological progress, it was also a period of restrictions, of taboos and of
stereotypes. What eventually destroyed Victorianism was its artificiality, its desire
to kill human wild side. Even as Victorian England tried to assert its civilization
over and against the instinctual sides of life, it found them secretly fascinating. The
more England came into contact with other cultures that indulge sensuality,
physicality and other so-called irrational tendencies, the more fascinated it became.
Indeed, the society’s repression of its darker side only increased the fascination.
The most representative work about the decay of Victorianism as a way of life
is Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which is, of course, an exaggeration ofVictorian stereotypes, but not far from the truth. If we admit the fact that Hyde is
the worst side of human nature and Jekyll is the opposite of Hyde, than Jekyll is theother extreme of human nature, the artificial good one.
But any extreme is bad because it leaves no room for doubt and meditation orinterpretation. Although Victorianism was the height of England’s power, it also
planted the seeds of its destruction. English society became a content society,happy with what it was and, eventually, arrogant. But this well-being triggered ahalt in the development of real power.
England became more concerned to show off and it soon began to regress. It
was in the end out-classed by more pragmatically societies, just like the American
society. The First World War was the last one in which England stood as asuperpower. It soon became obvious that England and its precious life style231

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

couldn’t face alone such rising superpowers like U.S.S.R. and Germany and finally
had to give up its status of superpowers in the favor of the U.S.A.
Even so, the end of the Victorianism was not a violent one and its legacy is tobe found even today. So, Victorianism marks the beginning of the end for the
British rule over the World.
His cast of characters was drawn from all social classes. Even though heconstantly criticized English society, however, Dickens was too much a man of histime to question the fundamental values of the Victorian age. Like his readers, hebelieved in a happy family life, Christianity, material prosperity, hard work, andhuman decency. In his books those are the ingredients of a happy ending. In his
life, those ingredients weren’t quite so satisfying – and he couldn’t understandwhy. At the pinnacle of his achievement, Dickens felt that everything he had
worked for had turned into hollow and ashy disappointment. In spite of all his
political satire, society hadn’t changed for the better. Although he was a wealthy
man now, it only meant he had to sustain a more expensive lifestyle. He couldn’t
seem to get close to his children. As a celebrity, he no longer felt he belonged toany social class, or had any real friends. It was in this mood that he commenced
writing Great Expectations in 1860. But writing brought no release.
Dickens did not write such a profound novel because his public demanded
something heavy; he wrote it because his vision of life was growing complex, andhe was too great a genius to simplify it. Luckily, he was also a great enough genius
to write a book that people could enjoy. Though Dickens bared his psychologicalproblems in this novel, he was still trying to reach out to his readers, to make themsee their own lives more clearly. Perhaps this is why people love Dickens because
he is so human, so honest, and so much likes all of us.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bradbury, Nicola (1990). Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. New York: St.
Martin’s Press.
Brooks-Davies, Douglas (1989). Charles Dickens: Great Expectations. London:
Penguin.
Calder, Angus (1981). “Introduction” to Great Expectations. London: Penguin.
Carlisle, Janice (ed.) (1996). Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Boston:Bedford Books of St Martin’s Press.
Cotsell, Michael (ed.) (1990). Critical Essays on Charles Dickens’s Great
Expectations. Boston, MA: G. K. Hall.
Delaney, D., C. Ward, & Carla Rho Fiorina (2003). Fields of Vision. Literature in
the English Language, London: Longman.
Meckier, Jerome (1990). Innocent Abroad: Charles Dickens’ American
Engagements. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.
Slater, Michael (2009). Charles Dickens: A Life Defined by Writing. New
Haven/London: Yale University Press.

232

Le mot LIMBĂ (‘Langue’) dans les expressions du roumain
courant actuel (organisation sémantique)*Ancuţa GUŢĂ,Ilona BĂDESCU
Université de Craiova,
Faculté des Lettres

ABSTRACT: The Word LIMBĂ (‘Language’) in Contemporary Romanian
Idioms (Semantic Organization)
The authors deal with an analyze model of a word meanings (language-limbă) based
upon the semantically characters rendered by the great amount of idioms in which
they appear in the nowadays current Romanian language. Their reorganization andlogical hierarchy (based upon some ontology) refer to the evolution from theconcrete to the abstract or to the turning up of some particular meanings dependingon the word primary meaning. It is necessary to re-systematize the lexical source inorder to create an on line semantically network in use for the current Romanian
language of our present days.
KEYSWORDS: nowadays current Romanian language, semantically analyze,
semantically links

Nous proposons un modèle d’organisation sémantique plus systématique pour une
entrée de dictionnaire électronique qui puisse permettre l’accès plus facile au sens
du mot ainsi qu’à toutes ses nuances telles qu’elles apparaissent dans les
expressions1 de la langue roumaine courante actuelle.
Pour illustrer cette nouvelle organisation de la définition lexicographique, nous
avons choisi le mot LIMBĂ ‘langue’ qui est un mot polysémique et dont l’analyse
nous a permis d’identifier tant les sèmes communs qui assurent la cohésion dessens que les sèmes variables qui différencient ces sens à l’aide des contextes
fournis par les expressions où le mot est présent avec ses formes fléchies.
Notre analyse sera limitée uniquement à la langue roumaine courante actuelle etlaisse de côté les sens portant, dans les dictionnaires, les indications (régional),(populaire), (familier), (vieilli), (argot) ainsi que les mots composés, les emplois
métaphoriques, les constructions analogiques, etc.
Les dictionnaires donnent les sens de ce mot regroupés dans deux grandes
catégories en fonction des sèmes de base qui concernent la langue en tantque « organe anatomique » :(I.) et ceux qui concernent la langue comme « systeme de communication(II.) entre les humains ».
233

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

I. Sur la base des sèmes communs [organe anatomique], [charnu], [allongé],[mobile], [placé dans la bouche], on peut opérer une première délimitation dessens :
1. « organe ayant la fonction tactile, gustative, de mastication et dedéglutition » accompagné de sèmes généraux [+humain], [+animal] ;2. « organe ayant la fonction locutoire (langage articulé) » accompagné dusème [+humain].
Dans l’inventaire des expressions qui illustrent les sens regroupés sous I.1.,
nous avons pourtant remarqué que le mot limbă se caractérise par l’absence dusème [+animal]. Les expressions qui relèvent du sème général [+humain] sont lessuivantes :● A pune (ceva) pe limbă « manger très peu, goûter » (A pus pe limbă doarapă) /vs/ A nu pune nimic pe limbă « ne rien manger »Ex. De ieri n-am mai pus nimic pe limbă.

● Cât ai pune pe limbă « goûter du bout de la langue »Ex. Nu mi-a dat nici cât să pun pe limbă.

Du sens propre relevant du comportement de l’animal [+animal], il s’est passé
un glissement de sens vers le comportement des humains [+humain], au sens
figuré, dans les expressions suivantes :● (A alerga/a umbla/a veni/a aştepta) cu limba scoasă « être dans le besoin,désirer sans obtenir satisfaction »Ex. …noul ministru al Sănătăţii umblă cu limba scoasă după chiftele fast-food....
(adevarul.ro)● A alerga/a umbla după ceva (sau după cineva) cu limba scoasă « chercher àobtenir quelque chose, à trouver quelqu’un à tout prix »Ex. Cei mici alergau cu limba scoasă la “Kinosbornik”, o selecţie de filme cu desene
animate. (liliuta.weblog.ro)● A scoate/a-i ieşi cuiva limba de un cot « perdre son souffle à cause del’effort ; être au bout des forces »Ex. Când au scos limba de un cot, au spus ‘eu nu mai pot’ şi au ales să plece.
(ziare.com)

Le sème [+humain] est un sème général. Les différences sémantiques entre lessens 1. et 2. sont marquées par le sème [+parole] qui vient s’ajouter à ce sème234

Ancuţa Guţă, Ilona Bădescu: Le mot LIMBĂ dans les expressions du roumain courant actuel

général, la disparition du sème [+animal] étant implicite. En revanche, d’autressèmes secondaires variables apparaissent dans les contextes créés par d’autres
expressions qui illustrent les diverses façons de parler, de s’exprimer(difficilement, ironiquement, courageusement, malicieusement, élégamment,
amicalement, etc.) ou bien l’impossibilité de parler :● A i se dezlega (cuiva) limba[+humain], [+parole] [+début de l’action] :a. sens propre « commencer à parler »Ex. Acestui copil i s-a dezlegat limba la doi ani.

[+humain], [+parole] [+reprise de l’action], [+courage] :b. sens figuré « devenir plus communicatif »Ex. După o oră de tăcere i s-a dezlegat limba şi ne-a povestit multe lucruri.

[+humain], [+parole] [+reprise de l’action], [+courage] :● A prinde limbă « oser prendre la parole »Ex. Tudorel… prinsese limbă, vorbea mai degajat. (Călinescu, BI apud DLR, p. 83).

[+humain], [+parole] [+difficulté] [+défaut], [+permanent] :● A vorbi în vârful limbii « zézayer ».
[+humain], [+parole] [+difficulté] [-défaut], [+temporaire], [+cause] :● A i se încurca limba în gură « articuler, prononcer difficilement les mots àcause de l’émotion ou de l’ébriété »[+humain], [+parole], [+défaut] :● A avea limba legată « ankiloglosie »Ex. …tulburari de vorbire. Limba legată. (copilul.ro)[+humain], [+parole], [+rapidité] :● A fi iute de limbă « parler très vite”[+humain], [+parole] [+élégance] [+éloquence] :● (A avea) limbă de aur « parler soigneusement, avec éloquence »● A fi cu limba (fagure) de miere « parler soigneusement, avec éloquence »[+humain], [+parole], [+éloquence], [+persuasion] :● (A avea) limbă ascuțită/a-i umbla limba cu ascuţime « être douer de la facultede convaincre par la parole ; être éloquent »235

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010[+humain], [+parole] [+bavardage] [+indiscrétion] :● (A avea) limbă lungă/ (a fi) lung de/la, în limbă « parler trop, bavarder ; êtreincapable de garder un secret »[+humain], [+parole] [+bavardage] [+permanent] :● A avea mâncărime la/de limbă « ressentir en permanence le besoin de parler ;être bavard ».
● A-l mânca/a-l arde limba « ressentir en permanence le besoin de parler ; êtrebavard ».
[+humain], [+parole] [+bavardage] [+indiscrétion] [+décence] :● A fi slobod la limbă (sau limbă slobodă) « être bavard ; être excessivement
sincère ; être imprudent, incapable de garder un secret »Ex. …în faţa unor copii mai agresivi, cu o limbă slobodă… (copilul.ro)[+humain], [+parole] [+discrétion] [+décence] [+modération] :● A-și pune frâu la limbă/ a-și înfrâna/a-și struni limba « parler sagement/
prudemment ; avec modération »[+humain], [+parole], [+bavardage], [+méchanceté], [+ironie] :● (A avea/a fi) limbă (foarte) ascuțită (veninoasă, otravită, neagră, rea, deșarpe) « parler avec méchanceté ; être bavard, malicieux »● A înțepa cu limba = « parler avec ironie ; être malicieux »[+humain], [+parole], [+méchanceté] :● (A spune/a ponegri) cu limbă înveninată/veninoasă.
[+humain], [+parole], [+regret] :● A-și mușca limba « regretter d’avoir dit ce qu’il ne fallait pas dire »[+humain], [+parole], [+conséquence]
Il est intéressant à remarquer que cette expression employée très fréquemment àl’impératif change le sème secondaire qui devient [–parole] et accepte d’autressèmes qui marquent l’intervention d’une autre personne qui veut imposer une
restriction : [+humain], [–parole], [+restriction]
Ex. Muşcă-ţi limba !

● A muri/pieri pe limba lui « subir les conséquences de ses paroles »Ex. Fiecare pasăre pe limba ei piere.

Il faut mentionner aussi l’intervention dans le but de faire parler quelqu’und’autre. Les sèmes seront donc orientées vers la personne sur laquelle on agit[+humain], [+parole d’autrui], [+persuasion] :236

Ancuţa Guţă, Ilona Bădescu: Le mot LIMBĂ dans les expressions du roumain courant actuel● A trage pe cineva de limbă « faire parler quelqu’un pour le faire dévoiler unsecret »Il y a des expressions qui illustrent l’importance du dernier désir exprimé par un
individu à l’aide des paroles solennelles prononcées avant de quitter ce monde,
paroles qui visent à imposer le respect et l’obligation morale de la part des autres.
[+humain], [+parole], [+solennel], [+obligation morale] :● A lăsa cu limbă de moarte « exprimer son dernier désir ».
● A lega pe cineva cu limbă de moarte « obliger quelqu’un (par serment) àaccomplir un dernier désir »Les expressions marquées par le sème variable [–parole] sont assez nombreuses.
Elles marquent l’impossibilité interne (physiologique) de parler ou larestriction/l’ordre auto imposés ou imposés par une autre personne.
[+humain] [–parole] [+volonté] [+courage] :● A nu avea limbă în gură/de grăit « ne pas pouvoir/vouloir/oser parler ou direquelque chose »[+humain] [–parole] [+volonté] :● A avea limba legată « vouloir/s’imposer de ne pas parler »● A-și tine limba (în gură) « s’abstenir de parler ; se taire de sa propre volonté »● A-i sta cuiva pe limbă să spună ceva « être sur le point de dire quelque chosemais s’abstenir »Ex. Îmi stătea pe limbă să-i zic vreo două.

[+humain] [–parole] [+émotion] :● A-și înghiti limba « devenir muet d’émotion/étonnement »[+humain] [ parole] [+restriction] :● A scurta/a tăia/a lega (cuiva) limba « obliger quelqu’un à se taire (pour ne
pas dire quelque chose d’offensant ».
[+humain], [ parole], [+impossibilité] :● A-i sta/umbla pe limbă şi a nu putea spune « ne pas pouvoir se souvenir
immédiatement une chose connue mais oubliée »II. Le deuxième sens du mot LIMBĂ concerne le système de communication.
1. Une première combinaison de sèmes renvoie à la communication
spécifiquement humaine, basée sur les sons articulés. On remarque l’apparition dessèmes spécifiques qui impliquent le processus d’apprentissage selon que l’action
est orientée vers soi même ou vers une autre personne.
237

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010[+humain] [+langage] [+compréhension] :● A (nu) vorbi aceeaşi limbă cu cineva « avoir la même façon de penser et des’exprimer que son interlocuteur ; se comprendre réciproquement ».
[+humain] [+langage] [+comprehension] [+intention] :● A vorbi/a spune ceva pe limba cuiva « parler dans le but de faire comprendre
le message à son interlocuteur »[+humain] [+langage] [+volonté] [+apprentissage] :● A prinde o limbă „apprendre une langue étrangere”.
2. Le mot LIMBĂ entre dans la composition de nombreuses expressions concernent
le langage d’une communauté humaine, historiquement constituée, caracterisé parune structure grammaticale, phonétique et lexicale propre. Ces expressions sontemployées dans le langage de spécialité de la linguistique, pouvant être appelés
métalangage. Par exemple :● limbă comună « langue commune »● limbă curentă « langue courante »● limbă standard « langue standard »● limbă naturală/artificială « langue naturelle/artificielle »● limbă-mamă/limbă fiică « langue-mère »/« langue fille »● limbă clasică « langue classique”● limbă moartă/vie « langue morte/vivante »● limbă vorbită/scrisă « langue parlée/écrite »● limbă naţională « langue nationale »● limbă oficială « langue officielle »● limbă de stat « langue d’état »● limbă flexionară/neflexionară « langue flexionnelle/non flexionnelle », etc.
● limbă sintetică/analitică/aglutinantă « langue synthétique/analytique/agglutinante », etc.
Le mot LIMBĂ apparait uniquement au pluriel dans les expressions familie delimbi « famille de langues », limbi romanice « langues romanes », etc.
3. Lorsqu’on analyse l’œuvre d’un écrivain, sa façon propre de s’exprimer, sonstyle particulier, on utilise également des expressions du type :● limba lui Eminescu « la langue d’Eminesco », limba lui Creangă « la languede Creangă », limba vechilor cazanii « la langue des anciens documents religieux »où le mot LIMBĂ est défini par les semes [+humain] [+langage littéraire][+particularités] [+écrit].
4. Le système de sons articulés mis a part, le mot LIMBĂ peut désigner la totalitédes moyens et procédés utilisés pour exprimer/communiquer des idées etsentiments, donc un langage non articulé idei și sentimente = limbaj.
238

Ancuţa Guţă, Ilona Bădescu: Le mot LIMBĂ dans les expressions du roumain courant actuel[+humain] [+langage] [ articulé] :● limba surdomuților « la langue des sourds muets »Conclusion
L’inventaire des expressions contenant le mot LIMBĂ met en évidence la richesse
des sèmes qui s’établissent pour les sens généraux et les sens spécifiques variables
à l’interieur de la relation sémantique de polysémie qui caractérise ce mot.
NOTES
* Cet article présente les résultats partiels de la recherche menée dans le cadre du projet PN II. IDEI
no 375/2008, intitulé « WordNet – reţea semantică on line pentru limba română curentă actuală »(‘WordNet – réseau sémantique en ligne pour la langue roumaine courante actuelle’).
1
Le terme englobe structures, syntagmes, constructions, locutions, structures figées, collocations.

BIBLIOGRAPHIE*** (1958). Dicţionarul limbii române moderne. Bucureşti : Editura Academiei
Republicii Populare Române.
*** (1998). Dicţionarul explicativ al limbii române, Academia Română, Institutul
de Lingvistică « Iorgu Iordan ». Bucureşti : Univers Enciclopedic*** (2001). Dicţionar de ştiinţe ale limbii. Bucureşti : Nemira.
*** (2008). Dicţionarul limbii române (DLR), Serie nouă, Tomul V, Litera L (LiLuzulă). Bucureşti : Editura Academiei Române.
Bidu-Vrănceanu, Angela, & Narcisa Forăscu (1984). Modele de structurare
semantică. Timişoara : Facla.
—— (2005). Limba română contemporană : lexicul. Bucureşti : Humanitas
Educaţional.
Nyckees, Vincent (1998). La semantique. Paris : Belin.
Rastier, François (1995). « La sémantique des thèmes ou le voyage sentimental ».
In : François Rastier et Eveline Martin (coord.). L’analyse thématique desdonnées textuelles. L’exemple des sentiments. Paris : Didier.
Şerban, Vasile, & Ivan Evseev (1978). Vocabularul românesc contemporan.
Timişoara : Facla.
Touratier, Christian (2004). La semantique. Paris : Armand Colin.
<http://www.adevarul.ro/7ian 2010>, consulté le 15.02.2010.
<http://liliuta.weblog.ro/tag/obsesii/>, consulté le 15.02.2010.
<http://www.ziare.com/articole/album+nicu+covaci>, consulté le 15.02.2010.
<http://www.copilul.ro/copii-3-6ani/limbaj/>, consulté le 15.02.2010.

239

Verbal Expression of Modality in Teaching the Conditional,
from the Perspective of Romanian as a Foreign Language
Ada ILIESCU
University of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages

ABSTRACT
Kantian principle of interpretation of each sentence / phrase – that sets out ways – isapplicable to all sectors report system, as modality problem meaning can be found at all levelsof language, arranged hierarchically. Our concern – as teachers – is the student notice and thesemantic point of view syntagmatic expression of utterances, which emphasizes therelationship of domination verbal centres, compared to the determinants of different levels.
In teaching compliance, semantic values of the time records are dominant, they walking into
dance logic of mailing time. We have also insisted on the expression of unity quality ofparadigmatic in syntagmatic and on the fixation, in language patterns, of morph syntacticaland lexical structures, taught both in first semester, and also in the second semester.
KEYWORDS: modal statement, conditional statement, values, semantic, syntactic pattern

It is an eternal truth that each person, who is speaking, activates the language
system, through the communication of modal contents – whatever he/she says –and, that’s why, he/she becomes, as a speaker of a language, a tool of the modality,and his/her inherent implication of subjectivity in speaking represents an argument
for writing of these lines.
It is always necessary, in teaching Romanian as a foreign language, that eachteaching lesson should strengthen some “anchors” as helping tools for the further
lessons. It is also advisable that these “acquisitions” should be revised, and,without creating frustrations, they should become, in time, “automatism,” in thebest meaning of the word!
Therefore, the practicing professor, starting with the consistence of a language
fact, of a syntactical model, tries to keep the balance between what he has taught
previously, knows, in this way, “the duty obligations.”
Any new lesson imposes – as compulsoriness – the establishment of some
“specific conventions” to each language fact which have to be taught. For example,
if it is taught the number category, it is necessary to revise the notions about letter,sound, vowel, semivowel, consonant, diphthong and phonological alternatives,completing the lesson with new notions about the morpheme analysis of a word
(ending, inflection, etc.).
If we go further to the teaching of temporality, of modality, of causality, ofconcession, and, in our case, of condition1, we resume the previous moods,
especially the indicative tenses, which will be “verbal cores”, both in Conditional
240

Ada Iliescu: Verbal Expression of Modality in Teaching the Conditional, from the...

Sentence and in Regent (about which it is said that it can be only Main Sentence,but on time, there are taught more intricate models, when the Regent can be
syntactically different), reminding to the students not only their paradigms, but
especially, their semantic values2, useful for the understanding of conditional
enunciation.
It is also known that the ideal of teaching of a language fact, of a “model/patternof language,” with other words belonging to a morph syntactical and lexical
structure, is not to bring the student to the phase to bring “morphological feast,”
speaking in paradigms, but we try to determine the student to be capable ofincluding, by himself/herself, these paradigms in syntactical structures.
For example, after we have taught the verb at present indicative, for both
regular and irregular verbs, and after teaching the verbs with vowel gradation, we
explain to the foreign students how they can include these verbs in syntacticalstructures, making up various sentences, in number of fifteen or seventeen, fromthe beginning of the third week, when it is taught the verb to be in patterns. The
auxiliary elements are those items, omnipresent and necessary in conversation, inall existing languages, such as: who, whom, what, with what, where, from
where, when, since when, how long, how, how much/how many, why (the causeof a negative result), why (the aim of a positive result) etc.:
For example: TO WALK /TO GO
Cine? /Who?
Cu cine? /Whom?
Cu ce? /By what?
Ce? /What?
Unde? /Where?

Copilul merge./The child is walking/going.
David merge cu familia./David walks/goes with his family.
Tu mergi cu taxiul./You walk/go by taxi.
(the verbs of motion do not have direct object)
Studenţii merg la facultate./The students walk/go to the faculty.

These language patterns expresses the idea that the paradigmatic andsyntagmatic are bound osmotic, making up a whole, by joining the paradigmatic
axis with syntagmatic axis. The syntagmatic is an auxiliary element ofsegmentation and classification, and the paradigms become, in turns, the materialof the syntagmatic and, together, make up “diagnostic contexts” 3 relevant – aslanguage patterns.
Studying deeply, we consider that the syntagmatic expression of enunciations,in Romanian language, is obtained by the association, gradually, of some elements,
which highlight the domination relations of verbal centres, in contrast with thedeterminers of different degrees.
The selection of elements, as lexical material, do not suppose only the checkingof paradigmatic characteristics, but also the proper semantic insertion, in thelanguage patterns exposed, in first phase, on the board (both at syntagmatic level,
but also in semantic level), operating with a language pattern, of intermediarylanguage, known by all students, and, in special cases, in the language known by acertain student (Arabic, Greek, Bulgarian, Albanian) who does not speak any
international language (English, French, Spanish etc.).
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As we know, beginning with Noam Chomsky, it is trying to be interpreted thelanguage facts, syntactically, and from semantic point of view, so long Morphology
cannot be understood, especially by a foreign student, if we not appeal to
Semantics unified with Syntax, as well as its benefits.
As mentioned above, we appeal in teaching conditional, in our case, to“acquisitions” obtained from the previous explanations, where the practicing
professor took care of fixing strong “anchors”, which will be helpful for him/her infuture. In other words, the conventions specific to the teaching conditional consistof both indicative mood, with all its tenses, and conjunctive mood, useful when it isexplained the phenomenon of syntactic and semantic synonymy, of expressing adesired action, but unfulfilled (If I had repeated,… = Should have repeated,…),therefore when we teach the conjunctive with conditional value.
We do not waste time, in teaching, with the writing on the board of the verbal
paradigms at these moods, because, paradoxically, even if the verb is amorphological class, amply represented in Romanian Language Dictionary, it ismaybe the only one which, due to the teaching of its morphematic pattern(R–S–D), do not imply any type of difficulty, “automizing” in almost two weeks.
What is repeated, with accuracy and professionalism, is the “semantic
opposition” between indicative and conjunctive, afterwards the conditional,
insisting on this by constantly repeating: why they are useful in speaking, when we
use them, in what contexts, and, mainly, the fact that to each personal moodcorresponds – a modal function. For example:
The indicative is part of <certainty>;
The conjunctive is part of <possible>;
The conditional is part of <possibility, in certain conditions>;
The optative is part of <desired>.
These semantic features of the verbs are, both lexical means and grammaticalmeans of modality expression, but the grammatical peculiarities of the verbs are
determined by their condition of associated term in a syntactic unit, of syntagmaticstyle.
After that, there are repeated the semantic values of indicative tenses, which, invarious contexts, both in Conditional and in Regent, entering “a logic dance,” ofso-called Correspondence of Tenses or Sequence of Tenses. For example, themost useful is:
The imperfect (durative, with open period):a) Durative:# Dacă locuiam în centru, nu luam taxiul. ## Dacă erai cu noi în grupă, aveai mulţi prieteni. ## Dacă era liber, îţi aducea dicţionarul. ## If I had lived in centre I shouldn’t have taken the taxi. ## If you had been in our group you would have had many friends. #242

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# If he had been free he would have brought the dictionary. #b) Iterative (repeatable):# Dacă mereu vorbea încet, nu-l auzea nimeni. ## Dacă mâncam alune, totdeauna beam multă apă. ## De obicei, venea pe jos, dacă nu găsea un taxi. ## If he always spoke in a low voice nobody could not hear him. ## If I ate peanuts I always drank much water. ## He usually went on foot, if he did not find a taxi. #c) Conditional:# Dacă avea timp, venea cu voi la teatru. ## Cu siguranţa că reuşea, dacă învăţa mai bine. ## If he had time, he came with us to the theatre. ## He would have succeeded for sure, if he had learned better. #In terms of conferred time, a lot of examples of this type can be given. Then,
there are interpreted each sentence/complex sentence, partly, as “modal
enunciation,” separating the modal enunciations, both through verbal tenses ofConditional and Regent, and “ultra modality problem” through grammatical andlexical means, as well as by supra segmental means (intonation).
The Kantian principle of interpretation of each sentence/complex sentence – asmodal enunciation – can be applied to all components of verbal system, because
the “modality significance” can be found at all levels of languages, hierarchically.
For instance:
1. Conditional intonations;
2. Optative intonations;
3. Verbal moods, at morphological level;
4. Verbal moods, at lexical level;
5. Verbal moods, at semantic level.
The notion of mood is explained when it is taught the paradigm of the verbs “tobe” and “to have (got)”, emphasizing the idea that the MOOD is a grammaticalcategory specific only to the verb, comparatively with the grammatical category of
number and person, which complete the status of other categories too. This
category is expressed by forms taken from the verb to update discursively themodality. .
In Romanian language, there is an inequality between the number of modal
values and the number of personal moods, capable of expressing them. It is already
fixed the “anchor” which emphasizes the fact that an action – conventional fromthe point of view of its accomplishment –, can be:
1. Real;
2. Possible;
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3. Conditioned or desired;
4. Uncertainty or supposed;
5. Ordered.
The indicative, with its different tenses, is the easiest mood to be taught andunderstood, so long, on the semantic oppositions: certainty/uncertainty, it
expresses real actions or with certain chances to be transposed in reality.
The modal group of uncertainty, which belongs to the conditional and optative(the unreal), expresses actions such as:
1. Conditioned actions;
2. Desired and supposed actions,from the point of view of the speaker who is not sure regarding the chances ofaccomplishing these actions.
The predicate-verb remains “centre of verbal communication,” at level ofsentence, and benefits, in modal pattern-making, from the semantic influences ofother contextual elements. For instance:
1) co presence of some modality semi auxiliaries (must/have to, can):# Dacă ar pleca, ar trebui să ia şi bilet. ## N-ar putea pleca, dacă nu i s-ar permite. ## If he left, he would have to take a ticket too. ## He could not leave, if he was not permitted to. #2) co presence of a supra segmental morpheme (of intonation):# Dacă şi-ar fi primejduit viaţa? Pentru cine? Şi… pentru ce? ## If she had put her life in danger? For who? And… for what? #As uncertainty mood, the conditional and optative are included in the sphere ofpossibility moods, due to the capacity of expressing:a. Conditioned possibility (through conditional):# Ar înţelege totul, dacă i s-ar traduce. ## She would understand everything if she was translated. #b. Desired possibility (through optative):# Dacă ar avea bani, ar putea lua avionul. ## If she had money she could take the plane. #As we can observe, we cannot speak about the existence of two moods:
conditional and optative, but we speak about two values of one mood.
In teaching conditional and conditional mood, the verb must be obligatorily
introduced in syntagms, and what characterizes the realization of different
conditional values is “its contextual distribution,” which influences its significance,
more than other moods:
244Ada Iliescu: Verbal Expression of Modality in Teaching the Conditional, from the...
# Dacă a scris atâtea cărţi bune, ar trebui premiat. ## Dacă voinţa lui ar fi fost alta, părinţilor nu le convenea. ## If he wrote so many good books, he should be prized. ## If his willingness had been different, the parents should have agreed. #The conditional is always recommended as a mood which emphasizes –semantic and phonetic –, the subjectivity of the speaker, his/her affective
implication, directly interested of what could have happened:# Dacă soţul n-ar fi dus-o la Spital, nu se ştie dacă o mai salva. ## Dacă s-ar întreba ce-şi doreşte, nici el n-ar şti. ## If the husband hadn’t taken her to the hospital it shouldn’t have known if they could
have saved her. ## If he asked himself what he wanted he wouldn’t know either. #In enunciations containing conjunction IF or conjunctional phrase IN CASE
(THAT), it is observed a secondary accent, a special intonation, permitting thepresenting of some modal nuances, which could be extended from the supposition
generated by an interior anxiety:# Dacă l-ar fi simţit minţind, precis se supăra. ## Dacă aş fi visat ce urmează, nu mă mai culcam niciodată. ## If he had felt lying, he would have got angry with him. ## If I had dreamt what followed I should have never gone to bed. #Beyond these important features, which was mentioned above, it is known thatthe moods develop, also modal functions, complementary, on the base which it iscreated the phenomenon of “moods synonymy,” exemplified by using a modal
form with the meaning of other. For example:
1. Indicative with value of unreality:# Dacă tu ştiai adresa, te convingeai singură. ## If you had known the address you would have seen for yourself. #2. Conjunctive with value of optative:# Să fi avut un dascăl bun, eram alt om. ## Să fi luat avionul, ajungea mai repede. ## Had I had a better teacher I should have been a different man. ## Had he gone by plane he would have arrived more quickly. #1. Conjunctive with value of unreality:# Să-i fi adus o stea în dar, atunci îl credea. ## Had he brought a star as a gift, then she would have believed him. #245

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If the practicing professor is sure that the foreign students have learned, notonly the verbal paradigms at present and perfect conditional, but also its nuances indifferent “diagnostic contexts,” then the professor can give “a bonus” to thestudents, showing them in the following lesson other nuances, too:a. <emphatic and parenthetical >:# Dacă vrei sa ştii – ar trebui să ştii – , tot omul greşeşte ! ## If you want to know – you should know – each person makes mistakes! #b. <necessary and compulsory>:# Dacă merită, ar trebui să demonstreze. ## If he deserves he should demonstrate. #c. <necessary and probable>:# Dacă s-ar cere să fim temerari, ar trebui să urcăm pe Everest. ## If we were asked to be fearless we should climb the Everest. #d. <necessary and imperative>:# Dacă ar trebui blocată fereastra, n-ar mai intra câinele. ## If the window had to be blocked, the dog should not enter. #After the professor have accomplished “the work obligations,” and the students– the present leaders of “didactic discourse”4 –, demonstrates, by correct answers,that they learned very well the new-taught lesson, then it can be given, as
homework, the making up of “bi verbal syntagms” – logical judgements, having ascore the morpheme IF, with optional and conditional value.
In modern didactics it is transmitted the idea that “the teaching itself” of alesson can be made starting from “icon elements,” under the form of “somesketches,” intelligently thought, so that it could be surprised, at least, “the zerolevel” of difficulties of language fact, which will become linguistic model (pattern)
to be to “automatized.”5
Regardless of what method the professor will choose at the class, depending on
the preponderant national group – without neglecting any foreign student –,regardless of how many languages the professor will explain so that the entire
group should understand (because it cannot be taught by “pantomime”), regardlessof if the students are passive or motivated or hyper motivated, the scope of theprofessor is just the explicit desire of students, mainly that – “to settle, in eternal
patterns, the perfection.”
NOTES
1Valeria Guţu Romalo (1972). Sintaxa limbii române. Probleme şi interpretări. Bucureşti: Editura
Didactică şi Pedagogică, 114.
2
W. von Humboldt develops the idea that the concepts are organized in semantic fields.
3
According to the scholar Ferdinand de Saussure, any linguistic system permits two variants:

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Ada Iliescu: Verbal Expression of Modality in Teaching the Conditional, from the...
a) paradigmatic variant – in quality of storage area of possibilities of linguistic expression,
wherefrom the speaker, by selection, extracts the most proper element for the communication
context;b) syntagmatic variant – in quality of disposing zone of functional elements, in a certain series,
on horizontal axis. To sum up, the paradigmatic characterizes the system, and the syntagmaticis specific to the structure. A syntactic function means, in paradigmatic plan, a class of
distribution, and, in syntagmatic plan, a constant position and, implicitly, a constant relation.
Both for foreign students and native speakers, the syntax of functions is graft, generally, on thepredicate-verb.
4
V. Dospinescu (1998). Semiotică şi discurs didactic. Bucureşti: Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică,323.
5
Tatiana Slama-Cazacu (1999). Psiholingvistica. O ştiinţă a comunicării. Bucureşti: All.

BIBLIOGRAPHY*** (2005). Gramatica Academiei. Bucureşti: Editura Academiei Române.
Harmer, J. (1991). The Practice of English Language Teaching. London and New
York: Longman Handbooks.
Hjelmslev, L. (1967). Preliminarii la o teorie a limbii. Bucureşti: Editura Didactică
şi Pedagogică.
Pétroff, A.J. (1984). “Sémiologie de la reformulation dans le discours scientifiqueet technique”. Langue française, no 64.
Rivers, W.M. (1977). Formarea deprinderilor de limbă străină. Bucureşti: Editura
Didactică şi Pedagogică.
Saussure, Ferdinand de (1998). Curs de lingvistică generală, traducere şi cuvântînainte de Izverna Tarabac, Ediţie critică de Tullio De Mauro. Iaşi: Polirom.
Widdowson, H.-G. (1981). Une approche communicative de l’enseignement deslangues. Paris: Hatier-Crédif.

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El personaje literario, un mero simulacro o una
individualidad trascendental en la narrativa fantásticade Jorge Luis Borges y la de Mircea EliadeAndreea ILIESCU
Universidad de Craiova,
Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras Aplicadas

ABSTRACT: The Literary Character, a Mere Simulacrum or the Individualized
Transcendental in the Fantastic Narrative of Jorge Luis Borges and Mircea Eliade
The fantastic literature requires a thorough reading in order to decipher every
meaning of the text. Borges’ narrative work embodies a literary synthesis of his
philosophical convictions, and beliefs crystallized into his impressive short-stories.
The writer seems to amuse himself at the expense of his characters, employed asmere tools meant to prove an idea, and chooses to entirely ignore the psychologicalindividuality. As the plot engulfs the short-story space, the human dimension iscompletely abandoned in favour of an intricate mental experiment. Mircea Eliade’s
fantastic dimension, on the other hand, lies disguised within the daily life of his
characters, who reveal to us new paths to gain access to Knowledge; they also carryout their mission of drawing attention to the deceitful certainties provoked by alimited perception of reality. Eliade acquaints us with some febrile minds, subjected
to a translation from the real level to the imaginary one.
KEYWORDS: the absolute, an existential transgression, cognitive approach

El examen más superficial de los cuentos de Borges muestra que en ellos no hay
personas, hay argumentos. Los personajes están del todo subordinados a la trama yson, como en el ajedrez, meras piezas dotadas de un número prefijado deposibilidades; para el lector puede haber sorpresas, causadas por la presentación delos hechos, pero para los personajes no hay sino inexorables derroteros. Los
compadritos, a pesar de su color local, son compadritos plátonicos y cumplen
destinos de autómatas; asesinan sin odio, por una especie de fatalidad que el autor
tampoco condena ni deplora.
Francisco Real, el hombre de la esquina rosada, provoca a Rosendo Juárez
porque sí, con el propósito de medir su coraje; también es gratuita la provocación aJuan Dahlmann en El Sur.
Los de la otra mesa parecían ajenos a él. Dahlmann, perplejo, decidió que nada
había ocurrido y abrió el volumen de las Mil y una noches, como para tapar larealidad. Otra bolita lo alcanzó a los pocos minutos, y esta vez los peones se rieron.
Dahlmann se dijo que no estaba asustado, pero que sería un disparate que él, un248

Andreea Iliescu: El personaje literario, un mero simulacro o una individualidad...
convaleciente, se dejara arrastrar por desconocidos a una pelea confusa. Resolvió
salir; ya estaba de pie cuando el patrón se le acercó y lo exhortó con voz alarmada:– Señor Dahlmann, no les haga caso a esos mozos, que están medio alegres.
Dahlmann no se extrañó de que el otro, ahora, lo conociera, pero sintió que estas
palabras conciliadoras agravaban, de hecho, la situación. Antes, la provocación delos peones era a una cara accidental, casi a nadie; ahora iba contra él y contra su
nombre y lo sabrían los vecinos. Dahlmann hizo a un lado al patrón, se enfrentó con
los peones y les preguntó qué andaban buscando. (Borges, 2002: 214)

Otras veces hay un móvil de venganza, pero se cumple sin ira, como un
sacrificio ritual; así, el negro de El fin mata a Martín Fierro para vengar la muertede su hermano y, aunque se nos diga que en su última frase hay odio, no lo
notamos y hasta nos parece que esa venganza demorada durante siete años se lleva
a cabo sin ganas, por una especie de sentimiento del deber.
– Una cosa quiero pedirle antes que nos trabemos. Que en este encuentro ponga
todo su coraje y toda su maña, como en aquel otro de hace siete años, cuando mató ami hermano.
Acaso por primera vez en su dialógo, Martín Fierro oyó el odio. Su sangre losintió como un acicate. Se entreveraron y el acero filoso rayó y marcó la cara delnegro. Hay una hora de la tarde en que la llanura está por decir algo; nunca lo dice otal vez lo dice infinitamente y no lo entendemos, o lo entendemos pero es
intraducible como una música... Desde su catre, Recabarren vio el fin. Una
embestida y el negro reculó, perdió pie, amagó un hachazo a la cara y se tendió en
una puñalada profunda, que penetró en el vientre. Después vino otra que el pulpero
no alcanzó a precisar y Fierro no se levantó. Inmóvil, el negro parecía vigilar su
agonía laboriosa. Limpió el facón ensangrentado en el pasto y volvió a las casas con
lentitud, sin mirar para atrás. Cumplida su tarea de justiciero, ahora era nadie. Mejor
dicho, era el otro: no tenía destino sobre la tierra y había matado a un hombre.
(Idem: 197-198)

Ignoramos el motivo del asesinato de La espera; lo intuimos, también,
desapasionado y compulsivo, un acto que el homicida supone de justicia, como la
muerte de Glencairn, ejecutado por un loco entre las turbas del Punjab, en El
hombre en el umbral. El colmo del crimen desapasionado lo constituye el espía
chino de El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan: mata a un hombre llamado Stephen
Albert, para indicar, antes de caer preso, el nombre de la ciudad que deben
bombardear los alemanes. Esta ciudad se llama Albert y la víctima no cumple otra
función que la de revelarlo.
Albert se levantó. Alto, abrió el cajón del alto escritorio; me dio por un
momento la espalda. Yo había preparado el revólver. Disparé con sumo cuidado:
Albert se desplomó sin una queja, inmediatamente. Yo juro que su muerte fue
instantánea: una fulminación.
Lo demás es irrreal, insignificante. Madden irrumpió, me arrestó. He sidocondenado a la horca. Abominablemente he vencido: he comunicado a Berlín elsecreto de la ciudad que deben atacar. Ayer la bombardearon; lo leí en los mismos249

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
periódicos que propusieron a Inglaterra el enigma de que el sabio sinólogo Stephen
Albert muriera asesinado por un desconocido, Yu Tsun. El Jefe ha descifrado ese
enigma. Sabe que mi problema era indicar (a través del estrépito de la guerra) la
ciudad que se llama Albert y que no hallé otro medio que matar a una persona de ese
nombre. No sabe (nadie puede saber) mi innumerable contricción y cansancio.
(Idem: 117-118)

En general, las víctimas acatan su muerte con admirable estoicismo. No todos
son intelectuales puros en la medida en que lo es Lönnrot, el detective de La
muerte y la brújula que, al enterarse de que va a morir a los pocos instantes,
reacciona hablando de la paradoja de Zenón; pero lo habitual es una especie defatalismo en los pesonajes, que les permite sobrellevar sin rebeldía su condición devíctimas.
Lönnrot evitó los ojos de Scarlach. Miró los árboles y el cielo subdivididos enrombos turbiamente amarillos, verdes y rojos. Sintió un poco de frío y una tristezaimpersonal, casi anónima. Ya era de noche; desde el polvoriento jardín subió elgrito inútil de un pájaro. Lönnrot consideró por última vez el problema de lasmuertes simétricas y periódicas.
– En su laberinto sobran tres líneas – dijo por fin. Yo sé de un laberinto griegoque es una línea única, recta. En esa línea se han perdido tantos filósofos que bien
puede perderse un mero detective. Scarlach, cuando en otro avatar usted me dé caza,
finja (o cometa) un crimen en A, luego un segundo crimen en B, a 8 kilómetros deA, luego un tercer crimen en C, a 4 kilómetros de A y de B, a mitad de camino entre
los dos. Aguárdeme después en D, a 2 kilómetros de A y de C, de nuevo a mitad decamino. Máteme en D, como ahora va a matarme en Triste-le-Roy.
– Para la otra vez que lo mate – replicó Scarlach – le prometo ese laberinto, queconsista de una sola línea recta y que es invisible, incesante.
Retrocedió unos pasos. Después, muy cuidadosamente, hizo fuego. (Idem: 171172)

Es imposible no observar que, en todos los cuentos, los hombres se matan por
ideas (es el caso de Los teólogos y de Deutsches Requiem), por envidia, por vengar
otras muertes o simplemente porque sí; nunca matan por el motivo más común enlos crímenes pasionales, la rivalidad frente a una mujer. Y es que en los cuentos deBorges, como en la literatura gauchesca, la mujer tiene muy poca importancia; asus partidos de ajedrez falta una pieza que suele juzgarse esencial: falta laencarnizada reina. En muchos relatos no aparece ningún personaje femenino; enotros, pone a las mujeres en escena como un director teatral mandaría colocar un
jarrón o una silla, porque agregan verosimilitud al ambiente, pero son borrosas ocausales o, a lo sumo, indiferenciadas y pasivas. Emma Zunz pertenece a unargumento que no es de Borges; es forzoso admitir que ese único personaje
femenino con cierta personalidad, es poco atrayente: una atroz neurótica que sehace violar para cometer impunemente un crimen y atribuirlo a defensa propia.
Cabe añadir que Emma Zunz no tiene características femeninas, fuera de lasanatómicas; es, psicológicamente, bastante inverosímil que una mujer asesine a un
250

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hombre para vengar a su padre (venganza poco útil, además, puesto que no
devolvera el honor al padre injustamente condenado) y, menos aún, cuando es
preciso para ello someterse a la operación que lleva a Emma a buscar un marinero
en el Bajo.
Las mujeres suelen matar por motivos reprobables, pero directos: celos,
despecho, miedo, rarísimas veces por razones políticas, como Judith o Charlotte
Corday; jamás, para vengar remotas afrentas recibidas en la persona de otro. Emma
Zunz mata en frío, mucho después del agravio; lo hace como pudieron hacerlo elmoreno de Martín Fierro, el delincuente de La muerte y la brújula o el perseguidorde La espera y es, como ellos, un símbolo: la vengadora.
En los cuentos de Borges casi no hay personajes femeninos. Además de Emma
Zunz, aparecen dos fugaces mujeres: la innombrada pelirroja de El muerto y la
Lujanera de Hombre de la esquina rosada. Las dos son exactamente iguales y separecen a las aves de corral y a otras hembras de especies polígamas, en el hechode entregarse inmediatamente al macho que vence en la pelea o da pruebas demayor coraje. La Lujanera es la amante de Rosendo Juárez; basta que Francisco
Real se muestre más valiente que aquél para que ella lo siga deslumbrada; pero, alpoco rato, el joven narrador desafía y mata a Francisco Real y la Lujanera letransfiere sin vacilar su amor, si es que se puede llamar así a una adhesión tan
precaria. La pelliroja de Azevedo Bandeira duerme una noche con Otálora, porqueregresa victorioso de un tiroteo; muerto Otálora, volverá a su primer dueño, con lanaturalidad de un animal que obedece a los principio de la selección sexual
imaginados por Darwin. Estas mujeres son transferibles como objetos y así loentienden los hombres, que aspiran a ellas como a una especie de trofeo. Así leocurre a Bejamín Otálora: “La mujer, el apero y el colorado son atributos oadjetivos de un hombre que él aspira a destruir”. (La Lujanera, al menos, puede
resultar deseable por sí misma: “Verla, no daba sueño”). Sin embargo, estos dos
animalitos promiscuos y sumisos no llegan nunca a la sordidez de Emma Zunz, lamujer que utiliza el acto sexual para encubrir un homicidio y lo realiza con asco yhorror, en las condiciones más humillantes que puedan darse, sin más justificación
que la de servir a su odio.
Un cuento posterior, La intrusa, tiene por protagonistas a dos hermanos que,atraídos físicamente por la misma china, primero la comparten y después laasesinan para eliminar el objeto que los hacía rivales; aquí la infeliz ni siquiera
tiene la oportunidad de elegir entre ellos y, tras las alternativas del desdén y deldeseo, recibirá la muerte sin entender nada, en aras de la amistad de los bestiales
hermanos, que involuntariamente turbó.
La prostituta llamada la Cautiva en La noche de los dones es de este tipo, pero
en El informe de Brodie aparecen algunos personajes femeninos muy diferentes. La
señora mayor es una centenaria, descendiente de un héroe de la Independencia, quemuere como resultado del agasajo de su cumpleaños, “la última víctima de ese
tropel de lanzas en el Perú”. En El duelo, hay dos amigas que pintan
exclusivamente por mutua rivalidad, hasta tal punto que, al morir una de ellas, laotra pierde interés por su arte y abandona la pintura. Otra vengadora, la viuda de251

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

Juan Muraña en el cuento homónimo, matará con el cuchillo del malevo muerto
creyendo que es él quien le hace justicia.
A los personajes-piezas de Borges les falta individualidad, pero no psicología;
poseen los atributos del arquetipo y se parecen en esto a los personajes del teatro
clásico, que presentan los rasgos generales de un carácter y no sus modificaciones
individuales. Un hombre, por ejemplo, tiene la verosímil psicología del teólogo
frente a su rival, pero no la enriquecen las variantes y los matices que podrían
descenderlo de su condición de teólogo platónico y convertirlo en un ser humano.
Desde luego, no es esto lo que se proponen los cuentos; son demasiado cortos yesquemáticos para las complejidades de la psicología individual y el interés resideen las especulaciones metafísicas y en los argumentos derivados de ellas.
En Borges falta totalmente la idea de la culpabilidad. En efecto, no encontramos
en su obra ningún juicio ético, explícito ni implícito. Borges presenta sus
personajes sin demostrar simpatía por ninguno ni preocuparse por el problema delbien y del mal. Es que sería muy difícil identificarse con criaturas literarias que separecen tan poco a seres humanos y no mueven al lector ni a indignación, ni a odio,
ni a lástima. Nos interesan sus actos y no sus sentimientos; nos interesan lassituaciones que atraviesan; amor, ira o piedad están excluidos de una lectura que se
dirige casi exclusivamente a la inteligencia.
Las únicas cualidades que se presentan como despreciables son la cobardía y la
traición; Vincent Moon, Zaid, Pedro Damián están perseguidos por la culpa, pero
no así los homicidas que mataron “en buena ley”. Se deducirá que las cualidades
estimables son únicamente la lealtad y el coraje, pero se trata de una adhesión apersonas – al jefe de la banda, al caudillo, al reyezuelo, al simple amigo – sea cual
fuere su conducta, o a principios y de un coraje puramente físico, basado en laviolencia y no en la integridad espiritual. En suma, una ética primitiva, mucho más
característica de pueblos atrasados que de las complejas culturas europeas. Borges
admira, evidentemente, el valor físico, recuerda con orgullo las batallas en que
participaron sus antepasados y se deleita con las hazañas de oscuros guerreros
anglosajones; se les siente más cerca de la épica que de la lírica y habla con másplacer de “the soldier’s music and the rites of war” que de las quejas de Julieta antela alondra.
El ajedrez es tema constante en Borges y no es extraño que prefiera este juego aotros, ya que en él no interviene el azar y sólo vence la inteligencia. La idea de quesomos peones movidos por una mano, cuyo propósito ignoramos, está relacionada
con la de que somos apenas los sueños de un misterioso soñador, como lospersonajes del admirable cuento Las ruinas circulares; allí se narra la fábula de unhombre que sueña a otro hasta darle vida y, mucho después, descubre que él
tampoco es otra cosa que la corporización del sueño de alguien.
Borges utiliza sus personajes para desarrollar unos cuantos temas, tales como eleterno retorno, el destino, el laberinto, el infinito y la percepción del momento que
define a un hombre. Las técnicas del cuento también se repiten, pero con tanta
habilidad que siempre producen agrado: la de revelar, por ejemplo, el sentido delrelato en la última página y hasta en la última frase, a la manera de los cuenos
252Andreea Iliescu: El personaje literario, un mero simulacro o una individualidad...

policiales; la de narrar una historia conocida por boca de un personaje inesperado,
modificando el punto de mira habitual y permitiendo al lector que adivine poco apoco la fábula inspiradora, como en La casa de Asterión, donde es el Minotauro
quien habla del laberinto de Creta o en aquel esbozo de cuento incluido en El
Zahir, en el que un episodio del anillo de los Nibelungos está referido por el
dragón Fafnir.
Locke, en el siglo XVII, postuló (y reprobó) un idioma imposible en el que cadacosa individual, cada piedra, cada pájaro y cada rama tuviera un nombre propio;
Funes proyectó alguna vez un idioma análogo, pero lo desechó por parecerle
demasiado general, demasiado ambiguo. En efecto, Funes no sólo recordaba cadahoja de cada árbol, de cada monte, sino cada una de las veces que la había percibido
o imaginado. Resolvió reducir cada una de sus jornadas pretéritas, a unos setenta milrecuerdos, que definiría luego por cifras. Lo disuadieron dos consideraciones: laconciencia de que la tarea era interminable, la conciencia de que era inútil. Pensó
que en la hora de la muerte no habría acabado aún de clasificar todos los recuerdosde la niñez. (Idem: 133)

Convendría recordar aquí la frecuencia de algunos procedimientos típicos deBorges: los cuentos que aparecen dentro de otros cuentos; la presentación depersonas reales, a menudo escritores, que se mezclan a hechos fantásticos (en Tlön
se menciona a Bioy Casares, Carlos Mastronardi, Néstor Ibarra, Ezequiel Martínez
Estrada, Drieu La Rochelle, Alfonso Reyes, Enrique Amorim, la princesa deFaucigny y el mismo Borges, para citar el más abundante) y la conocida técnica deinventar libros y autores, ya sea como argumento del relato, ya para justificar citas
apócrifas que le den verosimilitud.
Ocurrió en un departamento de la calle Laprida, frente a un claro y alto balcón que
miraba al ocaso. La princesa de Faucigny Lucinge había recibido de Poitiers su
vajilla de plata. Del vasto fondo de un cajón rubricado de sellos internacionales iban
saliendo finas cosas inmóviles: platería de Utrecht y de París con dura fauna
heráldica, un samovar. Entre ellas – con un perceptible y tenue temblor de pájaro
dormido – latía misteriosamente una brújula. (Idem: 36)

Todos estos métodos, que tienden a confundir la realidad con la fantasía, son
muy característicos y agravan la índole inquietante de los cuentos; el willingsuspension of disbelief de que habla Coleridge, se facilita con esas pequeñas
trampas para el pensamiento lógico. La persona que conocemos, por lo menos denombre, o la cita verosímil de un libro perfectamente posible, predisponen la mentea aceptar los hechos fantásticos que vendrán después; de ahí, nuestro desasosiego,
cuando esa sólida estructura se desintegra en mundos alucinantes.
Los personajes no tendrán individualidad ni los distinguirá una complicada
psicología, pero el interés se mantiene siempre porque reside en una acción que se
cumple, con infalible cálculo, en el tiempo preciso. Los cuentos son casi todos
breves y hay una correspondiente concisión en los párrafos; los personajes y loshechos se van presentando en su momento exacto, como los razonamientos en la253

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demostración de un teorema; las situaciones se indican, a veces, con insuperable
economía. Además, todo lo que Borges escribe despierta interés porque exige al
lector una colaboración de su inteligencia, y éste goza tanto más cuanto mayor essu cultura; son frecuentes las alusiones literarias, históricas o filosóficas, cuya
percepción añade a los otros el placer de resolver un pequeño acertijo colocado alpasar.
La lectura de los cuentos de Borges, a pesar de la ausencia de pasiones, no está
desprovista de emoción. Es, en primer lugar, emoción estética que deriva de laforma perfecta, parecida a la de ciertas composiciones musicales del siglo XVIII;
del sentido dramático con que se desarrolla el argumento, manteniendo el suspenso
con toques a veces delicadísimos y, también, de esa prosa firme, flexible y
resplandeciente. Es, también, la inquietante emoción que sentimos ante una obra dearte aparentemente deshumanizada, cuando comprendemos que detrás de sus
abstracciones acecha, apenas perceptible, reprimido, sofocado y sojuzgado por larazón, un tumulto de tremendas fuerzas subterráneas que se vuelven más patéticas
por el hecho de permanecer casi informuladas. La crueldad, la violencia, el miedo,
la frustración y el desamparo están allí, admirablemente disfrazados depensamientos racionales pero comunicando en forma indirecta su carga emotiva.
Nadie que esté dotado de alguna sensibilidad puede leer estos cuentos sinadvertirlo.
Piensa en la historia decimal que ideó Condorcet; en las morfologías que
propusieron Hegel, Spengler y Vico; en los hombres de Hesíodo, que degenerandesde el oro hasta el hierro. Piensa en la transmigración de las almas, doctrina queda horror a las letras célticas y que el propio César atribuyó a los druidas británicos;
piensa que antes de ser Fergus Kilpatrick, Fergus Kilpatrick fue Julio César. De esos
laberintos circulares lo salva una curiosa comprobación que luego lo abisma en otros
laberintos más inextricables y heterogéneos: ciertas palabras de un mendigo queconversó con Fergus Kilpatrick el día de su muerte, fueron prefiguradas por
Shakespeare, en la tragedia de Macbeth. Que la historia hubiera copiado a la historia
ya era suficientemente pasmoso; que la historia copie a la literatura es
inconcebible... (Idem: 148-149)

Borges nunca hace en sus cuentos una descripción total y minuciosa delpersonaje antropomórfico; prefiere «una mirada de reojo» que capte en forma
sincrética o sintética ciertos rasgos de la figura humana. Según el tipo de narrador(en tercera persona, o en primera persona confesional) y el estilo de lengua que
emplee los procedimientos utilizados en la descripción del personaje crearándiferentes efectos. Borges no trata de hacer un retrato psicológico del personaje; lospocos rasgos psicológicos que incluye están subordinados a la trama o acción delrelato y en función de ésta.
Stephen Albert me observaba, sonriente. Era muy alto, de rasgos afilados, de ojos
grises y barba gris. Algo de sacerdote había en él y también de marino; después me
refirió que había sido misionero en Tientsin «antes de aspirar a sinólogo».

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Andreea Iliescu: El personaje literario, un mero simulacro o una individualidad...
Nos sentamos; yo en un largo y bajo diván; él de espaldas a la ventana y a un alto
reloj circular. Computé que antes de una hora no llegaría mi perseguidor, Richard
Madden. Mi determinación irrevocable podía esperar.
– Asombroso destino el de Ts’ui Pên – dijo Stephen Albert. Gobernador de su
provincia natal, docto en astronomía, en astrología y en la interpretación infatigablede los libros canónicos, ajedrecista, famoso poeta y calígrafo: todo lo abandonó para
componer un libro y un laberinto. Renunció a los placeres de la opresión, de lajusticia, del numeroso lecho, de los banquetes y aun de la erudición y se claustró
durante trece años en el Pabellón de la Límpida Soledad. A su muerte, los herederos
no encontraron sino manuscritos caóticos. La familia, como usted acaso no ignora,
quiso adjudicarlos al fuego; pero su albacea- un monje taoísta o budista – insistió enla publicación. (Idem: 109-110)

La imagen del personaje aparece asociada a la representación del tiempo y delespacio, que forma un todo con el héroe o personaje, y cuya función en el relato
prevalece muchas veces sobre el personaje. Las características de la imagen delpersonaje en los cuentos de Borges son: a) ambigüedad y ambivalencia, b)
elevación y rebajamiento, c) comicidad e ironía, d) deformación.
Le era muy difícil dormir. Dormir es distraerse del mundo; Funes, de espaldas en elcatre, en la sombra, se figuraba cada grieta y cada moldura de las casas precisas quelo rodeaban. (Repito que el menos importante de sus recuerdos era más minucioso ymás vivo que nuestra percepción de un goce físico o de un tormento físico). Hacia elEste, en un trecho no amanzanado, había casas nuevas, desconocidas. Funes lasimaginaba negras, compactas, hechas de tiniebla homogénea; en esa dirección volvía
la cara para dormir. También solía imaginarse en el fondo del río, mecido y anulado
por la corriente.
Había aprendido sin esfuerzo el inglés, el francés, el portugués, el latín.
Sospecho, sin embargo que no era muy capaz de pensar. Pensar es olvidar
diferencias, es generalizar, abstraer. En el abarrotado mundo de Funes, no había sino
detalles, casi inmediatos. (Idem: 134-135)

Los procedimientos que usa Borges para la representación de los personajesson:a) los pares serio - cómicos,b) las transformaciones y metamorfosis,c) los dobles,d) las inversiones,e) la hipérbole,f) la revelación.
Borges trata de realzar la expresión en el plano fraseológico, evitando en la
medida de lo posible el plano psicológico cuya capacidad para particularizar e
individualizar restaría fuerza al plano ideológico que Borges enfatiza, puesto que elobjetivo principal de sus personajes es el ser ideólogos, papel que tiene más
importancia en lo social y cultural que en lo individual y psicológico. El escritor
argentino posee un profundo conocimiento y erudición literaria, tanto en literatura
antigua y medieval, religiosa y laica, como en literatura clásica y moderna, inusual
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entre los escritores contemporáneos; asigna a la lectura un valor excepcional, porencima de la experiencia vivida, que contrasta con la posición que han matenido yaún mantienen muchos escritores y artistas a partir del Romanticismo, idealizando
la vida. Es famosa su declaración del Epílogo de El hacedor, 1960: “Pocas cosas
me han ocurrido y muchas he leído. Mejor dicho: pocas cosa me han ocurrido más
dignas de memoria que el pensamiento de Schopenhauer o la música verbal de
Inglaterra.” (Borges, 1974: 854)
En el paisaje de la literatura rumana, Mircea Eliade se vuelve el creador de una
teoría original de lo fantástico, basada en el camuflaje de lo sagrado en lo profanoo dicho de otra forma, en la teoría de lo irreconocible del milagro. Lo fantástico de
Mircea Eliade se halla disfrazado dentro de la existencia diaria de sus personajes,
que nos revelan nuevos caminos de acceso hacia el Conocimiento, llamándonos laatención acerca de las certezas engañosas de una percepción limitada de larealidad. El escritor rumano proyecta, en el primer plano, unas conciencias febriles,
sometidas a una translación del plano real hacia el plano imaginario. En la obra de
Mircea Eliade los personajes no son simples reflejos del planteamiento cognitivo,sino tipos humanos, reconocibles a veces, en la inmediatez de nuestra propia
existencia. Según el escritor rumano, lo fantástico le puede devolver al hombre
moderno el interés por las significaciones ocultas.
De la misma manera que el escritor realista usa “procedimientos dedesambiguación” para crear un “efecto de realidad”, el escritor de literatura
fantástica usa “procedimientos de ambiguación” para crear un “efecto deirrealidad”. Estos procedimientos son:a) el narrador le da al lector menos conocimiento del que éste necesita, noasegurando coherencia a su discurso;b) el narrador muestra mínimamente la psicología de los personajes;c) el narrador no está en posesión total de la historia, porque ésta lo estáafectando;d) el discurso no es parafraseable ni hay redundancia de la información; hay
pocas descripciones;e) usa metalenguaje, citas, intertextualidad, parodias, pastiches;f) los contenidos no son predecibles;g) el discurso del narrador es enfático y subjetivo;h) el tono de la narración no es neutro;i) la imagen del héroe no está lo suficientemente enfatizada y el lector duda desu realidad;j) el discurso es heteroglótico;k) hay distorsión entre el ser y el parecer de los personajes y los objetos;l) hay semantización retardada y demora de la solución de la historia: el sentido
no aparece hasta el final, por lo general en forma brusca e invirtiendo omodificando el sentido de lo anterior;ll) se crea un sistema narrativo particular, con fuerte oposición lógica de loselementos semánticos;m) hay alternancia entre lo alto y lo bajo, elevamientos y caídas, inversiones;
256Andreea Iliescu: El personaje literario, un mero simulacro o una individualidad...

n) el balance de los hechos no es objetivo sino subjetivo;ñ) el mundo no puede ser descriptivo exhaustivamente: es innombrable,
indescriptible y monstruoso;o) hay una intensificación de los procedimientos de ambiguación.
La señorita Christina es una de las obras más representativas de la literatura
fantástica de Mircea Eliade. Lo que le fascina al escritor en la triste historia de su
heroína es su condición dramática. La protagonista, asesinada años atrás y tomando
la forma de un vampiro, no puede alejarse de su existencia de antaño y es por eso
que sigue comunicándose con el mundo de los humanos, esperando que su destino
se realice a través del amor. La señorita Christina es consciente de su podermaléfico, pero a Egor lo va a proteger, por ser el elegido de su amor.
– Ce frumos eşti când zâmbeşti, spuse Christina aşezându-se pe marginea
patului.
Îşi scoase alene o mănuşă şi o azvârli peste capul lui Egor, pe măsuţa de alături.
Mirosea acum mai puternic a violete. (…) Simţi deodată o mână caldă mângâindu-l
pe obraz. Tot sângele i se scursese din vine; căci senzaţia acelei mâini calde - şitotuşi de o căldură nefirească, inumană – era îngrozitoare. Egor voi să strige deteroare, dar nu mai găsi nicio forţă, glasul i se stinsese în gâtlej.
– Nu te speria, dragostea mea, şopti atunci Christina. Nu-ţi voi face nimic. Ţie
nu-ţi voi face nimic. Pe tine te voi iubi numai…
Vorbea încet, rar, uneori cu multă melancolie în glas. (…) în ochii ei sticloşi secobora câteodată o umbră de infinită tristeţe.
– …Te voi iubi cum niciodată n-a fost iubit vreun muritor, adăugă Christina.
Îl privi câteva clipe zâmbind. Apoi, glasul ei se auzi din nou, mai melodios, mairitmat. (Eliade, 2003: 62)

Uno de los aspectos esenciales de la obra fantástica de Eliade es su
planteamiento del tiempo, su intento de abolir cualquier límite, a través de su
escritura, invocando un tiempo sagrado, donde la degradación cese su acción
maléfica. Como consecuencia de esto, el escritor nos revela una especie depresente continuo, que se niega a la transformación, abarcando una existencia quelogra eludir la maldición de la nada.
M-am trezit din nou nevăzut şi groaza mea a fost cu atât mai mare cu cât nu făcusem
nimic ca să dobândesc starea aceasta. Am umblat ceasuri întregi prin curte, dândumi seama întâmplător că sunt invizibil. Servitorii treceau pe lângă mine fără să măvadă; la început, am crezut că nu m-au văzut din neatenţie, dar privind în jurul meu
nu mi-am zărit umbra. Am urmărit pe unul din argaţi, care se ducea spre grajduri.
Parcă ar fi simţit ceva necurat înapoia lui, căci se întorcea mereu, cu privirile
turburate, şi în cele din urmă a grăbit pasul, făcându-şi cruce. Cu toate încercările
mele, mi-a fost peste putinţă să mă fac vizibil înainte de miezul nopţii, când m-am
trezit zdrobit, pe pat. Cred că oboseala fără margini care a urmat se datoreşte maiales eforturilor mele de a redeveni vizibil. (Eliade, 2008: 72)

Facilitando el acceso hacia una serie de universos desconocidos, la literatura
fantástica adquiere un misterioso poder de atracción y la lectura se vuelve una
257

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

entretenida aventura del espíritu. Podría añadirse que se trata del lector sutil, unbuen conocedor de las experiencias estéticas.
BIBLIOGRAFĺA
Borges, Jorge Luis (1974). Obras completas 1923-72. Buenos Aires: Emecé.
—— (1999). Opere. Volumul întâi. Bucureşti: Univers.
—— (2002). Ficciones. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
Eliade, Mircea (2003). Proza. Domnişoara Christina. Bucureşti: Humanitas.
—— (2008). Proza. Secretul doctorului Honigberger. Nopţi la Serampore.
Bucureşti: Humanitas.
Georgescu, Paul Alexandru (1986). Valori hispanice în perspectivă românească.
Bucureşti: Cartea Românească.
Glodeanu, Gheorghe (2006). Coordonate ale imaginarului în opera lui Mircea
Eliade. Cluj-Napoca: Dacia.
Hăulică, Cristina (1981). Textul ca intertextualitate. Bucureşti: Eminescu.
Lotreanu, Ion (1980). Introducere în opera lui Mircea Eliade. Bucureşti: Minerva.
Reschika, Richard (2000). Introducere în opera lui Mircea Eliade. Bucureşti:Saeculum.
Ricci, Graciela N. (2002). Las redes invisibles del lenguaje. La lengua en y a
través de Borges. Sevilla: Ediciones Alfar.

258

Space Deictic Words in Romanian and English
Loredana-Daniela ISPAS
University of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages
ABSTRACT
Local or spatial deixis encodes spatial configuration of the communication context
by reporting the position of speakers. Linguistic elements of this type of reference
determine coordinates of the space in which the verbal exchange, depending on theposition of the participants in enunciation. Therefore, spatial deixis generates“spatial orientation of the participants in linguistic communication.” Spatial or local
deictic words or phrases: local adverbs (here, there), local prepositions (before,
behind) pronouns and demonstratives (this, that). Speaker indicates by a physicalgesture (hand or finger movements, various body gestures) the presence of areferential object world. It determines the orientation of the eyes of the speaker(person) to that object. Deictic centre is the wording of spatial placement of thetransmitter.
KEYWORDS: linguistic pragmatics, deictic system, localization

1. Space deictic words in Romanian language
Spatial deixis encodes “spatial configuration of the communication context byreporting the position of speakers.”1 Linguistic elements of this type of reference
determine coordinates of the space in which the verbal exchange, depending on theposition of the participants in communication. Therefore, spatial deixis generates“spatial orientation of the participants in linguistic communication.”2 Issuing andreceiving mechanisms involve some deep aspects and, by operation of thesemechanisms, they provide the information about deictic elements near/far in
relation to the spatial placement of speaker/listener or other objects in the context
of the situation. Space or local deictic words or phrases: local adverbs (here, there),
local prepositions (before, behind) pronouns and demonstratives (this, that).
Speaker indicates by a physical gesture (hand or finger movements, various bodygestures) the presence of a referential object world. It determines the orientation of
the eyes of the speaker (person) to that object. Deictic centre is the wording of
spatial placement of the transmitter. Deictic spatial words represent fundamental
opposition to the near/far.
In linguistic pragmatics we encounter two types of referential systems:
positional referential system, represented by words such as here, there (withregional variants) and dimensional referential system formed using such words: in259

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

front of, behind, left, above. Adverbs here and there are contrasting elements fornear-distance, depending on location of the speaker in the communication: Adu
aceea aici şi du asta acolo (Rom.) “Bring that here and get it there.” (Eng.)
These adverbs encode lexical distance of speaker: Aici e zăpadă şi ger. Acolocum e vremea? (Rom.) “Here is snow and frost. How's the weather there?” (Eng.).
The adverb here is used with the moving of deictic centre towards the interlocutor,
not to the detriment of speaker: Aşadar ai ajuns în Craiova. Şi aici ce ai rezolvat?
(Rom.) “So you have arrived in Craiova. And what did you do here?” (Eng.) Local
deictic context is moved depending on the type of deictic expression and discursive
situation. Compared with personal deixis, spatial deixis is more complex in termsof movement in speech.
1.1. Local adverbs (demonstrative adverbs or substitutes) – deictic words

Place adverbs express the position (here / there, up and down, in / out, above /below, anywhere /nowhere, from place to place), direction, etc. Position in space(location) is the mark of deictic words which morphologically are called adverbs(place). Analyzing the complexity of adverbial particles it is considered
functionally that their main function is deictic or indicative where “these elements
have a status of optional forms.”3 The author, Georgeta Ciompec, notes that
“deictic particle” is a hypothesis subsumed to the adverbial particle. Adverbial
particles also have a function of the lexical morphemes. “The adverbial system isperfectly equivalent to demonstrative adjectives and pronouns and, in this case thesystem appears to be double binary.”4 Adverbs are organized in parallel with thepronoun subclasses: aici/ ici/ aci/ aicea/ (a)ici-şa/ (a)cice(a) – încoace/ dincoace;acolo/ colo/ acolo-ia/ acolo-şa – încolo/ dincolo/ dincolea. We meet a simple
binary system to adverbs of place: near/far and next to/over there. Demonstrative
adverbs express circumstances of the action by reference to speakers / speaker. For
example, the pronominal adverb here (with all regional variants) indicates the
speaker’s place or a place close to him: – Dar bine, ghiavole, aici ţi-i scăldatul?
(Rom.) “– But, devil, here you’re bathing?” (Eng) (Creangă, Childhood Memories,
187)
An external reality of interlocution is marked by there, and for dividing insocial space near the speakers it is used here by the speaker: – Astfel de oameni
sunt pe acolo – mormăi un glas amărât. Nu ca noi! Acolo oamenii au şi pământ şi
nici nu-s flămânzi şi nevoiaşi ca pe aici. (Rom.) “These kinds of people are there a voice murmured sadly. Not like us! There people have land and they are nothungry and needy as here” (Eng.). Adverbs work deictically, when reference isupdated by reference to the communication situation. Statements such as:
Dansează aşa.., Uită-te acolo! (Rom.) “Dance in this way! Look over there!”(Eng.); they are accompanied by gestures which determine the meaning of adverbs.
Demonstrative adverbs are cataforic and anaphoric deictic words (repeating or
anticipating the information presented in the text): Am fost la Belfast şi de acolo
am mers la Londra. De atunci i se trag toate problemele, de când a făcut
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fotografiile alea. (Rom.) “I went to Belfast and from there I went to London.
Since then he has had all the problems, since he made those photos.” (Eng.)
The variant colo expresses small distances:– Unde îl vezi?/ – Uite-l colo. (Rom.) “– Where do you see him?/ – He is
there.” (Preda, Delirium, 40); long distances in fairy tales: ...colo, în josulpământului... colo, în vârful muntelui... colo, după luncă (Rom.) “... there, down
the earth... there, the mountain top... there, over the meadow” (Eng.) (Creangă,Fairy tales, Memories, Stories, 127) or specified long distances: Uite colea, la 2
kilometri. (Rom.) “Look over there, at 2 km.” (Eng.).
Stephen Levinson appreciates that adverbs here and there do not always havecontrasting significance of the near-far dimension. The word there means both“near to the speaker location in the speech” and “close to the receiver uponreceiving the message.” The statement, “how are the affairs there?” could mean
“how are the affairs in a distant place of the speaker,” but also meaning “how are
the affairs there where it is the message receiver.” There are two ways of referring
to object, on the one hand, by description or appointment, on the other hand, by
location5. Sometimes locations are anchored either by reference to other objects,
fixed reference points: “Bank is 200 meters far from Dom.”6 Locations can be
determined by deictic reference meaning depending on where the speaker is at thetime of “Kabul is 600 km west of here.”7 In the cases described above there areused descriptions of direction and locations, deictic elements in these cases are
related to space and interact with spatial non-deictic elements. For example wemight take into account two statements issued by Ch. Fillmore, namely: “My sistersat on the left side of the General” and “What is the little shiny object over there,
just left of the cypress?”8, in the first statement, the emitter is situated during themessage time in a space completely irrelevant, and in the second statement
participants in conversation must know the exact location in space, this isabsolutely essential in interpreting the enunciation.
In Romanian, we stated that the adverbial system is binary, double branched,but some researchers have noticed that in some tongues, especially in Oltenia, thesystem is organized binary, characterized by the features [+/– proximity totransmitter], but ternary, organized at three levels, characterized by the features [+proximity to the transmitter] [+ proximity to the receiver] and [– proximity to bothtransmitter and receiver to]. This ternary system we meet in Latin demonstrative
system. This system also appears in other languages: Turkish, Serbo-Croatian, andBulgarian. Al. Ionaşcu pointed out that the phrase aci/“here”, Oltenian version(used in Romanian as simple version of aici) relates only to the location of thecaller/interlocutor (second person). He divides Oltenian deictic system in threesteps:
pers. I aici
pers. II aci
pers. III acolo
The analysis of deictic adverbs in Oltenian dialect determined Ruxandra
Boroianu to conclude that “Oltenia has a primary deictic system used as ternary.”261

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She also states that the form aci/“here” is “regardless term of the system,
reminiscent of an earlier opposition, ready to be neutralized.”9 Southern variants(a) colea-(şa) are specialized to indicate the place where there are in a specific time
the persons whom it is said something about10:– Ai început să forfoteşti toată ziulica prin sat, tu nevastă... şi colea-s toatebaltă. (Rom.)“You started bustling livelong day through the village, you wife ... and overthere-it all off”. (Eng.) (Rebreanu, Ion, 173)Stătu jos acolea lîngă mine. (Rom.)/“He has sat down here next to me.” (Eng.)(TDM II, 20/10)– Dă-o-ncoace, Ilona! (Rom.)“Give it here, Ilona” (Eng.) (Rebreanu, Ion, 215). The variant încoace/“here”
shows a moving from interlocutor to speaker in a relatively close space.
– Fă o bunătate şi treci dincolo cu băietul şi cu domnu Iordan. (Rom.)“Do a kindness and pass beyond together with the boy and Mr. Iordan.” (Eng.)(Sadoveanu, Baltagul, 60).
The deictic there marks a reduced distance of the adverb: Îl luam di colo aşa cu
mâna... şî-l puneam colo. Ş-acolo-l netezam frumos. (Rom.) “I take with hand overthere... and shall make it there. And there it is beautifully smoothed.” (Eng.) (TDO,
21/4-5). Usually gestural deictic words do not indicate the space where it isdeveloped the act.
2. Spatial deictic words in English
Nothing better exemplifies as the expression language the relationship between
language and context, as exemplified as deictic terms. Spatial deixis can be
described in the same parameters with time deixis in that spatial references can beabsolute or relational. Absolute reference tracks objects or people on the west or
north, while relational reference locates people or places in close contact withthemselves and with the speaker: The bank is ten yards from the pharmacy.
(Absolute spatial deixis) or The shop is nearest two miles away. (Relational spatial
deixis).11
In the first instance the bank remains ten yards bank far from pharmacy
regardless of location of transmitter, while the store location (shop) can be two
miles or more away depending on the location of the transmitter. Deictic term here
could mean the location of a speaker or a remote place far from the speaker: Your
papers are here.
After a prolonged search of someone’s work, here deictic term can refer to theplace located near the speaker/emitter. But if it is an answer to a friend who has
just told how he sought the works in house and he did not find them, the utterance
may have other space deictic meanings. So the deictic here may include not only
space but also the speaker.

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Some deictic expressions can operate either as spatial deictic words in a context
or time deictic in another context. Demonstrative pronouns this and that may be
space deictic words but also time deictic words:
I’m going to the doctor this Sunday. (temporal deixis)
I’m going to the doctor this way. (spatial deixis) – where the speaker’s locationin the moment of utterance includes the referent this way. In this speech the use of
the verb going also affects spatial deixis. For example, some verbs – come or go –refers to a moving object, closely related to the source or destination. In the saying
above, the verb going encodes the speaker’s movement from a source to a target.
This verb-source (we call it in this way because at the moment of utterance, thespeaker is located at source) is in contrast to the verb-target as the verb come:I came to the doctor early. – where the verb come codifies that the speaker islocated to the doctor, it represents the goal. Speaker location does not change if
someone other than the speaker takes the verbal action. Thus, in the following
examples, the speaker locates the source in the first utterance, while the speaker inthe second locates the target:
He went into village this morning. (source)
He came home late last night. (target)
In following statements the same distinction is observed source-target in termsof speaker location:
She will bring it home soon.
She will take him to the dentist’s room.
She will fetch the grocery order from the supermarket.
The verbs go and come, verbs bring, and take and fetch codify aspects of spatial
deixis. Speaker in the first instance is located at home (purpose) in the moment ofutterance (Eng. home). The speaker of the second sentence is located at a certain
distance far from the dentist office (target) at the time of utterance. The verbs fetch
stands the speaker at some distance far from the supermarket (target) in the
moment of speaking, but it also codifies the movement to and from the target.
These verbs can also encode the location of the interlocutor, such as:
We are coming. – Where the verb coming codifies the interlocutor whose
location represents the target, even if the interlocutor is not explicitly mentioned in
the speech act. Purpose and speaker are coded in a verb. We can say that these
deictic verbs link through the role of participants in communication the spatial
deixis by the personal deixis.
There are three language reference systems to express spatial relationships
between entity located and the benchmark: intrinsic, relative and absolute. In
intrinsic system, the reference is focused on object/entity:
The cat is behind the box. – where the entity the cat is located, and the box isthe benchmark.
Relative reference system is egocentric. It expresses a ternary spatial
relationship between views, entity and point of reference, which is different fromthe point of view. This relationship can be illustrated as follows:263

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The cat is to the left of the box. – Where the view is represented by speakerlocation. Deictic use of this system is the prototype. Last absolute reference systemis the system involving absolute coordinate system as north/south/east/west. In thefollowing example, deictic word “East” marks the link between the entity and thebenchmark.12
The cat is (to the) east of the box.
Many languages use the universal coordinate system. The Romanian language
and the English language have this reference system. In the first two examples
above, the words left and behind can distinguish between deictic function versus
non-deictic function. In other words, behind is deictic in the moment when the box
is between the cat and emitter location (reference point); the same word is nondeictic if the cat is behind the box without involving transmitter marker. This
interpretation is valid also for the word left that is deictic if the cat is left of the box
from the point of view of the speaker, but it may also be non-deictic if the cat is
positioned in the left of the box (without taking into account the position of thetransmitter). Levinson and Fillmore made the difference between the deictic uses
versus non-deictic use.13
Spatial deixis in English is put in grammar by spatial deictic concepts expressedby using demonstrative pronouns and demonstrative adjectives, place deictic
adverbs, but also verbs.
NOTES
1

Gramatica Limbii Române, II, Enunţul, 646.
J. Meibauer (1999). Pragmatik. Eine Einführung. Tübingen, 14.
3
Florica Dimitrescu (1956). “Rolul locuţiunilor verbale în formarea cuvintelor.” Studii şi cercetări
lingvistice, 1-2, 58.
4
Georgeta Ciompec (1985). Morfosintaxa adverbului românesc. Sincronie şi diacronie. Bucureşti,115.
5
J. Lyons (1980). Semantik, vol. 1, München, 9.
6
St. Levinson (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press, 81.
7
Ibidem.
8
Ch. Fillmore (1997). Lectures on Deixis. Center for Study of Language and Information, Stanford,
California, 28.
9R. Pană-Boroianu (1984). “O trăsătură tipică a graiurilor olteneşti în perspectivă istorică.” In: Studii
de dialectologie. Timişoara, 221.
10
L. Ionescu-Ruxăndoiu (1999). Conversaţia. Structuri şi strategii (Sugestii penru o pragmatică aromânei vorbite), ediţia a II-a. Bucureşti: All, 95-96.
11
Louise Cummings (2005). Pragmatics – A Multidisciplinary Perspective. Edinburgh University
Press, 26.
12Stephen C. Levinson (2004). “Deixis and pragmatics”. In: L.R. Horn, & G. Ward (eds.), 2004, 97121.
13
Stephen C. Levinson (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2

BIBLIOGRAPHY*** (2005). Gramatica limbii române, vol. 2, Enunţul. Bucureşti: Editura
Academiei.
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Loredana-Daniela Ispas: Space Deictic Words in Romanian and English

Benveniste, E. (1966). Problèmes de linguistique générale, La nature des pronoms.
Paris: Gallimard.
Ciompec, Georgeta (1985). Morfosintaxa adverbului românesc. Sincronie şi
diacronie. Bucureşti: Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică.
Cummings, Louise (2005). Pragmatics – A Multidisciplinary Perspective.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Dimitrescu, Florica (1956). “Rolul locuţiunilor verbale în formarea cuvintelor.”
Studii şi cercetări lingvistice, 1-2.
Fillmore, Charles J. (1997). Lectures on Deixis. CSLI Publication, Center for Studyof Language and Information, Stanford, California.
Hoarţă Cărăuşu, L. (2004). Pragmalingvistică. Concepte şi taxinomii. Iaşi: Cermi.
Ionescu-Ruxăndoiu, L. (1999). Conversaţia. Structuri şi Strategii. Bucureşti: All
Educational.
Levinson, Stephen C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
—— (2004). “Deixis and pragmatics.” In: L.R. Horn, & G. Ward (eds.), The
Handbook of Pragmatics. Oxford: Blackwell, 97-121.
Lyons, J. (1980). Semantik. München: C.H. Beck.
—— (1968). An Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
Meibauer, J. (1999). Pragmatik. Eine Einführung. Tübingen: Stauffenberg.
Moeschler, J., & A. Reboul (1999). Dicţionar enciclopedic de pragmatică. ClujNapoca: Echinox.
Pană-Boroianu, R. (1984). “O trăsătură tipică a graiurilor olteneşti în perspectivă
istorică.” In: V. Frăţilă, & Vasile D. Ţâra (eds.), Studii de dialectologie.
Timişoara: Tipografia Universităţii din Timişoara.

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Samuel Beckett’s Aesthetics of Failure
Adriana LĂZĂRESCU
University of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages

ABSTRACTThis paper formulates the theoretic background of Samuel Beckett’s aesthetics offailure, based on his own comments and the perspectives of literary minimalism andabsurdism. At the centre of Beckett’s view lies the necessity to replace themeaningless outer world with the rich universe of inner introspection. In general, thenarrators in the Beckett’s novels leave aside their physical reality and undergo an
exclusively mental development, a tendency reflected in the lack of precise settingsand character descriptions which characterises their writing. In this sense, they seemto embrace the minimalist doctrine of “less is more”, and develop their stories under
the sphere of absurdism. Failure’s aesthetic feature to highlight absurdity introduces
a representation of nihilism and an art of the negative in the Beckett’s prose.
KEYWORDS: aesthetics, failure, minimalism, absurdism, nihilism

Failure is given aesthetic connotations under the light of Beckett’s central
preoccupation throughout his literary work: the possibility of meaning beyond “theliterature of the unword” (Beckett, 1983: 173). Beckett’s ideas regarding literary
aesthetics influenced the artistic process in the Trilogy. For Samuel Beckett, towrite means necessarily to fail in such a way that traditional literary conventions
are rejected. His aesthetics of failure in the Trilogy unveils a complex combinationof the concepts of absurdism and minimalism, developing the idea that restricted
minute details form an absurdist universal whole, in which writing is elevated tothe sphere of the sublime. Beckett’s work elicits a cooperative response from thereader, who will eventually learn to adopt what is originally new and provocative
as a thought experiment to be applied in other instances. In Molloy, Malone Dies,
and The Unnamable, Beckett pushes his narrators a little further, to see whether
they too can stimulate readers into developing similar thought processes. The
narrators in the Trilogy are not hostile to the reader, nor do they recast the game ofcommunication as a solitary diversion. Instead, Molloy, Jacques Moran, Malone,
and the Unnamable attempt to speak by radically blurring the categories ofnarrator, character, and reader.
Samuel Beckett’s aesthetics can be viewed as a fine representation of his
personal considerations on the issue either in conversations recorded by his
scholars, such as Deirdre Blair or Georges Duthuit, or in his own literary creation.
At the centre of Beckett’s aesthetic principles lies the total rejection of the external
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Adriana Lăzărescu: Samuel Beckett’s Aesthetics of Failure

world because of its indubitable lack of meaning. An alternative for the outer worldis the inner universe, an entirely complex realm inhabited by the power ofimaginative characters that enjoy the freedom of random activities.
Thus, with Beckett placing inner introspection above the image outlined by thesociety of the outer world, physical living becomes censored as compared to thepsychical living, which attains the connotations of superior artistic display.
Beckett’s art pleads for the intent to satisfy psychological needs, as against thenoise of the external world is the “silent noise” of this internal world. It is precisely
this “silent noise” the real essence of Beckett’s aesthetics, developed in his proseand drama.
In Beckett and Aesthetics, Daniel Albright (2003) examines Samuel Beckett’s
struggle with the recalcitrance of artistic media, their refusal to yield to his artistic
purposes. In his youth, Beckett concentrated on the idea that writing could provide
psychic authenticity in his obsessive inner world and true representation of thephysical world. Instead, he found himself immersed in artificialities and selfenclosed word games. Beckett escaped from this bind through allegories of artistic
frustration and through an art of non-representation, estrangement and general
failure. He arrived at some grasp of fact through the most indirect route available.
Samuel Beckett experiments the notion that an artistic medium might itself bemade to speak. Albright’s Beckett becomes a sophisticated theorist of the very
notion of the aesthetic.
Beckett’s aesthetics of failure arises from the writer’s obstinacy to express his
ideas freely and the reader’s need to impose interpretative structures. The author
and his readership, as Beckett demonstrates, cannot simply co-exist; where mostwriters offer open chances towards an optimal cooperation with their readers,Beckett particularly offers contradictory inputs reflected both in his narrators andin the readers.
Daniel Albright (2003: 8) offers a good analysis of contrastive elements, which
include “catharsis versus fun” in drama, “intimacy versus remoteness” in mass
forms of communication, and in pictures and music. Furthermore, Albright
opinionated that if Beckett points us toward any aesthetic, it is one in which art
forever remains at variance with itself. “Behind all these antitheses is the antithesisof Failure versus Success. Beckett’s repeated assertions that his art is the art ofimpotence and nescience, that his motto is ‘Fail better,’ are, I believe, veiled waysof saying that the true failure lies not with Beckett the particular artist, but with art
itself, always at the mercy of decomposing.”
These contradictory elements can be analysed taking into consideration
Immanuel Kant’s aesthetic philosophy. Beckett’s contradictory narrative leads tothe same sort of cognitive failure that can be found in Kant’s theory of the sublime.
The sublime represents life’s highest dimension which can be attained through anabsurd illumination to perceive man’s limitations. Taking nature as a qualified
example for understanding his theory, Kant (1987: 314) states that if a person looks
at something extraordinarily large, he shall be able to imaginatively reduce theimage he sees to a specific concept, by using his cognitive faculties.
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An aesthetic idea is a presentation of the imagination which is conjoined with agiven concept and is connected, when we use imagination in its freedom, with sucha multiplicity of partial presentations that no expression that stands for a determinate
concept can be found for it. (316)

In the interpretative strategy of the Trilogy’s first novel, Molloy, Myskja (2002:14) argues that positive effects arise from the experience of the sublime in Beckett:“This kind of aesthetic experience has traditionally been classified as experience ofthe sublime. My claim is that Molloy’s main characteristic is sublimity, and that
this sublime is morally significant.”
This approach, however, fails to get at the source of the problem, which is thatthe texts in the Trilogy generate a complex issue as to how much they resist
interpretation and how much they allow it. The imperfection suggested by the threenovels might be seen as an aesthetic tool, suitable to allow positive creation in aplace where everything points to negativity of stories, language, style and attitude.
It is tempting to draw attention to the fact that Kant refers to the lack of form ofsublime objects or describes them as being formless, which may suggest that
Molloy is sublime just because it is formless. The reader’s attempt at grasping theunity of the work, the coherence provided by the form, is made impossible by the
self-negations.
Jacques Moran negates his entire preceding narrative with a final selfcontradiction. The second half of Molloy begins, “It is midnight. The rain is
beating on the windows” (Molloy, 92), while Moran writes in the last sentence, “Iwent back into the house and wrote, It is midnight. The rain is beating on thewindows. It was not midnight. It was not raining” (Molloy, 176). Morandisintegrates into a creature hardly distinguishable from Molloy, his style ofnarration changes from a pedantic way of relating events and thoughts as given
facts, to self-contradictions and doubt similar to the ones dominating the first story.
This ends up in negation of the start of Moran’s story, and, thus, his story as such.
According to the Kantian aesthetic, people can only be free in relation to a text
when cognition loses its ability to reduce experience in order to determine concepts(Kant, 1987: 315). This idea of using the natural human characteristic of forgettingin the texts allows the possibility of analysing the problem of aesthetic interaction.
Throughout the Trilogy, Beckett explores what to “be” means within and in
relation to a text. “There were times”, Molloy says, “when I forgot not only who I
was, but that I was, forgot to be. Then I was no longer that sealed jar to which I
owed my being so well preserved” (Molloy, 49).
“Forgetting to be” is precisely the ultimate request that the process of writing
imposes upon the narrator and that the process of reading imposes upon the reader.
The Trilogy’s narrators are unable to realize their actual “being” within the texts
they inhabit. The Unnamable has a quite shallow existence which is more often
than not projected into a gallery of amputees. Mahood associates the idea of being
in the world – actually understood as being in the text – with being divine,reflected in his caretaker’s devotion:
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Adriana Lăzărescu: Samuel Beckett’s Aesthetics of Failure
That the jar is really standing where they say, all right, I wouldn’t dream of denying
it, after all it’s none of my business, though its presence at such a place /…/ does not
strike me as very credible. No, I merely doubt that I am in it. It is easier to raise ashrine than bring the deity down to haunt it. (The Unnamable, 343).

Molloy’s ability of being is essentially textual; at one point, he speaks ofhimself as the title of a work called “Molloy, or life without a chambermaid”(Molloy, 59). Malone’s sublime centres on his confusing opinions about theprocedure of a complete life abandon. He definitely knows he is dying, so heaffirms ‘Malone dies’ and thus creates his proper path towards death in writing.
Molloy and Malone have no temporal limits. They reside in extra-temporal spheres
and they also place their texts and, consequently, their readers, in the same
dimension. Omniscience and an idea of historic present are given by their decision
to write the stories in present tense: “I speak in the present tense, it is so easy to
speak in the present tense, when speaking of the past. It is the mythologicalpresent, don’t mind it” (Molloy, 26). Malone subtly finds a pleasant combination
between writer and reader. His intent of creating a limitless text makes way for atransgression from writer to reader and vice versa: “if you simply must speak ofpeople you simply must put yourself in their place, it is not difficult” (Malone
Dies, 270). This gentle shift of perspectives invites readers to be as confused as
Malone himself about the dénouement of both his text and his life.
The main conflict between the Trilogy’s narrators and readers is neverthelessoutlined by Beckett’s minimalist and absurdist approaches of the texts. According
to Warren Motte (1999: 3), literary minimalism develops in a scarce use of words.
Minimalist writers avoid descriptions based on the use of adverbs and adjectives
and would rather let context dictate meaning. Readers are expected either to havean active role in the creation of a storyline for the novels or to form their own
interpretation according to a fine mixture between their personal reality and the one
subtly introduced by the writer. Characters in the minimalist prose are notexceptional, but merely restricted to a limited interaction in their small and simple
world. Simplicity is the literary device based on a reduction of means in order toobtain an amplification of effect.
The narrators in Beckett’s Trilogy create a realistic prose with a presentation of
their reality the way they see it, devoid of interpretations or comments. Molloy,
Moran, Malone and the Unnamable build the Trilogy’s text in a confusing
language and sequence of events. Their minimalist writing is oblique, realistic or
hyper-realistic and slightly plotted. Beckett “veritably haunted realism to death”(Davies, 2006: 67) by the depiction of facts in an intense narrative self-awarenessand self-knowledge. The narrative process is reduced to such an extent thatmeaning is very difficult to be given to context. There are immobile characters,
incomplete stories, frequent abandon of ideas and unfinished statements.
The second half of the 19th century brought Robert Browning’s affirmationthat “less is more” (Browning, 2000: 117), introducing a failed hero who hasreached artistic limit during the process of creation. Hinting at the concept ofminimalism, Browning suggests that art signifies more than a technical skill for269

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that artist who fights his limitations in order to preserve his ability of creation.
Beckett exploits the concept of “less is more” in the Trilogy by pointing out thenarrators’ reactions to their restricted ability to understand. If Molloy and Malone
decide to continue writing and to do more than their mental abilities permit “For I
no longer know what I am doing, nor why, those things I understand less and less, I
don’t deny it” (Molloy, 45); “I have tried to reflect on the beginning of my story.
There are things I do not understand. But nothing to signify. I can go on” (Malone
Dies, 189), the Unnamable advances in his text by deliberately leaving aside
structure, order of ideas and sense. He says he understands the meaning of only one
expression in a thousand and thus he reiterates Beckett’s opinion on literary
aesthetics “that there is nothing new to say as well as no new way to say it; it isalways the same old slush to be churned everlastingly” (Topsfield, 1988: 92).
Through the Unnamable’s words, Beckett opinionated: “it’s too much, too little,
we’ve gone wrong somewhere, no matter, there is no great difference between one
expression and the next, when you’ve grasped one you’ve grasped them all, I am
not in that fortunate position” (The Unnamable, 388).
Another approach of minimalism in the Trilogy is outlined by the perception of
the narrators’ specific reality. Since there are no clear space/time coordinates,
Beckett makes way for the void of timelessness, introducing a continuous circular
return. In this respect, Molloy might be considered the main character in the
Trilogy who writes about his life (Molloy, part I), then about a man whose job is tofind him (Molloy, part II), he afterwards presents his last days and the agony before
death (Malone Dies), and finally he makes notes about his life after human deathand his intent to get born again so that he might recommence the entire life cycle(The Unnamable). It seems that, in a special temporal sphere, the spirit which first
lives in Molloy’s body continues its existence in Malone’s body only to find its
reflection in the Unnamable’s voice in its run towards another body. The
instantaneous now coincides with the eternal duration: time has to be killed, but thenearer you get to an escape from temporality, the greater the danger of merely
exchanging time as an infinite continuum for time as a series of cycles. It is a wayof dealing with present life as something that is over but still goes on.
Useless things – such as Molloy’s journey, Moran’s search of Molloy,
Malone’s stories and the Unnamable’s struggle to obtain an identity – attainsignificance in an imperfect world. Minimalism is a projection of the cold spherecreated precisely by these bored writers, the rupture of their inter-humanrelationships, and the world of isolation and immobility. It subtly denotes hopelesssituations which impose cyclical actions upon the narrators, absurd talk full ofcliché and textual nonsense. This leads to the concept of absurdism, coined byMartin Esslin in 1961 from the musical term ‘absurd.’ Esslin makes it clear that
there is a difference between what ‘absurd’ means in music and its understandingin literature. In its musical sense, ‘absurd’ means “out of harmony,” whereas inliterature, “absurd is that which is devoid of purpose /… / cut off from its religious,
metaphysical, and transcendental roots, man is lost; all his actions become
senseless, absurd, useless” (Esslin, 1986: 23).
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In The Theatre of the Absurd (1986), Esslin points out the idea that there is adifference between the social realism in drama, which highlights the presence on
the stage of people acting in real life situations, and the inner reality of people, thatis their lack of an identity, void existence and impossibility of communication. In
this respect, audience must draw their own conclusions, make their own errors.
Esslin establishes the main elements of the absurd specific to the plays written by
Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, Eugen Ionescu and Jean Genet in the second halfof the 20th century. Thus, absurdist drama is plotless, it denotes emptiness,
unresolved mysteries, nothingness, it has an ambiguous setting, a confusing timereference and irrational characters that inhabit an incomprehensible universe.
The characteristics of the absurd defined for drama can also be seen in SamuelBeckett’s prose, and especially in the novels of the Trilogy. They reveal anabsurdism which denominates the impossibility to find a unique meaning and acomplex coherence for the narrators’ lives. Molloy, Moran, Malone and theUnnamable uselessly seek understanding, but neither society nor the system ofvalues can grasp their individual endeavours to structure the most general laws of
the world so that they might occupy a place in it.
Characters and narrators at the same time, Molloy, Moran, Malone and theUnnamable delineate a confusing trajectory among themselves, they blur meaning
and logical perception and resolve in an ambiguous literary creation. Such a refusal
to read oneself in the scheme of things, as it were, results in a narrator whose task
is basically to make out the unintelligible, the indecipherable, and, at best, torecognize it as such. The Unnamable is the last one to admit that his abilities to see
and thus to reproduce what he can see are always hindered and, consequently, healso resumes the other narrators’ limited possibility of expression. There is a total
separation between the narrators and the outside world in the Trilogy. The realworld becomes so different from the one they create for themselves that there are
moments when they deeply feel their estrangement and limitation. The absurdity
arises from a serene decomposition between the self and the world (Camus, 1961:22). The narrators’ isolation in the Trilogy’s texts offers the possibility of
meditation and self-analysis in a space closely dedicated to inner introspection.
The idea of isolation in the Trilogy renders the narrators’ self-imposed solitude
and their recurrent failure to be active subjects in society. Beckett reconsiders his
approach on solitude and dwells on the folly of self-isolation not only in Molloy,
but also in Malone Dies and The Unnamable. In each novel self-isolation is folly
because it leads the writer no closer to the truth about either his mind or the world
at large; he commits himself to suffering, to denial of the pleasures of humancontact, and to the risks of madness, without any prospect of compensation.
The Trilogy is a rich source of absurd situations presented by the narrators
according to their special understanding of both life and the process of living.
Molloy, for instance, after having left Lousse, offers a meaningless explanation for
his obvious oblivion of the purpose an object like a knife-rest might have. He
merely creates puzzlement around the entire scene, which results in an absurd
failure to identify the object through a complicated puzzle of words:
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But for a certain time I think it inspired me with a kind of veneration, for there was
no doubt in my mind that it was not an object of virtue, but that it had a most
specific function always to be hidden from me. I could therefore puzzle over it
endlessly without the least risk. For to know nothing is nothing, not to want to know
anything likewise, but to be beyond knowing anything, to know you are beyond
knowing anything, that is when peace enters in, to the soul of the incurious seeker.
(Molloy, 64)

There are constant contradictions and meaningless repetitions in the Trilogy,
inviting again to absurd statements leading nowhere. At one point, Malone says heis in full control of his writing, namely that he is writing “in order to fail” (Malone
Dies, 195) only to admit later in his text that he is actually forced to write. He
serenely says that he has no knowledge about the reason of his writing. At the endof the story about Sapo, the readers are thus left with no clear message either about
the character, Sapo, or about the writer, Malone. Consequently, Malone decides torepeat the entire process and start writing again, this time about Macmann.
The lack of logic as an instance of senseless approach of a text is a main
preoccupation of The Unnamable’s narrator. The eternal search begun by Molloy
and continued by all the other narrators is now undertaken by a bodiless mysterious
voice. Self-restrictive dialogues and ambiguous statements are reunited in a literarycreation devoid of any pre-established intentions to solve the frequent
contradictions in the Unnamable’s realm of ideas. Slocombe (2006: 199) suggeststhat nihilism can have a double explanation within the concept of the absurd:
Absurdity entails two possible responses to nihilism – a comic laughter in the faceof meaningless or a tragic cry for meaning – and this suggests that the ‘absurd’
emerges as much from classical definitions of tragedy as it does from twentiethcentury preoccupations with meaninglessness.

Beckett’s aesthetics of failure is here centred on the duality of these opposite
responses to nothingness. In the Trilogy, narrators and stories embrace a negative
perspective on life, where, although nothing happens, the ‘nothing’ that keeps on
happening from Molloy to The Unnamable attains humorous characteristics and not
tragic disillusionment. The narrators often mock either their own failures or theircharacters’, as Beckett shows in the episode when Malone writes a cruelly comic
account of Macmann’s love affair with Moll. The discrepancy between romantic
aspirations and what they could achieve is pin-pointed in this encounter, ridiculedand made comic, but does result in Macmann’s obtaining some insight into themeaning of the expression ‘Two is company’.
In his conversations with Claude Bonnefoy (1971: 120), Eugen Ionescu
reiterates the same ambivalence of the search within the internal oppositions ofconsciousness that can also be seen in Beckett’s The Unnamable:
The ‘absurd’ is a very vague notion. Maybe it’s a failure to understand something,some universal laws. It /… / is born of the conflict between me and myself, between

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my different wills, my contradictory impulses: I want simultaneously to live and todie, or rather I have within me a movement both towards death and towards life.

The absurdity as a theme of the Trilogy can be associated with Nietzsche’s
Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In both Beckett and Nietzsche, the philosophical question
about the existence of meaning in human existence identifies the presence of
Esslin’s interpretation of absurdism under a temporal directed reading. If people
are active, they tend to forget the passage of time, but if they are passively waiting,they are confronted with the action of time itself.
Camus’ concept of the absurd may be considered to share part of Nietzsche’s
concept of nihilism. Absurdism and nihilism share the idea that life is an instanceof nothing, devoid of sense and unable to be applied in the world.
The thought of eternal recurrence as a representation of nihilism is central inFriedrich Nietzsche’s writings. In his psychological analysis, Nietzsche neverspeaks about the reality of eternal recurrence itself, but about the thought of eternal
recurrence which mostly appears in two works: The Gay Science, written in 1882,
and Thus Spoke Zarathustra, written between 1883 and 1885. Nietzsche’s themes
here are the dynamism of the human will, the death of God, the critique of
traditional Christian morality, the will to power, the eternal return and the overman,that higher form of humanity envisaged by Nietzsche, which has not yet been
attained.
It is there that the idea of eternal recurrence leads to the belief that everything
has already happened for an eternity in the past, and will continue to happen over
and over for an eternity. What the reader can grasp from the story is that
Zarathustra and the dwarf were considering the same path. Thus, there are no two
different paths. Nietzsche says time is circular. Instead of thinking of the paths asstraight lines, he considers them one path that makes an enormous circle. That is
why everything happens again and again and that is the nature of the circle: people
and their actions always end up where they started. Nihilism and absurdism thus
arise from the very incapacity to give meaning to the disrupted circular movementof life.
Absurdism in Nietzsche’s myth of eternal recurrence is based on theobservation that only those who have experienced the ultimate despairs of failure
have the right to will for eternal recurrence. A true proponent of the eternal
recurrence would want everything – successes, failures, tragedies, and triumphs –to be repeated. Nevertheless, the core issue is that unless people have experienced
the worst of themselves in the world, they have no right to will recurrence, because
they do not fully understand what it is they are willing. Someone who has led asuperficial existence is ruled out. Failure is ruled in. This type of innercharacterization goes well with Beckett’s The Unnamable, who delineates acircular movement so that he might find the identity he needs in order to get born,
live and die and then arrive again in the initial state.
If Zarathustra is considered a character created by Nietzsche, who tells his
stories in order to share his wisdom with the listeners, the Unnamable, on the other
hand, is Beckett’s character who also tells his stories. Nevertheless, he does not273

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

intend to demonstrate his wise ability, but rather to gain wisdom and freedom at theend of his speech. After they end what they have to say, neither Zarathustra, nor
the Unnamable are aware of the impact of their words onto the listeners or readers.
The important sequence is though the conceptualization of their themes and ideas,
which ultimately bring their texts together under the shadow of absurdism.
The idea of the absurd dominates the Trilogy in a complex mixture of failure
and its eternal recurrence in the narrators’ lives. Meaningless situations areconstantly repeated throughout the three novels in such a way that Molloy’s echo
can even be heard in The Unnamable. The last narrator of the Trilogy is alreadyfamiliarized with his incapacity to avoid useless occurrences and thus merely
restricts to witnessing characters and actions. “I have said that all things here recur
sooner or later, no, I was going to say it” (The Unnamable, 299).
Failure is thus recurrent in the sense that it is the axis which succeeds inbringing together the three novels. Although failure is the central theme whichhighlights absurdity in the Trilogy, it also may acquire artistic connotations, under
Richard Coe’s concept of “the art of failure.” Richard Coe (1964: 4) suggests that
Beckett’s artistic use of the concept of failure invites to a nihilistic comment on thecondition of human beings.
In Malone Dies, the denial of death is done through continuous narration,
which can be considered to represent the absurd activity to be done in order to keep
the narrator alive so that he could finally die. Malone reaches a moment when he is
no longer alive enough to die “and when, for example, you die, it is too late, youhave been waiting too long, you are no longer sufficiently alive to be able to stop”(Malone Dies, 241). This implies negativity in the conceptualization of a
possibility to escape meaning and failure.
In Disjecta, Beckett (1983: 139) himself approaches nihilism when he considers
artistic creation as consisting in “the expression that there is nothing to express,
nothing with which to express, nothing from which to express, no power toexpress, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express.” Using
experimental psychology, Beckett believes that the artist is limited as far as his
understanding about the world around him is concerned mainly because he ishuman. The human perception of the world is a subjective simplification and,
consequently, Beckett states that “to be an artist is to fail, as no other dare fail”(145). Whatever he can make his protagonists either write or say will be inadequate
as a comment on the world’s infinite complexity and lack of sense.
Samuel Beckett’s art of failure emerges out of Malone’s negative judgementthat “nothing is more real than nothing” (Malone Dies, 192) and materializes in a
literary creation which becomes an attempt to represent or express that nothing
precise. As a writer and as a critic, Samuel Beckett embraced the idea that clarity
and accessibility do not necessarily have to be connected to art. “The time is not
perhaps altogether too green for the vile suggestion that art has nothing to do withclarity, does not dabble in the clear and does not make clear” (Beckett, 1983: 142).
The duty of fictional art is not to solve confusions and doubts, but merely toacknowledge them and then transmit them to another judgement.
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Beckett argues that art is expressive of the artist’s natural experience, as
revealed to the vigilant coenaesthesia. By natural experience, he means experienceof sense-data; ‘coenaesthesia’ is a term experimental psychologists use to refer toour total bodily consciousness. Beckett also implies that the artist is limited in his
relationship to the world and that his limitation is a natural product of the fact that
he is human. He develops these ideas both in the Trilogy and in his dialogues with
Duthuit. Samuel Beckett chose not to establish clear definitions about his art of
failure. The Trilogy embodies a complex mix of form and technique which mainly
regards human psychological and spiritual becoming.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Albright, D. (2003). Beckett and Aesthetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Beckett, S. (1965). Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnameable. New York: Grove
Press.
——— (1983). Disjecta: Miscellaneous Writings and a Dramatic Fragment. Ruby
Cohn (ed.). London: Calder.
——— (1997). Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnameable. London: CalderPublications.
Blair, D. (1978). Samuel Beckett. London: Jonathan Cape.
Bonnefoy, C. (1971). Conversations with Ionesco. Dawson, J. (trans). New York:
Holt, Reinehart and Winston.
Browning, R. (2000). Selected Poems. D. Karlin (ed.). London: Penguin Classics.
Camus, A. (1961). The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays. New York: Vintage
Books.
Coe, R. (1964). Beckett. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd.
Davies, P. (2006). “Strange Weather: Beckett from the Perspective of
Ecocriticism.” In: S.E. Gontarski, and A. Uhlmann (eds.), Beckett after Beckett.
Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Esslin, M. (1986). The Theatre of the Absurd. London: Penguin Books.
Hesla, D. (1971). The Shape of Chaos: An Interpretation of the Art of SamuelBeckett. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Kant, I. (1987). Critique of Judgement. Indianapolis: Hackett.
Motte, W. (1999). Small Worlds: Minimalism in Contemporary French Literature,
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Myskja, B.K. (2002). The Sublime in Kant and Beckett. New York: Walter deGruyter.
Nietzsche, F. (2005). Aşa grăit-a Zarathustra. Ploieşti: Antet.
Oppenheim, L. (2000). The Painted Word. Samuel Beckett’s Dialogue with Art.
Michigan: The University of Michigan Press.
Slocombe, W. (2006). Postmodern Nihilism: Theory and Literature. London:
Routledge.
Topsfield, V. (1988). The Humour of Samuel Beckett. London: Macmillan Press.
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Les aspects dialogiques de la préface :de la revendication de la subjectivité à l’effacement énonciatif
Ghislaine LOZACHMEUR
Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, France,
Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines « Victor-Segalen »EA 4249 HCTI (‘Héritage et construction dans le texte et l’image’)

ABSTRACT: Dialogical Aspects of the Foreword: from Claiming Subjectivity to
Self-Effacing Utterance
Within the paratextual framework the foreword is the place of subjectivity where theauthorial self introduces him/herself and his/her work. It is the space where theauthor adopts a particular strategy to arrest the reader’s attention and engenders an
ideal co-speaker in accordance with the supposed reading contract. To Gérard
Genette the effect of the foreword is ‘of the influential type, namely manipulation,
unconsciously suffered by the reader.’ Analysing excerpts from genuine authorial
forewords to works belonging to different literary genres, the paper aims at
identifying the indices that, implicitly or not, testify to the author’s dominantpresence and build a reference framework while establishing the author’s mental
image of his/her readership.
KEYWORDS: linguistic enunciation, polyphony, audience construction, subjectivity,
lexical fields

La préface est un espace dans l’œuvre qui permet de mesurer le désir de l’auteur à
exporter son dire et à communiquer avec son lecteur. L’objet de notre recherche
porte sur l’analyse linguistique de cette préface, en ce qu’elle manifeste un intérêt
conjoint pour l’analyse de discours, la pragmatique, la linguistique de l’énonciation, la sémantique lexicale.
Retenir la seule préface dans cette étude, c’était pour nous, nous intéresser à l’à
côté des textes car un texte est rarement seul : il est prolongé, entouré. Il nous adonc semblé utile d’interroger cet élément pour comprendre quelle distancel’auteur prenait par rapport à son œuvre, son écriture et sa réception par le lecteur.
Nous avons orienté ce travail suivant trois axes d’étude : la place de la préface
dans le paratexte, les dispositifs énonciatifs qui construisent l’ethos de l’auteur et lasituation de l’auditoire dans le cheminement interprétatif.
Les textes utilisés appartiennent à des œuvres littéraires françaises du XVIesiècle au XXe en nous concentrant particulièrement sur certaines préfaces de Victor
Hugo et de Pierre Loti. Cependant, nous faisons également référence à d’autres
exemples comme l’adresse au lecteur dans le livre de médecine d’Ambroise Paré.
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D’une manière générale, nous avons considéré les préfaces auctoriales
authentiques, c’est-à-dire revendiquées d’une manière ou d’une autre par l’auteur
réel du texte.
1. La Place de la préface dans le paratexte
La Préface dans un ouvrage, quel qu’il soit, littéraire ou non, possède une
dimension socio-discursive qui intéresse le lecteur parce qu’elle permet d’entrer
dans les arcanes de la pensée auctoriale.
1.1. Définition du paratexte

À ce moment de la présentation, nous nous référons aux analyses réalisées par
Gérard Genette dans Seuils et Palimpsestes. De même la place du paratexte dansles études sur l’œuvre littéraire a été soulignée par des théoriciens tels que Wellek
et Warren, Michel Charles, Antoine Culioli.
Cet élément de la publication a souvent été négligé. Il s’agit pourtant d’unélément de premier plan : d’où le paradoxe que nous devons éclairer. En effet, letexte, dans sa publication, s’accompagne d’indications, de productions variéestelles que le nom de l’auteur, le titre, la préface, les illustrations qui servent àassurer la réception du texte et que Gérard Genette a proposé d’appeler le« paratexte » dans Palimpsestes, où il évoque :La relation que, dans l’ensemble formé par une œuvre littéraire, le texte proprement
dit entretient avec ce que l’on ne peut guère nommer que son paratexte : titre, soustitre, intertitres, préfaces, post-faces, avertissements, avant-propos et notes
marginales, infrapaginales, terminales, épigraphes, illustrations, prière d’insérer,bande, jaquette, et bien d’autres types de signaux accessoires, autographes ou
allographes, qui procurent au texte un entourage (variable) et parfois uncommentaire, officiel ou officieux, dont le lecteur le plus puriste et le moins porté àl’érudition externe ne peut pas toujours disposer aussi facilement qu’il le voudrait etle prétend. Je ne veux pas entamer ou déflorer ici l’étude, peut-être à venir, de cechamp de relations, que nous aurons d’ailleurs maintes occasions de rencontrer, etqui est sans doute un des lieux privilégiés de la dimension pragmatique de l’œuvre
c’est-à-dire de son action sur le lecteur-lieu en particulier de ce que l’on nomme
volontiers, depuis les études de Philippe Le jeune sur l’autobiographie, le contrat (oupacte) générique.1

Dans Seuil, il précise que le paratexte « présente » le texte au sens habituel dece verbe mais aussi en son sens le plus fort : pour le rendre présent, pour assurer sa
présence au monde, sa « réception » et sa consommation, sous la forme aujourd’hui
d’un livre. » Il note que le préfixe « para » (à côté, le long de) a un sens parfois
ambigu et renvoie aux adjectifs parafiscal, para militaire. Pour Hillis-Miller,« Para » est un préfixe porteur d’antithèse, c’est « la proximité et la distance, lasimilarité et la différence, l’intériorité et l’extériorité. »2 Pour Borges, la préface
serait un « vestibule », ce que Genette appelle « seuil ». On peut distinguer
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plusieurs niveaux de paratexte suivant la façon dont il apparaît en même temps ou
pas dans l’œuvre : le paratexte originel est publié en même temps que le texte, leparatexte ultérieur qui paraît quatre mois environ après, le paratexte tardif qui est
une réédition, le paratexte posthume après la mort de l’auteur avec inversement leparatexte anthume du vivant de l’auteur. Le paratexte éditorial, en ce qui concerne
la couverture, la page-titre et les annexes, relève, lui, de la responsabilité del’éditeur qui impose le format, le choix du papier, et la composition typographique.
1.2. Le rôle de la préface : aperçu diachronique

Le mot « préface » est issu du latin « prae fari : dire d’avance ». Il a développé lesens figuré de « ce qui précède »3. Le dictionnaire de la langue française le définitcomme un « texte placé en tête d’un livre qui est de l’auteur ou d’une autre
personne, et qui sert à le présenter au lecteur. »4
Pour le Dictionnaire de l’académie française 5e édition, « préface »est un substantif féminin qui signifie : « Avant-propos, Discours préliminaire quel’on met ordinairement à la tête d’un livre, pour avertir le lecteur de ce qui regardel’ouvrage. » Ce dictionnaire ajoute :Préface, signifie aussi quelquefois, Préambule, petit discours que l’on fait avant qued’entrer en matière. Et Préface, se dit aussi De cette partie de la Messe qui précède
immédiatement le canon. Chanter la préface. Le Prêtre en étoit à la préface.

Le TLF, Trésor de la langue française, donne lui : « Texte placé en tête d’unouvrage pour le présenter et le recommander au lecteur, en préciser éventuellement
les intentions ou développer des idées plus générales. » Il propose commesynonyme « introduction » ou plus spécifiques : « discours préliminaire,
prolégomènes, avertissement, avant-propos, préambule » ainsi que les locutions« Préface générale ; belle, bonne, magnifique, merveilleuse, nouvelle, première
préface ; grande, longue préface, courte, petite préface. »Dans la préface de Cromwell, après plusieurs pages sur les conquêtes poétiques
du christianisme (...), Victor Hugo concluait: « Le point de départ de la religion est
toujours le point de départ de la poésie (...) »Par ailleurs, signalons une autre acception. La préface est aussi selon le TLF, un« petit discours d’introduction, entrée en matière que l’on fait ou écrit à quelqu’unpour l’informer de ses intentions ou pour le disposer favorablement à l’égard d’une
personne ou d’un événement; » ce qui nous éloigne du cadre strict de l’œuvre
publiée.
a) Les différentes dénominations

De fait, la préface, si nous suivons Gérard Genette, c’est « toute espèce de texte
liminaire (préliminaire ou post liminaire) auctorial ou allographe, consistant en un
discours produit à propos du texte qui suit ou qui précède. »5 La postface serait unevariété de préface avec des traits spécifiques tels qu’un commentaire placé à la fin
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d’un livre. Les parasynonymes de la préface sont nombreux en français et nous
relevons au fil des textes : avant-propos, avant-dire, avis, avertissement, discourspréliminaire, examen, exorde, introduction, notice, note, préambule, prélude,
prologue, présentation. Ces formules sont variables dans les textes qui ont servi desupport à notre étude.
Citons à titre d’exemples :- le « Prologue » dans Gargantua de Rabelais et qui s’adresse aux « Buveurstrès illustres et vous, vérolés très précieux (car à vous, non à autres, sont dédiés
mes écrits), Alcibiade, au dialogue de Platon intitulé Le Banquet… »- Le Cid de Corneille commence par une dédicace, de 1637, à Madame deCombalet, nièce de Richelieu, suivie d’un avertissement au lecteur de 1648, poursituer son texte dans l’histoire narrée par Guillem de Castro.
- Le Dictionnaire philosophique de Voltaire est précédé d’une Préface en têtede l’édition Valberg de 1765 où l’auteur affiche le propos de celui qui a rassemblédes articles d’origines différentes : « Nous les avons tous tirés des meilleursauteurs de l’Europe.. », à lire séparément comme pour tout dictionnaire : « Ce livre
n’exige pas une lecture suivie ; mais, à quelque endroit qu’on l’ouvre, on trouve dequoi réfléchir »- l’« Avant-propos » des Mémoires d’Outre-tombe de Chateaubriand : « Commeil m’est impossible le moment de ma fin, comme à mon âge les jours accordés àl’homme ne sont que des jours de grâce ou plutôt de rigueur, je vais m’expliquer. »- le texte de Francis Ponges, Proêmes, lui, est précédé d’une page en italique,sans titre, expliquant l’itinéraire hésitant de la publication : « tout se passe comme,
depuis que j’ai commencé à écrire, je courais, sans le moindre succès, « après »l’estime d’une certaine personne.
Nous remarquons qu’au fil du temps la préface sans être un élément obligatoire
du parcours éditorial impose de plus en plus sa présence.
b) Situation de la préface dans la chronologie de la rédaction

Réfléchir au statut de la préface oblige à se poser la question du moment, ausens chronologique, où l’auteur rédige sa préface. La norme de bon sens serait
celui de l’immédiat « après-rédaction » du texte. Mais les situations sont fort
diverses. Ainsi, nous notons de nombreuses préfaces tardives prenant un accent
testamentaire, l’œuvre ayant mûri, anticipation d’une attitude de prise en charge
face à la postérité. Dans d’autres cas, les préfaces disparaissent ; ou certaines
nouvelles préfaces viennent s’ajouter à l’ancienne. C’est le cas de Victor Hugo
dans Les Orientales qui donne une préface en février 1829 faisant suite à celle dejanvier 1829 et proposant un bilan de la publication :Ce livre a obtenu le seul genre de succès que l’auteur puisse ambitionner en ce
moment de crise et de révolution littéraire : vive opposition d’un côté, et peut-être
quelque adhésion, quelque sympathie de l’autre.

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Le cas le plus fréquent est celui de la préface originale authentique où l’auteurparle implicitement du texte comme étant le sien. Mais la préface peut feindre une
autre position : personne fictive ou tierce personne. Enfin il faut signaler le cas desromans d’abord prépubliés en feuilleton dans une revue ou un journal, pourlesquels la préface est ultérieure.
Dans Le Spectateur français de Marivaux, on relève dans l’édition originale unavertissement en gros caractères intitulé: « Le Libraire / Au Lecteur ». Même s’il
feint d’ignorer l’auteur, la plume de Marivaux y est manifeste :Dans la Première feuille que j’imprimai du Spectateur français, je m’étais engagé àen donner chaque semaine une nouvelle feuille ; et j’avais pris cet engagement sur lapromesse que l’on m’avait faite de me mettre en état de tenir parole ; mais il a fallu
que l’auteur, que je connais point, ait pris des arrangements que l’on n’avait pas
jugés nécessaires, et qui le sont devenus pour la continuation de l’ouvrage.
Dorénavant, il paraîtra tous les quinze jours sans interruption. Je crois que voilà leseul avis que je doive donner au public. C’est à lui à prononcer sur le mérite del’ouvrage qui doit être curieux si le titre en est rempli avec génie.6

Autre exemple de cette complexité, le texte de Michel Leiris, L’Âge d’Homme
précédé de « De la littérature considérée comme une tauromachie » de quatorze
pagesc) Sa place en termes de position et de surface, les caractères utilisés

Le plus fréquemment, le texte se présente comme un discours d’une ou
plusieurs pages. Certaines sont très courtes et prennent la forme de simples
dédicaces. D’autres sont suggérées par des caractères typographiques différents ou
des italiques comme dans Le Parti pris des choses de Francis Ponge. Les
Remarques de la langue française de Vaugelas sont un des cas de long exposé
puisqu’après l’« Extraict du Privilege du Roy » figurent 42 pages de préface oùVaugelas expose l’orientation de ses Remarques :Ce ne sont pas icy des Loix que je fais pour nostre langue de mon authorité privée ;Je serois bien temeraire, pour ne pas dire insensé, car à quel titre et de quel front
pretendre un pouvoir qui n’appartient qu’à l’Usage, que chacun reconnoist pour leMaistre et le Souverain des langues vivantes ?7d) Les apports informatifs

En outre, la préface est porteuse d’un certain nombre d’informations qui semesure en termes de sources de l’œuvre. Elle indique la genèse, les étapes de lacréation. Par exemple Corneille qui situe Le Cid dans le texte de Guillem de Castro
ou Chateaubriand dans Les Mémoires d’Outre-tombe qui oppose le « Moi raconté »et le « Je racontant ». Elle présente aussi le regard de l’auteur sur un état de lacritique au moment de la publication. Ainsi Victor Hugo, dans Les Orientales :280

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« L’auteur de ce recueil n’est pas de ceux qui reconnaissent à la critique le droit dequestionner le poète sur sa fantaisie. » Nous y lisons également les courantsd’idées, les écoles littéraires ou autres. Par exemple la préface du Cid de Corneillequi justifie sa pièce dans la tradition du respect de la Poétique d’Aristote en riposteà certaines attaques. La préface ou ses équivalents est aussi une occasion pour faireallégeance à son bienfaiteur. Alain Viala dans La Naissance de l’écrivain a bien
montré l’importance du clientélisme et du mécénat pour les écrivains du XVII esiècle. Il souligne que le mécène agit rarement par pur amour de l’art mais aucontraire dans « une logique de reconnaissance mutuelle »8. L’auteur offre sonœuvre à un dédicataire qui est un personnage puissant et qui en échange reçoit une
certification d’« esprit supérieur », pour preuve de son bon goût et de sa grandeur.
Inversement, la préface peut exprimer une volonté de neutraliser les critiques en
faisant « profil bas », tout en amplifiant l’importance du sujet, implicitement.
L’auteur semble faire assaut de modestie. Montaigne dans Les Essais choisit cetteposition :C’est ici un livre de bonne foi, lecteur. Il t’avertit dès l’entrée que je ne m’y suis
proposé aucune fin, que domestique et privée. Je n’y ai eu nulle considération de tonservice, ni de ma gloire : mes forces ne sont pas capables d’un tel dessein.

De même, Pierre Loti, dans la préface de Au Maroc (Voyages 1872-1913) :Aussi bien, voudrais-je mettre tout de suite en garde contre mon livre un très grandnombre de personnes pour lesquelles il n’a pas été écrit. Qu’on ne s’attende pas à ytrouver des considérations sur la politique du Maroc, son avenir, et sur les moyens
qu’il y aurait de l’entraîner dans le mouvement moderne : d’abord, cela nem’intéresse ni ne me regarde, et puis, surtout, le peu que j’en pense est directement
au rebours du sens commun.9

Aussi bien, cependant, la préface peut être conçue par l’auteur comme une
feinte pour se prémunir contre les dangers de poursuites policières et politiques. Ce
qui explique les précautions de Voltaire prétendant des articles du Dictionnaire
philosophique: « Nous les avons tous tirés des meilleurs auteurs de l’Europe. »1.3. Regard synthétique sur la fonction de la préface

Ainsi à première vue, la fonction de la préface peut donc paraître secondaire, etbien souvent on peut se dispenser de sa lecture et entreprendre directement lalecture du texte. Cependant, une analyse attentive laisse percevoir qu’il ne faudrait
pas sous-estimer son importance et les considérations qui motivent sa rédaction etson placement en tout début de l’œuvre.
La préface est bien l’un des seuils du texte, un péritexte, un élément qui se
trouve à côté du texte et non à l’intérieur. Elle précède le texte et donne les clés del’accès et de la lecture. Pourtant, les prises de position des auteurs peuvent ladonner comme un prolongement de l’œuvre.
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Dans la phase essentielle de la composition et de la rédaction de l’œuvre qu’elle
introduit, et d’un point de vue purement chronologique, la préface se distingue dureste du texte ; elle est rédigée, dans la plupart des cas une fois l’œuvre terminée, lecontenu, la vision globale et l’univers étant posés par l’auteur. En ce sens, elle
occupe une position paradoxale, puisqu’elle indique l’achèvement plus que l’entréedans l’œuvre.
La préface est, par conséquent, révélatrice d’une ambiguïté puisque lesfrontières entre analyse introspective de l’auteur sur son cheminement, au terme dela création, et examen rétrospectif, « flash-back » sur l’écriture est confuse. Cette
ambiguïté oriente la question du cheminement interprétatif que chaque œuvre porte
en elle et qu’elle propose à ses lecteurs.
Une autre difficulté concerne, cette fois, la réception qu’on peut réserver au
texte et la lecture qu’on peut en faire. L’auteur, (ou l’éditeur, dans le cas duSpectateur français de Marivaux), vient prendre la parole dans la préface pourfournir aux lecteurs les quelques éléments qu’il estime essentiels pour la lecture dutexte et pour l’interprétation qu’ils pourraient ou devraient en faire. De ce fait, lapréface devient un lieu d’échange, d’espace intersubjectif, lieu de la première
rencontre entre l’auteur qui va se dévoiler ou se masquer et son auditoire. C’est
donc là que va se jouer l’accueil par la critique et le lectorat, complice ou
polémique.
2. Les dispositifs énonciatifs : ethos et construction de l’auditoire
Dans le cas de la préface auctoriale authentique qui nous intéresse, nous analysons
les dispositifs énonciatifs qui permettent de cerner la prise en charge du texte parson auteur ou au contraire son apparent effacement énonciatif.
Montherlant dans Notes théâtre traduit la difficulté pour l’auteur de rendre
compte à son auditoire des intentions profondes de son écriture et combien laportée de la préface est fragile, courant le risque de n’être ni lue ni comprise :Je suis convaincu que les œuvres qui durent ne durent que par des malentendus, partoute la littérature dont la postérité les entoure, littérature où les intentions véritables
des auteurs finissent par être noyées du tout et perdues de vue. Cela peut se fairedéjà de leur vivant. Quelque temps ils luttent: préfaces, interviews, notes etéclaircissements... Puis, comme ils aiment créer, et que tout le temps donné à cescommentaires est perdu pour une création nouvelle, un moment vient où, de guerre
lasse, ils laissent dire.10

La préface présente plusieurs types de dispositifs énonciatifs qui nous
demandent d’interroger la « sorcellerie évocatoire de la grammaire », selonl’expression de Baudelaire : marques personnelles, temps, types de verbe. Le« bloc magique de la syntaxe »11 notamment permet de relire un matériel situé dansles marges de la linguistique et qui jouxte le terrain de la psychanalyse.

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2.1. La revendication de la subjectivité
2.1.1. Les formes spécifiques

Pour énoncer sa position de locuteur, le sujet parlant use de « formes
spécifiques, d’indices linguistiques dont la fonction est « de mettre le locuteur enrelation constante et nécessaire avec son énonciation » et qui intéressent l’analysequand il y a manifestation individuelle de la parole12. Il s’agit des indices depersonne et particulièrement le rapport « Je / tu ». « Je » dénote l’individu qui dit
profère l’énonciation et « tu » l’individu qui y est présent comme allocutaire. C’est
le cas de nombreuses préfaces, la majorité où l’auteur dit « je » mais aussi « nous »plus ambigu et dit « tu » ou « vous » au lecteur. Nous savons que « je » est l’auteur
grâce aux indications qui sont données par l’éditeur (préface de l’auteur), par lesdédicaces, la signature finale. Mais quelquefois il ya des interrogations qui
perturbent ce circuit. C’est le cas de la préface du Spectateur français de Marivaux,dont on peut se demander qui, en dehors de l’auteur lui-même, dit « je », parle de« badinage » :Je crois que voilà le seul avis que je doive donner au public. C’est à lui à prononcer
sur le mérite de l’ouvrage qui doit être curieux si le titre en est rempli avec génie. Il
ne me reste qu’une attention à faire. La forme sous laquelle il paraîtra semblen’annoncer que du badinage : en effet, on en trouvera souvent ; mais un badinage deréflexion, que l’on a tâché de rendre aussi instructif que pourrait l’être le sérieux leplus déclaré.
2.1.2. Le « je » de Pierre Loti

La préface de Pierre Loti nous offre un exemple de cette revendication de la
subjectivité, de cette omniprésence du « je ». Dans le préliminaire de Au Maroc,
les termes de marques énonciatives, les traces de subjectivité dominent. Ainsi 55
marques de première personne (singulier et pluriel). Le texte est inscrit dans unplan d’énonciation discours autour du présent de l’indicatif, du passé composé, del’impératif présent et du futur simple associé au conditionnel présent. Dans lecontexte du « je » on relève des verbes de sentiment (prière, espoir, amour,souvenir, sensation) d’activité intellectuelle et morale. Ce qui correspond bien àl’activité d’introspection, de retour sur l’écriture propre à la préface : « j’éprouve lebesoin de faire ici une légère préface », « je prie qu’on me pardonne », « je penseque la foi des anciens jours, qui fait encore des martyrs et des prophètes, est bonneà garder et douce aux hommes à l’heure de la mort. », « voudrais-je mettre tout desuite en garde contre mon livre », « j’espère qu’au moins ils apprécieraient ma
discrète réserve », « j’admire son haut et tranquille dédain des agitations
contemporaines », « je lui sais gré d’être beau », « je me suis bien gardé de lesdonner », « ces pures descriptions auxquelles j’ai voulu me borner », « moi qui, parje ne sais quel phénomène d’atavisme lointain ou de préexistence, me suis toujours
sentie l’âme à moitié arabe », « Il est bien un peu sombre, cet empire du Maghreb,283

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et l’on y coupe bien de temps en temps quelques têtes, je suis forcé de lereconnaître », « j’ai tâché de dire à mon tour des choses gracieuses ». Le
vocabulaire appartient bien, lui, par le choix des mots délicats, harmonieux,évocateurs d’un imaginaire lyrique, au champ de la poésie qui caractérise l’œuvre
de Pierre Loti :Le moindre dessin d’arabesque, effacé par le temps au-dessus de quelque porte
antique – et même seulement la simple chaux blanche, la vieille chaux blanche jetée
en suaire sur quelque muraille en ruine – me plonge dans un passé mystérieux, fait
vibrer en moi je ne sais quelle fibre enfouie.

Cette expression de la subjectivité en préface se livre dans bien d’autres
préfaces. Gérard de Nerval dans la dédicace à un ami de Petits Châteaux deBohème : « La Muse est entrée dans mon cœur comme une déesse aux paroles
dorées ; elle s’en est échappée comme une pythie en jetant des cris de douleur. »2.1.3. Inscription dans le discours

On remarque que pour ces préfaces auctoriales authentiques, ce qui domine
c’est le plan du discours, à comprendre dans sa plus large extension : « touteénonciation supposant un locuteur et un auditeur, et chez le premier, l’intentiond’influencer l’autre en quelque manière. »13 Les temps qui figurent prioritairement
ce sont le présent de l’indicatif, le passé composé et le futur. Benveniste s’attarde
sur le parfait « temps qui établit un lien vivant entre l’événement passé et le présent
où son évocation trouve place. C’est le temps de celui qui relate les faits en témoin,en participant ; C’est donc aussi le temps que choisira quiconque veut faire retentir
jusqu’à nous l’événement rapporté et le rattacher à notre présent. » On peut
remarquer que ce trait est commun aux énonciations où l’auteur choisit des’exprimer à la troisième personne comme Victor Hugo. À noter que d’autres
formes linguistiques sont mises en place telles les modalités d’énonciation etparticulièrement l’interrogation « procès de comportement à double entrée »puisque l’énonciation doit susciter une « réponse » et l’intimation « rapport vivant
et immédiat de l’énonciateur à l’autre » et qui se fait invitation au lecteur à lesuivre ou à ne pas le suivre : « laissons tout, et jouissons seulement au passage deschoses qui ne trompent pas, des belles créatures, des beaux chevaux, des beauxjardins et des parfums de fleurs. »14
Le livre de médecine d’Ambroise Paré15, publié en 1585, développe dans leparatexte certaines indications variées telles que les illustrations mais aussi lespréfaces. Celles-ci assurent la « réception » de l’œuvre au monde, selonl’expression de Gérard Genette. Elles nous renseignent sur la genèse de l’œuvre
mais également sur l’auteur. Pour énoncer sa position de locuteur, le sujet parlant
use de « formes spécifiques », d’indices linguistiques comme les indices depersonnes (« je », « nous ») qui permettent d’accentuer la relation discursive aupartenaire réel ou imaginaire. Il se fait modeste, humble, quémandeur.
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Par exemple, dans la Préface au « Très chrestien, Roy de France et de Pologne,
Henry Troisiesme », il affirme sa conviction « d’être membre du corps de la France
et sujet du roi et de chercher à servir et prouffiter au public. » Il rappelle qu’il
exerce la chirurgie depuis quarante ans et présente plusieurs arguments pourjustifier son œuvre et ses choix. Il s’est conformé au modèle des Anciens : « latrace desquels j’ay suivi pas à pas, seront par cy apres mieux entendus en ce qu’ils
ont travaillé et escrit de l’invention des preceptes. » Il n’a pas épargné son temps eta travaillé à l’intérêt des « écoliers » : « lesquels estans instruits en la théorique, sefussent refroidis, ne voyans ni les moyens ny la voye pour effectuer et practiquer lascience, les preceptes de laquelle ils auroyent appris en l’eschole. »La préface est aussi l’occasion de demander à plusieurs reprises la protection du
roy Charles IX et de la « Royne serenissime mere de Vostre Majesté » qui lui ont
commandé de publier sous le nom Royal ». Il souhaite que son livre aille « le front
levé par tout le monde. » En effet, il a besoin du ‘frontiscipe heureux et admirable
du nom de Henry (Henri III) pourme servir de défense et sauvegarde pour me targuer, et prevaloir contre les langues
des envieux et des calomniateurs, le venin desquels j’ay desja senty, et croyqu’encore l’envie n’a pris son assouvissement : mais sa rage faudra que cesse, parl’ombragement du nom de mon Roy, et par les rayons de sa faveur, et grace pleinede justice.
2.2. L’effacement énonciatif : le « il » de Victor Hugo

À l’opposé, la préface de Victor Hugo dans Les Orientales voit triompher leprincipe de l’effacement énonciatif ; les personnes qui expriment la position del’auteur se limitent au « il » qui prend une position en retrait, neutre, critique :- « L’auteur de ce recueil n’est pas de ceux qui reconnaissent à la critique ledroit de questionner le poète sur sa fantaisie, et de lui demander pourquoi il achoisi tel sujet, broyé telle couleur, cueilli à tel arbre, puisé à telle source. »- « L’auteur insiste sur ces idées, si évidentes qu’elles paraissent, parce qu’uncertain nombre d’Aristarques n’en est pas encore à les admettre pour telles. »- « Il a été plus d’une fois l’objet de ces méprises de la critique. »- « À quoi, il a toujours fermement répondu : que ces caprices étaient ses
caprices. »- « Il ne dissimule pas, pour le dire en passant, que bien des critiques letrouveront hardi et insensé de souhaiter pour la France une littérature qu’on puisse
comparer à une ville du moyen-âge. »Cela n’est pas exempt d’expressions subjectives « Il regrettera seulement que lelivre ne soit pas meilleur », de détails biographiques « C’est une idée qui lui a prisd’une façon assez ridicule, l’été passé, en allant voir le coucher de soleil », « c’est
une source à laquelle il désirait depuis longtemps de désaltérer ».
Le texte peut utiliser le « nous » mais il semble constituer une communauté dedialogue très large avec le lecteur contemporain. Il utilise également le « moi »dans par exemple « parlez-moi d’une belle littérature tirée au cordeau » qui semble285

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davantage un « moi » générique qui tient à la présence d’une locution figée« parlez-moi de ».
Sur le même plan énonciatif se placent les préfaces d’Hernani ou de Ruy Blasoù l’auteur semble bien représenté par « il » et où les prises de position
personnelles sont très fortes et ne peuvent relever que de Victor Hugo lui-même :« Cette voix haute et puissante du peuple, qui ressemble à celle de Dieu, veut
désormais que la poésie ait la même devise que la politique : tolérance et liberté »2.3. Les énoncés génériques « monologiques »Ils postulent et imposent un accord et un consensus entre l’auteur et son lecteur ; cequi sous-entend l’existence d’un univers référentiel commun que ni l’un ni l’autre
ne remettent en question. Indiquent-ils une solidarité, une appartenance commune
et par la même occasion renforcent-ils la mainmise de l’auteur sur le sens de son
texte ?
Quand l’auteur parle avec autorité et conviction, le lecteur est construit comme
un simple récepteur qui ne peut qu’acquiescer à ce que l’auteur lui suggère.
L’énoncé construit des évidences, un contenu qui est soustrait à la discussion et à lacontestation potentielle. D’où l’intérêt d’étudier les marques lexico-grammaticalesde cette opération linguistique et ses implications sur l’inter-prétation que l’auteur
voudrait que l’on fasse de son texte. Ainsi le Prologue du Gargantua de Rabelais
où le « je » est très effacé. Mais de nombreuses interrogatives font évoluer
l’argumentation des phrases « À quoi tend, selon vous, ce prélude et coupd’essai ? » Ces phrases sont construites autour de verbes d’obligation comme « il
faut », « il vous convient », « il est vrai » :C’est pourquoi, il faut ouvrir le livre et peser soigneusement ce qui y est exposé.
Vous connaîtrez alors que l’essence contenue au-dedans est de bien autre valeur quene le promettait la boîte, c’est-à-dire que les matières ici traitées ne sont pas aussi
frivoles que le titre ci-dessus le laissait entendre.

La modalité déontique laisse percevoir la présence de l’auteur.
3. Le lecteur et Le cheminement interprétatif
3.1. Le Lecteur : La construction de l’auditoire – la partition entre les lecteurs
3.1.1. La partition entre les lecteurs

Plusieurs schémas d’interaction sont possibles. La question posée concerne lareprésentation que l’auteur se fait de son lecteur. La préface suppose uneconception de l’auditoire, un calibrage du texte en fonction de cette connaissancepréalable. L’auteur peut s’adresser à un auditoire universel ou à un groupe plus
restreint, avisé avec lequel il a des affinités particulières. Il peut anticiper lesréactions, les enthousiasmes et les rejets possibles ou ne pas s’en soucier.
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La préface qui est typique de cette partition est celle de Ruy Blas de Victor
Hugo où celui déclare : « Trois espèces de spectateurs composent ce qu’on est
convenu d’appeler le public : premièrement les femmes, deuxièmement lespenseurs ; troisièmement la foule proprement dite » et il interprète les attentes dechacun. Un autre exemple est celui de Pierre loti dans le Voyage au Maroc, quiévoque le « très grand nombre de personnes » pour lesquelles il n’a pas écrit :« Donc que ceux-là seuls me suivent dans mon voyage qui parfois le soir se sontsentis frémir aux premières notes gémies par de petites flûtes arabes qui
accompagnent des tambours ». Il oppose ainsi deux types de lecteur : ceux qui sontéloignés de sa sensibilité et ceux qui adhèrent à son parcours imaginaire et lesuivent sur le chemin de l’extase.
De même, Montaigne introduisant son œuvre, Les Essais, répartit nettement lechamp du lectorat : « Je l’ai voué à la commodité particulière de mes parents etamis », « Ami lecteur, je suis moi-même la matière de mon livre : ce n’est pas
raison que tu emploies ton loisir en un sujet si frivole et si vain. »Ambroise Paré, dans son Adresse au lecteur, s’attache à construire un auditoireparticulier : le lecteur (amy lecteur), benin et studieux lecteur qui se retrouve danstoute l’œuvre : « Il ne faut qu’on se picque, si quelquesfois je semble passer lesbornes de ma vacation. » Ce lecteur doit être indulgent et compréhensif. Le livre
est destiné à « servir à rafraischir la mémoire de ceux qui n’ont le loisir defueilleter tant de livres. » Il s’agit donc d’un lecteur pressé, désireux d’accéder àl’information de manière rapide et commode. Il ne sera pas de « ces curieux etsupersticieux qui veulent cabaliser les arts et les serrer sous les lois du latin. » Au
contraire, n’en sera-t-il que plus ouvert au foisonnement scientifique. L’auteur
sollicite également l’impartialité et l’objectivité. Que le lecteur compare avec
d’autres œuvres sur la question : « Pas-un d’eux n’a gardé tel ordre que je fay, ni
suivi la méthode avec telle facilité : et de cecy je ferai juge tous ceux, qui sans sepassionner perdront la pertinence d’en donner la sentence, avec équité etdroicture. » Et c’est à ce lecteur qu’il proclame son intention de « chercher toujours
l’avancement des jeunes apprentifs en la chirurgie, ausquels mes escrits
s’addressent. »16
3.1.2. Place du lecteur dans la parole de l’auteur

Le lecteur est mis en scène au moyen de modes d’adresse construits autour du« vous », du futur simple et de l’impératif, c’est-à-dire d’une relationintersubjective.
· Montaigne tutoie son lecteur et instaure une relation sinon de familiarité, dumoins de proximité. Pierre Loti englobe le sien dans un nous consensuel :« Gardons la tradition de nos pères, qui semble un peu nous prolonger nous-mêmes
en nous liant plus intimement aux hommes passés et aux hommes à venir. » Il
intègre le lecteur dans sa voix. Il le met en scène par des dénominations comme« mes pareils », « mes frères » : « je les mènerai », « je leur ferais l’effet de chanterdes choses monotones et confuses enveloppées de rêve. » Rabelais, dans le287

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prologue de Gargantua, invite son lecteur « mes bons disciples », « buveurs très
illustres » à ouvrir la boîte (Silènes) :Et en supposant qu’au sens littéral, vous trouviez matières assez joyeuses, en accord
avec le titre, il ne faut pas s’en tenir là, comme pour le chant des Sirènes, maisinterpréter dans un sens plus élevé ce que peut-être vous croyez dit de gaieté decœur.

Nous pouvons en définitive nous interroger sur le statut de ce lecteur idéal que
l’auteur construit et qui apprécierait l’œuvre à sa juste valeur : complice, ami,
protecteur.
De fait, la préface est fondamentalement dialogique car on peut y saisir lesbribes, ou le simulacre, d’une interaction entre l’auteur et son lecteur ou seslecteurs. D’autre part, la relation entre l’auteur et ses lecteurs participe de laconstruction de l’ethos de l’auteur. Cet ethos doit être assez crédible pour gagner laconfiance de l’auditoire et le faire adhérer à son point de vue, à sa vision. Pour ces
différentes considérations nous estimons que c’est dans la préface que se met enplace et se noue un pacte intersubjectif car l’auteur y crée un horizon d’attente chezle lecteur et cherche à aiguiser sa curiosité et à le préparer en quelque sorte à uneinterprétation particulière et subjectivement orientée. Cet horizon d’attente ainsiorienté ne peut que renforcer la présence auctoriale et consolider son contrôle sur lesens que l’on peut dégager de l’œuvre.
En raison même de sa dimension très fortement intersubjective, la préface peutêtre considérée comme un texte qui a des visées éminemment perlocutoires. En
créant et en orientant subjectivement notre horizon d’attente, la préface cherche à
induire une certaine lecture du texte, à nous mettre sur « la voie » de la « bonne »lecture de l’œuvre à venir. La préface jalonne le parcours de lecture dans le sens
qu’elle annonce ce qui va suivre, en quoi consiste le texte ; elle parsème les indicesque l’on retrouvera dans le corps de l’œuvre et qui fonctionnent aussi comme desfiltrages interprétatifs conditionnant notre réception.
Lorsqu’on observe les dispositifs énonciatifs et les indices de subjectivité, on
constate qu’est mise en évidence dans ces préfaces « l’accentuation de la relation
discursive au partenaire que celui-ci soit réel ou imaginé, individuel ou collectif ».
Il faut tenir compte du fait que « Ego » peut se scinder en deux ou assumer deux
rôles selon des transpositions psychodramatiques : les conflits du « moi » profondet de la « conscience », les dédoublements provoqués par l’inspiration littéraire par
exemple. Pour Antoine Culiolil’énonciateur en fait est une origine subjective qui se construit comme uneintersubjectivité c’est-à-dire que nous construisons toujours un co-énonciateur qui
n’est pas forcément en chair et en os. Le locuteur c’est une personne physique,l’interlocuteur aussi ; et l’émetteur et le récepteur mettent l’accent sur l’aspect que jedirais de câblage, comme si effectivement quelque chose était simplementtransporté.

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Selon Culioli, nous n’avons pas une activité de langage simplement quand nous
parlons avec autrui. L’énonciateur a « une activité épilinguistique, activité
métalinguistique permanent, spontanée et non maîtrisée des sujets. »17 Cette
analyse nous permet de repenser l’activité du locuteur et du récepteur dans lecontenu de la préface à partir de son fonctionnement énonciatif.
C’est un signe que le texte n’est pas indépendant du point de vue de l’auteur,que celui-ci remet de lui-même dans l’œuvre.
3.2. Un frein à l’ardeur interprétative du lecteur

Ainsi la préface, en tant que fragment métadiscursif qui guide le lecteur, et telleque nous venons de l’analyser, nous ouvre aux bonnes et aux mauvaises lectures.
Elle vise à obtenir que cette lecture soit juste et conforme aux désirs de l’auteur.
Michel Charles dans La rhétorique de la lecture donne une image du livre par lebiais de l’allégorie de l’os médullaire. Il met l’accent sur la difficulté de la lecture /interprétation allégorique ; le rôle de l’auteur de la préface étant de guider lelecteur dans les difficultés de cette entreprise. Et notamment, l’image de ladescription du chien qui rompt l’os médullaire est à comprendre comme une
métaphore du travail du lecteur.
L’auteur sait, plus ou moins consciemment, que ce qu’il a écrit dépasse ses
limites propres et qu’il invente un monde où s’intègre le lecteur. Or, chaque lecteur
est amené à effectuer un parcours interprétatif avec ou non l’accord de l’auteur car
le discours devenu texte se libère du projet subjectif de l’auteur et de son intention
de rester maître de son œuvre.
Par essence, la préface assure une distribution des rôles entre l’auteur et ses
auditoires et suggère un cheminement interprétatif. Mais les intentions de l’auteur
vont parfois au-delà de la préface ou de l’œuvre elle-même, simple déclaration
programmatique, masque ou révélation de la vraie personnalité.
Conclusion
En tant qu’élément du paratexte la préface varie considérablement dans ses formes
syntaxiques et stylistiques et dans ses choix argumentatifs. Elle obéit sensiblement
à une convention éditoriale qui peut être le fait de l’auteur comme celui del’éditeur. En ce sens, elle est un parcours obligé. Sur un plan herméneutique, elle
offre un éclairage sur le texte et permet de mieux le saisir. Elle prévient également
les dangers de la censure, grâce aux précautions que l’auteur emploie pour
expliquer son point de vue et contribue finalement à écarter certaines pistes delecture préjudiciables au projet de l’auteur
NOTES
1
2

Gérard Genette (1982), Palimpsestes, Points Essais, 10.
J. Hillis-Miller, « The Critic as Host », In : Deconstruction and Criticism, The Scabury Press, New
York, 1979 cité par Gerard Genette (1987), Seuils, Points Essais, 7.

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3

Alain Rey (2004), Le Robert Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Le Robert,
Manchecourt.
4Josette Rey-Debove, Alain Rey (2009), Le Nouveau Petit Robert de la langue française, Le Robert,
Normandie Roto.
5
Gérard Genette (1987), Seuils. Paris : Seuil « Points Essais », 164.
6
Marivaux (2008), Journaux et œuvres diverses, édition Deloffre et Gilot, Paris : Classiques Garnier,741.
7Vaugelas (2000) [1647], Remarques sur la langue française, Genève : Slatkine Reprints
8
Alain Viala (1985), La Naissance de l’écrivain, Alençon : Éditions de minuit, 51.
9Pierre Loti (1991), Voyages (1872-1913). Paris : Bouquins Robert Laffont.
10
Montherlant (1954), Notes théâtre.
11
Laurent Danon-Boileau (1987), Le Sujet de l’énonciation. Gap : Ophrys.
12
Émile Benveniste (1974), Problèmes de linguistique générale, Tel Gallimard.
13
Benveniste, ibidem.
14
Loti, ibidem.
15
Ambroise Paré (1585), Les Œuvres d’Ambroise Paré, Conseiller et Premier Chirurgien du Roy
Divisées en vingt huict Livres Avec les figures et portraicts, tant de l’Anatomie, que desinstruments de chirurgie, et de plusieurs Monstres. Revues et augmentées par l’Autheur.
Quatrieme Edition, Paris chez Gabriel Buon Avec Privilège du Roy.
16
Ambroise Paré, ibidem.
17
Antoine Culioli (2002). Variations sur la linguistique. Paris : Klincksieck.

BIBLIOGRAPHIE
Benveniste, Émile (1966). Problèmes de linguistique générale. Paris : Gallimard.
Brunot, Ferdinand, & Charles Bruneau (1949). Précis de grammaire historique dela langue française. Paris : Masson.
Charles, Michel (1977). Rhétorique de la lecture. Paris : Éditions du Seuil.
Culioli, Antoine (2002). Variations sur la linguistique. Saints-Geosmes :Klincksieck.
Danon-Boileau, Laurent (1987). Le sujet de l’énonciation. Gap : Ophrys.
Fournier, Nathalie (1998). Grammaire du français classique. Paris : Belin.
Genette, Gérard (1982). Palimpsestes, Paris : Seuil « Points Essais ».
——— (1987). Seuils. Paris : Seuil « Points Essais ».
Malgaigne, Jean-François (1840). Œuvres complètes d’Ambroise Paré. Paris :Chez J.B. Baillière, Librairie de l’Académie Royale de Médecine.
Paré, Ambroise (1585). Les Œuvres d’Ambroise Paré, Conseiller et Premier
Chirurgien du Roy Divisées en vingt huict Livres Avec les figures et portraicts,
tant de l’Anatomie, que des instruments de chirurgie, et de plusieurs Monstres.
Revues et augmentées par l’Autheur. Quatrieme Edition. Paris : Chez Gabriel
Buon Avec Privilège du Roy.
Riegel, Martin, Jean-Christophe Pellat, & René Rioul (1994). Grammaireméthodique du français. Paris : PUF.
Sancier-Chateau, Anne (1993). Introduction à la langue du XVIIe siècle. Tome 2.
Syntaxe. Paris : Armand Colin.

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The ‘Gothic’ Story in Britain – an Identity Benchmark,and an Ever-Green Asset
Constantin MANEA
University of Piteşti,Faculty of Letters
Maria-Camelia MANEA
University of Piteşti,Faculty of Educational Sciences

ABSTRACT
Although long considered a minor literary genre, the Gothic(k) trend has represented
an undeniable milestone in the development of fiction in the English-speaking
world. It is in fact one of the most fertile contributions literature in English has evermade to the world fiction, alongside – the authors of the present paper believe –Utopian and Dystopian writing. Its influence and seemingly lasting, still
authoritative topicality and popularity are fresh, mainly on account of today’s(American) film production. The present paper’s aim is to substantiate the extent towhich the (then) new style (and cultural forma mentis) managed to freshen up theold store of literary anecdote, technicality and sensibility, as well as the close link
which is apparent between its popularity and the prevalent social and cultural ways
and mores of the age.
KEYWORDS: feminism, terror, horror, sentimentalism

1. Introduction. The 18th century was the age of Reason, a period when people in
Britain responded less eagerly, even negatively, to the burning idealism andpassionate enthusiasm that had characterized both the unified society of the
Elizabethans, and the war-torn society of the 17 th century, with its Puritan
fanaticism, Cavalier debauchery and cruel civil war; it was an age when the socalled Augustans tried to impose rigid rules for everything, and especially thepeople’s social conduct – rules that were upheld in the name of correctness,
propriety, decorum, and common sense. The early 18th century Britons thoughtthemselves the first civilized Englishmen; moreover, they were convinced that
passion should not be let to get the best of people. Another reason why the 18th
century became so rule-conscious was the passing of government from themonarchy and aristocracy to the rising bourgeoisie (or the middle classes). The
new ideal – and code – of behaviour, meant to replace the old ideals of chivalry or
courtliness, known as gentility, was the rule in those places where such matterswere discussed, i.e. the London coffee-houses, which replaced the theatres andtaverns of the Elizabethan period. The refined conversation of the newly founded291

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010‘clubs’ was comparable to the similar cultural pursuits of previous centuries.
Indeed, by the end of the century the aristocracy was forced to admit that there wasno longer anything to distinguish them from the middle classes. What the twosocial sections had in common was, first and foremost, genuine reverence forproperty, which, added to their common political aims, had fused them into one
larger social group. On the whole, this century was remarkable through its
diffusing common sense and reasonableness in life and thought, refining andcivilizing manners and conduct. The mid-18th century saw the rise of cynicism andscepticism, which, as ingredients of rational thought, meant primarily lack of enthusiasm and mild egotism; yet noble patrons of the upper class managed to impose
on the cultivated public, among other things cultural, the worship of Shakespeare.
The houses of the gentry focused, for rural society, the art, science, polite letters ofthe day more than the universities.
In the second half of the century though, Britons began throwing off these rules.
The philosophical and political ideas of such eminent representatives of the risingbourgeoisie as Shaftesbury, Adam Smith, and David Hume, had, for most of the
18th century, provided the educated classes with a set of theoretical concepts ofaction and motivation fit to justify their own self-interested behaviour. But, during
the last decades of the century, Britain was subject to a process of comparativesocial disruption. The older ideology extolling the individual began to be felt as
hardly bearable: the seemingly perfect reciprocity of the relationship which, at the
beginning of the century, fused together the individual’s aims and the needs of thecommunity began to show its seamy side, while the actual shortcomings of both
economy and the political scene started to become visible; the dreadful reality offull-scale revolution in France made the world of the “the well-bred gentleman”
appear in its true, shaky colour.
In this particular social and ideological climate, the rise of the Gothic novel
comes as no surprise: the new literary (sub-)genre appears as a novel set of rules
and conventions meant to shock, startle and terrify, while trying to give (be it
indirectly, or conjecturally) the image of a fearful age. A simplificative attempt tofind social explanations for the various elements making up the stock in trade of
the new genre would lead one to equate, for instance, the threat of social revolution
with the characteristic spectres, apparitions, and supernatural entities in Gothic
fiction, social insecurity with the derelict, crumbling (and typically haunted)
Gothic manor, the loss of social identity with the hero(ine)’s search for identity,
a.s.o. It will be fair to acknowledge though that the specific framework set up by
the new current (albeit laden with unnecessarily melodramatic scenarios andpredictable plots) laid the foundations of an incredible popular, time-enduring,resilient, fairly versatile literary form.
The fact is undeniable that the appetite for such literary productions was
influenced, to a variable extent, by the social and cultural data of the age, as well as
their authors’ biographies. Roughly speaking, analyzing – or at least earnestly
taking into account – the pieces of information of a biographic nature relating to
the writers can be a rewarding critical procedure (the Gothic trend is, after all, an
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extremely English type of literature!), but it will be truistic to say that those datacan (always) tell the most revealing or significant things about a specific work ofart.
In addition though, there are those universally human elements, e.g. firesidestory-telling, when horror stories are told, and the feeling of fear is conveyed towilling audiences. Those instances of interpersonal communication seem to havebeen boosted, in the 18th century, by the cultural readiness of a well-to-do, literateclass who delighted in plunging into the forgetfulness and relative escapism
supplied by reading. On the other hand, it is easy but unproductive to show acondescending attitude towards literary productions or tendencies of the past,
which can now sound superannuated or downright comical, but if one takes intofull consideration the conventions that, at the time, achieved something valuable
out of the respective aesthetic, ethic-ideological or cultural value, those trends,
currents or events appear as sheer cultural facts.
2. Defining the genre can be itself a rather challenging job, in view of theastoundingly polysemous tangle of meanings, which irregularly extend over an
unsettlingly broad range. The original meaning of the adjective Gothic was “of,relating to, or resembling the Goths, their civilization, or their language” (and,subsidiarily, “Teutonic, Germanic”). From this source, the word Gothic came toalso mean “barbarian,” “barbarous,” and “barbaric”: by the eighteenth century inEngland, Gothic had become a synonym for medieval, since the Middle Ages was
regarded as chaotic, uncouth, unenlightened, and superstitious. Moreover,Renaissance intellectuals mistakenly believed that the so-called Gothic
architecture, which they regarded as barbaric, ugly, lacking in refinement andgrace, was created by the Germanic populations – and so the adjective Gothic cameto be applied, as a disparaging term, to the distinctly Western European style ofmedieval architecture, which flourished from the 12th to the 16th centuries, andcharacterized by pointed or lancet arches, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, narrowspires (the upward movement of which was meant to suggest heavenward
aspiration), as well as stained glass windows and intricate traceries. The “Uomo
Universale” of Renaissance times considered them to be barbaric and definitely notin that classical, Graeco-Roman style they admired. (The word Gothic seems
originally to have referred to any non-classical type of architecture). That
erroneous belief (and designation) continued through the 18th century. Even today
it signifies “of, or relating to, the style of sculpture, painting, or other arts aspracticed in Western Europe from the 12th to the 16th centuries,” or “of, or relating
to, the Middle Ages.” More specifically, English Protestants/Puritans often thoughtof mediaeval buildings as creations of a dark, terrifying age, characterized bymysterious, fantastic and superstitious rituals. Although the contemporary meaningof the adjective primarily refers to the said style of architecture (and art), or aparticular style of art, be it in the form of novels, paintings, or architecture, it canalso mean “medieval or uncouth/primitive/crude, barbarous in style, behaviour,

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etc.” More recently, the term could even be extended to a certain type of music andits fans.
More to the point, a brief etymological excursion will take us, via the so-called“Gothic revival architecture,” popular in the 19th century (in fact, a reaction to theclassical architecture that represented the very paradigm of the Age of Reason,with its recognizable neoclassical style, a paragon of clarity and rationalism), to the
new associations of the term Gothic(k) with extreme emotion, and the sublime
arising from awe (in the sense of “overwhelming wonder, admiration, respect, or
dread”), i.e. delightful fearfulness and thrill, as well as the quest for atmosphere.
The dark themes the genre dealt with were located in natural surroundings
sprinkled with buildings belonging to the Gothic/mediaeval style – castles,
mansions, monasteries, which were as a rule remote, crumbling, and ruinous (so,the very image of the inescapable decay and collapse of human creations). Horace
Walpole, quasi-unanimously considered the author of the first genuine Gothic
romance, was an enthusiast of fake mediaeval (Gothic) architecture. His novel,
titled The Castle of Otranto, a Gothic Story, was published in 1765, and was thefirst in an extremely long series of Gothic novels (or rather romances). Nowadays,
the term Gothic/gothic has been extended to designate a type of fiction which lacks
the medieval setting but develops an atmosphere of gloom and/or terror, withuncanny, violent, or macabre events.
On the other hand, the dictionary definitions of the term romance that are ofprime interest to this presentation – i.e. “1. a narrative in verse or prose, written ina vernacular language in the Middle Ages, dealing with strange and exciting
adventures of chivalrous heroes; 2. any similar narrative work dealing with eventsand characters remote from ordinary life; 3. the literary genre represented by worksof these kinds” (COLL) – can support another illuminating etymology1: the lexical
association of Gothic and romance actually brings together the names of the twomain cultural forces that shaped Europe (i.e. the Roman Empire and the Germanic
tribes that sacked Europe, triggering the fall of the Roman world); actually, theword Gothic was first recorded in 1611, designating the language of the Goths.
The well-known distinction critics have drawn between the novel and theromance is fully illustrative of the special status of Gothic writing. The Gothic ispart and parcel of the latter category, since:(…) the romance, following distantly the medieval example, feels free to render
reality in less volume and detail. It tends to prefer action to character, and action will
be freer in a romance than in a novel, encountering, as it were, less resistance fromreality. (…) The romance can flourish without providing much intricacy of relation.
The characters, probably rather two-dimensional types, will not be complexly
related to each other or to society or to the past. Human beings will on the whole be
shown in an ideal relation…
(Chase, 1957)

The excitement of a romance is that of the universally human need foradventure (be it recounted – i.e. vicarious):294

Constantin Manea, Maria-Camelia Manea: The ‘Gothic’ Story in Britain – an Identity...
(…) the Romance (…) invests individuals with an absorbing interest – it hurries
them rapidly through crowding and exacting events, in a narrow space of time – itrequires the same unities of plan, of purpose, and harmony of parts, and it seeks for
its adventures among the wild and wonderful. It does not confine itself to what is
known, or even what is probable. It grasps at the possible; and placing a humanagent in hitherto untried situations, it exercises its ingenuity in extricating him fromthem, while describing his feelings and his fortunes in the process. 2

3. What will then be the specifically English/British stamp of the Gothic novel? To
find an answer, it would not be useless to forage among such elements as: thecharacteristic features of the Gothic genre and its aesthetic individuality; its
component elements (thematic, compositional, etc.), and its functional and stylistic
fabric; the authors’ biography, superimposed on the intellectual and ideological
data of the time. To begin with, virtually all the authors of Gothic novels/romances,which flourished through the ate 18th, and the early 19th centuries, set their stories
in the Middle Ages, as a rule in gloomy castles replete with dungeons, subterraneanpassages, and sliding panels, and made plentiful use of ghosts, mysterious
disappearances, and other sensational and supernatural occurrences; their principal
aim was to evoke chilling terror by exploiting mystery, cruelty, and a variety ofhorrors. Typical features of Gothic fiction include terror (both psychological andphysical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts/spectres, haunted houses/castles/
mansions, Gothic architecture, castles or fortresses, darkness, (violent) death,decay, doubles, madness (especially in women), (dark) secrets, hereditary curse,
persecuted maidens, etc. It can be noted that, by and large, these novels filled withscenes of terror and gloom share in the vast apparatus of universal fairy-tale andromance. Their (apparent) simplicity is patent: most (that is to say, virtually all)
Gothic books seem to be free variations on similar themes: the literary, narrative
and aesthetic ‘modus operandi’ was mostly made up of ‘cut and dried’components. The nucleus of suspense and demoniac fright was virtually always
formed by such stock ingredients as: the awesome antiquity of the Gothic castle,
the ramblings over vast distances through damp corridors and deserted or ruined
building wings, insalubrious hidden catacombs, all populated by appalling legends,
and hosts of ghosts. The Gothic ‘recipe’ also included the villain, i.e. a malevolent,tyrannical nobleman; the angelic-looking, long-persecuted, and generally
colourless heroine who is the subject of the main strain of terror, while acting as a
focal point for both the unfurling of the narrative and the readers’ sympathy; thebrave, faultless hero, of noble birth but more often than not in lowly disguise; theconvention of sounding foreign names for the characters (most of them Italianate);
an ample display of stage devices such as strange lights and extinguished lamps,
trapdoors, wall hangings and creaking hinges, mouldy manuscripts, a.s.o.
The general milieu was a society dominated by Catholicism or feudal structures;the immediate location – an oppressive ruin, or a wild landscape. To these wereadded certain characteristic features, preoccupations and states: the monastic
institution and priesthood, sleeplike and deathlike states, underground spaces andlive burial, twin characters and Doppelgängers, revelation of obscure family
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connections, the possibility of incest; outlandish echoes and silences, theinexpressible, indistinct pieces of writing, the noxious effects of guilt, dreams andnightly landscapes, and dreams; spectres and ghostlike figure coming from thepast, characters moulded of the themes of Faust or the Wandering Jew, civil
insurrections and fires, ossuaries and asylums, analogies with painting. The Gothic
thrills were managed through various literary and ideological agencies. The current
begins in a self-conscious manner. “Gothic fiction was and is, essentially, areaction against comfort and security, against political stability and commercial
progress. Above all, it resists the rule of reason.” (Sanders, 1998: 341)
However, it seems that the so-called “craze for Gothic” of the age was a bit
older: “Horace Walpole is often credited with its invention in his remarkably
influential The Castle of Otranto (1764), but it is better seen as rooted (like Pope’s‘Eloisa’) in pre-novelistic romance. Ruins or ancient buildings, ghosts either
authentic or suspected, became almost essential ingredients even in novels whose
main emphasis lay elsewhere.” (Rogers, 1996: 263) In fact, the images come fromthe Graveyard School of poetry, while the aesthetic is cogent with thecontemporary debate about the picturesque and the sublime, and the sensibility
touches on the novels of sentiment. The key element was pleasing terror, afundamentally romantic ingredient.
The first (official) Gothic author, Horace Walpole, was no doubt an unoccupied
man, without however being an unoccupied mind, idle, but not lacking ideas andobsessions of the cultural type: Walpole’s novel arose out of this obsession withthe mediaeval; its setting is indeed mediaeval. To this was added a sort of artisan’singenuity (rather playful, in fact). He used the convention of old documents assource of the narrative: he originally claimed that the book was a real medievalromance he had discovered and republished. Because of its enormous popularity,
Walpole’s novel came to be soon imitated, and its immediate progeny grew into a
distinct literary genre.
Surely no other modern literary form as influential as the Gothic novel has also been
as pervasively conventional. Once you know that a novel is of the Gothic kind (andyou can tell that from the title), you can predict its contents with an unnerving
certainty. You know the important features of its mise en scene. (Sedgwick, 1980)

Beyond its sheer sense of romanticism evocative of an ancient, medieval past,and its melodrama, the most characteristic impulses at work in the Gothic novel are
the disjoined elements, which are almost impossible to restore to their originalunity. Likewise, it can be proved by scores of real life cases/personal experiencethat the eeriest, most violent events are actually the result of evocative techniques.
The most significant ideological sources Gothic romances can be attributed to are:Anti-Catholicism, especially criticism of Catholic excesses, e.g. the Inquisition,
and a fresh sensitivity to natural things.
4. But the most important ideas concerning and influencing the Gothic include thethen topical discussion about the relationship between the sublime and the296Constantin Manea, Maria-Camelia Manea: The ‘Gothic’ Story in Britain – an Identity...

beautiful, on the one hand, and the horrendous on the other. Discussions about the
Sublime are part of intellectual Unitarian culture3; when it comes to the theoreticalpremises of the current in this respect, invoking Edmund Burke is a must. Burke
readily recognizes that certain kinds of literature also evoked a sense of ‘delightful
horror’. Contact with historical ruins and settings generated a specifically Gothic
delightful horror, which thrived through reference to mysterious or awe-inspiring
occurrences, to torture and terror, haunting, necrophilia, necromancy, phantasms,
prophecies, etc. Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our
Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful – 1757 tries to shift into new aesthetic
territory Aristotle’s identification of the power of tragedy as lying in its evocationof pity and fear, and in its effective purging of these emotions: “When danger orpain press too nearly, they are incapable of giving any delight and are simply
terrible; but at certain distances, and with certain modifications, they may be, andthey are delightful, as we every day experience.”
The opposition terror vs. horror was theorized by Ann Radcliffe in the following
terms, in an essay published posthumously in 1826 (“On the Supernatural in
Poetry”); terror, she claimed, “expands the soul and awakens the faculties to a highdegree of life”; horror, by contrast, “contracts, freezes, and nearly annihilatesthem”. It was terror (or that ‘tranquillity tinged with terror’ postulated by Burke),
and not horror, that was the source of her own fictional sublime; it heavily tooksupport on the reader’s imagination and capacity for detachment from every-day
life. The different approaches to the novel of terror, as it was called in theeighteenth century, have been called by some critics terror Gothic, represented by
Radcliffe, and horror Gothic, represented by Lewis. Sometimes this same
distinction is tied to gender, with female equated with terror Gothic and male being
equated with horror Gothic.
Feminism is a superadded yet natural/logical element of Gothic writing,specifically with female authors like Ann Radcliffe and Mary Wollstonecraft, who,
in The Wrongs of Woman, shows sensitivity to landscape and atmosphere, while
rejecting intellectual passivity; the Gothic architecture presented in the bookepitomizes the very image of woman in the society of the time, imprisoned within acircle of social and religious conventions.
When it comes to Gothic fiction, Walpole’s melodramatic thriller The Castle of
Otranto (1764) represents the predecessor of modern horror fiction. An antiquarianand connoisseur, Walpole had a mock-Gothic castle built for himself, ironicallycalled Strawberry Hill, on the outskirts of London (1749). His personal
masterpiece, the Gothic divertissement The Castle of Otranto, is certainly strange.
The author’s tendency towards entertainment and self-indulgence, even at the costof travesty, is illustrated by the queer fortunes of that comparatively insignificant“prime mover” of a whole literary progeny. Walpole, the very sprightly andworldly Englishman, become the actual founder of the literary horror-story as apermanent form. In fact, a growing artistic impulse had bee given definite shape…
and “a local habitation.” The author was fond of mediaeval romances and mysteryas a dilettante’s diversion. First venturing it only as a “translation” by one
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010“William Marshal, Gent.” from the Italian of a mythical “Onuphrio Muralt,” theauthor later acknowledged his being connected with the book, which managed tocreate a new kind of literary characters, incidents and scenery. Walpole’s influence
was first felt in German romance of the weird and ghastly.
It was however Ann Radcliffe who created the gothic novel in its now-standard
form. She was the first great practitioner of the Gothic novel, as well the mostpopular and best paid novelist of the eighteenth century England. To amuse
herself, she began to write fiction, an occupation her husband encouraged.
Radcliffe began her first literary efforts through boredom as much as anything else
while her husband attended the Parliamentary debates and remained out late mostevenings. Writing and reading were the only intellectual preoccupations most
women could afford. Ann Radcliffe was, in Walter Scott’s words, the true “founderof a class or school”; hers was a “peculiar style of composition affecting
powerfully the mind of the reader.” Critics always suggested that “the leader intrue Gothic was Ann Radcliffe.” (Rogers, 1996: 263)
Among other elements, she introduced the figure of the villain, which can besaid to have later influenced the creation of the Byronic hero. She set higher
standards in the field of the eerie literary atmosphere, while destroying her own
phantoms through elaborate mechanical explanations; she managed apparently
supernatural events that could be explained through various human agencies, or
natural coincidence. (Which seems to be, in a way, a sign of indebtedness to 18thcentury type rationalism…). Her literary achievement can be said to be bothcomplex, and considerable. “Her literary technique draws on other arts: she uses
visual settings of mountains and forests as if they were paintings or scenery, anddistant glimpses, appearances and disappearances, sudden contrasts of light withdarkness and noise or music with silence as if on stage.” (Rogers, ibidem)
5. In conclusion, we could say that the genesis of such a remarkable literary subgenre has undeniable antecedents, be they social, cultural, aesthetic, and personal.
For various (similar) reasons, its ever-greenness is still a fact.
NOTES
1Since the very etymon of the term etymology is etumon “basic meaning”, which in turn is derived
from etumos “true, actual”.
2
From William Gilmore Simms's prefatory letter to The Yemassee, quoted in Chase, The American
Novel and Its Tradition, p. 16.
2
Unitarianism is a system of Christian belief that maintains the unipersonality of God, rejects the
Trinity and the divinity of Christ, and takes reason, conscience, and character as the criteria ofbelief and practice.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chase, Richard (1957). The American Novel and Its Tradition. Garden City, N.Y.:
Doubleday.
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Constantin Manea, Maria-Camelia Manea: The ‘Gothic’ Story in Britain – an Identity...

Cottom, Daniel (1985). The Civilized Imagination: A Study of Ann Radcliffe, Jane
Austen and Sir Walter Scott. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Norton, Rictor (1999). Mistress of Udolpho: The Life of Ann Radcliffe. London:
Leicester University Press.
Punter, David (1980). The Literature of Terror: A History of Gothic Fiction from1765 to the Present Day. London: Routledge.
Rogers, Pat (1996). The Illustrated History of English Literature. Oxford
University Press, USA.
Sanders, Andrew (1998). A Short History of English Literature. Oxford University
Press, USA.
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky (1980). “The Structure of Gothic Convention.” In: The
Coherence of Gothic Conventions. New York: Arno.

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C’était Tunis. 1920 (récit de vie).
Le récit de la jeunesse de Maherzia Amira-Bournaz
Camelia MANOLESCUUniversité de Craiova,
Faculté des Lettres

ABSTRACT: C’était Tunis. 1920 (récit de vie). Narrative of Maherzia AmiraBournaz’s Youth
Maherzia Amira-Bournaz, an important Tunisian writer who lived in the 20th
century (1912-2002), described in her first novel, C’était Tunis 1920, using a simple
and direct style, a Tunisian family portrait. The action of the novel takes place in an
ordinary Arabian family; it looks like a letter to some grand-pupils teaching themnot to forget their past. Our study deals with a Tunisian authentically document of
the 20ies: way of life, habits, mentalities and the anticonformism of an Arabianfamily concerning their daughters’ education.
KEYWORDS: autobiographical novel, authentically document, habits

La francophonie, avec sa longue histoire, s’impose par une grande variété due à sadiversité géographique. Les lettres de langue française, de plus en plus en
concurrence avec l’anglais, comme langue d’usage et de communication, ont pris
un essor considérable non sans provoquer des sentiments parfois ambigus chez lesauteurs eux-mêmes. De plus, les Français de leur côté, deviennent de plus en plus
conscients du fait que les francophones leur apportent un souffle nouveau. Au
fond, pour un écrivain la vraie patrie est la langue de son écriture.
Les pays francophones se distinguent par une diversité extrême qui dérive deleur position géographique, leurs raisons historiques et, les dernières décennies,
leur indépendance. Mais unis par une même langue, instrument, véhicule etmodalité de pensée, ces pays se rapprochent les uns les autres même si leurgéographie les éloigne.
Les littératures francophones insistent, en grande majorité, sur plusieurs thèmes
en vue de débattre leurs problèmes : l’enfance et l’autobiographie, la double
culture, le couple mixte, la misère et l’exclusion, le passé et l’histoire, les luttes etla résistance, le désenchantement, le féminin contre le patriarcat, le réalisme ou lapoésie.
Membre actif de l’UNFT, Maherzia Amira-Bournaz donne de nombreux
articles publiés dans la revue de l’Association des Anciennes élèves de la rue dePacha (1985-1994). Invitée plusieurs fois aux émissions radiophoniques ettélévisées afin de témoigner de son époque, décorée et médaillée maintes fois, elle
300Camelia Manolescu: C’était Tunis. 1920 (récit de vie). Le récit de la jeunesse de...

a été considérée Femme de Lettres émérite du XXe siècle par le CREDIF en mars
2000.
Maherzia Amira-Bournaz, figure emblématique de la Tunisie du XXe siècle(1912-2002), est l’écrivain qui trace, dans son premier livre, C’était Tunis 1920, à
l’aide d’un style simple et direct, le portrait d’une famille tunisoise musulmane. Le
roman place l’action dans un milieu familial, « construit et détaillé » comme une
lettre adressée à des petits-enfants pour qu’ils n’ignorent plus « leur propre passé »,selon les mots de Frédéric Mitterrand dans la Préface du roman. Au fond,Maherzia Amira-Bournaz met beaucoup d’elle-même dans les thèmes de sonroman : l’évocation de son enfance et l’émancipation de la femme arabe parl’éducation.
Notre étude se propose de présenter un document authentique de vie de laTunisie des années 20 : la manière de vie, les habitudes, les mentalités etl’anticonformisme d’une famille arabe vis-à-vis de l’éducation de ses filles.
D’ailleurs les événements sont empreints d’exactitude, de fantaisie et de magie.
C’est un véritable hommage adressé à la mère, une visionnaire de ce début desiècle et de ses mentalités.
Document authentique de vie
Récit autobiographique, le roman C’était Tunis 1920 est un document authentiquede vie. C’est une occasion exceptionnelle pour Maherzia Amira-Bournaz de fairerevivre la vie quotidienne de sa ville, de son quartier, de nous présenter sa famille
et son enfance à côté des parents, avec les punitions (méritées ou non) ou lesrécompenses, de nous présenter ses parents, ses voisins, d’insister sur les
traditions, les fêtes et les rites du monde arabe (les recettes de la cuisine
traditionnelle, les remèdes de la médecine traditionnelle), les coutumes selon lesjours de fêtes, d’insister sur les souvenirs et les contes qui on bercé son enfance (unpeu trop dures mais peut-être éducatifs du point de vue de l’Arabe et de sa
mentalité), sur les tabous et les superstitions de l'époque, sur les mentalités d’unmonde qui assurent de l’individualité à l’Arabe (le bain, l’éducation, le mariage desfilles).
1. La ville et la maison tunisoises
Amira-Bournaz nous introduit dans l’atmosphère de la ville et de la maison
tunisoises. La description de la ville, de la maison, de la chambre respecte danstous les cas un schéma à peu près identique : de l’intérieur vers l’extérieur, du bas
en haut, de gauche à droite :Notre nouveau logis se situait dans le quartier de Souk el Blatt, en pleine Médina deTunis. Le rez-de-chaussée se composait d’une skifa (antichambre) et de deux pièces
ouvrant sur un patio. Empruntons l’escalier menant à l’étage supérieur. (…) A
gauche, une porte en verre martelé, nous permettait d’accéder à une chambre longue

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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010et étroite. (…) À gauche, une maksoura ou alcôve était éclairée par une fenêtre en
fer forgé, ornant la façade. Dans ce havre de paix, cette ouverture constituait notre
seul lien avec les rumeurs du monde extérieur. (…) Revenons à l’intérieur de lamaison (…) à droite. Là s’étire une salle calme, aérée et éclairée par deux larges
bais, l’une donnant sur la cour de la maison et l’autre sur la terrasse du mausolée deSidi Tijèni. (…) Le sol de ces pièces était recouvert soit de carreaux que l’on nomme
aujourd’hui « aile d’hirondelle » (…) soit de tommettes de forme hexagonale (…).
Le plafond était lambrissé de bois verni, rehaussé de poutres saillantes, peintes dedifférentes couleurs. (pp. 15-16)1

Bournaz fait appel à une description de type balzacien mais elle inverse lepoint de vue de sorte que son cercle concentrique s’ouvre vers l’extérieur, vers lehaut, symbole peut-être de cette famille arabe anticonformiste qui s’est voulue enliaison directe avec le monde de la connaissance, de la liberté, s’ouvrant vers
l’avenir de ses filles : « À gauche, une porte en verre martelé, nous permettaitd’accéder à une chambre longue et étroite. En face, une fenêtre surplombait laterrasse de Sidi Essourdou. » (p. 15)
La description de la villa de la famille respecte en totalité la techniquebalzacienne, de l’extérieur vers l’intérieur :Elle était non loin de la mer et construite en style colonial avec une belle véranda
couverte, entourée de balustrades. La porte d’entrée laissait passer la lumière grâce àsa partie supérieure qui comportait une fenêtre en fer forgé dont les vitres colorées
envoyaient leurs reflets sur le mur du couloir, couverts de faïence multicolore (pp.
139-140).

Tout comme Balzac, Bournaz fait appel au détail, à une caméra
cinématographique qui accompagne le lecteur à l’intérieur à travers les chambresde la maison, en insistant sur l’inventaire du mobilier : dans la salle de gauche:« un confortable banc trônait recouvert d’un tissu et orné de coussins brodés »,« un guéridon ovale avec dessus de marbre nous servait de bureau », « deux
grandes armoires à glace », puis la chambre des filles qui avait « un lit spacieux »,« une petite table de nuit », « un tapis, une chaise » (p. 16), « un lit à baldaquin » et
« un imposant chiffonnier sculpté, fermant à clé et surmonté d’un miroir » dans lachambre des parents, dans l’une des pièces du rez-de-chaussée « une mida (tablebasse ronde) entourée de tabourets bas », « un buffet d’angle » pour la vaisselle,dans la chambre à provisions (Beït el mouna) il y avait « des jars de poterie vernies
destinées à recevoir les différentes sortes de couscous » (p. 17)
Elle n’oublie non plus de dresser une liste avec les ustensiles de la cuisine, lesplats de la table, les ingrédients des plats ou des médicaments (pp. 17-20), le mot
arabe expliqué toujours en français : « une soupente ou sedda, (…) sinyas, plateauxde cuivre de différents diamètres, utilisés pour cuire au four les gâteaux de l’Aïd. »(p. 19)Bournaz emploie avec prédilection l’épithète-adjectif, l’énumération, les motsarabes pour recréer l’atmosphère de la ville natale. Son implication dans le texte est
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bien évidente dès les premières phrases de chaque chapitre. Elle se laisse conduite
par la mémoire affective, chaque tableau décrit devient ainsi un souvenir cher.
Mais n’oublions que le monde arabe insiste sur l’intérieur, immeuble ou âme del’individu, tenant compte des restrictions religieuses. C’est l’intérieur toujours
habité, toujours dévoilé tandis que l’extérieur se cache derrière les voiles ou peutêtre, derrière le monde minuscule de la famille qui, chez Bournaz, s’ouvre vers lasociété macro.

2. Les portraits
Mais en dehors de la description qui met l’accent sur la minutie de détails en tenanten éveil l’attention du lecteur surpris par tant d’énumérations, de mots qui
explicitent les objets de la famille arabe, viennent ensuite les portraits que
Maherzia Amira-Bournaz fait à ses parents, tantes, voisins et voisines, portraits qui
respectent des règles générales : le portrait physique et moral vu de l’extérieur vers
l’intérieur, puis le personnage vu par les autres : par la fille-auteur, par sa famille,
par les clients, par les voisins mais l’autoportrait échappe à son observation.
Bournaz commence toujours par le portrait physique de ses personnages en
augmentant en quelque sorte certains traits – surtout pour le portrait de la mère,
compte tenu du fait que c’est elle qui est sortie vainqueur d’un combat contre lesmentalités de ses parents et celles de toute une société. Elle n’oublie pas d’insister
sur les défauts qui les individualisent d’ailleurs. Ensuite vient le portrait moral,
Bournaz insistant surtout sur les qualités de ses parents.
2.1. Le père

Le père est défini par son portrait physique :El Mouldi était grand, fort, en avait le teint clair, comme presque tous les originaires
du Cap-Bon. C’était un fort bel homme, malgré les quelques cicatrices de variole qui
marquaient son visage : tête rasée et traits réguliers, il arborait de fières moustaches ;seulement, il n’aimait pas s’habiller (p. 23)

puis par celui moral : économe, il a l’esprit d’un véritable commerçant, il sait sedébrouiller sans profiter des autres, il est honnête, il respecte les clients mais ildemande le respect des termes de la vente des marchandises, il donne des conseils,
il aide sa femme avec les repas, le lavage, les provisions :Mon père était économe, ma mère le disait même avare. Il dépensait avec
parcimonie comme dans sa région natale (p. 23) (…)
Lorsque mon père épousa ma mère (…) il était associé à Si El Arbi, commerçantdans le souk des étoffes (…) (p. 24)

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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
Chaque matin, mon père allait au travail après avoir fait les achats nécessaires à lapréparation du repas. Car ma mère n’allait jamais faire les courses. (p. 27)
Si El Mouldi était un bon mari, il ne voulait pas contrarier ma mère et il l’aidait
quand il y avait de gros travaux à faire à la maison. Ce qui était plutôt rare dansnotre mentalité tunisienne, car aider sa femme dans les travaux domestiques était
considéré comme dégradant pour un homme (pp. 29-30)

Et le portrait se termine toujours par une bénédiction de la part de la fillerespectueuse qui l’a vu comme modèle d’honnêteté et de respect : « Que Dieu ait
ton âme et « rahmet allahi alik » cher père ! Tu nous as fait vivre dans le bien-êtreet même dans l’opulence, alors que tu étais seul à travailler pour nous cinq. » (p.
32)
2.2. La mère

La mère de Maherzia Amira-Bournaz, elle aussi a un portrait bien défini, del’extérieur à l’intérieur. Elle commence par le portrait physique en insistant sur la
taille, le teint, la peau, les joues, le corps tout entier :Elle était de taille moyenne, le teint très clair, la peau fine et transparente ; ses jouesroses faisaient croire qu’elle était fardée. Elle avait un beau corps, des jambes
magnifiques, sans défaut aucun, ce qui faisait dire au docteur un mois avant son
décès, à quatre-vingts ans :- « Votre mère a les jambes d’une jeune fille de dix-huit ans ! » (p. 35)
Ses cheveux tressés pendaient sur son dos et étaient noués par un ruban multicolore.
Une mèche de cheveux, coupée à la hauteur de l’oreille, caressait l’ovale de son
visage. (pp. 35-36)

Elle continue avec un de ses défauts aussi : la dentition qui lui a causé
beaucoup de problèmes : « Elle avait les incisives supérieures irrégulières etproéminentes. Cela la gênait beaucoup et lui donnait un complexe qui lui faisait
mettre la main devant la bouche lorsqu’elle riait. » (p. 35) mais elle n’oublie pas desouligner le soin du père : « (…) sur sa demande, il la conduisit, un jour, chez undentiste qui lui arracha ses vilaines dents et les lui remplaça par deux jolies fausses
incisives. » (p. 35)
Elle y ajoute le portrait moral : « coquette » (p. 35), elle aime être bien habillée.
Bournaz a ainsi l’occasion de faire une description complète de l’habit féminin carelle veut insister, en analysant avec minutie, sur les habitudes des femmes deTunisie des années 20, document vivant concernant l’habit de la femme arabe decette période :Elle faisait appel à Lella Yamina pour lui confectionner ses vêtements. Elle portait
sous ses corsages, un tricot rayé à manches longues en hiver et sans manches en été.
Une fouta choisie chez mon père, enveloppait avec grâce sa silhouette. Dessous, elleavait un large serrouel en percale blanche dont le bas se terminait par de la chebka

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Camelia Manolescu: C’était Tunis. 1920 (récit de vie). Le récit de la jeunesse de...
(fine dentelle tunisienne exécutée à la main). Une coulisse fixait ce pantalon bien
froncé à la taille. En hiver, lorsqu’elle avait terminé le ménage, elle s’enveloppait
d’un grand châle. (p. 36)

La mère, s’occupant du ménage, fait appel à ses filles de l’aider et, en mêmetemps, de leur enseigner les secrets d’être une bonne femme arabe.
Le trait le plus saignant de la mère reste son entêtement à propos de l’éducationde ses filles en vue d’obtenir leur possibilité de fréquenter l’école même si les amis
et les voisins ne veulent plus d’elle. Elle continue à soutenir son idée : la fille doit
avoir libre accès à l’éducation de l’école. Elle s’érige ainsi contre les tabous dumonde arabe qui limitent l’accès de la fille à l’éducation, en lui refusant la libertéd’apprendre, de connaître, d’être libre :(…) ma mère décida de nous envoyer ma sœur et moi à l’école. Mais mon père était
furieux, il devient méchant, (…) il hurlait, les yeux brillants et la moustachehérissait ; il s’opposait de toutes ses forces, de tout son poids, à ce projet fou :« Qu’on envoie les garçons à l’école soit, mais les filles doivent rester à la maison
pour être protégées du mal qui les guette au dehors ». (pp. 36-37)(…) Ma mère pleura beaucoup mais ne céda pas (p. 38)(…) Seule contre tous, elle a tenu à nous inscrire à l’école, mes sœurs et moi, à uneépoque où l’instruction des filles était mal considérée ! (p. 39)

Bournaz annonce aussi un manque de sensibilité de la part de la mère, uneattitude sévère, autoritaire, peu affectueuse qui, du point de vue de l’enfant,représente le côté négatif : « Jamais une caresse, ni une parole tendre de sa partcomme le font toutes les mères. (…) De même, je n’entendais jamais uncompliment lorsque je réalisais une prouesse ou m’acquittais de différentes tâches
ménagères. » (p. 38)
Réservée, distante, la mère qui punit l’enfant est quand même la mère qui leur aassuré de l’indépendance, un emploi et une retraite heureuse : « Elle me défendait
surtout de répéter quoique ce soit à mon père, lorsqu’elle le faisait. (…) Ma mèreétait donc peu affectueuse, elle était réservée, distante avec tout le monde, je dirais
même fière. » (p. 39)
Et, comme pour chaque portrait esquissé par Amira-Bornaz, l’image finit par labénédiction de la mère, celle qui a dû lutter avec les mentalités de tout un peuple
pour obtenir le droit à l’éducation dans une école, de ses filles et de toutes les filles
arabes de n’importe où, c’est-à-dire le droit de choisir son chemin et sa propre
liberté :Pour cela, elle a supporté les tracasseries de mon père, les sarcasmes et lesmoqueries des parents et des voisins. Elle a rompu avec sa famille. Elle a tout
sacrifié et réussi à nous donner l’instruction que très peu de filles tunisiennes ont eu
la chance de recevoir en 1920. Elle a tenu bon et a réussi à faire de nous ce que nous
sommes aujourd’hui, mes sœurs et moi. Merci ma chère mère ! (p. 39)

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2.3. L’enfant Maherzia

L’écrivaine Bournaz rédige, en fin de son livre, un portrait tout a fait réaliste del’enfant qu’elle a été autrefois. Auteur et personnage de son propre roman,
Maherzia Amira-Bournaz fait appel à sa mémoire et crée une image complète. Ellese rappelle, avec les moindres détails, les années de sa scolarité, ses progrès dansl’étude de la langue française et ses compositions qui « valaient de bonnes notes etdes compliments » (p. 155), ses dessins en couleurs qui accompagnaient chaquepoème de ses cahiers de récitations, ses émotions quand elle montait sur l’estrade, àla fin de l’année scolaire, en vue de réciter des poèmes mais aussi sa joie et son
contentement : « Bien habillée et tout enrubannée pour la circonstance, jedéclamais la poésie en y mettant le ton avec force, gestes et expressions de visage.
Ceci me valait les rires attendris et les applaudissements fournis de l’audience. »(p. 155)
Elle se rappelle aussi qu’elle aimait beaucoup les maths en prenant les
problèmes d’arithmétique et de géométrie « comme un jeu » (p.155) mais que lagéographie et l’histoire n’étaient pas ses points forts et elle devait apprendre parcœur et sans comprendre « des listes de dates et de noms propres » (p.155). La
question la plus confuse qui l’a hantée toute sa vie était le fait qu’elle ne trouvait
jamais de rapprochements entre les soi-disant ancêtres, les Gaulois, et son peuple,
entre les histoires de son père et les histoires de l’école.
Maherzia Amira-Bournaz se rappelle aussi, comme si c’était hier, le jour de son
examen du Certificat de Fin d’Etudes Primaires, le coucher tôt la veille, la lecturede la Fatiha avant les épreuves et toutes les règles de l’accès dans la salled’examen : sans cartable, « avec un sous-main avec quelques feuilles de brouillons
et des buvards » et un plumier « avec des plumes de rechange » et « deux crayons
mine et un gros crayon à deux extrémités », « une gomme et un taille-crayon »,avec son attirail, sa carte d’identité et sa convocation (p. 156). Sa réussite a été unvéritable triomphe pour elle-même premièrement et ensuite pour sa mère qui a dû
lutter contre toute une mentalité rétrograde de la part de tous ses parents, desvoisins et des amis qui l’ont « reniée et dénigrée » (p. 157).
Le cadeau reçu allait de paire avec sa nature gaie, amusante et forte : unorguenou et des leçons de musique deux fois par semaine avec Si Salah. N’oubliant
de lui faire aussi le portrait (p. 157), Bournaz se rappelle son impatienced’apprendre à jouer de l’orguenou : « Il m’apprenait que tel doigt devait aller surcette touche, corrigeait mes reflexes de jouer avec une seule main et m’interdisait
de poser mon doigt n’importe où sur le clavier. » (p. 157).
Elle a appris enfin à sentir la musique, à comprendre les mots du texte, àdécouvrir les splendeurs de leur musique classique. Pour elle, le souvenir del’orguenou ne disparaitra pas avec sa mort, elle l’a fait don à la Maison desMusiques Arabes et Méditerranéennes, créée au Palais du Baron d’Erlanger à Sidi
Bou-Saïd : « Il a été réparé, restauré et ne disparaîtra pas avec moi. » (p. 158) Il
devient alors le symbole de la fin de son enfance, du succès remporté par elle et samère contre les mentalités d’une société qui ne donnent pas de liberté au choix de306

Camelia Manolescu: C’était Tunis. 1920 (récit de vie). Le récit de la jeunesse de...

l’éducation des jeunes filles arabes. L’éducation, pour les garçons de même quepour les filles, doit se faire en toute liberté d’option.
Les idées libérales de sa mère, qui a dû rompre avec sa famille, avec ses amis etvoisins, se sont matérialisées enfin, elle est sortie vainqueur d’une société soumiseà des règles qui ne vont pas de paire avec le progrès et le désir de tout hommed’apprendre, d’avoir accès à la connaissance, à l’éducation de l’école. Même lesrecettes alimentaires en fin du livre sont une preuve de la nécessité de libre
connaissance et libre circulation des idées avec le XXe siècle. Les frontières entre
les cultures, entres les sexes, entre les idées doivent disparaître, l’homme den’importe où a besoin de connaître les autres et de se connaître lui-même, sa
curiosité devient alors un excellent moyen de connaissance. La fin d’un romans’ouvre vers le souvenir et la réalité passée sur le vif, les deux caractéristiques del’étude de Maherzia Amira-Bournaz sur la société de son temps, le Tunis desannées 20.
NOTE
1

Toutes les citations renvoient au roman C’était Tunis. 1920 de Maherzia Amira-Bournaz, Tunis,
Cérès Éditions, 1993.

BIBLIOGRAPHIE
Amira-Bournaz, Maherzia (1993). C’était Tunis. 1920. Tunis : Cérès Éditions.
Brahimi, Denise (2001). Langue et littératures francophones. Thèmes et études.
Paris : Éditions Ellipses.

307

Listening Comprehension in Second Language Acquisition
Diana MARCU
University of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages

ABSTRACT
Teaching listening is undoubtedly a complex issue which involves muchconcentration from both teacher and students. It is neither simple nor easy tofamiliarize students with the various English dialects, stresses or different
communication patterns that are often used during a conversation. Therefore,
dialogues or monologues must be carefully chosen and must represent real life
situations. Moreover, various exercises should be conceived (based on the listenedtext) in order to encourage students engage themselves successfully inconversations. The present paper deals with all these aspects and intends to offer
possible solutions to the problems usually encountered when teaching listening.
KEYWORDS: listening skills, second language acquisition, listening comprehension,
receptive skills

A successful modern communicator in a widely spread language such as English
implies without question a good mastering of all the basic skills that are part of thepedagogical practice: reading, writing, speaking and listening. Of the receptive
skills, listening is sometimes perceived as an entertaining and simple activity by
students. They generally start the course with the wrong idea that listening to a text
is an easy task that they have to achieve but unfortunately most of them end up
considering it one of the hardest missions they have to accomplish. This is because
people, although native speakers, usually express differently. The tone of the voice,the stress on certain words, the attitude towards the speech act, etc, they may allvary from one person to another. Let alone the fact that sometimes the interlocutors
may be from different regions or from different countries where English isconsidered as the second language. Getting used to all these models ofcommunication is however essential since this way listening habits are better
developed. Thus, listening is a skill which deserves special attention and muchpractice.
We only become aware of what remarkable feats of listening we achieve when weare in an unfamiliar listening environment, such as listening to a language in which
we have limited proficiency. Even managing to separate speech from non-speechsounds seems a real achievement: the other parts of the process which we take for
granted in our L1 (…) now become formidable tasks. It is hardly surprising that308

Diana Marcu: Listening Comprehension in Second Language Acquisition
people everywhere believe that foreigners speak too fast. (Anderson, Lynch, 1988:
3)

In the case of non-philological classes, the teacher has to select the texts that
arouse students’ interest (texts related to their specialization: for example, in thecase of business students, texts should represent accounting information, marketingstrategies, management problems, etc.) and prepare all sorts of activities in order toenhance effective language learning. In Second language listening: theory andpractice, the authors bring into discussion these aspects (by applying them toengineering students) and point out the fact that there are two main tasks for theteacher: the target tasks and the pedagogical ones:
The target tasks are listening to segments of authentic spoken text on an engineering
topic. The pedagogical tasks are specially prepared exercises and activities thatenable the learners to complete the target tasks. In preparing the preset pedagogicaltasks, consideration is given to what listening skills can be developed through thetexts. For example some texts have general discussions and summaries in them.
These texts are suitable for global listening. Other texts have more detailed
information and specifications. These texts can be used for listening for specificinformation. The tasks are structured around a simple format of pre-, while- andpost-task activities to facilitate overall language learning. (Flowerdew, & Miller,
2005: 72)

It is also highly important to introduce the topic of the listening task before theactual act of listening; otherwise there may appear the risk of losing interest in thesubject matter. This way, students know better what to expect from the audio
material, they will be relaxed and more confident in themselves. They will perceive
the video as an enjoyable activity and they will try to get the real meaning of the
newly presented information. Students are thus directed towards the ideas the
speaker emphasizes in a pleasant way. The purpose is clearly defined: to acquire
specific information without being stressed by the impossibility of not being able
to cope with the real core of the presented discourse. The lack of a clearly defined
purpose or of the teacher’s short anticipatory hint of the topic to come may
generate disinterest on the part of the students. As Penny Ur mentions,
In discourse that is not based on the listener’s active spoken participation, his
expectations may be less strictly defined, but they are there nevertheless and again
are connected with his purpose. If we listen to the news, it is from a desire to knowwhat is happening in the world (…). If we are listening to a lecture, we usuallyknow roughly what the subject is going to be and either need to learn about it or areinterested in it for its own sake. If none of these conditions is true, then we shallprobably not listen at all, let alone understand. (1984: 3)

Hence, listening is a much more complex activity than it appears to be at firstsight. Listening abilities are formed in time and much practice is needed since there
are no strict rules to be learned. However efficiency in listening is more likely to be309

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achieved when practice involves a speaking activity. The two language skills are
generally connected with each other in the sense that exposing students to a large
number of sounds and structures that can be identified in real life situations is ofgreat help for their oral accuracy. Reproducing the language patterns from thedialogues presented on the recordings and repeating them in oral exercises areimportant stages in the formation of a solid speaking background. A clear andcorrect speech can be acquired only by a constant familiarization of the students
with the great diversity of sounds and structures of the English system as well aswith their extensive practice. Listening is, in consequence a challenging anddemanding skill:
Listening is often said to be a passive skill while speaking is described as an active
one. This is not wholly true; for listening is also an active skill as it is concernedwith decoding a message and understanding it; moreover the listener has to showthat he has or has not understood the message from his response. Listening is a skill
that can be developed through systematic teaching. (Verghese, 1989: 71)

Thus, providing students with a rich listening input can be extremely useful for
their capacity of understanding and their ability to cope with the demands ofreading, writing and speaking activities. Only by intensive interaction withsegments of authentic materials (followed by especially prepared exercises) can
increase communicative competence. Moreover, when practice is directed towards
reading, writing, as well as speaking, acquiring proficiency in English becomeseasier and faster. In other words, listening may be considered as the starting point
for developing all the other teaching skills and, in a modern electronic century suchas ours, the teacher has many technological possibilities to introduce the listening
part of the lesson to students. As Paul Verghese argues in his book:The increasing use of audiovisual aids in second language teaching is based on themodern audio-lingual theory which stresses a listening-speaking-reading-writing
sequence in second-language learning situations. The theory insists that learning to
speak a language becomes easier if the learner has enough training comprehension.
(Verghese, 1989: 111)

Despite all the modern audio-visual aids brought in the class, “cultivating”
listening may turn into a boring activity without the help and support of a qualified
teacher. He/She has to play an active role during the lesson, manipulating thematerials in the sense of adapting them to the language level of the students,
playing them several times, searching for tempting tasks and adopting new
strategies to avoid monotonous teaching. The authors of the book Methodology inlanguage teaching: an anthology of current practice, bring into discussion the
aspect of “personalizing” the lesson which is a good opportunity to revise thestructures, language or vocabulary taught in the class. Students are thus stimulated
by supplementary interactive worksheets, mill drills, etc to implicate more in thecourse.
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A challenge for the teacher in the listening classroom is to give learners some degreeof control over the content of the lesson, and to personalize content so learners areable to bring something of themselves to the task. There are numerous ways inwhich listening can be personalized. For example, it is possible to increase learner
involvement by providing extension tasks which take the listening material as apoint of departure, but which lead learners into providing part of the content
themselves. For example, students might listen to someone describing his or her
work, and then create a set of questions for interviewing the person. (Richards,
Renandya, 2002: 240)

While discussing activities that may be used in classes focused on listening, theteacher may choose from a range of listening materials. Students may be asked tolisten for general information, for specific or detailed information, to listen in order
to meet expectations or simply for communicative tasks. Attention should be given
to those weaker listeners, who are afraid of such activities and who tend to loose
control over the listening material. Thus, it’s sometimes better to use the same
listening material for different purposes, to start with somehow easier tasks toachieve and then pass to those more difficult ones.
For example, during a lesson about traveling, students are first given a list of
possible situations that irritate people while flying. After discussing the vocabulary
items mentioned in the list that may pose problems to the students, the teacher tells
them that they are going to listen to several passengers and their complaints about
traveling by plane. The students listen and tick the problems they hear on the tape.
It’s a simple and funny activity that makes students trust their listening skills.
Furthermore, they are given a series of questions they need to answer about thelistening material. It’s a step forward towards a more difficult listening task, butsince they’ve already listened to the material, they can better focus on the answers
they need to find. This activity allows weaker listeners to get accustomed to thelistening material step by step, to listen first for specific information and then for
more detailed one.
If students are to get the maximum benefit from a listening then we should replay
the tape two or more times, since with each listening they may feel more secure, andwith each listening (where we are helping appropriately) they will understand morethen they did previously. (Harmer, 2001: 230)

The so-called “jigsaw” activity is funny and interactive to be used in class. The
students are given a set of pictures and they are asked to place them in order toform the entire story. After guessing the story based on the pictures, the students
listen to the material and see if they were right. It is an activity which is extremely
appealing to the students since they have an active role in the elaboration of thestory.
In ESP classes, listening materials should meet the expectations and interests ofthe students. In a business class, after a previous discussion upon the rules ofstarting a conversation in a business environment, the teacher asks the students tolisten to several conversations and decide which are suitable to the presented311

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situations. The students focus on the style (formal or informal) of the speech, on
the order the ideas are mentioned on the tape and then decide upon the best ones.
Listening for communicative tasks is best emphasized by listening activities tofill-in forms. For example, the students are asked to listen to a telephone
conversation between a secretary and a businessman who would like to make an
appointment with the manager of the company. While listening, they need to fill-in
a form they have in front of themselves with the details and personal data of theperson who needs the appointment. It’s a great opportunity for them to see how
language is used in context, what problems may arise and what kind of questions
are usually asked during such telephone conversations. After filling-in the forms,
they are divided into pairs and are asked to role play their own telephone
conversations. Thus, listening can be a preparatory stage towards improving
speaking skills.
Discussing the relationship between listening and speaking, Anderson and
Lynch in their book simply entitled Listening, distinguish between the two types oflistening activities: the activities where you listen without speaking and thosewhere one listens with the opportunity of speaking.
A necessary part of any programme to develop listening skills are tasks that makethe relationship between success in listening and speaking clear to the learner. We
have already suggested that effective speaking depends on successful listening forL2 learners. (…) Experience as a listener was more beneficial than practice in the
speaking role, as it seemed to highlight the needs of the listener for clear and explicit
instructions. (Anderson, & Lynch, 1988: 16)

While teaching listening the teachers tend to focus more on the outcome of theprocess, on how well the students did during the listening activity, rather thandrawing attention upon effective strategies for listening. Cooperative listening, partof the broader cooperative learning process, is a great strategy to improve thelistening skills of students. Once they are divided into pairs or groups, the students
work together and help each other during the activity. The weaker students inlistening get help from their classmates, they are offered an example of how tolisten in order to obtain the requested result. “In studies where students were taught
specifically to be cooperative, results revealed vast improvement in language skills
as well as increased self-esteem, motivation, altruism, and positive attitudes toward
others.” (Oxford, 1989: 2)
There have been numerous studies concerning the strategies used by listeners inorder to understand a spoken material. According to Conrad (1981, 1985), learners
rely more on the semantic cues, that is information provided by context, than on
the syntactic cues. Martin (1982) observed that learners first pay attention to therate of speech, pronunciation and vocabulary and then start to decode the input.
Therefore, audio-materials should be played more then once to allow the students
time to get familiar to the spoken text.
The role of the teacher is also important since, at the beginning of any listening
activity the teacher has to make clear exactly what he/she expects from the activity.
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If there is a listening material which has as result the division of utterances intotrue and false ones, the teacher needs first to go through the sentences with thestudents to help them focus on the desired information. If students are asked to fillin the gaps certain words missing based on a listening material, the teacher may
pause the tape from time to time to offer students the time they need to fill in theblanks. Based on the length of the material and on the difficulty of tasks, theteacher may play the tape two or three times to help students get accustomed to thelistening material.
In conclusion, listening comprehension is central to second language
acquisition. It is an active process by which listeners decode meaning due tocontextual cues, prior knowledge and the received information. It is a skill which
enhances the information-processing ability and involves the cognitive strategies ofthe student. During ESL classes, teachers should not neglect the importance of thisskill in the formation of the future English speakers. By listening activities,
students are aware of how the language functions in context, of how the words arestressed on certain occasions and what is important to perceive from a spoken
message.
Gary Buck in his book Assessing Listening concluded that
listening comprehension is an active process of constructing meaning, and this isdone by applying knowledge to the incoming sound. Comprehension is affected by awide range of variables, and that potentially any characteristic of the speaker, thesituation or the listener can affect the comprehension of the message. (2001: 31)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anderson, Anne, & Tony Lynch (1988). Listening. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Buck, Gary (2001). Assessing Listening. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Conrad, Linda Ruth (1981). Listening Comprehension Strategies in Native andSecond Language. Michigan State University.
——— (1985). Semantic versus Syntactic Cues in Listening Comprehension.
Studies in Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Flowerdew, John, & Lindsay Miller (2005). Second Language Listening: Theory
and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge Language Education, Series Editor Jack
C. Richards.
Harmer, Jeremy (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Third
Edition, London: Longman.
Martin, T. (1982). Introspection and the Listening Process, Unpublished Master’s
Thesis in TESL, UCLA Apud Murcia, Marianne Celce, & Elite Oshtain (2000),
Discourse and Context in Language Teaching: a Guide for Language Teachers,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oxford, L.R. (1989). The Role of Styles and Strategies in Second Language
Learning. Washington: ERIC Clearing House on Languages and Linguistics.
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Richards, Jack C., & Williy A. Renandya (2002). Methodology in Language
Teaching: an Anthology of Current Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, USA.
Ur, Penny (1984). Teaching Listening Comprehension. Cambridge: Cambridge
Handbooks for Language Teachers, Series Editor Scott Thornbury.
Verghese, Paul C. (1989). Teaching English as a Second Language. Sterling
Publishers Private Limited, India.

314

Gender Expression in Romanian and English
Cristina-Gabriela MARIN
University of Craiova
Department of Applied Foreign Languages

ABSTRACTThe paper tries to be a brief comparative approach of the gender mark for the nouns
in English and in Romanian. As we all know, the grammatical category of gender isa fundamental one for the nominal flexion in Romanian while in English it is not ofgreat importance. In both languages there are three classes of nouns divided
according to gender: masculine, feminine and neuter nouns. The components ofgender, like those of any other grammatical category, are relevant only incomparison with their opposition.
KEYWORDS: language, gender, inanimate, components, analysis, nouns

Language and gender is a topic that is of interest in its own right; it is also
important because of what it can add at our understanding of language and how it
works. The components of gender, like those of any other grammatical category,
are relevant only in comparison with their opposition. For example, in somelanguages (like Italian, French or Spanish) we can distinguish two components:
masculine and feminine. In other languages, though (English, German or
Romanian) there is a third component, the neuter. The classical definitions ofgender refer to element of content.
For example, Iorgu Iordan1 defines gender as a “grammatical category whichcorresponds in the case of nouns, to a logical category of their content. Objects are,according to their nature, either masculine or feminine or of no sex” (1978: 272).
The modern definitions take more into account the expression and thesyntactical implications of gender existence to nouns and to nominal determiners.
Jean Dubois (et al., 1994: 257)2 defines gender as being a grammatical category
based on nouns distribution into nominal classes according to certain formalfeatures, which become obvious through pronominal reference, though adjectival
or verbal agreement and at last but not least, through nominal affixes(prefixes,
suffixes, case desinences).
For Romanian nouns, gender is made of the opposition between masculine andfeminine components of the animates, on the one side (student/‘studentă’) andbetween these and neuter, the representative of the inanimate on the other side. As
far as, the hierarchy of gender oppositions and the opposition that originated thishierarchy is concerned there are several points of view some linguistics draw a
special attention to the opposition animate/inanimate while others are in favour of315

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

masculine/feminine opposition. Other linguistics suggested the use of the term“ambiguous” instead of “neuter”. However, the term “ambiguous” could not
replace neuter (Puşcariu, 1994: 131)3 as the Romanian neuter, nouns keep anddevelop the class of neuter nouns (inanimate) from.
The Romanian linguists found various procedures of recognition of the noun
gender starting from the feature of the Romanian neuter nouns to have a masculine
determiner for singular and a feminine one for plural.
1. Gender in English
According to Leon Leviţchi and Ioana Preda (2001: 24)4 there are four genders incontemporary English, and these are:- masculine gender for masculine beings: boy, father, dog- feminine gender for feminine beings: daughter, girl, woman- neuter gender for objects, for everything that is inanimated and does not imply
the idea of sex: world, peace, house- common gender for both sexes: parent, infant, teacher
The common gender has the particularity of characterizing the nouns only when
they are seen out of a certain context, because when being in any context, they
become always masculine and feminine.
On the other hand, Thomson and Martinet (1997: 24)5 stated that there are threegenders in English:- masculine: men, boys and male animals (pronoun he/they)- feminine: women, girls and female animals (pronoun she/they)- neuter: inanimate things, animals, babies whose sex we don’t know (pronoun
it/they)
According to them, ships and sometimes cars and other vehicles whenregarded with affection or respect are considered feminine.
In spite of the fact, that the grammatical form of the word does not contain any
element that could help us to determine the gender of the noun, there are somelexical means which make the gender of the English nouns explicit. Gender is not
only a simple reflection of reality, but it is rather a matter of convenience and of
choice made by the speaker who can use special strategies in order to avoid any
reference specific to each gender.
The distinction between masculine and feminine can also be made using formalmarks.
Among these formal marks we can mention:- predeterminer that specifies the gender of the noun:
We are looking for a male nurse.

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Cristina-Gabriela Marin: Gender in Romanian and English- compound words using an element that denotes gender:
During the meeting an Englishman showed little respect for our country.

- the use of certain suffixes, that denote gender:
Actor, Denis Stefan won the first prize this year.
Actress Julia Roberts performed brilliantly.

The majority of nouns indicating occupation have the same form: artist, dancer,
driver, guide, etc. A special category is referring to domestic animals and many ofthe larger wild animals which have different forms: bull/cow, duck/drake, ram/ewe,stag/doe, stallion/mare, so on.
The gender of the nouns in English is very rarely marked formally as comparedto the nouns in Romanian where the meaning and the ending of the noun have agreat contribution to the identification of the grammatical category of gender.
Except for a few cases when the gender is marked by the use of different words or
suffixes (boy/girl, lion/lioness) the gender of the most English nouns is identified
by using pronouns or adjectives that have a different form for each gender.
As far as the classification of English nouns into masculines, feminines andneuters is concerned, they are classified into three groups of nouns: names of
persons, names of animals and names of objects.
1.1. The gender of the nouns denoting persons

The nouns indicating a male person belong to the class of masculine nouns (man,father, boy), while those indicating a female person belong to the feminine gender(woman, mother, sister).
Nouns like baby, infant, and child belong to the neuter gender in a pejorative
meaning or into a neuter expression from the affective point of view, but there arealso words that belong to the common gender (assistant, attendant, driver). They
get a different gender in a well-expressed context where the elements, such as
pronouns and pronominal adjectives are used with different forms indicating thus
the gender. The gender can be lexically or morphologically marked for the class ofnouns denoting persons or it can be identified with the help of some words fromthe context expressing gender.
Lexically, the opposition of gender is marked by the use of different words:
Masculine

Feminineboy
fatherearlgentleman
king

girl
mothercountess
lady
queen
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

lad
man
monk
Mr.
nephewuncle
sonhusbandbachelor

lass
woman
nun
Mrs., Ms.
niece
aunt
daughterwife
spinsterwizardwitch

There are in English very many compound words with “man” and “woman”
which denote the opposition masculine – feminine. In Longman Dictionary ofEnglish6 there are about 40 different words compound with ‘woman’ and evenmore compound with ‘man’. Among the most often used ones we mention:spokesman/spokeswoman
policeman/policewoman
chairman/chairwoman
businessman/businesswoman
congressman/congresswoman
horseman/horsewoman.
We have to mention the fact that there are several compound words with‘woman’ which do not have a masculine equivalent. Some of them are:beggarwoman, slavewoman, ghostwoman, needlewoman, sweeperwoman.
But, on the other hand, there are masculine words compound with ‘man’ which
do not have a feminine equivalent: airman, barman, boatman, cabman, coalman,craftsman, etc.
In many other cases words which have distinct forms for expressing masculine
or feminine gender, may become nouns of common gender: father (masculine),
mother (feminine), parent (common); king (masculine), queen (feminine),monarch (common); boy (masculine), girl (feminine), child (common); husband(masculine), wife (feminine), spouse (common), etc.
Some English words mark their gender through a suffix with a masculine form.
When we add this kind of suffixes in order to form a feminine noun, there aresometimes but not always certain changes in the spelling of the masculine word.
There are no changes when we add the suffix -ess in order to form the feminine of
the following words: god/goddess, actor/actress, ambassador/ambassadrice,heir/heiress, host/hostess, etc. When we add the same suffix to other words there
are vocalic or consonantal alternations: duke/duchess, master/mistress, murderer/
murderess.
Except for the suffix -ess there are other suffixes commonly used in English inorder to express the feminine gender. Among these we have to take into
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Cristina-Gabriela Marin: Gender in Romanian and English

consideration the following ones -ine, -ette, -ix: hero/heroine, usher/usherette,
executor/executrix, etc.
1.2. The gender of nouns denoting names of animals

In English the nouns denoting animals are divided into gender classes according totheir size. Thus, big animals are considered masculine and they can be replaced by
the masculine pronoun “he”:
When the mare saw her master…
The horse came closer to his master.

Domestic animals and many of the larger wild animals have different forms:
bull/cow, cock/hen, dog/ bitch, duck/drake, gander/goose, lion/lioness, ram/ewe,stag/doe, stallion/mare.
Other use gender marking words:
Masculine

Femininecock sparrow
he-goattom-catmale frog
he-bearjack-ass

hen sparrow
she-goattabby-catfemale frog
she-bearpenny-ass

2. Gender in Romanian
There are three genders in Romanian: masculine, feminine and neuter. The
opposition masculine-feminine corresponds to the difference of sex in very few
cases, especially the animate nouns and particularly, the names of person. Thisconcordance is valid not only for common nouns but also for proper nouns:
Dan/Dana, George/Georgiana.
There are situations when the concordance between the grammatical gender andthe sex is not respected any more. Nouns such as ministru or ambasador have got aform of feminine which is rarely used, the masculine form being preferred whenrendering the idea of feminine as to express the idea of feminine we use
appellatives placed in front of the noun and marking the feminine gender:
Doamna ministru a semnat documentul oficial în prezenţa liderilor sindicali.

Except for the case of nouns denoting animals there is no connection between
the grammatical gender and the sex. The grammatical gender is justified in other319

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cases only by the ending. The criterion of its studying is decisive when consideringnouns as belonging to one gender or another.
There are no strict rules about it but one, which says that no noun ending in aconsonant can be feminine, it is either masculine or neuter. But this rule cannot beapplied the other way. A noun ending in a vowel can be masculine (popă, frate)
feminine (casă, fată) or neuter (gard, taxi).
There are several ways of gender identification as C. Dimitriu (1979: 129)7
suggests it can be made by taking into consideration the article as Gramatica
Academiei Limbii Române suggests by attaching a cardinal numeral. Valeria GuţuRomalo (1985: 149)8 suggests by attaching a demonstrative adjective or byattaching a demonstrative adjective or, eventually, by using any determiner as
Mioara Avram thinks that “the gender of a noun is marked and can be identified
through the form of its determiner” (1986: 32)9.
It is almost impossible to evaluate the gender of a noun according to its
meaning because the names of objects, the abstract nouns and the names of places
could belong to any of the three genders. However, there are some remarks weshould make.
Most of the inanimate nouns are neuter: pahar, dulap, frigider, obraz, piept,
drog, ajutor. They can be masculine as well: cartof, perete, pom, dinte. Some ofthem, but not very many, are feminine: pijama, ţară, capcană, cafea, etc. The
names of sports and games are also neuter: box, fotbal, şah, as well as the names ofwinds: austru, ciclon, crivăţ.
Among the nouns that are always masculine we mention: all the letters of thealphabet (a, b, c), the names of months (aprilie, iunie, mai) and the musical notes(do, re, mi). Among the nouns that are always feminine we mention the names ofcontinents (Europa, America, Asia), the days of the week (luni, joi, vineri), thenames of the seasons (vara, iarna), most names of fruits (pară, cireaşă, caisă). The
exceptions are the following names of fruits that are masculine (strugure, pepene,ananas) and (măr) that is neuter. As for the names of the countries, those ending in“-a” are feminine (Italia, România, Grecia) and those ending in a consonant or
another vowel are masculine (Irak, Congo, Peru).
Many of the feminine nouns are obtained by adding suffixes to their masculine
form. Among these suffixes, we mention:-ă: coleg/colegă, vecin/vecină
-iţă: frizer/frizeriţă, doctor/doctoriţă
The feminine form of doctoriţă is never used for indicating the title or for direct
addressing. We shall always say, thus:
Doamnă doctor, aţi avut dreptate.
Doamna doctor Ionescu lipseşte azi.

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Cristina-Gabriela Marin: Gender in Romanian and English

We shall never address to someone using “Doctore!”, either for a man or awoman, we shall say “Doamnă/Domnule doctor!”
When referring to a scientific title, the noun doctor does not have a feminine
form.
Doamna Ionescu este doctor în matematică.

The masculine nouns obtained with the help of the suffix “-tor” are the starting
point for the feminine gender, obtained with the help of the suffix “-toare”:
învăţător/învăţătoare, muncitor/muncitoare, vânzător/vânzătoare.
The suffix “-că” is added to the masculine form in order to obtain a feminine
gender noun denoting a person: ţăran/ţărancă, bucureştean/bucureşteancă, ţigan/ţigancă. This suffix can be used exclusively for nouns denoting persons, thus weshall never say “limba româncă” but “limba română”.
The feminine form of the nouns denoting animals or feminine members of apeople is obtained by adding the suffix “-oaică”: lup/lupoaică, leu/leoaică, turc/
turcoiacă, grec/grecoaică.
There is another suffix, quite rarely used, which helps us to form the feminine
gender of a noun, that is “-easă”: lăptar/lăptăreasă, croitor/croitoreasă, mire/mireasă. The few nouns ending in “-easă” are borrowings from French: poetesă,negresă, prinţesă.
In the case of a reduced number of nouns, the two different forms have also
different plurals with different meaning:sg. corn- pl. corni (masculine) ‘musical instrumental’- pl. cornuri (neuter) ‘small curved bread’- pl. coarne (neuter) ‘bone formation on the head of animals’

sg. ochi- pl. ochi (masculine) ‘the organ of sight’- pl. ochiuri (neuter) ‘scrambled eggs’

sg. colţ

- pl. colţi (masculine) ‘long, sharp teeth of animals’- pl. colţuri (neuter) ‘geometric angles’

sg. timp- pl. timpi (masculine) ‘steps in motions’- pl. timpuri (neuter) ‘time’3. Conclusion
English makes very few gender distinctions. When they are made, the connection
between the biological category “sex” and the grammatical category “gender” isvery close, insofar as natural sex distinctions determine English gender
distinctions. It is further typical of English that special suffixes are not generally
used to mark gender distinctions. Nor are gender distinctions made in the article.
321Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

Some pronouns are gender sensitive (the personal he, she, it and the relative who,
which), but others are not (they, some, these, etc.). In both languages there are threeclasses of nouns divided according to gender: masculine, feminine and neuternouns.
NOTES
1

Iorgu Iordan, Limba română contemporană, 272.
Jean Dubois et alii, Dictionnare de linquistique et des sciences du language, 257.
3
Sextil Puşcariu, Limba română, 131.
4
Leon Leviţchi, & Ioan Preda, Gramatica limbii engleze, 24.
5
A.J. Thomson, & A.V. Martinet, A Practical English Grammar, 24.
6
D. Biber, S. Johanson, G. Leech, S. Conrad, E. Finegan, Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written
English, 313.
7
C. Dimitriu, Gramatica limbii române explicate, 129.
8
Valeria Guţu-Romalo, “Substantivul”, 149.
9
Mioara Avram, Gramatica pentru toţi, 32.
2

REFERENCES
Avram, Mioara (1986). Limba română. Bucureşti: Editura Academiei Române.
Dimitriu, C. (1979). Gramatica limbii române explicate. Iaşi: Junimea.
Dubois, Jean, Mathée Giacomo-Marcellesi, & Louis Gespin (2001). Dictionnairede linquistique et des sciences du language. Paris: Larousse.
Guţu-Romalo, Valeria (1985). “Substantivul.” In: Limba română contemporană.
Bucureşti: Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică.
Iordan, Iorgu (1978). Limba română contemporană. Bucureşti: Editura Didactică şi
Pedagogică.
Leviţchi, Leon, & Ioan Preda (2001). Gramatica limbii engleze. Bucureşti: Gramar.
Pană Dindelegan, Gabriela, & Carmen. Dobrovie-Sorin. The Essential Grammar of
the Romanian Language/Gramatica de bază a limbii române. URL: <http://
www.linguist.jussieu.fr/~mardale>.
Puşcariu, Sextil (1994). Limba română, vol. II, Rostirea. Bucureşti: Editura
Academiei Române.
Quirk, Randolph, & Sidney Greenbaum (1976). A University Grammar of English,
Edinburgh: Longman.
Thomson, A.J., & A.V. Martinet (1997). A Practical English Grammar, fourth
edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

322

Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights –A Romance of Late Victorianism
Cristina Cornelia MĂNDOIU
University of Craiova
Faculty of Letters

ABSTRACT
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is not the kind of novel that one might expectfrom a Victorian writer. Unlike her predecessors, Emily Bronte chose to intersperse
her novel with eternal principles of life, death, love and immortality, rather than thesocial issues so intensely exposed by the writers of the Victorian Age. The timelessquality of Wuthering Heights is given by its unconventional narrative discourse that
opens the path towards modern writing, by a perplexing chronological framework,
which eventually proves to be very accurate, by the complex description of themoorlands, and by the author’s mastery in portraying the novel’s characters.
Wuthering Heights is the perfect mirror of its author’s mind. It’s an expression ofprimitive passions, of the elemental forces in man in nature, and it diverts from themoral conventions of religion and human law. The role of this article is to proveonce again Brontë’s craftsmanship as a writer and to show the novel’s importancefor modern writing.
KEYWORDS: Victorian, modern writing, characters, duality, contrast.

The only novel written by Emily Brontë before her untimely death and published in
1847, Wuthering Heights, occupies a distinctive position among nineteenth
century’s most popular literary creations because it deals with the most intense
feelings that the human beings are capable of. Love mixed with revenge,
civilization among savagery, hope and delusion, obsessive yearnings, deep despair,cruelty and frustration, all combine and create a masterpiece, a novel whose
unforgettable characters live their emotions at their extreme levels.
The novel stands as a testimony of Emily Brontë’s genius; it represents all thather great mind could create. Her boundless imagination and her mastery in creating
an unforgettable story are reflected all over the novel. The rich symbolism of thisnovel, the themes and imagery, perfectly combined, create the background for astory about supernatural emotions that natural human beings experience, a story
about a love that does not find its end with death, but continues to exist on ametaphysical level, beyond all the restrictions imposed by a civilized world.
The power of Wuthering Heights is given by the fact that we are dealing with abook of contradictions. We find in this novel all the opposites through which we
define our selfhood: child and adult, male and female, the irrational and the323Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

rational, classlessness and the boundary of social classes, play and power, free willand determinism. The novel excels also because of its complex narrative structure
and to the ingenious device of having two conventional people to relate an
unconventional story. Other dualities we confront with in this novel are the ones
that the author itself implants by alternating between two localities, two families,
two time schemes and by contrasting comedy and tragedy, myth and history, thepastoral and the urban, dream and common sense. The emotional extremes andperplexing questions regarding the nature of life and death shape the novel until theend, and the contradictions we confront with in this novel are never dissolved.
Although it was written during the Victorian Age, when literary trend wasconcerned with the urban life, Brontë’s novel does not follow the general pattern ofa Victorian writing. We do not recognize in it the regular Victorian themes and,instead, we discover the most important topics that are to be found in many of thegreatest novels of all times: civilization versus savagery, family relationships,
mankind versus nature, spirituality, freedom beyond the grave, true love, thedestructiveness of a love that never changes, human psychology, revenge, social
classes, childhood and innocence, superstition and supernatural. Many situations
presented in Wuthering Heights don’t have a plausible explanation and certain
events and reactions are not rooted in everyday human experience. However,
Wuthering Heights holds a special place among the Victorian novels and this isbecause it presents mythical patterns in a world more closely associated withhuman experience. Emphasis is not laid on representation, but on the shape of thestory which leads to its ontological principles. The novel presents two contrastingworlds, a desirable and an undesirable one, as Heathcliff turns into a monster ofabsolute love. But this ideal love cannot be attained because of current conventions
and the attractions exerted by culture upon the simple elemental nature of
Catherine Earnshaw.
An interesting aspect of the novel is the way in which it was created: by
disposing its elements into some sort of complicated kind of pairs. Each item of apair is neither completely different, nor identical with its counterpart. The idea of
duality, which is to be found all over the novel, is actually a literary device known
as double and intensely used by the twentieth century writers. A literary double
often takes the form of a an alternative identity of the main character andsometimes this can be in the physical form of a biological twin, while sometimes
writers create a demonic character that functions as a representation of anothercharacter’s dark side. In this novel, Catherine and Heathcliff are the perfectrepresentation of the double. They are soul mates, they grew up together fromchildhood and they can be considered two halves of the same person.
In this story, Emily Brontë engaged both nature and culture in a constant battle,
with Wuthering Heights as the embodiment of nature and Thrushcross Grange as
the perfect representation of culture. The two houses shelter people that seem tohave come out from different worlds and serve as fundamental polarities in thenovel. The Heights is associated with violence, hatred, wilderness and degradation

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Cristina Cornelia Măndoiu: Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights – A Romance of Late...

of human nature while the Grange is associated with less passionate emotions,refinement, soft manners, order and accepted religion.
We are witnessing two kinds of realities in this novel: one characterized by a
restraining civilization and one by absolute freedom. These realities get to interact
and are presented in the form of inside versus outside, domestic versus nature andhuman versus the other. The result is a conflict that never ends, although thedualities embedded in the novel are constantly trying to break through the barrierthat stands between them, once the people belonging to Wuthering Heights andThrushcross Grange start to intermingle.
Another outstanding aspect of the novel is the way Emily Brontë created hercharacters. From her imagination, a spirit more sombre than sunny that discovered
beauty in the physical world that surrounded her, were born characters that sharethe same aspect with Yorkshire’s moors. The range of emotions and responses in
Wuthering Heights is limited. All characters exhibit courage, meet adversity with
defiance and act wrong when it comes to vengeance. We are presented an
extraordinary love of life and passionate adoration in this novel. Catherine andHeathcliff are the life of the novel, but Emily seems to be great in drawing minor
characters also. Heathcliff and Catherine suffer, they have no pity on one another,and they are in the grip of something more vital to them than the air they breathe.
Despite their love for each other, Catherine follows her rationality and marries
Edgar, the Victorian character, instead of Heathcliff, the Romantic one. From thispoint, we cannot help to sympathize with Heathcliff, despite his wicked nature andthis is because Emily Brontë suggests that what Heathcliff stands for is morally
superior to what the Lintons stand for.1
Catherine and Heathcliff’s relation is a very complex one. They simultaneously
love and hate each other, they are submissive and they also defy each other. The
fact that they are put together in this kind of relationship is an attempt to reconcile
two irreconcilable requirements: the need for a source of spiritual power outside
oneself, and the need to be self-sufficient.2 Catherine imagines a ménage à trois inwhich her relation with Heathcliff will bring her joy, while the relation with Edgar
will bring her a higher social position, comfort, elegance and stability. As her
attempt of doing that was impossible to be reached successfully, Catherine andHeathcliff’s childhood love is followed by separation, but, even though they aredoomed to be separated, they make an almost supernatural effort to transcend deathand integrate in the infinity of time and space, out of exile, constraints and thevicissitudes of life.
Catherine and Heathcliff, the first generation of lovers, are governed by natureand their actions are all guided by instinct. They are violent characters which do
not belong in a restricted civilization. They try to live according to the social
standards, and they assume human features and behaviours, but their inhumanenergy makes it impossible for them to cope with their situations. From theirsupernatural passion there is only one step to chaos and self-destruction. The two
couples of the second generation never get to experience a love of such magnitude
as the one between Catherine and Heathcliff. The childish romance of Cathy and325

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Linton rapidly fades away when Cathy meets Hareton and she begins with him ahealthy relationship which involves social and moral responsibilities. As opposedto this kind of love, the love between Catherine and Heathcliff is characterized by
impulsiveness and irresponsibility. The first generation experiences a mythologicalromance because the astonishingly ravenous and possessive, perfectly amoral loveof Catherine and Heathcliff belongs to that realm of the imagination where myths
are created.3
The novel can be considered an astonishing expression of the author’s self.
Brontë’s choice of word is impeccable; she presents panoramic images ofcharacters and events, which vividly define tone and mood. The innovative
narrative techniques make us consider Wuthering Heights one of the first modern
novels of the English literature. Instead of presenting an introduction to the novel’s
action, Emily pulls the reader in the centre of the action from the first chapter ofthe novel. The narrative structure of Wuthering Heights is quite unique. Mr.
Lockwood, the omniscient narrator, provides the background for the reader and heacts both as an introduction to Nelly’s tale, and as a validation of it. However,
Nelly, the alternative narrator, knows more than Lockwood and she takes most partof the narration. When Mr. Lockwood meets Nelly Dean, he gets numerous
questions to ask her about Wuthering Heights, questions which, of course, belong
to readers too.
Without a doubt, Wuthering Heights creates a great impression on its readers
because Emily Brontë offers in this novel all that her imagination could give. She
dared to feel free when she wrote it and she managed to create a masterpiece thatshocks through greatness, power of imagery and an impeccable choice of words toexpose all that her great mind could create. She used meaningful words in order todescribe vivid scenes, concentrated feelings, internal and external conflicts,
individual passions and strict social norms. However, her written message hasoften been criticized because its narrative techniques were never used before in a
Victorian novel. She might have been a little evasive in the beginning of the novel,
but we should consider that just a method to introduce the reader into the story. For
example, it is almost impossible in the beginning to understand whose wife
Catherine Heathcliff is. Still, as the story moves forward, things get clear too,
Emily eliminates all the misunderstandings that can appear in the beginning. The
way she introduces a tale within a tale, a dialogue within a dialogue, or a scene
within another scene is just a complex technique to convey an incredible story andto draw the reader in the middle of it. The evasiveness shown in the beginning is atechnique used to present the tale just the way it is, to hide author’s opinions or
prejudices about the characters so that the reader would create his own opinions.4
Throughout the novel, the reader sometimes is carried back in time, andsometimes forward. Time can be seen as a window that opens every time a narrator
relates past events and closes every time Lockwood relates present events. Whennarrators change, we get to know different points of view, we are presented theevents as some of the characters perceived them. As the novel moves forwards, we326

Cristina Cornelia Măndoiu: Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights – A Romance of Late...

get to sympathize with each narrator, but we should remember that none of them iscompletely objective and their statements should not be taken for granted.
Looking back to the tradition of the gothic novel, which flourished mostly in thelate 18th and the early 19th century and remembering how female novelists tried toconclude their works with a lesson of morality, we are urged to question ourselves
if Emily Brontë followed this requirement and which would be the morality lesson
that we are supposed to learn from the novel. Although it is considered by many
critics a novel that rejects a clear classification, Wuthering Heights incorporates avariety of elements that remind us of gothic literature: a love that trespasses thebarriers between life and death, the transgression of social classes, the idea ofimprisonment and escape, a dangerous and a good candidate for the heroine’s love,
ghosts, necrophilia and revenge.
The setting of the novel is a remarkable feature in Gothic literature. Wuthering
Heights is described as a morbid place with a strong structure, therefore even thehouse has a gothic nature. Like most gothic novels, this setting is contrasted withanother one and the action takes place strictly in the area of these two houses.
Thrushcross Grange is not the subject to the same harsh winds and storms that
Wuthering Heights faces. The description of these two houses also indicates thepeople who occupy them. The Lintons, from Thrushcross Grange live a happy life,
while the inhabitants from Wuthering Heights make a morbid life.
A masterpiece in double design, the novel can be considered an expression of
Emily Brontë’s double soul, the double soul of humanity and of the tragedy of life.
Emily Brontë expresses in her novel loss and desire, the desire to be whole, to bereunited with the original self, to reconcile somehow the two opposite sides of thehuman soul. She was a fractured spirit and within her soul there were dualities
which she exposed gracefully in Wuthering Heights. When she created this novel,
she needed the calm of wholeness. Therefore, from the contradictions of her own
nature, she implements a duality within every character’s personality. In
Catherine’s case, her heart and mind are divided: she loves Heathcliff, but she
marries Edgar, she likes the wildness of a life with Heathcliff, but she chooses
Edgar because he belongs to a higher social class. Heathcliff’s love for Catherine isunlimited, but also his cruelty and harshness.
Contrast can be found everywhere in Wuthering Heights. Besides the contrast at
the structure level, there is a contrast between two kinds of characters, between thetwo generations and between the two places where the action takes place:
Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. The houses are almost polar opposites
and their inhabitants possess the features of each house: those from Wuthering
Heights are wild and uncivilized, while those from Thrushcross Grange arediametrically opposed. Each house has a male and a female with a counterpart at
the other.5
Critics of Wuthering Heights have offered different views on the significance ofthe contrast between Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. The contrast issometimes considered external and it is represented by the social differences
between the members of each household, and sometimes internal, and it alludes to327

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

the internal conflict caused by the dualities rooted within each character.
Externally, the contrast between the two houses has the purpose to show theincompatibility of civilized and uncivilized people and these people’s impossibility
to live in harmony. The two houses that almost represent two different worlds are,in a certain manner, two characters that have two contrasting personalities. One
could never argue the fact that Heathcliff and the Earnshaw family could neversettle and be happy anywhere but the Heights, and the cultured Lintons could notsurvive in any home but Thrushcross Grange. As an evidence for that, there is theepisode when Catherine and Heathcliff go to the Grange for the first time and Mrs.
Linton casts Heathcliff off, mostly because his appearance is inappropriate for theirhouse. She describes him as a wicked boy… and quite unfit for a decent house(Bronte, 46).
Catherine Earnshaw’s transition from Wuthering Heights to ThrushcrossGrange can be perceived as a disguise and a rejection of the original self. She
belongs to the place where she was born, her personality is as wild and savage as
Wuthering Heights and her behaviour as a child is a testimony in this respect: …we
had not a minute’s security that she wouldn’t be in mischief. Her spirits werealways a high-water mark, her tongue always going-singing, laughing andplaguing everybody who would not do the same (Bronte.38). There are majordifferences between Catherine and the Lintons, and although her chameleon-likepersonality allows her to hide her true character when she settles at the Grange, shenever fits perfectly in that setting and when Heathcliff comes back from his long
voyage, the illusion of assimilation is completely destroyed. He knows Catherine
too well to accept the idea that she has completely changed and she belongs to theGrange now. He even says to Nelly: You talk of her mind being unsettled. How thedevil could it be otherwise in her frightful isolation?... He might as well plant an
oak in a flower pot, and expect it to thrive…(Bronte, 120) The isolation Heathcliff
refers to is Catherine’s isolation from Wuthering Heights and from herself, and she
experiences that as long as she remains at Thrushcross Grange.
Heathcliff is a character who does not really fit in any of the two houses. He is
rejected by both the Grange and the Heights, yet he wishes to have both of them.
As children, both Catherine and Heathcliff are the natural products of the moors
and the Heights. However, unlike Catherine, he does not like the Lintons’ lifestyle,even though he is impressed by their richness: I’d not exchange for a thousand
lives my condition here for Edgar Linton’s at Thrushcross Grange – not if I might
have the privilege of flinging Joseph of the highest gable, and painting the housefront with Hindley’s blood (Bronte, 36). During his absence, he loses a part of his
personality and he becomes a gentleman with a physical appearance worthy ofThrushcross Grange and a character suitable for Wuthering Heights: A halfcivilized ferocity lurked yet in the depresses brows and eyes full of black fire, but it
was subdued, and his manner was even dignified- quite divested of roughness,though too stern to grace (Bronte, 75). He becomes a stranger for both the Heights
and the Grange and he is tormented by this change for the rest of his life.

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The love that Catherine and Heathcliff share extends until reaches unanimity,
but the social boundaries that separate them cannot be ignored. If they cannot be
together on earth, their existence in corporal form becomes irrelevant for them. In
their last moment together in physical shape, right before Catherine’s death, we arewitnessing a scene in which their love is actually trying to break through thephysical obstacles of skin and bones. The magnitude of this moment is extreme,
because it reinforces Catherine’s belief that nothing can separate her from
Heathcliff, not even their separation into different bodies. In that moment, theirbodies do not obey the usual rules anymore: they don’t feel the physical damage,and Cathy ceases to pay much attention to material existences once she realizes
that it does not contain her real home. The complete impossibility of their love andthe way they defy it are expressed like a massive physical effort; their last embrace
has an almost murderous aspect. It is as if the two lovers were expending all theenergy in order to prevent from taking a sexual form.
After Catherine’s death, Heathcliff goes through a process of mortification. He
has to remind himself to eat, to drink, to breathe and even to compel his heart tobeat. He has to deal with a bigger torment when he notices the similarities between
Catherine and her daughter, the younger Cathy. At a certain moment it seems that
Heathcliff and Catherine have been duplicated by the second Catherine andHareton, an aspect that can be interpreted as a chance for a physical love of the first
couple. Although the two stories have much in common, there are things that
distinguish them. Except the fact that the first generation determines the story of
the second generation, Catherine and Heathcliff represent the perfect match, they
are made for each other, while Cathy and Hareton have to make some efforts inorder to match with each other.
Catherine manages to liberate herself from Edgar’s symbolic control only when
she dies. She does not die because of a conflict of ideologies, but because that is
the only way of renewing her bond with Heathcliff. She follows Heathcliff andhaunts him everywhere, as he finds memories of her everywhere: The entire world
is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her(Bronte, 247). Though buried underground, Catherine returns to Heathcliff andbecomes a unified whole with him. The absoluteness of their love is such thatanything is worth sacrificing for it. In a romantic view, that is what the novel isabout.
NOTES
1Arnold Kettle (1971). Emily Brontë: Wuthering Heights, The Victorian Novel. New York: Oxford
University Press, 207.
2
J. Hillis Miller (1963). The Disappearance of God, Oxford University Press, 181.
3
Dorothy Van Ghent (1953). The English Novel: Form and Function, chapter Dark “Otherness” in“Wuthering Heights”. London, 155.
4
Umberto Eco (1984). Interpretation and Overinterpretation, chapter Interpretation and History,
Indiana University Press, 39.

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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
5

Paul Norgate (1988). “The Almanac and the Window: Narrative, Time and Viewpoint in the
Structure of Wuthering Heights.” In: Critical Essays on “Wuthering Heights” – Emily Brontë,Longman Literature Guides, 15.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bronte, Emily (1983). Wuthering Heights. Bantam Classics.
Eco, Umberto (1984). Interpretation and Overinterpretation, chapter Interpretationand History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Van Ghent, Dorothy (1953). The English Novel: Form and Function. New York:
Holt.
Kettle, Arnold (1960). An Introduction to the English Novel, vol. I, Chapter: Emily
Brontë: Wuthering Heights. New York: Harper and Row.
Miller, J. Hillis (1963). The Disappearance of God. London: Oxford University
Press.
Norgate, Paul (1988). “The Almanac and the Window: Narrative, Time andViewpoint in the Structure of Wuthering Heights.” In: Critical Essays on“Wuthering Heights” - Emily Bronte. Harlow: Longman Literature Guides.
Olaru, Victor (2006). Victorian Writers, III. Craiova: Universitaria.

330

On the Evolution of Theological Terms
Iolanda MĂNESCU
University of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages

ABSTRACTThe Biblical language is complicated and complex, and only to translate the text as
accurately as possible is not enough, because an important number of words are used
metaphorically, and others are no longer in use or have changed their meaning.
They are also difficult to be adapted to contemporary languages because of the great
variety of their meanings in Hebrew and Old Greek. Some phrases have become
well-known sayings. Several proverbs, aphorisms and maxims are taken from thetext of the Bible. The difficulties in understanding the Holy Book can have multiplecauses implying also history, geography, philosophy matters etc, but, if we referred
only to the language problems, the difficulties could be quite complex as to alter themeaning of certain phrases, and consequently, certain messages of the Bible, along
the epochs.
KEYWORDS: Bible, meaning, change, evolution, word, phrase

The first theological writings were introduced in the Romanian provinces alongwith the Orthodox divine service, and, consequently, the theological language usedin the Romanian church was formed on the basis of Church Slavonic. Although the
Slavic influence kept us apart from the evolution of the Western civilization, it had
an important role in the foundation of the Romanian nation:
Ortodoxia şi slavismul nostru au format, într-o vreme în care credinţa religioasă era
o puternică realitate sufletească, cimentul care a ţinut strâns legate sufleteşte
ramurile neamului răzleţite şi încăpute sub stăpâniri diferite.
(‘In an epoch when the religious belief was a strong spiritual reality, our orthodoxy
and Slavic component represented the cement that spiritually bound together our
nation’s branches, which were at the time separated and ruled by different
dominations.’)1

Even in those times the specific religious terminology was already a reality, as
long as the Slavonic used in the divine service was accessible only to the educatedpart of the society, i.e. the clergy. The first literary Slavic language was developed
from the Slavic dialect of Thessaloniki (Solun) by the 9th century Byzantine
missionaries, the Saints Cyril and Methodius. They used it to translate the Bible
and other texts from Greek, and în epoca întemeierii principatelor noastre ajunsese
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o limbă învechită, o limbă moartă (it had become an extinct, dead language at thetime when our Principalities were being founded).2 This language played a greatrole in the history of Slavic languages and evolved into Church Slavonic, which isstill used as a liturgical language in certain Orthodox and Catholic Churches of the
Slavic peoples. Therefore, the language used in the divine service in our country
was accessible to a very limited part of the society who would learn it only for
religious purposes.
The translation of the religious texts represented an important stage in theformation process of literary Romanian. The first manuscripts date back to the endof the 16th century – the beginning of the 17th century. The translations were madein the County of Maramureş. They contain archaic and regional terms, and, evenmore interestingly, they use Latin words and Latin grammar structures that are nolonger employed in the contemporary Romanian language. Some of the words arecloser to their Latin significance than the meaning they developed in Romanian in
the course of time, whereas some Slavic words were not translated but kept in theoriginal language because there were no corresponding terms in Romanian. The
cockatrice and the basilisk, for example, the fantastical, legendary creatures of thefolkloric literature, as Nicolae Cartojan noticed, are also present in these texts.
A new stage was represented by the invention of the printing press. In 1544 thefirst Romanian text was printed at Sibiu. An important name in translating andprinting the Bible was Coresi who is well known not only for the printing of the
Romanian liturgical books based on the so-called Maramureş translations, but also
for new translations made in the epoch. The Maramureş texts were adapted to thelanguage spoken at the time:
Cuvinte ca feleleat, fuglu, gotovi, izeclean, pristoi, opu, iaste, gintu, arira au fostînlocuite prin corespondentele lor: răspunsu, legătură, găti, iute, a se opri,
trebuinţă, este, năroade, năsip. Întorsătura frazei e mai firească la Coresi, raporturile
sintactice mai precise (obiectul e totdeauna legat de verb prin prepoziţia pre), iar
ritmul se desfăşoară mai vioi şi mai armonios.
(‘Words like feleleat, fuglu, gotovi, izeclean, pristoi, opu, iaste, gintu, arira were
replaced by their corresponding terms: answer, link, prepare, quick, to stop,
necessity, is, peoples, sand etc. The word order in the sentence is more natural with
Coresi, and the syntactic relations more precise (the object is related to the verb by apreposition, while the rhythm is more harmonious and lively.’)3Coresi printed the New Testament, and his son, who continued his work,
published the translation of The Old Testament (the first two books): the Creation(then translated Bitia as in Slavonic) and the Exodus (translated Ishodul, according
to Slavonic), under the title Palia of Orăştie (palia means old in Old Greek). The
New Testament printed at Belgrad (Alba Iulia), in 1648, represented anotherimportant stage. The bishop Simeon Ştefan wrote in the Foreword that certain
words were left in Greek because there were no Romanian equivalents for them:
synagoga şi poblicanu şi gangrena şi pietri scumpe, carele nu să ştiu rumâneşte ce
332

Iolanda Mănescu: On the Evolution of Theological Terms

sunt: nume de oameni şi de leamne şi de veşmente şi altele multe. (synagoga andpoblicanu and gangrene and precious stones not known in Romanian what they
are: names of people, and trees, and clothes, and many others). Another crucial
moment was the first edition of the whole Bible translated into Romanian, the Bible
of Bucharest that appeared in 1688, supposedly translated by the brothers Şerban
and Radu Greceanu:
Din confruntarea tuturor textelor anterioare cu originalul grecesc, ei au îndreptat
erorile de sens şi au ales cuvintele care, înţelese în toate ţinuturile româneşti, aveau
mai multă rezonanţă în suflete şi care în acelaşi timp exprimau cu mai multă
exactitate noţiunea originalului grecesc.
(‘Confronting all the previous translations with the Greek original text, theycorrected the mistakes in meaning and chose the words that were familiar in all
Romanian lands, consequently, more powerful, and which expressed the Greek
meaning more exactly.’)4

said Nicolae Cartojan in his History of Old Romanian Literature.
As languages have continually changed, the Holy Book has also been translated
from time to time. The Bible’s most recent version in Romanian belongs to Valeriu
Anania, who has tried to offer not only a new translation, but also a text to fit theage of the Romanian language at present (potrivit cu vârsta de acum a limbii
române), as stated in the foreword. Nevertheless, although contemporary
Romanian has been used, there are certain structures and words that could not be
replaced. For example, Evanghelie is from the Greek Evanghelion, and it has notbeen translated as “the good news”. In older versions of the Bible in English theword is gospel, which was godspel in Old English and meant good tidings or good
news. In the Bible, the meaning of the verb to know (a woman), is “to have
intimate relationships” with her. The same verb is used in the English King James'
version (knew her not), but the verb to have is used in the New International
Version (he had no union with her). Valeriu Anania’s definition of the Magi whocame to pay homage to Jesus is that they were wise men and astrologists, while thedefinition in the Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language is:Preot la unele popoare orientale din antichitate; învăţat, filosof, astrolog, vrăjitor; (înreligia creştină) Fiecare dintre cei trei regi care ar fi venit din Orient să se închine lui
Iisus la naşterea Lui; fig. Sol, vestitor(‘Priest at some Oriental peoples in the Antiquity; learned man, philosopher,
astrologist, wizard; (in Christian religion.) Any of the three kings who came fromthe East to pay homage to Jesus on his birth; messenger, herald.’)

In the English version of King James, the word used is “wise men”, while theword used in the New International version is Magi.
The word righteousness also needs some explanations because in his version of
the Bible Valeriu Anania explains that în limbajul biblic, dreptatea înseamnă
333

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

acordul omului cu planul lui Dumnezeu de a mântui lumea (in the Biblicallanguage, righteousness means the man’s accord to the divine plan of saving theworld.)5 Nevertheless, the World Bible Translation Center does not use this wordin its Romanian translation of 2000, and the verse is translated se cuvine să facem
tot ce cere Dumnezeu (we must do all that God asks us to do) instead of se cuvine
ca noi să-mplinim toată dreptatea (it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness).
(Matthew, Chapter 3, verse 15). In all the English versions, the word righteousness
is used, and righteous is defined in the Oxford dictionary as doing what is morally
right, making a show of this; morally justifiable.
Another word, in Romanian, gheena, translated in any Romanian-English
dictionary as a “bottomless pit,” is of Slavic origin. Valeriu Anania explains:gheena era o vale mărginaşă a Ierusalimului, unde se depozitau şi ardeau în
permanenţă gunoaiele oraşului. Metaforă pentru chinurile veşnice ale păcătoşilor.
(gheena was a remote valley of Jerusalem where garbage was taken and burnt
continually. It is a metaphor for the eternal sinners’ torments.) 6 The World Bible
Translation Center’s translation option uses the word Hell directly, the same as all
the English versions.
The Romanian word vameş needs special explanations because these wereperceptori de impozite, faimoşi prin corupţie, abuzuri şi rapt. In limbajul biblicoameni păcătoşi (tax-collectors, well-known for their corruption, abuses andgreed. In Biblical language, sinners.)7 In the English King James' version, the word
is publican, and, according to the Oxford Dictionary, it has the meaning of tax–
collector only in the Bible. Otherwise, the term tax–collector is preferred by the
New International Version. Valeriu Anania explains the phrase Milostenia voastră
să nu o faceţi în faţa oamenilor (Do not do your alms before men) as follows: In
traducere literală: dreptatea voastră (adică practicarea faptelor bune, prin careomul devine drept în faţa lui Dumnezeu). (In literal translation: your righteousness(the good deeds that make man righteous in front of God).8 In the World Bible
Translation Center’s translation alms is replaced by right deeds, while in the
English versions, King James’ version, it is ye do not your alms before men, andthe New International version: be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’
before men.
Another word that we can only find in the Romanian version of the Bible is theplural greşale. Valeriu Anania explains that, while greşeli refers only to common
errors, greşale means încălcarea datoriilor morale pe care oamenii le contractează
nu numai faţă de Dumnezeu ci şi faţă de semenii lor, atât prin răul pe care îl fac,cât şi prin binele pe care nu îl fac (violations of the moral duties that men have not
only before God, but also before their fellows, both by the wrong they do, and by
the good they do not do).9 The Romanian translation of 2000 uses the word sins
while the English versions for this word are trespasses and sins. Other words inthe Lord’s Prayer, also known among the English speakers as Our Father, are debts
and debtors, while the word greşiţi in the Romanian versions of the Bible can only
be found in the Holy Book. Another term used in the Bible is blasphemy,
interpreted by Valeriu Anania as o insultă la adresa lui Dumnezeu, singurul care334

Iolanda Mănescu: On the Evolution of Theological Terms

poate ierta păcatele (an insult to God, the only One who can forgive the sins).
While King James’ and the New International versions keep the Latin term of
blasphemia, the Romanian translation of 2000 prefers the word insult (insultă).
Although the version revised, edited and commented by Valeriu Anania
preserves the term of nation, the author states that the meaning is, in fact,
generation, and we can find the word translated as generaţie in the World Bible
Translation Center’s version of 2000. A detailed explanation for a senseless word
(vorbă deşartă) is insultă, calomnie, dar şi vorbe fără rost, care nu duc la nimicbun (an insult, a calumny, and also a useless word that lead to nothing good).10
The English versions are idle word (in King James' version), and careless word
(in New International version).
Another word commented by Valeriu Anania is Hossana that literally means
Dumnezeu să ne mântuiască acum (God save us now), and whose meaning
became, in time, Mărire (să I se dea) lui Dumnezeu (God be praised!). Anotherword that cannot be replaced by its neological equivalent is bushel (in Romanianobroc) that is maintained, although it is no longer used, because it is part of thephrase a nu ţine lumina sub obroc (not to hide one’s light under a bushel), i.e. tokeep some ability secret.
The adjective unclean, in Biblical language, means not only dirty, but also
impure: nu e vorba de igienă, ci de ritual. In accepţia strictă a textului original,
mâinile necurate ale ucenicilor treceau drept impure din unghi religios (it does nothave to do with hygiene, but with ritual. According strictly to the original text, thedisciples’ unclean hands were impure, from the religious point of view.) 11 Anothermeaning of this adjective is evil, when attached to the word spirit: În limbajul
biblic, prin duh necurat se înţelege diavol, demon, spirit impur, adversar alcurăţiei religioase şi morale. (In Biblical language, an unclean spirit is a devil, ademon, an impure spirit, an enemy to religious and moral purity.) The English
versions use unclean (King James’ version), and evil (New International Version).
In King James’ Version we find defiled or unwashen hands, and unclean orunwashed, in the New International Version. In the Webster Dictionary defiled isdefined as to desecrate or make ritually unclean, to profane. The noun sign has
also a special meaning in the theological language, and Valeriu Anania’s definition
is: Una sau mai multe minuni prin care un profet trebuia să arate că e investit cu
putere dumnezeiască. (One or more miracles through which a prophet had toprove his divine powers).12
There are yet other words that have different meanings in different contexts. In
Matthew, chapter 7, verse 29, the noun power is understood as divine authority,and it appears as authority in all the other versions mentioned, whereas in chapter
9, verse 6, the meaning of power is more complex: Fiul Omului are nu numai
puterea de a vindeca, ci şi autoritatea (dumnezeiască) de a ierta. (The Son of Man
has not only the power to heal, He also has the (divine) authority to forgive).13 The
King James' Version uses power, and the New International Version, authority.
The same word, in Mark, chapter 11, verse 28, is interpreted as follows: Putereaînseamnă nu numai capacitatea de a face minuni, ci şi autoritatea extra-umană cu335

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

care este investit Cel care le face. (Power means not only the capacity of
performing miracles, but also the super – human authority of the One who
performs them).14 A quite mysterious meaning of this word can be found in thepassage about the woman who had been ill for twelve years, and who was instantly
healed when touching Christ’s clothes. The word used in King James’ Version isvirtue: knowing in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him.
In Valeriu Anania’s version of the New Testament, the words iota and cirta are
explained as follows: Cele mai mici semne grafice din alfabetul grecesc. Aşadar,cele mai mici amănunte (the smallest graphical signs in the Greek alphabet.
Therefore, the smallest details). They are replaced in the Romanian version of theWorld Bible Translation Center by letter and comma, while King James' Version
keeps one jot or one tittle, and the New International Version prefers thetranslation: not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen.
Every word in the Bible is full of beauty and significance, and one of the mostbeautiful words is life; it is not a matter of translation, in any language, that makes
it so special. Nevertheless, its uniqueness and full power are revealed in Valeriu
Anania’s presentation: Bogat în conţinut, cuvântul grecesc psyhe însumează
înţelesurile de suflet, viaţă, persoană. Ca şi în textul din 10, 39, sensul cuvântuluiviaţă este aici dublu, ceea ce s-ar traduce astfel: ’cel ce ţine cu orice preţ să îşi
salveze viaţa îşi va pierde sufletul; iar cel ce îşi va pierde viaţa pentru Mine, acela
îşi va salva (mântui) sufletul’. În literatura română, sintagma eminesciană ‘viaţa
sufletului meu’ nu este un pleonasm: Cartea Facerii (2, 7) îl defineşte pe omul
creat de Dumnezeu drept Psyhen zoosan, adică suflet viu. (Rich in content, theGreek word psyhe includes the meanings of soul, life, and person. In Matthew,
chapter 10, verse 39, its meaning is double, and it should be translated as follows:‘He that finds his life, shall lose it (i.e. his soul), and he who has lost his life for mysake, shall find it (i.e. shall save his soul)’. (In the Romanian literature, Eminescu’s
phrase ‘my soul’s life’ is not a pleonasm. In the Book of Genesis the man that God
created is described as Psyhen zoosan, i.e. a living soul.)" 15
Conclusions
Liturgical language is complicated and complex, and only to translate the text as
accurately as possible is far from enough, because an important number of words
are used metaphorically, and others are no longer in use or changed their meaning.
They are also difficult to be adapted to contemporary languages because of thegreat variety of their meanings in Hebrew and Old Greek.
Some phrases have become well-known sayings. Several proverbs, aphorisms
and maxims are taken from the text of the Bible, and many words are part ofdifferent phrases and have no meaning if considered out of their context.
Understanding the Bible represents, of course, not only a matter of translation
into different languages. The difficulties in understanding the Holy Book can havemultiple causes implying also history, geography, philosophy matters etc, but, if
we referred only to language problems, the difficulties could be quite complex as to336

Iolanda Mănescu: On the Evolution of Theological Terms

alter the meaning of certain phrases, and consequently, certain messages of the
Bible, along the epochs.
NOTES
1

Nicolae Cartojan (1980). Istoria literaturii romane vechi. Bucureşti: Minerva, 26.
Ibidem.
3
Ibidem, 105.
4
Ibidem, 395.
5
B.V. Anania (1993). Noul Testament comentat. Bucureşti: Editura Institutului Biblic, 6.
6
Ibidem, 9.
7
Ibidem, 10.
8
Ibidem.
9
Ibidem, 11.
10
Ibidem, 23.
11
Ibidem, 69.
12
Ibidem, 151.
13
Ibidem, 16.
14
Ibidem, 79.
15
Ibidem, 32.
2

BIBLIOGRAPHY*** (1977). The Holy Bible, King James authorized Version. Oxford University
Press.
*** (1978). Good News Bible, Today’s English Version. New York.
*** (1979). The Oxford Dictionary. Oxford University Press.
*** (1996). Dicţionarul explicativ al limbii române. Bucureşti: Univers Enciclopedic.
*** (2000). Noul Testament, traducere în limba română modernă. Bucureşti: World
Bible.
Anania, B.V. (1993). Noul Testament comentat. Bucureşti: Editura Institutului
Biblic.
Cartojan, Nicolae (1980). Istoria literaturii române vechi. Bucureşti: Minerva.

337

Les fonctions pragmatiques du pronom
dans la langue roumaine parlée actuelle
Maria MIHĂILĂ
Université de Craiova,
Département de Langues Étrangères Appliquées

ABSTRACT: Pragmatic Functions of the Pronoun in Contemporary Spoken
RomanianThis paper is an analysis of deictic pronouns representing a class of lexical elements
whose reference can be determined only in a pragmatic context. After presenting
the signification typology of the deictic elements, the paper deals with the functionsof politeness in the verbal interactions, particularly with the main strategies of
positive and negative politeness. A special attention is placed on the presentation ofsocial deixis in formal contexts.
KEYWORDS: personal pronoun, deixis, pragmatic, politenessLe pronom est une classe lexico-grammaticale par excellence déictique, de nature
discursive. On a dit que le pronom a la capacité de faire référence, par substitution,
à un terme déjà utilisé dans le contexte. Tout en gardant sa constante sémantiquepar laquelle il précise son domaine d’application, le pronom peut changer sa
signification, dans le sens qu’il peut dénoter chaque fois un autre référent, c’est-àdire il fait partie du groupe des embrayeurs dans le sens donné par Roman
Jakobson (1963).
Les pronoms déictiques (je, tu auxquels certains chercheurs ajoutent il et elle)
ne font pas référence, dans tous les contextes où ils apparaissent, à une seule entité,mais ils représentent davantage : une variable pour une certaine entité reflétée dans
un certain contexte d’énonciation. En d’autres mots, les pronoms déictiquesreprésentent une classe d’éléments lexicaux dont la référence peut être déterminée
uniquement en relation avec un contexte pragmatique :Ce qui varie une fois avec la situation de communication est le référent de l’unité
déictique et non pas son sens, qui reste constant d’une utilisation à l’autre ; parexemple, le pronom je fournit toujours la même information : la personne qui est lesujet de l’énonciation. (Kerbrat-Orecchioni, 1980 : 36).

En ce qui concerne la signification des éléments déictiques, on a affirmé, dansla pragmatique linguistique, que celle-ci implique trois composantes : « lacomposante déictique, la composante classifiante (qui révèle le caractère animé, lecaractère de genre naturel du nom, etc. pour le référent concerné) et la composante338

Maria Mihăilă: Les fonctions pragmatiques du pronom dans la langue roumaine parlée...

relationnelle (qui vise la correspondance entre l’index et l’interprétation) »(Nunberg, 2003-2004 : 245).
Les rôles des actants de la communication impliqués dans l’interaction verbale
sont reflétés particulièrement par la catégorie grammaticale de la personne, qui se
manifeste chez les pronoms et les verbes. Même si la personne déictique est
directement reflétée dans la catégorie grammaticale de la personne, on peut arguer
qu’il y a un système indépendamment pragmatique de la personne déictique (lesrôles des protagonistes dans la communication).
La première personne inclut le locuteur, la deuxième le récepteur et la troisième
exclut le locuteur et le récepteur. La troisième personne, par rapport aux deux
premières, n’a pas de rôle spécifique dans l’acte de communication linguistique.
L’emploi des pronoms personnels de première et de deuxième personne àfonction déictique :présente en roumain une série de traits distinctifs par rapport aux autres langues, ce
qui s’explique par l’emploi systématique des règles de l’omission des pronoms depremière et deuxième personne singulier et pluriel sujet (la nécessité d’exprimer
l’emphase et/ou l’opposition, qui détermine la présence les pronoms, dépasse leniveau de la grammaticalisation proprement dite). (Ionescu-Ruxăndoiu, 1999 : 87)

Les pronoms de ces deux personnes ont une fréquence plus réduite dans laconversation courante, perte qui est compensée par l’emploi, avec cette fonction,de la forme de la personne du verbe prédicat.
La deixis personnelle porte sur l’identité des actants de la communication.
Ainsi, la première personne – je représente-t-elle la grammaticalisation de la
référence du locuteur chez lui même, la deuxième personne – tu représente laréférence du locuteur à l’un ou à plusieurs récepteurs, la troisième personne
représente la référence aux personnes ou aux entités qui ne sont ni locuteur, ni
récepteur (Levinson, 1994 : 65).
Le pronom personnel de politesse est un pronom marqué, sur le plansémantique, par la prise en considération de certains éléments spéciaux appartenantà la dimension pragmatique de l’acte linguistique concret. C’est l’expression del’attitude du locuteur envers l’interlocuteur ou envers l’objet de la communication
quand celui-ci appartient au champ sémantique humain et il est donc inscrit dans leparadigme de la catégorie grammaticale de la personne.
Dans la pragmatique linguistique, les pronoms personnels de politesses’inscrivent dans la classe des éléments déictiques sociaux (Levinson, 1994 : 70)qui visent les aspects des relations sociales entre le locuteur et le référent (formulesde politesse pour les référents), entre le locuteur et le récepteur (formules depolitesse pour les récepteurs), entre le locuteur et la situation de communication(différents niveaux de complaisance).
Il y a en roumain quatre niveaux de la politesse :1. la politesse neutre : dumnealui, dumneaei, dumnealor ;2. politesse moyenne : dumneata ;339

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

3. politesse marquée avec de formes spécifiques : dumneavoatră, domnia-sa,
domnia lui, domniile lor, domniile voastre ;4. politesse maximale, utilisée dans le style solennel : Măria-ta, Majestatea Ta,
Excelenţa Sa, Înălţimea Voastră.
L’une des caractéristiques remarquables du développement récent de lapragmatique linguistique est l’intérêt pour les fonctions de la politesse dans lesinteractions verbales sans tenir compte de certains principes de politesse.
La politesse, comme principe universel et paramètre essentiel du dialogue
interculturel, constitue « un mécanisme essentiel dans le réglage de l’équilibre
rituel entre les acteurs sociaux et dans la fabrication de l’accord, de la satisfaction
réciproque par l’intermède de la force du langage et non pas du langage de laforce » (Rovenţa-Frumuşani, 2004 : 48).
Par rapport aux règles qui fonctionnent dans le cadre de l’interaction verbale,les règles de la politesse sont mutuellement exclusives, dans le sens que chacuned’elles est mise en relation avec un certain type de situation communicative.
Chaque règle de la politesse détermine la présence de certaines marques
linguistiques spécifiques dans la structure des énoncés. Parmi les marques de lapolitesse, nous citons :1. les constructions impersonnelles (pour remplacer les constructions de lapremière et de la deuxième personne);
2. le pronom de politesse ;3. certains types de formules d’adresse (avec la mention du titre et du nom defamille de l’interlocuteur) ;4. l’emploi des termes techniques (pour créer une atmosphère ésotérique).
Tandis que la politesse négative est dédiée à éviter ou à redresser la situation, lapolitesse positive est « productive conformément aux rites de présentation »(Rovenţa-Frumuşani, 2004 : 46).
La politesse négative reflète la préoccupation de l’émetteur de ne pas gêner laliberté d’action du récepteur, constituant le noyau du comportement poli, son effetsocial étant la conservation des distances dans le but d’assurer le bonfonctionnement de l’activité communicative.
La politesse négative impose, à cote des indices paraverbaux (voix atténuante,
pas aiguë) et mimo-gestuels (position de la tête, direction du regard, le sourire),
toute une gamme de procédés de substitution ou aditifs, dont on énumère :1. la formulation indirecte des actes de langage (Peux-tu me donner le livre ? –Oui, je peux.) ;2. l’emploi du passe de politesse (Je voulais vous demander conseil.) ;3. l’utilisation de certains mécanismes de distanciation et d’anonymisation parl’appel a la formulation passive ou impersonnelle (Il serait souhaitable qu’on
trouve une solution.) ;340

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4. des glissements pronominaux intégratifs (Si l’on faisait un café au lieu de Je
boirais un café.)
La politesse positive reflète un effort d’appréciation entre les co-locuteurs,
impliquant de traiter le récepteur comme membre du groupe auquel l’émetteur
appartient, en tant que « personne connue, agréée et appréciée » (IonescuRuxăndoiu, 1999 : 79).
Parmi les principales stratégies de ce type de politesse, on peut énumérer :1. la formulation de certaines constatations sur le récepteur, qui reflètel’attention accordée aux divers aspects portant sur sa condition : intérêts, désirs,nécessités, biens (Tu as une nouvelle robe ! Elle te va bien.) ;2. l’exagération de l’intérêt, de l’approbation, de la sympathie pour le récepteur(Tu as merveilleusement décoré la maison.) ;3. l’emploi des formes d’expression spécifiques aux relations entre les membresdu même groupe (formules d’adresse et de références spécifiques) ;4. la recherche ou la focalisation sur l’accord avec le récepteur par le recours àdes sujets de conversation sûres ;5. l’omission du désaccord, par le moyen d’éviter de donner des réponses
négatives aux répliques du partenaire (la substitution de Non par Oui, l’accord
partiel, l’expression automatique de ses propres opinions ou même le mensonge
conventionnel) ;6. la présupposition ou l’affirmation de l’existence d’un « territoire-commun »par des procédés divers (conversation phatique, manipulation des présuppositions) ;7. la plaisanterie (reposant sur des connaissances et des valeurs communes,
rendant le récepteur plus à l’aise) ;8. l’adoption d’une attitude optimiste concernant la solution des problèmessoulevés, en vertu de l’idée d’une bonne collaboration entre les partenaires ;9. la satisfaction du moi positif du récepteur par l’attribution de cadeaux(sympathie, compréhension, coopération).
Dans les relations intracommunautaires, il y a des formes spécifiques dupronom de politesse : matale et dumneata, qui s’emploient avec la deuxième
personne du prédicat verbal. Ces formes sont corrélées avec des valeurs reliées à
l’age supérieur du destinataire mais aussi à sa position à l’intérieur du système deparenté rurale.
Dans les textes dialectaux, la différence est aussi exprimée par le fait que leprénom n’est jamais utilisé seul dans les discussions avec des personnes plus âgées,étant, dans ce cas, précédé par des termes spécifiques : Ia uite, ţaţă Leană ! Măivere Ioane, ai auzit ? Mă, Dumitre.
Dans les situations protocolaires, le système des honorifiques, qui sont desréalisations locutionnaires du pronom personnel, est fixe. Pour les rois, les princes,
les seigneurs, on utilise des locutions à base nominale ancienne Mărie (Măria Ta /341

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Sa, Măria Voastră) ; pour les princes et les princesses, on utilise des locutions àbase nominale : alteţe, înălţime (Alteţa Voastră) ; pour les rois, on utilise deslocutions à base nominale : Maiestate, Maiestatea Sa / Ta, Voastră ; pour les
ministres, les ambassadeurs et les présidents : Excelenţă (Excelenţa Sa / Voastră) ;pour le monde religieux, on utilise des locutions formées en fonction de leur rang :Sanctitatea Voastră / Sa (papes, patriarches), Eminenţa Voastră / Sa (cardinaux),Sfinţia Voastră / Sa, Preasfinţia Voastră-Sa, Înalt Preasfinţia Voastră / Sa pourd’autres fonctions.
Comme les honorifiques ont une circulation limitée dans certaines collectivités,elles sont peu connues par les locuteurs et, le plus souvent, ceux qui ne font pas
partie de cette communauté, ne savent pas les utiliser adéquatement.
BIBLIOGRAPHIEHoarţă-Cărăuşu, Luminiţa (2004). Pragma-lingvistica. Concepte şi taxinomii. Iaşi :Cermi.
Ionescu-Ruxăndoiu, Liliana (1999). Conversaţia. Structuri şi strategii. Bucureşti :All Educational.
Jakobson, Roman (1963). Essais de linguistique générale. Paris : Éditions deMinuit.
Kerbrat-Orecchioni, Catherine (1980). L’énonciation de la subjectivité dans lelangage. Paris : Armand Colin.
Levinson, S.C. (1994). Pragmatik. Tubingen : Niemeyer.
Nunberg, G. (2003-2004). « Indexicality and Deixis ». Analele Universităţii A.I.
Cuza, tome XLIX-L.
Rovenţa-Frumuşani, Daniela (2004). Analiza discursului. Bucureşti : Tritonic.

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The Language of Literary Texts as a Cross-Cultural Construct
Armela PANAJOTI
University of Vlora, Albania

ABSTRACTThe study of literary texts in the context of foreign language teaching has a twofaceted purpose, that is, it is primarily intended to give learners linguistic benefits
and secondly to offer them insights into the culture of the target language.
Nevertheless, teaching literature courses to foreign students is not an easy task todeal with. Paradoxically, the main barrier for students to overcome is language. The
paper examines the case of teaching literatures in English and focuses on thelanguage of literary texts rather than on the texts themselves. In view of the growinginternational character of English literature, at a time when we can speak ofEnglishes rather than English and above all, in the context of the heteroglossal
nature of language, the study of the language of literary texts assumes a very
interesting role. It becomes a cultural construct which offers a double cultural
perspective to students, an English-native language perspective and an EnglishEnglish perspective. In this respect, the teaching goal is clear: the greater thediversity of literary texts offered in class, the wider this perspective.
KEYWORDS: literary text, cultural construct, literatures in English

1. Introduction
Dealing with literature means reading texts. Literary texts, unlike other texts,
generally classified as non-literary, have some distinctive qualities. Reading
literary texts establishes a relationship between the text and the reader, a “dialogue
between a text and a reader” (Kramsch, 1993: 137), which, in the end, benefits thereader with knowledge that can be conceived as consisting of “three interrelated
types of knowledge: knowledge of literary texts, knowledge of ways of reading
literature, and knowledge of interpretations of literature” (Hanauer, 2001: 393).
The intimate relationship the readers create with the literary text benefits themnot only on the epistemological level, but also on the personal one. Literature“speaks to the heart as much as to the mind” (Collie, & Slater, 1987: 3). It enriches
the readers’ spiritual and emotional life. It confronts them with life experience,
which in many cases they can identify as their own, or if not, it invites them tooffer personal interpretation within the framework of their ideas, beliefs, concepts
and experience.
But, above all, literature offers possibilities for developing linguistic andcultural awareness. Literature explores the possibilities of language in its most343

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subtle and intricate forms giving way to nuances of meaning and ambiguity. As
such, literature involves readers in an intellectual process of elaborating language
use and gives them pleasure in understanding the effects of language on meaning.
Moreover, literature offers readers insights into culture, either their own or
foreign one. It is for these reasons that literature is introduced as a subject at an
early stage of education, so that students enjoy it and develop regular reading
habits.
The paper focuses on the study of literary texts in the context of foreign
language teaching. It considers the case of teaching literatures in English1 toAlbanian students of English. After receiving their BA degree, these students are in
most cases expected to become either teachers of English or translators andinterpreters of English. In this respect, the benefits derived from the study ofliterature are mainly linguistic, cultural and personal.
Nevertheless, teaching literature courses is not an easy task to deal with.
Paradoxically, the main barrier for students to overcome is language. The paper
examines the experience of English literature teaching with an emphasis on thelanguage of literary texts rather than on the texts themselves. In view of thegrowing international character of English literature, at a time when we can speakof Englishes rather than English and above all, in the context of the heteroglossal
nature of language, the study of the language of literary texts assumes a very
interesting role.
The paper examines some of the issues involved when literary study focuses on
language work. This does not imply that language work should become an end in
itself in our classes, but that a language-based approach2 should provide interesting
stimuli for the students. I will approach the topic addressed in this paper mainly
from my experience as a teacher of literature, that is, from my class observations
and from my students’ response to the arguments raised in the paper. I will focus
my discussion on three basic arguments. The first revolves around a controversy
over the use of “literary language” or “language of literature” when referring to thelanguage of literary texts. I find the distinction worth considering in creating amore friendly approach to literature. The second focuses on the cultural attitudes
students are able to develop by working with language. And the third will deal withthe teachers’ dilemma as to what texts work best for their students.
2. “Literary language” vs. “the language of literature”
One of common complaints teachers of literature hear from students is that the text
was “too difficult,” “hard to understand,” “a lot of unfamiliar words” and so on.
The complaint clearly suggests that among the difficulties in dealing with literarytexts, the most common is language, which is often viewed as incomprehensible.
The problem, in my view, stands in how the issues of literature and language are
addressed in a given culture. Evidence from the PISA3 survey indicates a differencein the reading habits of students in various countries. Though the survey involves
young students, it provides good clues for students of higher educational levels.
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The survey indicated that in only four countries students did better with literarytexts than with others (Russia, Brazil, Portugal and Hungary).
Students often shrug at the idea of literature or give up reading literary texts
without first making an effort to do so. The international differences in reading
literature as indicated by the analysis of the PISA survey results suggest that theapproach to literature is culturally-bound and depends on the idea of literatureapplied in one country or another.
One reason, which accounts for the Albanian students’ reluctance to deal withliterature, is the long domination of formalist approaches, in particular the New
Criticism approach in literature classes. Such an approach is no longer beneficial,because it confines students to class activities dealing with the identification offormal elements and literary devices and as a result distances the student from thetext. Unfortunately, this seems to be the case in most Albanian High schools.
Teachers are either unaware of or reluctant to use new approaches to literature. We
are living in an age when things and concepts grow relative day by day andtechnology advances rapidly. In such circumstances, students and above all,teachers should redefine their view of literature, so that a more beneficial andfriendly approach to it is used.
The next viewpoint which requires modification is that on the question of
language. Should we say “literary language” or “the language of literature” when
we want to refer to the language found in literary texts? In the following
paragraphs, I will try to provide arguments in favour of using the second phrase.
Let us focus first on these two considerations:
In one sense, literary language is the language of literature; it is found in literarytexts and is, for many literary critics, an unproblematic category. You know when
you are in its company. Such a position cannot, however, be as unnegotiable as it
seems to be, if only because the term ‘literature’ itself is subject to constant change.
(Carter, 1997: 123)
There is no such thing as a ‘literary language’. That is to say, there are no items ofmodern English vocabulary or grammar that are inherently and exclusively4 literary.
It is impossible to identify or isolate any linguistic feature that will automaticallyconfer a ‘literary’ status on a text. In short, the concept of ‘literary language’ is achimera. (Simpson, 1997: 7)

Although the two arguments are put in different terms, both suggest that what isproblematic is the word “literary” itself, which appears to mark a shifting category.
I will continue the argument by adopting Simpson’s words: “Literary language hasno ‘ontology’: it has no permanent or fixed existence. ‘Literary’ is a quality
conferred upon texts not according to what they are, but according to what they do.
It is, if anything, a functional description, not an ontological one. The property of‘literariness’ is not an immutable or permanent quality of language. It is not
something that texts are; rather, it is something conferred upon them according towhat they do.” (Simpson, 1997: 8-9)5345

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Moreover, the use of such term raises psychological barriers for students,
because it warns them that they are dealing with a particular variety of language
which urges them to look for the so-called “literariness.” Let us consider for
example William Carlos Williams’s poem This Is Just to Say:
This Is Just to Say
I
the
that
the
and
you
savingfor
Forgivetheysoand so cold

have
were

were

eaten
plums
in
iceboxwhich
probably
breakfast

weremedelicious
sweet

Read out of the literary context, the poem would look much like a note left
somewhere on the kitchen table or on the refrigerator. What constructs meaning
and what makes for its critical thinking is not language, that is, strictly speaking, its
vocabulary, but other devices such as the lack of punctuation, the capitalization of“f” in “Forgive” and other such uses. Students enjoyed dealing with this poem verymuch for these reasons:a) The poem is relatively short.
b) The language is familiar.
c) They loved exploring other manipulations of language rather than those withwords.
My idea is that teachers should avoid the “literary” in favour of “language”,
thus giving it a more pragmatic dimension and treating the language of literarytexts as language “in use”. Although the terms “literary language” and “languageof literature” semantically mean the same thing, pragmatically they indicate
different things. The first term emphasizes the literary aspect of language and assuch makes students anxious to identify certain features that make up for literarylanguage. The application of the second term instead places more emphasis on
language and proves more beneficial, especially in terms of language teaching andlearning. There are several benefits that derive from it, which I would like to quotefrom Turner:346

Armela Panajoti: The Language of Literary Texts as a Cross-Cultural Construct
1. […]; literary texts are examples of authentic foreign language-written for native
speakers-in just the same way that newspapers, magazines, letters are. 2 Literarytexts exemplify the foreign language 'in use'. Not only can learners see how
vocabulary and structures are used to communicative effect (grammar in action) but
they can widen their linguistic experience by contrasting the language of literarytexts with that of non-literary texts. 3 They make use of a variety of text typesdescriptive, narrative, conversational-and registers-formal, informal, colloquial-andthey provide a stimulus or springboard for skills development, not only reading but
also speaking and writing. (1999: 212)

The language of literary texts is a demonstration of the means viable for writers
to use different registers and dialects, to deviate from norms of lexis and syntax,
producing thus “discourse that is composite and multidimensional” (Simpson 1997:
19). It is these features of the language of literary texts that should be stressed to
students, so that they can adopt a positive view towards it and benefit from it not
only in linguistic terms, but also in cultural terms.
3. Insights into culture
Such an integrated view of language and literature as adopted in the previous
section allows students to construct meaning not only for communicative purposes,
but also for cultural insights. In studying foreign literature Kramsch emphasizes“[…] literature’s ability to represent the particular voice of a writer among themany voices of his or her community and thus to appeal to the particular in thereader” (1993: 131-2). The emanation of this appeal requires of course theinterplay of the three types of knowledge as quoted from Hanauer in the
introduction. Such interplay would play an important role in giving students
cultural knowledge and insights. There are two questions, which result from thisapproach: 1) How available is one writer’s point of view in terms of constructing
cultural meaning and interpretation? 2) In most cases, students find it difficult tointerpret works of a different cultural context and as a result turn to expert
interpretation for understanding. Should, therefore, such interpretations be
encouraged?
We are living at a time when the multicultural, multiethnic and multinational
dimensions of a country are more than ever forcefully brought to the fore. In thisview, writers can never fully represent the cultural experience of their country.
What they do represent and elicit at the same time is the “particular” either in thewriter or in the reader. Hanauer suggests that we[…] embrace the individual viewpoint while recognizing that it is an individual
viewpoint. Literature is a valuable source of cultural knowledge precisely because it
does present a personal interpretation of the life and values as the author of theliterary work experiences them. If this individual viewpoint is augmented bydifferent culturally specific interpretations of the same piece of literature, then thelanguage learner has a much better chance of constructing a deep understanding of
the complex nature of the foreign culture. Rather than stereotypical cultural347

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knowledge based on generalizations or a false generalization based on an individual
viewpoint expressed in a specific literary work, the language learner is exposed to
the literary work and the different ways members of the target culture understandthis piece. The individual viewpoint must be presented within a context of multiple
viewpoints so as to avoid false generalization and to enable the construction of amultifaceted view of the foreign culture. (2001: 397-8)

Let us consider the case of James Joyce’s “Araby”. The story illustrates my ideathat the language of literary texts becomes a cultural construct which offers
students a double cultural perspective, an English-native language perspective andan English-English perspective. It is a story written in English and as such would
serve well for didactic purposes, but it is a story written by an Irishman and as suchoffers students a bit of Joyce’s Irishness, constructing thus a cultural perspective,
which operates within the boundaries of the same language. Although these details
are clearly hinted at by the author from the very title “Araby”, which is a travelingbazaar making a stop in Dublin, the story lends itself to a more universal meaning,which readers make for themselves at the end of the story despite culturaldifferences.
In most cases, students of my literature classes resort to expert interpretations 6
for an understanding of the literary text. These interpretations should not bedismissed from literature classes, especially when dealing with foreign literature.
Expert interpretations add other individual interpretative voices to the literary
work, offering in this way cultural perspectives, which the students often fails to
obtain themselves. Such interpretations are often useful to teachers themselves,
who in most cases share their students’ cultural background.
4. Which texts to choose?
One of most problematic issues to deal with is the choice of literary texts for classdiscussions. Without trying to raise arguments pro or against the existence of aliterary canon, I would like to focus on the arguments brought in the first two
sections of the paper and try to consider some aspects for the selection of texts
based on them. In the paper we discussed the importance of the language ofliterature as a means of improving and enriching the students’ linguistic
performance and as a means of developing cultural understanding. Nevertheless,students will continue to make complaints about unknown vocabulary andcomplicated grammatical structures. This means that the teacher should make awell-balanced selection of texts, which meets not only the students’ demand, but
those of literature as well. The more you demonstrate and make them aware thatliterature is an instance of language in “use”, the more they are likely to approach it
more confidently and beneficially.
The length of the text appears to be the problem in some cases, although thisproblem seems easier to deal with. Actually, in my classes students do not makethis complaint very often. They prefer complaints of the first type instead. In myview, students should get used to any length of text. This does not imply that you
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should ask them to read long novels every now and then. This choice should be
combined where it is possible. This will, of course, give students time for better
performance and appreciation of the text.
Apart from language, texts also make cultural, social, political and historicalreferences with which the students are often unfamiliar. The choice in this casedemands for a prediction of the expectations of students’ reception of one text
instead of another.
One thing that often works best is the use of analogies. Students enjoy reading
about things that are much like their own personal experience, or even when they
can approach them from their personal perspective. Nevertheless, the teacher
should consider the fact that language functions as a cultural construct and in thecase of English it offers a multifarious perspective. In this sense, the teaching goalis clear: the greater the diversity of literary texts offered in class, the wider thisperspective.
5. Conclusions
The paper tried to consider the development of a friendly approach to literature in
literature classes. Although the arguments brought in the paper considered the caseof literatures in English, it can be said that they apply to the teaching of otherliteratures in a non-native environment. As with communication, two of the main
tools that establish interaction are language and culture. Literature encompasses
both. The arguments encourage those approaches to literature that explore all
possibilities that language and culture offer for a more friendly and beneficial
approach to literature. The paradox is that instead of establishing communication
with the literary text, language and culture often estrange the students from them.
The idea is that a language-based approach should be used every now and then inorder to narrow the linguistic and cultural gap between text and the reader, anapproach that works by way of familiarization and particularization, byemphasizing that the language of literature is no special language, but just language‘in use’ and that makes students work on and enjoy all possibilities of linguistic
manipulation.
NOTES
1

The term “literatures in English” is preferred here as comprising the wide range of literature in
English, not only in the UK and the USA, but also in the Commonwealth countries.
2
Language-based approach refers to the approach that emphasizes awareness of the language ofliterature and as such engages the students in a variety of activities used in language instruction.
3
PISA (Programme for International Students Assessment) is a programme that assesses how far
students near the end of compulsory education have acquired some of the knowledge and skills
that are essential for full participation in society (URL: <http://www.pisa.oecd.org>).
4
Emphasis in original.
5
Emphasis in original.
6
The term is used to refer to well-informed interpretations of the literary texts, which means theinterpretations of the literary critics on the whole.

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REFERENCES
Carter, Ronald (1997). Investigating English Discourse: Language, Literacy and
Literature. London: Routledge.
Collie, J., & S. Slater (1987). Literature in the Language Classroom: A Resource
Book of Ideas and activities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hanauer, David Ian (2001). “Focus-on-Cultural Understanding: Literary Readingin the Second Language Classroom.” CAUCE: Revista de Filologia y su
Didactica. No 24, 389-404.
Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Simpson, Paul (1997). Language through Literature: An Introduction. London:
Routledge.
Turner, Karen (1999). “Working with Literature.” In: Norbert Pachler (ed.),Teaching Modern Foreign Languages at Advanced Level. London: Routledge.
209-229.

350

La ville subtile. Le bruit
Nicolae PANEA
Université de Craiova,
Faculté des Lettres

ABSTRACT: Subtle City. The Noises
This presentation tries to argue a surface anthropological theory by verifying to what
extent such social ‘actors’ as smell and noises can contribute to the description ofreality so that the latter could get the consistency of the object of a deep
anthropological theory. We consider the noises to be an element both descriptive
and revealing that pertains to a reality larger than the sense of smell can semantize.
KEYWORDS: cultural anthropology, re-thinking of the scientific domain, urban

Notre travail appartient, comme on peut facilement en déduire du titre, mais aussi
de l’histoire de nos préoccupations, à l’anthropologie urbaine. Ces préoccupations
nous ont montré une certaine inconsistance des méthodes de cette science,inconsistance due à sa jeunesse, mais aussi à la particularité de son référentiel. Par
conséquent, notre intention est, en fait, une proposition méthodologique.
Contrairement au monde du village, ou les de vecteurs créateurs d’identité sontsocialement clairement identifiables, et leur action concrètement délimitable, laville ne peut pas être décrite, définie, comprise seulement par le biais de tels
instruments (voisinages, rôles, structures de parenté, rituels, habitudes, coutumes,etc.). En outre, la formalisation objectuelle est tellement large que l’ethnographie
urbaine semble être dépourvue de relevance. Nous avions, dans un contexte
différent (cf. notre livre Zeii de asfalt ‘Les Dieux d’asphalte’), le courage de direque la ville ne peut pas être abordée ethnographiquement, justement a cause de son
caractère protéique qui relativise toute formalisation.
De même, des contextes traditionnels du monde du village, fortement gérés parune pensée religieuse (le repas, l’agriculture, la fête), ont été entièrement
sécularisés dans le milieu urbain, leur capacité d’organiser le monde devenantinopérante.
Par conséquent, nous considérons qu’il est nécessaire de vérifier si toute unesérie de vecteurs, que nous avons appelés subtiles, peuvent être efficaces dans ladescription et la compréhension de la ville. Il s’agit de l’odeur, le bruit, la couleur,les voies d’accès, l’ordure. Ce sont des vecteurs liés au niveau perceptif-sensoriel
et non pas a celui rationnel, qui mettent en valeur, à première vue, la surface deschoses, cet impact-là immédiat, agressif et solide de la réalité sur nous et qui ont la351

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qualité d’une anthropologie non-invasive, peut-être complémentaire, si nous nous
référons au domaine traditionnel de l’anthropologie classique.
Cependant, pour une anthropologie de l’urbain, ces vecteurs montrent comment
la ville construit son identité de manière continue. Ils peuvent avoir desconnotations seulement au niveau sensoriel dans une anthropologie de lasuperficialité, de la complémentarité ou bien ils peuvent transformer ce niveau dansla porte qui s’ouvre vers les profondeurs des phénomènes urbains, analysés par une
anthropologie de l’urbain qui rompt définitivement avec la sociologie.
Nous croyons que la réalité urbaine elle-même nous oblige à interpréter l’odeur,le bruit, la couleur comme des objets culturels et sociaux vu qu’avant toute autreévidence, une ville nous est révélée par l’odeur, la couleur et le son. Nous
pourrions aller encore plus loin, en considérant qu’une telle description pourraitêtre envisagé même ethnographique, dans le sens straussien de la hiérarchie
ethnologique.
Nous choisissons, pour notre démonstration, les cas des bruits et la façon dont
ceux-ci peuvent tracer les rythmes de la journée. Nous mettons l’accent, pour desraisons d’économie d’une telle communication, sur une première séquence de lajournée, notre intention étant, cependant, celle d’analyser comment les bruits de laville peuvent être utilisés aussi bien comme adjuvants descriptifs que comme
instruments ordonnateurs.
Dans une grande ville, on entre très rarement à pied, comme dans une cour ou
dans un parc. Presque tout le temps, on entre en voiture ou par le train, les avenues
et les gares nous font connaissance avec le nouvel endroit, plein d’agitation et debruit. Le son et le mouvement sont les premiers signes ordonnateurs de l’espaceurbain.
Mais si, toutefois, nous nous imaginions que nous entrons dans une ville à pied,ou même nous le faisons, venant d’un champ de blé ou d’un verger ou bien d’unterrain inculte, la ville annoncerait sa présence par un bruit sourd, inhomogène, enalternant les intensités, qui n’appartiennent à personne en particulier : ce serait tout
simplement le bruit de la ville.
Nous sommes tellement habitués à cette nature sonore de l’endroit, que nous nenous rendons pas compte que c’est le premier signe de la présence de la ville, unesorte de mur de son que nous devons franchir et, en même temps, un signe desubtilité de la ville. Les murs des vieilles cités étaient des signes clairement
perceptibles, visibles, fiers, arrogants, puissants, en créant une intense sensation
obstructive, tandis que le mur sonore des nouvelles villes est plus subtil et plus
persuasif.
En outre, le citadin, vivant dans une orageuse mer sensorielle, dominée sans
doute par la vue, qui l’aide facilement à ordonner le réel, en structurant deshiérarchies, des synthèses, des catégories, à en avoir une représentation plus
efficace, donne à l’odeur et à l’ouïe des rôles secondaires dans ce combat
foudroyant de perception de la réalité et de formation du savoir, en négligeant leurpuissance sémantique.

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Et pourtant, si nous reprenions l’expérience de Condillac avec la statue,équipée, cette fois-ci, seulement de l’ouïe, et non pas de l’odeur, nous constaterions
que le résultat pourrait être surprenant, le sens sélecté parvenant à remplacer lesautres et à produire des effets substituts et cumulatifs. Si l’on savait écouter lesvoix de la ville, on pourrait dresser une anthropologie inédite...
Le bruit et le tracement des rythmes de la journée
La ville se réveille avec des bruits paresseux, non pas manqués d’intensité, mais
avec un rythme plus lent qui s’accélère au fur et a mesure que le soleil monte dansle ciel. Les vecteurs sonores de la ville, les médiateurs acoustiques entre nuit et jourdifférent de ceux du village, ils sont plus nombreux et de nature plus diverse. Il
manque les animaux, le coq, le grincement du chadouf ou de la roue de la fontaineou le jet d’eau frappant les murs du sceau ou du puits, en revanche, il apparait
d’autres combinaisons sonores si nombreuses, qu’il est impossible de ne pas lestraiter comme une réalité cohérente.
L’aboiement des chiens qui domine, parfois de manière si stressante, le silencede la nuit cède la place aux chants des coqs, bruit étrange pour une ville, maisd’autant plus strident. Justement le fait qu’on ne s’attend pas a le retrouver dans un
tel tableau fait que ce bruit devienne un repère substantiel de la cyclicité diurne
urbaine, à la différence du monde du village où sa prégnance significative est
atténuée par le long exercice de la tradition, par l’habitude. Ce premier signe
sonore équivaut presque à une conclusion, car il suggère l’importance de l’accident
dans la sémiologie urbaine, mais aussi bien le fait que notre ville est si proche duvillage.
Les premiers autobus, tramways partent en course et leurs bruits donnent
consistance à la rue ou à l’avenue qui semblaient que pour quelques heuress’étaient tues. Le bruit des voitures, assez rares, est encore individuel, il ne s’est
pas transformé dans le grondement continu pendant la journée. On pourrait mêmedeviner la catégorie dont elles appartiennent : camion, automobile, même taxis.
Ceux-ci glissent lentement sur l’asphalte, on n’entend ni même pas leurs moteurs,
ce qui montre que les conducteurs, encore endormis, ne sont pas trop pressés aoccuper leurs places dans les stations encore vides. Les jours de foire, le silence dumatin, dans les quartiers périphériques, est troublé par le bruit rythmique deschevaux qui tirent les charrettes des paysans, des gitans qui veulent acheter ou
vendre n’importe quoi. On les retrouve vers neuf heures en essayant de quitter laville, troublant le trafic et souillant l’asphalte. Aussi insolemment sonore que fut
leur entrée dans la ville endormie, aussi silencieusement honteux en est leur retrait,comme si la ville les avait cachés, pareillement à une bizarrerie, sous un globe en
verre.
Tous les sons sont comme une ouverture. Il suit toute une série de forts
accords : les camions qui déchargent les marchandises devant les magasins, lesciternes qui lavent les rues, avec leur complément hibernal, le bruit des niveleuses
qui nettoient la neige et, là où la ville est bien organisée, ce qui n’est pas aussi
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valable pour toutes les villes roumaines, le bruit terrible des éboueurs, un signe quela journée peut commencer, les débris de la précédente, son cadavre fétide étant
retiré de la scène et conduit à l’incinération.
Ce bruit, là où il se produit juste dans ce moment de la journée, a quelque chosede rituel, de mystérieux, car, tout comme un rituel, il marque la rupture. Le
camion-poubelle, si neuf et supertechnicisé qu’il soit, c’est un symbole de la saleté,des excréments, du reste, de la mort. Sa déambulation matinale est inversement
vectorialisée avec l’apparition du phaéton solaire, un moment où la mort et la vie
sont en équilibre.
Son trajet, presque immuable, imposé par des raisons administratives et deslogiques urbaines, c’est comme une confirmation de la mort imminente, unmemento mori et un ad uterum regresum à la fois. Quelque chose de notre monde,de ceux inanimés, à savoir les débris, les ordures, nous sommes jetés dans les
flammes destructives-purificatrices du crématoire ou bien laissés pourrir loin desyeux de ceux qui sont encore vivants.
Dans le camion-poubelle on rencontre symboliquement l’image du moine
médiéval qui traverse la ville, en invoquant monotone et triste l’aide divine par laora pro nobis, et des croque-morts qui accompagnaient les chariots pleins decadavres des pestiférés dans la lumière aveugle et fumante des torches : peur etespoir. L’espoir, cette fois-ci, est symbolisé par un grand bruit, aigu, qui succède au
bruit gros et pierreux du camion-poubelle.
La nuit, qui vit ses derniers instants, est déchirée par les sirènes des trains desnavetteurs, symbole d’un nouveau commencement. Parfois, le bruit se fait entendre
dans toute la ville, comme si l’espace avait été soudainement vidé.
Les sons énervants des tuyaux du chauffage central et des conduites d’eau
annoncent les citadins qu’un nouveau jour vient de commencer. Le bruit de la rue
acquiert de la consistance comme si les thèmes annoncés dans l’ouverturecommencent à se développer dans une symphonie de l’agitation. De petitsintermezzos sonores, les alertes des voitures dans les parkings, le claquement desportières, le démarrage des moteurs, les bruits nerveux des embrayages, et parfois,
si les voitures sont plus vieilles, voire désespérés, des klaxons, généralement decourte durée, voire timides, interprètent les petits airs du départ au travail. Les
grilles des magasins s’élèvent dans le bruit connu, les produits sont étalés sur letrottoir.
La circulation devient compacte et la rue produit un sifflement continu,
composé du glissement des pneus sur l’asphalte, du bruit rond des moteurs, ducourant d’air déployé par les voitures, contrepointé par des klaxons beaucoup plus
vigoureux et des freinages brusques et menaçants. Ce bruit est si constant qu’il
fournit le fond sonore des grands boulevards et étouffe le tic-tac des talons sur lepavé ou sur les trottoirs. Dans les petites rues hors-circulation, tous ces bruits sefont entendre en sourdine, de temps en temps étant mis en évidence par la marched’un passant, souvent facilement identifiable par les voisins : « Popescu est sorti
pour promener son chien » ou bien « Ionescu est de nouveau parti tard au travail. »Le soleil s’est installé dans le ciel et même les ampoules électriques qui s’éteignent354

Nicolae Panea: La ville subtile. Le bruitsur les poteaux d’éclairage public semblent faire du bruit. Les cloches des églises et
les sirènes d’usine achèvent l’ouvrage de Dieu et annoncent les réalisations desgens.
Conclusions
Nous croyons que le bruit peut être considéré comme réalité anthropologique et ilpeut être analysé comme tout signe social, en l’expliquant, peut-être pas au niveau
de l’évidence, mais plutôt au niveau des contextualisations successives. De toutefaçon, l’analyse de la ville du point de vue de la réalité sensorielle propose une
ouverture vers une nouvelle perspective, vers une nouvelle méthodologie
d’interprétation anthropologique, que nous pourrions appeler de la subtilité. La
subtilité peut devenir objet de recherche anthropologique de par le désir de refléterle « fait social total » de Mauss, même si elle peut sembler, plutôt, une approche
postmoderne.
BIBLIOGRAPHIE*** (1997). Scrivere la cultura. Poetiche e politiche in etnografia (a cura di James
Clifford e George E. Marcus). Roma : Meltemi.
Certeau, Michel de, Luce Giard, & Pierre Mayol (1994). L'invention du quotidien.
Tome II. Habiter, cuisiner. Paris : Gallimard.
Mauss, Marcel (2009). Sociologie et anthropologie, Précédé d’une Introduction àl’œuvre de Marcel Mauss par Claude Lévy-Strauss. Paris : Quadrige/PUF.
Panea, Nicolae (2001). Zeii de asfalt. Antropologie a urbanului. Bucureşti : Cartea
Românească.
Sansot, Pierre (2004). Poetique de la ville. Paris : Payot.

355

The Crisis of Truth in the Postmodern Poem*
Emilia PARPALĂ
University of Craiova,
Faculty of Letters

ABSTRACTThe study of the relationship between theory (semiotics, philosophy) and the literarypractice (the semiotic poetry) shows that the poets notice the ambiguities of scienceand thematize them in an unsystematic but poetical way. The theoretic mimetism of
the semiotic poetry reveals the poetic latencies of theory, its flexibility and thestrong creativity of these poets who are apparently doomed to semiotic captivity.
The poets of the eighties have been fascinated by the poetic potential of signs andthings; they deconstructed semiosis and theories of meaning, by transferring thedelicate theoretical problems into human contexts (cf. the concept “texistence”).
This paper highlights the manner whereby the poets of the eighties have recycled theissue of the referent (the relationship between nature and culture), their radical
options, as well as the failure of the means devised to correct the imperfection ofsigns (description and self-description).
KEYWORDS: (self)description, reference, sign, the semiotic poetry of the eighties

One of the most controversial topics in semiotics is related to sign reference1.
While the psycho-social, binary Saussurean model exiles the physical world
outside the sign (Saussure, 1998), the ternary Peircean model2 includes it (Peirce,1990). The poets of the eighties have grasped the poetic latency contained in thistheoretical fissure and have developed it extensively but inconsistently. Next, weare going to show how the promotion of the eighties has exploited this topic
thereby dividing itself into “realists” and “conceptualists.”
1. The imperfect sign and the truth crisis of the poem
Ever since Saint Augustine, the linguistic sign has been judged as a “signum
insufficiente,” which derives from the imperfection of creation in relation to its
Creator3. By giving names to things, Adam – an imperfect creature – could only
create a corrupt language; mundane language is inadequate because we no longer
believe the presumption that the sign is directly connected to the object it refers toand therefore it conveys it with utmost clarity.
In Cratylos, Plato enacted the confrontation between two contradictory theses:
the naturalistic one, (attributed by Plato to Protagoras, to the sophists and to
Cratylos), and the conventional one, attributed to Hermogenes. To the divine origin
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Emilia Parpală: The Crisis of Truth in the Postmodern Poemof that perfect original language, the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign, proper toderived languages, is being opposed. During the mythic-ritualistic phase of
approaching language, the philosopher expressed his mistrust in words andproposed a strategy for knowledge: names are not where we should start from, but
we ought to start learning from the things themselves (1978: 329). The dialogue
ends in aporia, calling for reflection and a return to the referent. “Walk away on theplain” – as Socrates urges Cratylos, instead of any other conclusion. By asserting
the anteriority of nature as a cognitive instrument, as opposed to language, Plato
shows that names are knowledge tools and not an original source.
With M. Foucault, in Les mots et les choses (1966), the main issue will not be asearch for original speech, but an “archaeology of knowledge” which makes theend of the nineteenth century into a turning point of the return of language as anaesthetic object. The threshold between classicism and modernity has beentranscended when “words stopped intersecting representations and spontaneously
keeping under control the knowledge of things” (1996: 357). In other words, thisoccurred when, ceasing to be a sign (a substitute for the thing), the word started
representing itself and interpreting itself. The discourse has been detached from
representation, language has become an object and it has crumbled.
The modern artist’s drama, Laura Mancinelli argued (1978: 17), becomes acutethe moment when “the distinction between words and things turns into a fracture
and when the world of representation feels that it loses contact with the world of
objective reality”. As regards the sign’s alienation from the object, the following
poem called Vitraliu/Stained glass – an ekphrasis about the sterility of the artifact,
is emblematic:(1) Vitraliu sarbăd, înflorat pe margini
Poemul îndelung plivit, cu grijă,În care nu-i nici urmă din obrazulTatălui meu desfigurat de-o schijă
(Doina Uricariu, Vitraliu/Stained glass, 1980: 34)4

Between the codified real and the real as such, the balance leans against theword, stigmatized for its incapacity of expressing the ontological.
The rhetorical space interposed between words and things amplifies the effectof separation, the confusion and the otherness. “Tender as an animal muzzle,” thewords no longer allow “the substitutions between verbs and the real state,” andmore and more, the poets of the eighties realize that “le monde est l’autre dulangage.” “Let us forget the beautiful science of the Verb” – Marta Petreu urges us
in Teze neterminate despre Marta/Unfinished theses about Marta (1981: 44), while
Mariana Marin senses the word as an autonomous entity, constraining man to aphantasmatic existence: “I love myself so much,/as I lye good and sweet/in the
middle of a puddle of words” (Marin, Colecţionara/The Collector, 1981: 32).
Marin Mincu also presents himself as an agent “divided between life and the sheetof paper” and conveys his mistrust in the “big cold words.” Glacial concepts areblossoming like a meanings on the crude surface of things, this is why the357

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dictionaries, “the sublime, the celestial, the adored ones” are stigmatized forremaining an empty whole in relation to what is external to language:(2) Pe tăvi de aramă, orbitoare: Dicţionarele,
sublimele, celestele, adoratele…
Nimic despre munca pământului
Am lăudat vorbele, fala mea(Petre Romoşan, Raiul fragilor sălbatici/The paradise of wild strawberries, 1980: 78)5

Vulnerable because it stores life, the library is condemned for its
impenetrability and mortification; although he dreamed to be “The Great Archivist
the Great Alpinist/ of the World Library”, Lucian Vasiliu yields to the unique
Messenger of his existence – “Lu-Luiza, the little girl” (Fiica noastră/Ourdaughter 1986: 6).
The truth crisis of the poem and the producer’s dilematic state induce:- an utopia: “When the beginning of the poem coincides with the core of life”(Bogdan Ghiu, Poem, 1982 :5), when the referent irrupts among “auriferous
words,” disclosing the truth of the last poem, where “In the place of title I shallplace my head” (Petre Romoşan, Cap de măscărici/Jester head 1982: 27);
- a gesture: abandoning the bookish reason for being and the option for therealistic legitimizing of poetry:(3) intru în apă, am ars toate cărţile,devin străveziu, străveziu.
văd în mine inima mea: fericită cârtiţă roşie
Orb ca o cârtiţă lângă o grămăjoară de cuvinte(Ion Morar, Izolarea standard/Standard isolation, 1984: 27)6

The same Don Quixotic ethos with L. Vasiliu: “I have set on fire all firsteditions/ I am preparing myself for the departure” (Monadă/Monad, 1986: 46).
2. Prey to the real
By returning to the referent, to the “glowing blood of matter,” part of the poetry of
the eighties experiments the following:i) the correction of the sign’s imperfection: “Speechless, in the field of yore -/ In
front of the green ray of the blade of grass/ I could kneel as in front of anotherdiscourse” (T.T. Coşovei, Conectarea la univers/Connection to the universe, 1986:
108);ii) yielding to the ontological pressure: “and maybe this is the densest
torture,/the violent torture of the pressure of existing things” (M. Cărtărescu,
Scufiţa de orice culoare/The little riding hood of any color, 1980: 70).
We need to dissociate, in the use of the term “real”, two acceptations:a) the s e m i o t i z e d r e a l, making up, according to Lithuanian semiotician
Juri Lotman, the “semiosphere”. One of its characteristics is autonomy and,358

Emilia Parpală: The Crisis of Truth in the Postmodern Poem

because the functioning of signs implies, in Saussurean tradition, the suspension of
the referent, Daniel Bougnoux (2000: 51-52) talks about “the semiotic rupture or
closure”:
The functioning of signs implies bracketing their reference. Signs articulate far fromthings and in their absence [....]. The world of signs corresponds to the biosphere,out of which the semioshere has appeared. The semioshere relates to the real world,
without being physically connected to it. Semiotics is based precisely on thiscriticism of the referential illusion/fallacy. The world of signs is not the world ofthings and enjoys a relative autonomy in relation to the real world. By doubling theworld [...], semiology destroys the referential illusion and the naive self-evidences of“nature”.

As a cultural object, the world is a text inhabited by signs, a significant system
similar to a language; T.T. Coşovei talks about “someone who must come/To read
into the leave of being’s green” (Alte amintiri din copilărie/Other childhood
memories, 1980: 39), about “the alphabet of the trench, the Braille/ of neon signboards,” about “albatrosses, sea-gulls, dragon-flies/beginnings of a big word”(Idem, Un surâs, o palmă, un sărut/A smile, a slap, a kiss, 1980: 52). The text of
the world makes the text of literature opaque – “what comes destroys the words”(M. Ghica, Ceea ce vine/What comes, 1985: 65), because “not a single creature willpass the threshold of rhetoric” (Morar, Un căţel de aur muşcând/A golden puppy
biting, 1984: 25).
b) the r e a l i t y s t a t e. Contrary to Bougnoux’s secure hypothesis, Todorov(1982: 66) raised the hypothesis that the natural world allows to be treated as asemiotic object: “we need to postulate the existence and possibility of a semiotics
of natural world.” The sensible world becomes, as a whole, the object of a searchfor poetic significance7. By placing himself in the proximity of things, the poet
carries out the fitting of the text to the worlds’ states and thus the poetic sign tends
to identify itself with the iconic sign: “ full length life” (T.T. Coşovei, Între
mătăsuri/Between silks, 1980: 50). The city, a defining topos for this poet,connotes artifice (“nickel,” “iron”), alienation and the being’s solitude:(4) Nimic nu e real. Nici aceste ore de noapte
congelate cu grijă pentru alte secole.
Nichel, nichel, cât mai mult nichelÎn apropierea dumneavoastră! Nimic nu e real.
(T.T. Coşovei, Nichel/ Nickel, 1979: 8-9)8T.T. Coşovei represents a special case of “connection to the universe”; heoperates approaches and distanciations from things, but also from language: “To let
myself watched by objects. Described/Torn by their lack of understanding towardsme” (Conectarea la univers/Connection to the universe, 1980: 108).
The aggression of the reality state on writing has imposed, in the semiotic
poetics of the eighties, a few recurrent signs: the grass (with Coşovei), “the359Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

strongly blossomed cherry-tree”, “the laughter of the wild rose flower” (withRomoşan); The Beetle (Gândacul), The Childhood Pig (Porcul din copilărie)(Romoşan 1980: 5; 11), L. Vasiliu’s rat (1983: 66).
Magdalena Ghica’s “hypermatter” becomes notable through the mystifying
hyperbole, through that “enormous roar behind matter”; the contemplation state
triggered by the poet allows to see “the shining blood of matter” whereby things
regain their life energy.
With the semioticians poets, blood is a symbolic synecdoche signifying theritual of textualization; the real becomes writing by an act of violent andunmediated annihilation of “the physics of the sign”:(5) Între mine şi lucruri
nici măcar îngeri îngenuncheaţi căutând esenţe.
Doar o cortină de sânge
peste sandvişul de fier şi asfalt al oraşului (T. Coşovei, Între mine şi lucruri/Between me and the things, 1980: 127)9

Conceptualization being synonymous with alienating the object, the poet
deplores “the freezing of words in the icicle of a meaning, /the decay of the fruit
into jam” (Conectarea la univers/Connection to the universe, 1980: 197), thus
fixing its rapport, its difference and distance towards the real, which reveals thechange of the way a culture sees the world. To postmodernists, the crisis of theword is generated by the distrust in the sign’s ability to stand in for hypermatter;
the real is itself fragmented, semiotized, and the artistic mimesis can no longer
capture the outline of the “raw skin of things”. The palliative is the one suggested
by Plato: the broad unfolding of reality state: “Watch the grass grasping the edge/ofthe city/dragging it on the field as a bleeding fur” (T.T. Coşovei, Sfaturi/Tips,
1980: 31).
Biographic realism, practiced by the realistic wing of the eighties generation,
describes the world not as it is, but as it is perceived by the poetic eye. Cărtărescu’s
following considerations extrapolate this preference to the level of group poetics:“Reality in its hyperabundance and hypersignificance represents the object of
poetry”; “Maybe someday, in a certain history of Romanian poetry, when talking
about the generation of the ‘80s, it will be mentioned that rarely in Romanianpoetry has the poetic discourse proved so much fidelity towards the referent, to thereal world” (2000: 61, 63).
3. Prey to the words
Tractatus logico-philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein (1991) contains theobservation that the sphere of logic, of thought and language remain uncorrelated
to reality, that human being does not have another space except that of his own
thought. Wittgenstein has excluded sensation and perception from the theory ofimage; image lies in the logic space and this location grants it a significance ofreality model. By “model” the philosopher understood the isomorphism between
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Emilia Parpală: The Crisis of Truth in the Postmodern Poem

two facts, a logic one and a real one. The image represents the object from theoutside, which entails the possibility of representing it either as real or as fake. In
the transitive language, the sign is transparent and founds for the referent; in thereflexive language, the linguistic form is superimposed over the shape of reality:(6) Noi intrăm în carte cu trufie
şi spunem:
Un poem de dragostee mai adevărat
decât o noapte de dragoste.
Un poem al spaimei
e mai cumplit decât spaima.
Un poem despre moartee mai real decât moartea.
Noi intrăm în carte
şi spunem:
verbeleaduceţi verbele
pentru Cina cea de Taină
(Marta Petreu, Aduceţi verbele/ Bring forth the verbs , 1981: 15)10

The referent phobia affecting the poets of the eighties confirms Wittgenstein’s
thesis – “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world”; with Vişniec
also, the word substitutes the ontologic without loss: “over the word city/the word
fog is floating/the word man/watches/through the word/window” (V, 1984: 47).
The text replaces existence: “the text is a time of my existence” (Gh. Iova, Text,
1984: 138); it devours the real, it sublimates into new coherences “the hot grammarof blood” and the round concepts. Situated in the pure self-reflexivity, the text
becomes a “lesson on the verb” (Mariana Marin, Elegie/Elegy, 1981: 70), a
movement of the word inside writing. Inhabiting “the hole of this verse”, the poettakes “the daily ratio of consonants” (Marta Petreu, După-amiază de iarnă/ Winterafternoon, 1981: 19), allows to be “several times crucified on native tongue’s
cross” (Lucian Vasiliu, Poem final/Final poem, 1983: 72), offers to the words “akind of dignity with pores and delicate/little hairs” (I. Mureşan, Înălţarea lacer/Ascension to heaven, 1981: 29).
The writing-machine has become the icon of textualist poetry. A limit-case is
Florin Iaru’s postmodern poetic art in which the text’s content has been replaced by
the intertext (a famous verse by Eminescu: “Fruntea de gânduri mi-e plină”): “Myhead drops/on/the writing-machine/………………./my forehead is full of lines(Florin Iaru, Hai ku. Mine peste muntele Fudji/Hai ku. Mines overFudji
mountain//Come with me over Fudji mountain, 1981: 44). This gesture (“My headdrops”), suggesting an attitude of giving up, correlates two highly entropic
registers: the key-board of the writing machine and the intertext, both opening up
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of writing in the same way that substituting “thoughts” (“gânduri”) by “lines”
designates two complementary poetic systems: the metaphysical poetry ofmodernism which has become, with postmodernists, poetry of the signifier (writing
as the text’s way of existence). “Parodic intertextuality” is the main source of these“writings of difference” (Popescu, 2006).
To Cărtărescu (2000: 59-60), a theoretician and practitioner of biographic
realism, the typewriter is a metonymy for the typographical age and a symbol of art
in general. In the devouring, masochistic sense of modern art, the typewriter isanalogous to the guillotine, both being interpreted as models of the “celibate
machine”.
On the one hand – exalting the semiotic level, on the other – acknowledging theinsufficiency and the lie that the sign bears in it. The poet denounces the poem
when understood as alienation from the real and its betrayal. “Water and the book
give trembling unsure/images of life, reverberated” (I. Morar, Poemul cu trapă/The
poem with a hatch, 1984: 46). The sonnet, pure form of self-referential functioningof language, becomes a target for postmodern irony: “The Great Masters escapedesire/they complete the sadness with fixed structure/the sonnet is whispering, it’schanting nature” (I. Morar, Sonetul are un bâzâit neînsemnat/The sonnet has an
unsignificant hum, 1984: 13).
3.1. (Self)Description

The iconic sign substitutes, in the semiotic poetry, the symbolic sign, which isfundamental in modern poetry. As an alternative to “the truth crisis of the poem,” adescription offers the chance of capturing in the text “the reality state,” and of
possessing it through words: “Only the description of the world/could be thebeginning” – Magdalena Ghica asserted in her 1985 volume, while Marta Petreu
attributes it to rhetoric and the deficit of participation:(8) O! dacă te-aş putea în întregime descrie – spuncreierul tău frumos
să-l locuiesc eu cu trupul meu cel metalic subţire:astfel să te includ
într-un poem al meu despre tine;în cuvinte riguros selectate
drapez senzualitatea mea lacunară diurnă
(Marta Petreu, Capitol/Chapter, 1983: 14)11

Description implies visual perception and the performative to write: “I see anddescribe, I see and describe” (I. Morar, O iarnă, o singură zi/One winter, a single
day, 1984: 34). For the huge descriptive eye, “the flesh of reference” is provided by“description by nature” – a typical case of “empty thematology” (Hamon, 1972).
“Description by nature” is maintained in the iconic zone of the sign, by rejecting
the insertion of significance into things, as it happened in Romanticism and362

Emilia Parpală: The Crisis of Truth in the Postmodern Poem

modernism (Hassan, 1987): “I sit at the table/meaning that I say these/good objects
are good to eat/and to/describe” ( Bogdan Ghiu, Poem, 1984: 161).
Linguistically, description involves not only the preeminence of young matter in
relation to writing, but also a language in action, a variety of speech acts:a) performatives: “To write, ah, to write something durable/a lasting thing”(Florin Iaru, Fiara de mătase/The silk beast, 1984: 11);b) illocutionary: “Describe yourself heavily/I came, I left” (B. Ghiu, La malul
poemului/On the bank of the poem, 1984: 153);c) perlocutionary: the effects of the act of describing are sometimes polarized
inside the same poem (P. Romoşan, Autodescrierea/Selfdescription, 1984: 59). In
relation to the object, description appears as being multifunctional: whether it
resuscitates the object to existence, whether it alienates it into writing, whether it
abolishes it, the device emphasizes the ironic ethos of the postmodern producer:(9) Vinerea trecută:descriu un cocoş, cocoşul nu mai cântă,se face hârtie mototolită, cade sub masă;descriu un câine, câinele nu mai latră, schelălăie,se duce dracului.
Pe masa de scris, roşu, alb, verde, măceşul,Îl privesc cu poftă, îl mângâi nebun.
Măreţul descriptor începe descrierea. Scriu: Floarea de măceş...
Florile de măceş – scrum!
(P. Romoşan, Autodescrierea/Selfdescription, 1982: 59)12

The representation crisis, a consequence of losing the referential illusion, brings
about the failure of selfdescription; out of agent, the poet becomes object: “To let
myself watched by objects. Described./Torn by their lack of understanding for me”(T.T. Coşovei, Connection to the universe/Conectarea la univers, 1983: 21); “«wewill no longer describe you» my poems say” (I. Morar, Învinge sarea/The salt
wins, 1984: 16).
(10)Învinge sarea, învinge pata de sânge care a umplut biblioteca(pe masa de lucru câteva fructe sălbatice)nu mă mai pot descrie, nu mai pot prevesti(Ion Morar, Învinge sarea/Salt wins, 1984: 16)13

The poet, a cultural sign by excellence, is incompatible with the idea of
iconicity: selfdescription is impregnated by significance, the sign becoming, in thecultural sense, symbolic. Both Romoşan and Morar but also Coşovei, correct thesemiotic captivity through a “reversed flight,” towards the referent represented bysymbolic metonymies (Rosa Canina, salt, the grass). The failure of(self)description is in fact determined by a characteristic of the code, namely theimpossible isomorphism between the linguistic image and the substance of theworld.
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4. Conclusions
The free interpretation of semiosis has inspired a very productive poetic theme,
namely the reversible nature of the basis of the semiotic triangle. The relationshipbetween words and things, between the condition of writing and the condition ofexistence has divided the promotion of the eighties into two branches: “theconceptualists” and “the realists.” The semiotic poetry proposes a split sign, tense
because of the coincidence of opposites: the strength and the weakness of the word,
the rejection and the nostalgia of the referent, the truth and the falsity of language.
NOTES* This research is funded by the CNCSIS Grant Romanian Poetic Postmodernism. 1980-2010. A
Semio-Pragmatic and Cognitive Approach, contract number 757/19-01-2009. Translation:
Carmen Popescu.
1
Umberto Eco (1982) argued that the concept “referent” has had unhappy consequences upon thetheory of codes. The underestimation of its malign influence leads to “referential fallacy”.
2
Peirce’s sign is a triadic relation dependent on three categories: firstness, secondness, and thirdness.
The quality of sign implies three elements: a representamen, an object and an interpretant. By the
introduction into semiotics of the notion “referent”, which had been excluded by Saussure, Peirce
made possible the study of all significant practices, and not just language (cf. Parpală, 2007: 102106).
3
By the skeptical thesis uerba non docent – we do not learn through words, unless we previously had
the knowledge of the real object – Augustine (1994) does not deny the cognitive and semiotic
capacity of language, but restricts its sphere of action and lays emphasis on the meditation uponthings that are perceived and understood.
4
Fade stained glass, flowery on the margins/The poem carefully and lengthily weeded,/Where there is
not a single trace of my father’s/Cheek, disfigured by a splinter (Doina Uricariu, Vitraliu/Stained
glass, 1980: 34).
5
On copper trays, dazzling: the Dictionaries,/The sublime, the celestial, the adored ones…/Nothing
about laboring the earth/I praised the words, my pride (Petre Romoşan, Raiul fragilorsălbatici/The paradise of wild strawberries, 1980: 78).
6
I step into the water, I have burned all books,/I become translucent, translucent,/Inside me I see myheart: happy red mole/ Blind as a mole next to a little pile of words (Ion Morar, Izolarea
standard/Standard isolation, 1984: 27).
7
G. Bachelard and M. Dufrenne have studied the poetics of the elements: water, air, fire, earth.
8
Nothing is real. Not even these night hours/carefully frozen for other centuries./Nickel, nickel, as
much nickel as possible/Next to you, ladies and gentlemen! Nothing is real. (T.T. Coşovei,
Nichel/ Nickel, 1979: 8-9).
9Between me and the things/Not even kneeled angels looking for essences./Only a blood
curtain/Over the iron and asphalt sandwich of the city – (T.T. Coşovei, Între mine şi
lucruri/Between me and the things, 1980: 127).
10
We pridefully enter the book/and say://A love poem/is truer/than a night of love.//A poem of fear/ismore dreadful than fear./A poem about death/is more real than death.//We enter the book/andsay:/the verbs/bring forth the verbs/for The Last Supper. (Marta Petreu, Aduceţi verbele/ Bring
forth the verbs, 1981: 15).
11
Oh! If I could entirely describe you – I say/your beautiful brain/for me to inhabit it with my sleek
metallic body:/thus to include you/in a poem of mine about you;/in rigorously selected words/I
drape my diurnal lacunary sensuality (Marta Petreu, Capitol/Chapter, 1983: 14).
12
Last Friday:/I describe a cock, the cock doesn’t sing any more,/It turns into crumpled paper, it falls
under the table;/I describe a dog, the dog doesn’t bark any more, it yelps,/It goes to hell./On thewriting table, red, white, green, the eglantine,/I watch it greedily, I madly caress it./The great364

Emilia Parpală: The Crisis of Truth in the Postmodern Poem
descriptor starts the description. I write: The eglantine flower…/The eglantine flowers – ashes!
(P. Romoşan, Autodescrierea/Selfdescription, 1982: 59).
13
salt wins, the blood spot filling the library wins/(on the work table a few wild fruits)/I can no longer
describe myself, I can no longer foretell (Ion Morar, Învinge sarea/Salt wins, 1984: 16).

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Foucault, Michel (1996). Cuvintele şi lucrurile. O arheologie a cunoaşterii,
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Humanitas.

366

La solitude de l’homme moderne dans l’œuvre
de J.M.G. Le Clézio
Iuliana PAŞTIN
Université Chrétienne « Dimitrie Cantemir », Bucarest,
Faculté de Langues et littératures étrangères

ABSTRACT: Modern Man’s Solitude in J.M.G. Clezio’s Works
Loneliness or isolation, although with different meanings, are used most often with anegative connotation that we proposed to explain in this article. Some use has
established reserve the term “isolation” rather than the hardware alone, and thepainful awareness of the absence of others. The term “loneliness,” meanwhile, refers
to the metaphysical situation and the positive experience of this state of affairs. In aworld where distances are reduced and where there are powerful means ofcommunication there is a sense of solitude very strong and widespread, which leads
the philosopher to ask questions about the nature of contemporary society and about
the man that is characteristic of this society. The modern Western man experienced
his solitary ego, undergoes separation, isolation and is not able to take external
communication. Loneliness is revealed in this sense a current theme of social andpolitical philosophy.
KEYWORDS: loneliness, isolation, philosophy, society, world, communication

La grandeur d’un métier est peutêtre avant tout, d’unir les Hommes. Il n’est
qu’un luxe véritable et c’est celui desRelations Humaines. En travaillant pour lesseuls biens matériels, nous bâtissons nousmêmes notre prison, avec notre monnaie decendre qui ne procure rien qui vaille devivre.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Qu’est-ce que la solitude ?
Le champ sémantique de la solitude comporte d’abord deux termes principaux, etcela dans la plupart des langues : solitude et isolement. On constate que la plupart
du temps on les emploie comme des synonymes car rien dans leur origine
linguistique comme dans leur emploi actuel ne permet de les distinguer nettement.
Pourtant, il est nécessaire de les différencier, pour exprimer des aspects
objectivement différents de la solitude.
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Ainsi ne peut-on pas identifier le fait de l’absence matérielle d’autrui autour desoi avec le sentiment intérieur d’être seul (éventuellement même au ‘milieu d’une
foule) : « Je suis seul » ne signifie pas la même chose que « Je me sens seul ».
D’autre part, il faut distinguer la solitude irréductible qui est la compagne de toutepersonne, de la manière dont ce fait métaphysique est vécu. Un certain usage s’estétabli de réserver le terme « isolement » plutôt à la solitude matérielle, ainsi que laconscience douloureuse de l’absence d’autrui. Le terme de « solitude », quant à lui,désigne la situation métaphysique et le vécu positif de cet état de chose.
Autour de ces deux termes se groupent aussi d’autres mots, comme : abandon,
délaissement, déréliction, exil, qui semblent exprimer un paroxysme del’isolement. D’autres désignent plutôt l’origine de la solitude et de l’isolement:séparation, distance, écart, absence, éloignement. À partir de ces explications on
pourrait éviter la confusion car on ne prétend pas révéler un prétendu sens absolu
de ces termes.
L’homme moderne vit en surface de lui-même, de plus en plus délibérément,comme dans une fuite en avant. Il prône des idéaux extérieurs, des comportements
superficiels ou narcissiques, une existence dénuée de sens profond, où le facticedevient souverain, où le temps n’est plus vécu qu’au présent, mais en aliénation aupassé ou au futur, où le dernier gadget à la mode devient idole.
Sa santé, elle-même, malgré les prodigieuses avancées de la médecine, se
détériore, au plan moral et psychologique en tout cas, puisqu’apparaissent denouveaux troubles générés par l’évolution d’une société fébrile et craintive,
toujours plus individualiste et angoissée. Autrement dit, le déclin du sens del’existence, la confusion intérieure, le manque de confiance en autrui et en soimême, la perte du respect de la vie et de la personne humaine engendrent des mauxde tout genre que la meilleure médecine aurait bien du mal à soigner efficacement.
L’homme moderne qui fonde son existence sur la recherche, lucide ou non, d’unintérêt individuel, égocentrique, est atteint d’une espèce de « syndrome
d’irréalité », lequel n’a jamais été décrit par la psychiatrie moderne, mais dont leseffets sont redoutables, déprimants, voire destructeurs pour la santé. L’homme
moderne, de plus en plus, fait de sa vie un but en soi, et son existence devientégocentrique, fermée sur elle-même. D’où une perte de tous repères, unaffaiblissement du sens de la vérité et du sens de l’homme, une tendance à lasolitude.
Ainsi l’homme moderne devient-il beaucoup plus vulnérable, plus fragile qu’il
ne l’était il y a quelques années. Cette considération ne vise pas que la santéphysique mais également psychique. Mère Térésa disait : « La plus grande despauvretés, c’est de n’exister pour personne ». Autour de nous, de nombreuses
personnes se plaignent de plus en plus du mal d’être, d’épuisement, d’incapacité à
communiquer avec autrui. L’origine de ce malaise vient que nous nous reposons
pour résoudre nos difficultés sur nos propres forces. Comme si on pouvait à soi
seul, faire face à l’immensité de sa tâche.
Nous vivons dans un monde moderne de plus en plus artificiel où l’homme a ététransformé en machine à gagner de l’argent pour assouvir de faux besoins, pour de368

Iuliana Paştin: La solitude de l’homme moderne dans l’œuvre de J.M.G. Le Clézio

fausses joies. L’homme se laisse avoir par ce qu’il possède alors que son premierbesoin est d’être estimé et reconnu.
Nous assistons à une sorte de démoralisation généralisée, source de beaucoup dedésarroi et de souffrances, une crise sociale due au vide de sens, à la perte desvaleurs et à la morosité générale. Tout le monde s’accorde à reconnaître qu’il existe
un « déficit de sens ». Ils sont de plus en plus nombreux ceux qui sont sans avenir
professionnel, ceux qui sont marqués par la solitude et le mal de vivre, ceux quivoient leur couple se briser, ceux qui vont se noyer dans des paradis artificiels. Il ya donc un grand danger, celui de l’isolement et de la solitude. On annonçait lerègne de l’athéisme, mais c’est la prolifération des sectes qui est venue ainsi queles groupements d’inspiration ésotérique, les pratiques orientales, ou le recours àl’astrologie et aux jeux d’argent.
L’homme moderne ne pourra s’en sortir qu’en retrouvant ses véritables racines :les valeurs qui ont fondé notre société depuis 2000 ans. Ces valeurs cautionnaient,assuraient la cohérence d’une société et régulaient son fonctionnement.
Malheureusement, elles ne sont plus transmises aux jeunes générations. Cette
interruption de la transmission des grandes valeurs humaines est le plus granddrame de notre civilisation.
Nous sommes devenus des individualistes mais nous le vivons comme une
faiblesse. Dans notre société, est donc considéré comme suspect tout individu quis’abstient des autres. Voila pourquoi on distingue solitude et isolement. La
première est de l’ordre du consentement mais pas le second. Selon le philosophe
Alain (1925) « L’homme isolé est un homme vaincu ». On pense que l’hommeisolé n’a pas su s’imposer aux autres et forcer leur désir. Il peut être responsable deson isolement, s’il s’abandonne à l’impuissance à séduire l’autre. Le solitaire, au
contraire, désire la sociabilité et cherche à séduire grâce à son autonomie qui lerend original. L’étape de la désintégration absolue intervient quand personne nesait que vous êtes seul.
Dans les couples, s’il y a des pathologies c’est parce que chacune des identités arenoncé à s’auto-affirmer et a accepté les compromis. On choisit d’intégrer lefantasme de l’autre. Pour cette raison, on rencontre plus vite la solitude lorsqu’on
est deux que lorsqu’on est seul. À la source de la solitude, il y a un problème aigud’incommunicabilité des émotions. Dans les études de spécialité on évoqueégalement la solitude du philosophe. Pour le philosophe, la solitude est orgueil. Il
pense : « je suis l’unique, je vais reconstruire le monde... Je vais édifier dessystèmes de pensée et ces systèmes vont réduire le monde. Ils vont le réduire à ceque j’en pense ». Accepter la solitude et la cultiver peut être perçu comme une
pathologie, une anormalité. Mais celui qui cultive la solitude rejette un monde oùles hommes ne sont jamais souverains mais toujours asservis. L’hommedélibérément solitaire est donc plus libre que les autres prisonniers par la
massification croissante de nos sociétés.
Dans les dictionnaires on ne trouve pas le mot solitude parce que dans notre
culture, la solitude est plutôt connotée de manière esthétique comme une situationde poète. La solitude fascine quand elle est celle du saint mais fait très peur s’il369

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s’agit de celle de l’homme de la rue. Il y a donc une solitude qui est synonyme deplénitude et une autre qui est synonyme de vacuité. Certains hommes ont peur dela solitude parce qu’ils sont « fâchés » avec eux-mêmes. Ils culpabilisent d’êtreseuls, ils pensent que personne ne les aime parce qu’ils ne sont pas aimables. Ils
sont insupportables à eux-mêmes et se croient insupportables aux autres. Certains
pensent que c’est la religion judéo-chrétienne qui dévalue la solitude. Mais il fautaussi évoquer Voltaire qui faisait de Rousseau un « méchant » parce que ce dernieraimait vivre en ermite. La solitude pour les chrétiens est mauvaise car elle renvoie
à celle de Caïn lequel est honni dans notre tradition. Donc si l’on est solitaire c’estque, comme Caïn, on a commis la faute. Dans Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra deNietzsche (1958) l’homme est fâché avec lui-même parce qu’il a tué dieu et donc
cette altérité qui pouvait lui donner le sens de lui-même. Seul, il se retrouve devant
son propre vide. Nietzsche invite pourtant l’homme à s’améliorer en disant : «Deviens ce que tu es » Inviter l’homme à devenir ce qu’il est au prix de la solitude
c’est lui faire subir une possible agression.
La solitude est aussi un fait culturel, dans la mesure elle est favorisée en plus
par une conception de l’homme qui s’est développée en même temps que la société
industrielle. S’agit-il d’une relation de cause à effet, ou d’une évolution parallèle ?
Peu importe, ce qui compte, c’est que les deux concourent à créer une
conscience vive de solitude. Les temps modernes en effet se caractérisent parl’avènement de l’individu, ayant la conscience de sa solitude, et par suite, del’individualisme.
Non pas que l’homme n’ait pas été un individu auparavant, mais maintenant il
se sent, il se veut un individu et il est valorisé comme tel. Ce qui vaut, ce n’est plus
ce que chaque homme a en commun avec les autres, son humanisme, qui est
universel, mais ce que chacun a de spécifique, ce qui le différencie des autres. Il
s’agit de l’idée essentielle que chaque homme se conçoit comme une entité à part età part entière, libre, autonome, indépendante et à la limite, autosuffisante.
L’homme moderne n’est plus considéré comme une partie intégrante de lasociété, au contraire, celle-ci est perçue comme se constituant à partir de lamultitude des individus, qui, à l’image de Robinson Crusoe, peuvent même sepasser de leur appartenance sociale. Son indépendance, l’individu la base sur la
propriété privée d’un côté, de l’autre sur la revendication de droits, parmi lesquels
surtout les Droits de l’Homme.
J.M.G. Le Clézio au carrefour de la solitude
Dans l’œuvre de l’écrivain français contemporain J.M.G. Le Clézio l’espace urbain
est un espace d’aliénation où l’homme se sent enfermé et cette constatation pose unproblème crucial au monde moderne. La ville moderne décrite dans la plupart desromans et nouvelles de Le Clézio est l’endroit où l’homme déraciné est condamnéà vagabonder, à devenir un être errant. En lui refusant la paix, la ville chassel’homme qui a l’impression de devenir un prisonnier et cela ne peut qu’engendrer
de la solitude. Chez Le Clézio tous les personnages sont solitaires. Adam du370

Iuliana Paştin: La solitude de l’homme moderne dans l’œuvre de J.M.G. Le Clézio

Procès-Verbal, par exemple, a beau vouloir briser cette écrasante solitude, dans sa
villa abandonnée sur la colline, il reste seul car, selon l’auteur : « il a commencé àcomprendre ce que ça voulait dire que – monstre de solitude » (Procès-verbal, 15).
Il souffre d’un vide intérieur d’un malaise :Un vide terrible, insoutenable. Entre les niveaux de la vie… Entre deux paliers, deux
temps. (Procès Verbal, 235)

Lors des interrogatoires dans l’hôpital psychiatrique, Adam avoue :– Vous en avez assez d’être seul…
– Oui, c’est ca. Je voudrais être avec les gens. (Procès Verbal)

Dans toutes les villes qu’il traverse, Jeune Homme Hogan du Livre des Fuites
est dévoré par la solitude géante :C’est cela le poids de solitude, l’isolement entêté de ce bloc de terre.
(Le Livre des fuites, 131)

Le vide existentiel le poursuit partout à travers le monde, il tente en vain de lefuir :
Je veux compter les grains de sable et donner un nom à chacun d’eux, parce que
c’est le seul moyen d’emplir le vide vertigineux de ma fuite. (Le Livre des fuites,
90)

Pour Lalla, le personnage du roman Désert, la grande ville rêvée depuis ledésert marocain n’est pas une terre promise. Marseille ne ressemble pas à la villeblanche et hospitalière dont le pécheur Naman lui racontait des histoires debonheur. Au contraire, elle assiste quotidiennement à toutes les variétés deviolence de la société urbaine et à toutes les misères de la vie des immigrés :Il y a trop de bruits dans le silence de la nuit, bruits de la faim, bruits de la peur, dela solitude. (Désert, 289)

Dans la ville, la solitude lui serre la gorge comme une réalité oppressante ce qui
fait qu’elle se retrouve beaucoup plus seule que dans le désert. Pour ne pas êtreécrasée par la foule, elle doit marcher sans cesse :Il faut marcher ici, marcher avec les autres, comme si on savait où on allait. Mais il
n’y a pas de fin au voyage, pas de cachette au creux de la dune. Il faut marcher pourne pas tomber, pour ne pas être piétiné par les autres. (Déluge, 290)

La lumière splendide du désert s’éclipse ici dans la grande ville (de Marseille)
laide et Lalla remarquera qu’une fois effacées les multiples splendeurs du sable etdes étoiles de son pays, son visage et son corps prennent la couleur terne de cette371

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ville. Ils sont devenus gris, son visage et son corps étant ceux de n’importe qui,perdu dans la foule.
Puis un mouvement de foule engloutit d’un seul coup la femme blanche à la robe
grise. (La Guerre, 50)

C’est bien l’image que lui renvoie la ville comme dans un miroir, celle d’une
femme blafarde, grise, écrasée du poids de la tristesse et de la solitude. La ville est
devenue ainsi le lieu de l’absence, et même de l’absence de couleur comme del’absence de joie de vivre.
Même les lieux de rencontres d’autrefois n’évoquent plus rien car :Il y a des places, des carrefours, éclairés de lumière pâle, ou flotte une brume deSolitude. (L’Inconnu sur la terre, 119)

Ces endroits traditionnels où les hommes se réunissaient, se croisaient,pouvaient communiquer, n’ont plus la même valeur aujourd’hui. Pour les citadinsd’autrefois ces lieux symboliques étaient des constituants nécessaires de la ville cardans ces endroits se nouaient les amitiés, les amours, toutes ces relations qui
constituaient la trame de la vie sociale et associative. Le carrefour moderned’aujourd’hui ignore peu à peu la plupart de ces symboles, ils sont même devenus
des espaces de la négation.
Il n’y avait rien dans l’air que la solitude et le vide. (Déluge, 91)

L’espace urbain ressemble à un désert et même pire il est le lieu de la nonintimité, celui du mal de vivre, du malaise existentiel. L’homme anonyme, perdu
dans la foule se sent aussi isolé que dans le désert. Alors, Jeune Homme Hogan(Le Livre des fuites) se met à fuir à travers le monde.
Ce que je fuis, je le sais bien, maintenant : c’est le vide. Je passe de terre en terre, jevais de ville en ville, et je ne rencontre rien. Métropoles immenses, autoroutes
immenses. Comment se fait-il que je n’entende jamais rien ? Est-ce moi quitransporte le vide partout où je vais, dans le genre d’un sourd pour qui tous leshommes sont muets ? (Le Livre des fuites, 207)

Et le même personnage pousse un cri de révolte comme une malédiction où onsent indirectement l’hostilité de l’écrivain Le Clézio :Ville de fer et de béton je ne te veux plus, je te refuse. Ville à soupapes, ville degarages et de hangars, je te hais. (Le Livre des Fuites, 63)

Quand on parcourt les banlieues interminables, les bidonvilles, on se demandeparfois s’il est possible de sortir de la ville, si le labyrinthe n’a pas déjà recouvert laplanète.
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Iuliana Paştin: La solitude de l’homme moderne dans l’œuvre de J.M.G. Le Clézio

Cette impression de trouver le vide au sein de la ville est ressentie aussi par un
autre personnage, Chancelade du livre Terra Amata :Sur ce sol de ciment dur, avec les petits gravillons qui entrent à travers lesvêtements sur la peau du dos, avec le ciel nu aux étoiles gelées, et le froid il y lasolitude, le gouffre invisible creusé devant les yeux. (Terra Amata, 194)

On voit bien que les gens de la ville moderne vivent dans une incroyable
solitude. Personne ne peut échapper à cette condamnation car, habiter la ville c’est
selon Le Clézio, habiter la solitude. On comprend les explosions de lyrisme
furieux de Le Clézio qui font monter le ton de son écriture quand il fulmine sa
révolte contre :…ces villes sans espoir, ces villes d’abîmes, ces villes de mendiants et deprostituées, ou les rues sont des pièges ou les maisons sont des tombes. (Désert,
334)

Il est évident de ce qu’on vient de dire qu’une telle conception de l’homme,même si en partie elle ne correspond pas à la réalité sociale objective, comportecomme un écho une dimension inévitable de solitude. Dans l’optiqueindividualiste, en effet, les liens et relations ne sont que des réalités secondaires,
qui ne peuvent exister qu’à partir du moment où l’individu s’est constitué dans son
indépendance. Du même coup, elles apparaissent presque inévitablement commedes entraves à la liberté tellement chérie. On peut même aller jusqu’à dire que
selon l’anthropologie individualiste, telle qu’elle apparait avec le libéralisme,l’homme est d’abord et constitutivement seul. Inutile alors de s’étonner si cesmêmes hommes commencent à souffrir des différentes sortes de liberté et que se
créent ces groupes à haut risque de solitude.
Solitude sagesse
Les réflexions précédentes montrent clairement qu’une certaine solitude est
inévitable pour l’homme moderne, car elle s’est révélée constitutive de la personne.
Le problème concret principal est alors le suivant : quel est le bon usage qu’on peut
faire de cette solitude? Comment vivre avec elle ? Ou bien en d’autres mots:comment arriver à sortir de l’isolement pour accéder à la solitude ?
Quelques conditions préalables à la solution de ce problème se dégagent de cequi précède : il faut d’abord prendre pleinement conscience du lien inextricable qui
existe entre l’existence personnelle et la solitude. Et donc, il ne faut surtout pas fuircette dernière, mais essayer de l’accepter lucidement. Ceci demande qu’on
démasque aussi l’illusion fusionnelle, le désir suicidaire de vouloir s’unir à l’autre
ou aux autres de manière à ne former plus qu’un seul être.
Une telle fusion n’est pas possible à l’homme, et n’est d’ailleurs passouhaitable, elle anéantirait, avec la relation, les personnes en présence. De même373

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

faut-il démasquer le substitut réel de la fusion: la promiscuité sous toutes ses
formes.
Enfin, il faudrait arriver à goûter la solitude, l’apprécier comme un répit, un
repos, comme une paix; et aussi comme une chance de ressourcement et derenouveau. Mais comment le réussir ?
Il est évident qu’il y faut un véritable apprentissage, une réelle maturation. Or,
l’homme devient lui-même, et par là il apprend à être seul, au travers de plusieurs
ruptures et séparations : la naissance en représente la première, ensuite il y al’émancipation de la part des parents et du milieu familial, enfin le renoncement àla plupart des rêves de l’adolescence pour s’insérer dans le réel au moyen de choix
souvent douloureux.
Il s’agit de réussir les étapes de croissance, ou du moins d’essayer de la rattraper
le mieux possible. Par là, la personne apprend sa liberté et son autonomie, ce qui
peut s’énoncer encore comme suit : « Apprendre à être seul, c’est accepter d’êtredifférent des autres sans avoir l’impression de cesser d’exister pour eux et pour soimême » (Denis Vasse)8. Il faut donc s’accepter soi-même, et accepter l’autre, en
renonçant à s’assimiler à lui, ou à se l’assimiler.
Cette nécessaire maturation, qui permet non seulement de vivre la solitude maisaussi de vivre d’authentiques relations, signifie au fond que la personne réussit à ne
pas en rester au niveau des besoins, mais à accéder, en y englobant les besoins, au
niveau du désir. L’homme vient au monde comme un être de besoin: il lui faut poursurvivre de la nourriture, des soins et des caresses. Le besoin exige impérieusementsa satisfaction, sans laquelle l’organisme meurt ou se détériore gravement. Au
niveau du besoin, l’autre ne m’apparait que dans son utilité pour moi. Le désir parcontre est de l’ordre de l’élan gratuit, qui va au-delà du strict nécessaire et del’utilitaire. De cette façon, « désirer l’autre, c’est le vouloir pour ce qu’il est et que
je ne suis pas; c’est, par conséquent, renoncer à le réduire » (D. Vasse, 1966)8. Le
désir m’amène à respecter l’autre dans sa différence, à valoriser celle-ci. Commel’autre ne peut être possédé par moi, la relation à l’autre sur le mode du besoin nepeut qu’échouer et plonger dans l’isolement frustrant et mal vécu. Le désir del’autre par contre me fait respecter son altérité et son autonomie, introduit donc une
distance entre moi et l’autre, mais qui alors est vécue comme une solitude et noncomme un isolement.
Certes, l’homme reste jusqu’au bout rivé aux besoins, mais sa maturationconsiste à ne pas s’y engloutir, à les entrainer au contraire au plan du désir. Par-làmême, l’homme réussira à passer de l’isolement à la solitude.
La solitude n’est pas simplement le fait de vivre seul, mais plutôt le sentimentde ne pas être reconnu, de ne compter pour personne, d’être rejeté ou méprisé parles autres. Le plus souvent, ce n’est pas par choix qu’on se retrouve seul, maisparce qu’on n’est pas parvenu à nouer des relations de confiance et d’amitié avec
autrui. Par timidité peut-être ou par honte, à la suite d’une faute, etc. Ou encore
parce qu’on se heurte à l’égoïsme, à la dureté ou au mépris de ceux que l’on côtoie.
La vie moderne, surtout dans les grandes villes, favorise la solitude, dans une petite
communauté, un village par exemple, on connaît tout le monde, on se parle, on374

Iuliana Paştin: La solitude de l’homme moderne dans l’œuvre de J.M.G. Le Clézio

appelle chacun par son nom. Dans la grande ville, on se côtoie sans se connaître.
On peut habiter sur un même palier sans jamais se parler. Chacun reste sur ladéfensive et ne se soucie pas des autres.
Alors, il reste vrai que la grande ville est pour beaucoup synonyme de lasolitude. Toutefois, il serait faux d’en faire la principale cause et d’exagérer d’uncôté ou d’un autre. Un grand nombre d’habitants des grandes villes ont desrelations de toutes sortes, avec leur famille, des amis, des camarades de travail, desvoisins. À l’inverse, on peut se sentir terriblement seul dans une communauté
villageoise et souffrir d’être épié, jugé par les commérages, tenu à l’écart parl’esprit de clan qui divise la communauté et exclut ceux qui n’entrent pas dans lemoule. Beaucoup sont poussés dans la solitude par les expériences malheureuses
qu’ils ont vécues. Ils ont été si souvent déçus, blessés, rejetés par les autres, qu’ils
ne peuvent plus faire confiance à personne. Nous pouvons tous le constater, aumoins à certains moments : la vie avec les autres n’est pas facile. Elle est marquée
par des déceptions, des malentendus, des conflits, des souffrances. C’est ce qui
amenait un personnage de Jean-Paul Sartre à déclarer : « L’enfer c’est les autres ».
Il en résulte chez beaucoup une peur des autres qui les pousse à les fuir comme lespersonnages de Le Clézio. Dans certaines circonstances, la solitude peut donc êtreun refuge. Elle reste pourtant un malheur. Dans la grande majorité des cas,l’absence des autres, la perte de toute relation affective, le sentiment de ne pouvoir
se fier à personne, entraînent un sentiment d’échec et sont des causes desouffrance. Malheureusement, la mentalité moderne encourage l’individualisme,
l’idée que l’on peut se passer des autres et que le seul but valable dans la vie est
celui qui ne concerne que le soi-même9. La volonté d’indépendance,d’autosuffisance est une terrible pourvoyeuse de solitude. L’être indépendantconsidère le plus souvent l’autre comme une contrainte. L’individu est aujourd’hui
l’auteur de sa propre solitude en même temps que sa victime. Il aspire àl’indépendance, mais il ne la supporte pas. L’être humain se trouve alors déchiré
entre la volonté de s’affirmer contre les autres, de se défendre d’eux et la peur de lasolitude. Pour vaincre la solitude, il nous faut accepter de changer de mentalité,
sortir du cercle vicieux de la défense de soi. Il n’y a de communauté possible que làoù on renonce à disposer des autres et même à disposer de soi-même, en préservant
son entière liberté. Il n’y a de communauté possible que là où l’on accepte que desliens se créent entre nous et les autres, non pour que nous ayons une domination surnotre prochain, mais pour qu’il sache qu’il compte pour nous. C’est seulement enrenonçant à posséder l’autre que nous pouvons le libérer de son besoin de se
défendre. On a raison de dire que l’amitié est comme de l’eau que l’on tient au
creux de la main : si on ferme la main pour mieux la tenir, elle fuit.
NOTES
1

Alain (Emile Chartier) (1925). Propos sur le bonheur, (ed. augmentée en 1928).
Nietzsche (1958). Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra. Paris : Union Générale d’Editions.
3
Jean-François Six (1986). Guide des solitudes. Paris : Fayard.
4
Emmanuel Levinas (2009). Altérité et transcendance, 1995, Montpellier, Fata Morgana, coll. Essais.
2375

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5

Françoise Dolto (1994), dans Solitude,ESSAIS, (édition revue et augmentée, 2001). Paris : Éditions
Gallimard, Poche, Folio, Essais affirme : « La solitude m’a toujours accompagnée, de près ou deloin, comme elle accompagne tous ceux qui, seuls, tentent de voir et d’entendre, là où d’aucuns
ne font que regarder et écouter. Amie inestimable, ennemie mortelle – solitude qui ressource,
solitude qui détruit, elle nous pousse à atteindre et à dépasser nos limites. La solitude caractérise
le petit humain dès la naissance et le place dès lors dans une dépendance radicale à Autrui. Se
référant constamment à ses rencontres cliniques et aux faits de sa vie privée, Françoise Dolto
déploie une grande fresque de l’histoire du sujet, de l’origine à la fin. La plupart des grands
thèmes de son œuvre y sont présents, avec des variations sensibles de ton et de temps, car ce livre
polyphonique traverse plus de vingt ans de sa recherche. »6
Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1945). Phénoménologie de la perception. Paris : Gallimard.
7
DenisVasse (1996). « De l’isolement à la solitude ». CHRISTUS, no 49, janvier, 11-23, affirme :« La solitude exige un apprentissage que l’isolement évite. Elle est un moment de notre existence
au monde. »8 Ibidem, 11-23.
9
Georges Bernanos, dans « Sous les yeux d’une nouvelle génération sacrifiée », Le Figaro, 13
novembre 1931, caractérise la solitude de l’homme moderne de la façon suivante : « Solitude del’homme moderne. Quiconque reste insensible à cette tristesse presque indéfinissable, peut-être
plus physique que morale – ce goût de suie que nous prenons volontiers pour l’odeur des villes
mais qui gagne peu à peu, mystérieusement, de colline en colline, jusqu’à nos plus secrets
hameaux, doit se résigner à ne rien comprendre à son temps, c’est-à-dire à passer tour à tour
d’un optimisme imbécile au pessimisme le plus noir, à la manière de ces misérables que lacatastrophe prochaine ira chercher dans les caves où nous les entendrons de nouveau siffler etgrincer entre eux comme des rats. Pourquoi fermer les yeux à certaines évidences? Lesreconnaître devrait être la première démarche d’une intelligence encore libre; sinon, qu’elle
capitule, qu’elle se rende! Le désaccord chaque jour plus profond des institutions et des mœurs
laisse l’individu en dehors et comme en marge d’une société qu’il qualifie naïvement de moderne,dans l’impuissance où il est de la définir autrement. […].Briser cette solitude, ou périr. »RÉFÉRENCES BIBLIOGRAPHIQUESAlain (Émile Chartier). (1925). Propos sur le bonheur. Paris : Éditions Gallimard(Édition augmentée en 1928).
Amar, Ruth (2004). Les structures de la solitude dans l’œuvre de J.M.G. Le Clézio.
Paris : Éditions Publisud
Bernanos, Georges (1931). « Sous les yeux d’une nouvelle génération sacrifiée ».
Le Figaro, 13 novembre.
Brunel, Pierre (1972). Histoire de la littérature française, XXe siècle. Paris :Bordas.
Cortanze, Gérard de (1999). Le nomade immobile. Paris : Éditions du Chêne, Coll.
Vérités et Légendes.
Dolto, Françoise [1994]. Solitude (Essais, I). Édition de Gérard Guillerault,
Élisabeth Kouki, Colette Manier et d’Alain Vanier, Paris : Éditions Gallimard(Édition revue, augmentée et présentée par Gérard Guillerault, Élisabeth Kouki,
Colette Manier et Alain Vanier, Collection Folio essais, No 393, 2001).
Evans, Taine (1975). Essais de Biographie Intérieure. Paris : Nizet.
Kelen, Jacqueline (2000). L’esprit de solitude. Paris : Éditions La Renaissance dulivre.

376

Iuliana Paştin: La solitude de l’homme moderne dans l’œuvre de J.M.G. Le Clézio

Levinas, Emmanuel (1995). Altérité et transcendance. Montpellier : Fata Morgana,Coll. Essais.
Maulpoix, Jean-Michel (1998). Itinéraires littéraires, XXe siècle. Paris : Hatier.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1945). Phénoménologie de la perception. Paris : Éditions
Gallimard.
Molinié, Georges, & Alain Viala (1993). Approches de la réception,
Sémiostylistiques et socio poétique de Le Clézio. Paris : PUF.
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1958). Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra. Paris : Union Générale
d’Éditions.
Onimus, Jean (1994). Pour lire Le Clézio, Paris : PUF.
Rabaté, Dominique (2007). L’invention du solitaire. Bordeaux : Presses
Universitaire de Bordeaux, Coll. Modernités.
Ricardou, Jean (1971). « Positions et oppositions sur le roman contemporain ».
Colloque de Strasbourg, cité par Térésa di Scanno (1993). La vision du mondede Le Clézio. Paris : Nizet.
Richard, Michel (1990). La pensée contemporaine, les grands courants. Lyon :Éditions Chronique Sociale.
Six, Jean-François (1986). Guide des solitudes. Paris : Fayard.
Vasse, Denis (1966). « De l’isolement à la solitude ». Christus, No 49, janvier, 1123.

377

History and Prejudice in John Updike’s Terrorist
Ecaterina PĂTRAŞCU
University “Spiru Haret”, Bucharest,
Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures

ABSTRACTJohn Updike’s novel, Terrorist, is the story of a young American Islam believer,Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy, son of a woman of Irish-American heritage (Mulloy) andan Egyptian father (Ashmawy) who abandoned the family when Ahmad was three.
Setting the background in the 9/11 context, we expect Updike to “answer” questions
related to terrorism and related dramatic events, or at least to offer a reliable
portrayal of the times. What we get as readers is a completely prejudiced approachto the historical events and to the profile of the “evil-doer.” Historiographic
metafiction after 9/11 continues the American novel tradition before the crucial
event, the writer’s focus falling more on metafiction than on history.
KEYWORDS: Islam, history, postmodernism, prejudice, traumatic literature

1. Posttraumatic fiction in America
Dealing with post-9/11 fiction in America means enquiring into the writers’
willingness to give up on readily – received and prejudiced discourses, on alreadyfictionalized realities, and their openness to confront history as both a violent andsuffering reality. Are post-9/11 American fiction writers willing to reevaluate
issues of nationalism and global environment from a wider perspective or are they
still caught within “the narcissistic heart of the West”? Do we refer to 9/11 as acornerstone in the evolution of the American fiction or do we merely count it
together with the other fictionalized traumas in America’s history?
Prior to 9/11, postmodern American fiction was more metafictional thanhistorical, an account of this being provided by Bernard Bergonzi in Fictions ofHistory:
America’s history is more reduced quantitatively than Europe’s: what exists has
already been transformed into myths, which leads to either an appreciative or
depreciative literary approach.1

The attention of the American novelists is focused on constructing andimposing order on chaotic historical data: Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, E.L.
Doctorow, Robert Coover, Norman Mailer, all put forth “serial models of history” 2(Stacey Olster), the past being theoretically reconstructed and assumed so as to378

Ecaterina Pătraşcu: History and Prejudice in John Updike’s Terrorist

provide a way to model the unknown future. These writers are aware of thearbitrary and idiosyncratic character of their historical frames and acknowledge
that any theory of history is a subjective ordering of experience, of the disorderedworld, or something that offers signification to the simple, neutral chronology.
The interchanging character of interpretations or of the theories on reality, theundifferentiated significance of the various suppositions regarding the veridicity of
the historical data, both introduce an unfortunate relativism into the works of theabove mentioned novelists from the perspective of the probability of establishingplausible historical coordinates of the invoked times.
The terror and atrocity of 9/11 re-inscribed the historical present as priority
among postmodern fiction writers and required them to confront with the questionof artistic ethical responsibility, namely how literature can help us assume a selfimposing, evident reality, transcend it and give cathartic expression to ourtraumatic feelings of awe and burden.
Reality data stand too obvious and powerful to trigger equally plausible,
different subjectivisms of interpretation, consequently forcing fiction into being
molded within clearly circumscribable perimeters. The classical formula,“historiographic metafiction” should be erased, history - based fiction being thenew orientation.
Sociological, historical and psychological aspects stand out as equally importantcomponents to be analyzed in the post-9/11 fiction since the reality that the post –9/11 writers turn to is no longer under the control of the writer’s imagination, butrather forced on it. Attention shifts from metafictionality to globally approachedliterary texts: the formalist dimension is necessarily supplemented with
contemporary critical understandings of nationalism, race, gender and global
multiculturalism.
However, the immediate peril in embarking on a credulous, hopeful endeavor insearch of repositioning American fiction is hitting against already fictionalized
notions of nationalism, race, and global multiculturalism. “Terrorism” is also “arhetorical product” (Zukika and Douglass), a matter of discursive and figurative
practices, while 9/11 itself has been assessed as a monumental collision ofsymbols, metaphors and other shadowy figures.
The question that immediately rises is whether post – 9/11 American fiction
continues the tradition of postmodern metafictional historiography or stands as an
opposing orientation within the postmodern writing.
The body of works that represent traumatic literature in America comprises:
Ken Kalfus – A Disorder Peculiar to the Country, Don DeLillo – Falling Man,
Claire Messud – The Emperor’s Children, Jonathan Safran Foer – Extremely Loudand Incredibly Close, John Updike – Terrorist, Jay McInerney – The Good Life or
Mohsin Hamid – The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Jennifer Egan – Look at Me,
Frederic Beigbeder – Windows on the World, Philip Beard – Dear Zoe, Lynne
Sharon Schwartz – The Writing on the Wall.
The article focuses on John Updike’s last novel, Terrorist, analyzing the main
character, Ahmad, in the light of the above mentioned questions and expectations.
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2. Ahmad and the devils’ America
Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy, the character that overtly dominates Updike’s novel,
Terrorist,
is the product of a red-haired American mother, Irish by extraction, and an Egyptian
exchange student whose ancestors had been baked since the time of the Pharaohs in
the hot muddy fields of the overflowing Nile3,

who has chosen Islamic righteousness of the “Straight Path” instead of being anormal teenager of the decayed America.
Willingly bombarded with Qur’an teachings and plainly denouncing the society
he lives in, Ahmad is likely to be perceived as the unhappy embodiment of a young
terrorist. The modality in which his portrait has been articulated is itself liable tosevere criticism, the majority of responses to Updike’s novel having been negative,
based on this very construction of the main character. Thus Robert Boyers4
perceives Ahmad as a “simple, single-minded” character, “never indiscreet andnever tormented” by any questions about himself or about the teachings hereceives.
Ahmad’s event life follows a common trajectory: he goes to school – New
Prospect High School in New Prospect, an industrial town in northern New Jersey,“a landscape of marshland and industrial slough supporting the decaying
remnants of once prospering immigrant-energized towns”5 –, works part-time at
Shop-a-Sec, establishes a rather normal relation with his only parent, Terry, andacceptably politely listens to the school guidance counselor’s musings about aproper education to continue, his world thus seeming “blandly familiar.”6
2.1. School, teachers and colleagues

Ahmad judges his girl colleagues based on Islamic standards, regarding them aseasy women since not fitting into the pattern of a decent dressing code and a properinteraction with their male colleagues. However, it is both female and malecolleagues that Ahmad profoundly despises due to their engagement insuperficiality and depravation, disregarding any morality and behavioural decency.
Ahmad’s teachers at college benefit the same prejudiced and lowering attitude
as his colleagues, or even worse, Ahmad applying his Islam – inspired indignities:[they] make a show of teaching virtue, but their shifty eyes and hollow voices betray
their lack of belief…they lack true faith; they are not on the Straight Path; they areunclean.”7

Referring to this, David Walsh remarks, “In Updike, the revulsion at thephysical deterioration bleeds into a repugnance with the population itself8 without
any justification or attempt at understanding being worked out fictionally.

380

Ecaterina Pătraşcu: History and Prejudice in John Updike’s Terrorist

Once a graduate, choosing further education by going to college would mean
being exposed to “corrupted influences”, following the trajectory of the American
student to be trained into the freedom of thinking – this is the perspective that
Shaikh Rashid, the imam, ominously forces on young Ahmad when the latter faces
the crucial choice stage in his life. Ahmad’s mother herself, when talking to theguidance counselor at New Prospect High School, Jack Levy, about her son’s
choice to become a truck driver, justifies his decision by disdaining the alternativeof following the pattern of an imperialist economic system rigged in favour of the“rich Christians”. Ahmad confesses to his mother his conviction – indirectly theimam’s - that the subjects taught at college reflect only the ‘sinful Western culture’,
teachers there being – unlike Rashid – materialists and full of cynicism. What
stands however as most important is that “more education, he feared, might takeaway his God.”92.2. American society and its values

America is stigmatized as being the profane culture of the unbelievers, a society forwhich materialism stands as the ruling principle, in which sex and goods are theonly values that sale. Ahmad’s exposure to Qur’an teachings is supplemented by aconstant choir of invectives addressed to the Americans: “infidels,” “Jewish
devils,” “the Zionist – dominated federal government,” “enemies of the true faith,”“selfish and materialistic consumers,” “sex – obsessed,” himself uttering ultimate
judgments as: “all unbelievers are our enemies”10 or “the Prophet said thateventually all unbelievers must be destroyed.”11 Behind all these invectives Boyers
remarks “the relative thinness of Updike’s political imagination” and the fact that
“Updike makes little effort to consider the critique of consumerist western societythat informs Ahmad’s cartoonish formulations.”12 Political ideas are given per se,with no intention of justification, platitudes of a self-understood discourse.
The influence of the ready-made judgments adopted by Ahmad reflects also in
the way in which he speaks, the reader experiencing the artificiality of a discoursethat hardly matches the profile of a young American teenager and therefore
recognizing in it more of Updike’s literariness than of Ahmad’s spontaneity:
Updike gives Ahmad a formal diction, a ‘pained stateliness’ that is redolent of many
hours of Koranic study and deep, intolerant cogitation. The effect is that whenever
Ahmad opens his mouth he sounds like a septuagenarian Indian aristocrat.13

For example, after being invited by Joryleen to her church, Ahmad retorts: “Youhave been gracious to me, and I was curious. It is helpful, up to a point, to know
the enemy.”14 Or, referring to his mother, he tells Charlie:
I think recently my mother has suffered one of her romantic sorrows, for the othernight she produced a flurry of interest in me, as if remembering that I was still there.
But this mood of hers will pass. (…) My father’s absence stood between us, andthen my faith, which I adopted before entering my teen years. 15381

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The same unnaturalness of discourse is remarked by Stephen Abell:
Ahmad talks like an autodidact immigrant (…) He feels no more real a person than
his unscrupulous imam, who is reduced to the contrasting status of movie-villain
Muslim, a distillation of sibilant malignancy and ostentatious zeal: ‘I know, theshadows are lengthening, the spring day outside our windows is pathetically dying.16

The American teenager’s typical ways of spending time – watching TV, goingto cinema and meeting the opposite sex – are acknowledged as admissible actions
by Ahmad since there is no mentioning against them in Islam; however, they areperceived as indecent assaults and faith menacing. Therefore, when watching TV,
he searches for “traces of God in this infidel society,”17 Rashid reinforcing
Ahmad’s already prejudiced perception, by declaring films to be sinful and stupid,
fancies of hell.
For Ahmad, America is prejudged as being the epitome of consumerism, with
its citizens trapped and lied into a policy of overbuying and getting indebted till
death. Therefore, the Americans’ mentality is the slaves’ one, Ahmad observing
slaves of drugs, of appetites, TV, slaves of the others’ corrupted thinking.
American abundance means only material opulence, while Americans areperceived as ‘greedy mouths’ which are to be shut by a hopeless death after a life
driven by material values. No afterlife is envisaged by such people and if it is,however, it is a wrongly designed one anyhow.
Obviously, the American ‘religion of freedom’ is connoted negatively,
American freedom meaning, for Ahmad, the individuals’ ignorance as to what canbe done with it and to what end. Freedom is, in fact, the lack of any unmah, adivine law inclusive structure that could mould people’s morality and establish
strict codes of behavior. The consequence is a discordant diversity, personal
perspectives upon the world, all being disregarded by the young and fanatic Ahmad
for whom freedom of any choice translates into the negative “Each for himself”,“God helps those who help themselves,” and “There is no God, no Judgment Day;
help yourself.”
In addition to this, the American spirit means hating your family and trying
whatever it takes to free yourself from it, exploding yet another unity that could
represent a nutshell of moral guidance.
American families are rotten. Even the parents conspire in this, welcoming signs of
independence from the child and laughing at disobedience. There is not that bonding
love which the Prophet expressed for his daughter Fatimah: Fatimah is part of mybody; whoever hurts her, has hurt me, and whoever hurts me has hurt God.18

Death itself has a different connotation than in Islam, representing a feared
presence from which the American “infidels” try to escape by doing everything toprevent aging.
It is not only the Americans that represent the target of Ahmad’s criticism, butalso his fellow Muslims living in America, those who do not ‘ardently’ embrace
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Islam but transform it into a coin of conforming to an ethnic identity. Ahmad rages
against the numberless man and women who formally declare their adherence toIslam in order to ensure their belonging to a social status and who thus do not makefrom Islam a personal experience of faith. For these, faith is more like a habit, “afacet of their condition of a marginal class, alien within a nation that continues toconsider itself white, Anglophone and Christian,”19 Ahmad distancing himself
from these “inadaptables.”Ahmad’s hatred of America, Boyers states, results not “in the main because of
its political principles but because his head has been filled with ideas that portraythe world as ugly and deceitful, a place of defilement and shame.”20 Since theAmerican reality does not conform to any of the preset principles Ahmad
propounds, it does not cohere at all either, its image being a farrago of dispersed
stances of activity and life: it is everything from pizza houses, nail shops, second –hand shops, gas stations, fast food chains, Bank of America, 877 – TEETH - 14, to
the Temple of the New Christians.
Though the conversation between Charlie Chehab and his father concerns
ardent issues such as the association of America with Satan and how much
America deserves to be punished for its sinful conduct – with Charlie’s father
praising the Americans’ traditional fair business spirit while Charlie underlying thelex talionis of American behavior in terms of success of any kind – Ahmad
displays a completely noli me tangere reaction when asked about his position,
stating that Americans “brag of freedom, but freedom to no purpose becomes akind of prison.”21 Judging Ahmad’s opinions and attitude to the devils’ America,
we could go along with David Walsh and say: “Ahmad is psychologically andsexually at odds with the world around him.”22
3. Ahmad and Islam’s saints
Shaikh Rashid’s – the imam preaching in the mosque located in an abandoned
dance studio above a bail bonds office – teachings are firmly directed to Ahmad’s
irrefutable indoctrination as an Islam fanatic. To serve this, his discourse isoriented in two directions: firstly, circumscribing America as the unbelievers’
sinful and reprehensible land and secondly, building up the organon of indubitablefaith in young Ahmad. Consequently, Ahmad’s discourse will soon reflect thelessons taught in the mosque. Opposed to the purposeless freedom as defining traitof American mentality, the overwhelming presence Allah, the only guide, plays thepivotal role into Ahmad’s young years. The Muslim discourse that Ahmad himself
delivers is the result of his constant ‘impregnation’ while at the mosque, Shaikh
Rashid gradually and steadily moulding the eleven year old boy into a devoted
fanatic teenager for whom “God is in me and by me” and for whom dying in thename of God is a “gift he cannot refuse.”
Updike’s portrait of Ahmad the believer builds on the circulated cliché of“being a Muslim – being a fanatic”; therefore the reader expects to hear what healready knows and associates with Qur’an followers. Besides denouncing all non383

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Muslim reality and identity as corrupted and sinful, to be destroyed without
remorse, (Rashid) Ahmad exposes his set of values and the rightful credo for an
acceptable existence. According to this, physical appearance is not a dimension of
one’s life to be emphasized since it otherwise translates into a selfish love foroneself which, according to the same logic, means competing with God.
Another value promoted refers to women’s purity, which Ahmad discusses
when involved in the relationship with Joryleen Grant, his fellow at college. Afteran ideologically different discourse focusing on “being good’ versus ‘feeling good’– being a good Muslim therefore dismissing ‘fun’ as his goal in life versus leading
the normal life of an American teenager, which means watching TV, going tocinema or meeting the opposite sex – Ahmad proclaims purity/virginity as a
purpose in itself, combining feeling good with being good and later refusing to
profit on Joryleen though money was paid for this. In fact, all activities heundergoes are conscripted into demonstrating his model Muslim status:‘Fun,’ as you put it, is not the point of a good Muslim’s life. I take lessons twice aweek in the language and lessons of the Qur’an. I attend Central High. I am on thesoccer team in the fall (…) I am a clerk at the Shop-a-Sec from twelve to eighteen
hours a week, and this can be ‘fun’, observing the customers and the varieties ofcostume and personal craziness that American permissiveness invites. 23

Values that lack in the American society – though in the mouth of Ahmad theremark on them seems rather artificial, a discourse he recites by heart – are respect
and proper conduct rules, generosity and abnegation, all culminating in thereligious dimension that would ponder profane materialism.
Last but not least, Islam means the fanatic discourse of Ahmad’s love for God.
Ahmad is “wrapped in his sensation of God standing beside him – so close as tomake a single, unique holy identity, closer to him than his neck vein, as the Qur’an
expresses it.”24 Starting from the premise that “I’m a good Muslim in a world
which mocks faith”, Ahmad transposes the imam’s teachings into what he thinks is
his own world vision. His “cartoonish formulations” 25 run as follows: “God is inme and by me,” “God is an invisible but palpable company,” “Except God, man
has no help or protection,” “My love for Allah is absolute.” Ahmad’s direction inlife follows closely the doctrine he is enwombed into: walking the Straight Path,
which is not an easy attempt when surrounded by the perspective of too many pathsin the American society, and performing Jihad, which is not necessarily an external
war to fight but rather an internal struggle.
The keynote of the novel, says Stephen Abell, is Ahmad’s whole hearted holiness(…) which Updike is desperately keen to emphasize, giving Ahmad thoughts like:‘The world is difficult because devils are busy in it, confusing things and making thestraight crooked’ or ‘they lack true faith; they are not on the Straight Path; they areunclean.’26

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Falsely convinced that his faith is rather chosen than inherited, with all theIslam values repeated by the imam and acknowledged as being genuine andreclaiming a model behavior, Ahmad naturally approaches the crux of the ideal
Muslim: the happiness of self-sacrifice in the name of God. When asked by Charlie
Chehab – the Lebanese for whom he is working as a truck driver at Excellency,
himself an Islam follower – if he is ready for Jihad, Ahmad’s answer pops up
automatically: “How couldn’t I be? The Prophet calls us for it in the Holy Book.”27
More explicit and, in Updike’s intention, more terrifying and explicatory for how
bad terrorists are – the answer to Charlie’s question, “Will you die for it?” proves
Ahmad’s ineluctable conviction: “Of course (…) if this is God’s will.”28 Within thesame line, Ahmad expresses his longing for Paradise which is waiting for therightful ones and where he could be a saint provided he…explodes the Lincoln
Tunnel. At this point, Ahmad has “no misgiving or reluctance about the crime heis to commit.”29
Updike’s portrait of Ahmad, in spite of the novelist’s sustained attempt at
realism – he correctly uses Koranic quotations and language – draws as“unnaturally reductive: the relentlessness of Ahmad’s piety is not contextualized byany other characteristics: he is allowed to stand for nothing other than his religion,
is no more than a Muslim metonymy.”30
4. Ahmad the American humanist
Receiving and assuming prejudiced ideas about both the world around him and thefaith he supposedly has chosen, Ahmad has little chances of personal growth. In
addition, the obsession of a single, consuming idea – that of being a good Muslim –insulates him from the experience of ordinary feelings, from a direct, unprejudiced
contact with reality. Ahmad is constructing a closed system while his behavior
resembles that of an “indoctrinated robot, disastrously enwombed in a pathetic anddelusional idea whose consequences he has no way of imagining.”31 This is thesensation that the reader experiences after being exposed to Ahmad’s discourses
both on America and on his faith.
However, Ahmad’s portrait is scattered with instances of personal approach tothe issues of religion, his becoming, and life in general. Referring to the religious
dilemmas, we should start with Ahmad’s wondering about God’s alluring so many
sinful believers into other religions, when He could simply show them the Straight
Path – a thought Ahmad considers devilish of him to have. Secondly, Ahmad refers
to God’s sadism and his lack of mercy when, in the third Sura, God is portrayed as
patient about the unbelievers’ growth in their sins. In addition to this, God isapproached personally, Ahmad offering a whole diatribe on what he thinks about
God’s loneliness and what he could do to comfort Him. Last but not least, Rashidis thought to use Paradise metaphors as a shield against reality, while the sinful
Joryleen can show genuine feelings. His theological queries culminate in therevelation about God as creator of Life and not as death originator: on the point ofpushing the button in his truck and thus exploding the Lincoln Tunnel, Ahmad
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remembers the 56th Sura – “We have created you, if you could only believe!” /“Have you noted the semen that you produce?” / “Did you create it, or did we?” –and refuses to defile God’s creation by causing death. David Walsh skepticallycomments on this:The work’s more or less happy conclusion, Ahmad’s “seeing the light” as it were,with Jack Levy’s assistance, is rendered impossibly flimsy and implausible byeverything before. Divine intervention? (…) This world does not contain an
adequate explanation for Ahmad’s trajectory.32

It is not only flimsy, but also somehow contradictory if we consider the end of
the novel, with Ahmad comparing God’s creatures, which he has just spared fromdeath, with animals and insects and bitterly accusing them of taking his God away:[the Manhattan pedestrians are] all reduced by the towering structures around themto the size of insects, by scuttling, hurrying, intent in the milky morning sun uponsome plan or scheme or hope they are hugging to themselves, their reason for living
another day, each impaled live upon the pin of consciousness, fixed upon selfadvancement and self-preservation. That and only that. 33

Disgust, frustration and despair are the only feelings that the reader can sense
after reading this paragraph, in total opposition with the previous ‘divine
revelation.’
Regarding the questions pertaining to his becoming, Ahmad, in spite of his
declared love and devotion to God as being his only purpose in life, expresses his
awe in front of the burden of having a life to live. Contrarily to “My love for Allahis absolute” and to the fact that he considers his life a gift from God which God
himself can take any time He wants, Ahmad envisages God’s presence as asuffocating “hanging on him,” the abasement associated with the presence of an‘invisible twin,’ making severe accusations to God’s preventing him fromdesigning any plan, hope or destination. Ahmad refers to “his future having been
amputated,” the lack of any vocation, while sleeping protected by the comfort
offered by his devotion to God.
After being tamed by Ahmad’s propagandistic discourse on religion and theAmerican society, the reader is surprisingly exposed to Ahmad’s bitter grudge
against the God he excessively praised: although he tries to pray five times a day,the Almighty has not shown any path to a vocation. Updike confuses the reader
since the construction of Ahmad as rebelling against his own previous assertions israther short, without justification and more important, without being finalized in away or another. The paradoxical situation is reinforced in a conversation between
Charlie and Ahmad: when the former promises Ahmad that he will make bigmoney if he keeps by his job, that of a truck driver, the latter questions the reasonsfor it, disregarding the perspective of being a consumer, just like the others, thepurpose of it being only feeding and dressing his body. Ahmad does not view life
as a purpose in itself, but as a gift from God which He chose to offer and which He
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can choose to take away any time. He also states that he feels pity for all creatures– bugs, flies and humans. The portrait that Updike attempts to draw for Ahmad –the young fanatic and the “American humanist” – does not stand convincingly, thelatter construction seeming rather artificial and without a detectable motivation. If
the personalized portrait is intended to bring some dynamics to the overall
impression on the main character, we dare say it is not a success, the elements
focused on being contradictory and lacking conviction.
5. Conclusions
Starting from the premise that a successful piece of writing dealing with such agrave issue as terrorism must analyze not only the response of the fanatical mind
but also the reasons that trigger such violent responses, in the tradition of
Dostoevsky, Conrad, and Lessing, Boyers judges Updike’s treatment of the issue as
faulty, remarking the lack of “the drama of contending ideas.” “Categorial
formulas” are attached to characters that do not engage in any controversy, but
simply utter their position to facts or worn-out ideas. In the same line, James Wood
discusses the lack of any sign of internal struggle:
the inevitable corrugations of religious existence in secular society, the awkward
ungleaming lumpiness, the comic obstacles, the shabby paradoxes – all these are
missing. Everything is too straightforwardly fanatical, too unsubtle. 34

The response to Updike’s novel seems not to match the intention and initialconviction expressed by the novelist in an interview to Lev Grossman from 2006:
when asked about the motivation behind writing a book about an 18-year-old
Islamic extremist, Updike justified:
I think it was the sense that I could see why Muslims would hate the West, and the
U.S. in particular, because so much of what we take pride in and enjoy tends tomilitate against a simple, ardent faith.35

Almost the same motivation appears in an interview to Charles McGrath of the
New York Times: “I think I felt I could understand the animosity and hatred whichan Islamic believer would have for our system.”36 Despite good intentions, theimpression is, as James Wood puts it,
It is the otherness of Islamicism that is missing in this book. Despite all the Koranic
homework, there is a sense that what is alien in Islam to a westerner remains alien to
John Updike. What he has discovered, yet again, is merely the generalized fluid of
God – plus – sex that has run throughout all his novels.37

Stephen Abell’s conclusion on Updike’s novel reduces it to “a political thriller,a plot-based potboiler, with a prescribed narrative conclusion. (…) The storyline is
not unrealistic, but it is sometimes unrealistically achieved.”38387

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Updike’s novel, dealing, by means of its main character, with the problematic ofterrorism – reality striking back and confronting fiction – cannot be said to bring a
new, changed perspective upon the relationship between history and imagination in
American literature, in comparison with pre-9/11 fiction. Most of the history/reality
facts are processed by means of prejudices and thus they do not cast a light upon
any reliable explanation or justification. Updike starts from the conviction that hecan convince the readers of the motivations behind a terrorist – to – be, but,unfortunately, the intercession proves artificial and too didactic.
NOTES
1Bernard Bergonzi (1995). Fictions of History. Routledge: London and New York, 34.
Stacey Olster (1989). Reminiscence and Re-Creation in Contemporary American Fiction.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 56.
3John Updike (2006). Terrorist. New York: Alfred A. Knopf , 9.
4
Robert Boyers (2006). “A Fanatical Mind.” Harper’s Magazine, vol. 313, issue 1874.
5
Robert Stone (2006). “Updike’s Other America.” The New York Times. Sunday Book Review, June
18.
6
Robert Boyers, cited work.
7
John Updike, cited work, 67.
8David Walsh (2006). “John Updike’s Terrorist.” World Socialist Website, August 25.
9John Updike, cited work, 49.
10
Ibidem, 65.
11
Ibidem, 66.
12
Robert Boyers, cited work.
13
James Wood (2006). “Jihad and the Novel.” New Republic, vol. 235, issue 1.
14
John Updike, cited work, 76.
15
Ibidem, 110.
16
Stephen Abell (2006). “John Updike’s Simplifications. Muslim metonymy in a plot-based
potboiler.” Times Literary Supplement, July 26.
17John Updike, cited work, 101.
18
Ibidem, 123.
19
Ibidem, 140.
20
Robert Boyers, cited work.
21
John Updike, cited work, 143.
22
David Walsh, cited work.
23
John Updike, cited work, 167.
24
Ibidem, 124.
25
Robert Boyers, cited work.
26
Stephen Abell, cited work.
27
John Updike, cited work, 177.
28
Ibidem, 182.
29
Robert Boyers, cited work.
30
Stephen Abell, cited work.
31
Robert Boyers, cited work.
32
David Walsh, cited work.
33
John Updike, cited work, 309.
34
James Wood, cited work.
35
Lev Grossman (2006). “Old Master in a Brave New World.” Time, vol. 167, issue 23, 64-68.
36
In David Walsh, cited work.
37
James Wood, cited work.
38
Stephen Abell, cited work.
2

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Ecaterina Pătraşcu: History and Prejudice in John Updike’s Terrorist

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abell, Stephen (2006). “John Updike’s Simplifications. Muslim metonymy in aplot-based potboiler.” Times Literary Supplement, July 26.
Bergonzi, Bernard (1995). Fictions of History. London and New York: Routledge.
Boyers, Robert (2006). “A Fanatical Mind.” Harper’s Magazine, vol. 313, issue
1874.
Grossman, Lev (2006). “Old Master in a Brave New World.” Time, vol. 167, issue23, 64-68.
Olster, Stacey (1989). Reminiscence and Re-Creation in Contemporary American
Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stone, Robert (2006). “Updike’s Other America.” The New York Times. Sunday
Book Review, June 18.
Updike, John (2006). Terrorist. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Walsh, David (2006). “John Updike’s Terrorist.” World Socialist Website, August25.
Wood, James (2006). “Jihad and the Novel.” New Republic, vol. 235, issue 1.

389

Acedia – the Anchoretic Bovarism.
Gustave Flaubert and Evagrius Ponticus*
Horia PĂTRAŞCU
University “Al.I. Cuza”, Iaşi,Department of Philosophy and Socio-Political Sciences

ABSTRACT
Starting from The Temptation of Saint Anthony, Gustave Flaubert’s literary work,and from the situation of its misunderstanding and negative reception which it faced
during its time, not to mention the later indifference, we set as the goal of this article
the cultural and historic recuperation of the emotion that constitutes the main objectof the Flaubertian work. The thesis of this article is that emotions are not ahistoricalor atemporal, but typical for a certain period of time, for an epoch or, more
precisely, for a historical world. That is the reason why Flaubert’s work was
rejected. It presupposed as self – understood a feeling, acedia, which, in fact, hadlong disappeared from people’s affective horizon. Our main landmark in thereconstruction of this feeling is Evagrius Ponticus. At the end of the article, we
contradict Gabriel Bunge, the author of a well-known work on acedia, who defends
the atemporality of emotions. An eloquent example of the situation in which awritten work can get starting from this presupposition, is the unhappy fate of
Flaubert’s The Temptation of Saint Anthony.
KEYWORDS: acedia, Bovarism, midday daemon, spiritual afflictions, spleen

1. The Temptation of Saint Anthony – the novel of a feelingIn the 19th century, on a trip to Northern Italy, the French writer Gustave Flaubert
was profoundly impressed by Brueghel the Elder’s Temptation of St. Anthony. The
powerful impact would not remain without consequences, being transfigured by
Gustave Flaubert in a literary work with the same title. Considered by its author as“the work of my entire life” both because of the fact that, though of small
dimensions, its writing took twenty-four years and three or four variants, andbecause of the special place Flaubert allotted it within his entire literary production,
The Temptation of Saint Anthony shows, with a considerable artistic force, theassault of the seven capital sins on the much tempted saint. The first to hit him is
the sin of acedia, to which the French writer – known for his careful attitude towords and reality and whose observations are supplemented in this case by a vastand minute research of the historical documents – develops all nuances, plays oflights and shadows, there resulting a photographic portrait of a remarkable artistic
craftsmanship.
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Flaubert’s piece of writing did not benefit his contemporaries’ favourable
reception, or a posterior valorisation. Placed in the register of the author’s “minor
works,” The Temptation has not managed to draw the attention of the philosophersand historians of emotion, or the interest of the literary historians and critics. The
relatively small piece of writing was even considered “incomprehensible” by someof his contemporary critics, generating “implacable boredom, a boredom which is
not French, the boredom created by Goethe’s second Faust with which it
resembles” (Barbey d’Aurevilly), “a topsy-turvy” (Georges Pétilleau), “animpiety,” “a caricature of history and a falsification of poetry” (Saint-RenéTallandier)1. An explanation could be found in the intermediary or interdisciplinary
status of this work, both literary and philosophical, both secular and religious. The
readers, especially those who are professional, are off the track or even scandalized
when they can no longer identify certain typologies within a piece of writing: thediscrepancy between their reading grills and the work will fatally lead to thelatter’s rejection and not at all to the former’s re-evaluation and enlargement, even
if the object subject to criticism is Flaubert’s production.
However, what happens is typical for what is commonly accepted as thecreator’s fate. The creator is generally perceived as the one who surpasses the spiritof his time, thus being subdued to the injustice of the judgment in the case of those
who do not manage to stand to the magnanimity of new visions or new manners ofartistic expression. What is different in the case of Flaubert’s work is that The
Temptation of Saint Anthony has not been rehabilitated even now. The main reasonof this oblivion is constituted by the very subject of Flaubert’s writing. It is not thenewness of the subject that provokes the readers’ perplexity or negative reception,
but its obsoleteness. Acedia, the feeling that fills the pages of The Temptation…,
the daemon with which Saint Anthony fights, is an out-of-date one, a feeling which
does not say almost anything to anyone. Except for the historians and philosophers
who deal with the study of emotions, acedia is a decayed emotion for everyone. If
Flaubert managed to experience it in such a way as to produce an outstanding
artistic result, it does not mean that emotions are ahistorical, that they transcend thepassing of time or that they are kept in an ancestral and atemporal memory of thehuman psychism. On the contrary, this implies the following consequences: certain
emotions identified with an epoch up to defining it, can recede only accidentally inanother, and only in the case of some exacerbate and refined sensibilities as thegreat creators’ ones. Thus Flaubert could re-live on his own an emotion that nolonger had anything in common with the “affective paradigm” of his times,
without, however, this emotion being understood and experienced by his
contemporaries. In an epoch of the “spleen,” it is close to impossible to “taste” aliterary work that speaks about the daemon attacking the Christian anchorite under
the guise of boredom. It is equally difficult for us, contemporary to anguish and its
thinkers and artists, used as we are rather to the experience of the void plenitude
and the vacuity of being.
Here it is then Saint Anthony haunted by an entire cortege of an emotion almost
incomprehensible nowadays.
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In a moment in which “in an instant of clearing, there passes a triangular flockof birds, like a metal piece whose bounds are bating,” Anthony, looking at them,exclaims: “O! How I would follow them! So many times have I contemplated, likenow, enviously, the long boats, whose sails look like wings, especially when they
carried away those who used to be my guests. How wonderful a time we had spent
together, what delight of the soul!”
After this tirade that almost makes you feel the enticing perfume of world
diversity, Flaubert’s character is brought back to his poor reality by the appearance
around him of some… jackals. In his sad solitude, he feels like patting a jackal
which is attentively looking at him but which finally runs, scared, when it is called;
this makes Anthony exclaim:
O! What could be more beautiful than bending palm rods (…), weaving wicker
baskets and mats and then giving them away to wanderers to get back a bread crustin which you break your teeth. O! Poor me! What endless pangs! I’d rather die! No
more! Enough! Enough!

In a deplorable state of mind, Saint Anthony “stamps his feet and swirls within
the big stone corral, almost running, and then stops gasping with tiredness, bursts
into crying, lying on a side. (…) ‘How weak I am, o, my Lord!’ Finally, the“daemon” attack ends with Anthony’s cry: “I find no reason in tormenting my soul.
I have nothing to do... absolutely nothing to do!” (Flaubert, 1977: 18-22)
Many of Flaubert’s readers would have remained flabbergasted in face of theluxuriant description of a state that did not tell them anything. Indeed, in order tobe able to read such a description, to understand it, it is absolutely necessary tohave access, either intuitively, or mediated, culturally, to the “affective” categories
that operate in this text. Or, from the intuitive perspective, the recuperation ofacedia which is described here is no longer possible today. Both the backgroundand the context no longer exist, the “historic” world that used to make possible theappearance and experience of such a feeling is no longer present nowadays.
Therefore we have access only to the mediated, cultural approach, by reviewing the
texts concerning acedia. This is our aim from now on, surveying the ideas about
acedia, of the one who was unanimously considered the “founder” of this emotion,
Evagrius Ponticus.
2. Evagrius Ponticus – “Founder” of an emotion
Born in 345, in Ibora, a small town from Pontus, Evagrius had Basil the Great andGregory of Nazianz as his masters, due to whom he grew familiar with Origen’s
hermeneutics.
Evagrius’s existential trajectory is worthy of being considered because it isintimately related to his enormous contribution to the birth and development of theacedia concept. Evagrius comes from the appreciated circle of the religious elitesof his time, being highly praised for his remarkable culture and his sophistication.
He is an expert in the Origenist technique of interpretation of the Scriptures. After
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he had to flee from Constantinople due to a love affair, Evagrius entered Jerusalem
in the Melania the Elder’ s saloon, who advised him to take the vows in order toheal from a terrible affection (most probably a psychical one). Firstly he left for thedesert of Nitria, fifty kilometers south to Alexandria, where he lived between 383
and 385, and then he further advanced into the desert, eighteen kilometers south, ina place called the “sancta” in which there lived few anchorites who used to meet
only on Saturday and Sunday for the liturgy. (Bădiliţă, 2003: 16)
He stayed there for fourteen years4, until his death. His schedule is a strict one,he feeds only on bread and water, and he sleeps only a third of the night, the rest
being dedicated to meditation. “He built up a small deambulatory in his cell.
During the day, in order to fight the midday torpidity (the midday daemon, acedia),
he used to walk for hours in this deambulatory.”5
Evagrius Ponticus is a real “existential synthesis.” Firstly, he manages to bring
together the Greek philosophical tradition (Platonic and Neo-Platonic) and the
Egyptian monasticism. Secondly, he is a complex personality, a cultivated man
who chooses to live the simple and secluded life of the anchorites. Finally, within
him there fights and complements each other the practical spirit and the Gnostic
one, asceticism and contemplation.
According to Evagrius, the human soul is made up of three parts: the appetentpart (epithymia), the passionate/temperamental part (thymos) and the intellect(nous). Unlike Plato who considers that the second faculty can ally with theintellect in order to resist the impulses of the appetent part, Evagrius isolates theintellect, considering it opposed to the other two parts. The soul must obtainapatheia, the old Stoic ideal, and for this it has to fight the passions triggered by
the daemons. Evagrius systematizes them, there resulting the famous list of thecapital sins, initially eight. Eventually, after acedia was assimilated to simple
laziness in the John Cassian’s list of the eight sins, Gregory the Great, taking overJohn Cassian’s list in Moralia, replaced acedia with envy; then, eliminating pride
from the series of the “simple” capital sins and conferring it the “supreme sin”
status, he produced for the first time the list of the seven capital sins. John of theDamascus will, however, maintain the list of the eight capital sins6. Assimilating
acedia with laziness is explained by the fact that Cassian’s list was addressed
mainly to hermits for whom acedia, mainly an anchoretic temptation, was
impossible not to visit them.7
The list of the eight capital sins includes: greediness (gastrimargia), whoredom(porneia), love for money (philargyria), sadness (lype), anger (orge), acedia(akedia), vainless glory (kenodoxia), arrogance (hyperephania).
The sin that ensured Evagrius’s celebrity in time, at least in the monastic circles, isacedia. Chapter 12 from The Practical Treatise analyzes it minutely, offering us aremarkable ‘clinical description’: ‘The daemon of acedia, which is also called the
midday daemon, is the most appeasing of all…’8393

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Siegfried Wenzel asserts that in the present state of the knowledge that we have
we must accept the assertion according to which Evagrius was the first to formulate
the doctrine of the capital sins in a clear and systematic way.
3. Acedia – “airy friendship, pottering about/along one’s own steps, hate ofwork pleasure, accomplice to sorrow.”
There are six places in the Evagrian work in which we can detect descriptions ofacedia: “Nine mischiefs and nine virtues in contrastive descriptions,” “On the eight
thoughts,” “The Practical Treatise,” “On the Difference between Passions andThoughts,” “On need and quietness in the monastic life,” “The Antiretic.”
Following these, we are able to draw out the defining traits of this spiritualexperience as it was received and commented on by this “Freud of late Antiquity.” 9
Acedia isairy friendship, pottering about one’s own steps, hate of work pleasure, fight against
peace, laziness at praying time, relaxation of asceticism, dozing before time,
returning sleep, burden of madness, hate of sanctum, enemy to endeavors, opposite
to perseverance, muzzle to meditation, not learning the Scriptures, accomplice tosorrow, a clock to hunger.

Opposed to this vice, the virtue of patience (hypomone) is “cut to acedia, deletionof thoughts, care of death, meditation about the cross, (…) weapon of endeavors,
good tiredness, and sketch of virtues.”10
Patience is the anchor that the soul of the anchorite must throw in the terra firmaof the faith in God. It is the virtue that gives weight to a soul that acutely feels an“unbearable lightness of being.” Without this counterbalance, the anchorite can be
swept away, moved to and fro. Without a fulcrum, the soul of the anchorite isblown in all directions. Without God, the creature returns to the nothingness fromwhich it was created. We can say that acedia separates the composite of thecreature from its godly part, leaving behind its nothingness.
Acedia is the lack of intension of the soul, but a lack of intension that does not havein itself what is adversary to being and that does not stand courageous against
passions. (…) “The cloud without water is uselss” (Jd 12), and reason (nous) which
is not patient is hunted by the spirit of acedia. (…) The spirit of acedia banishes thehermit out of his home, while the one who is patient will always anchor. / The one
prey to acedia sets as a goal to visit the ill, but this is a way of self-satisfaction. (…)
A pale of wind bends a weak plant, while imagining a departure attracts the one preyto acedia. / A well-rooted tree is not moved/bent by strong winds, while acedia does
not bend the soul well set./ the wandering hermit is a May bush in the desert; quiet
for a second and, unwillingly, he is carried again from place to place. 11

To fruit, the hermit has to plant his roots the earth of the sky and not to search
for the sky on earth: “The plant which is moved in a new place does not fruit, while394

Horia Pătraşcu: Acedia - the Anchoretic Bovarism. Gustave Flaubert and Evagrius Ponticus

the wandering hermit does not grow virtue.”12 Acedia is a kind of spiritual
licentiousness, a concupiscence of the spirit.
The ill is not satisfied with a single dish, just like the hermit prey to acedia who is
not satisfied with a single thing. / The pleasure man is not content with one woman
only, while the hermit prey to acedia is not satisfied with a single cell.13

Tormented by too big a wish to be satisfied with only one object, the one
afflicted by acedia is caught in an inner swirl of impulses, intentions that almost
never have the strength of concretizing in a project:
The eye of the one suffering from acedia ceaselessly fixes on the windows while his
mind (dianoia) fancies the guests to come; the door creaks and he jumps; he hears avoice and he bends over the window and he never leaves until he sits down,
torpidly. / when the one prey to acedia reads, he yawns a lot and easily falls asleep;
he rubs his eyes and straights his hands, looking away from the book, at the walls.
Looking back again, he reads for a short while and, leafing the book, he impatiently
searches how it ends; he counts the pages (…); shutting the book, he puts it under
his pillow and he falls asleep, not soundly, since hunger wakes his soul up andmakes it show its cares.14

An extremely interesting aspect is represented by the very apparent
contradiction between a lack of soul intension, of psychic tension, and the extreme
external activity. Evagrius always notices the conjunction between the relaxation of
the “interior arc” and the ceaseless agitation of the hermit. The disorganizedspiritual energy is immediately translated in a series of disordered movements,
lacking finality, half performed. This gives the unmistakable character of acedia:
its double nature of lapse and furore, idleness and explosion, simultaneous
renunciation to everything and longing for all that exists. Acedia is a kind of
furious coma, spiritual epilepsy, in which the lack of “spiritual consciousness” or“spiritual storm” the hermit is caught in manifests by means of numberless somatic
convulsions.
The hermit prey to acedia is dilatory when it comes to praying and he no longer
utters the words; since as the ill does not bear heavy burdens, in the same way theone prey to acedia no longer performs what God says carefully; the former
undermines the power of the body, while the latter rebounds the strain of his soul.15

The spiritual energy released by acedia, an energy that erupts with an immense
force ensured by the separation from God can be reorganized by reintroducing
ponder and patiently taking back on praying. In terms of faith, entropy isreversible.
Acedia is healed by perseverance and by doing everything carefully and fearful ofGod. / Settle your measure in each and every thing and do not deviate before ending395

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
it. Pray with understanding and stay focused, and the spirit of acedia will leaveyou.16

4. The fight with the “midday daemon”
In the Practical Treatise,
The daemon of acedia, which is also called the “midday daemon”, appears as “themost appeasing of all. It flings on the hermit at about four in the afternoon and itbeats about the soul until around eight. Firstly, it makes the sun seem as if hardly
moving or even being still, while the day had fifty hours. Then, it makes him stare at
the windows, forcing him out of the cell, to search if it takes much for the sun toreach nine o’clock, or to search for another hermit around. Besides all these, acedia
triggers hatred to the place where he leads his life, to life itself and hand work, andalso to the fact that love deserted all his brothers and he has no one to call for help.
And, if during one of these days, someone made the hermit sad, the daemon profitson this to increase his hate. Then it makes him long for other places, where he could
easier find what he needs, where he would work without so much strain, but gaining
more. Being liked by God does not depend on a particular place; you can pray to
God from everywhere. To all these, the daemon adds the memory of his natal homeand of his former life; it exposes how long life is, bringing in front of the hermit all
the afflictions of asceticism. In a word, the daemon pulls all the threads so that thepoor hermit, leaving his cell, should run away. This daemon is not closely followedby any other: a state of quietness and happiness invade the soul after the battle
ends.17

In Chapter 35 from the Practical Treatise, Evagrius tries again to split, this timedichotomically, the issue of the passions: “the passions of the body are cut by
restraining; those of the soul, by spiritual love.” Only that, again, it is hard to
decide what kind of passion is that that combines those of the body with those of
the soul and which makes the hermit search for the bodily bread in order to satisfy
the hunger for the Word of God.18 Neither entirely bodily, nor totally spiritual,acedia falls under the head of the species found in the middle, as its surname tells –“the midday daemon”. Unlike the majority of the daemons who, like the light ofthe sun at dawn or at sunset, projected over the world, do not manage to touch but asingle part of the soul, the midday daemon, like the moment of the zenith, has a
global action, “overwhelming the entire soul and suffocating the mind.”19 Nothing
escapes this solar disaster, this bane of light. The image of the de-tensioned arc
used many times by Evagrius to describe acedia is extremely significant. If archingwith the arch of faith could divide the archmen into skilled and less skilled ones,
the moment in which the energy necessary to drawing the arch lacks is the one thatannihilates this dichotomy. It is the moment of energy lack, of losing interest andin-tension, it is the “midday soul sleep” that makes all differences disappear andbring all back to a primordial equality.
It can no longer be about missing the target, or about deviating from it or abounce, but about a fatal de-tensioning of the string: the believer has no longer the396Horia Pătraşcu: Acedia - the Anchoretic Bovarism. Gustave Flaubert and Evagrius Ponticus

power to draw the string of the soul and to fix the arrow of the mind to God, andmost of the times the arch itself remains untouched, deserted. Attention is
distracted by the least perceptible sounds and by the less significant purposes: as if
he always forgot what he is looking for, the acedic man believes, for a second, withevery object that falls under his eyes that he really found it, continuously retaking
the vain effort of a blind search.
In the Practical Treatise there are also mentioned the remedies for acedia: onethat consists in a so called split of the soul into two, one that caresses and theanother that calls for caresses, in this affective split there being found the autarchy
that must define the hermit, the need for compassion being solved in the sameregister of self-determination20, the second that asserts again the efficiency of therecourse to the virtue of patience. In fact, patience is literally a virtue, a manly
attitude, an open opposition to the attack of the midday daemon; therefore the “intension” is reconstructed by imagining the whole experience as a fight21. We haveto remember, in this context, that the same firm recommendation of not leaving hisplace can be found in Plotinus’s Enneads.
Longing for going away must be directed vertically by a turning back of themind, and not horizontally, in a ceaseless movement of the body. The aspect which
we should pay attention to, Plotinus and Evagrius say is the illusion we could fallprey to by giving the highest soul necessity a worldly solution. Man’s true desire is,according to Plotinus, to evade from down-here, which means that the trajectory ofevasion is not “anywhere”, “somewhere else”, but only “upwards”, in a single
point in which all the places of this world converge and diverge from. In the sameway, in Evagrius, “the emigration to God” is the final purpose, man’s supremeneed which the midday daemon falsifies and embezzles, transforming it in theneedy man’s eyes in the perspective of a continuous migration from one place toanother. In other words, to an ascending tendency, the midday daemon answers in
the terms of horizontality, while to a “levitation” force – in terms of gravitation.
But this inversion – the only one the midday daemon is capable of – does nothing
but increase the longing for going away, the sensation of lack and discontent. Oncein the hermit, the daemon knows, like a virus nowadays, to self-reproduce lending
its genetic information to the healthy cells. The change of plans leads to a perpetual
torment, perfectly comparable to that of the son who, asking for bread from hisfather, would be given just stones, and, when asking for fish, he would be given asnake; asking for an egg, he would be given a scorpion. 22
Another place in the Evagrian work where we find a description of acedia is On
Need and Quietness in the Monachal Life.23 Here, after the hermit is advised not to
get imbued with others’ food lest he should create a dependence link to their“table,” thus losing the quietness of their solitude, living in the cell is comparedwith the process of wine making: if the wine stays in the same place, “it becomes
clear and scented” – on the contrary, if you change its place, “the wine blurs anddarkens.” In the same way, the hermit has to stay “in the same place” lest he should“sprawl his mind and blur his quietness.” It is also necessary to “give your handssome work” day and night because “the daemon of idleness bursts in at the hour of397

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

work-less”, being true that the “soul of the idle has desires.” This fragment
develops and strengthens what was already sketched in chapter 6 of the same workin which the hermit is impulsed not to let
the desire of wandering defeat his determination, since ‘wandering, together withcraving, affect the mind which lacks wickedness’. Many temptations appear here.
For fear of making any mistake, you should stay in your cell adamantly.24

5. The midday daemon and the dawn daemon. Acedia and the Wanderer
In On the difference of passions and thoughts, Evagrius brings into discussion a
daemon, called the “Wanderer,” resembling the midday daemon very much, but
who has some peculiarities, among which the most important being that ofappearing at dawn. Less violent than the one patronizing acedia, the Wanderer
seems to prepare or, better, to weaken the field for the midday “crisis.” For the time
being, it is satisfied with acting in a diffused, kind way, enshrouding the hermit in astate of sweet dreaming, of quiet reverie. 25 Hence its name too: the hermit “travels”
imaginarily from place to place, imagining that he engages in conversations with
old acquaintances, thus distancing from his duties. Unlike the midday daemon who
seems determined to destroy, the Wanderer stops at distracting; the perspectives
with which he allures the hermit are easy and attractive, and not grave and ultimate
as in the case of acedia; away from summoning the one it falls on to leave his cellor to even quit monastic life, to consider himself cursed or to profane God, it justpretends that in the imaginary meetings there appears no passion. Its means are
persuasive, not dissuasive. Evagrius’ recommendation is not to try to combat it
directly, but to allow it one or two days so that we could become aware and unveil
its tricks, since it is so diffuse and engulfing. 26 If acedia ends in “a state ofquietness and an unspeakable happiness” that “invade the soul,” the victory over
the Wanderer “is followed by a sound and heavy sleep, the sensation of a huge
stupor of the eyelids, numberless yawns, and burdened shoulders.”27 All these are
dissipated by praying to the Holy Spirit.
That the Wanderer prepares the attack of acedia, like an epileptic aura, issuggested by the fact that in the same Evagrian work the immediately following
chapter is dedicated to the daemon which “makes the soul indifferent” whose namethe author is afraid of uttering. This daemon, unquestionably the midday daemon,
determines, at its approach, the soul to leave “its natural state” and to abjure “thelove and fear of God, the sin being no longer a sin, iniquity no more an iniquity; heconsiders damnation an empty word; he laughs at the fire that makes Earth shake;and even if he admits God, he disobeys his rules.” The clock of the monastic statesof soul/mind advances from the hour of a pleasant distraction, of relaxation, of
thoughts-wandering and of the imaginary trip to the hour of monastic life
abjuration, of apostasies, of the blind desire of running away, of total
discouragement. A memorable image is built by Evagrius, referring to acedia.
Thus, the one prey to the daemon of indifference does not take into consideration
any piece of advice or blame, but it behaves like the “pig which shuts its eyes and398

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passes through the fence hole.”28 Here Evagrius reminds us the words from
Matthew: “unless these days had been cut short, no one would be saved.” (Matthew
24, 22)29
6. The thoughts of acedia or the ascetic’s “bovarism”
The sixth place in which we find the problem of acedia debated at large is “TheAntiretic or the replies against the eight thoughts.” “Antirrhesis” means reply, andthe whole piece of writing suggests a method of combating “thoughts” by acollection of replies from Scriptures or the writings of the Holy Parents. As it is notalways easy to find the right reply, Evagrius singles out each thought and, perusing
the forms it can take or the arguments it can use, quotes, against it, the Word ofGod, either in the already uttered variant, or in the inspired one. The model here is
obviously a Christic one, since, tempted in the desert, “He did not discuss with theenemy, as Eve had done, but he simply opposed devil’s word with God’s word,
thus making the tempter mute.”30 In an epistle, Evagrius invokes David in terms of
the reply method efficiency:
Mind has to be courageous in front of the enemy, as David shows, who mimics
voices as from the devils’ mouth, after which he combats them. When the daemons
say: ‘When will he die and his name will pass?’ (Ps 42, 6) he replies: ‘I shall not die,but I shall be alive and retell God’s things.’ (Ps 117, 17). And again, when the
daemons say, ‘Move into the mountains, like a bird!’ (Ps 10, 1), he replies: ‘Because
He is my God, my Savior and my Support; I shall not falter more.’ (Ps 61, 3)
Therefore, observe the voices that combat each other and love victory, imitate Davidand pay attention to yourself!31

Therefore, the thoughts inspired by the daemon of acedia are fifty-seven. Theyintercept different hypostases of the midday daemon, there delimitating almost
picturesquely the angles from which he can attack, for a complete warning andpreparing of the possible confrontation. Obviously, it is about a battle of thethoughts, a fight which requires a superior heroism to the one necessary in the caseof a common one. We can epitomize into three large phalanxes the soldiers that the
midday daemon sends against the tried hermit:
1. The thoughts directed against his living place and daily habits (the run awayfrom the cell, idleness, aversion to daily activities, the desire to visit other places
and to see other people under different pretexts)
2. The thoughts directed against the close ones (the feeling of solitude and thelack of love and compassion from his brothers, commenting against the avva)
3. Thoughts directed against himself (discouragement, despair, the lack of faithin his own redemption.

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7. The (In)actuality of an emotion restored to its rights
In the chapter dedicated to the manifestations of acedia, Gabriel Bunge makes anextremely interesting parallel between the affective states of the hermit and thoseof the modern man. For example, considering work, especially its monotony, as thesource of discomfort, this being frequently met nowadays: the daily domesticities
leave the modern man “free for something else,” making him prey to the void of
his freedom. But it is not only about work with its monotony; it is also the housewith its stability, the environment with its permanence, in a word, it is the fury
against his own habitat. “Anywhere else” seems to be the motto of the one
overwhelmed by acedia. Obviously, this “external” instability is closely
accompanied by an interior one: the inability to get involved in any activity, theimpossibility to focus on something and get it through. Gabriel Bunge’s idea can becontinued by asserting that both the hermit and the modern man feel empty ofthemselves, and they search for pretexts to evade from this captivity into
nothingness, from this incarceration into the void. But it is not only about a derealization feeling, as psychiatry explains; here we talk about un-being, a feelingwhich probably only philosophy can explain and use, the feeling of the “deficiencyof being,” the one by means of which people feel that they exist without actuallyexisting, that “by seeing, they do not see and by hearing, they cannot hear orunderstand.”32 If there is a feeling of reality, unmistakably there is one of being as
well, this being affected in the case of acedia and of the other forms of sadness.
Continuing the analogy between the affective states of the acedious hermit andthose that can touch the modern man, Gabriel Bunge also refers to the modern man
who falls prey to its own void which he tries to fill by blaming his fellows, superior
or simple colleagues, for feeling it. The hermit remembers all the injustices hesuffered, all the offences, the lack of affection proved by the others, and considers
that these are the causes that make him feel so forlorn and decayed. The modernman, even if he is married and has a family, does follow the same behavior: he also
blames his life partner, and even more: he blames all people he met, lamenting overthe mischance of having been born, ignoring the fact that theenemy here is not the institution, the partner, the colleague or anyone else, but his
own wounded self, as a consequence of that ‘love of himself’ (philautia) in which
Evagrius sees the spring of all the eight generic ‘thoughts.’33

Finally, following the order in which we have announced the phalanxes of the
midday daemon, there come the turn of the thoughts directed against one’s own
person, thoughts that evidently culminate in the thought of committing suicide.
After he sees that all his saving and evading attempts have failed, that neither thechange of the place nor his fellows’ correction have helped him at all, the hermit,
like the modern man, leaves himself prey to an immense discouragement, to a total
depression that eventually bring him in front of the irrepressible desire ofextinction. “Suicide is nothing else than the last despaired attempt of taking refuge
400Horia Pătraşcu: Acedia - the Anchoretic Bovarism. Gustave Flaubert and Evagrius Ponticus

into the void once faced with the internal void, a ‘solution’ to the conflict, which
Evagrius explicitly rejects.” Gabriel Bunge concludes that
acedia is an omnipresent phenomenon, linked in a certain way to the very humancondition. Time, place and life circumstances change only its concrete
manifestations, the phenomenon being, in its essence, atemporal.34

Unfortunately, this is not the impression we also share. Gabriel Bunge is wrong
when he sees in acedia an atemporal, out of history phenomenon. Acedia is anemotion that corresponds to a closed historic epoch. The recuperation of thisemotion, maybe its phenomenological reconstruction and thus the intuition of what
this emotion implies, involves necessarily a recuperation of the data andinformation which we have and also an adequate interpretation of these.
8. Conclusions
At the beginning of this article we have exposed and commented on the obstacles
that the Flaubertian work met, a work whose fundamental error consists in having
assumed as self-understood the emotion it tackles with. Acedia, however,disappeared from the affective horizon of the human being and it cannot berecuperated but in a mediated way, by an entire cultural detour.
A common-sense remark also tells us that acedia is not a current emotion. Its
name does not recur in the usual, common speech, nor is it the subject of any
psychiatric or psychological treatise. Completely out of the common usage and thepresent scientific vocabulary, acedia remains the name of an affective phenomenon
available only in a certain historical period, which we can no longer understandunless we hermeneutically reconstruct that epoch.
On the other hand, to speak about the actuality of an emotion, whose name is,evidently, gone, you should assume that it is only the phenomenon – one among
many – of an affective essence still present. No matter how we could call thisessence, only by sending to it can we compare acedia with the spleen of the modernboredom. Acedia itself cannot be the name of this essence. Given the fact that the
feeling of sadness is considered a primary negative one, this can be the affective
essence of both acedia and the modern spleen or any other forms of living andexperiencing the void.
NOTES* Mulţumiri: Finanţarea s-a realizat de către Programul Operaţional Sectorial Dezvoltarea
Resurselor Umane, prin proiectul „Dezvoltarea capacităţii de inovare şi creşterea impactului
cercetării prin programe post-doctorale” POSDRU/89/1.5/S/49944.
(‘Acknowledgements: Funding was made by Human Resources Development Operational
Programme, under the project “Capacity development for innovation and growth impact postdoctoral research programs” POSDRU/89/1.5/S/49944.’)
1
Cf. Irina Mavrodin (1977). “Prefaţă” to Gustave Flaubert, Ispitirea Sfântului Anton. Bucureşti:Univers.

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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
2

Gustave Flaubert (1977). Ispitirea Sfântului Anton. Bucureşti: Univers, 18-22.
Cristian Bădiliţă (2003). “Viaţa şi scrierile lui Evagrie din Pont – un continuu exerciţiu spiritual”. In:
Evagrie Ponticul, Tratatul practic. Gnosticul, Iaşi: Polirom, 16.
4
According to other sources, sixteen. Cf. Gabriel Bunge, “Introducere” to Despre cele opt gânduri…
In: Evagrie Ponticul (2006). În luptă cu gândurile. Despre cele opt gânduri ale răutăţii şi Repliciîmpotriva lor. Sibiu: Deisis.
5
Ibidem, 19.
6
Cf. Cristian Bădiliţă, cited work, 59-60.
7Ibidem, 26.
8
Ibidem, 25.
9Gabriel Bunge, cited work, 43.
10
Evagrie Ponticul (2006). “Nouă răutăţi şi nouă virtuţi în descrieri contrastive”. In: În luptă cu
gândurile. Despre cele opt gânduri ale răutăţii şi Replici împotriva lor. Sibiu: Deisis, 60-61.
11
Evagrie Ponticul (2006). “Despre cele opt gânduri”. In: În luptă cu gândurile. Despre cele opt
gânduri ale răutăţii şi Replici împotriva lor, Sibiu: Deisis, 2006, 92-93.
12
Ibidem, 94.
13
Idem.
14
Ibidem, 94-95.
15
Ibidem, 95.
16
Idem.
17
Evagrie Ponticul (2003). Tratatul practic. Gnosticul. Iaşi: Polirom, 69.
18“Not only with bread will man live, but with all God’s words” (Matthew, 4: 4)
19
Evagrie Ponticul, cited work, p. 92.
20
Ibidem, 85.
21
Ibidem, 87.
22
Cf. Luke, 11, 11-13.
23
In Evagrie Ponticul, Scrieri alese, Bucureşti: Herald, f.a, 73-75.
24
Ibidem, 71-72.
25
Despre deosebirea patimilor şi gândurilor. In: Evagrie Ponticul, Scrieri alese, Bucureşti: Herald,
Bucureşti, f.a. p. 89.
26
Ibidem, 98-90.
27
Tratatul Practic, 12.
28
Ibidem, 92.
29
Ibidem.
30
Gabriel Bunge, “Comentariu spiritual la Prolog”. In: Evagrie Ponticul (2006). În luptă cu
gândurile. Despre cele opt gânduri ale răutăţii şi Replici împotriva lor. Sibiu: Deisis, 211.
31
Ep 11, 2 cit. in Gabriel Bunge, “Comentariu spiritual la Prolog”. In: Evagrie Ponticul (2006). Înluptă cu gândurile. Despre cele opt gânduri ale răutăţii şi Replici împotriva lor. Sibiu: Deisis,
205.
32
Matthew, 13, 13-14.
33
G. Bunge (2001). Acedia, Plictiseala şi terapia după avva Evagrie Ponticul sau sufletul în luptă cu
demonul amiezii. Sibiu: Deisis, 90.
34
Ibidem, 103.
3

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Aprobarea Sfîntului Sinod, Societatea Biblică Interconfesională din România.
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exerciţiu spiritual.” In: Evagrie Ponticul, Tratatul practic. Gnosticul, Iaşi:Polirom.
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Horia Pătraşcu: Acedia - the Anchoretic Bovarism. Gustave Flaubert and Evagrius Ponticus

Bunge, Gabriel (2001). Akedia, Plictiseala şi terapia după avva Evagrie Ponticul
sau sufletul în luptă cu demonul amiezii. Sibiu: Deisis.
Evagrie Ponticul (2003). Tratatul practic. Gnosticul. Iaşi: Polirom.
——— (2006). În luptă cu gândurile. Despre cele opt gânduri ale răutăţii şiReplici împotriva lor. Sibiu: Deisis.
——— (f.a.). Scrieri alese. Bucureşti: Herald.
Flaubert, Gustave (1977). Ispitirea Sfântului Anton. Bucureşti: Univers.
Larchet, Jean-Claude (2001). Terapeutica bolilor spirituale. Bucureşti: Sophia.
Wenzel, Siegfried (1967). The Sin of Sloth: Acedia In Medieval Thought andLiterature. Chapell Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.

403

Les noms communs issus des noms propres
dans la terminologie de la géologie
Silvia PITIRICIU
Université de Craiova,
Faculté des Lettres

ABSTRACT: Proper Names Changed into Common Nouns in Geology Terminology
Onomatology provides a number of elements in scientific and technical languages.
The common nouns arising from proper nouns have a special place within thescientific terminologies and universal culture. Their semantics preserves to a certain
extent the prestige hold by the proper nouns. The terminology of geology offer, by
the common nouns arising from proper nouns, an entire range of toponyms,hydronyms, oronyms, patronymes. These prove the evolution which the proper
nouns had by passing to common nouns and entering the international scientificterminology. Taking into account the origin, the common nouns arising from proper
nouns belong to the vast category of loans, mainly from French, entered into
Romanian along with other scientific terms. Morphologically speaking, they are partof the class of neutral nouns and adjectives. Their adaptation to the Romanianmorphological system was easily made, given the relationship of Romanian with
French.
KEYWORDS: terminology, common nouns arising from proper nouns, geology,
etymon, scientific

La terminologie de la géologie, l’un des codes avec un degré relativement élevé defermeture au niveau des langages scientifiques spécialisés, a fait l’objet derecherche des linguistes et ingénieurs, dans une tentative d’harmoniser lesconcepts, les caractéristiques et la classification de termes. L’idée d’ancienneté est
mise en valeur par tous quand on fait référence à l’âge des roches, la couverture dusol, la présence de la faune, de la flore et les éléments démontrant l’existence del’homme primitif (objets qui ont servi comme des outils, armes, ornements, etc.).
Dans la terminologie spécialisée se sont imposé un certain nombre de concepts qui
ont suscité des discussions, des controverses dans les classifications : âge, époque,période, étage, sous-étage avec des caractéristiques différentes : supérieur,
inférieur, moyen, tardif. À première vue, c’est une terminologie complexe, quiconnaisse des classifications et sous-catégories, selon l’époque (Paléolithique,Mésolithique, Néolithique), la période (Paléozoïque, Mésozoïque, Néozoïque),l’étage (Dévonien, Permien, Silurien), etc. Spécifique pour cette terminologie est le
fait que la classification rigoureuse peut être vue même dans les définitions
lexicographiques : chaque terme est défini obligatoirement par référence à d’autres.
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Silvia Pitiriciu: Les noms communs issus des noms propres dans la terminologie de la...

Par exemple : carbonifère « l’avant-dernière période du paléozoïque, située entre ledévonien et le permien » (NDN : 252), paléozoïque « la seconde époquegéologique, située entre le précambrien et le mésozoïque » (NDN : 1038), dévonien« la quatrième période du paléozoïque, comprise entre le silurien et carbonifère »(NDN : 447). Les classifications plus ou moins unitaires au niveau international(les pays francophones versus les pays anglophones) ont suscité beaucoup dediscussions entre les experts (Hedberg, 1976 ; Salvador, 1994 ; Foucault, Roult,1995 ; Pajaud, Lorenz, 2000).
Le but de cette recherche est la mise en valeur des noms propres qui ont conduit
à la création des termes communs. Le prestige de noms propres des zones
géographiques, villes, localités ou personnes est aussi transmis avec les noms
communs qui circulent comme termes internationaux. Les noms communs qui
proviennent de noms propres sont entrés dans la langue roumaine comme des prêts,surtout du Français, la plupart ayant un statut morphologique double: des noms
neutres et des adjectifs. Comme des noms communs, ils désignent périodes, étages,
sous-étages d’une part, et la série de couches géologiques de la période respective,d’autre part. Comme des adjectifs, ils se réfèrent aux caractéristiques et àl’affiliation à la période de référence.
1. Les noms communs issus des noms propres de lieux, les plus courantes dansla terminologie géologique sont liés aux noms des localités (villes, régions,départements) où on a trouvé des traces de la vie et de la culture: roches, minéraux,
métaux, flore, faune, objets en silex, pierre, etc.
De leur catégorie, on illustre les termes suivants :abevilian, -ă s.n « sous-étage moyen du paléolithique inférieur » ; adj. « qui
appartient à la culture du paléolithique inférieur, spécifique pour cette période »<fr. abbevillien ; cf n.pr. Abbeville, une ville en France où on a trouvé desmatériaux déchiquetés, des haches ;artinskien, -ă, s.n 1. « permien inférieur de nature marine, dans la plate-forme
de la Russie, correspondant à l’autunien » 2. « une série de couches géologiques
caractérisés par les céphalopodes et brachiopodes répandues en Russie et sans le
Sud de l’Europe » ; adj. « spécifique pour l’artinskien, se référant à l’artinskien » <rus. artinskian, cf. n.pr. Artinsk, une localité de la Fédération de Russie ;azilian, -ă s.n. « épipaléolithique précoce » ; adj. « qui appartient à la cultured’épipaléolithique précoce » < fr. azilien, cf. n.pr. Mas-d’Azil, petite ville située aupied des Pyrènes, où on a trouvé des traces de la culture de cette période ;dinanţian, -ă s.n. 1. « le premier étage du carbonifère de nature marine » 2.
« série de couches géologiques caractérisés par les dépôts de brachiopodes,
gastéropodes dans l’ouest et le Sud de l’Europe » ; adj. « qui appartient au
dinantien, spécifique pour le dinantien » < fr. dinantien, cf. n. pr. Dinant, une petite
ville en Belgique, dans la région Namur, où on a découvert des telles couches
géologiques ;permian, -ă s.n. 1. « la dernière partie de la période du paléozoïque, qui suit au
carbonifère, caractérisée par la présence des reptiles et le déclin des plantes
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géantes, qui a duré approximativement 25 millions d’années » 2. « séries decouches géologiques du permien » ; adj. « qui appartient au permien, spécifiquepour le permien » < fr. permien, cf. n.pr. Perm, région de la Fédération de Russie ;solutrean, -ă s.n. 1. « la période moyenne du paléolithique supérieur, qui suit àl’aurignacien et qui précède le magdalénien, caractérisée par des silex sous laforme d’une feuille de laurier » 2. « série de couches géologiques du solutréen » ;adj. « qui appartient au solutréen, spécifique pour le solutréen » < fr. solutréen, cf.
n.pr. Solutré, localité en France, dans le département Saône-et-Loire, où on a
trouvé des traces de cette culture ;tardenosian, -ă s.n. 1. « période dans le mésolithique caractérisée parl’abondance des outils microlitiques et des formes géométriques » 2. « série decouches géologiques du tardenoisien » ; adj. « qui appartient au tardenoisien,
spécifique pour le tardenoisien » < fr. tardenoisien, cf. n.pr. Fère-en-Tardenois,
région en France dans l’Ouest du département Marne ;villafranchian, -ă s.n. 1. « le premier étage du quaternaire, représenté par desdépôts continentales avec des résidus des mammifères exotiques » 2. « série decouches géologiques du villafranchien » ; adj. « qui appartient au villafranchien,
spécifique pour le villafranchien » < fr. villafranchien, cf. n.pr. Villafranca, localitéen Piémont, Italie.
Une autre catégorie des termes qui désignent des roches, des pierres semiprécieuses où les processus d’érosion :bauxită s.f. « une roche formée a la suite du processus d’altération des rochessédimentaires magmatiques, riches en silicates d’aluminium » < fr. bauxite, cf.
n.pr. Les Baux-de-Provence, localité en France, près d’ Arles, où on a découvert undépôt d’aluminium ;carst s.n. « érosion et dissolution des calcaires, des gypses où du sel, causée parles eaux souterraines où les eaux de surface, conduisant à la formation des grotteset des rivières souterraines ; la forme de relief résultée » < fr. karst, all. Karst, cf.
n.pr. Karst, région sur la côte Adriatique, où se trouve les plateaux calcaires ;kimberlit s.n. « roche éruptive, formée dans les volcans, ayant un couleur
sombre, dans la masse de laquelle il y a des diamants dispersés » < fr. kimberlite,
cf. n.pr. Kimberley, ville en Afrique de Sud, un centre important pour l’extraction
de diamants ;labrador s.n. « une pierre semi-précieuse qui appartient au groupe de feldspath,nacre, ayant des reflets bleux et verts » < fr. labrador, cf. n.pr. Labrador, unepéninsule en Canada, où il a été découvert pour la première fois cette pierre semiprécieuses ;lidită s.f. 1. « roche sédimentaire formée de silicium et quartz » 2. « explosif àbase d’acide picrique » < fr. lyddite, cf. n.pr. Lydd, ville en Angleterre, dans larégion Kent, dans le polygone duquel on a expérimenté l’explosif ;sardonix s.n. « une variété de calcédoines rouges ou brunes, utilisées commepierres semi-précieuses » < lat. sardonix, all. Sardonix, cf. n.pr. Sardinia, îleitalienne dans la Méditerranée, dans le sous-sol de la quelle il y a des dépôts deplomb et zinc ;406

Silvia Pitiriciu: Les noms communs issus des noms propres dans la terminologie de la...

stronţiană s.f. « oxyde ou hydroxyde de strontiane obtenu par la calcination dustrontiane » < fr. strontiane, cf. n.pr. Strontian, un village en Écosse, aux alentours
duquel il y a la mine de plomb où on a découvert ce minerai.
Certaines noms communs issus des noms propres de lieux ont comme point dedépart les noms propres de certaines sites, de certaines grottes :aurignacian, -ă adj. « qui appartient à la culture du Paléolithique supérieur,
entre le moustérien et le solutréenne, quand ont été fabriqués des silex, des outils
en os, ivoire et en corne » < fr. aurignacien, cf. n.pr. Aurignac, grotte dudépartement Haute-Garonne, où on a découvert les ossements d’Homo sapiens
fossillis, quand l’homme de Cro-Magnon commence à remplacer l’homme deNéandertal ;magdalenian, -ă s.n. 1. « le dernier étage du Paléolithique supérieur, quandapparaissent des éléments de culture humaine » 2. « série de couches géologiques
du magdalénien » ; adj. « qui appartient au magdalénien, spécifique pour lemagdalénien » < fr. magdalénien, cf. n.pr. Madeleine, lat. Magdalena, localité dansle Nord de la France, où se trouve les grottes où on a trouvé les traces de lacivilisation : instruments en os, fresques, peintures polychromes ;musterian, -ă s.n. 1. « le cinquième sous-étage du Paléolithique inférieur » 2.
« série de couches géologiques du moustérien » ; adj. « qui appartient au
moustérien, spécifique pour le moustérien » < fr. moustérien, cf. n.pr. Moustier,site préhistorique du département Dordogne.
Tout au long de l’histoire, certaines noms propres sont donnés par les Romains
ou les Arabes après les conquêtes :caledonian, -ă s.n. 1. « l’étage inférieur du dévonien » 2. « série de couches
géologiques du calédonien » ; adj. « qui appartient au calédonien, spécifique pourle calédonien » < fr. calédonienne, cf. n.pr. Caledonia, ancien nom de la partie denord de la Grande-Bretagne, correspondant à l’Écosse d’aujourd’hui ;cambrian, -ă s.n. 1. « la première période de l’epoque paléozoïque » 2. « sériede couches géologiques du cambrien, caractérisés par brachiopodes, trilobites,
trouvés en Angleterre, dans le sud de la péninsule Scandinave » ; adj. « qui
appartient au cambrien, spécifique pour le cambrien » < fr. cambrien, cf. n.pr.
Cambria/Cumbria, le nom latin du Pays de Galles ;londinian, -ă s.n. 1. « le dernier étage du paléocène, yprésien » 2. « série decouches géologiques du londinium » ; adj. « qui appartient au londinium,
spécifique pour le londinium » < n.pr. lat. Londinium/Londinum, nom donné par lesRomains à la ville Tamise, conquise pendant l’année 61 avant Jésus Christ ;lisitanian, -ă s.n. 1. « le troisième étage du jurassique supérieur, caractérisé parcertaines espèces d’ammonites » 2. « série de couches géologiques du lusitanien » ;adj. « qui appartient au lusitanien, spécifique pour le lusitanien » < fr. lusitanien,
cf. n.pr. Lusitania, le nom ancien du Portugal ;luteţian, -ă s.n. 1. « le premier étage du éocène moyen, développé dans le basin
du Paris, dont les dépôts contient des lamellibranches, gastéropodes, echinides,
etc. » 2. « série des couches géologiques du lutétien » ; adj. « qui appartient au407

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

lutétien, spécifique pour le lutétien » < fr. lutétien, cf. n.pr. Lutetia, l’ancien nom
du Paris ;sienit s.n. « roche éruptive granitique, composée de feldspath alcalins,
hornblende utilisée comme matériel de construction » < fr. syénite, cf. n.pr. Syena,
une ville dans l’ancienne Égypte, qui correspond à la ville Assouan d’aujourd’hui,
nom donné par les Arabes quand ils l’ont conquis.
2. Les noms communs issus des noms propres de montagnes sont plus rares, ennommant des pierres, des métaux ou des étages qui sont liés à des noms propres
des montagnes :andezit s.n. « roche volcanique d’une couleur sombre, utilisée pour les trottoirs,
dans les constructions » < fr. andésite, cf. n. pr. Andes, chaîne de montagnes qui sesitue dans l’ouest de l’Amérique du Sud ;caolin s.n. « roche en argile, blanche, très fine, utilisée dans l’industriecéramique » < fr. kaolin, cf. n.pr. Kao-Ling, un montagne en Chine, d’où le kaolin
est extrait ;kimeridgian, -ă s.n. 1. « étage du jurassique supérieur caractérisé parlamellibranches, brachiopodes, etc. » 2. « série de couches géologiques dukimméridgien » ; adj. « qui appartient au kimméridgien, spécifique pour lekimméridgien » < fr. kimeridgian, cf. n.pr. Kimmeridge Clay, montagne argileux
dans le sud de l’Angleterre ;sinirit s.n. « métal découvert par les géologues soviétiques sur la route de lamagistrale Baikal – Amur » < n.pr. Sinnir, chaîne de montagnes dans la Fédérationde Russie.
3. Les noms communs issus des noms propres d’eaux sont occasionnels, commenoms des étages qui font référence à des noms propres d’eaux. Par exemple :rupelian, -ă s.n. 1. « étage moyen de l’oligocène » 2. « série de couches
géologiques du rupélien » ; adj. « qui appartient au rupélien, spécifique pour lerupélien » < fr. rupélien, cf. n.pr. Rupel, rivière en Belge, près d’Anvers.
4. Les noms communs issus des noms propres de personnes, comme les noms
des minéraux ont comme point de départ les noms de quelques hommes de scienceou, par tradition, les noms mythologiques :armstrongit s.n. « minéral rare, brune obscure, de la famille du zirconium,
découvert dans le dessert Gobi » < fr. armstrongite, cf. n.pr. Neil Armstrong,
astronaute américaine, le premier homme qui a marché sur la lune ;landaunit s.n. « espèce de minéral découvert en Sibérie Orientale », cf. n.pr.
Lew Davidovici Landau, physicien qui a reçu le prix Nobel en 1962 pour la théorie
macroscopique de la super-fluidité du hélium liquide ;niobit s.n. « minéral naturel en fer et manganèse, duquel on extrait l’oxyde deniobium » < fr. niobite, cf. n.pr. Niobe, la fille du Tantale, la femme du Amfion, leroi Thèbes ; après Homère, la reine légendaire de Phrygie.

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Silvia Pitiriciu: Les noms communs issus des noms propres dans la terminologie de la...

L’analyse des noms communs qui proviennent des noms propres nous a permis
de voir que les noms propres sont le point de départ pour déterminer quelquesétapes de l’évolution sémantique et formelle des termes communs qui circulent etpénètrent dans des différentes langues. La stratégie lexicographiques adoptée parles dictionnaires fait usage d’un schéma de présentation des informations : conseils
sur la classification, l’utilisation, l’aspect, la provenance, la manière d’apparition,etc. En même temps avec la structure hiérarchique sont marqués aussi les relations
notionnelles, les relations de méronymie (partie – tout), de hyponymie et d’
hyperonymie (classes, sous-classes), la hiérarchie des unités stratigraphiques àpartir de couches de roches et les unités de temps. Les termes sont caractérisés parle caractère équivoque et mono-référentiel du sens. En général, le métalangage desdéfinitions est plus difficile pour ceux qui ne sont pas spécialistes. Les noms
propres ne font autre chose que fournir une meilleure compréhension de laterminologie, afin de motiver le contenu ou quelques aspects du contenu et demettre en évidence des réalités qui ont contribué à rendre la terminologie
spécifique du domaine. Dans la langue roumaine, l’influence française est
primordiale dans l’élaboration de terminologies scientifiques à une époque où lascience fait de progresses (le XIXe siècle et le XXe siècle).
BIBLIOGRAPHIE
Foucault, A., & J.-F. Roult (1995). Dictionnaire de géologie. Paris : Masson.
Hedberg, H.D. (1976). International stratigraphic guide. A guide to stratigrphic
classification, terminology and procedure. New York : John Wiley & Sons.
Marcu, Florin (1997). Noul dicţionar de neologisme (NDN). Bucureşti : Editura
Academiei Române.
Muşat, Radu (2006). Nume proprii, nume comune. Dicţionar de antonomază. Iaşi :Polirom.
Pajaud, Daniel, & Jacqueline Lorenz (2000). « Terminologie et nomenclature en
géologie : exemples et réflexions ». In : Les sciences et leurs langages. Paris :CTHS, 109-125.
Salvador, A. (1944). International Stratigraphic Guide. USA : IUGS & GeologicalSociety of America.

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Il gerundio passato italiano e i suoi corrispondenti romeni
Elena PÎRVU
Università di Craiova,
Facoltà di Lettere

ABSTRACT: The Perfect Gerund in Italian and Its Romanian Correlatives
Unlike Italian gerund, which has two tenses, present and past, Romanian gerund
only has one tense: present. Regarding this aspect, in Gramatica pentru toţi (2001:214), Mioara Avram states: “perfect gerund forms (of the type fiind fost) are bookish
and not admitted by the guidelines of current literary language; in those who usethem, the (unique) form of gerund in the literary language becomes present gerund.”Italian past gerund, otherwise limited to the high, literary or administrative style,only expresses actions occurring before the one indicated in the main clause, and isalmost exclusively used as a predicate in the so-called gerundial subordinates. The
article presents and discusses the use of Italian past gerund in gerundial subordinates
and the ways how such Italian subordinate clauses are translated into Romanian.
KEYWORDS: past gerund, gerundial subordinates, Italian, Romanian

1. Prima di entrare nell’argomento del nostro lavoro, anche se non si tratta di unlavoro diacronico, consideriamo necessario spiegarne il titolo. L’abbiamo intitolato“Il gerundio passato italiano e i suoi corrispondenti romeni” perché oggi, adifferenza dell’italiano, che al gerundio presenta due tempi, il romeno ne presentasolo uno.
Diciamo “oggi”, perché Mioara Avram (2001: 214) afferma: “Formele degerunziu perfect (de tipul fiind fost) sunt livreşti şi neadmise de normele limbii
literare actuale; la cei care le folosesc forma (unică) de gerunziu din limba literară
devine gerunziul prezent.”1
Molto esplicita è invece la GALR I (2005: 528) che afferma:În limba literară veche au existat şi perifraze de gerunziu trecut, total dispărute azi.
Aceste perifraze, bine reprezentate în textele juridico-administrative din secolul al
XVIII-lea şi înregistrate de unele gramatici mai vechi, erau: construcţia cu verbul afi + participiu, corespunzând perfectului compus (fiind fost, fiind avut, cf. a fost, aavut), precum şi a fi + participiul auxiliarului a fi + participiu, corespunzând
perfectului dublu compus (fiindu-se fost aflat, cf. s-a fost aflat)2.

2. Chiarito il titolo, passiamo all’argomento del nostro lavoro. Dunque, a differenzadel romeno, in cui il gerundio ha un solo tempo: il presente, il gerundio italiano ha
due tempi, uno semplice, il presente (o gerundio semplice), e uno composto, il
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Elena Pîrvu: Il gerundio passato italiano e i suoi corrispondenti romeni

passato (o gerundio composto), ma entrambi vanno intesi, come sottolineano G.B.
Moretti e G.R. Orvieto (1979 II: 7) in senso “relativo”, non “assoluto”. Questo
significa che tanto il “presente” quanto il “passato” segnalano atti verbali che nonnecessariamente si riferiscono al momento in cui vengono espressi, bensì al tempo(presente, passato o futuro) del verbo dal quale dipendono.
Nell’italiano contemporaneo, il gerundio passato italiano è abbastanza raro elimitato allo stile alto, letterario o burocratico, ed esprime solo delle azioni anteriori
a quella indicata dal verbo reggente; anteriori rispetto al presente (1a), al passato(1b) e al futuro (1c):(1) a. Avendo bevuto troppo (= Poiché ha bevuto troppo), ora sta male.
(1) b. Essendo stato aiutato da Mario (= Poiché è stato aiutato da Mario), Claudio ha fatto
ripartire la macchina.
(1) c. Essendo, a quell’ora, già uscito (= Poiché, a quell’ora, sarà già uscito), non lo
troveremo.

2.1. Per quanto riguarda la struttura morfologica, come si nota dagli esempi appena
citati, il gerundio passato italiano è una forma perifrastica ed è composto dalgerundio presente dell’ausiliare essere o avere seguito dal participio passato delverbo da formare.
Se il verbo al gerundio passato è un verbo riflessivo (2a) o è accompagnato da
un pronome complemento forma atona (2b, c), il pronome forma un’unica parola
con l’ausiliare:(2) a. «I Tartari» osò dire la sentinella Andronìco, come per spavalda celia, il suo volto
essendosi fatto bianco come la morte.
(D. Buzzati, Il deserto dei Tartari: 109)
(2) b. Avendolo ascoltato più volte, so che quel disco è perfetto.
(2) c. Pur avendogli detto la verità, non mi ha creduto.

Di norma, il gerundio passato italiano, come anche il gerundio presente, italiano
e romeno, condivide il soggetto del verbo finito al quale si collega (3):(3) Avendo parcheggiato in divieto di sosta, ho dovuto pagare una multa.

Diversità di soggetti si ha nel gerundio passato assoluto, cioè quando il gerundio
passato ha un proprio soggetto espresso. Questo soggetto si colloca generalmente
subito dopo l’ausiliare (come in [4]):(4) Pur essendo il treno partito in ritardo, Luca non è riuscito a prenderlo.

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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
ma può apparire qualche volta anche in posizione preverbale. Ciò avviene
soprattutto quando si tratta di un nome particolarmente «pesante», accompagnato daqualche complemento (cf. Renzi II: 584. Da qui anche l’esempio):(5) La lotta a bastonate essendo stata favorevole al nostro...
(I. Calvino, Il castello dei destini incrociati: 44)

2.2. In italiano, il gerundio passato riveste le funzioni di predicato in proposizioni
circostanziali di varia natura (fatto notato già da Raffaello Fornaciari [1881] 1974:
218). Più precisamente, il gerundio passato compie la funzione di predicato delle
seguenti subordinate circostanziali implicite: causale (6), temporale (7),concessiva, introdotto da pur(e) (8), condizionale (in periodo ipotetico) (9), e
modale-condizionale, introdotto da come, come se, quasi (10):(6) “Ancora no: ma ti restano pochi minuti di vita, avendo tu ricusato di bevere la
medicina, che ti avrebbe guarito dalla febbre!...”(C. Collodi, Le avventure di Pinocchio: 74)(7) Qui comparve nella stanza la padrona, la quale al rumore, s’era affacciata anch’essa alla
finestra, e avendo veduto chi le entrava in casa, aveva sceso le scale, di corsa, dopo
essersi raccomodata alla meglio;(A. Manzoni, I promessi sposi: XXIV 370)
(8) “Pur avendomi per fortuna scartato come marito” mi disse l’Orimbelli “pare che non
mi rifiuterà come amico”.
(P. Chiara, La stanza del Vescovo: 64)(9) La polvere mi cacciò fuori dalla capanna ma pensai che, avendola ripulita, sarebbe
stato ancora possibile viverci.
(G. Piovene, Le stelle fredde: 85)(10) (...) mi apparve trapiantato nella natura, come avendo messo radici nella striscia
inferiore che si era dilatata anch’essa.
(G. Piovene, Le stelle fredde: 39)

Come si vede dagli esempi di sopra, per quanto riguarda la collocazione nel
periodo, le subordinate con il predicato al gerundio passato possono stare sia prima(come in 7, 8 e 9) che dopo (come in 6a, b, e 10) la reggente, e si separano da essa
tramite la virgola.
3. Arrivando alla traduzione del gerundio passato italiano in romeno, poiché
quest’ultimo non ha forme per il gerundio passato, per la traduzione del gerundio
passato italiano in romeno si può usare per primo il gerundio presente (come in
11a, b, c, d):412

Elena Pîrvu: Il gerundio passato italiano e i suoi corrispondenti romeni(11) a. Avendo bevuto troppo, ora sta male.
Bând prea mult, acum se simte rău.
(11) b. Essendo giunto in ritardo, mi scusai.
Ajungând târziu, m-am scuzat.
(11) c. Avendo parcheggiato in divieto di sosta, ho dovuto pagare una multa.
Parcând în staţionare interzisă, a trebuit să plătesc o amendă.
(11) d. Essendo, a quell’ora, già uscito, non lo troveremo.
Fiind, la acea oră, deja plecat, nu-l vom găsi.

Questa corrispondenza è possibile perché il gerundio presente è l’unica forma digerundio dalla lingua romena (Avram, 2001: 214), ma anche perché, anche se, disolito, il gerundio presente esprime “l’azione in svolgimento”, “a volte esso
esprime anche azioni concluse: Terminando il liceo, si iscrisse alla facoltà” (Idem:
211). D’altronde, in romeno “il gerundio costituisce, per frequenza e sviluppo
funzionale, una caratteristica grammaticale della lingua letteraria” (Idem: 212).
Scegliendo questa corrispondenza, che, dal punto di vista stilistico, va
benissimo per la lingua letteraria, dal punto di vista grammaticale, operiamo una
riduzione della frase italiana, poiché in romeno, come afferma Dumitru Irimia(1997: 264) “il gerundio non può assumersi direttamente la predicazione; enunciati
con il centro proposizionale in un gerundio non sono possibili nella lingua
corrente”. “La componente avverbiale dal piano semantico del gerundio impone
come definitorie due componenti sintattiche: di circostanziale e di complemento
predicativo (elemento predicativo supplementare).” (Irimia, 1997: 278).
Anche Mioara Avram (2001: 212) nota che “la funzione sintattica specifica è
considerata quella di complemento circostanziale (di diverse specie: di modo, ditempo, di causa, condizionale, concessivo, di strumento), il che attira laqualificazione del gerundio come avente valore di avverbio”.
In questo senso, la Gramatica limbii române (GALR) del 2005 afferma che
il gerundio è una forma non personale del verbo, con comportamento verbale,
avverbiale e (in una misura ridotta) nominale e aggettivale. La sua funzione
sintattico-pragmatica specifica è di associazione e di gerarchizzazione: attraverso lapresentazione di azioni e processi come dipendenti da altri, attraverso la loro
collocazione nello sfondo, come circostanze di altre azioni o processi. Così la forma
di gerundio realizza attraverso la marcatura morfologica il più generale e il più non
differenziato tipo di subordinazione di una proposizione ridotta (un tipo dipredicazione semantico-sintattica subordinata),

rinviandoci per le spiegazioni al suo secondo volume, al punto “Il predicato,
1.1.3.”. Prima di arrivare a questo punto, dalle pagine 238-240 apprendiamo che
nella GALR “si farà distinzione fra il predicato semantico, quello sintattico equello enunciativo, soltanto l’ultimo coprendo ciò che si intende correntemente perpredicato”, che “il predicato semantico rappresenta il componente della
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proposizione che associa a una entità una proprietà o che stabilisce una relazione
determinata fra due o tre entità” (p. 238), e che “lo stesso componente della
proposizione rappresenta, dalla prospettiva sintattica, un predicato sintattico” (p.
240). Dal punto 1.1.3. apprendiamo chela qualità di predicato dell’enunciazione aggiunge, alla qualità di predicato
semantico-sintattico, anche il tratto della predicatività, un tratto diverso dagli altri,
legato all’enunciazione, quindi al campo pragmatico [...] Così, nelle condizioni in
cui a un predicato semantico-sintattico di tipo verbale si aggiungono i morfemi
deittici di modo personale (modo, tempo, persona, numero), esso acquisisce
predicatività e, implicitamente, autonomia enunciativa, trasformandosi in unpredicato dell’enunciazione. (Idem: 241)
La distinzione dei predicati semantico-sintattici dai predicati dell’enunciazione,
tipi di predicato la cui sovrapposizione, anche se frequente, non è obbligatoria,
permette la comprensione della soluzione proposta da molte grammatiche diinterpretare le forme verbali non personali come ‘proposizioni’ (proposizionicomplemento o proposizioni circostanziali). La proposta si fonda sulla loro natura dipredicati semantico-sintattici, con tutte le caratteristiche che ne derivano, ma nonanche di predicati dell’enunciazione (la loro qualità di predicati dell’enunciazione si
manifesta raramente, non essendo specifica.) (Idem: 242-243)

4. Poiché il significato modale espresso attraverso il gerundio è identico a quellodell’indicativo (cf. GALR I: 539) e trattandosi di un tempo perfettivo, quando ilverbo reggente è all’indicativo presente, il gerundio passato italiano può essere
tradotto in romeno anche con il perfetto composto, con subordinazione (12a), o,soprattutto, con una coordinata (12b):(12) Avendo bevuto troppo, ora sta male.
(12) a. Pentru că a băut mult, acum se simte rău.
(12) b. A băut mult şi acum se simte rău.

questo, perché il perfetto composto è un tempo assoluto e presenta l’azione comesicuramente conclusa in un momento anteriore al momento di enunciazione (cf.
GA: 238; Irimia, 1997: 234; GALR I: 416), indifferentemente del carattere recenteo lontano dell’azione (Avram, 2001: 225).
Quando il verbo reggente è al passato prossimo o al passato remoto, trattandosi
di un tempo perfettivo, il gerundio passato italiano può essere tradotto in romeno,
oltre con il gerundio presente, sia con il perfetto composto che con il
piuccheperfetto (13a, b):(13) a. Essendo giunto in ritardo, mi scusai.
Pentru că am ajuns târziu/pentru că ajunsesem târziu, m-am scuzat.
(13) b. Avendo parcheggiato in divieto di sosta, ho dovuto pagare una multa.

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Elena Pîrvu: Il gerundio passato italiano e i suoi corrispondenti romeni
Pentru că am parcat/pentru că parcasem în staţionare interzisă, a trebuit săplătesc o amendă.

5. “Il piuccheperfetto è un tempo di relazione, usato per esprimere un’azione
conclusa anteriormente ad altra del passato” (GA 1966: 239; Irimia 1997: 236;
GALR I: 434). “A differenza degli altri tempi del passato non solo colloca l’azione
in un momento anteriore (o al presente della comunicazione o allo svolgimento diun’altra azione), ma determina, nello stesso tempo, una «gerarchizzazione» delleazioni verbali sulla «scala» del tempo” (Irimia, 1997: 237). Però è il
piuccheperfetto raramente usato nel linguaggio parlato, in cui il più delle volte èsostituito dal perfetto composto, “il che rappresenta una perdita per la chiarezza ela diversità dell’espressione.” (Avram, 2001: 229) Ciò nonostante, il
piuccheperfetto è molto usato nel linguaggio scritto (cf. GALR I: 438) e deveessere usato nelle situazioni in cui è necessario precisare la cronologia delle azioni.
(cf. Avram, 2001: 225)
La traduzione con il perfetto composto o il piuccheperfetto è possibile perché
nel quadro della situazione temporale espressa i due tempi hanno la stessa
funzione: “esprimono la successione dei fatti, contribuendo alla «progressione» delracconto” (cf. GALR I: 438).
6. Se, infine, il verbo reggente è al futuro, il gerundio passato italiano può essere
tradotto in romeno con il futuro anteriore letterario (14a) o, nella lingua parlata,
con il futuro formato dall’ausiliare invariabile o e il congiuntivo passato del verbo
coniugato (14b) (cf. Avram 2001: 232):(14) Essendo, a quell’ora, già uscito, non lo troveremo.
(14) a. Pentru că la ora aceea va fi deja plecat, nu-l vom găsi.
(14) b. Pentru că la ora aceea o să fie deja plecat, nu-l vom găsi.

Il futuro anteriore “è un passato nel futuro o un futuro passato, collocandosi fra
il momento del parlare e il tempo chiamato futuro” (Avram, 2001: 233). Nel
paradigma del futuro corrisponde al piuccheperfetto nel paradigma del passato(Irimia, 1997: 241). Nella lingua parlata il futuro anteriore è un tempo antiquato e
libresco (Avram, 2001: 233) ed è spesso sostituito dal futuro formato dall’ausiliare
invariabile o e il congiuntivo passato del verbo coniugato (come in 14b).
NOTE
1“Le forme di gerundio perfetto (del tipo essendo stato) sono libresche e non ammesse dalle normedella lingua letteraria attuale; per coloro che le usano, la forma (unica) di gerundio dalla lingua
letteraria diventa gerundio presente.”2
Nella lingua letteraria antica sono esistite anche perifrasi di gerundio passato, totalmente sparite
oggi. Queste perifrasi, bene rappresentate nei testi giuridico-amministrativi del secolo XVIII eregistrate da alcune grammatiche più vecchie, erano: la costruzione con il verbo a fi (essere) +participio, corrispondente al perfetto composto (fiind fost [essendo stato], fiind avut [essendo415

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
avuto], cf. a fost [è stato], a avut [ha avuto]), come anche a fi (essere) + il participio
dell’ausiliare a fi + participio, corripondente al perfetto doppio composto (fiindu-se fost aflat[essendosi stato saputo], cf. s-a fost aflat [si è saputo].

BIBLIOGRAFIAAcademia Română (1966). Gramatica limbii române, vol. I, Ediţia a II-a revăzută
şi adăugită. Bucureşti: Editura Academiei RSR.
Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică “Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2005).
Gramatica limbii române, vol. I, Cuvântul, vol. II, Enunţul. Bucureşti: Editura
Academiei Române.
Antonini, A. (1974-1975). “Il problema del gerundio”. Studi di grammatica
italiana, vol. IV, 85-107.
Avram, M. (2001). Gramatica pentru toţi. Ediţia a III-a. Bucureşti: Humanitas.
Bidu-Vrănceanu, A., C. Călăraşu, L. Ionescu-Ruxăndoiu, M. Mancaş, e G. PanăDindelegan (2001). Dicţionar de ştiinţe ale limbii. Bucureşti: Nemira.
Caragiu, M. (1957). “Sintaxa gerunziului românesc”. In: Studii de gramatică, vol.
II, 61-89.
Fornaciari, Raffaello (1974). Sintassi italiana dell’uso moderno, Ristampa
anastatica dell’edizione 1881. Firenze: Sansoni.
Irimia, D. (1997). Gramatica limbii române. Iaşi: Polirom.
Lepschy, L. e G. Lepschy (1993). La lingua italiana. Storia, varietà dell’uso,grammatica, Nuova Edizione. Milano: Bompiani.
Lonzi, L. (1991), “Frasi subordinate al gerundio”. In: Renzi L. e Salvi G. (a curadi), Grande grammatica italiana di consultazione, vol. II: I sintagmi verbale,
aggettivale, avverbiale. La subordinazione. Bologna: Il Mulino, 571-592.
Moretti, G.B. e G.R. Orvieto (1979). Grammatica Italiana, vol. II, Il Verbo (modiindefiniti e altri problemi connessi con il verbo). Perugia: Editrice Benucci.
Salvi, G. e L. Vanelli (1992). Grammatica essenziale di riferimento della lingua
italiana. Firenze: Istituto Geografico De Agostini Le Monnier.
Serianni, L. (con la collaborazione di A. Castelvecchi) (1989). Grammatica
italiana. Italiano comune e lingua letteraria. Torino: UTET-Libreria.
Stoianova, D. (1991). “Observaţii cu privire la sensurile temporal-aspectuale ale
formelor nominale ale verbului în româna contemporană”. Studii şi cercetări
lingvistice, XLII, 5-6, 201-211.
***

Buzzati, Dino (2004). Il deserto dei Tartari. Milano: Oscar Mondadori.
Calvino, Italo (1973). Il castello dei destini incrociati. Torino: Einaudi.
Chiara, Pietro (1976). La stanza del Vescovo. Milano: Oscar Mondadori.
Collodi, Carlo (1995). Le avventure di Pinocchio. Roma: Grandi Tascabili
Economici Newton.
Manzoni, Alessandro (1989). I Promessi Sposi. Roma: Grandi Tascabili Economici
Newton.
Piovene, Guido (1970). Le stelle fredde. Milano: Oscar Mondadori.
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Rhetoric Features of the Journalistic Style
Ana Cristina POPESCUUniversity of Piteşti,Faculty of Educational Sciences

ABSTRACTThe journalistic text is one of the most influential written text types in contemporarysociety and which has the power to influence the political, economic and culturaldebates. Its textuality should be well known as a site of contestation of the text
linguistic analyses. It disseminates the information by which a journalistic discourse
may be established and maintained. It also acts to uphold the truth and to defend therights of the people against some specific interests. The audience sees thejournalistic discourse with great suspicion, as a ‘commercialised,’ inaccurate andsensationalist one. The news should be ‘neutral’ and ‘factual,’ as it is seen in thejournalistic studies. This point of view was modified within the journalistic studies,in time. For example, the news is seen as exemplifying and animating social andideological values. This way it has also proved problematic, being often classified as
narrative. On the other way, journalistic researchers distinguish the structure of thenews from that of traditional narratives. That is, the general properties of discourse
they display and the more specific or characteristic structures that distinguish themfrom other journalistic texts or similar non-journalistic texts, such as stories, must be
made clear. The journalists themselves refer to their texts as ‘stories’ and even‘reports.’
KEYWORDS: journalistic style, textuality, rhetorism, discourse

The aim of this article is to understand the contemporary journalism. It brings into
discussion two types of text, ‘broadsheet’ and ‘tabloid’ which will offer a
description of the interpersonal style of these journalistic items and the way the text
relies on both authorial voice and readerships. In this article I want to show that thecontemporary journalistic text is an interpersonal and structural text type and I
want to explore the communicative consequences associated with these twodimensions of textuality. This way such texts may build up particular types ofmeaning, and particular relationships between writer, reader and the values
conveyed by the text. This way the text organisation and the lexical choice may
influence readers, talking here about the term of ‘rhetorical potential,’ where‘rhetorical’ is used in order to refer to the potential of all texts, argumentative ornot, to influence, reinforce or to challenge reader/listener’s assumptions, beliefs,
emotions, and attitudes. I am concerned with the rhetorical potential of textuality.

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The rhetorical effects include the interests of the reader, the social background,the intertextual context in which the current text is located. We must remember thatany and all readings are equally likely or equally available. Texts must establish aparticular reading position by which the material they present will be understoodand evaluated. It is my purpose in this article to provide such an account throughapplication of the descriptive tools provided by Systemic Functional Linguistics.
These analyse the language as a social process by which three dimensions of
meanings are simultaneously mobilised – interpersonal, ideational and textual.
Besides these three meanings the terms of affect, appreciation and judgement wereannounced and grouped under the heading of attitude. These three terms developed
three different interpersonal styles and at their term, they determine the meaningsof the journalistic texts. Here we may speak about attitude, engagement andgraduation. The journalistic discourse is made up of a diversity of text types.
The term ‘broadsheet’, in contradistinction to ‘tabloid’, is used to speak about thosepublications which characterise themselves as ‘up-market’, as ‘the quality press’ oras ‘journals of record’. In the English-speaking world ‘broadsheets’ are typicallytargeted mainly at a middle-class market while the ‘tabloids’ target more workingclass readers. One of the findings of the initial research for this project was that theso-called ‘tabloids’ frequently differed from the so-called ‘broadsheets’ in terms of
the interpersonal mode or voice of their general reporter news texts. The‘broadsheets’ are of interest theoretically in that, unlike the ‘tabloids’, they aspire tobe ‘journals of record’ for the community in general, to reach as broad a market as
possible, even while favouring middle-class over working-class perspectives1.

White said that the role of the author is backgrounded. This rhetorical point ofview relies on the alignment between authorial and external voice. The success ofthe strategy is dependent on the degree that the extra-vocalisation is read as
distancing authorial from external voice. Resistant readings will, of course, insist
upon the author’s implication in the line being developed by the report.
The journalistic text always shows an extreme point of view and insists on thefact that the authorial voice is never implicated in, or responsible for any of thesubjectivities it imports into its texts. If we must describe the journalistic texts(although they contain explicit social evaluation) we can see they neutral, impartial
and value-free. More we talk about rhetoric, more we may underline theintensification shown by reporter voice who avoids to be explicit. That strategy
acts to manage the resources of social evaluation so that the risk of fatal breachesof solidarity is reduced, though not, of course, by any means eliminated. The
notion that news reporting somehow equates with what is termed ‘objectivity’ is acommonplace in everyday discussions of the media.
As foreshadowed in the introduction to chapter 1, it is certainly a key element of
the media’s claim that its texts provide a form of knowledge and that newspapers,
for example, constitute ‘journals of record.’ The precise meaning of ‘objectivity’ isoften contested and is seldom explicitly defined when used in debates about media
performance. I will here briefly address the question of so-called media objectivity
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Ana Cristina Popescu: Rhetoric Features of the Journalistic Style

since, as suggested in the thesis opening, it is ever-present in discussions of media
performance, and because I believe the account of reporter voice as rhetoricalstrategy set out above provides some definitive insights.
There are, at least, two related but nevertheless distinct usages of the term
‘objectivity’ within discussions of the media. The first usage has its basis inobservations of the historical development of newspapers in the early to mid 19th
century, by which key publications moved, at least in Britain and the US, frombeing arms of political parties to being ‘independent’ operations funded, not by
party funds, but through advertisements and a cover price. (See, for example
Schudson 1978, Schiller 1981, Stephens 1988 or Curran and Seaton 1991.) Herethe term ‘objective’ is used to indicate the apparent freedom of the newspapers tocover news and develop analyses and arguments independently of the interests ofsome political party. Thus ‘objective’ did not necessarily imply ‘neutrality’ or any
absence of value judgement, but simply independence from the influence andcontrol of one political institution. Supposedly, these newly ‘commercial’ media
organisations were able to evaluate potential news issues ‘on their merits’ rather
than at the dictate of a particular party line.
Thus ‘objective’ in this context does not imply any necessary changes in themodes of textuality of such publications – there is no necessary implication thatthey were any less opinionated, subjective or argumentative under these changes.
Nevertheless, as will be shown below, the change did have ultimate significancefor our current concerns because it was an important stage in a trend over the next
century by which the media was to position itself as a genuinely ‘mass’ organ ofknowledge and cultural influence.
The voice analysis set out above can provide some indicators as to how thedistinctive interpersonal style of news reporting in the 20th century might support
the operation of this belief. The reporter voice can be understood as a rhetoricalstrategy for backgrounding the ideologically determined nature of the conventionsof news coverage and the necessary subjectivity of the authorial voice in
implementing these conventions. In general, the strategy operates to present thevarious assumptions and evaluations conveyed by a news report as in some way
given, impersonal, unavoidable or communally rather than individually based.
They operate so that it takes more work for the reader to discover at what point
and in what terms the social position informing the text may be questioned or
resisted. They operate, thus, to maintain solidarity despite and across the diversity
encompassed by the mass media’s targeted audience. Journalists vary greatly in the
degree to which they seek to analyse and deconstruct their professional practices.
Some would operate with a ‘naïve’ commonsense view of ‘objectivity’ whileothers would support the type of critical analysis.
From this perspective we can see that the assumed ‘objectivity’ of a media text
will be a measure of the effectiveness with which it implements this strategy. Thatis, assumed ‘objectivity’ is a measure of the success of media discourse in using
the techniques set out above to maintain some degree of solidarity while,
nevertheless, developing a value-laden, ideologically-determined and hence419

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solidarity-threatening theory of the social order. It is a success, therefore, only tothe extent that news reporting is, in fact, seen as ‘objective’ or at least to the extent
that a significant proportion of the media audience maintains a belief that news
coverage should be ‘objective’.
As White has stated previously, the modern news story acts to identify what itconstrues as fault lines in the social order, points of social, power-relational andmoral disequilibrium. By its focus on what it construes as actual or potential
aberration, damage or transformation, it acts to develop a particular, ideologicallydetermined model of the social order. In a sense, therefore, each ‘angle’ selected
for the headline/lead amounts to an argument in favour of a particular theory of thesocial order. He has touched on this point at various places within the thesis but
will now demonstrate it more fully.
This choice of ‘angle’ is informed by an ideological position by which thekilling of the ‘woman, believed to be his wife’ is not construed as maximally
involved in the threat to the moral order. Leaving aside problematic issues
associated with the killing of the alleged terrorist, we note that the killing of thewoman goes virtually unremarked, even though there is no suggestion that she wasanything other than an innocent bystander.
Thus the selection of ‘angle’ constructs a model of the social order in which thelives of a certain category of ‘ordinary’ people are inconsequential in the context ofthe playing out of political conflicts. Thus, the structure of the news story supports
the representation of the reporter’s selections as natural and inevitable. This it
constructs the ‘crisis point’ as a natural point of informational prominence. Thus
the structure of the body acts to represent that initial judgement about a threat tothe social order.
NOTE
1

P.R.R. White (1998). Telling Media Tales: the News Story as Rhetoric, Unpublished PhD
Dissertation. Sydney: University of Sydney, 266.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Curran, J. & Seaton, J. (1991). Power without Responsibility – The Press andBroadcasting in Britain, 4th ed. London: Routledge.
Schiller, D. (1981). Objectivity and the News – The Public and the Rise ofCommercial Journalism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Schudson, M. (1978). Discovering the News: a Social History of American
Newspapers. New York: Basic Books.
Stephens, M. (1988). A History of News, From the Drum to the Satellite. New
York: Viking.
White, P.R.R. (1998). Telling Media Tales: the News Story as Rhetoric,
Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Sydney: University of Sydney.

420

Edgar Allan Poe’s Cosmological Theory – Eureka
Mihaela PRIOTEASA
University of Craiova,
Faculty of Letters

ABSTRACTThis paper purposes to extend upon the “truths” Poe proposes in his last creation,
which he considers his Magnum Opus, and present not only the amazing“prophecies” he made about the birth, death, and resurrection of the universe but
also show how his “prophecies” came true. Although in this work Poe discusses
logic, philosophy, and scientific theory, the omnipresent obsession about death,more precisely about the life after death that can be traced throughout his entire
literary work is the fundamental theme of the poem: solving the riddle of death. This
somewhat new discovery about Poe’s ability to foresee and explain events andprinciples in an age when these kind of innovative ideas were viewed as eccentric or
insane places the mystery fiction author in a new light. It can only be said that Edgar
Allan Poe, a genius of his epoch and a scientific revolutionary, was born ahead of
his time.
KEYWORDS: prose poem, cosmology, scientific revolutionary, unitary theory

Edgar Allan Poe’s strange personality is a common fact for both readers and critics.
But, along the time, his work has been unequally received and not entirelytranslated throughout the world. Nevertheless, Poe is one unique American writer
who has overwhelmed children with his so called thrillers written in palimpsestic
composition (The Gold Bug) and late biographers of Poe as well as hermeneutists,
while re-reading his strange power of imagination.
Few readers know, but hermeneutists are working on it, that in the beginning,
Edgar Allan Poe was not a famous literary figure at home but having left a military
job that did not suit him at all and having inherited a distant aunt’s heritage, heventured as far as Paris, the capital of all arts and great artists. It was there that hegave the French a tip on how musical the language is and how infinite combinatory
possibilities arise for modern poetry, not only for the romantic one.
Already, Poe was carrying with himself literary works of his youth: The
Philosophy of Composition a clear critical essay based on work with language tocreate alliteration proving himself not only to be in full awareness of literarycomposition but passing the test of a genius. That is not an understatement, for Poe
is a strange case of a writer under the influence both of the platonic doctrine(inspiration, talent) and that of the Aristotelian one (work with language poet
Fabrio).
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Moreover, to accomplish his explicit aesthetics, he paralleled his doctrine by an
explicit aesthetic under the famous poem The Raven whose classical romantic
symbol is carried away by the gorgeous sound of modern alliteration. It seems that
it was in Paris that Poe came to know the clear-cut distinction/opposition between
nature as objective versus the I/the Self as subjective in the German idealist
thought. It is that fracture which he had been trying to cope with in his work whilein the last productions he failed.
The valuable position that Edgar Allan Poe occupies in the universal literature
due to his undeniable talent in creating unique macabre images, cryptographic
riddles, breath-taking detective stories and remarkable poetry is beyond dispute,but his activity in the scientific area, condensed in Eureka has been sadly neglected
and ignored. Only recently has this “prose poem” of undeniable literary andastrological value been studied in minute detail and re-evaluated. This recent reevaluation is long overdue, especially, the principles related to cosmology.
Edgar Allan Poe – a misunderstood and tormented genius, a brilliant writer ofthe horrifying and macabre face of human nature, an eccentric character scarred by
the tortures of his tragic life, an innovative, sensitive, creative mind – althoughacknowledged as the creator of invaluable literary works, touches greatness as an
artist, at the end of his career and life, with Eureka which he regarded as theculmination of his life’s work. Thus Eureka becomes the summarizing statement of
the philosophy Poe expresses many times in his tales.
In the form of a philosophical statement, Eureka captures the anxiety in all ofPoe’s works. It takes us back to the moment of the creation of the material universeby the Divine Will and follows the road to the final moment of reunion with thatsource. Rejecting the common acknowledgment of Poe as only a short-story writer,
the present paper seeks to study the unified source of consciousness and the single
philosophic world view behind all Poe’s literary work.
Poe, a brilliant stylist and something of a theorist concerning the reflection oflife/death and universal cosmogony, was a rejected child of a difficult step-father,chronically ill, and devastatingly susceptible to alcohol. Writing in the “First
Person” he can easily be confused with his characters in some of the horror tales, a
confusion called by critics “The Biographical Fallacy.” Still, the question of how
close vision and reality mix can be raised; we know our bodies influence ourmoods, our thoughts, and various kinds of outcomes through psychosomatic
influences; we also like to think we are free from those influences at some level,
but Poe’s stories raise questions about this “Idealist” vision.
Themes of death, especially being buried alive or resurrections from the grave,are central in many of his works, including The Premature Burial, Ligeia, The
Cask of Amontillado and The Fall of the House of Usher. Poe’s twilight domain
between life and death and his ostentatious, Gothic settings are not merely
decorative. They reflect the over civilized yet deathly inside of his characters’
deranged psyches. They are symbolic manifestations of the unconscious, andtherefore are essential to his art.

422

Mihaela Prioteasa: Edgar Allan Poe’s Cosmological Theory – Eureka

Poe believed that peculiarity was a basic element of beauty, and his writing isoften exotic. His stories and poems are inhabited by doomed, introspective
aristocrats due to his southern roots that made him cherish, like many othersoutherners, an aristocratic ideal.
These gloomy characters never seem to work or socialize; instead they burythemselves in dark, mouldering castles symbolically decorated with bizarre rugs anddraperies that hide the real world of sun, windows, walls, and floors. The hidden
rooms reveal ancient libraries, strange art works, and eclectic oriental objects. The
aristocrats play musical instruments or read ancient books while they brood on
tragedies, often the deaths of loved ones. (VanSpanckeren, 2006)

Evidently, Poe’s recurrent trauma of orphanhood, of repeatedly losing hismaternal nurturers and paternal protectors, broadened his melancholia, scattered his
sense of self-worth, and sharpened his need to torment himself.
Love itself provokes anger because it signifies to the protagonist his threatening
abandonment. In the symbolic organization of Poe’s fiction, the personal trauma of
female loss and the affront of male scorn tend at last toward a common finale: ananger that the narrator eventually guides against himself in an act of compulsive
self-torment.
Having a huge contribution to the genres of horror and science fiction, Poe is
now seen as the father of the modern detective story and greatly praised as a poet.
Walt Whitman, talks about the author in his essay titled Edgar Poe’s Significance:
Poe’s verses illustrate an intense faculty for technical and abstract beauty, with therhyming art to excess, an incorrigible propensity toward nocturnal themes, ademoniac undertone behind every page. …There is an indescribable magnetism
about the poet’s life and reminiscences, as well as the poems.

Although Edgar Allan Poe is mainly notorious for his literary innovations in thedomain of poetry and short-story he was not only a remarkable mystery fiction
writer but also an innovator in scientifical and philosophical writing, even if his lastwork, which he also considered to be his masterpiece, remained in the shadow oftime for many years.
At the time, response to Eureka was extremely negative. Poe’s friend MarieLouise Shew, who had helped his wife Virginia in her last moments before dying,broke off their friendship because of the offences she identified in Eureka.
After the printing, Poe sent a letter to his aunt Maria Clemm in which heconfessed: “I have no desire to live since I have done Eureka. I could accomplish
nothing more.” Poe thought that his contemporaries were unable to understand his
work but was firmly convinced that it would be appreciated in time.
Eureka was dedicated “with very profound respect” to Alexander von
Humboldt, the German naturalist and is Poe’s longest non-fiction work at
approximately 40,000 words in length. The work originated from a lecture (On the
Cosmography of the Universe) presented in 1848, at the Society Library in New
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York. In spite the fact that Poe had expected an audience of hundreds of people,
only 60 attended and were confused by the topic.
His entire life, Poe had an obsessive fascination with the stars and theirmysterious workings. He closely studied the popular astronomy books of his time,
but had no natural talent for math, or an accurate education in either astronomy orphysics. However, in 1848 – only a year before Poe’s mysterious death – Wylie
and Putnam Publishing printed a prose poem (Eureka) that Poe dedicated many
years to write. To Poe’s surprise the poem was a dreadful failure, the first printing
consisting of only 500 copies although Poe requested 50,000.
Eureka stands as the single most important expression of the philosophic viewson which all of his literary strivings were based. Compared to Melville’s Moby
Dick, Thoreau’s Walden, Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and the music of Liszt andWagner, Eureka is an explosive, surprisingly unconventional creation of the HighRomantic era.
Eureka is more mystical than most Transcendental works. Poe himself
suggested that it should be judged only as a work of art, not of science, possibly
dismissing its seriousness or as an insurance of the chance of the novel to see thelight of printing.
In Eureka, Poe debates man’s connection to God and the universe. He statesthat matter and spirit are made of the same essence implying that people have anatural tendency to consider themselves as infinite with nothing valuable than theirsoul – such beliefs originate from man’s residual feelings from when each sharedan original identity with God. Eventually individual consciousnesses willdisintegrate into a similar single mass, a “final ingathering” where the “myriads ofindividual Intelligences become blended.” (Whalen: 90)
Similarly, Poe saw the universe itself as infinitely expanding and collapsing
like a divine heartbeat which permanently renews itself, also suggesting a sort ofimmortality (Silverman: 339). Actually, because the soul is a part of this constantvibration, after dying, all people, in essence, become God, returning to theirCreator as a reverse process of the way they came to life, a phenomenon describedin Bible, more precisely in The Book of Genesis where it is said men were made in
God’s own image.
Eureka shows similar themes and sentiments to some of those in Poe’s fiction
work, including attempts at penetrating beyond death and specifically characters
who return from the grave in stories like The Fall of the House of Usher andLigeia. In accordance to his theories about the short story, Poe thinks the universe
is an independent, enclosed system. To reach a conclusion Poe uses the literary
device of “ratiocination,” becoming himself a sort of C. Auguste Dupin, trying tosolve the mystery of the universe. Eureka, then, is the climax of Poe’s concern in
capturing truth by means of language, an extension of his interest in criptography.
It seems to prolong the science fiction traditions he used in works like MS
Found in a Bottle and The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. He further stresses
the link between his theory and fiction by saying that the universe itself is a written
work: “The Universe is a plot of God,” Poe says and “the plots of God are perfect.”424

Mihaela Prioteasa: Edgar Allan Poe’s Cosmological Theory – Eureka

The work ventures into Transcendentalism, depending strongly on intuition, amovement and practice he had contemned. Although Poe condemned thetranscendental movement for the inconsistent mysticism, Eureka is more mysticalthan most transcendental works.
The essay is written in a progressive style that anticipates its audience. For
example, Poe uses more metaphors later into the work in the hope that the reader
becomes more captivated. Poe’s voice increses throughout, starting as the modest
seeker of truth, advancing to the satirist of logic and finally concluding as themaster scholar.
Models of Poe’s “scientific” theories can be found in many of his tales such as
The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall, Descent into the Maelstrom,
Eleonora, Mellonta Tauta, Berenice, The Power of Words and 1002nd Tale ofScheherazade. Actually, some of those stories appear to be something more thanliterary motives for the presentation of abstract notions that Poe wished to show,
but knew would be mocked if he expressed them as serious scientific ideas.
Though he was rather familiar with the science of his day, and though he wasmaster in reason and logic, in expressing something as profound as the essence oflife and death, Poe uses all the instruments in his kit, going beyond reason andlogic, ultimately to art, to poetry, for his expression. In Eureka’s introductory
paragraph, he gives us the clue to its reading:To the few who love me and whom I love – to those who feel rather than to those
who think – to the dreamers and those who put faith in dreams as in the only
realities – I offer this Book of Truths, not in its character of Truth-Teller, but for the
Beauty that abounds in its Truth; constituting it true. To these I present thecomposition as an Art-Product alone, let us say as a Romance; or, if I be not urging
too lofty a claim, as a Poem. (Poe, 2005: 22)

The number of propositions about the origin, structure and fate of the Universe
which have later proven right is amazing. His discoveries are a palpable proof of
his great intuition.
Though modern critics have discharged Eureka for having no scientific value,
Poe’s work omens modern science with his own concept of the Big Bang. He
sustained the idea that the universe originated from a single particle, willed by a
“Divine Volition.” This “primordial particle,” began by God, separates into all theparticles of the universe.
Poe also introduces a cosmological theory that anticipated black holes (theexistence of black holes in the universe was confirmed only in 1970) and the Big
Crunch theory as well as the first plausible solution to Olbers’ paradox. Many ofPoe’s outcomes, however, are speculative due to his rejection of analytic logic andemphasis on intuition and inspiration.
Poe then attacks the subject of infinity, discussing that the word does not
actually render an idea, but only an attempt at one. The word “infinity”, he says,
expresses but the thought of a thought. Ironically he echoes Aristotle here, who
similarly sustained that the completed infinity was unbelievable, and that the word425

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010“infinity” is to be understood simply as implying the trend to endlessness.
Moreover, in considering whether the Universe itself may be finite or infinite, andwhether imagining one of these choices is more impossible than conceiving of theother, he says it makes no sense to talk about more or less impossible tasks,
because “a task is either possible or not possible, there are no gradations.”
Poe distinguishes between what he names “the universe of stars and theuniverse of space,” and he embraces Pascal’s definition in saying that actually “theuniverse is a sphere whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference isnowhere.” The universe of stars, Poe argues, is unavoidably finite, and all mattermust sometimes have been compressed into a single individual point. Thensometimes God made this point radiate an enormous (but finite) number of distinct
atoms in spherical waves emanating outward from the central point. He also
considers that the matter must be dispersed evenly, and he spends considerable
time trying to resolve how all matter can emanate from a central point and yet be
distributed uniformly. He seems very pleased to see a way – which he believes tobe the unique way – for this to happen. He thinks that the farthest out shell ofparticles must have been emitted with the greatest force and he supposes that theforce must have been proportional to the square of the shell’s radius.
Poe further interprets that the irradiation of all matter from the original onenessmust inevitably be undone, and all the atoms of the universe will fuse back into
oneness. The resemblance is obvious between Poe’s vision and 20th century ideas
about a cosmological “Big Bang” from a single amount swing, producing a finite
but unrestrained uniform universe.
However, the atomistic view was not greatly accepted in the scientificcommunity until the 20th century so Poe was certainly ahead of his time by basing
his world opinion so clearly on atomism. Moreover, the atomistic structure enabled
Poe to claim that the Universe is just settled on geometrical basis.
Generally speaking, Poe looks to identify all attraction (the trend to return tounity) as gravity, and all repulsion as what he called electricity, in which heinvolved the phenomena of magnetism and also heat. Conversely, the tendency ofbosons to have the same amount state – making lasers feasible – could be regarded
as an attractive force. It looks like, in order to understand Poe’s discussion, wemust make some permissions for his qualitative categorization of forces andeffects, at least when trying to place them in correspondence with the elements ofmodern theories.
The correspondence between magnetism and light is one of the most fascinating
insights Poe made in Eureka because, only decades later, J.C. Maxwell introduced
the idea of light as consisting of an electromagnetic wave and only in 1905, Albert
Einstein demonstrated that magnetism is just electricity.
Another interesting similarity between Poe’s ideas and modern theories is thebifurcation between gravity (attraction, body, material) on the one hand, and themultitudinous phenomena of electricity, magnetism, heat, light, etc. (repulsion,
soul, spiritual), on the other.

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One noticeable aspect of Poe’s review of astronomy is his visible certainty thatthe objects which had formerly been discerned only as vague “nebulae” are, in fact,other galaxies, similar to the Milky Way galaxy in which our Sun resides.
In the last pages of Eureka, Poe deals with what he seems to have viewed as an
essential question: whether the galaxies are rotating, stable configurations or not.
He correctly perceives a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the most important
astronomers of his day (John Herschel, Madler, Dr. Nichol) to conclude that thestructures of the universe are collapsing in on themselves, returning to unity as Poewould say, “on account of a prejudice; – simply because the hypothesis is at war
with an inflexible and absolutely unfounded notion – that of the endlessness – thatof the eternal stability of the Universe.”
Poe goes on to stress the magnitude of symmetry principles for guiding ourinvestigations, along with the principle of perfect regularity, in words that could
easily have been written by the mature Einstein a century later. He then discusses
the case of Enck’s comet, whose orbital variations led many people to consider (fora time) that some vague ether permeating space must be influencing its evolution.
At the end of Eureka Poe reverted to his normal poetic mode, and offered thislyrical conclusion:
The phenomena on which our conclusions must at this point depend, are merely
spiritual shadows, but not the less thoroughly substantial. We walk about, amid thedestinies of our world existence, encompassed by dim but ever present memories ofa destiny more vast – very distant in bygone time, and infinitely awful... conscious,
first, of a proper identity, secondly and by faint indeterminate glimpses, of an
identity with the Divine Being... Think that the sense of individual identity will be
gradually merged in a general consciousness – that Man, ceasing imperceptibly tofeel himself Man, will at length attain that awfully triumphant epoch when he shallrecognize his existence as that of Jehovah. In the mean time bear in mind that all isLife – Life within Life – the less within the greater, and all within the Spirit Divine.
(Poe, 2005: 206-210)

Knowing Poe’s hard life the metaphor is specifically touching and thisparagraph more than any other in Eureka betrays the accurate nature of the work. It
would be going too far to say the whole book is an aware allegory, because it
seems clear that (at least on some level) Poe took the scientific implications
seriously, but it’s also clear that his scientific ideas were intensely grounded in his
own spiritual and emotional wishes and position.
But science of the era paid no attention to his discourse. Maybe it was thenotification at the beginning of his work that ceased the interest of his
contemporaries: “I design to speak of the Physical, Metaphysical and Mathematical– of the Material and Spiritual Universe – of its Essence, its Origin, its Creation, its
Present Condition and its Destiny.” Perhaps his declared intention was too grandfor the era.
The book’s failure as a scientific work is due to several factors: the ambitious
objective announced by Poe at the beginning and probably because the work427

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presents philosophical, metaphysical and astronomical concepts without theauthor’s possession of an academic degree to support them, including amethodology not always rigorous, and sometimes intuitive. These factors play amajor part in the rejection of the scientific community, opposed to the notion of anevolutive Universe. Among those who were reluctant to adopt such a universe was
Humboldt, to whom Eureka was dedicated.
A century and half after his death, Poe is immediately identifiable, stands
without adversary, and remains enormously enjoyable. In his normal frame ofmind, at least, Poe would have been genuinely amused by the extensive praise andnotoriety he has enjoyed in posterity. His last wish of being remembered andappreciated for the prophecies he includes in his last work, Eureka, that he also
considers the best he ever produced, seems not to have completely become true.
This is mainly because of the long period of neglect and obscurity in which Eureka
was trapped. Poe might be a little sad to find out that none of his discoveries were
attributed to him but at the same time he would probably be glad about theimportance his book has been receiving lately. Apparently Eureka’s time has comejust as Poe had predicted.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Burdescu, Felicia (2003). Masters of American Literature. Bucureşti: Universal
Dalsi.
Harrison, Edward (1987). Darkness at Night: A Riddle of the Universe. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Hoffman, Daniel (1972). Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe. Baton Rouge: Louisiana
State University Press.
Meyers, Jeffrey (1992). Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. New York: Cooper
Square Press.
Moldenhauer, Joseph J. (1968). “Murder as a Fine Art: Basic Connections between
Poe’s Aesthetics, Psychology, and Moral Vision.” PMLA, Vol. 83, No. 2,
Modern Language Association.
Peeples, Scott (2002). “Poe’s constructiveness and The Fall of the House ofUsher.” In: Kevin J. Hayes (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan
Poe. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Poe, Edgar Allan (2005). Eureka: A Prose Poem. București: Editura Didactică și
Pedagogică.
Quinn, Arthur Hobson (1998). Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore:
The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Silverman, Kenneth (1991). Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending
Remembrance. New York City: Harper Perennial.
Sova, Dawn B. (2001). Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. New York: Checkmark Books.
Tresch, John (2002). “Extra! Extra! Poe invents science fiction!” In: Kevin J.
Hayes (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
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Mihaela Prioteasa: Edgar Allan Poe’s Cosmological Theory – Eureka

VanSpanckeren, Kathryn (2006). Outline of American literature. The United States
Information Agency.
Whalen, Terence (2001). “Poe and the American Publishing Industry”, as collected
In: J. Gerald Kennedy (ed.), A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Whitman, Walt (1892). Prose Works. Philadelphia: David McKay.

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Diffusione e promozione della lingua e della cultura italo albanese. Esperienze di studenti e docenti del Dipartimento
Italianistica dell’Università di Valona, Albania*
Frosina QYRDETI
Università “Ismail Qemali”, Valona, Albania,
Dipartimento di italianistica

ABSTRACT: Spreading and Promoting the Italian-Albanian Language andCulture. The Experience of the Undergraduates and Teaching Staff of the
Department of Italian at the University of Vlora, Albania
Albanians are separated from Italy by an arm of sea, and that maritime canal which
has represented an hope for many Albanian young people after many years ofcommunist isolation; now this constitutes a friend country whose language andculture are the most know, after Albanian ones. The number of Albanian students
that studies the Italian language and culture is increasing. The University of Vlore,
the youngest public university of Albania, and especially the Department of ItalianLanguage are not only center of Italian language e culture diffusion, but also bridgeof cultural and scientific cooperation with Italy. Here I will stop to explain mypositive experiences of Italian and Albanian professors and students during my yearsof work in this Department, talking about activities and events with common target:
improving legacy cognition of Albanian and Italian culture. I will talk abouttranslations, publications and promotion of Albanian and Italian texts, underlining
the direct contribution of students in promoting linguistic values and own legacy.
KEYWORDS: teaching Italian language, university collaboration, cultural
promotion

Prima di tutto vorrei rilevare che per me per me questo primo convegnointernazionale sulla lingua, cultura e società, rappresenta un’occasione permettere a confronto esperienze di docenti e studenti delle nostre università,
tradizioni e comportamenti didattici diversi nell’insegnamento della lingua
italiana come Lingua Straniera, ma anche un terreno per trovare binari paralleli econvergenti, nel rispetto delle diversità sul piano linguistico e culturale. Penso
che l’interesse per la scoperta linguistica e culturale reciproca sia arricchimento,
specialmente se questo interesse è legato all’impegno a una cooperazione onesta
e trasparente.
Nella mia comunicazione cercherò di farvi vedere come un’università giovane
di età, come l’Università di Valona in Albania, e in particolare il Corso in Lingua e
Letteratura Italiana, seguendo con speciale attenzione l’evoluzione del quadro
culturale contemporaneo in ambito linguistico e culturale, concepisce e realizza in
430

Frosina Qyrdeti: Diffusione e promozione della lingua e della cultura italo - albanese...

stretta collaborazione con le Università Italiane varie iniziative progettuali che sonoorientate al miglioramento della qualità dell’offerta formativa e al rafforzamento dicooperazione istituzionale nella promozione e valorizzazione culturale dei due
paesi.
Nella prima parte del mio intervento presenterò quella, che secondo me, è stata
una politica di avvicinamento e miglioramento nell’insegnamento della lingua
italiana come lingua straniera, nell’Università di Valona. In una prospettiva
cronologica cercherò di evidenziare le riforme realizzate per la realizzazione dellamissione attuale del Dipartimento di Italianistica; quello della formazione e
preparazione dei futuri docenti di italiano per gli studenti albanesi; i problemi che
secondo me preoccupano l’insegnamento della lingua italiana all’Università diValona e le sfide future.
Per poi continuare con la seconda parte della comunicazione, nella quale
cercherò di dimostrare come le conoscenze e gli studi appresi all’Università si
mettono alla disposizione della promozione della cultura e patrimonio culturale delproprio paese, esempi di come la scuola mantiene una proficua collaborazione conil territorio svolgendo attività che non rispondono solo alle esigenze didattiche, masoprattutto aiutano a creare competenze funzionali e trasformano i centri dididattica in centri di servizio e collaborazione.
Gli albanesi sono separati dall’Italia solo da un braccio di mare, e quel canaled’acqua, che per molti giovani albanesi dopo tanti anni di isolamento comunista
rappresentava una speranza, ora costituisce un paese amico la cui lingua e cultura
è la più conosciuta, dopo la lingua materna albanese. Ormai da molti anni albanesi
e italiani come buoni vicini cercano di conoscersi. Noi albanesi abbiamo imparato
ad apprezzare il modo con cui si fanno le cose in Italia, e questa nostra
comprensione dello spirito italiano ci ha procurato amici ovunque.
Ma ormai tanti italiani vengono in Albania sempre più spesso e registrano con
attenzione i cambiamenti e i processi evolutivi della società che sono in corso. La
situazione dello studio della lingua e cultura italiana sembra vivace e significativa.
In quest’ultimo decennio è cambiato il profilo di chi si avvicina allo studio diitaliano. Tra i fattori che spingono gli albanesi al contato con l’italiano, sono senza
dubbio quelli connessi agli attuali processi di espansione dell’economia italiana.
Oggi l’italiano funziona come lingua di comunicazione per stabilire o mantenere
scambi professionali e forme di cooperazione con l’Italia.
Il camino degli albanesi verso l’integrazione in Europa sicuramente prevede ilmiglioramento del livello di istruzione. Le tribune fondamentali sono soprattutto leuniversità. Il numero degli studenti albanesi che si dedicano allo studio intensivo
della lingua e cultura italiana è in continuo aumento. L’Università di Valona la più
giovane università pubblica dell’Albania, e specialmente il Dipartimento di
Italianistica è oggi centro per la diffusione della lingua e cultura italiana, ma anche
un ponte di cooperazione culturale e scientifica con l’Italia. Istituita con sole 162
matricole nel 1994, l’Università di Valona quest’anno (2008-2009) conta disuperare le 10.000 iscrizioni. La più giovane università pubblica d’Albania si èrialzata in pochi anni come l’intera Albania, la quale prosegue a correre verso
431

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

l’Europa, costatando come poi non è difficile acquisire credibilità e realizzare
progetti. I piccoli progetti di interscambio culturale promossi dai Ministeri degli
Esteri d’Italia e Albania hanno pienamente centrato il loro obbiettivo allacciando
scambi culturali prima timidi, poi sempre più fondati. Nel 1995 col sostegnodell’Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Tirana, un gruppo di docenti di lingua italiana
dell’Università di Valona ha istituito un Centro Culturale per la Promozione e laDiffusione della Lingua e della Cultura Italiana. Si è cominciato con l’offrirel’opportunità a coloro che desideravano, di conoscere la lingua e la cultura italiana,
attraverso l’organizzazione dei corsi di lingua, la creazione e la gestione di una
biblioteca che si arricchisce in continuazione. Certamente i primi scambi culturali ele prime visite di ricercatori dell’Università di Lecce, di Bari e di Perugia hanno
avuto un merito aggiuntivo, hanno costituito da pretesto per interazioni
scientifiche.
Così i docenti del Dipartimento di Italianistica dell’Università di Valona, hannopartecipato, nell’ambito del progetto triennale1, ai lavori interuniversitari miranti
alla progettazione di curricula design, tenutosi presso l’Università per Stranieri diPerugia. Tali lavori, destinati all’armonizzazione del sistema universitario albanesecon quello europeo, secondo le direttive della Dichiarazione di Bologna, hanno
spaziato dallo scambio di informazioni al adeguamento dei programmi del corso dilaurea in lingua italiana dell’Università di Valona.
Vi posso dire che non è stato assolutamente facile, ma si sa, per quanto possa
essere faticoso ogni inizio rappresenta una sfida certamente dura che regala anche
grandi soddisfazioni. Così il nuovo corso di laurea triennale prevede un percorso
educativo che ha come base le necessità degli studenti. Nell’arco di tre anni distudio gli insegnamenti comprendono discipline linguistiche e didattiche. I nuovi
programmi di studi fanno esplicito riferimento al sistema europeo dei crediti,organizzati sul modello di quelli adottati da diverse università di Albania.
Un ruolo centrale hanno le attività glottodidattiche svolte in aula le quali
comprendono ore di lezioni teoriche ed esercitazioni pianificate e strutturate. Gli
esercizi finalizzati di grammatica, il cui scopo è esercitare tutte le strutture
grammaticali proposte nel loro ordine naturale di apprendimento secondo la loro
utilità e frequenza, hanno un posto importante nel programma di italiano. Molti
punti problematici della lingua vengono chiariti facendo un paragone con la lingua
albanese. Il laboratorio linguistico dove gli studenti praticano l’ascolto diprogrammi audiovisivi autentici e il parlato hanno un grande spazio nelle ore
settimanali che lo studente di italiano fa.
Per quanto riguarda la metodologia. Nei nuovi piani di studio si dà più
importanza alle competenze comunicative che a quelle linguistiche che hanno
prevalso finora. La preparazione individuale del docente e la sua capacità di“parlare creativamente su qualcosa”, in questo modo si cerca di abbinare il parlato,
modellato su strutture fisse di conversazione presentate dal testo base, con l’ascolto
il quale diviene il fondamento per il parlato. L’obiettivo è che gli studenti possanocomunicarsi via l’uso di forme sintatticamente corrette, più che capire la loro
origine.
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Molto importante è considerato la scelta dei testi da parte del docente per lo
studio della lingua italiana. Questa scelta tiene conto sia degli interessi e dellemotivazioni culturali degli studenti, sia degli obiettivi più ampi e organici
dell’educazione letteraria, della quale si fa interprete il docente alla base diprogrammazione. Mediante tale scelta si deve proporre un orizzonte abbastanza
largo di cultura, senza pregiudizi di restrizioni, di tempo, di spazio e di genere. La
scelta dei testi deve essere organizzata in modo significativo mediante
raggruppamenti e percorsi, al fine di rendere evidenziate, motivi e forme nel
tempo, nelle diverse culture e nei vari tipi di rappresentazione.
L’italiano s’insegna ora come prima lingua straniera obbligatoria in quasi tutte
le scuole pubbliche e private di Valona. La mancanza di docenti locali di lingua
italiana ha spinto il Dipartimento di Lingue Straniere dell’Università di Valona diorganizzare un programma di Studi Master al Primo Livello. Questo programma
offre agli studenti tutte le conoscenze teoriche sulla metodologia dell’insegnamentodella lingua italiana come Lingua Straniera, sviluppando poi queste conoscenze inpratica tramite tirocini presso le scuole pubbliche e private della città di Valona.
Nella seconda parte della mia comunicazione porterò alcune riflessioni diesperienze comuni con studenti e docenti di lingua italiana della mia università constudenti e professori dell’Università del Salento in Italia. In modo che possano far
sentire la propria voce nel processo decisionale e per contribuire a sviluppare il
dialogo intorno alle tematiche di cultura, studenti e docenti di lingua italiana sono
stati protagonisti e attori di iniziative comuni.
La collaborazione ha mirato alla preservazione e la promozione della diversitàdelle espressioni culturali della regione di Valona (Albania) e quella di Puglia(Italia). Questo rapporto tra le due sponde è favorito anche dalla vicinanza
geografica. Poi in Italia e in Puglia c’è una comunità di origine albanese che ancora
parla la sua lingua di origine.
Come docente che opero quotidianamente nel campo della formazione penso
che chi meglio di studenti potrebbe sviluppare rapporti di cooperazione tra le due
sponde adriatiche: Italia e Albania. Ed ho anche la conferma. Vi posso parlare diun’esperienza positiva che abbiamo avuto come Dipartimento di Italianistica
nell’ambito di un’iniziativa progettuale chiamata PROMOALBA. 2
Presso la Facoltà di Lingue Straniere dell’Università di Lecce c’è una cattedra
di lingua albanese la quale nel 2004 ha iniziato delle attività con i docenti estudenti dell’Università di Valona. Si è cominciato con visite di professori e
studenti leccesi all’Università di Valona, per continuare con un programma dilavoro il quale consisteva in formazione studenti, traduzione, pubblicazione e
promozione di testi nelle due lingue. Questo programma ha mirato in particolare a
migliorare la conoscenza del patrimonio culturale, storico, letterario e linguisticoalbanese e italiano.
Laureati in discipline di Lingua e Letteratura Italiana, Lingua e Letteratura
Albanese, dopo un corso di formazione a Lecce, hanno tradotto 16 testi
dall’italiano in albanese, dall’albanese in italiano. I testi tradotti in italiano e in433

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albanese appartenevano a una varia tipologia che comprendeva per la parte inlingua albanese:a) Nuova narrativa, con particolare attenzione alle opere che presentano temi
concernenti la moderna società albanese3, il rapporto tra cultura tradizionale esocietà contemporanea4, la storia dell’Albania in una prospettiva balcanica ecc.
b) Saggi di contenuto sociologico, come l’opera Il ratto dell’Europa di Aurel
Plasari, giornalista, polemista, direttore della Biblioteca Nazionale di Tirana, cheaffronta lo spinoso problema del rapporto fra cultura occidentale e cultura orientale
in Albania e nei Balcani, miscellanee di carattere linguistico (raccolta di articoli
sulla storia della formazione della lingua albanese curata dal Prof. Emil Lafe,studioso dell’Accademia delle Scienze.)Invece alla lingua italiana, in lingua albanese sono stati tradotti testi
appartenenti ai seguenti settori:a) Narrativa italiana con una panoramica sulla produzione dei secoli XX-XXI(due opere di autori contemporanei salentini, un romanzo di Grazia Deledda, La
madre, un’antologia di prosa italiana con brani di Luigi Pirandello, Tommaso
Landolfi, Federico Tozzi;b) Saggi a carattere antropologico (raccolta di studi del prof. Eugenio Imbriani
che ha per oggetto alcuni fenomeni legati alla terra del Salento), sociologico (lamonografia Sociologia di processi migratori del Prof. Franco Merico);c) Lingua, tradizioni culturali dell’Italo - albanesi (Arbëreshë), con particolare
attenzione alla storia della diaspora in Terra d’Otranto (saggio del Prof. Giancarlo
Vallone su I Castriota e gli Albanesi in Terra d’Otranto.)
Direi che le traduzioni di testi italiano-albanese e albanese- italiano sono trattate
con molta attenzione e precisione considerando le differenze tra le due lingue, lequali creano non pochi problemi ai fini delle traduzioni di testi Italiano Albanese.
Infatti, la trasposizione da una lingua all’altra comporta anche un insieme diaccorgimenti estetici ai quali solitamente non si dà l’opportuna importanza. I
traduttori hanno considerato ogni dettaglio, ogni scelta, stilistica e di linguaggio,
dell’autore dei testi originali, cercando di riportare nei testi di destinazione, nonsolo i contenuti ma tutti quegli aspetti che distinguono e rendono unico un testo.
Esperti nel settore della traduzione e dell’editoria hanno guidato il lavoro della
traduzione dei nuovi traduttori. Posso dire che i testi tradotti e pubblicati sono stati
valorizzati e promossi in Italia e in Albania,attraverso seminari e conferenze nellesi sono presentati i testi e i documenti tradotti. Questa fase del progetto hacontribuito in modo particolare alla valorizzazione e promozione dell’immagine
dell’Albania in Italia e viceversa.
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Come prima iniziativa comune ha sicuramente contribuito alla creazione di una
nuova figura professionale, quella del traduttore dall’albanese in italiano, la quale èpraticamente sconosciuta nel panorama editoriale italiano perché la quasi totalitàdelle opere albanesi edite in Italia sono tradotte sulla base di versioni riconducibili
ad altre lingue europee (nella maggior parte dei casi dal francese). Vorrei
menzionare un altro fatto. Questa prima iniziativa ha creato un gruppo stabile
italo - albanese che ha intenzione di approfondire il lavoro cominciato nel campodella traduzione.
Un esempio di contribuito alla promozione della ricchezza storica e culturale
dell’Albania è la collaborazione fruttuosa dei Dipartimenti di Lingua Italiana e diTurismo con Il Dipartimento di Biologia Marina e Comune di Andranno Lecce(Italia).
Con l’obiettivo di accompagnare e favorire il processo di sviluppo dell’area
naturale protetta Costa Otranto - Santa Maria di Leuca (Italia) e della regione
costiera di Vlorë (Albania) della laguna di Nartë (Albania) e dell’ambiente
lagunare di Orikum (Albania) i due gruppi italo - albanesi di studio e lavoro hanno
sviluppato delle attività di identificazione di itinerari tematici (naturalistici, storicoculturali ecc.), la realizzazione di un portale, e la creazione di una rete attiva dioperatori del settore culturale e turistico dando l’avvio di un’azione pilota dipromozione del territorio.5
Il gruppo di studio albanese è stato incaricato di eseguire lo studio di fattibilitàdi percorsi temi (itinerari storici, naturalistici, ecc.) in collaborazione con il
Dipartimento di Scienza e Tecnologie Biologiche ed Ambientali dell’Università delSalento di Lecce (Italia), la progettazione della relativa segnaletica e larealizzazione e successivo posizionamento della stessa nell’ambito del territorio
interessato nel versante albanese.
Sulla base del contesto identificato mediante il lavoro di mappatura sono stati
individuati, progettati e realizzati n. 3 percorsi diversi per tipologia, modalità dipercorrenza, stagionalità, argomenti e temi specifici, per un totale di circa 40Km dinuovi percorsi realizzati. In particolare, nell’ambito di quest’attività, è stato
individuato un percorso specifico che interessasse a ogni partner di progetto.
Sono stati così individuati e descritti i seguenti percorsi:
1. Itinerario “Il Sentiero di Orikum” - Comune di Orikum
2. Itinerario. “Il sentiero di Karaburun” - Comune di Orikum, Comune di Vlorë
3. Itinerario “Zvërnec, Dajlan, Nartë” - Comune di Vlorë, Comune di Qender
Invece il gruppo di studenti albanesi ha svolto tutto il lavoro di schedatura
raccogliendo i dati necessari compilando 13 tipi di schede di catalogazione le quali
includevano:· Accoglienza (alberghi, ostelli, masserie, case per ferie, case religiose,
affittacamere, agriturismo, campeggi)· Ristorazione
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·
·
·
·
·

Itinerari turistici
Beni culturali
Beni naturali
Imprenditoria femminile
Prodotti tipici

Sono stati compilati i dati che riguardano a 3 musei, 5 castelli, 3 chiese, 2monumenti, 2 centri architettonici, 2 moschee, ristornati, pizzerie, taverne, 2
lagune, 10 spiagge, 4 grotte, i prodotti tipici. Tutti i dati raccolti sono stati
analizzati e il lavoro si è finalizzato con un piano marketing, oggi pubblicato dal
Dipartimento di Turismo dell’Università di Valona. Questo piano marketing è
tradotto dagli studenti di lingua italiana dall’albanese in italiano ed è stato
promosso in un’attività comune italo - albanese presso l’Università di Valona, conla presenza anche di operatori turistici interessati.
Il gruppo di studio italiano. Presieduto da Professori del Dipartimento di
Biologia Marina dell’Università del Salento, ha svolto lo studio di fattibilità e laprogettazione di alcuni percorsi tematici nel Salento quali:• Il Castello Aragonese e Parco delle Querce• Il Canalone dell’Acquaviva• Il Sentiero di Torre del Sasso• Le More• Terramare• Il Sentiero della via Appia Calabro-Salentina
Un grande lavoro di schedatura, raccolta ed elaborazione di dati, studio piano
marketing e realizzazione segnaletica. Si è realizzato così un Sito di promozione
turistica, la Segnaletica sui percorsi e il Piano di marketing per le zone coperte dalprogetto. Tutto il materiale raccolto è stato tradotto dall’albanese in italiano edall’italiano in albanese È stato poi redatato in una forma appropriata per la
pubblicazione nel portale della promozione turistica <http://www.pernatur.org>.
Con lo slogan “Italia - Albania il nuovo andare” questo portale promuove unnuovo modo di fare turismo per tutte le stagioni. Una nuova banca dati promuove
un turismo transfrontaliero, alternativo, tematico e sostenibile durante le quattro
stagioni dell’anno, sostiene lo sviluppo del territorio e la cooperazione
transfrontaliera
In seguito vi presento la pagina principale del portale. Come potete vedere
questa pagina è frutto di fantasia del gruppo di lavoro il quale attraverso ledescrizioni in italiano e albanese di quattro stagioni, ha voluto rilevare che sia nel
Golfo di Valona (Albania), sia nel Salento, Italia si può fare turismo tutto l’anno.
Bellissimi colori caratterizzano la pagina: il blu del mare pulito e profondo e ilverde degli alberi. Natura stupenda e un nuovo andare per l’Albania.

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Conclusioni
La conservazione e la promozione della diversità delle espressioni culturali
figurano tra i principi fondatori della Comunità europea6. Rispettando le differenze
culturali si contribuisce allo sviluppo e alla diffusione delle culture ed alla
cosiddetta “Europa dei popoli”.
Finisco la mia comunicazione affermando che grazie a manifestazioni culturali,è stato possibile pervenire a significativi quadri d’insieme degli schemi di utilizzo
della lingua e della formazione dell’identità. La posizione di tali schemi inambienti interni a specifiche comunità ci ha consentito di operare confronti conaltre comunità e di applicare modelli teorici diversi. L’impegno delle università
procedere nella realizzazione di programmi di collaborazione e di confronto sono
sintomi di una volontà di avvicinamento e di partecipazione reciproca che si basa
anche sulle diversità linguistiche e culturali, che vogliono essere conosciute e
rispettate.
NOTE* A causa di un errore deplorevole, questo articolo – che era destinato per la pubblicazione nel n.
1-2/2009 degli Annali delle Lingue Straniere Applicate – non è stato più pubblicato. Mettiamo
adesso le cose a posto e correggiamo l’errore, con tante scuse per l’autore dalla partedel segretario di redazione.
1
Progetto Tempus “Joint European Project – Contract nº CD_JEP-16118-2001, relative ai Curricula
Design.
2
PROMOALBA – finanziata dal Programma di Iniziativa Comunitaria INTERREG III A ITALIA –ALBANIA, inserita nell’ambito dell’Asse IV – Misura 4.3 – “Sviluppo della cooperazione
istituzionale e culturale” e insiste sull’Azione 1. “Interventi di informazione e promozione
dell’immagine dell’Albania”.
3
L’opera Panteoni i zi di Fahri Balliu, giornalista, scrittore, editore, che affronta il problema legato ai
50 anni di dittatura comunista
4
Il romanzo L’inchiodato e l’ombra di Gjergj Vlashi, che tratta la dolorosa vicenda di persone
confinate per tutta la vita entro le mura domestiche a seguito della dura legge del Kanun.
5
Progetto PERNATUR – “Turismo sostenibile, Percorsi tematici e ippovie per la promozione delpatrimonio Naturalistico e culturale” Acronimo PERNATUR – Codice Progetto: 36/52502/TUR.
6
Sono iscritti nel Trattato, art. 151, e nella Carta dei Diritti fondamentali dell’Unione europea, art.
22.3.

BIBLIOGRAFIA
Balboni, P.E. (1994). Didattica dell’italiano a stranieri. Roma: Bonacci.
Beretta N., & F. Gatti (1999). Abilità di ascolto. Torino: Paravia.
Dardano, M., & P. Trifone (1985). La lingua italiana. Bologna: Zanichelli.
Piemontese, M.E. (1996). Capire e farsi capire. Teorie e tecniche della scrittura
controllata. Napoli: Tecnodid.
Riferimento i siti Internet consultati: <http://www.pernatur.org>.

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Educazione linguistica degli studenti stranieri.
Lo sviluppo delle abilità orali con i media
Frosina QYRDETI
Università “Ismail Qemali”, Valona, Albania,
Dipartimento di italianistica

ABSTRACT: Overseas Students’ Linguistic Education. Development of Oral
Skills through the MediaIn this work we propose to emphasize the importance of multimedia can provide
teachers and students in foreign language education process. The question that arises
is which aspects of orality of the Italian language can be exploited in thedevelopment of receptive and productive skills of an Albanian student of Italianclass? The varieties of spoken or the Italian media as TV, radio Web and are now
highly in Albania. Albanian students are in contact with a linguistic reality alive andreal. The mere finding that learning a language is necessary to know the authentic
lifestyle and the common standard of speakers of that language makes it possible toachieve unity of language teacher education by using various sources from TV andradio broadcasts, drama, advertising, web etc. thereby improving the path oflanguage acquisition.
KEYWORDS: aspects of orality, multimedia, learning a language, development of
receptive and productive skills

Introduzione
I principi generali del Quadro di Riferimento delle Lingue, sono un punto diriferimento anche nel dibattito attuale sull’evoluzione della scuola albanese edell’educazione in generale. E’ evidente l’esigenza di una riforma didattica,
risultante dell’incontro delle nuove conoscenze relative al processo diapprendimento maturate in ambito pedagogico e psicologico: un’educazione
sempre più orientata verso sistemi organizzativi “modulari” e “multimediali”erinnovata dunque dall’introduzione delle tecnologie dell’informazione e della
comunicazione.
Da questo punto di vista la preoccupazione pedagogica come insegnante dilingua per offrire agli studenti della mia classe di italiano strumenti efficaci eadeguati nell’insegnamento/apprendimento della lingua italiana, mi spinge ditrattare l’argomento dell’uso di tecnologie multimediali più innovative e nello
stesso tempo più stimolanti per gli apprendenti.
L’insegnamento delle lingue straniere punta a sviluppare la capacità di usufruire
in modo efficace codici linguistici diversi dalla lingua materna. Nella sua attività439

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didattica l’insegnante delle lingue viene guidato da metodi ed approcci diversi.
Sfruttando i contributi di ricerche nei campi della psicologia, della linguistica
applicata e della scienza della comunicazione, all’insegnante vengono forniti
impostazioni, procedure e modelli di azione orientandolo nella scelta e nella
articolazione dei materiali didattici da utilizzare.
Nel processo dell’apprendimento della lingua italiana come lingua straniera ascuola, le necessità degli apprendenti non si limitano più solo ad una conoscenza
scolastica e teorica della lingua, ma soprattutto alla sua capacità d’uso, per poter
essere in grado di agire e di utilizzare la lingua in tutti i contesti reali desiderati.
L’approccio comunicativo, che non si concentra esclusivamente sugli aspetti
strutturali e sulle regole grammaticali della lingua, ma presta attenzione anche
all’evento comunicativo, tenendo conto quindi delle funzioni, delle circostanze diutilizzo, delle realizzazioni specifiche della lingua d’uso, dà la possibilità agli
studenti di entrare in contatto in conversazioni reali e spontanee della lingua che
si studia. Al fine di presentare all’apprendente una lingua viva e reale, chemantenga così tutte le caratteristiche proprie del parlato spontaneo, gli insegnantipuntano alla scelta metodologica comunicativa usando materiale didattico autentico(giornali, film, pubblicità, documentari in lingua originale). Negli ultimi decenni lenuove tecnologie sono state ampliamente utilizzate nelle prassi di insegnamentodelle lingue straniere orientate in tal senso, ed i docenti hanno sempre più sfruttato
la valenza formativa delle strumentazioni audiovisive ed informatiche; attraverso le“glottotecnologie”, infatti, riescono a presentare agli studenti corpora di lingua
autentica utili per realizzare il duplice obiettivo di mettere gli apprendenti incontatto con la lingua studiata nelle sue caratteristiche d’uso e rendere più efficace
e motivante l’apprendimento della lingua anche in contesti formali e guidati.
1. La lingua dei media e il loro impiego nell’insegnamento dell’italiano LS
I media moderni sono dei mezzi tecnologici i quali legano caratteristiche delparlato, come il canale sonoro, il canale visivo e la presenza di un emittente e
destinatario che possono essere compresenti in tempo reale o in differita nello
spazio reale o virtuale, con quelle dello scritto, caratterizzato dalla presenza di testo(slogan pubblicitari, titoli di giornali, sottotitoli di film ecc), dal linguaggio iconico,dalla possibilità di raggiungere i destinatari (spesso sconosciuti) della
comunicazione.
La presenza rilevante della dimensione orale della lingua, in particolare delle
forme di dialogo del parlato proposte da vari media, ad esempio negli spettacoli tv
o nelle trasmissioni radiofoniche in diretta, e tanti altri si possono sfruttare da noi
docenti e dagli studenti nel processo dell’insegnamento/apprendimento di una LS.
L’italiano dei media varia trasmette una forte presenza di tratti della scrittura, comenei telegiornali e in molte sezioni della stampa, ma anche la dimensione orale
spontanea, colloquiale. Con lo scopo di colpire un pubblico abbastanza ampio evario, si preferisce usare un italiano dell’uso medio.

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Diverse sono le ragioni che ci hanno spinti all’uso dei media fonico-visivi comestrumenti di supporto alla tradizionale didattica dell’italiano per gli stranieri:
1. facilitare la motivazione degli studenti, trattando dei modelli linguistici eculturali in continuo cambiamento, accanto a quelli proposti dai manuali e libri ditesto, spesso troppo invecchiati e stereotipici;
2. presentare agli studenti più varietà linguistiche, come quelle che i media
propongono nei loro diversi generi (trasmissione radiofonica, film, fiction tv, talkshow e pubblicità);
3. rafforzare la competenza linguistica posseduta dai parlanti stranieri;
4. la dimensione orale della lingua che i media diffondono permette disviluppare le abilità linguistiche dell’ascolto e del parlato negli apprendenti
stranieri allo scopo di migliorare le conoscenze acquisite in situazioni reali dicomunicazione;
5. i media occupano un ruolo importante nell’ambiente degli alunni. Oggi si
assiste sempre più al fenomeno di passaggio da una società dello scritto ad una
società della multimedialità, dunque l’uso dei mezzi di comunicazione di massa
aiuta gli insegnanti ad stabilire un dialogo produttivo con i propri studenti;
6. l’utilizzo degli audiovisivi si inserisce nell’approccio didattico costruttivista
per cui si favorisce la scoperta e la comprensione delle nozioni, perciò devono
essere inseriti in un quadro di lavoro specifico e non come attività ricreativa per gli
apprendenti;
7. lavorare al computer con audiovisivi autentici consente di sfruttare più canali
sensoriali e di conseguenza di fare leva sulla memoria uditiva e visiva dell’ uomo
per l’apprendimento delle informazioni linguistiche, secondo la modalità bimodale
che gli emisferi cerebrali utilizzano nell’immagazzinamento di una lingua e di tutti
i suoi aspetti comunicativi interconnessi.
2. Sviluppo di abilità in italiano LS attraverso la radio, il cinema, la televisionee la pubblicità: esperienze di attività didattiche
Il più diffuso strumento di comunicazione che utilizza soltanto il canale uditivo è laradio. La domanda che poniamo è quali le caratteristiche linguistiche del parlato diquesta media vengono sfruttati nelle attività didattiche?
Gli spettacoli di varietà e di divertimento, come ad esempio i programmi con lapossibilità per gli ascoltatori di telefonare da casa, hanno contribuito allo sviluppo
di un parlato più informale e più vasto a livello diatonico. A seconda delprogramma trasmesso si passa da un linguaggio standard, come nel caso di
documentari, telegiornali che si basano spesso su una scaletta di contenuti più
vicina allo scritto che al parlato, ad un linguaggio “parlato-parlato” (Diadori, 1994:15) caratterizzato da registri più bassi e popolari, come quello delle persone chechiamano la redazione per parlare liberamente su temi molte volte improvvisati.
Gli studiosi hanno individuato diverse tipologie comunicative in base al tipo diprogramma radiofonico: monologo (come i notiziari e i bollettini meteorologici),
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dialogo (come nei programmi di musica e di svago, dibattiti in studio e trasmissioni
culturali), telefonata, monologo a più voci, turno frammentato (come nei
programmi di intrattenimento e nelle telefonate in studio).
Il parlato radiofonico è vario e la sua diversità dipende fondamentalmente dal
genere di programma trasmesso e dal pubblico a cui si rivolge: conversazione,
dibattito, lettura recitata di un testo condizionano dunque la forma linguistica
utilizzata nelle trasmissioni emesse alla radio, e allo stesso tempo la varietà diparlati ne garantisce il successo e la spettacolarità: la radio non è più unilaterale,
non si rivolge ad un pubblico sconosciuto, ma vuole proporsi come “amica,
realizzare un rapporto personale e intimo con l’ascoltatore, farlo identificare epartecipare a una comunità.”Le situazioni comunicative presenti all’interno di una trasmissione radiofonica,
possono essere sfruttate a fini didattici per lo sviluppo delle abilità orali degli
studenti stranieri di un corso di lingua italiana. Con la mia classe di studentialbanesi di livello avanzato ho utilizzato all’ascolto via web di alcune emissioni
radiofoniche di tendenza e in diretta. Tra le tante trasmissioni di cui internet
dispone, si è scelto di utilizzare per un’ attività di comprensione globale dellalingua orale, su temi di stretta attualità, con la partecipazione degli ascoltatori
attraverso chiamate telefoniche, e-mail o sms, e di interviste di personaggi
importanti del mondo dello spettacolo e della cultura, ospiti in studio.
Ecco alcune attività sviluppate:
1 Stabilire l’argomento del messaggio, senza soffermarsi sui dettagli.
2. Percepire i ruoli degli interlocutori dell’intervista e i loro stati d’animo.
3. Rilevare i segnali discorsivi di una interazione dialogica (ad esempio leformule di apertura e chiusura del discorso).
4. Notare le parole più importanti del testo e motivarne la scelta.
Il risultato? Positivo ai fini didattici prestabiliti. I miei studenti hanno compresole conversazioni svolte e hanno svolto tutte le attività da me proposte. Però posso
dire che alla fase iniziale hanno avuto delle difficoltà . Era normale perché nelle
attività di ascolto capata anche ai parlanti nativi di avere difficoltà.
La lingua del cinema si avvicina sempre di più all’italiano dell’uso medio. È un
suo obiettivo la simulazione di un parlato immediato, vicino alla realtà quotidiana..
Il parlato cinematografico presenta quei tratti tipici dell’oralità (ad esempio
ripetizioni, pause, autocorrezioni, segnali discorsivi, elementi deittici che si
riferiscono al contesto situazionale, e via dicendo) che l’insegnante di italiano LS
stabilisce per far acquisire ai propri studenti .
Si è proposta ad un gruppo di studenti albanesi di italiano lingua straniera,
livello avanzato, la visione di alcuni spezzoni di un film di recente produzione
italiana dal titolo “Saimir”, un film interessante che tratta problemi di emigrazione
albanese in Italia. L’obiettivo di questa attività era di tirare l’attenzione degli442

Frosina Qyrdeti: Educazione linguistica degli studenti stranieri. Lo sviluppo delle abilità...

studenti attraverso un media come il cinema verso le varietà linguistichedell’italiano e alcuni aspetti culturali albanesi e italiani: in particolare leproblematiche legate al fenomeno dell’emigrazione.
Durante la visione del film gli studenti dovevano sfruttare le loro abilitàd’ascolto allo scopo di ottenere una comprensione globale delle sequenze filmicheselezionate. Per tale motivo, si è facilitata l’attività attraverso delle schede di
Costruzione della frase scissa molto frequente nell’italiano dell’uso medio: svolge
una funzione interazionale nel parlato spesso presentandosi come un’interruzione ocome un modo per riprendere il turno. La visione del film ha permesso anche dilavorare sullo sviluppo delle abilità produttive orali, scatenando un dibattito tra gli
studenti. Si sono poi adoperate delle tecniche di role-play per fare simulare agli
studenti alcune situazioni di interazione comunicativa proposte dal film, sottoforma
di doppiaggio seguendo le immagini senza sonoro
La televisione è senza dubbio il più potente mezzo tra gli strumenti sociali diinformazione e di intrattenimento posseduti dall’ uomo. La TV rappresenta ilmezzo di comunicazione di massa per eccellenza riuscendo a sfruttare la possibilitàdi riunire insieme altri media come il cinema, il telefono, o di utilizzare il canale
scritto o grafico attraverso i canali di televideo e quelli satellitari o digitali. Oggi latelevisione presenta vari canali vantando una programmazione differenziata
corrispondente alle richieste di mercato.
Allo scopo di sviluppare il repertorio comunicativo degli apprendenti di italiano
lingua straniera e di stimolare in loro anche l’interesse per la dimensione culturaleche certe trasmissioni televisive possono trasmettere, si è scelto di utilizzare la
televisione trasmessa via etere nelle classi di italiano. Nella speranza di soddisfare
l’esigenza manifestata dagli alunni di apprendere una lingua contemporanea, vicina
al loro modo di esprimersi, si è preferito selezionare e trasformare in attività
didattica un genere televisivo in cui è evidente l’uso dell’italiano medio oneostandard: la visione di uno spettacolo di intrattenimento-cabaret, “Zelig”, che fa
proprio del linguaggio la sua risorsa di comicità, attraverso l’espediente del ricorso
a neologismi, giochi di parole, sgrammaticature linguistiche, abuso di forestierismi,
intonazione e pronuncia con tratti regionali. Non bisogna dimenticare tra l’altro che
proprio dalla tv e da questo tipo di trasmissioni il linguaggio giovanile trova spunto
per rinnovarsi continuamente e far circolare le proprie novità linguistiche.
Il linguaggio pubblicitario gode, inoltre, della possibilità di sfruttare diversi
canali, sonoro, visivo, tonale e gestuale, e mescolando codici diversi (linguistici,
culturali, semantici e retorici), crea delle espressioni che spesso rientrano per unperiodo di tempo nel parlato giovanile.
Gli elementi tipici di uno spot, insieme alle sue caratteristiche linguistiche e allesue funzioni comunicative, possono essere sfruttati a scopo didattico, perfocalizzare l’attenzione degli studenti verso un tipo di messaggio, scritto e orale,che grazie alla sua modalità di comunicazione di tipo multimediale, invade a livelloepidermico e sensoriale, permettendo nello stesso tempo l’osservazione diretta di443

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

componenti extralinguistiche e socioculturali della lingua italiana. Per tal motivo,
in diverse attività al laboratorio informatico si sono utilizzati i videoclip e leimmagini di pubblicità italiane. Di solito si procedeva presentando il videoclip di
una pubblicità agli studenti, come ad esempio quella di Dolce e Gabbana, e si
chiedeva loro di osservare tutti gli elementi significativi. La ricerca di informazioni
analizzando le immagini è un buono strumento per avviarli in un secondo momento
alla produzione orale. La durata della sequenza non passava i tre minuti, in modo
tale che gli apprendenti potessero annotare il maggior numero di informazioni
possibili.. L’obiettivo di questa attività era di sviluppare delle abilità integrate,quali scrittura, lettura, ascolto e parlato, scatenando la creatività degli studenti.
L’italiano trasmesso in rete può essere considerato a tutti gli effetti un linguaggio
trasmesso, e legato alla particolarità di canali diversi e tecnologie avanzate: ladiffusione dei testi si verifica infatti in broadcasting (da uno a molti), a distanza,
attraverso un’interfaccia grafica specifica e per mezzo di impulsi elettrici e cavi infibra ottica.
Si tratta di una lingua fortemente ibrida con caratteristiche tipiche dello scritto edel parlato. I testi sul web si distinguono dai normali testi scritti per diversi motivi.
Innanzitutto sono “mobili” nel senso che possono essere continuamente rielaborati
e aggiornati, grazie alla facilità di pubblicazione delle pagine Html; in secondo
luogo sono dei testi “compositi” e “ipertestuali”, nel senso che costituiscono una
rete di più testi connessi (nodi) tra loro tramite elementi focali (i link); i testi diinternet sono, inoltre, “multimediali”, ovvero sfruttano diversi canali sensoriali
mediante l’uso di elementi grafici, verbali, sonori, visivi. Infine i testi sul web sono
“interattivi”, nel senso che consentono dinamiche di azione e reazione, fornendo
dunque feed-back anche solo attraverso il semplice gesto di un clic per navigare
all’interno di un sito.
Anche se di solito si dice che la lingua di internet è ibrida, è possibile
distinguere all’interno due tipologie di linguaggi: è in generale la lingua tipica degli
ipertesti telematici a presentare delle caratteristiche più prossime a quelle dellascrittura, mentre quella utilizzata in servizi di comunicazione disponibili su
internet, (come la chat, il forum, la bacheca ecc) mostra anche altri tratti più vicini
all’oralità.
La forma di comunicazione più vicina all’orale è quella permessa dalla chatroom, in cui, pur essendovi lo scambio di messaggi scritti tra due o più persone
collegate in rete, il linguaggio adottato assume la caratteristica di un dialogo o di
una discussione. Considerato il massiccio impiego da parte dei giovani di sistemi dicomunicazione elettronica, come le e-mail e le chat, si è pensato dunque disfruttare la scrittura digitale e la sua dimensione comunicativa vicina alla lingua
orale, a scopo didattico: si è così stabilita una originale modalità di comunicazione
all’interno delle classi di italiano LS basata su queste due risorse di internet. Di
conseguenza, l’insegnante decide, di interagire con gli studenti nei momenti
extrascolastici attraverso l’invio di e-mail e il ricorso al ‘webmessenger’, in cui si
incita l’apprendente ad esprimersi in lingua italiana e ad approfondire e ripassare444

Frosina Qyrdeti: Educazione linguistica degli studenti stranieri. Lo sviluppo delle abilità...

determinati argomenti affrontati in classe. Gli alunni quindi mostravano il loro
interesse scrivendo delle e-mail in cui chiedeo informazioni, oppure invia dei file edei dati, ma era anche un occasione per imparare l’italiano informale e colloquialedelle chat, fatto a volte di scherzi e battute.
Conclusioni
Dal feed-back positivo mostrato dagli alunni ne deriva infatti, che l’uso di media
multimediali e interattivi, ha messo in atto nuove strategie di apprendimento che
prima erano probabilmente soltanto latenti e che il computer ha saputo stimolare
grazie alla sua proprietà di rispondere a dei bisogni di esplorazione, di creatività edi costruzione attiva e sociale delle conoscenza: strategie cognitive, metacognitivee sociali.
Per tal motivo è anche compito dell’insegnante fare della comunicazione
mediata dal computer un utile strumento di potenziamento della glottodidattica
tradizionale, la quale non deve pertanto essere rimpiazzata dalle nuove tecnologie,
ma accompagnata da queste ultime.
BIBLIOGRAFIA
Balboni, P.E. (1998). Tecniche didattiche per l’educazione linguistica. Torino:
UTET.
Bertacchini C. (2000). Didattica e nuove tecnologie. Laboratorio linguistico
multimediale nell’insegnamento delle lingue straniere. Bologna: CPE.
Borello, E. (1999). CALL Computer Assisted Language Learning. Chieri: TTS.
Ciliberti A. (1994). Manuale di glottodidattica. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.
Colombo F., & R. Eugeni (1996). Il testo visibile. Teoria, storia e modelli dianalisi. Roma: La Nuova Italia Scientifica
Danesi M. (1988). Neurolinguistica e glottodidattica. Padova: Liviana.
Della Fornace, L. (1984). Manuale di didattica audiovisiva. Roma: Bulzoni.
Desideri, P. (a cura di) (1999). Multimedialità e didattica delle lingue. Ancona:
Mediateca delle Marche Editrice.
Diadori, P. (1994). L’italiano televisivo. Aspetti linguistici, extralinguistici,
glottodidattici. Roma: Bonacci.
Ferracin L., & M. Porcelli (1993). Un video tra i libri. Itinerari per un uso dei filmin classe. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.
Freddi, G. (1979). Didattica delle lingue moderne. Bergamo: Minerva Italica.
Sobrero, A.A. (a cura di) (1993). Introduzione all’italiano contemporaneo. BariRoma: Laterza.
Troncarelli, D. (1994). “Il film nella didattica della lingua straniera”. Scuola elingue moderne, 1, 10-16.

445

The Double in the Limelight
Mihaela-Sorina ROIBU
University of Craiova,
Faculty of Letters

ABSTRACTThe present article aims at defining and analysing the concept of double andDoppelgänger in a variety of literary instances belonging to the world heritage.
Particular attention is paid to the uncanny, painted face on the canvas in The Pictureof Dorian Gray, which is supernaturally transformed into a secret consciousness anda magical mirror revealing a corrupt soul. Symbols such as shadows, twins, echoes
and mirrors are discussed at large and connections to the theme proper established.
For coherence and in order to strengthen and prove the importance of the double,
further examples and nuances are provided. The psychological aspect and the sexual
one, implying gender criticism are also of great prominence.
KEYWORDS: mirror, self, Doppelgänger, split personality

The theme of the double has been very thoroughly treated by Otto Rank. In a 1914
essay, Rank (a colleague of Freud’s) explores the connections which the double haswith reflections in mirrors, with shadows, with guardian spirits, with the belief inthe soul and with the fear of death; but he also lets in a flood of light on thesurprising evolution of the idea, for the double was originally an insurance against
the destruction of the ego, an energetic denial of the power of death, and probably
the immortal soul was the first double of the body. Such ideas have sprung fromthe soil of unbounded self-love, from the primary narcissism which dominates themind of the child and of primitive man. But when this stage has been surmounted,
the double reverses its aspect. From having been an assurance of immortality, it
becomes the uncanny harbinger of death. The double has become a thing of terror,
just as, after the collapse of their religion the gods turned into demons.
The German word unheimlich is considered untranslatable; its rough English
equivalent, uncanny, is itself difficult to define. Literally, it means un-home-like, or
unfamiliar; significantly, though, this word also contains the idea of home-likewithin it. Significant, because the uncanny is an experience whereby that which has
been familiar suddenly and inexplicably becomes strange and alien. This
indescribable quality is actually an integral part in understanding the uncanny
experience, which is terrifying precisely because it can not be adequately
explained. Rather than attempting a definition, most critics resort to describing theuncanny experience, usually by way of the dream-like visions of doubling and446

Mihaela-Sorina Roibu: The Double in the Limelightdeath that invariably seem to accompany it. These recurrent themes, which trigger
peoples’ most primitive desires and fears, are the very hallmarks of Gothic fiction.
According to Freud’s description, the uncanny derives its terror not fromsomething externally alien or unknown but – on the contrary – from something
strangely familiar which defeats our efforts to separate ourselves from it. Freuddiscusses how an author can evoke an uncanny response on the part of the reader
by straddling the line between reality and unreality within the fiction itself.
Todorov1 shares many of Freud’s conclusions, especially in attributing literaryterror to the collapsing of the psychic boundaries of self and other, life and death,reality and unreality. The contrast between what has been repressed and what has
been surmounted cannot be transposed on to the uncanny in fiction without
profound modification; for the realm of fantasy depends for its effect on the factthat its content is not submitted to reality-testing.
The theme of the double, as most of the major themes in literature, isn’t new. In
his collection of essays, The Double. Don Juan, Otto Rank2 discusses the theme’s
first manifestations, dating from the beginnings of the folklore, superstition, andman’s belief in a supreme force guiding his life. Towards the end of the eighteenth
century people began to feel as if they didn’t belong to the society they were once
part of; the alienation they felt was unavoidable. This kind of social alienation ispresent as the leitmotif of many pre-Romantic works. For example the protagonist
of Young Werther’s Sufferings by Goethe is not able to find a suitable place in his
society and is compelled to live the life of a wanderer, without a home, be it a realor a metaphorical one.
Later, in the first part of the eighteenth century, Marx’s theories put forwardanother cause for the process of alienation, and that was the unavoidable effect of
the economic system upon the individual. In literature, another figure joined that of
the alienated wanderer, the figure of the double. This new literary product wasoften visible in Gothic novels, but reached its highest popularity during theVictorian Age. The philosophical thinking of the time was deeply influenced by therevolutionary discoveries of Darwin. Victorians were brought to think that the“bestial” side of the human beings still lived in man’s soul and this ancestral fear
was projected onto literature. Hoffmann, Chamisso, Anderson, Goethe, Moerike,
Dehmel, Jean Paul, Ferdinand Raimund, and Heinrich Heine, in Germany,
Maupassant and Musset in France, the great Dostoevsky and also a few important
English writers, such as Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley and Oscar Wilde often
brought into discussion the theme of the double.
Another English author who debates upon the problem of the double is RobertLouis Stevenson, in his work The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The
Puritan façade of respectability and moral integrity is represented by Dr. Jekyll, an
innovative scientist, while his evil alter-ego is embodied by Mr. Hyde. The bookfocuses on the main character’s split personality and underlying suggestion thatevil is potentially more powerful than good. One of the most famous double figuresin the English Romantic literature is that of Frankenstein. The monster functions as
the scientist’s baser self; Dr. Frankenstein is haunted by the double’s presence.
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

Jekyll has got to die; Frankenstein’s creature seeks and murders his father before
disappearing amidst the ice, toward a sad and remorseful death. So the conflict
between the two egos, the war between the two souls cannot be quenched but witha blood shed; the contrast is so strong and marring that it leads to death.
William Blake explained how two different facets are present in man’s
psychology being inclined to struggle against each other. One of them is the superego that tends to be highly moral and constrictive the other one is the wild,
passionate, Dionysus-like facet. The former represents those mind forgedmanacles, while the latter stands for man’s instinctual impulses. In his short story
William Wilson Edgar Allan Poe gives the theme of the double a different
approach, which becomes a model for many writers to come. The hero, William
Wilson, tells his own story. When he goes to school for the first time, he meets aboy who looks exactly like him. He has the same name, same age, walks in asimilar manner and speaks using the same voice modulations as William Wilson
himself. Soon this double becomes his inseparable companion, but at the same time
his most fierce enemy. Still the hero can’t hate his double. He runs away, leading a
depraved life at Eton and later on Oxford, but in the end he comes to realize that hecan’t escape his double. His identical twin shows up at a ball and exposes William
Wilson’s crooked deeds. In a fit of anger the hero provokes his double to a duel
and the latter is killed. The death of his double actually signifies the main
character’s suicide.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a rich story which can be viewed through many
literary lenses. Curiously enough the ending of the novel, when Dorian stabs theportrait in a desperate effort to destroy it, is very much like Poe’s William Wilson,
which similarly ends with the protagonist trying to kill his Doppelgänger, whichcauses his own death. So Dorian, Faust, William Wilson, Peter Schlemihl andNarcissus are all rolled into one, meeting the horrible end they richly deserve.
But Dorian is not entirely a Faust: he doesn’t aspire either to the highest
spiritual spheres or to the infinite knowledge; he only yearns for eternal youth inorder to enjoy ephemeral physical pleasures. A violent inner struggle also takes
place in Goethe’s hero; the opposition between the earth-bound soul and thespiritual soul is striking, the conflict is one of cosmic dimensions. The Faustian
man bears within himself the motifs of his own drama, of his collapse into darkness
but also of his enlightened consciousness, leading to his redemption. The fightbetween Wilde’s two characters is one of appearances: the real man seems to be
untouched by the passing of time, sheltered from the signs which reveal theconsequences of vice, and generally, of life’s tragedies, and the portrait which
seems to age instead of its model, thus being proof of Dorian’s hidden sins. The
Faustian magic overwhelms the whole universe, while that which Dorian Grayobeys is quite powerless, influencing only his existence and the deceiving marks
left by it.
The theme of aging and beauty loss is very common in the Swedish folklore andit constitutes the main issue in Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
While admiring his own portrait, young, handsome Dorian, expresses his mad wish
448

Mihaela-Sorina Roibu: The Double in the Limelightto remain for ever young and handsome. The signs of his sins, ardent passions, andold age should pass to the cheek of the portrait. His wish tragically comes true.
Dorian notices the first changes in the portrait when he cruelly rejects Sibyl, wholoves him above all, for he, just like other people of his temperament doubts his
own self when facing true love. From this moment on, the portrait becomes
Dorian’s visible consciousness, constantly aging and betraying his moral errors. Bymeans of this portrait Dorian learns to detest his own soul. He hides it because hecan’t stand watching the new terrible changes that occur in it. The portrait provokes
fear, even terror in Dorian. From time to time he looks at it, comparing his own
unchanged facial features to those of the portrait. The former delight at the sight ofits beauty little by little leaves place for disgust. Eventually he curses his beauty,
throws the mirror to the ground and crushes it with his heel. Because of Wilde’s
fortunate artistic tour, the phobia about mirrors constitutes itself into the topic of anovel that Dorian adores and in which the hero, the exact opposite of Dorian, haslost his rare beauty in his youth. Since then he has developed a terrible fear of
mirrors, smooth, polished surfaces, and still, clear waters. After killing Basil andpushing Sibyl to commit suicide, Dorian can no longer find his inner peace. In
order to end his life and rid himself of the unbearable burden of the past, Dorian
decides to destroy the portrait. The moment he stabs the painting he falls to theground, dead, disfigured and old, with the knife in his heart, while the portrait once
again shows his beautiful, young, spotless face.
The harmful effect of seeing one’s double was clearly mentioned in the myth of
Narcissus which at the beginning must have been nothing more than the poetic
expression of the superstition according to which a young man died because he saw
his image in the water (his double) and because he fell in love with his own
reflection. It definitely wasn’t at random that the deadly symbolism of the double
occurred in Greek mythology, and also in close connection to the notion of
Narcissism. If we are to rely on Frazer’s version of the myth, we come to ask
ourselves why the deadly significance, connected to seeing one’s double, has been
replaced by the theme of love for one’s own body. It is compulsory to think ofman’s natural need of excluding the idea of death from his consciousness, which iseven more disagreeable when one loves oneself so much.
The theme of the double mainly refers to the soul and to death. The before
mentioned myth of Narcissus presents the world as the creation of a selfenamoured god, looking at himself in the mirror. Many literary works of art show
the death theme and that of love for one’s self in parallel, either in a brutal context
or indirectly in blurry pathological states of mind or weird, inadaptable individuals.
The parallelism between the fear and hatred towards the double, and the
Narcissus-like love for one’s image is obvious in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of
Dorian Gray. Dorian becomes aware of his own striking beauty when he lays eyeson his portrait for the first time and at that exact moment a desperate fear seizes
him. He is afraid of growing old, of becoming another man and implicitly ofdeath.4 Dorian (directly compared to Narcissus5 in the novel) loves his portrait andwith it his own body.
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
Once, in boyish mockery of Narcissus, he had kissed, or feigned to kiss, thosepainted lips that now smiled so cruelly at him. Morning after morning he had sat
before the portrait wondering at its beauty, almost enamoured of it, as it seemed tohim at times. … For there would be a real pleasure in watching it. He would be able
to follow his mind into its secret places. The portrait would be to him the mostmagical of mirrors. As it had revealed to him his own body, so it would reveal tohim his own soul.6

Dorian often visits the locked room in the attic where the great secret of his life
lies hidden. He looks at the depraved face on the canvas, comparing it to theangelic reflection of himself in the mirror. Dorian is a modern Narcissus, selfish,
incapable to love and leading an abnormal sexual life. He tries to feel the strong
erotic desire he has for his own adolescent image by means of intimate
relationships7 with young men. He is incapable of any elevating feelings towards
women. All the services that he asks of them are of a coarse and vulgar nature.
Dorian Gray shares this incapacity to love with most of the characters who have adouble. Dorian openly admits that this weakness is the result of his ego-centricallove for himself. With a quivering voice he asserts:
I wish I could love, but it seems to me that I have lost my passion and forgotten mydesire. I lingered too much upon my own self. My own person has become a burden
to me. I wish I could run, escape and forget.8

The psychological coordinate is very obvious here. The hero’s misfortune
derives from his ego-centrical nature, from his propensity to Narcissism. In otherpresentations of the same theme the psychological coordinate is rather blurry. It
undergoes certain changes. In psychoanalysis these transformations are considered
to be a kind of defense mechanism, which helps the individual separate from his
own ego and find shelter or escape its evil power. This love for one’s self can only
be possible if the instinct of self-preservation finds its expression in the hatred andfear towards the double at the same time. Narcissus confronts himself with anequivocal situation. He loves himself but at the same time revolts against thisexclusive love. This inner indignation manifests itself in two different ways: firstly
through fear and disgust towards one’s reflection, as we can see in the fictitious
hero, in the novel that Dorian Gray so hungrily reads or in most of Jean Paul’scharacters; secondly by losing one’s reflection or shadow. In these cases, as stories
about numerous persecutions show, the reflection or the image is not lost, on thecontrary it becomes stronger, clearer, more personal which fact proves theexaggerated interest in one’s self.
The same defense mechanism can be observed when the double’s persecution
upon the main character ends up in madness, which almost always leads to suicide.
Even if the literary presentation doesn’t reach the clinical-like preciseness weadmire in Dostoevsky’s works, it is still clear enough that the literary work deals
with paranoiac ideas of persecution and unease, produced by the double’s deeds
and reported by the disdained main character. According to Freud’s psychoanalytic
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Mihaela-Sorina Roibu: The Double in the Limelight

explanation, paranoia has the propensity for Narcissism as a starting point. Typicalideas of megalomania and exaggeration of the self can be detected in thispropensity for Narcissism from the sexual point of view. The literary
representations of the theme of the double, in which the maddening feeling of
persecution is described, confirm not only Freud’s psychoanalytical conception
with regard to this propensity for paranoia but also reveal the identity of the main
persecutor. It is the formerly beloved inner self, against whom protection is now
needed.
The origins of the fear of death lie deep in the individual forms andmanifestations of Narcissism. The most shocking characteristic of these forms
shows up in the strong feeling of culpability, which determines the hero not to takeresponsibility for any of his actions and to give this task to his other self, who is the
personification of the Devil himself. Evil tendencies and inclinations are separated
from the self and attributed to the double. By this subterfuge the hero can devotehimself to his bad habits, thinking that he has no responsibilities whatsoever. In
The Picture of Dorian Gray, for instance, the double becomes the hero’s“consciousness”. The obsessive fear of death can be better understood with thehelp of Dorian’s ravishing confession: “It is the coming of Death that terrifies me.
Its monstrous wings seem to wheel in the leaden air around me.”9A theme that discloses the tight link between the fear of death and thepropensity for Narcissism is the wish to stay for ever young. It manifests itself; on
the one hand, in the individual’s desire to remain at a certain stage of his evolution,on the other hand, in the theme of aging which is in the end nothing else but theancient fear of death. With Dorian Gray’s assertion: “If I realize that I’m growing
old, I’ll kill myself”10 we finally touch upon the very important topic of suicide, bywhich so many heroes haunted by their doubles end their lives. At first sight there
is only an apparent contradiction between suicide and the fear of death that rules
the characters’ lives. When taking a closer look, we realize that the suicide is amanifestation of their fear of death and of their propensity for Narcissism; for these
heroes and their authors are not afraid of death: what seems unbearable to them isthe prospect of an unavoidable fate, culminating in death. The unconscious thoughtof their self’s future destruction torments these miserable beings, making themthink of their total annihilation rather then of eternity. Only death can rid them ofthis martyrdom. This explains the paradox, that in order to escape the terrible fearof death, the characters willingly commit suicide.
The frequent assassination of the double by which the hero tries to escape thepersecutions of his own self, is nothing else than a suicide under the less painful
form of the death of another self. This act gives its author the unconscious illusionthat he has separated from an evil, malevolent self, illusion which in fact seems to
be an obligatory condition for any suicide. The character who wants to commit
suicide can’t remove his fear of death by a direct suicide. He resorts to the only
possible way of liberation (suicide), but he is incapable of doing it unless it is theso much feared and hated phantom of the double that he kills. He loves and451

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respects his own self too much to actually harm it or carry out the idea of its
destruction.
NOTES
1In The Fantastic, Todorov goes to some length to distinguish his structuralist approach to this genre
from a Freudian psychoanalytic approach.
2
Otto Rank (1997). The Double. Don Juan. Iaşi: Institutul European.
3
Wieseler, Narkissos, 1856; he says that Narcissus is a daemon of death (p. 76) and that the myth
makes clear reference to man’s selfishness in general.
4“When he saw it [the portrait] he drew back, and his cheeks flushed for a moment with pleasure. A
look of joy came into his eyes, as if he had recognized himself for the first time. …The sense of
his own beauty came on him like a revelation. …Yes, there would be a day when his face would
be wrinkled and wizen, his eyes dim and colourless, the grace of his figure broken and deformed.
The scarlet would pass away from his lips and the gold steal from his hair. The life that was tomake his soul would mar his body. He would become dreadful, hideous and uncouth.” (23-24)
5Lord Henry calls Dorian a “young Adonis, who looks as if he was made out of ivory and roseleaves” but he also compares him to “a Narcissus”. (p. 6)
6Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray, 85-86.
7
There is a strong connection between Narcissism and homosexuality according to Otto Rank’s Ein
Beitrag zum Narcissismus and also some of Freud’s and Sadger’s works.
8
Oscar Wilde, cited work, 161-162.
9
Ibidem, 161.
10
Ibidem, 24.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lieberman, James A. (1985). Acts of Will: The Life and Work of Otto Rank. (Ein
Beitrag zum Narcissismus). New York: The Free Press.
Poe, E.A. (2009). William Wilson and MS. Found in a Bottle: Two Classic Gothic
Tales. New York: Wildside Press.
Rank, Otto (1997). Dublul. Don Juan. Iaşi: Institutul European.
Stevenson, R.L. (1994). The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. London:
Penguin Books.
Todorov, Tzvetan (1975). The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary
Genre. New York: Cornell University.
Wilde, Oscar (2008). The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.

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A Tragic Event and its Alternative ‘Stories’:
The 1930 Costeşti Fire
Adrian SĂMĂRESCU
University of Piteşti,Faculty of Letters

ABSTRACT
Gathering all the discursive reflections of the tragedy that occurred eighty years ago
is a method of interrogation about and an answer to its belonging to a mentality
paradigm based on explaining/justifying the development of the events through the
implication of the Divine (or its representatives), as a punishment for a capital sin(in other cases, as a devotion/sanction act for virtue). Interdisciplinary investigation(ethnological, sociological, narrative, semiotics, pragmatics) of the relation between
the genetic context and the text (event – discourse), having as basis the stories
about the “Costeşti Fire” (1930). Our approach aims at identifying a mentality
algorithm and a discursive pattern through which a community can justify its
status by connecting it to a significant gesture/event/character.
KEYWORDS: event, memory, anamnesis, discourse

The fire having burnt up the wooden church in Costeşti – Argeş District (on Good
Friday, April 18, 1930; over 100 victims, most of them being children) has entered
the collective consciousness as a tragic event and prolonged its existence
discursively. The categorical richness of the subject lies in its multiple folkloric
variants: ballads, oral journals, lyrical songs, dirges, stories, legends, which arestrongly competed with by the articles/the reports in the written media of that timeand are mostly focused upon the spectacular aspects of the event.
Our project is aimed at identifying the mentality mechanisms that haveengendered “The Costeşti Fire,” by analysing the alternative stories of the event.
Therefore, it is of uttermost importance for us to set up a text corpus, which will
include both the already acknowledged folkloric versions (records in the archivesof specialized institutions, texts published in anthologies or monographs), andmemories/tales brought about through the technique of the anamnestic interview. A
selection will be made of the most adequate narrative agents by means of aquestionnaire which will be applied in the region of psychological impact andwhich will focus on the position/quality/role held by the respective hypotheticalnarrative agents as referred to the narrated story.
As it is rather difficult to identify direct witnesses of the 1930 disaster, we willrecord second level stories, which mean that our approach to the memory of theevent will be an indirect one.
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Our narratological research will lead to:1) the draft of a typology of the story tellers;2) the identification of the functions of the narrative act and of the backgroundin which it is performed;3) the individuation of the structural elements related to the collective imaginary– the drought, the event of bringing the holy relics, the robbery of the ecclesiasticalobjects and sacerdotal attire, the curse, the devastating fire, the wandering of thefiremen, the survival of the Holy Bible.
The epistemological direction of the present project is given by the pair Genetic
Context [Event] – Text [Discourse]. Theoretical studies have been issued by the
representatives of the Formalist School, thus Tzvetan Todorov’s studies haverendered the subject classical. New directions in narrative research have revealed
new series of textual marks recalling the event; furthermore, ethnopsychology andpsychoanalysis offer a large number of examples of happenings/events withnarrative potential, which are brought to light from latent memory by anamnestic
generators. Assertorically, an uncommon event (which violates the community’s
conscience) is given a narrative support, thus it perpetuates itself throughverbalizing, just like the mere act of telling the story recalls the genetic context.
First, the text represents the “exteriorization of the memory” (exteriorizarea
memoriei) (Roland Barthes). The discourse stocks dates of events which it thenmanages according to the rules of a so-called “narrative management”(management narativ). The absorption of the contextual data implies the selection,
the combination, the processing, the reconfiguration of the initial event and its
transformation into a generic story (poveste generică). Thus, not only does the text
disambiguate the context, but it also gives it semantic substance, as it covers it by asemantic halo which can be registered into the forma mentis of the community, its
mentality DNA.
In what concerns Romanian folkloric works, the dialectics ‘History – Poetry’(istoricitate – poeticitate) has nourished (has kept alive) the controversy Caraman
vs. Caracostea, the former focusing on the importance of the genetic context, thelatter on the aesthetic autonomy of the text. The mimetic concentration, the degreeof fictionalization, respectively, evolve on a large scale, thus rarely does it occur
for one of the components to be neutralized.
The relation between Imagination and Memory (imaginaţie – memorie) enters
the same epistemical system, with a specific dynamics at the level of oral poetics.
Vasile Tudor Creţu showed thatla temelia culturii folclorice acţionează complementar, subordonate psihicului şimentalului, două procese cu virtuţi structuratoare. Procesul imaginării şi, simultan,
procesul memorării. Între cele două modalităţi de prospectare, receptare şi
omologare a datelor realului nu se află un raport antinomic ci, dimpotrivă, ele se454

Adrian Sămărescu: A Tragic Event and its Alternative ‘Stories’: The 1930 Costeşti Firedetermină reciproc, iar în practica cunoaşterii se completează continuu, adeseajoncţionând. (Creţu, 1980: 15).

Arnold Van Gennep fixed the life of the event/character registered by thecollective memory at about five or six generations; over this lap of time, history
begins to dissolve its outlines for the sake of its transformation into a legend.
Mircea Eliade analyzes the relation between ‘folkloric memory’ and ‘historicalevent’ (memorie folclorică – eveniment istoric) by operating a focus shifting: event→ category (eveniment → categorie), respectively historical figure → archetype(personaj istoric → arhetip). Toma Pavel focuses on the mechanisms of themythification of everyday reality (1992: 125-126), whereas Ovidiu Pecicanproposes the syntagma ‘memory topoi’ (locurile memoriei), as a topos for theimaginary of a community (2007: 250).
Reserving a topos in the memory depends on the fame/importance/echo of ahistorical event endowed with spreading force (forţă iradiantă). Collective
reconstruction of the past – assembling the vision about the past – as it is referred
to by Pecican – is done on the basis of a generic pattern, implicitly acknowledgedby the tradition, which has the value of an institution. Sanda Golopenţia launches
the concept of ‘dialogism’ (dialogism) in order to define collective memory(intermemoria), as it is not an immutable depositary, but a starting point for
indefinitely negotiable reconstructions (2001: 41).
Other valuable studies about the collective imaginary can be found in the works
of Gilbert Durand (who builds a syntax of the imaginary), of Henry Corbin (whoidentifies the ‘iconosphere’ – iconosfera), Jean-Jacques Wunenburger (who insistson the existence of a fictional logics). We should also remind the contribution of
the Research Centre in Cluj, which has as main objective the elaboration of anencyclopaedia of the European Imaginary (the collection Mundus Imaginalis,
Dacia Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca).
The case study focused on the subject ‘Costeşti Fire’ (Focul de la Costeşti) has
the advantage of quantifying the chronological gap between the event and its
transforming into a folkloric product, thus the distortions ‘truth’ – ‘etymon’ areeasily noticeable. We shall be interested not only in the degree of reality
deforming/hypertrophy, but also (or above all) in the instruments and causes of thisgap.
Popular mentality does not perceive the devastating fire as a mere accident;
therefore, different stories about the fire are engendered, being organized according
to two registers: the journalistic discourse (reflections of the event in the media, butalso on other commemorative occasions) and the poetical discourse (developing thebinominal thematic of the robbery and the curse, the absurd/unexplainable being
explained through legendary motivations, thus one leaves the absurd and enters thelegendary).
We should mention that the performing occasions – both rare, from a temporal
point of view, and concentrated/local, from a spatial point of view – did not allow
the text to be artistically polished. This is the reason why Focul de la Costeşti ismostly registered as an oral journal.
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Ovidiu Bîrlea analyses two versions of the versified oral journal that have beencreated upon the 1930 event (1941: 558-598). The first version was collectedduring a wedding in Suseni, a village in the surroundings of the place where thetragedy occurred. The care – almost argumentative – for the authenticity of thenarrated facts is to be explained by the position of the two agents ofcommunication (the interpreter and the audience/addressee) as they share a seriesof onomastic references; during the performance, Bîrlea notices that the tablecompanions make comments about each victim mentioned in the ballad. On theother hand, the second version, collected in Rociu, which is not close to theepicentre of the event, is greatly simplified; there is no mention of the victims’
names but the priest’s, a figure whose sacrifice is perceived as an example.
How is it then possible that other versions present the priest in a totally different
hypostasis, as the one who has stolen the holy ecclesiastical objects, drawing upon
himself the monks’ curse? Why does the wish ‘Să trăieşti ca popa de la Costeşti!’(May you live as the Priest from Costesti lived) represent a negative wish? Why isthere always a scapegoat? How is there possible for the members of the target
ethnogroup to accept different versions – sometimes competitive versions-of one
and the same event? The answers to these questions will represent the substance ofan interdisciplinary analysis, aiming at:1) elaborating a representative text corpus, made up of different types offolkloric categories – oral journal, dirge, lyrical song, story, legend, conversational
texts, memories;
2) identifying a series of discursive topoi, inventorying their frequency andfinding their mentality /symbolical justification;3) drafting a typology of the performers and of the performance occurrences,establishing, for each case, the narrator’s different functions and the role of thenarrative agent (assuming his role/involving himself/distant/ vehement denial).
BIBLIOGRAPHYBîrlea, Ovidiu (1941). “Procesul de creaţie al baladei populare române.” Revista
Fundaţiilor Regale, an VIII, nr. 6, 558-598.
Creţu, Vasile Todor (1980). Ethosul folcloric – sistem deschis. Timişoara: Facla.
Gennep, Arnold Van (1997). Formarea legendelor. Iaşi: Polirom.
Golopenţia, Sanda (2001). Intermemoria. Studii de pragmatică şi antropologie.
Cluj-Napoca: Dacia.
Pavel, Toma (1992). Lumi ficţionale. Bucureşti: Minerva.
Pecican, Ovidiu (2007). “Locurile memoriei.” In: Corin Braga (coord.) Concepte şi
metode în cercetarea imaginarului: dezbaterile Phantasma. Iaşi: Polirom.
Sămărescu, Adrian (2009). Contexte genetice şi modele poetice în legenda populară.
Piteşti: Tiparg.
456

Comment enseigner l’accord du participe passéaux étudiants économistes
Daniela SCORŢAN
Université de Craiova,
Département de Langues étrangères appliquées

ABSTRACT: How to Teach Concord of the French Past Participle to RomanianStudents in Economics?
Most errors that we observed in texts written by students are on agreements. The
past participle conjugated with the auxiliary be is less problematic than the past
participle conjugated with the auxiliary have. We will emphasize in our article on
the past participle of verbs conjugated with the auxiliary have in the following
situations: if the direct object precedes the verb, if the direct object is expressed after
the verb, if the past participle is followed by an infinitive, in the case of impersonalverbs, if the past participle is preceded by that. We will also propose some activities
used in class to help students acquire the concepts learned and to use them correctlyin their written productions.
KEYWORDS: agreement, past participle, teaching, verb, object

La plupart des erreurs que nous avons observées dans les textes écrits par lesétudiants portent sur les accords. Le participe passé conjugué avec l’auxiliaire êtrepose moins de problèmes que le participe passé conjugué avec l’auxiliaire avoir.
Nous allons insister dans notre article sur le participe passé des verbes conjugués
avec l’auxiliaire avoir dans les situations suivantes : si le complément direct
précède le verbe, si le complément direct est exprimé après le verbe, si le participe
passé est suivi par un infinitif, s’il s’agit du participe passé des verbes
impersonnels, si le participe passé est précédé du relatif que. Nous allons proposer
aussi quelques activités utilisées en classe de FLE pour aider les étudiants àacquérir les notions apprises et à les employer correctement dans leurs productionsécrites.
En règle générale, le participe passé des verbes conjugués avec l’auxiliaire avoirs’accorde en genre et en nombre avec le complément d’objet direct qui précède leverbe. Le complément d’objet direct peut être un pronom personnel : me, te, le, la,nous, vous, les. L’accord se fait en genre et en nombre avec le pronom.
(1) Son projet d’investissements les a impressionnés.

Le complément d’objet direct peut être un pronom relatif. Dans ce cas l’accord
se fait avec l’antécédent du pronom relatif.
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010(2) L’offre d’achat qu’il a acceptée nous a surpris.

Le complément d’objet direct peut être précédé d’un adjectif interrogatif, ou
exclamatif. L’accord se fait en genre et en nombre avec le complément d’objet
direct.
(3) Quelle belle propriété vous avez achetée !

Si le complément d’objet direct est exprimé après le verbe, l’accord du participe
passé ne se fait plus.
(4) Tu as reçu une invitation à un déjeuner d’affaires.

La difficulté principale que les étudiants doivent surmonter consiste à ne pas
confondre le complément d’objet direct avec un autre complément.
(5) Les distributeurs ne nous ont pas obéi. (nous est ici complément d’objet indirect)

Cas particuliers
Si le verbe se trouve à un temps surcomposé, l’accord se fait seulement avec ledeuxième participe.
(6) On les a eu vite distancés.

Les participes passés des verbes courir, coûter, peser, valoir, vivre, mesurer,
marcher, dormir sont invariables lorsque ces verbes sont utilisés avec leur sens
propre. Le participe passé de ces verbes peut être accompagné d’un complément
circonstanciel que que les étudiants ne doivent pas confondre avec un complément
d’objet direct. Ces verbes sont intransitifs et le participe passé est invariable.
(7) Les trois mille euros que ces travaux ont coûté. (que est complément circonstanciel, il
répond à la question : combien ont coûté les travaux ?)Les deux heures qu’il a couru l’ont épuisé. (que est complément circonstanciel,
il répond à la question : pendant combien de temps ?)Si ces verbes sont utilisés avec un sens figuré, le participe passé s’accorde avec
le complément d’objet direct qui précède, étant donné le fait que dans ce cas lesverbes deviennent transitifs directs.
(8) Les dangers que j’ai courus. (affrontés)(9) Les peines que ce travail m’a coûtées. (causées)

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Daniela Scorţan: Comment enseigner l’accord du participe passé aux étudiants économistes

Le participe passé conjugué avec avoir et suivi d’un infinitif, s’accorde si l’objet
direct qui précède se rapporte au participe.
(10) Je les ai vus manger.

Si l’objet direct se rapporte à l’infinitif le participe passé reste invariable.
(11) Les étudiants que j’ai envoyé chercher.

Il n’est pas toujours facile pour les étudiants de savoir si l’objet direct serapporte au participe ou à l’infinitif. Voici quelques procédés pratiques qui peuvent
leur permettre de prendre la décision correcte.
- ils peuvent intercaler l’objet direct entre le participe et l’infinitif (j’ai vus lesmanger) puis remplacer l’infinitif par l’expression en train de + infinitif (j’ai vus
les en train de manger). Comme la phrase garde son sens, les étudiants peuvent
faire l’accord. Que donnerait le second exemple ? (Les étudiants que j’ai envoyéchercher. J’ai envoyé les étudiants chercher. = J’ai envoyé les étudiants en train dechercher : la phrase ne garde pas son sens, alors les étudiants ne font pas d’accord).
- si l’infinitif peut être (ou est) suivi d’un complément introduit par lapréposition par, il est invariable (Les portes que j’ai vu repeindre. Suite possible...par les ouvriers.
- si l’objet direct est l’être qui fait l’action exprimée par l’infinitif, il fautaccorder le participe. Comparer: Les hommes que j’ai vus déménager et Les
meubles que j’ai vu déménager.
- si l’infinitif a lui-même un complément d’objet direct, il faut accorder leparticipe. Ex : Ces soldats, je les ai entendus fredonner des chansons.
Le participe passé du verbe faire suivi d’un infinitif est toujours invariable.
(12) La robe que j’ai fait faire.
(13) Je les ai fait changer d’avis.

Il y a la tendance de n’accorder ni le participe passé du verbe laisser suivi d’uninfinitif :(14) Je les ai laissé s’enfuir.

Le participe passé des verbes devoir, pouvoir, vouloir, dire, croire, savoir
demeure invariable parce que le complément d’objet direct qui les précède
appartient à un infinitif sous-entendu.
(15) J’ai fait tous les efforts que j’ai pu (faire).
(16) Elle a lu les documents qu’elle a voulu (lire).

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Parfois la préposition à ou de est intercalée entre le participe et l’infinitif ; dansce cas, l’accord du participe avec le complément direct qui précède est obligatoire.
(17) Les couteaux que j’ai portés à repasser.

Ces situations particulières donnent au langage écrit plus de précision. Pourtant,
excepté le cas où l’infinitif est précédé d’une préposition, il y a la tendance de nepas accorder le participe suivi d’un infinitif.
Le participe passé des verbes impersonnels est toujours invariable.
(18) Les grands froids qu’il a fait cette année.
(19) Les vents qu’il y a eu.
(20) Les soins qu’il a fallu.

Généralement, le participe passé dont le complément est le pronom neutre le ou
le pronom adverbial en demeurent invariables. Si le remplace toute une
proposition, il reste invariable. Autrement, il suit la règle des participes passés
employés avec avoir. En demeure invariable s’il est complément d’objet direct. On
considère que en est un pronom neutre.
(21) Cette voiture est plus rapide que je ne l’aurais cru. (je n’aurais cru quoi ? l’ est mis
pour que cette voiture est plus rapide. Cru est donc invariable)(22) Cette excursion nous l’avons attendue longtemps. (nous avons attendu quoi ? l’ est
mis pour excursion. Attendue s’accorde avec l’ mis pour excursion)(23) De bons livres, j’en ai lu beaucoup. (J’ai lu quoi ? En est mis pour livres. Donc, lu est
invariable)

Voici sa composition est voici les exemples qu’il en a tirés. (Il a tiré quoi ? Des
exemples. D’où ? De en mis pour composition. Donc, ici le sens n’est pas
complément d’objet direct et tirés s’accorde avec son complément d’objet direct
exemples).
Le participe passé précédé d’un substantif collectif accompagné d’uncomplément s’accorde soit avec le substantif collectif, soit avec le complément decelui-ci, selon le sens :(24) La foule d’hommes que j’ai vue.
(25) Une foule d’hommes que j’ai vus.

Si le participe est précédé du relatif que ayant comme antécédent un des suivid’un superlatif, il s’accorde facultativement :460

Daniela Scorţan: Comment enseigner l’accord du participe passé aux étudiants économistes(26) C’est un des plus beaux livres que j’aie lu(s).

Exercices d’application en classe de FLE1) Transformez les phrases en mettant les verbes soulignés au passé composé.
Attention à l’accord du participe passé.
Les efforts que j’ai faire n’ont servi à rien.
Les dangers qu’ils ont courir étaient grands.
Quelles solutions avez-vous proposer ?
Il nous a apporté de délicieuses oranges, nous en avons manger.
2) Justifiez l’orthographe des participes passés :Des partenaires d’affaires honnêtes !
Nous en avons connu.
La réunion fut plus longue qu’on ne l’avait pensé.
Les tâches qu’il aurait fallu accomplir étaient trop difficiles pour eux.
Les conseils qu’elles auraient dû suivre étaient pourtant simples.
3) Dans les phrases suivantes, soulignez les verbes transitifs :Ces comportements potentiels n’échappent pas aux créanciers.
Le financier doit articuler ses choix en fonction de la stratégie de l’entreprise.
L’entreprise recourra finalement à ses actionnaires.
Il n’obéit à aucune règle certaine.
La dette constituerait une discipline créatrice.
4) Les phrases suivantes sont-elles correctes ou non ? Corrigez, le cas échéant :La journée fut plus longue qu’on l’aurait voulue.
Ce sont de vrais amis, je n’oublierai jamais les services que j’en ai reçus.
Cette voiture, je l’ai longuement regardé avant de l’acheter.
Les dépenses étaient excessives, on les a réduites.
Tu as envoyé des lettres et tu en a reçu.
BIBLIOGRAPHIE
Bron, Claude (1980). Exercices de grammaire française. Neuchâtel : Éditions
Henri Messeiller.
Gorunescu, Elena (1977). Exerciţii de limba franceză. Bucureşti : Albatros.
Grégoire, Maïa, & Odile Thièvenaz (2003). Grammaire progressive du français(600 exercices, intermédiaire). Paris : Clé International.

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Mauger, Gaston (1968). Grammaire Pratique du Français d’Aujourd’hui – Langue
Écrite et Langue Parlée. Paris : Hachette.
Rat, Maurice (1967). Le participe et ses règles d’accord. Paris : Éditions GarnierFrères.
Saraş, Marcel & Mihai Ştefănescu (1976). Gramatica practică a limbii franceze,
Bucureşti : Editura Ştiinţifică şi Pedagogică.

462

Personnages féminins dans la comédie de Plaute,
Le Soldat fanfaronMădălina STRECHIE
Université de Craiova,
Faculté des Lettres

ABSTRACT: Feminine Characters in Plautus’ Comedy Miles Gloriousus
The woman represents the plot of the plautine comedy ‘The Bragging Soldier’,around it developing the action of the other characters. Plautus describes us thewoman of Roman society, although the action takes place in Ephesus, and his
female characters bear Greek names. The three female characters are from different
social categories, specific to Roman society, so we have a woman of free condition,a courtesan and a slave. In addition, the author makes references to other Roman
female categories, such as matrons, free women or Roman goddess. The plautine
female characters do not meet only the social pattern of Ancient Rome, but also thespiritual one, they are intelligent, sociable, coquettish, sensual, emancipated, and soon. Plautus’s comedy ‘The Bragging Soldier’ represents a good source of
documentation in Roman feminism, by the variety of the presented female
hypostases.
KEYWORDS: women, comedy, Plautus, categories, Ancient Rome

La comédie plautinienne Le Soldat Fanfaron est très favorable pour l’analyse depersonnages féminins ; celles-ci sont, comme d’habitude, dans les comédies
plautiniennes « courtisane, raffinée et élégante, avide, habile, ...une jeune fillemodeste et sympathique... », comme dit Jean Bayet (1972 : 75) et en plus nous
ajoutons, des esclaves. Dans cette pièce sont présentées trois personnages féminins,mais représentatives pour les catégories sociales mentionnées ci-dessus :Philocomasie, femme libre, la petite amie de Pleuside, Acrotéleutie, courtisane etcliente, et Milphidippe, esclave.
Bien que l’action de cette comédie se déroule dans la ville grecque d’Ephèse,ses personnages féminins sont du monde romain, ils portent des noms grecs, maisreprésentent des femmes de la société romaine.
La condition sociale des trois personnages féminins est aussi typiquementromaine, les femmes romaines servaient de modèle pour Plaute et pas le modèle
grec, parce que dans la société romaine la femme avait des libertés présentées parla pièce plautinienne et non par la pièce grecque, où la femme ne se manifeste ni
dans la vie sociale, ni même dans celle domestique. Nous soutenons cetteaffirmation sur le romanisme des personnages féminins et du point de vue deslatinistes renommés comme Eugen Cizek, qui disait que « Plaute dépasse ses463

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

modèles (grecs – n.n, MS) et construit des personnages originaux, ...il traduit desorigines profondes de l’univers mental romaine. » (2003 : 73)
Le même point de vue a aussi Pierre Grimal qui considère que Plaute, à travers
sa comédie « semblait offrir à la société contemporaine (romaine – n.n, MS), un
miroir dans lequel pouvait se reconnaître avec une précision suffisante. » (1997 :78)
Autour de ces trois femmes, décrites ci-dessus, Plaute tisse sa comédie Le
Soldat fanfaron, la femme étant, en fait celle qui génère et conduit les actions desautres personnages. En plus des trois personnages féminins, Plaute rappelle aussi
d’autres femmes, typiques romaines, comme des matrones, clientes, le personnage
féminin de Plaute ayant une caractéristique générale bonne à tout faire, malicieuse
et rusée.
L’intrigue de cette pièce et son déroulement sont générés par les trois
personnages féminins à la fois directement mais aussi indirectement (s’ils
n’agissent pas eux-mêmes, agissent d’autres personnages pour eux ou à caused’eux). La pièce commence avec l’histoire de l’enlèvement d’une femme et desfaits que ce fait génère : « Un militaire enlève d’Athène une courtisane etl’emmène à Éphèse... »1
Mais celle-ci, était devenue courtisane par enlèvement, elle était une femme
libre qui était transformée en courtisane, cela étant un phénomène courant dans lasociété romaine, de nombreuses femmes libres était devenus a cause de la pauvreté,
les dettes ou les enlèvements les victimes de la marché romaine de prostitution.
Bien-sur, beaucoup entre elles étaient nées esclaves, elles provenaient des trophéesdes Romains ou elles étaient des Pérégrines. Les courtisanes étaient une catégoriede semi-esclaves, si on peut l’appeler de cette manière, parce que par rapport aux
autres esclaves elles avaient une certaine liberté, elles pourraient avoir certaines
propriétés et des biens donnés par leurs clients.2
Plaute décrit dans cette comédie la nouvelle condition de courtisane de la jeune
fille enlevée par le militaire fanfaron, l’auteur en indiquant qu’elle était une femme
libre par sa naissance et par sa condition. De même, le personnage militaire auraitété, peut-être inspiré à Plaute par certains représentants de l’Ordre équestre, laclasse sociale romaine qui détenait le contrôle de l’économie et du commerce detoute nature, y compris le commerce des esclaves:
Une courtisane, libre par sa naissance, et un jeune Athènien, s’aiment éperdument.
Le jeune homme s’en alla en ambassade à Naupacte. Un militaire fait connaissancede la belle, et la transporte à Éphèse, malgré elle...

La psychologie féminine est analysée du début des scènes de la comédie. Les
femmes sont d’abord présentées comme étant faibles, qui sont facilement oppriméspar le soldat fanfaron, Pyrgopolinice et d’autre part elles peuvent être aussi descaractères forts, honnêtes en amour, peuvent être méprisantes ou maîtres de ladissimulation. Les femmes sont considérées comme une cible facile, en particulier
celles qui sont opprimées par la beauté physique: « Toutes les femmes t’adorent, etelles n’ont pas tort, vraiment; tu es si magnifique... »464

Mădălina Strechie: Personnages féminins dans la comédie de Plaute, Le Soldat fanfaron

En fait, les sujets de Plaute étaient les femmes romaines, faciles, libertines etsans préjugés, qui souvent faisaient des passions pour les militaires ou lescélébrités du peuple, comme les gladiateurs. Mais, en même temps les femmes que
nous présente l’auteur latin des comédies sont très audacieuses et ont une certaine
influence sociale : « ...Elles m’assomment ; se sont toujours des prières, dessollicitations, des instances pour que je leur procure le bonheur de te voir... »La dissimulation féminine est, comme nous avons dit plus haut, une arme parlaquelle les femmes excellent, en particulier les courtisanes
Par l’intermède de la comédie plautinienne nous apprenons plus de détails sur lavie des courtisanes, une réalité sociale romaine, Plaute n’étant pas le seul écrivain
latin qui mentionne dans ses œuvres cette catégorie féminine. La description
plautinienne des courtisanes est plutôt biaisée, en vantent leurs sentiments sincèresd’amour, des sentiments considérés nobles pour toutes les catégories de femmes,
surtout quand ils sont partagés, en leur reconnaissant leur l’intelligence et l’instinct
de survie:J’étais serviteur dans Athènes d’un honnête et digne jeune homme, qui aimait une
courtisane née d’une mère athénienne ; elle lui rendait tendresse pour tendresse, ce
qu’il y a de mieux en amour...

La pièce plautinienne nous donne de nombreux détails sur les questions de lavie des femmes courtisanes et des esclaves, en nous montrant une fois de plus lacondition précaire de ces femmes dans la société romaine. Ce que leur manquait
absolument, étaient les droits juridiques, en étant dépendants de leur patron, leno,
un personnage fréquent dans les comédies plautiniennes, les proxénètes étant
engagés dans une véritable industrie du plaisir, une affaire très douteuse, mais
couronnée de succès et permise par l’état Romain. Plaute nous décrit aussi
quelques sources de cette industrie (imposées par les Romains, en particulier dansla période impériale), l’enlèvement et le butin:...il gagne les bonnes grâces de la mère par le vin, les cadeaux, les mets friands, etdevient ainsi intime chez la vieille courtisane. Le traître n’attendait que l’ocassion defaire pièce à cette femme. Un beau jour il lui dérobe la jeune fille aimée par monmaître, la jette en secret sur un bateau, et la transporte malgré elle à Éphèse...

Bien qu’elles avaient une vie très dure, les femmes décrits par Plaute ne perdent
pas l’espoir de liberté, plus elles mettent en œuvre tous leur arsenal pour atteindreleurs plans: « ...Ensuite, à la première occasion, elle me conte son aventure. Elledésire, dit-elle, s’enfuir de cette maison et revoir Athènes: elle aime toujours monmaître... »Les armes de la séduction sont les plus puissantes de leur arsenal, ensemble
avec la vivacité d’esprit exprimée par la ruse, la duplicité et le complot: « ...notreamoureuse fera un double rôle; elle se montrera en personne et ici et là; ce cera
toujours la même; mais elle se donnera pour une autre... »465

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

La caractérisation psychologique des femmes continue dans la comédie Le
Soldat fanfaron, Plaute en rivalisent avec les célèbres descriptions de la nature
féminine de la Renaissance ou du Romantisme:...Elle a un front, une langue, un esprit perfide, de la malice, de l’audace, del’assurance, de l’aplomb, de la fourberie. Quand on l’accusera, qu’elle repoussel’accusation par ses parjoures. Elle est un fonds de mensonges, d’impostures, defaux serments ; en fonds de ruses, en fonds de prestiges, de tromperies. Une femme,
si peu qu’elle soit pourvue de malice, n’a pas besoin qu’on lui en revende ; elle a lemagasin chez elle...

Par conséquent, dans la vison plautinienne, la femme est prédisposée
génétiquement vers la « méchanceté » et d’autres traits négatifs, mais ce sont son
intelligence. Sa « méchanceté » est encore plus grande et avec des effets heureux
pour elle, quand le possesseur sait comment l’utiliser dans son intérêt. En mêmetemps la « méchanceté » est une façon de survivre de la femme romaine dans lecadre social où elle vivait. L’intelligence féminine est suggérée par Plaute en
termes comme « habile », « ruse », « perfide », « équilibrée », « dextérité ». Cette
intelligence atteint son but dans une manière magistrale quand est combinée avec
plusieurs caractéristiques « avec tous les assaisonnements malignes pratiques... »Comme la plupart des personnages plautiniennes, les femmes du Soldat
Fanfaron sont des personnages intelligents, en les trahissant encore une fois lemodèle de la femme romaine, que Plaute a utilisé pour dessiner ceux-ci. Dans lasociété romaine, les femmes étaient les acteurs de la vie sociale même si la plupartde fois dans l’ombre, les femmes romaines étaient éduquées, ce qui leur a permis
l’entretien des conventions, ourdir des plans politiques, des alliances ou desintrigues.
La similitude de la méchanceté et de la malice avec l’intelligence dans le cas
des femmes est vraiment le message de Plaute dans la comédie que nous passons
en revue, parce que, quand l’auteur décrit Philocomasie, il met l’accent sur son
intelligence et non sur la méchanceté dont elle dispose, l’intelligence que l’auteur
apprécie beaucoup.
La religion joue une place très importante dans la vie de la femme romaine,chose que nous pouvons voir dans la comédie de Plaute, Le Soldat fanfaron. Bienque l’action se situe à Ephèse, les personnages féminins, avec des noms grecs
honorent les dieux de la Rome, la déesse de la chasse, Diane, mais aussi rappelled’un autre dieu romain, le dieu de la mer, Neptune :Porte le feu sur l’autel, pour qu’après le bain j’offre à Diane Éphésienne deslouanges et des actions de grâces; que les suaves parfums d’Arabie fument pour ladéesse qui m’a sauvée de l’empire de Neptune, régions orageuses où je fus
longtemps assaillié par la fureur des vagues...

Plaute était un bon connaisseur de la nature féminine, étant carrément
prophétique avec la conclusion tirée sur la psychologie des femmes (exprimée par466Mădălina Strechie: Personnages féminins dans la comédie de Plaute, Le Soldat fanfaronla voix d’un de ses personnages) : « voilà bien la bonne foi féminine », une
maxime que nous pouvons assimiler à la fameuse la donna e mobile.
Dans la comédie, Le Soldat fanfaron, les femmes sont aussi coquettes,
gaspilleurs et à la mode. Il est connu que les femmes romaines étaient trèsattentives à la tendance de la mode de leur temps, il y a beaucoup d’histoires sur lesdépenses d’énormes sommes d’argents pour des bijoux, des tissus chers (soie) ou
divers accessoires. Les premiers qui imposaient la mode de la société romaineétaient les courtisanes. La maintenance d’une femme en Rome exigeait une
certaine fortune. Toutefois, la femme romaine pourrait assurer à son mari parl’intermède de sa dot, sa richesse et son statut social, une position supérieure dansla hiérarchie sociale. Plaute connaissait certainement ces alliances matrimoniales
qui avaient lieu à Rome, ce pourquoi il a dit : « Car ma fortune, grâce aux dieux,
me permettait, je l’avoue, d’épouser une femme richement dotée et de grandefamille... »L’exemple le plus convaincant que nous considérons, c’est le mariage conclu
entre certains membres de l’Ordre Équestre avec des femmes de l’ordre sénatorial,
connues sous le nom clarissimae feminae. Des inscriptions en latin, il semble queles épouses chevaliers de ces femmes, dans une majorité massive ont une double
carrière, une équestre et une sénatoriale, en d’autres termes ils sont inclus dansl’ordre sénatorial, la classe sociale supérieure de la Rome Antique. 3
Le dramaturge latin fait des reproches à ses personnages féminins dans la pièce
que nous passons en revue, pour le gaspillage financière dont ils font pourdifférents accessoires, estimant qu’ils sont «préjudiciables», «méchantes» et ils
font des véritables « désastres » dans les fortunes de ceux qui les entretiennent:« ...exigences des femmes, et mille autres ruines semblables... »S’il critique certains d’eux, d’autres il les vante, les femmes qui apportent lebonheur dans la vie des leurs maris sont vantées (« Car pour ce qui est d’une bonneépouse, ce bonheur ! »), ces femmes sont considérées comme de véritables trésors,classées par Plaute comme « coûteuses ».
Bien que Plaute est un défenseur de la femme, Le soldat fanfaron contient desaccents misogynes, exprimés à travers les personnages masculins: « ...et qu’elle ait
de l’esprit dans tout son corps, je ne dis pas dans sa cervelle, car les femmes n’en
ont jamais... » ou leur misogynie est exprimée par un surnom péjoratif comme« une fine mouche » ou « femelle ».
Une autre preuve du romanisme des personnages féminins du Plaute, peut-être
la plus décisive de tous ceux qui sont présentés dans cette comédie sont lesréférences de l’auteur aux «matrones», une catégorie typique romaine. Ainsi,
Plaute décrit la mode de ces femmes romaines, en les considérant des modèles
sociaux et moraux de toutes les femmes de la Rome. De même, nous avons desdétails sur leur garde-robe : « ...tu la feras s’habiller à la manière des femmeshonnêtes; coiffure soignée, cheveux longs et bandelettes... » En plus de la matrone,
Plaute se réfère aussi aux « clientes », « jeunes courtisanes ».
Toutes les catégories sociales féminines ont une qualité essentielle commune,l’intelligence. Ainsi, Acroteleutie est une courtisane avec « l’esprit vif » qui
467

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010« réconcilie des hommes encore plus mauvais », et armée de « prévoyance ettendresse » peut changer un contexte en faveur de son intérêts. Cette courtisane n’apas peur ni de « l’homme le plus habile ».
Le Soldat Fanfaron contient quelques maximes pertinentes, valables encore
aujourd’hui sur la vie des femmes, la plus impressionnante, et reprise danscertaines œuvres littéraires romantiques, et pas seulement, c’est la suivante:
C’est la Lenteur même, assurément, qui a donné naissance aux femmes ; car detoutes les lenteurs imaginables, il n’y en a pas qui semblent égales aux les lenteurs
que les femmes...

La femme représentée par Plaute dans Le Soldat Fanfaron est un acteur social.
Comme toute femme, elle peut avoir une pauvre cœur baignée de larmes d’amour,elle peut être même un être agréable, souvent elle est fragile, sensible etenamourée, de même elle peut aussi verser des larmes, elle est passionnelle, aime,
déteste, espère, survit, manipule, peut caresser et câliner, mais elle peut s’effondrer
dans le désespoir.
Les trois personnages féminins du Soldat Fanfaron manifestent de la solidarité
féminine, parce qu’elles s’aident réciproquement pour gagner le plus cher de toutêtre humain: la liberté et l’amour. La femme de cette comédie plautinienne est trèsintelligente, pugnace, optimiste, opportuniste, rusée, une vraie survivante.
Plaute, « lui même s’est identifié très bien avec le peuple latin, pour ne pas lui
apporter sur la scène ses actes, ses gestes, ses préoccupations et les plus
importantes caractéristiques psychologiques » (Bayet, 1972 : 79), inclusivementcelles de la femme romaine, c’est pourquoi les personnages féminins apportent
beaucoup de saveur dans ses comédies. C’est pourquoi, l’œuvre plautinienne est
une source précieuse sur le féminisme romain, en particulier sur les catégories decourtisanes et esclaves.
NOTES
1Toutes les citations sont extraites de la traduction française réalisée par Henri Clouard. URL :<http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/comediens/Plaute/milesfra.htm>.
2
Voir plusieurs détails sur cette catégorie dans le sous-chapitre „Femeile curtezane” (‘Les femmes
courtisanes’), In : Mădălina Strechie (2008). Condiţia femeii în cadrul familiei romane de origine
ecvestră în perioada Principatului. Craiova: Universitaria, 79-84.
3
Cf. Mădălina Strechie, op.cit.

BIBLIOGRAPHIE*** (2002). Teatru latin. Plaut, Terenţiu, Seneca: Militarul fanfaron, Ulcica, Fata
din Andros, Medeea. Traducere de Nicolae Teică şi Ion Acsan. Bucureşti:Mondero.
Bayet, Jean (1972). Literatura latină. În româneşte de Gabriela Creţia, Traducerea
versurilor de Petre Stati, Studiu introductiv de Mihai Nichita. Bucureşti:Univers.
468

Mădălina Strechie: Personnages féminins dans la comédie de Plaute, Le Soldat fanfaron

Cizek, Eugen (2003). Istoria literaturii latine. Ediţia a II-a revăzută şi adăugită,vol. I. Bucureşti: Corint.
Dumitraşcu, Emil (1994). Istoria literaturii latine (I. Epoca republicană). Curs
pentru uzul studenţilor. Craiova: Reprografia Universităţii din Craiova.
——— (1994). Personajul literar în estetica greco-latină. Craiova: Scrisul
românesc.
Grimal, Pierre (1997). Literatura latină. Traducere de Mariana şi Liviu Franga,
Note suplimentare şi cuvânt înainte de Liviu Franga, Medalion biografic Pierre
Grimal de Eugen Cizek. Bucureşti: Teora.
Plaute, Le Militaire fanfaron. Traduction Henri Clouard. Site Internet : L’Antiquité
grecque et latine. URL : <http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/comediens/Plaute/
milesfra.htm>.
Plautus, Miles Gloriosus. Site Internet : The Latin Library. URL : <http://www.
thelatinlibrary.com/plautus/miles.shtml>.
Strechie, Mădălina (2008). Condiţia femeii în cadrul familiei romane de origine
ecvestră în perioada Principatului. Craiova: Universitaria.
Veyne, Paul (2009). Sexualitate şi putere în Roma Antică. Prefaţă de Lucien
Jerphagnon, Traducere din limba franceză şi note de Gabriela Creţia. Bucureşti:
Humanitas.

469

Le Curriculum vitae en français :étude de cas à la Faculté d’Éducation physique et de sport,
Section Kinésithérapie, Université de Craiova
Ramona ŞENDRESCU
Université de Craiova,
Département de Langues étrangères appliquées

ABSTRACT: The Curriculum vitae in French: Case Study to the Faculty ofPhysical Education and Sport, Physiotherapy Section, University of Craiova
Increasingly more students of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport from
Craiova leaves in the Francophone countries (France and Belgium in particular) forstudy or work during the summer holidays. In our paper we present a case study
applied to a group of students from this faculty, the Kinetotherapy department,
second year. We wanted to find out how much they know to prepare a CV in Frenchand if Europass CV model is among their preferences. The purpose of theinvestigation was a didactical one: according to expressed opinions we try to foldthe needs of students to increase their chances on the labor market.
KEYWORDS: educational situation, Curriculum vitae, CV Europass

Historique du Curriculum vitae Europass
L’Europe communautaire est principalement une construction économique, nonsociale. La mobilité des étudiants s’inscrit dans le contexte le plus large de ladéclaration de Bologne du 19 juin 1990. L’objectif de ce processus est de faireconverger le système d’enseignement supérieur en Europe vers un système plustransparent qui place les systèmes nationaux diversifiés dans un cadre commun.
Dans la perspective de faciliter la mobilité et l’embauche transfrontalière, laCommission européenne lance le 11 mars 2002 le premier CV européen, élaboré
par les gouvernements en collaboration avec les employeurs et les syndicats
européens. Le 15 décembre 2004, le Parlement européen et le Conseil instaure uncadre communautaire unique pour la transparence des qualifications et descompétences, appelé Europass (il contient cinq documents : l’Europass –Curriculum vitae ; l’Europass – Mobilité : consigne les périodes d’apprentissage
accomplies par les titulaires dans les pays autres que le leur ; Europass –Supplément au diplôme : fournit des informations concernant les niveauxd’éducation que l’individu a atteints dans l’enseignement supérieur ; Europass –Portofolio des langues : le passeport linguistique Europass offre la possibilité del’individu de présenter ses aptitudes linguistiques ; Europass – Supplément au
470

Ramona Şendrescu: Le Curriculum vitae en français : étude de cas à la Faculté d’Éducation

certificat : décrit les compétences et les qualifications qui correspondent à un
certificat de formation personnelle) (Journal officiel de l’UE, 2004). Grâce à
l’Europass les employeurs « identifieront plus aisément les qualifications et lescompétences des demandeurs d’emploi originaires d’autres États membres d’UE »et en outre « les responsables de l’enseignement supérieur et de la formation
pourront mieux conseiller les personnes intéressées sur les filières et les possibilitésd’apprentissage » (Europass).
Problématique
Un premier objectif de notre étude est de rendre raison d’une enquête après lesétudiants de français au Faculté d’Education Physique et de Sport, de l’Universitéde Craiova. Plus particulièrement nous tenterons de porter des éléments de réponse
aux questions suivantes :Les étudiants perçoivent-ils la rédaction d’un CV en français comme un
exercice utile et pour quel modèle de CV les étudiants optent-ils ?
Quelle place occupe le modèle de CV Europass parmi les modèles choisis etpourrait-il leur être utile ?
Nous nous pencherons plus en détail sur le CV Europass en tentant de dégager
ce que les étudiants conçoivent comme des avantages et des désavantages de ce
modèle de CV.
Le deuxième objectif est d’ordre didactique : nous proposons une série
d’exercices pratiques de difficulté croissante ayant le but d’apprendre lestechniques de préparer adéquatement un CV et de savoir se présenter d’unemanière convaincante pour mettre en valeur leurs motivations et compétences.
En 2010 plusieurs étudiants de la Faculté d’Education Physique ont profité despossibilités offertes par la directive pour aller étudier à l’étranger. Les étudiants serépartissent selon leurs options : 5 étudient en France et 2 en Belgique1. Mais au
bureau de la Faculté viennent beaucoup d’offres de travail en France, pour lesétudiants de la section Kinésithérapie. Par conséquent, que ce soit dans le but detrouver un emploi ou d’effectuer un séjour à une autre université, les étudiantsrédigent un CV dans le cadre d’un cours de français avancé, qui est un cours
spécialisé, axé sur les expressions et les termes du vocabulaire sportif. Le cours dufrançais a un double objectif – linguistique et pédagogique : il s’agit de renforcerla maîtrise personnelle de la langue en traitant des sujets relatifs à la diversité dessports et d’améliorer les compétences en matière de communication et deshabitudes de travail en équipes des étudiants.
Le cours est suivi par 33 des étudiants en deuxième année de la Facultéd’Education Physique et de Sport, la section Kinésithérapie. Le cours englobe 14
heures de travail en classe et 14 heures de travail à la maison. La mixité du groupe
se solde par 14 femmes et 19 hommes.
La rédaction d’un CV a été proposée comme tâche dans les deux groupes defrançais avancé comptant 33 étudiants. Un questionnaire a été présenté avec trois
modèles de CV. Le premier modèle de CV chronologique (Şendrescu, 2010 : 132)
471

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

comporte une rubrique Formation avec deux informations 2000 (baccalauréat) et
2004 (Faculté d’Education Physique). Dans la section Expériences Professionnelles sont énuméré deux postes occupés. Le modèle comporte également une
section Langues et une autre intitulé intitulée Activités extra-professionnelles. Le
modèle standard (Idem : 131) de CV comporte les sections suivantes : Informations
générales, Formation, Expériences Professionnelles, Connaissances linguistiques
et informatiques, Autres activités. En général, les modèles sont assez courts etd’une disposition très claire et bien espacée en page. Le modèle Europass est divisé
par une ligne verticale : à gauche les rubriques des sections et à droite de la ligne
les données du candidat. Ce type de CV comporte en total deux pages. La tâche desétudiants a été précédée d’une discussion en groupes de trois ou quatre et avec
tous. Une fois la tâche accomplie, le deuxième questionnaire a été distribué.
Les questions ont été posées aux étudiants dans un premier questionnaire « La
répartition linguistique des CV existant parmi les étudiants antérieurement àl’exercice ». La majorité des étudiants n’ont pas des CV et seulement deux ont un
CV en roumain. Comme le questionnaire le démontre, un seul étudiant sait rédiger
un CV en français.
Nous avons également voulu prendre connaissance du savoir préalable de latechnique des étudiants de la rédaction du CV. Si 30% des étudiants ont appris
comment rédiger un CV a l’école (probablement au lycée, même si nous avonsévité de préciser le niveau), 12% considèrent important de se renseigner euxmêmes sur la rédaction d’un CV et tous (100%) ont jugé utile cet exercice pourl’avenir.
Les trois modèles de CV discutés en petits groupes ont été choisis pourcorrespondre à la situation d’étudiants demandeur d’emploi, autrement dit, desmodèles proposés sont pour des jeunes gens (de sexes féminin ou masculin) avec
peu d’expérience professionnelle dans le monde du travail.
La troisième tâche des étudiants a été de rédiger leur CV en français en réponseà une annonce réel d’une entreprise française qui sollicite des kinésithérapeutes
pour une période de 1-3 mois. Ils doivent trouver et utiliser un modèle à leur gré. Ila été souligné qu’ils pouvaient choisir un autre modèle que ceux présentés etdiscutés en classe.
Des 33 étudiants 31 (94%) ont rendu un CV : 5 sur 31 (16%) ont opté pour lemodèle européen, 10 étudiants (32%) ont opté pour le modèle chronologique deCV et 16 (52%) pour le modèle standard. Seulement deux étudiants ont attaché leurphoto sur le CV. Le nombre des étudiants ayant un CV en français, après cettetâche, a augmenté de 1 à 31 et ceux qui ont entendu parler du CV Europass a
augmenté de 1 à 33 et 5 étudiants ont rédigé ce modèle de CV.
Deux autres questionnaires ont été proposés aux étudiants avec le but d’éclairer
leur opinion sur le modèle européen. En analysant les deux questionnaires avec lesavantages et les désavantages du CV Europass nous observons une opinion duelle,même contradictoire. Par exemple, au premier questionnaire, au premier point, des33 étudiants, 30 (91%) considèrent que « Le CV Europass est clair et bienprésenté », mais au deuxième questionnaire, au premier point, tous les étudiants 33
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Ramona Şendrescu: Le Curriculum vitae en français : étude de cas à la Faculté d’Éducation(100%) sont d’accord avec l’affirmation que « Le CV Europass est très long ». Une
autre contradiction : au point trois du premier questionnaire, 20 étudiants (60%)
considèrent que « Le CV Europass est un modèle compris par tous » mais au
deuxième questionnaire 30 étudiants (91%) sont d’accord avec l’affirmation que« Le CV Europass est difficile à comprendre ».
Parce que les deux questionnaires n’ont pas éclairé les opinions des étudiants ence qui regarde les avantages et les désavantages du CV Europass, nous proposons
un autre et le dernier. L’un des objectifs de l’enquête a été d’analyser les réponsesdes étudiants au regard de l’utilité de CV Europass dans leur avenir.
Les données cumulées nous montrent que seulement 2 étudiants, donc une
proportion de 6% ne trouvent pas le CV Europass important pour leur avenir et 8(24%) n’ont pas une opinion ferme, mais la majorité des étudiants 23 (70%) ont
une attitude positive et sont d’accord avec l’utilisation de modèle de CV dans leursdemandes de travail futures.
Démarche pédagogique
L’objectif principal de notre recherche est d’enseigner les étudiants à rédiger un
CV à l’aide d’une série d’exercices qui permettra de construire un CV
personnalisé. Ce qu’il faut faire, à notre avis, c’est développer les capacités
cognitives et la compétence communicative des étudiants en utilisant des stratégies
qui soient intéressantes pour eux. Ce travail du groupe est mené systématiquement
pour chaque étape du parcours. Chaque exercice est discuté par tous ouvertement
ce qui oblige chacun à apprendre à s’exprimer avec modération sans jamais
disqualifier le travail d’autrui, mais au contraire l’encourageant. Cette dynamiquene fonctionne que si elle est régulée. Ce là le rôle de l’enseignant, qui n’intervient
pas ici pout transmettre des connaissances, mais pour organiser le travail du groupeet faciliter les échanges. C’est lui qui propose les exercices et les étudiants doivent
participer. Par cette démarche pédagogique nous aidons l’étudiant à se motiver, àse projeter et ainsi pousser sa réflexion sur sa propre démarche à construire son
propre projet de curriculum vitae.
Le dernier exercice, la réalisation d’un CV, permet aux étudiants de mettre enœuvre les techniques et les stratégies apprises dans les autres exercices. L’objectif
final de notre cours est que l’étudiant prenne conscience de ses potentialités.
Exercices :1. Lisez le texte ci-dessous et sélectionnez des informations pour le CV deMaria Popescu :Je suis née le 6 mai 1981 à Leu. De 1995 à 1999, j’ai étudié au lycée « Carol I »de Craiova. J’ai obtenu le diplôme de Baccalauréat en 2000. Après, j’ai fait quatre
ans d’études à l’Université de Craiova, Faculté d’Education Physique et du Sport,
et j’ai obtenu une licence en sport en 2004. Puis, j’ai étudié un an à L’Institut
473

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010« Vatel » de Paris et j’ai obtenu un diplôme de professeur de danse international.
Après, en 2005, j’ai visité une amie à Rome. J’ai étudié l’italien et j’ai travaillé
comme instructeur de danse. Je suis célibataire. J’aime la musique, le sport.
2. Indiquez le niveau de connaissance pour chaque langue :langue anglaise
langue chinoise
langue allemande
langue hongroise
langue roumaine
langue russe

zéro
débutant 1
débutant 2intermédiaire 1
intermédiaire 2
avancé 1

3. Nommez les 5 parties d’un CV et indiquez les informations qu’elles
contiennent.
1. …………………………………………………………………………………
2. …………………………………………………………………………………
3. …………………………………………………………………………………
4. …………………………………………………………………………………
5. ………………………………………………………..………………………..
4. Indiquez, pour chacune de ces phrases d’un C.V., la section à laquelle elle
appartient :- état civil- expériences professionnelles- études- langues étrangères- loisirs
1. Espagnol lu et parlé.
……………………………………………………………………………………
2. Plusieurs voyages en France au cours de ces dernières années.
……………………………………………………………………………………
3. Née à Craiova, le 11 juin 1972.
……………………………………………………………………………………
4. Théâtre, cinéma, lecture.
……………………………………………………………………………………
5. Mariée, un enfant.
……………………………………………………………………………………
6. 1991-1992 : Licence en sport, Faculté d’Éducation Physique et de Sport,
Craiova.
……………………………………………………………………………………
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Ramona Şendrescu: Le Curriculum vitae en français : étude de cas à la Faculté d’Éducation

7. 1993-1996 : collaboration avec le club « Universitatea din Craiova ».
……………………………………………………………………………………
8. Bonne connaissance de la langue italienne.
……………………………………………………………………………………
5. Complétez un CV, à votre choix, par des références propres.
Après le dernier exercice, la réalité montre que les étudiants ont commis nonseulement des erreurs de langue, mais également erreurs d’ordre discursif dans leurrédaction du Curriculum Vitae Chronologique. Dans le cas de CV Europass leserreurs grammaticales sont moins répandues.
Conclusions
Les résultats de l’analyse nous permettent de formuler quelques observations surles difficultés rencontrées dans la rédaction d’un CV. Dans la perspective
didactique de la recherche, nous avons effectué une étude du contexte général afin
de formuler les besoins langagiers d’un public spécifique pour une situation
spécifique, le cas de la rédaction en français d’un CV. Nous avons formulé
quelques propositions d’ordre didactique dans l’espoir d’apporter des éléments
facilitant la réalisation d’un CV pour le domaine sportif. Alors, comment améliorer
et perfectionner la rédaction du CV chez les étudiants de la Faculté d’Education
Physique et de Sport ? Parmi nos propositions, nous voudrions nous attarder
particulièrement sur l’utilisation du CV Europass comme support pédagogique en
raison de ses avantages. Comme une conséquence du fait que de plus en plusd’étudiants de la Faculté d’Education Physique et de Sport, la Section
Kinésithérapie, de l’Université de Craiova vont partir pour étudier ou travailler
dans un pays francophone, ils perçoivent la rédaction d’un CV en français comme
un exercice utile. Étant donne la multitude de modèle de CV et le grand nombre de
rubriques utilisées dans différents types de CV, il est important d’attirer l’attention
des étudiants pour le modèle européen comme un CV standardisé qui éliminerait
les fautes d’orthographe les plus répandues dans le CV d’adaptation libre.
NOTE
1

Statistique fournie par le Secrétariat de la Faculté d’Education Physique et de Sport, le 30 janvier
2010.

BIBLIOGRAPHIE*** Europass. URL : <http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu>. Consulté 14.03.2010.
*** Journal officiel de l’Union Européenne du 31.12.2004. URL : <http://eurlex.europa.eu/JOMonth. do?year=2004&month=12>. Consulté 14.03.2010.

475

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010*** Naissance de l’Europe communautaire. URL : < http://www.ena.lu/naissance_
europe_communautaire-010100074.html>. Consulté 14.03.2010.
*** Traité de Rome. URL : <http://www.traitederome.fr/fr/histoire-du-traite-derome.html>.
Anderson, Patrick (1999). La didactique des langues étrangères à l’épreuve dusujet. Paris : Presses Universitaires Franc-Comtoises.
Baden, A. (2003). Le grand livre du CV. Monaco : Éditions du Rocher.
Cuq, Jean-Pierre, & Isabelle Gruca (2002). Cours de didactique du français langueétrangère et seconde. Grenoble : PUG.
Perez, D. (2002). Le guide du CV et la lettre de motivation. Paris : Éditions
l’Express.
Şendrescu, Ramona (2010). Curs practic de limba franceză pentru studenţii
Facultăţii de Educaţie Fizică şi Sport. Craiova : Universitaria.

476

The Picturesque between the Sublime and the Beautiful.
The Birth of Romantic Sensibility
Aloisia ŞOROP
University of Craiova,
Faculty of Letters

ABSTRACT
When the Grand (European) Tour was no longer available to young British
aristocrats because of the Napoleonic wars, the English turned their attention to thelandscape their own island offered to them. A new term, the picturesque, entered thefield of eighteenth century aestheticism and emerged as a category in-between the
sublime and the beautiful, that had been previously described by Edmund Burke in
his seminal Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime andthe Beautiful. The paper analyzes the way the picturesque was expressed inlandscape gardening and turned into a major cultural ideal with lasting implicationsin the development of Romanticism.
KEYWORDS: the picturesque, the sublime, landscape garden

The aesthetic theories about the faculty of taste, the beautiful and its various formsof manifestation in art and nature emerged with renewed vigour in 18 th century
Britain.
In his Analysis of Beauty, published in 1753, William Hogarth discussed six
principles that a proper analysis of beauty must take into account: fitness (of parts
which identifies a particular object and defines its beauty), variety (contrasted tosameness), regularity (as ‘composed variety’), simplicity (‘moderating variety’),
intricacy (linked to the pleasure that the gradual discovery of the beauty of an
object offers) and finally quantity (the greatness beauty always evokes, later called
the sublime). Another important issue his treatise brought forth is the actual
manifestation of beauty in our world which he defined under the phrase of the lineof beauty. Hogarth found it embodied in the serpentine line, which, he claimed,both enthrals and beguiles. The type of beauty he therefore supported is one thattransgresses the strict laws of order and symmetry of ancient norms and promotes
dissimilarity, asymmetry and controlled diversity. By his truly seminal book on theperception of beauty Hogarth unknowingly paved the way for what will be later
termed the picturesque.
Only three years later, in 1756, Edmund Burke focused his attention on adifferent category, that of the sublime. He was to define it in his PhilosophicalEnquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful as follows:477

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010“whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates
in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime, that is, it is productiveof the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.” (De Luca, 1995:
49). By comparison with the beautiful which is “smooth,” “delicate” and“pleasing,” the sublime involves “fear,” “pain,” “difficulty” and “astonishment.” In
this respect he follows Longinus’ theory of the sublime applied to writing styles
whose aim is to arouse bewilderment, surprise and fear. On the other hand theterror that Burke’s sublime implies is a non-aggressive, aesthetic, delightful type ofterror, the observer never quits his passive position and always feels safe fromanything he may observe. Terror appeals only to man’s intellectual faculties
With the distinction made between the beautiful which is only pleasing and thesublime that can be overwhelming but never crashing, further speculations between
the two were possible and a new intermediary category emerged, the picturesque.
In his Pitoresc şi melancolie (‘The Picturesque and Melancholy’) Andrei Pleşu
gives interesting details about the history of the concept. He quotes Richard Payne
Knight who claimed that the first to use the term was Redi, a member of the
Academy of the Cross, in 16th century Italy, when he referred to a style in paintingthat only the educated could justly appreciate. In 1685 William Aglionby used theterm with reference to a certain liberty in execution that the Italians called “a lapittoresck” and understood to be “daring.” Richard Steele used the term in his play
The Tender Husband with its “graphic” meaning. Alexander Pope understood theterm as being only pictorial, therefore applicable only to images. Samuel Johnson
also used the term in his definitions of graphically, love and prospect, although he
did not consider it worthy of a proper definition itself. (Pleşu, 2009: 146-147)
A Review of the Landscape published in London in 1795 described thepicturesque in terms of “defaced beauty,” “adorned ugliness,” “ragged ugliness.”
A few years later, in 1801, in an appendix to Johnson’s dictionary, George Mason
recorded several meanings for the picturesque: the thing that pleases the eye, that is“remarkable for singularity,” that strikes imagination by using the tools of painting,that is to be represented in painting, that is fit to apply to landscape. (Ibidem: 148)
The history of the picturesque in Britain will therefore aptly combine concepts
relating to painting and those applying to the particular view of nature in the 18th
century. The Enlightenment may have resorted to reason and clarity but in thedomain of landscape it turned towards the natural spirit of nature. Nature wasconsidered fit to nurture the human spirit only if it obeyed its natural laws evenunder the strain of being “civilised” and “humanised” into gardens. Especially
French gardens, so geometrically built as not to leave any trace of the inherent
wilderness of nature, were met with opposition by the English landscape designers
and philosophers. David Hume drew attention to the primitive laws of nature when
he stated that nature is far too powerful to be subdued “Nature is always too strong
for principle.” (Hume, quoted in Brown, 1824: 357)
But the English could not actually bring nature into their homes so they tried toreconstruct it by using nature’s very laws. Alexander Pope, whose name is linked
to the Gardens of Stowe, his friend, Lord Cobham’s property, which he considered478

Aloisia Şorop: The Picturesque between the Sublime and the Beautiful. The Birth of ...

to be the epitome of British landscape design, advised designers to first “Consult
the Genius of the Place” (Tatter, 1997) and pay attention to the natural setting sothat nature “Paints as you plant, and as you work, designs” (Ibidem). He definitely
sees nature not as a passive object on which man can exercise his skill andimagination but as an active collaborator of designers who often does their job if
properly controlled. Moreover he uses the art-connected terms “paint” and“design” to refer to nature and not to human intervention which obviously points at
his acceptance of the artificial naturalness of gardens.
The garden in this context tries to supply the rigidity of buildings with a touchof playfulness, of freedom of imagination and as, Andrei Pleşu writes in his afore
mentioned book, it becomes a sort of ideal recipient for man’s nostalgia for
freedom and change in an age of uncompromising neo-classical rules.
The landscape designers’ empathy with nature will lead to excesses, to effortsof improving it, and they start offending by trying to overdo “the natural thing.”
Soon nature will no longer look natural enough to be copied and landscapedesigners turn their faces to the art of painting they think they have found reliableprinciples for their endeavour. If French gardens can be blamed for too manyarchitecture elements in their conception, British gardens will turn too pictorial.
And the visual laws of painting gain prominence in the art of designing andassessing landscape.
The Reverend William Gilpin is now chiefly remembered for his contribution to
the development of the picturesque which he defines in the introduction to his
Essay on Prints published in 1768 and entitled “Explanation of terms.” Here heestablishes the distinction between the picturesque seen as “that kind of beauty
which is agreeable in a painting” and the picturesque grace which is “an agreeable
form which may be given even to a clownish figure.” (Pleşu, op.cit.: 153). It was
him who actually applied his knowledge of painting to natural scenery and turned it
into a seminal practice with landscape designers and consumers.
After extensive travels during his summer holidays he decided to collect hisnotes and sketches in volumes that first circulated among a small circle of friends
which included King George III. In 1782, Gilpin decided to publish Observations
on the River Wye and several parts of South Wales, etc. relative chiefly to
Picturesque Beauty; made in the summer of the year 1770. The volume also
contained illustrations based on Gilpin’s sketches.
To Gilpin, a “correctly picturesque” scene contained “rough,” “intricate,”“varied,” or “broken” texture while the composition had to comprise a dark“foreground” with a “front screen,” a brighter middle “distance,” and one farther,rather indistinct “distance.” The ruins of some old building were necessary to give“consequence” or history to the scene. Of course, Gilpin also claimed that natureprovided the right textures and colours but often proved clumsy at creating aperfect composition, therefore the artist’s trained hand was to supply an extra tree
here and a bush there to give balance to the scenery just as painters arranged lakes
and meadows in their works.

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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

The picturesque therefore is a category that is agreeable and comfortable to theeye even when discontinuous, full of asperities, dark spots and uncertain formulas.
As a criterion for judging painting it definitely covers a large array of attributes,
since the agreeable is rather difficult to pinpoint or conceptualise. It is beautiful inthe sense that it attracts the observer’s eye but it is very far from being sublime as it
triggers no “ultimate feelings” so to say. It has nothing fabulous, bizarre or
frightful. Wylie Sypher, quoted by the same Pleşu, writes that the picturesque has“the excitement of the sublime without its abandon” (Ibidem: 155).
The whole 18th century landscape design will be under the spell of Giplin’s
discourse on the picturesque and will try to tame nature and “correct” it ifnecessary. Of course, such an unnatural approach was soon to find a counter-voiceand there were published pamphlets directed against Gilpin’s theory. In 1812
William Combe will publish a satire entitled Tour of Dr. Syntax in Search of the
Picturesque:I’ll make a TOUR—and then I’ll WRITE IT.
You well know what my pen can do,
And I’ll employ my pencil too: —I’ll ride and write, and sketch and print,
And thus create a real mint;
I’ll prose it here, I’ll verse it there,
And picturesque it ev’ry where.
(Combe, 1812)

In the following years great landscape designers appear, one of them, Lancelot
Brown also known as Capability Brown, because he found all unattended scenery
full of “capabilities,” designed over 170 parks and is now regarded as England’s
greatest gardener. There were even gardens whose designers completely forgotthat nature should be their primary source of inspiration. The Scots Magazine
mentions in one of its 1767 issues that a certain Tyers in Vauxhall had transformed
his garden into a garden of concepts, with all sorts of philosophical hints andillustrations. There was a Valley of the Shadow of Death agreeably embellishedwith coffins instead of columns and skulls ornamentally spread in the grass. (Pleşu,op.cit.: 157)
But a true dispute of the picturesque took place between two cultivated,
Italianate connoisseurs and friends, Uvedale Price and Richard Payne Knight.
Price published in 1794 an Essay on the Picturesque insisting on the fact thatnature is barbarian and should be corrected according to the principles that makegood quality paintings such as Claude Lorrain’s or Rubens’s. Because natural
beauty may seem flat the picturesque should add some flavour to it, under the formof variety and intricacy, so as to provide the viewer with visual surprises thatshould gradually accumulate into a lasting agreeable impression. Beautiful as it is,a Greek temple will be surpassed in exquisiteness by its ruins because they are
more telling, more interesting, they are picturesque. Dark, derelict, menacing sights

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Aloisia Şorop: The Picturesque between the Sublime and the Beautiful. The Birth of ...

are definitely more “artistic” than whatever is clear and looks classical. Without
knowing it Price was insidiously suggesting a form of romanticism avant la lettre.
Knight on the other hand attacks Price by claiming that objects cannot be
picturesque in themselves, only our vision of them is picturesque. Objects have tobe perceived from a particular angle – the visual angle – and perceived in theirdissociate form, that is torn away from any connotational or conceptual proximity.
Once we integrate them into a web of associations, objects lose their picturesquequality and turn into simply beautiful items. The picturesque therefore feeds on thevisual sense only and ceases there where all the other senses tend to integrate theobject into a larger and more complicated web of connotations. The picturesquebest illustrates the work of a painter who transforms a whole synaesthetic construct
into a two dimensional image that can be consumed only visually.
The two friends will continue their dispute and write each another essay
maintaining their initial points of view and enriching them with new illustrations.
Price continues to view aesthetic attractiveness there where the disorderly createsnovelty of perception, while Knight resorts to philosophers and quotes David
Hume who stated that beauty does not lie in objects but in the eye and mind of theobserver and depends on his vision of them.
The picturesque was initially considered truly British because it was the
English who started the dispute over its place in the aesthetic canon. But it wassoon imported by the continent both in its theoretical aspect and landscapearchitectural practice.
On the other hand one cannot dismiss the interconnections between the theoryof the picturesque and the morals of 18th century Britons: their aristocratic sense ofleisure and bias for the contemplation of nature, some sort of cosmopolitanism
blended with an overt praise of their national assets – “the Italian light on English
walls” as William Cowper used to say, the immense efforts they put into making
things look natural. The picturesque survived its 18th century theoretical avatars
and turned in one of its directions into was will be termed the Gothic. Through its
appeal to individual sensibility the picturesque can also be said to have paved theway to Romantic sensibility.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Combe, William (1812). Tour of Dr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque. URL:
<http://www.bartleby.com/224/0606.html>.
De Luca, Vincent Arthur (1991). “Blake’s Concept of the Sublime.” In: Duncan
Wu (ed.) (1995). Romanticism: A Critical Reader. Oxford, UK; Cambridge,
Massachussetts, USA: Blackwell Publishers.
Hume, David (1748). “Essays – Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”, Sect
XII, part. 2. In: Thomas Brown (1824). Lectures on the Philosophy of the
Human Mind, vol.1. URL: <http://books.google.ro/books>.
Pleşu, Andrei (2009). Pitoresc şi melancolie. Bucureşti: Humanitas.

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Tatter, John D. (1997). The Invisible Border between Art and Nature: Pope’s
Aesthetic Principles Applied to Poetry and Landscape Gardening. URL:
<http://faculty.bsc.edu/jtatter/index.html>.

482

Tradition and Innovation in Present Day
Romanian Legal-Administrative Language
Nicoleta Mihaela ŞTEFAN
University of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages

ABSTRACTThe purpose of our paper is to present some of the legal style characteristics and weare going to compare two texts : the first text is written in 1994, before the EU
Integration and privatization of notaries, and the second text is from 2004. We havechosen this period taking into consideration the fact that the social and the politicalchanges have many linguistic consequences. As we know, the legal style isconsiderated the most conservative from all styles, but it is opened to the lexicalinnovations. We focused our attention on the syntactic, morphological and lexicallevel of the texts to prove the permanent confrontation between tradition andinnovation.
KEYWORDS: tradition, innovation, conservative, legal language

Legal-administrative terminology has been the object of quite recent investigations,both by legal specialists, and by linguists. After 1989, given the deep social andpolitical changes undergone by Romania, the legal-administrative field sufferedmajor transformations, which resulted in the appearance of new areas, such as
Electoral Law, Customs Law, Competition Law etc. This paper aims at presenting
some features of the style characteristic for this field, legal-administrative style,and compares two texts separated by 10 years, following the syntactic, lexical andmorphological level. This style was given several names1: judiciary, formaladministrative, formal-documentary, formal, administrative, legal. We consider
that, for our purposes, the best name is that of legal-administrative style (Romanianterm coined by R. Todoran), as it refers to both types of texts (legal andadministrative) and it is the most used in current Romanian language.
Many linguists2 dealing with the investigation of literary language established a
few features which may be considered criteria for the delimitation of functional
styles.
Homogeneity. Language styles lack unity, as they have more or less subvariants. If we approach this criterion in terms of the functions it fulfils, we noticethat the legal-administrative style, with its two main sub-variants, the legal andadministrative ones, may be considered homogeneous.3 This is not true if referringto the formal aspect approach, which follows the nature of linguistic elements and,483

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

from this point of view, the legal-administrative style is considered not
homogeneous4, as elements from common language combine themselves withneological elements, and popular and archaic phrases with savant wordings.
The accessibility of functional styles is established in connection to the field of
circulation of the texts among speakers. With a wider area of circulation, given its
functions, we may say that legal-administrative style is accessible, but its
accessibility is limited by textual forms. We hereby refer to the fact that there are
texts with a high degree of understanding both for literary language speakers andfor ordinary speakers, irrespective of the degree of culture and age: receipts,
citations, regulations, statements, etc. This is not true, however, for texts requiringa specialized intervention, both for elaboration and for interpretation: contracts,
judgments, laws, decrees etc.
By conservatism we refer to the way how functional styles accept innovations.
This is analyzed both syntactically and in terms of lexical innovations. As weknow, most researchers consider that the legal-administrative style is the mostconservative of all styles, as conservationism is maintained in the construction ofsentences, but it is open to lexical innovations, as it permanently adjusts itself tosocial and political realities.
The legal-administrative style is a “functional variant of the language used in
the field of official relations between the citizen and state institutions.”5 The
linguist D. Irimia considers that this style appeared upon the appearance of the firstlegal texts in the 7th century (The Law of Govora; 1640, The Law of Vasile Lupu,
1646; The Law of Matei Basarab, 1652) and it is the most conservative of thestyles. In the classification made in Structura stilistică a limbii române
contemporane, the legal-administrative style is found both in the stylistic structureof written language and in that of oral language – conversational style. Following
the action of the co-native and expressive functions in connection to the social,
cultural and situational environment where linguistic communication takes place,the conversational style has three stylistic variants: current conversational style(neuter), formal conversational style (solemn), familial conversational style(familiar). According to this classification, the oral language of legaladministrative style would be the formal conversational style. Even though D.
Irimia sees this aspect as a deviation, from our point of view it could also be
considered a style of current conversation, given the situational framework: legal
consults, hearings, request and provision of information, as this framework implies
the use of terms belonging to common lexis, a case in which the relation between
the emitter and the recipient, receiver can take place both in a social and culturalenvironment represented by persons familiarized with such field, and in a neuterenvironment, represented by simple citizens of society or specialists in other fieldsof activity.
The language used in formal conversational style is characterized by thedecrease of the affective element, the reduction of spontaneity, as well as by theuse of proceedings imposed by the dialogued character of oral communication, incompliance with the regulations of literary language. Hence, we may see that the484Nicoleta Mihaela Ştefan: Tradition and Innovation in Present Day Romanian...

distinctive feature of solemn conversation is the inclusion of such texts in theliterary variants of national language, contrary to the conditions specific to oral
communication.
Regarding the morphological and lexical level, D. Irimia states thatstylistic marks are involved in the position occupied by linguistic signs in the seriesof synonyms in the paradigmatic level of language. Courtesy pronouns such as
domnia-voastră (‘Your Highness’), domnia-sa (‘His/Her Highness’), various termsof address regarding a certain position in the social and political hierarchy of state or
church: excelență (‘Excellence’), sfinția-voastră (‘Your Sanctity’) etc. mark bythemselves a maximum attitude of deference in a dialogue institutionalized andconventionalized to the highest extent. The same stylistic mark introduces vocative
phrases in a text. Terms of address such as domn (‘Mr.’), tovarăș (‘comrade’),accompanying terms naming social and political functions: decan (‘dean’), director(‘director’), inspector (‘inspector’), general (‘general’) prim-ministru (‘prime
minister’), președinte (‘president’), rector (‘rector’) etc. always take a specific affix
form of vocative: Domnule Președinte… (‘Mr. President’) etc.6

At the morphematic level, the legal-administrative style is characterized by anamazing number of nouns, non-personal pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions.
Concerning the nouns, we notice the neutralization of the masculine-feminine
opposition in Romanian, as most nouns appear in the masculine form: inculpat,învinuit (‘defendant’), soț (‘spouse’), condamnat (‘convected’), membru(‘member’) etc. or they have only feminine form: persoană (‘person’), parte(‘part’). This phenomenon is justified by the idea of “ambigen”7: “Persoanavătămată poate fi ascultată ca martor(...)”8 (‘The injured person may be heard as
witness’). Analyzing verbal flexion, the same linguist underlined the fact that, “inthe stylistic variant of legal texts, the development of verbal flexion reflects two
essential requirements in the elaboration thereof, strictly connected: impersonal
objectivity and generality.”9 The consequence of impersonal objectivity is thealmost total absence of reflexive and reciprocal voice, using indeterminate passive.
Thus, structures with a reflexive pronoun are more frequent or passive is used withthe auxiliary a fi (‘to be’) (expressed or not expressed), in which case the Agent
Object is missing, as it is implied in the situational (legal) framework or it cannot
be identified, excepting individual administrative texts. The generality associatedto the imperative, non-disputable legality passes to the semantic field of indicativeand subjunctive, modes without a prevailing frequency in the grammatical categoryof time. D. Irimia situates it “in a non-determined temporality.”10
Analyzing the lexical level, we see that it reflects the specificity of the legaladministrative perspective of the object of the communication. This paper
describes the following features as characteristic for the legal-administrative style:semantic uniqueness of the word/words have only one specific lexical meaning; as
we know, legal-administrative vocabulary contains both specific terms andcommon language terms; however, common language terms are polysemantic at
the paradigmatic level of national language, but semantically univocal at the485Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

paradigmatic level of legal-administrative style; the functional character ofsemantic differences within a range of synonyms, apparently perfect from theperspective of common language, but with an essential semantic difference within
legal language; the constitution of lexical dominants which are used frequently incertain syntactic and semantic positions; maximum concentration of vocabulary
through the use of a quite restricted number of fundamental and auxiliary terms,
repeating themselves at a syntagmatic level; the relatively stable character of the
vocabulary is given by the conservatism of the legal-administrative style, throughthe preservation of fundamental terms and non-altered wordings, in order to avoid
ambiguity in the reception of the message; the specific organization of vocabularyreflected by the specificity of the communication through the legal oradministrative text.
We agree to the conclusion expressed by the author of this paper and support
the idea thatboth at the paradigmatic level of style and at the syntagmatic level of the legal oradministrative text, there are several lexical layers, situating the legal-administrative
style on the one hand in a space of superposition with the common literary language,
on the other hand in a space of specific individuality.11

We shall argue the above-mentioned by exemplifying the final fragments in two
sale and purchase contracts, from the years 1994 and 2004.
(1) Subsemnata..., declar că am cumpărat de la... și..., terenul descris mai sus cuprețul de... pe care l-am achitat în întregime vânzătorilor, până azi, data autentificării
actului.
Cunosc situația de fapt și de drept a terenului pe care îl cumpăr, știu că acesta a fostdobândit de către vânzători în modul arătat mai sus , că nu este grevat de sarcini, nu
a ieșit din circuitul civil și nu a trecut în proprietatea statului în baza vreunui act
normativ, înțelegând să-l dobândesc pe riscul meu, fără ca prin aceasta să eliberezvânzătorii de evicțiunea prev. de art. 1337 cod civil.
Eu cumpărătoarea declar că sunt văduvă.
Cheltuielile ocazionate cu perfectarea prezentului contract au fost suportate de către
mine, cumpărătorul.
Redactat și dactilografiat în 5 exemplare, astăzi 14 iulie 1994 de Notariatul de statjudețean Dolj-Craiova.12(2) Cunoaştem situaţia de fapt și de drept a imobilului pe care îl cumpărăm, știm că afost dobândit de vânzători în condițiile arătate mai sus, că nu a ieșit din circuitul
civil și nu a trecut în proprietatea statului în baza vreunui act normativ, înțelegândsâ-l dobândim pe riscul nostru.
Noi, părţile contractante, am citit prezentul contract și suntem de acord cu conținutul
acestuia și totodată declarăm că am luat cunoștință de prevederile art. 6 din
Ordonanța Guvernului nr. 12/1998 privind taxele pentru activitatea notarială careprevăd că e nulă vânzarea prin care părțile se înțeleg ca printr-un act ascuns să
declare un preț mai mare decât cel care se declară în actul autentic, nulitate care se

486Nicoleta Mihaela Ştefan: Tradition and Innovation in Present Day Romanian...
extinde atât asupra actului ascuns cât și asupra celui autentic, precum și dedispozițiile legii pentru combatertea evaziunii fiscale.
Tehnoredactat și multiplicat în 7 (șapte) exemplare, astăzi 06 octombrie 2004 la
Biroul Notarului Public Sandu Cosmin, str. A.I. Cuza, nr.25A, jud. Dolj.13

At the level of both texts we notice the following:- accessibility through the prevalence of words from the common lexis;- clarity given by the resumption of details regarding the object of sale;- need for explanation, by using appositional noun attributes: cumpărătoarea,cumpărătorul (‘purchaser’) and developed apposition: părțile contractante(‘contracting parts’);- exactness, through the presence of cardinal numbers, either for revealing
insistency on the law on basis of which the document is concluded, or for
mentioning the moment when the transaction takes place;- high presence of nouns: situația (‘situation’), teren (‘land’), vânzători
(‘sellers’), sarcini (‘burdens’), circuitul (‘circuit’), proprietatea (‘property’),statului (‘state’), act (‘document’), riscul (‘risk’), cheltuieli (‘expenses’), contract(‘contract’), conținutul (‘content’), activitatea (‘activity’), preț (‘price’), etc.
- neutralization of the masculine-feminine opposition;- presence of specialized terms: autentificare (‘authentication’), grevat(‘burdened’), circuit civil (‘civil circuit’), act normativ (‘regulation’), evicțiune
(‘eviction’), părți contractante (‘contracting parts’), prevedere (‘provision’),nulitate (‘nullity), dispoziție (‘disposition’), evaziune fiscală (‘tax evasion’) at alower extent than common ones;- the content of the 2004 text is more elaborated, whereas the 1994 text
alternates simple and complex sentences;- stereotypical phrases: situația de fapt și de drept (‘the actual situation’).
Conclusions
By the result of our research, we also noticed that the first document was typed,
which makes us realize that during that period of time computers had not enteredinto the legal field, whereas the second document (elaborated after the privatizationof notaries) was computer typed and multiplied, which shows the modernization of
the notary system. Moreover, computer science has currently become a subject in
the university curriculum of law and business administration faculties, under thename of legal computer science.
We consider that the analysis of legal language may help solving someproblems in the area of interference between law and linguistics, considering thatthe basis of law and its form of expression mutually involve one another.
NOTES
1Manuela Saramandu (1986). Terminologia juridic-administratvă românească în perioada 17801850. București: Editura Universității din București, 13.

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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
2

D. Irimia, I. Gheție, M. Saramandu.
Manuela Saramandu, op.cit., 8.
4
Ibidem, 9.
5
Ion Gheție (1978). Istoria limbii române literare. București: Editura Ştiințifică și Enciclopedică,213.
6
Ibidem, 82.
7
Ibidem, 220.
8
Ibidem.
9
Ibidem, 222.
10
Ibidem, 224.
11
Ibidem, 241.
12Încheiere de autentificare nr. 10333, (1994), Notariatul de stat județean Dolj, Craiova. (1) I, theundersigned..., I declare that I bought from... and..., the land described above at the price of...
that I paid in full to the sellers, until today, the date of authentication of the document.
I know the situation in fact and law of the land that I buy, I know that this was acquired by thesellers in the way we described above, that is free of any encumbrances, that did not come out
from civil circulation and did not pass into the state property based on any legislative act,
understanding to acquire it on my risk, without releasing the sellers from the eviction stipulated
in art. 1337 civil code.
I, the buyer, declare that I am a widow.
The expenses with the perfection of the presented contract were carried by me, the buyer.
Drawn up and typed in 5 copies, today, 14 July 1994 by the County State Notary Dolj – Craiova.
13Încheiere de autentificare nr. 3540, (2004), Biroul Noterului Public Sandu Cosmin, Craiova. (2).
We know the situation in fact and law of the real estate that we buy, we know that it was acquiredby the sellers in the conditions shown above, that was not removed from civil circulation and did
not pass into the state property based on a legislative act, understading by this to acquire it on
our risk.
We, the contracting parts, read the present contract, we agree with its content and at the sametime we declare that we were informed by the stipulations of art. 6 from the Government
Ordinance no. 12/1998 concerning the taxes for notarial activity that foresee that it is void thesale through which the parties make a hidden agreement to declare a bigger price than the one
declared in the authentic act, nullity that extends as well on the hidden act, but also on theauthentic one, as well upon the dispositions of the law for rebuting the tax evasion.
Drawn up and multiplied in 7 (seven) copies, today, October 6th 2004 at the Office of the Public
Notary Sandu Cosmin, str. A.I.Cuza, nr 25A, Dolj County.
3

BIBLIOGRAPHY*** (2001). Enciclopedia limbii române. București: Editura Univers Enciclopedic.
Coteanu, Ion (1973). Stilistica funcțională a limbii române – stil, stilistică, limbaj.
București: Editura Academiei.
Gheție, Ion (1978). Istoria limbii române literare. București: Editura Ştiințifică și
Enciclopedică.
Irimia, Dumitru (1986). Structura stilistică a limbii române contemporane.
București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică.
Saramandu, Manuela (1986). Terminologia juridic-administrativă românească în
perioada 1780-1850. București: Editura Universității din București.

488

Dan Puric – the Therapeutic Lesson
Emilia TOMESCU
University “Lucian Blaga” of Sibiu,
Faculty of Political Sciences, International Relations, and Security Studies

ABSTRACTDan Puric has an extremely complex discourse which is addressing to all the levelsof our being: rational, spiritual, physical, emotional. His Socratic method aims at
waking up our conscience as human beings as well as Romanian citizens. Throughhis art, his books, his interviews and his conferences he shows all those who want tobecome “normal” again – the path toward a new way of perceiving reality. The
result of meeting him is therapeutic, has a cathartic effect but only those who speak
the same language will understand him. Only those who respect the same traditions,
historical modeles, cultural values and religious ideas will be able to have a realdialogue with him, as well as with themselves.
KEYWORDS: therapeutic, cathartic effect, human being, citizen, conscience

To understand and value Dan Puric you need to feel Romanian that is to love God
and your people and their traditions, to understand life as a prayer. This means tolive by experiencing the effects of history and still have the power to keep contact
with God, make this continuous effort in the memory of your ancestors: heroes andmartyrs. Maybe too many of us have died for the liberty and the dignity of thispeople and have become “heroes and martyrs” – comparable with the frescoes on
the church walls. This is the specific character of our history. It is for this reason
that during the Romanian orthodox liturgy we have a moment when we hear as“memory eternal”: the heroes, the soldiers and the fighters (the martyrs) from alltimes and from everywhere, killed on the battlefield, in camps and in prisons for
defending the country and its traditional faith, for unifying the people and for theliberty and the dignity (our liberty and our dignity) – God bless them (remember
them in His kingdom).
The Romanian peasant has had problems with history as history has betrayedhim. The Romanian peasant, the Romanian soul, has centred itself in God, hascontinuously transcended this reality and its history.
This is the way he, the Romanian peasant, the Romanian people has resisted andpreserved the ROAD – the TRUTH and LIFE itself.
This is the people in which Dan Puric was born and for which he speaks. He
knows that “the human being comes to this world with a potential which makes
him/her to struggle to fulfill himself/herself and the very first way to do that isLOVE.” (Bernea, 2001: 66) Dan Puric the artist, the human being and the citizen489

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

knows that “we resist when we find our essence, our inner law. This means to
conjugate or permanently combine the real with the ideal, the individual with theuniversal… To be a human being and live like a human being means continuous
effort, means to create yourself through fulfilment and the fulfilment of the world
around us.” (Idem: 23) This is our destiny and Dan Puric is aware of this.
He also knows that” the human being is a complex being with a large variety ofdimensions and meanings. Endowed with intelligence and awareness, with a warmand generous soul, the human being can offer, by spreading around, Beauty. Thishas the effect of confounding the ambitious commonplace of those who don’t know
their measure; that’s why these ones are trying to dry up its springs. The devil isactive when he can and succeeds where he finds out the inferiority complex.”(Ibidem)That’s why to understand Dan Puric and his message you need to feel
Romanian; you need to know and love your history, to respect the elements whichmake up the Romanian identity – its traditions and myths and legends and symbols,
its language and its culture as a whole.
You must be able to kneel before your ancestors who left us such a precious
legacy – the legacy which helps all of us preserve our identity.
Yes, we need such a lesson, a therapeutic one, now as we still feel the negative
effects of the post-communist period. We need to come closer to normality.
To understand and accept Dan Puric and his message we need to become“authentic” or at least to want this, to long for such a state of authenticity. We needthis as long as our identity is still alive and our civic consciousness is still active
because we also know that a real human being is aware of his/her responsibility as
a citizen as well as a member of a family.
To admire Dan Puric means to be a CHRISTIAN, that is to love and respect our
fellow citizens, to build our existence on solid moral values, to dream and strive fora better world here on earth not only in heaven, to make this world a better placefor everybody, a place where we can all live not just survive.
From this point of view Dan Puric behaves as an apostle of our romanianpeople. Such a person is indeed a beautiful mind endowed with a precious gift – theone of showing the others the method to purify their hearts as well as theirconscience. This can be done by respecting and cherishing the Romanian language,
our traditions, our religion and history – which as a whole made up our identity –made us special and gave us something unique, the continuous contact anddialogue with the superior authority represented by the christian faith. It’s our mostprecious legacy – that is why we must respect it, cherish it and above all – live
according to itsvalues. It’s the only way to re-discover ourselves. The effects ofsuch a therapy could mould up a new kind of Romanian citizens: normal ones, free
and aware of their dignity, who won’t ever be ashamed to recognize they are
Romanian.
We need to meet Dan Puric, read his books, and listen to him – all in all toexperience the “phenomenon Dan Puric “in order to remember “Who we are” and“How beautiful we could be” to remember that our soul needs the touch of beauty,
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Emilia Tomescu: Dan Puric – the Therapeutic Lesson

goodness and truth (the ancient ideal of harmony) and find out we need the courage
to create ourselves again and again, on new grounds, made up of MORAL values
in order to create a society in which the old Romanian traditions could continue toexist and support our identity.
We need all these in order to be able to live a normal live in a normal romaniansociety and be proud, at least accept, thatwe are at home.
Dan Puric is trying to be true to himself and to help us be true to ourselves thatis to practice love as well as faith, to speak our mind assuming the risk. He isteaching the lesson about ourselves, about the sense of life, death and of suffering.
We, Romanian people, were born Christian so the Christian faith has beenpresent here from the beginning of our life as a people: “Simion Mehedinţi said
that here in Romania Christianism found us immortal – due to the strong faith of
the Dacians in immortality and their joy in front of death.” (Puric, 2008: 34)
The Romanian peasant has been aware of the multiple illusion strata
surrounding us. “What is life? asked the Christian philosopher Ernest Bernea apeasant during the period between the two world wars. Life is life! replied thepeasant, but also a lot of illusion around it.” (Idem: 35) This answer illustrates thefact that the Romanian people has been confronted with death, as a people, fromthe very beginning. Death has become a continuous presence. Its philosophicalattitude and its perception of the world, as in Miorita, transcends life as we see it inthis dimension. Our people understood long ago there is more beyond this, much
more and of a bigger importance.
The Romanian funeral rituals contain “earthly regrets but also Christian joy.”(Idem: 36) The history of our people is seen by Dan Puric as a continuous spring oftears on the face of a child.
Death and sacrifice, which have always accompanied our history, are not theworst things we have to face. As in the fairy-tale entitled Youth without end and life
eternal, the child who can represent the soul does not want to be born in this world
without being promised a superior sense, the sense of immortality which denies all
the temptations of the material level. This fairy-tale, this dream can be seen as “thestrongest popular Christian expression of a people, it is the sharpest cry for thesuperior level, for its essential purity.” (Idem: 37)
In this longing for primary innocence we find one special feature of the soul,characteristic for the Romanian people. Prince Charming (the new born soul) asks
his father, the Emperor, to change the sense of life and death, to go back in time to
the Adamic condition, to take everything back to the moment before the Fall. It’s
Christian courage not just a piece of impudence, it’s an acute need for life quality
and not for its quantity as the essence of Christianity means the quality of the being
as the child of God and not in the biological, social, political quantity of theindividual in society. (Ibidem)

This constant longing for immortality was excellently expressed by thephilosopher Constantin Noica in his phrase “to be into Being,” which can betranslated as to live according to the essential values from above. Mihai Eminescu
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used to ask Ioan Slavici “What about your entering into Being?” while MirceaVulcănescu noticed the obsession for a life into Being and not in history as he said
that the Romanian people lived mainly in a virtual world and only seldom came outof it, entering history. (Ibidem)
The big lesson of Christianity is to teach all of us how to value life and to help
us prepare for the leaving, which is called death. Mihai Eminescu expressed thisidea in a line: “I have never thought I would learn to die.” “The Christian matrix
which touched the last cell of the Romanian human being has never been in a hurryto accept history but to assure our lasting. In time this matrix hasn’t lost its force.”(Idem: 38) A lot of “enemies” of the communist regime, who were in fact fightersfor liberty, lost their lives in the communist prisons. Many of them are now
compared to the saints produced by extreme suffering for spiritual values. Valeriu
Gafencu and Ioan Ianolide are only two of them…
It is difficult to understand and even to accept all these with a modern mentality.
“The soul and mental vibrations are totally different. It’s difficult if we think that
the West has experienced in time the theological correctness and today the politicalone; while we have known only the historically incorrectness and the consolationof God. For the last two go together with this people humiliated by history but
raised up by God.” (Idem: 39) The quality of this people cannot be valued on themarket of this world, which is in a hurry and lets itself be guided by other “values”.
When we study our history we should also study the meaning of suffering andof sacrifice. So many people sacrificed themselves for real values such as liberty,
dignity, faith. Referring only to the recent communist period we could mention
with Dan Puric that so many intellectuals, so many young people were killed inprisons, so many got their souls mutilated. So many peasants and aristocrats wereannihilated. For what? For foreign ideals. “Present day Romania is the dry tree
which has lost its leaves. These leaves, while falling to the ground, have secretly
whispered or have cried, without being heard, the secret of life, of death and that ofsufferingto which they were exposed.” (Idem: 40) The cruelty used by humanbeings against other human beings in Romania and the whole Eastern ghetto is
fainter and fainter with the passing of time for the Western people. The attitude of
the West towards the East of Europe is incredible and even astonishing when you
realize that everything started because of them and with them. It’s quite relevant, infact, as you remember the French Revolution and its cruelty. A lot of virtuous andvaluable people were destroyed. The communism did the same “in Romania,
Poland, Russia, Bulgaria etc. Trees dried by an aberrant history. The East and theWest are opposed. The sense of our life is opposed to the one of their life, we don’t
meet in life, in death or in suffering.” (Idem: 41)
The common element we had was the Christian faith. We were supposed to be
like brothers and have one common vision. This vision and its Christian fundament
were replaced by the modern, emancipated being. Communism was presented ashaving the purpose of social healing. Historically it was destined to erase social
problems. But in fact it caused pain to the body as well as to the soul, mutilating

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the being. And all these for an idea – whose idea in fact? The atheism showed its
power, its devastating effects…
Now, as many of us have lost their spiritual values after experiencing
communism, we are being confronted with millions of senses or options and ignore
the superior authority of God. And this is one possible result of the fact that, while
in Western countries such as France there were a lot of supporters of Marxism, in
Eastern Europe there were countries comparable to huge Prisons – where the real
sense of life, death and suffering was lived.
A young man, physically destroyed by torture because of the new idea, waspreparing to die. He was preparing while giving sense to his death, to his sufferingand to his life… ‘Tomorrow I’ll go away’, he says to his suffering fellows (Hedidn’t say: ‘I’ll die tomorrow!’).” Where will you go away, you bastard, ‘cause I’m
your Christ now!’ the voice of the warrant officer is heard. (It was the voice of thetriumphant history, which had painfully arrested Eternity). ‘I’ll go, sir, where you,
too, will come,’ answered the dying man with serenity; and thus the eternity of God
turned its back to the history made by man. This apparently simple conversationshows the crossroads of present day humankind.” (Idem: 42)

The prayers and the suffering of all our ancestors – and saints, including theprisoners of the communist regime, gather together beyond the “terror of history”
and “remake out of tears the immaculate face of God. Because, in order tounderstand the sense of life, of death and of suffering from the communist ghetto,
you need not the eye of reason but the one full of tears, which transport you beyond
this reality and show you the road back home.” (Idem: 43)
Nietzsche said “God is dead.” Fukuyama said “History has reached its end.”
And we today are leaving the consequences of the behaviour programmed by suchguidelines. But, no. God is not dead. “History is not dead or finished; it has become
more and more violent, more rapid, more arrogant, more merciless and more
pervert.” (Idem: 42) God is still present in the heart of the people who know whatsuffering is, who know the meaning of death and the one of life because they also
know “suffering is ‘the gate towards God,’ the ladder leading to our Creator. Our
people has been experiencing suffering from the very beginning. Let’s imagine
Romania facing God and you will see that God comes down and helps you.” (Idem:
53)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bernea, Ernest (2001). Mic tratat de înţelepciune şi virtute. Cluj-Napoca: Dacia.
Puric, Dan (2008). Cine suntem. Bucureşti: Platytera.
Puric, Dan (2009). Despre omul frumos. Bucureşti: Compania Dan Puric.

493

Sociocultural Aspects of Illocutionary Acts
Bledar TOSKA
University of Vlora, Albania

ABSTRACTThe paper discusses some of the most important and influential aspects that
influence the nature of illocutionary acts. The first part of the article covers
theoretical views on illocutionary acts while the second part provides an empirical
study on the sociocultural elements that determine the role and function of
illocutionary acts in communication. The last and summary part of the article draws
some tentative conclusions on the sociocultural elements of illocutionary acts in theinteractive process of communication.
KEYWORDS: illocutionary acts, sociocultural aspects, dialogism

Austin’s binary distinction between constative and performative utterances
probably is his main contribution to linguistic theory. In his recuperation ofAustin’s “central” ideas for constative linguistics, John Searle (1969) focused on
the illocutionary act, which he was at great pains to distinguish as clearly as
possible, from the locutionary act of uttering certain phonemes that carried acertain meaning. Indeed in Searle’s hands this locutionary versus illocutionary
distinction became a reformulation of the constative versus performative
distinction.
In Lectures VII, on the distinction between the constative and the performative,
Austin discovers that ultimately there is no real difference between them as acts
(stating or informing is a speech act just like marrying or betting or promising) andends up junking the whole thing and starting over, in chapter IX, on the distinction
between the illocutionary act and the perlocutionary act. This paper will consider
and propose a solution to this problem, which is offered by the dialogical theory of
Mikhail Bakhtin.
I have selected from the vast wealth of Bakhtin’s dialogical thought only thoseprinciples that best suit my argumentative needs here. The principles I have chosen
are central to Bakhtin’s dialogism, but they are not the only central ones. There are
four principles altogether that mostly contribute to the social and cultural aspects of
iloocutionary acts.
a. All being is dialogical. The part of this that interests us is specifically social
being, humans interacting with each other, in particular speaking and writing toeach other; but Bakhtin insists that dialogue is at the heart of all being, includingthat of inanimate objects.
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Bledar Toska: Sociocultural Aspects of Illocutionary Acts

Dialogism argues that all meaning is relative in the sense that it comes about
only as a result of the relation between two bodies occupying simultaneous but
different space, where bodies may be thought of as ranging from the immediacy ofour physical bodies, to political bodies and to bodies of ideas and ideologies ingeneral. Reality is always experienced, not just perceived, and further that it isexperienced from a particular position (either social or cultural). Bakhtin conceives
that position in kinetic terms as a situation, an event, the event of being a self. In
his linguistic and philosophical work, Bakhtin endeavors to describe language sothat dialogue is not a subsequent act of combination but is itself the starting point.
b. The self is constituted socially, culturally and thus dialogically. We are
not born “separate” creatures; we are born undifferentiated from other people andour environment, and we gradually develop a self in dialogue with others, byinternalizing parts of them and by sending our own intentions and desires andanxieties and fears to them. As a result, they are always in us and we are always inthem. “Our own” voices are made up of the voices of others, which we personalize,
tonalize out of different organismic needs, but which still retain a powerful chargeof dialogical engagedness in culture and society.
c. Language as a medium of social and cultural exchange and transmission
is constituted dialogically. Language does not exist in the abstract formal state ofpure stability imagined by constative linguists-what Saussure called la langue.
Language does not even exist in the form Saussure called la parole, “speech” asthe excluded other of constative linguistics. Saussurean parole is the instantiationof the stable structures of la langue, or what Noam Chomsky derogated as the merehuman “performance” of the beautifully abstract and formal realm of language“competence.” Language is dialogue. It exists only in and through dialogue.
Without dialogical encounters there is no language; there are only sounds andmarks, abstract signs lacking all interactive human performativity, directedness,
intentionality. Language is always someone’s words, words uttered by someone indialogue with someone else, intended by the speaker to have a certain kind of
impact on that someone else in that particular dialogue constituted socially andculturally.
d. Every utterance is internally dialogized in the sense of being oriented
both back to the utterance that gave rise to it and forward to the response that
it will provoke in society. In “Discourse in the Novel,” Bakhtin calls this anorientation toward the listener’s response, a projected expectation that prestructures
the utterance around what the listener may say in reply:
The word in living conversation is directly, blatantly, oriented toward a futureanswer-word: it provokes an answer, anticipates it and structures itself in theanswer’s direction. Such is the situation in any living dialogue. (Bakhtin, 1981:
280).

In this model the speaker’s interpretation of the previous utterance (the “alreadyspoken”), the speaker’s new intention, and the listener’s expected interpretation(the “answer-word”) coexist within the utterance. Every element of language495

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comes to us dialogically in our linguistic interactions, through actual dialogicalexchanges, and remains saturated with the voices of its past users.
The article proposes a new dialogical perspective on the contribution of thecommissiveI promise in discourse by revising the essential, sincerity, preparatory
and propositional content conditions, which guarantee the performance of the act ofpromise. Following Searle (1969), a promise is an act of undertaking an obligation
and a commitment to fulfill it. However, as we shall argue, the promiser’scommitment to an obligation is seriously undermined by the presence of dialogicalvoices and shades of doubt in discourse and appears to be a re-and-in-volution
phenomenon in locutor’s speech.
Illocutionary acts such as asking, requesting or promising are governed byconstitutive rules, namely, rules which help speakers to establish the existence andthe performance of linguistic behaviour. These are rules which constitute and/or
define the verbal interaction in illocutionary acts or in promising something, since
our paper discusses one specific illocutionary act, that of promising. For instance,
Uttering X counts as Y in context C.
which in the case of promising would be uttering “I promise I will come”
counts as a promise when the speaker wishes to commit to his being at a certain
place.
As interlocutors share the same linguistic code, based on grammar, when they
communicate a message, so do they share the necessary and the appropriate rules
for performing a certain illocutionary act. Searle (1969) has proposed a strategy
how these rules can work in producing real communicative effects. First, he sets
down four kinds of conditions on a given illocutionary act, otherwise known as
felicity conditions, which, if met by interlocutors, guarantee the performance of theact. Second, rules are extracted from the felicity conditions for performing thedesired illocutionary act.
Let us discuss in more detail how the four felicity conditions are met when
speakers perform a promise. Suppose speaker S say to hear H the following
sentence:(1) I promise I will come back to you one day. (FPMW_fict_prose) BNC

The very first condition for the utterance to be classified or understood as apromise is the essential condition. The essential element in performing a promise is
the fact that speakers undertake the obligation to do something. In example 1,
speaker S undertakes the obligation to come back to her one day. This is an
essential element which does distinguish the act of promising say from the act ofasking or demanding. But as it is going to be discussed below this has also socialand cultural interferences.
The second condition is the sincerity one. Thus, the speaker of utterance 1 not
only is undertaking the obligation to do something but also intends to perform act A
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(to come back to her one day). We are not suggesting that speakers do not breakpromises or that they do not promise insincerely, but only stating that, other things
being equal, a promiser forwards consciously his goal to perform a certain action
under certain social and cultural conditions, which are represented linguistically.
Although the speaker intends to perform a certain promise, he cannot do so
without believing he has the ability to do that. Thus, the act of promising is also a
rational performance performed in dual relation to the interlocutor(s), either present
or absent in the speech act. This assumption is also reinforced by the fact thatpromisers promise when they believe that the undertaking is in the otherinterlocutors’ interest or to their benefit, or at least a belief about psychologicalrepresentation of this kind. The third condition is so called the preparatory
condition.
Another crucial aspect of promising is the propositional content included in theact. There are no limits on the propositions (they can be descriptions, predictions,judgments, advice and so on and so forth) which speakers express, but it should be
noted that making a promise is not the same as, say, making a request or rejecting
an offer. First and foremost, a promise is an utterance which concerns a future
action. It would be nonsense to promise something that was done in a certain
period in the past as in the following example(2) I promise I was asked a lot of questions.*

The propositional aspect is one of the restrictions which speakers unconsciously
know when promise. It is a pure prediction on a future act and constituted sociallyand culturally, as well.
Moreover, there is still another restriction which occurs in promising, thereferential side of it. The speaker must refer to himself as a promiser, that is, hecannot promise on behalf of someone else. Thus the two restrictions which webriefly discussed make up the fourth and last condition, that of propositional
content. A promiser predicates a future act A of himself. The parenthetical verb I
believe is not part of the proposition expressed and does not contribute to themeaning of the propositionin anyway. It is only anchored to it in order to show the
speakers’ attitude to the occurrence.
In sum, Searle proposes that a speaker S promises to do act A for hearer H when
the following conditions are met (consider again example 1):(1) I promise I will come back to you one day. (FPMW_fict_prose) BNC

a. Essential Condition. The utterer undertakes the obligation to come back to
her one day. He is committed to perform that action.
b. Sincerity Condition. The utterer intends to come back to her one day. His
intention is part of the obligation that the utterer sincerely undertakes.
c. Preparatory Condition. There are, as we mentioned, two aspects involved
here. First, the speaker believes that coming back to her one day is an action which497

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is the hearer’s interest. And second, the speaker believes that he has the capacity of
performing the act of coming back one day.
d. Propositional Content Condition. Again the speaker predicates that what isuttered (I will come back to you one day) concerns a future action of him.
The conditions discussed so far define a promise, but we have already said that
we need rules which could be followed by speakers in order to promise something.
We simply convert the conditions into rules. However, it is important to clarify theweight or the nature of the rules set. We previously mentioned that illocutionary
acts such as promising are governed by constitutive rules. This is correct up tosome point. The essential condition tells us what an utterance counts as (forinstance a promise), and it is a converted constitutive rule. The rest of theconditions, the sincerity, preparatory and propositional content regulate theutterance of an expression for promising.
Searle’s theory appears to be very useful for the pragmatic analysis of thepromises that speakers of a certain language make. Additionally, it helps hearers torecognize the speaker’s intention in promising something and at the same time it
becomes a useful principle which enables effective communication. However, we
would like to propose a new perspective on the illocutionary act of promising byrevising the four conditions and rules. The discussion is mainly based on theBakhtinian theory of dialogism, and the rules for making and understanding apromise are seen in the dialogical and sociocultural view.
We would like to focus our discussion mainly on the sincerity condition, which
involves the intention of the speaker to perform a certain act. We have excluded
from our discussion those cases when the speaker intends to break a promise
intentionally or when he promises insincerely. Whenever a promise is made it
acquires some or full meaning not only by means of the information transmitted orby dint of the parenthetical verb I promise, but because the utterance is part of an
unstated or imaginary normative situation. Now, this normative situation is greatly
affected or changed by the authority which the promiser wishes to show or haverather than by the promise being conveyed.
If we come back again to our initial example (1), we can say that the speaker isin an uncomfortable situation, which he would like to overcome by showing his
authority over the fact she may not believe he will come back to her one day.
The speaker may not even intend to perform the act in question, which does notnecessarily mean that he is being insincere, but only trying to acquire back his
authority over a situation, which is timeless; it regards a past, a present and a futurestate of real or imaginary interlocutors and a social and perhaps a cultural
background shared by the interlocutors in question. Thus, the sincerity condition isbest explained in terms of speakers who attempt to change a situation or state andconvey this information rather transmitting information about a future act.
Dialogically speaking, there are voices in promises which cast doubt on theauthority of the promiser. The promisee is assured not so much about the future act,
as about the unfavorable position of the promiser, which is questioned by a past498

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and-present dynamism of events and the sociocultural factors that influence anddetermine our linguistic behavior in everyday speech and communication.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alston, William (2000). Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning. Ithaca andLondon: Cornell University Press.
Austin, John L. (1975). How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Bakhtin, Mikhail M. (1986). Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Trans. Vern
W. McGee, Ed. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin, TX: Universityof Texas Press.
Clark, Katerina, & Michael Holquist (1984). Mikhail Bakhtin. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press.
Dentith, Simon (1995). Bakhtinian Thought: An Introductory Reader. New York:
Routledge.
Holquist, Michael (2002). Dialogism: Bakhtin and His World. London: Routledge.
Katz, Jerrold (1977). Propositional Structure and Illocutionary Force, New York:
Crowell.
Liapunov, Vadim (1993). Toward a Philosophy of the Act. By Mikhail Bakhtin.
Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Searle, John (1969). Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stephen, Yarbrough (1999). The Study of Discourse beyond Language and Culture.
Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
Vice, Sue (1997). Introducing Bakhtin. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

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Pierre-Louis Ginguené e la difesa e illustrazionedella lingua italiana
Cristina TRINCHERO
Università degli Studi di Torino, Italia
Dipartimento di Scienze del Linguaggio e Letterature Moderne e Comparate

ABSTRACT: Pierre-Louis Ginguené and the Defence and Illustration of the
Italian Language
Between the 18th and the 19th century the French language had imposed itself as themodern koiné while the Italian language was still trying to define its physiognomy
as one of the most evident factors of the national unity and identity. The Frenchscholar and journalist Pierre-Louis Ginguené is the author of important pages onliterary historiography and literary criticism concerning the Italian culture, where hecomes out with his passionate enthusiasm towards the Italian language against thecontamination of French as well as with interesting reflexions on how the Italian
language could develop and defend its specificity, thus showing a surprising affinity
in thought with many contemporary Italian writers.
KEYWORDS: language, culture, national identity, the “questione della lingua
italiana” 18th-19th century

In Italia, le secolari discussioni sulle origini, l’evoluzione, le caratteristiche e irapporti di incontro-scontro tra le lingue europee ripresero vita nel passaggio tra
Settecento e Ottocento, caricandosi di nuovi significati, in speciale modo nel
quadro delle relazioni con la Francia, assumendo sempre più il colore dellarivendicazione del riconoscimento dell’identità nazionale, di una comune italianità
non ancora sancita a livello politico ma alla quale concorreva una necessaria,
sempre più manifesta unità e compattezza culturale. Intanto, l’ultimo quarto del
XVIII secolo prima e gli anni dell’impero napoleonico poi decretavano il trionfo diquell’«Europe française»1 proclamata e celebrata nel corso di tutto il Settecento in
un succedersi di discorsi, saggi e studi con cui francesi e stranieri esponevano i
pregi della lingua e ragionavano attorno alle cause che ne avevano favorita la
diffusione. 2
Le vittorie belliche, le strategie diplomatiche, l’accorta politica culturale, lo
sviluppo delle lettere sin dagli autori del Grand Siècle e, successivamente, delpensiero, con la filosofia delle Lumières e con l’Encyclopédie, infine, una corte
ineguagliabile per fasti e ricercatezze, esempio di grandeur ammirata e imitata dasovrani e altolocati di tutta Europa, avevano creato le premesse ideali affinché lalingua francese fosse esportata presso gli ambienti colti in un’area vastissima, chesi estendeva a sud – nella penisola italiana –, nelle regioni centrali del continente,500

Cristina Trinchero: Pierre-Louis Ginguené e la difesa e illustrazione della lingua italiana

cioè nel mondo germanico, a est – in Russia – e, infine, nei paesi del Nord Europa.3
Nel Settecento e nel primo Ottocento, quindi, scrivevano e parlavano in francese
anche stati non francofoni, poiché il francese era la lingua del sapere, della cultura,delle arti e delle lettere, della moda e della diplomazia; letterati illustri erano ambiti
ospiti presso le maggiori corti e Accademie d’Europa; e non rari erano gli scrittori
stranieri che sceglievano di pubblicare in lingua francese, quasi a garanzia di una
maggiore diffusione delle loro opere.4 Il francese sembrava essersi sostituito al
latino, assumendo la funzione di una koiné moderna per le relazioni diplomatiche,
politiche, commerciali e culturali: «Jadis tout étoit Romain, aujourd’hui tout est
Français.»5
Le disquisizioni intorno ai pregi del francese abbondavano e offrivanol’occasione per operare confronti tra le diverse lingue, dai quali veniva spesso
stilata una gerarchia delle parlate d’Europa, dove osservazioni oggettive si
intrecciavano sovente a cliché che davano adito al formarsi o al consolidarsi dipregiudizi.6 Fra i tanti trattati che spiegavano l’«universalité» e decretavano iltrionfo di un’«Europe française» sul piano linguistico, il Discours surl’universalité de la langue française di Antoine de Rivarol, stampato nel 1783,
condensava argomentazioni che echeggiavano da circa un secolo:7 la chiarezza – ilnoto concetto di clarté di matrice cartesiana – e l’ordine insito nella sintassi delfrancese, e l’armonia dei suoi suoni erano sufficienti a dimostrare la superioritàdella lingua. Lapidario, Rivarol stabilì che
La syntaxe française est incorruptible. C’est de là que résulte cette admirable clarté,base éternelle de notre langue. CE QUI N’EST PAS CLAIR N’EST PAS
FRANÇAIS; ce qui n’est pas clair est encore anglais, italien, grec ou latin,8riproponendo, quasi cento anni dopo, il tono offensivo con cui nel 1687 il Père
Dominique Bouhours aveva asserito che[…] de toutes les prononciations, la nôtre est la plus naturelle, & la plus unie. Les
Chinois, & presque tous les Peuples de l’Asie chantent; les Allemands rallent; lesEspagnols declament; les Italiens soûpirent; les Anglois sifflent. Il n’y a proprement
que les François qui parlent.9

Giudizi e pregiudizi intorno alle lingue straniere erano poi spesso estesi alle culture
e alle nazioni che le parlavano. Così, riprendendo dei luoghi comuni sedimentati
nel tempo, mentre il francese rappresentava la lingua della cultura, l’italiano era
spesso liquidato come la lingua dei commedianti, se non addirittura dei ciarlatani edei truffatori.
Mentre la Francia celebrava i fasti del proprio idioma, l’Italia si trovava a far
fronte all’espansione della lingua francese negli ambiti più svariati – la diplomazia,
l’amministrazione pubblica, le arti, la moda10 –, conseguenza del suo
consolidamento come lingua della cultura e della conquista francese di buona partedella penisola.

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Le reazioni non tardarono, in un paese dove il problema dell’impiego sempre
più esteso di una lingua straniera alimentava con nuovi spunti la plurisecolare eirrisolta questione della lingua. Le controversie linguistiche che animavano la
scena culturale italiana tra Sette e Ottocento procedevano sulle linee tracciate dai
dibattiti dei secoli precedenti – riabilitazione del volgare nei confronti del latino,
individuazione di un italiano letterario ideale – però venivano complicate inragione della mutata situazione politica e quindi culturale:11 l’inserimentodell’Italia nell’«Europe française» collegava la questione del rapporto tra lingua
italiana e lingua francese alle annose discussioni intorno al confronto tra toscano elingua comune. 12 Dopo la Rivoluzione del 1789 quello del ‘francesismo’ diventò
un tema particolarmente spinoso nelle trattazioni dei letterati, costretti ad affrontare
il complesso interrogativo della legittimità dell’inserimento indiscriminato di vocistraniere in un idioma nazionale la cui fisionomia – per la specifica realtà storica,
culturale e dunque linguistica della penisola – continuava a mancare di un profilo
netto. Le discussioni più accese scoppiarono nelle regioni dove la presenza
culturale francese era più forte, come in Piemonte,13 e in quelle dove il problemadelle caratteristiche distintive di una lingua italiana comune era percepito con
maggiore intensità, come in Toscana. La questione della precisazione della lingua
italiana e dei suoi rapporti con l’invadenza del francese si inseriva nella presa dicoscienza di quanto utopico fosse il progetto di pervenire a una lingua ‘perfetta’,
progressivamente abbandonato nel corso del Settecento a vantaggio di una
rivalutazione della naturale differenziazione delle lingue. Ma, soprattutto, il
confronto con la lingua francese stimolò la presa di coscienza della lingua qualeespressione, al pari della letteratura e delle arti, della musica e del pensiero
filosofico, di un’identità nazionale che in quegli anni cercava riconoscimento eaffermazione, avviando quel lungo processo che avrebbe portato l’Italia da nazione
a stato nazionale. Le soluzioni proposte, pur se accomunate dall’intenzione direagire contro l’accondiscendenza degli autori nei confronti dei francesismi alla
moda e dalla volontà di pervenire a un ideale di prosa rispettosa delle tradizioni
espressive della penisola e nel contempo conveniente ai tempi moderni,
rispecchiavano tuttavia il contrasto, tipico delle età di transizione, tra antico emoderno, tra fedeltà rigorosa verso la tradizione e ricerca di adeguamento ai tempi.
Le discussioni dei letterati assumevano così toni spesso concitati, divisi tra puristi
di stretta osservanza e fautori, pur nel rispetto della tradizione, di un’espressione
più moderna.
Voce fuori dal coro fra i suoi conterranei, Pierre-Louis Ginguené, francese‘anomalo’, appassionato e attento studioso della cultura italiana, e strenuo
difensore della nostra lingua in terra francese, seguì con attenzione l’evoluzionedelle discussioni attorno alla questione e in qualche modo vi prese parte,
soppesando e commentando nei suoi scritti le differenti tesi che via si delineavano
in materia. Intellettuale poliedrico – giornalista, critico musicale e letterario per lastampa periodica,14 Ginguené insegnò letteratura presso l’Athénée e, sulla base dei
materiali preparatori dei suoi corsi, scrisse la prima storia della letteratura italiana
pubblicata in Francia, l’Histoire littéraire d’Italie, in nove volumi, di cui sei
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pubblicati a partire dal 1811, e tre postumi, opera che segnò un’importante tappa
nella storiografia letteraria, perché modernamente – per l’epoca – impostata sul
concetto di storia letteraria nazionale e secondo un percorso di evoluzione storica.
Della lingua e della cultura d’Italia – musica, arti, letteratura, storia – Ginguené
era un fine conoscitore, continuamente aggiornato grazie a una fitta rete di contatti
con i letterati italiani del tempo. Curiosamente, dell’Italia Ginguené non visitò che
Torino, dove visse per otto mesi in qualità di ambasciatore di Francia: per il restodella sua vita non si allontanò da Parigi, dove era giunto nel 1772 dopo averlasciato la provincia bretone che gli aveva dato i natale, in cerca di fortuna negli
ambienti intellettuali – come accadeva per tutti gli aspiranti scrittori e artisti, dasempre attirati dal mito culturale della capitale e dalle sue infinite possibilità diformazione e affermazione. Nonostante i contatti diretti con l’Italia furonopressoché nulli, Ginguené fu però grande lettore e anche osservatore di cose evicende italiane, e attorno a lui si formò presto una sorta di cenacolo composto dastudiosi, artisti e uomini di lettere italiani che a Parigi erano di passaggio oppure
che lì erano emigrati. Pur non lasciando scritti specificamente dedicati alla lingua
italiana o saggi su questioni linguistiche, osservazioni sulla lingua italiana,
sull’apprendimento delle lingue straniere e persino considerazioni sull’arduo
compito del traduttore costellano sia l’Histoire littéraire d’Italie, sia soprattutto,
stimolate dall’attualità, le sue recensioni per la stampa periodica a opere di autori
italiani pubblicate in Italia, oppure in italiano in Francia, oppure a testi diletteratura italiana tradotti in francese.15
Interessante è sfogliare il corpus dei suoi interventi sulle maggiori riviste
culturali del tempo per l’originalità, per un francese dell’età napoleonica, delleasserzioni in un’epoca in cui, forti della diffusione del francese come ‘lingua
internazionale’, i letterati di Francia affermavano che il francese doveva esserestudiato in tutte le altre nazioni e che l’apprendimento delle altre lingue era
inutile.16 Ginguené non esitava a denunciare la presunzione di superiorità dei
connazionali, quel «préjugé national» e quella «partialité» che riscontrava troppo
di frequente. In particolare, contestava la superficialità di conoscenza e valutazione
che alimentava il persistere dell’immagine dell’italiano come lingua degna distudio quasi soltanto in funzione del canto melodico, 17 oltre che la faciloneria che
conduceva alla convinzione della semplicità del suo apprendimento per lavicinanza del vocabolario a quello francese, in ragione alla comune provenienza
latina. Convinto assertore dell’importanza dello studio delle lingue straniere qualeprimo passo in direzione di una migliore comprensione delle altre nazioni, dipacifici e fruttuosi confronti e scambi culturali, Ginguené affermava che gli
avvenimenti storici che stavano intrecciando il destino della penisola alle vicende
francesi avrebbero dovuto contribuire ad avvicinare ulteriormente Francia e Italia efavorire il dialogo interculturale; il primo passo avrebbe dovuto comportare laconoscenza delle due lingue:
La langue italienne n’est plus pour nous un objet de pure curiosité. À mesure quel’Italie devient plus française, il devient pour les Français d’une nécessité plus
urgente d’entendre la langue de ce beau pays.18503

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La particolare sensibilità verso lingua italiana stimolava Ginguené a seguire conattenzione le discussioni fra i letterati della penisola sul tema della ‘corruzione’
dell’idioma in conseguenza dell’influenza francese e ad analizzare le proposte per
far fronte alla situazione in nome dell’urgenza di difendere della lingua ma anchedella necessità di raffinarla e dunque di individuare dei modelli cui poeti e scrittori
avrebbero dovuto riferirsi. Nei suoi interventi sulla stampa, Ginguené incoraggiava
autori e studiosi italiani a scrivere sempre nella loro lingua, affrancandosi
dall’ancora forte deferenza nei confronti del latino, secondo l’esempio di nazioni
che – come l’Inghilterra e la Francia – da due-tre secoli avevano esteso l’utilizzo
dell’idioma nazionale a tutte le discipline, così che l’inglese e il francese si erano
consolidati quali linguaggi per la scienza, il filosofia e il diritto, sostituendosi
definitivamente al latino. Lo leggiamo, ad esempio, nella recensione al saggio
Della necessità di scrivere nella propria lingua (orazione proemiale alle pubbliche
lezioni di eloquenza italiana l’anno 1806 del Professor Giovanni Rosini,dell’Università di Pisa,19 dove, riprendendo le argomentazioni del docente,
Ginguené affermava che nel XIX secolo scrivere e pubblicare in latino era uncontrosenso, poiché significava ricorrere a una lingua morta, pertanto inadatta allenecessità espressive e ai contenuti moderni. La ricchezza dell’italiano e la sua
nobiltà erano attestate anzitutto dalla presenza, nella storia letteraria del Paese, dipoeti e prosatori ineguagliabili – «Dante, Pétrarque et Boccace, avaient ennobli lalangue et l’avaient rendue propre à exprimer les sentiments les plus forts et lesplus hautes pensées»20 –, esempi che avrebbero dovuto convincere filosofi escienziati a diffondere i loro scritti in volgare, seguendo l’esempio di Galileo,
Torricelli e Redi, i quali, rare eccezioni, avevano scelto di pubblicare i loro studi
nella lingua nazionale, come avevano fatto, per il francese, Buffon e Malebranche.
Lo stesso argomento era ripreso in una recensione di poco successiva, dedicata
all’orazione di Ugo Foscolo Dell’origine e dell’ufficio della letteratura, pubblicata
a Milano dalla Stamperia Reale nel 1809.21 Foscolo rivolgeva un vigoroso appelloagli Italiani, richiamandoli per aver troppo a lungo trascurato la loro lingua. Anche
il Foscolo rammentava ai suoi contemporanei l’eloquenza dell’espressione dei
maestri italiani nella poesia e nella prosa, fosse essa letteraria o scientifica. Dante,
ma anche Machiavelli, e pure Galileo, quindi, più di recente, Galiani e Beccaria,
avevano dimostrato con i loro scritti la ricchezza della loro lingua, che invece
alcuni intellettuali di inizio Ottocento tendevano a sottovalutare: «[...] les savants
ont dédaigné l’éloquence», osservava Ginguené ribadendo il motivo conduttore delsaggio foscoliano. La rinascita e un più diffuso impiego, quale lingua del sapere eanche della scienza, della lingua italiana, presumeva però la salvaguardia delle
caratteristiche distintive della stessa, un ampliamento del vocabolario a partire
dalle sue radici e una chiusura nei confronti dell’inserimento di voci straniere che
sembravano minacciarne l’identità. Foscolo esortava i letterati a lavorare perabbellire e accrescere in lemmi l’idioma nazionale, senza dover ricorrere a termini
importati da altre lingue, lavorando cioè sull’italiano stesso e guardando ai modellidel passato. Ginguené concordava con questa linea di politica linguistica e, quasi
con toni da purista, si diffondeva in esortazioni agli uomini di cultura:504

Cristina Trinchero: Pierre-Louis Ginguené e la difesa e illustrazione della lingua italiana
Embellissez votre langue par la clarté, l’énergie, la lumière de vos idées; aimez votreart, et méprisant les lois des petites académies grammaticales, vous enrichirez votre
style; aimez votre patrie, et vous ne souillerez plus par des importations étrangères lapureté, les richesses et les grâces natives de votre idiome; la vérité, les passionsénergiquement exprimées rendront vos Vocabulaires plus exacts, moins ineptes etplus riches: les sciences auront un vêtement italien.22

La difesa della ‘purezza’, delle caratteristiche distintive che formano l’identità
di ciascuna lingua, l’arricchimento di un idioma a partire dal suo patrimonio
lessicale e dalle sue radici e il rifiuto delle contaminazioni straniere, responsabilidella ‘degenerazione’ delle lingue, erano argomenti cari a Ginguené, il quale
manifestò in più occasioni di condividere la preoccupazione dei letterati italiani perla progressiva francesizzazione – o «infranciosimento», secondo l’espressionedell’epoca. In un articolo del 1808, dedicato all’esame dell’antologia Scelta diprose italiane tratte da più celebri e classici scrittori, con brevi notizie sulla vita e
gli scritti di ciascheduno curata da Paolo Luigi Costantini, si augurava che lapresenza francese non avesse come conseguenza un’eccessiva alterazione, conconseguente declino, della lingua italiana. Ancora una volta nelle sue
raccomandazioni riecheggiavano toni e contenuti delle pagine di tanti letterati
italiani del tempo:
Ce serait un triste fruit de notre influence sur ses destinées, si elle s’étendait jusqu’à
effacer peu à peu du nombre des langues modernes celle qui en est reconnue la plus
belle, la plus riche, la plus féconde en chefs-d’œuvre de tous les genres.23

Il sentimento di preoccupazione circa il destino dell’italiano, accompagnato
dall’insofferenza verso l’egemonia esercitata dal francese sulle altre parlate
europee, troppo spesso accettata e subita passivamente, pervadeva ad esempio larecensione all’imponente opera di Carlo Botta, la Storia della guerra diindipendenza, pubblicata nel 1809 e presentata da Ginguené sul «Mercure deFrance» nel 1810. In essa l’analisi della prosa dello storiografo gli offrì l’occasione
per dar voce al ‘disgusto’ provato nel rilevare che certuni autori fossero arrivati
non soltanto al punto di impiegare termini del francese, ma persino di trasferirne initaliano sue costruzioni sintattiche:
Si j’osais m’en rapporter à mes impressions, je dirais que n’en estimant rien plus
dans une langue que son originalité, aimant sur-tout à y voir les tours qui lui sontpropres, et qui la différencient des autres langues, je suis presque toujours plusdégoûté que flatté de reconnaître dans la prose soit italienne, soit anglaise, des tours
absolument français qui n’étaient pas originairement dans ces langues, et qui s’ysont insensiblement et presque furtivement introduits.24

All’abuso di prestiti e calchi da lingue straniere e, nella fattispecie, dal francese,
il nostro autore opponeva con vigore l’«autorité irréfragable» del Vocabolariodell’Accademia della Crusca, «[...] à laquelle depuis qu’il a paru tous les bonsécrivains se sont soumis, barrière forte et solide contre laquelle se sont505

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

heureusement brisés tous les efforts du néologisme moderne» (VII, 386).
L’Accademia della Crusca e i suoi lavori sono decantati in più capitoli
dell’Histoire littéraire d’Italie, quale punto di riferimento indiscutibile e certo pertutti i buoni scrittori.25 Dalle pagine della recensione al lavoro del Botta traspare un
Ginguené piuttosto vicino alle tesi dei Puristi, caparbi paladini della lingua italiana
e intransigenti avversari di qualsiasi ammodernamento che provenisse sia da lingue
straniere sia da parlate locali che non fossero il toscano fiorentino codificato dalla
Crusca e rappresentato dai maestri del Trecento. Il Purismo in effetti consisteva
essenzialmente nella ripresa delle riflessioni esposte nelle Prose della volgar
lingua di Pietro Bembo, cui era attribuito il merito di avere individuato il modello‘puro’ di lingua letteraria nei maestri del Trecento – Dante e Petrarca per la poesia,
Boccaccio per la prosa. Una posizione estrema, non condivisa da tutti gli
intellettuali perché la lingua italiana del cosiddetto «aureo Trecento» era
inadeguata alle esigenze espressive del XIX secolo: la lingua del passato era
ovviamente sprovvista della terminologia necessaria a descrivere le scoperte, leinnovazioni della tecnica, i concetti filosofici e i parametri estetici nuovi e, dunque,incapace di tradurre in parole il mondo contemporaneo. La prosa della Storia della
guerra di indipendenza degli Stati Uniti d’America rispettava i canoni puristi e, diconseguenza, fu accusata di un pesante stile arcaico, denso di termini desueti e dicostruzioni sintattiche obsolete. Ginguené parve nondimeno apprezzare questo
stile, tant’è che, nel secondo dei due articoli che vi dedicò, commentò che quellepagine gli avevano consentito di compiere un sorta di viaggio immaginario nel
grande Trecento italiano, immergendosi nella lingua dell’età dell’oro: «En lisantl’ouvrage de M. Botta […] j’ai cru lire un des auteurs de ces deux grands siècles
que les Italiens appellent l’âge d’or de leur littérature».26 Non gli era comunquesfuggita qualche caduta di stile di cui si era macchiato l’autore, ad esempio
l’introduzione di termini utilizzati con valenze non registrate dalla Crusca, come lavoce «libertini», impiegata impropriamente per indicare i patrioti che si battevano
in difesa del principio della libertà; oppure quei vocaboli inadatti al registro
linguistico richiesto da un’opera storiografica, 27 come «[…] la bordaglia, pour lebas peuple, la canaille, sont-ils bien du style de l’histoire?».
La passione per la nostra lingua e la dichiarata convinzione della necessità diintrodurre provvedimenti al fine di preservarne le caratteristiche distintive resero
Ginguené degno del titolo di socio onorario della prestigiosa ed elitaria Accademia
della Crusca, nomina raramente accordata a uno straniero, che ricevette nel 1811.
Ristabilita il 19 gennaio del 1811 su intervento di Bonaparte, lo stesso giorno ne fu
stilato l’ordinamento, assegnando gli incarichi e decidendo il numero dei soci:dodici residenti e venti corrispondenti, nominati con decreto del 23 gennaio, in
occasione della prima seduta del rinnovato consesso. Ginguené risultò l’unico
straniero tra i venti nuovi membri: il suo nome figurava accanto a quelli di illustri
letterati italiani, fra cui Vincenzo Monti, Giovanni Rosini, Ippolito Pindemonte,
Gian Francesco Galeani Napione, Ennio Quirino Visconti. È importante notare chela sua elezione avvenne prima della pubblicazione dell’Histoire littéraire d’Italie –i volumi I, II e III uscirono infatti soltanto nella primavera del 1811 –,506

Cristina Trinchero: Pierre-Louis Ginguené e la difesa e illustrazione della lingua italiana

testimonianza significativa della considerazione e del valore che gli accademici
italiani già avevano assegnato agli studi e agli interventi del francese prima che lasua fama nella penisola venisse solidamente sancita dalla pubblicazione (seguita da
immediata traduzione in italiano) della sua importante opera storiografica. La
nomina a socio corrispondente dell’Accademia della Crusca, la proclamazione delVocabolario quale autorità incontestabile in materia di lingua e le osservazioni
minute sulla prosa degli autori suoi contemporanei non devono tuttavia indurre a
collocare Ginguené tra i più rigorosi simpatizzanti della corrente purista. Pur serispettoso nei confronti dell’autorità accademica fiorentina e ostile agli eccessi dei
prestiti dalle lingue straniere, egli possedeva una mentalità assai più aperta rispetto
ai cruscanti intransigenti e ai puristi inflessibili. Sempre sfogliando i suoi interventi
sulla stampa e le digressioni di argomento linguistico inserite nell’Histoire
littéraire d’Italie, si nota una curiosità ammirata e un profondo rispetto espressi inpiù occasioni nei confronti delle infinite varietà dialettali che componevano ecompongono il mosaico linguistico italiano.28 Da questo punto di vista Ginguené si
avvicinava a quella corrente di studiosi che individuavano nel concorso dellevarianti regionali e dei vernacoli le fonti cui attingere per un costante arricchimentodella lingua italiana, che sarebbe stata espressione di una parlata viva e vivace,29 e
che nel contempo avrebbe trasmesso in letteratura l’anima della specificità
regionale degli scrittori: «Se mêler au peuple italien, comprendre ses besoins et ses
aspirations; écouter celui-ci, qui est de Milan, ou celui-là, qui est de Naples, afin
d’entrer dans les jugements et dans les préjugés du voisin».30 Nei volumi III e VI
dell’Histoire, la peculiare intensità espressiva della parlata toscana e sull’attenzionedel Ruzzante per il vernacolo della provincia di Padova sono oggetto diosservazioni particolari, decisamente originali per l’epoca, pur se sappiamo che
Ginguené non ebbe modo di recarsi sul posto e che le sue considerazioni
procedevano per via indiretta, attraverso la lettura e l’analisi delle caratteristiche
lessicali e sintattiche dei testi letterari. Analogamente, colpiscono i commenti
esposti nel capitolo XXII del volume III, incentrato sulla poesia del Quattrocento, a
proposito delle fonti di ispirazione del linguaggio poetico di Lorenzo de’ Medici:«[...] Les paysans et le peuple de Toscane ont un langage qui leur est particulier etqui est singulièrement propre à exprimer des sentiments naïfs mêlés d’images
gracieuses et assaisonnés d’une gaîté rustique» (III, 494).
Pur nel rispetto dell’autorità della tradizione, dunque, e pertanto in coerenza conla sua formazione settecentesca e classicista, in ambito linguistico Ginguené sidelinea come una interessante figura di passaggio, proiettata già negli interessi
linguistici del XIX secolo, poiché la scoperta e lo studio dei dialetti si sviluppa
proprio nell’Ottocento. Il suo approccio all’analisi linguistica dei testi letterari – maanche della prosa in ambito storiografico, musicale, scientifico, artistico – pare
collocarsi su quella linea di pensiero che animerà il Manzoni, il quale, quando si
accingeva alla stesura de I Promessi Sposi, si trovò nella difficile impresa diconciliare le richieste, in parte condivise, del Purismo imperante, con i suoi limiti,
allontanandosi delle teorie di Monti e di Cesari, fautori di un italiano ‘puro’,507

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

eccessivamente dotto nel suo voler escludere il parlato, con la sua vivacità,
ricchezza e genuinità.
In Francia una generale campagna contro gli eccessi dei sentimenti di francocentrismo che, radicatisi nel corso dei secoli, si erano acuiti nel Settecento, era ilmotivo conduttore degli studio di storici come Dominque-Joseph Garat e Pierre
Daunou, e di archeologi e viaggiatori come Constantin-François Chassebœuf
Volney e Aubin Louis Millin, al cui operato va il merito della scoperta delle radicidelle identità nazionali e della contestualizzazione geografica e storica delle cultured’Europa e del Mediterraneo. 31 Questi studiosi condividevano con Ginguené –unico letterato fra gli Idéologues che lavoravano nell’ambito delle disciplineumanistiche – la presenza negli ambienti culturali dove si andava sviluppando il
pensiero erede della filosofia dei Lumi, radicato nella capitale opera di Etienne
Bonnot de Condillac, l’Essai sur les connaissances humaines, intrisa di fiducia nel
progresso evolutivo delle lingue verso una loro sempre maggiore razionalità,chiarezza e ricchezza nell’espressione. Tesi che, ripresa da Ginguené e applicata
alla lingua italiana, contribuiva, anche in terra francese, a preparare il terreno a quel
principio che nell’Ottocento avrebbe annullato il concetto dell’esistenza di una
lingua ‘perfetta’, opponendole la pari dignità di tutti gli idiomi, in quella che è statadefinita la «rivalutazione di Babele»:32 ogni lingua matura gradualmente un suo‘genio’, che ne segna l’unicità e che esprime una visione del mondo propria, cioè
comunicando un’identità culturale specifica.
NOTE
1

Prendiamo a prestito la definizione che era stata introdotta dal diplomatico Luigi Antonio
Caraccioli, nel volume Paris, le modèle des nations étrangères, ou l’Europe françoise; parl’éditeur des Lettres du Pape Ganganelli (Paris: Veuve Duchesne, 1777).
2
Cfr. F. Baldensperger, “Comment le XVIIIe siècle expliquait l’universalité de la langue française”[1907], in Études d’histoire littéraire, Genève: Slatkine Reprints, 1973, t. I, 1-54; L. Réau,
L’Europe française au siècle des Lumières, Paris: Albin Michel, 1971; M. Fumaroli, Quandl’Europe parlait français, Paris: Éditions du Fallois, 2001.
3
Si ricordi che dopo la revoca dell’Editto di Nantes centinaia di ugonotti, costretti all’esilio,
trovarono asilo in Olanda e nei paesi del Nord Europa, di religione protestante. Molti di essi,come è noto, intrapresero una vivace attività editoriale, stampando, in francese, giornali di ampia
diffusione e tutti quei volumi che in Francia erano soggetti a censura.
4
Basti ricordare, fra i tanti, Cesare Beccaria, Carlo Goldoni, Giuseppe Baretti, Ferdinando Galiani,
Giacomo Casanova, Carlo Denina, Horace Walpole, Edward Gibbon e Philip Chesterfield.
5
L.A. Caraccioli, op.cit., 3.
6
Cfr. M. Mauviel, “Le français contre l’italien”, in Langues: une guerre à mort, in «Panoramiques.
Numéro spécial dirigé par G. Gauthier», n. 48, IV trimestre 2000, 57-62.
7
A. De Rivarol, Discours sur l’universalité de la langue française [1783], in Idem, Pensées diverses;
suivi de Discours sur l’universalité de la langue française, Lettre sur le globe aérostatique.
Édition présentée, établie et annotée par S. Menant, Paris: Desjonquères, 1998, 103-157. Il
Discorso di Rivarol fu presentato in occasione di un concorso bandito dall’Accademia di Berlino
nel 1788.
8
A. de Rivarol, op.cit., 128-129.
9
D. Bouhours, Les entretiens d’Ariste et d’Eugène [1687]. Présentation de F. Brunot, Paris: Colin,
1962, 39.

508

Cristina Trinchero: Pierre-Louis Ginguené e la difesa e illustrazione della lingua italiana
10

Alcuni letterati facevano uso abitualmente del francese nella corrispondenza privata, in appunti
personali e annotazioni diaristiche.
11
Cfr. almeno: Discussioni linguistiche del Settecento. A cura di M. Puppo, Torino: UTET, 1957;
Letteratura e questione della lingua. A cura di P. Zolli, Bologna: Zanichelli, 1979; C. Marazzini,
Storia e coscienza della lingua in Italia dall’Umanesimo al Romanticismo, Torino: Rosemberg &Sellier, 1989; C. Marazzini, La lingua italiana. Profilo storico, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2002 (inparticolare i capitoli Il Settecento e L’Ottocento).
12«Ainsi, du contact avec les Français naît le sentiment de la différence; à la vue de l’étranger, lapersonnalité nationale se précise; par lui, l’œuvre d’une unité s’ébauche» (A. Fugier, Napoléon
et l’Italie, Paris: Janin, 1947, 89).
13
Cfr. almeno: G.L. Beccaria, “Italiano al bivio: lingua e cultura in Piemonte tra Sette e Ottocento, in
Piemonte e letteratura (1789-1870)”, in Atti del Convegno (San Salvatore Monferrato, 1517/10/1981), I, a cura di G. Ioli, Torino: Regione Piemonte, 1983, 15-55; C. Marazzini, Piemontee Italia. Storia di un confronto linguistico, Torino: Centro Studi Piemontesi, 1984 (cap. III:
“L’italiano rinnegato. Politica linguistica e resistenza nazionale nel Piemonte francese”, 119-160);
Idem, “Galeani Napione di fronte alla «Proposta» di Monti: le «fatali conseguenze della divisionedell’Italia»”, in Studi Piemontesi, vol. XVIII, fasc. I, marzo 1989, 103-114; E. Falcomer,“Antifrancesismo letterario di primo Ottocento: l’inedito «Parallelo tra i poeti classici italiani ed i
francesi» di Carlo Vidua”, in Franco-Italica, n. 1, 1992, 119-144.
14
Si ricordino le collaborazioni a La Décade philosophique, littéraire et politique, al Mercure deFrance e al Mercure Étranger. Per un profilo biografico e per l’analisi della sua attività di critico
letterario e musicale per la stampa periodica, di docente e di accademico, rimandiamo alla nostra
monografia Pierre-Louis Ginguené (1748-1816) e l’identità nazionale italiana nel contesto
culturale europeo. Prefazione di Sergio Zoppi, Roma: Bulzoni, 2004, e al volume di Paolo Grossi
Pierre-Louis Ginguené, historien de la littérature italienne, Bern: Peter Lang, 2006.
15
Inoltre, Ginguené storico della letteratura non poté fare a meno di inserire, negli ampi quadrid’insieme dedicati, a seconda, o a un intero secolo, o a periodi più ristretti della storia culturale
italiana, che caratterizzano l’Histoire littéraire d’Italie, accenni o sintetici excursus di argomento
linguistico. Se non può essere definito propriamente uno storico della lingua, poiché si limitò, inmateria linguistica, a sintetizzare le conclusioni tratte da studiosi precedenti o coevi, Ginguené, dastorico delle lettere e della cultura, provvide sempre a contestualizzare le espressioni letterarie eartistiche, dedicando dunque l’opportuno spazio a sintesi e considerazioni sull’evoluzione dellalingua letteraria e sulle discussioni succedutesi nel corso dei secoli in materia linguistica.
16«Nous en agissons autrement à l’égard des langues étrangères. Nous commençons par les regardercomme inutiles pour l’usage. Nous prenons au pied de la lettre l’universalité de la nôtre»: P.-L.
Ginguené, recensione alla Grammaire italienne, élémentaire et raisonnée, suivi d’un traité de lapoësie italienne; ouvrage qui a eu l’approbation de l’Institut national de France; par G. Biagioli,
ex-professeur de littérature grecque et latine, à l’Université d’Urbin, de langue italienne au cidevant Prytanée de Paris, et auteur des Notes grammaticales et philosophiques sur les lettres ducardinal Bentivoglio. Deuxième édition, revue et considérablement augmentée par l’auteur, dansles deux parties qui la composent, in Mercure de France, t. XXXV, 28/1/1809, 162-168, ora in
P.-L. Ginguené journaliste et critique littéraire. Textes choisis avec une introduction et des notes
par S. Zoppi, Torino: Giappichelli, 1968, 336.
17
Cfr. G. Folena, L’italiano in Europa. Esperienze linguistiche del Settecento, Torino: Einaudi, 1983,
219 sgg.
18
P.-L. Ginguené, recensione alla Scelta di prose italiane, tratte da’ più celebri e classici scrittori,
con brevi notizie sulla vita e gli scritti di ciascheduno; da P. L. Costantini. – Choix de morceauxde prose italienne, tirés des auteurs les plus célèbres et les plus classiques, avec de courtes
Notices sur la vie et les écrits de chacun d’eux; par P.L. Costantini, in Mercure de France, t.
XXXIV, 29/10/1808, ora in P.-L. Ginguené journaliste et critique, cit., 301.
19
Il testo, pubblicato a Pisa, per i tipi della Società Letteraria, nel 1808, poi a Firenze, da Molini e
Landi, nello stesso anno, consisteva nella prolusione con cui il docente aveva inaugurato il suo
corso di eloquenza italiana per l’anno accademico 1808-1809. La recensione di P.-L. Ginguené fu
immediata: “Della necessità di scrivere nella propria lingua: De la nécessité d’écrire dans sa509

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
propre langue”. Pise, 1808, in-4°, in Mercure de France, t. XL, 24/2/1810, ora in P.-L. Ginguené
journaliste et critique, cit., 341-344.
20
Ibidem, 343.
21
P.-L. Ginguené, recensione a Dell’origine e dell’ufficio della letteratura, etc. De l’origine et desDevoirs de la littérature, Discours d’Ugo Foscolo. Milan, 1809, in-8°, in Mercure de France, t.
XL, 24/2/1810, ora in P.-L. Ginguené journaliste et critique, cit., 345-348.
22
Ibidem, 347.
23
P.-L. Ginguené, recensione alla Scelta di prose italiane, cit., 301. Il volume recensito era stato
pubblicato a Parigi, da Fayolle, nel 1808.
24
P.-L. Ginguené, recensione alla Storia della guerra dell’indipendenza, etc. Histoire de la guerre del’Indépendance des États-Unis d’Amérique, écrite par Charles Botta. À Paris, chez D. Colas,
imprimeur-libraire, rue du Vieux-Colombier, n. 26. Quatre vol. in-8°, in Mercure de France, t.
XLII, 18/8/1810, ora in P.-L. Ginguené journaliste et critique, cit., 370.
25
Ginguené stesso, nella sua ricchissima biblioteca, possedeva sei volumi del Vocabolario degli
accademici della Crusca, impressione napoletana, con l’aggiunta di molte voci raccolte dagli
autori approvati dalla stessa accademia, edito a Napoli tra il 1746 e il 1748; inoltre, conservava
una copia delle Annotazioni sopra il vocabolario degli accademici della Crusca, opera postuma
di A. Tassoni, stampata a Venezia nel 1698, e del Nuovo dizionario italiano-francese, e franceseitaliano, composto su i dizionari dell’Accademia francese e della Crusca e arricchito di tutti itermini proprj delle scienze e delle arti, del signor abate Francesco de Alberti di Villanuova,
edito a Marsiglia nel 1796. Accanto a questi vocabolari e dizionari, il catalogo della sua biblioteca
riporta, nella sezione Livres italiens, grammatiche e storie della lingua italiana, studi sulla ‘lingua
toscana’ e il saggio di Gian Francesco Galeani Napione Dell’uso e de’ pregi della lingua italiana,
testi che dimostrano il suo puntuale aggiornamento sui dibattiti letterari e linguistici in atto nella
penisola. Cfr. Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de feu M. P.-L. Ginguené, Membre del’Institut Royal de France, de l’Académie della Crusca, de l’Académie de Turin, etc. dont la vente
commencera le lundi 2 mars 1818, Paris: Merlin, 1817.
26
P.-L. Ginguené, recensione alla Storia della guerra dell’indipendenza, cit., 18/8/1810, 370.
27
Ibidem, 370-371.
28
Cfr. M. Mauviel, “La postérité de Dominique Joseph Garat (et de la postérité des Idéologues en
général)”, Actes en ligne du Colloque International Idéologie - Grammaire Générale - Écoles
Centrales (Tubinga, Castello di Hohentübingen, 29 mars - 2 avril 2001), Free Universität Berlin:<http://www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de>, 2007, 309-346.
29
Cfr., ad esempio, le riflessioni di Galeani Napione nel saggio Dell’uso e dei pregj della lingua
italiana (1791) e la Proposta di correzioni e aggiunte al Vocabolario della Crusca (1817-1826)
curata da Vincenzo Monti con l’apporto di numerosi intellettuali italiani.
30
P. Hazard, La Révolution française et les lettres italiennes (1789-1815), Paris: Hachette, 1910, 435.
31
Cfr. M. Mauviel, Le français contre l’italien, cit. Per la figura di Dominique-Joseph Garat e per ilsuo contributo alla diffusione delle culture e delle lingue straniere, in particolare quella basca, cfr.
ancora M. Mauviel, La posterité de Dominique-Joseph Garat, cit.
32
Cfr. il capitolo “La rivalutazione di Babele”, in U. Eco, La ricerca della lingua perfetta nella
cultura europea, Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1993, 364-370.

BIBLIOGRAFIABaldensperger, F. (1973) [1907]. “Comment le XVIIIe siècle expliquait
l’universalité de la langue française”. In: Études d’histoire littéraire, Genève:
Slatkine Reprints, t. I, 1-54.
Beccaria, G.L. (1983). “Italiano al bivio: lingua e cultura in Piemonte tra Sette e
Ottocento”. In: G. Ioli (a cura di), Piemonte e letteratura (1789-1870), Atti delConvegno (San Salvatore Monferrato, 15-17/10/1981), I. Torino: Regione
Piemonte, 15-55.
510

Cristina Trinchero: Pierre-Louis Ginguené e la difesa e illustrazione della lingua italiana

Bouhours, D. (1962) [1687]. Les entretiens d’Ariste et d’Eugène. Présentation de F.
Brunot. Paris: Colin.
Caraccioli, L.A. (1777). Paris, le modèle des nations étrangères, ou l’Europefrançoise; par l’éditeur des Lettres du Pape Ganganelli. Paris: Veuve
Duchesne.
Eco, U. (1993). La ricerca della lingua perfetta nella cultura europea. Roma-Bari:
Laterza.
Falcomer, E. (1992). “Antifrancesismo letterario di primo Ottocento: l’inedito«Parallelo tra i poeti classici italiani ed i francesi» di Carlo Vidua”. FrancoItalica, n. 1, 119-144.
Folena, G. (1983). L’italiano in Europa. Esperienze linguistiche del Settecento,
Torino: Einaudi.
Fugier, A. (1947). Napoléon et l’Italie. Paris: Janin.
Fumaroli, M. (2001). Quand l’Europe parlait français. Paris: Éditions du Fallois.
Grossi, P. (2006). Pierre-Louis Ginguené, historien de la littérature italienne.
Bern: Peter Lang.
Hazard, P. (1910). La Révolution française et les lettres italiennes (1789-1815).
Paris: Hachette.
Marazzini, C. (1984). Piemonte e Italia. Storia di un confronto linguistico. Torino:
Centro Studi Piemontesi (cap. III: L’italiano rinnegato. Politica linguistica e
resistenza nazionale nel Piemonte francese, 119-160).
——— (1989). “Galeani Napione di fronte alla «Proposta» di Monti: le «fataliconseguenze della divisione dell’Italia»”. Studi Piemontesi, vol. XVIII, fasc. I,
marzo, 103-114.
——— (1989). Storia e coscienza della lingua in Italia dall’Umanesimo al
Romanticismo. Torino: Rosemberg & Sellier.
——— (2002). La lingua italiana. Profilo storico. Bologna: Il Mulino (inparticolare i capitoli Il Settecento e L’Ottocento).
Mauviel, M. (2000). “Le français contre l’italien”. In: Langues: une guerre à mort,in Panoramiques, Numéro spécial dirigé par G. Gauthier», n. 48, IV trimestre,
57-62.
——— (2007). “La postérité de Dominique Joseph Garat (et de la postérité desIdéologues en général)”. In: Actes en ligne du Colloque International Idéologie– Grammaire Générale – Écoles Centrales (Tubinga, Castello di
Hohentübingen, 29 mars-2 avril 2001). Free Universität Berlin: URL : <http://
www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de>, 309-346.
Puppo, M. (a cura di) (1957). Discussioni linguistiche del Settecento. Torino:
UTET.
Réau, L. (1971). L’Europe française au siècle des Lumières. Paris: Albin Michel.
Rivarol, A. de (1998) [1783]. Discours sur l’universalité de la langue française. In:
Idem, Pensées diverses; suivi de Discours sur l’universalité de la languefrançaise, Lettre sur le globe aérostatique. Édition présentée, établie et annotéepar S. Menant. Paris: Desjonquères.

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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

Trinchero, C. (2004). Pierre-Louis Ginguené (1748-1816) e l’identità nazionale
italiana nel contesto culturale europeo. Prefazione di Sergio Zoppi. Roma:
Bulzoni.
Zolli, P. (a cura di) (1979). Letteratura e questione della lingua. Bologna:
Zanichelli.
Zoppi, S. (1968). P.-L. Ginguené journaliste et critique littéraire. Textes choisis
avec une introduction et des notes par S. Zoppi. Torino: Giappichelli.

512Écriture et authenticité
Lelia TROCAN
Université de Craiova,
Faculté des Lettres

ABSTRACT: Texts and Authenticity
George Sand finds in her writing the means to go in for the reality a way that wasn’t
a limit, and thus she overlaps her possible multiplicity on the alienated image ofherself. To this self conquest by the language, the writing comes with its own
resources. The reading of George Sand’s Correspondence is very conclusive: thewriting gets rid of the subject control, setting free the rationality from the usage andacting by movements and successive returning. In the literary discourse, the classicalopinions about the truth and the false, the internal and the external, the beauty andthe ugliness and, by extension, the good and the bad, are diluted; we can say that
there is a great extension of the discursive possibilities, setting free from the usageof the censorship and limits.
KEYWORDS: writing, graphemes, change, liberty, authenticity

Grâce à la bienveillance de M. Georges Lubin, j’ai eu la possibilité d’étudier biendes autographes de George Sand. Surprise par les changements d’écriture qu’ils
manifestent, je me suis proposé de déchiffrer leur importance pour l’évolution ducaractère et de la personnalité de l’écrivain. Intéressée aux études graphologiquesde Frédéric Dubois, j’ai essayé de pénétrer dans le laboratoire du créateur « poursaisir la clef de sa propre organisation et de sa propre existence. » (Athanasiu,
1970 : 36)
Dans ses lettres (1964 : 556), mais aussi dans son œuvre (1869 : 223-224), Sand
parle maintes fois de son goût pour les « sciences » plus ou moins connotéesd’ésotérisme (physiognomonie, phrénologie, graphologie, spiritisme), goût qui,d’ailleurs, doit être situé dans l’engouement commun aux romantiques du XIXesiècle : Hugo, Balzac, Nerval ; il satisfaisait d’avantage encore cette curiosité del’inconnu et cette impatience des limites qui caractérisent la mentalité romantique.
Michon, le père de la graphologie, Crépieux-Jamin, le fondateur de lagraphologie moderne en France, le Suisse Pulver, le Belge Hégar, l’Allemand
Pophal, le Roumain Stahl considèrent, tous, l’écriture « un véritable séismographeà même d’enregistrer la dynamique de notre rapport établi entre l’écriture et son
auteur. » (Athanasiu, 1970 : 9)
Parmi les disciplines qui ont pour objet l’étude de l’individualité, la graphologie
constitue également une méthode dynamique de recherche. Bien appliquée, ellepeut ainsi offrir une série de données tout aussi importantes que les investigations
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

morphologiques (la physionomie, la typologie somatique) ou les recherches
fonctionnelles (l’étude des gestes, de la mimique, des tests). La graphologie veut
surprendre les manifestations évolutives de l’individu, comprendre l’essence del’individualité, saisir les caractères spécifiques de chaque personnalité. Toutefois,
et les graphologues en sont bien conscients, la « graphologie n’a pas la prétentiond’épuiser toutes les potentialités et les tendances d’une personne. » (Athanasiu,
1970 : 15)
En tant qu’étude auxiliaire de la psychologie des sexes et des âges, lagraphologie devient moyen de sondage des zones moins connues de la personnalité
humaine. L’écriture enregistre les moindres secousses d’une sensibilité ouverte,offerte au tumulte du monde.
L’examen graphologique fait appel à des théories logiques et mathématiques etmet en évidence avec plus de netteté que les moyens traditionnels de recherche
l’authenticité des traits de la personnalité. Les résultats auxquels on arrive sont plus
constants car ils échappent, en bonne partie, à l’influence des facteurs subjectifs.
C’est là, à notre avis, la justification du recours à l’analyse graphologique dans unécrit littéraire.
Les changements de l’écriture sont dus aux modifications du caractère humain à
travers toute la vie, mais notamment dans des situations-limite de l’existence. La
Correspondance de Sand en témoigne assez souvent. En avril 1856, elle changed’écriture. L’écrivain s’en explique ultérieurement, dans une lettre à Pauline
Viardot : « Chère Mignonne, habituez-vous à mon écriture changée. C’est une
découverte que j’ai faite, ayant la main brisée et contractée de fatigue, pour écrireplus vite sans trop barbouiller. » 1
Le changement consiste essentiellement dans le redressement, parfois même lerenversement, d’un graphisme initialement incliné à droite, une tendance augrossissement, une diminution de l’angulation allant jusqu’à substituer la guirlandeà l’arcade et à l’angle comme système de liaison. Il faut souligner aussi letraitement plus libre du champ graphique, conséquence d’une évolution danslaquelle le mouvement prend le pas sur la forme.
En situant ce changement dans la cadre de l’évolution de Sand, trois précautions
s’imposent :- considérer le « changement » comme l’aboutissement d’une évolution, dont
l’examen attentif montre qu’elle doit être interprétée dans le sens d’une libération
progressive ;- soumettre un certain nombre de textes, des années 1822, 1834, 1844, 1846,
1859, 1867 et 1870 à une comparaison portant sur toutes les espaces graphiques,
notamment sur les rapports de la forme et du mouvement ;- prendre soin de distinguer l’écriture des textes destinés à la publication ou
représentant des actes de la vie officielle de celle, naturellement plus libre, desnotes intimes ou des lettres aux amis.
Sand le précise, le changement lui apporte une plus grande rapidité avec une
moindre fatigue. La nouvelle écriture est, en effet, plus spontanée, plus aisée, plus
naturelle, pour tout dire. L’authenticité de l’acquisition d’une nouvelle écriture514

Lelia Trocan: Écriture et authenticité

pour Sand – s’il s’agissait vraiment d’une acquisition – ne saurait être mise en
doute en raison de la primauté du mouvement sur la forme. Mais l’idée mêmed’une acquisition semble devoir être écartée, au bénéfice d’une libération
progressive du geste graphique parallèlement à l’affranchissement des contraintes
sociales, à la maîtrise ou à l’atténuation de ses propres contradictions.
L’étude de l’écriture dans le temps enseigne que Sand est parvenue à
harmoniser ses pulsions et forces vitales avec la représentation qu’elle se faisait
d’elle-même et de ses buts. Et l’on voit justement, avec le temps, le souci de laforme céder le pas à la liberté du mouvement.
S’il y eut chez elle une écriture acquise, ce ne fut pas celle de 1856 et desannées suivantes, mais bel et bien celle de la première partie de la vie, conforme
aux schémas mentaux et éthiques transmis par l’éducation et le milieu social. Le
graphisme de ces années-là reflète simultanément la dépendance du milieu et lavolonté de s’en affranchir.
Il faut voir aussi que l’année 1856 a été précédée de mois particulièrement
difficiles. Après toutes ses expériences sentimentales et amoureuses, ses déceptions
politiques, ses démêlés assez sordides avec sa fille Solange, Sand este secouée parla mort, le 13 janvier 1855, de sa petite-fille de cinq ans, Jeanne Clésinger.
Karénine écrit : « Le chagrin plonge Mme Sand dans une langueur, une prostration
complète ; elle souffrit d’étouffement, abandonna son travail, bien que durant toutesa vie elle trouva toujours en écrivant une consolation à ses maux.. » (Karénine,
1926 : 270)
1856 coïncide par ailleurs avec le bilan négatif des entreprises théâtrales : « En
dehors de quelques réussites passagères, note Karénine, elle n’a trouvé que
déceptions et amertumes. » (Karénine, 1926 : 272)
Outre ces circonstances extérieures, c’est l’évolution intérieure de Sand quiéclaire le mieux les raisons de la modification de son écriture.
La vieille femme, eh bien oui c’est une autre femme, un autre moi qui commence etdont je n’ai pas encore à me plaindre. Cette femme-là est ignorante de ces erreurspassées. Elle les ignore parce qu’elle ne saurait plus le comprendre et qu’elle se sait
incapable de le renouveler 2,écrit Sand à Buloz.
Et Karénine de faire écho dans le temps :Les amis de George Sand dans les vingt-cinq dernières années de sa vie, ceux de ladernière heure surtout, auxquels la “bonne dame de Nohant” n’apparut que sous lestraits de cette aïeule si philosophiquement sereine, si naturellement bienveillante, si
impersonnellement bonne envers tout ce qui l’entourait, on dirait même sibourgeoisement vertueuse, ont de peine à croire que cette aïeule écrivait jadis àMusset des lettres follement brûlantes, qu’elle avait traversé des périodes de doutecuisant, de désespoir…(Karénine, 1926 : 353)

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Qui mieux que Sand, dans sa lettre à Sainte-Beuve, du 15 décembre 1860, peutnous renseigner sur son état d’esprit de ces années-là ?
Je suis une pente qui monte ou descend, sans que j’y sois pour rien. La vie me mèneoù elle veut et, depuis beaucoup d’années, je suis si désintéressée dans la questionque je n’ai à me défendre de rien, je traverse des régions sereines et je rends grâce à
Dieu de m’y avoir laissée entrer. (Sand, 1981 : 197)

Libération, sérénité, ces états d’âme concordent avec les constatations dugraphologue :redressement = indépendance par rapport au milieu ; guirlande se substituant à lavirilité et à la résistance ; traitement plus libre de l’espace graphique et la primautédu mouvement sur la forme = libération des sentiments, spontanéité. Le
grossissement y ajoute une note de confiance en soi allant de pair avec une
affirmation plus tranquille de la personnalité (1956 : 132),

remarque Frank dans son ouvrage L’écriture, projection de la personnalité.
Les écritures de 1822 à 1870 illustrent bien cette évolution : les choses sepassent comme si Sand, au fil de ses expériences, approfondissant sa connaissanced’elle-même, s’assume telle qu’elle est, lève progressivement son masque et livre
aux autres son vrai visage. Une telle démarche constitue l’essence même d’unelibération dont les deux termes sont : sérénité intérieure et indépendance à l’égard
du jugement d’autrui.
George Sand trouve dans l’écriture le moyen d’inscrire dans la réalité une trace
qui ne soit pas une limite, en superposant la multiplicité de ses « moi » possibles àl’image aliénée de son « moi » réel. À cette conquête de soi par le langage, leslettres concourent avec leurs ressources propres. La lecture de la Correspondancede George Sand est révélatrice : le discours échappe au contrôle du sujet écrivant,débordant la rationalité de l’usage et opérant par déplacements, oblitérations etdétours successifs. Dans le discours littéraire se diluent les oppositions classiques
du vrai et du faux, de l’intérieur et de l’extérieur, du beau et du laid, par-delà lebien et le mal se réalise l’extension maximale des possibilités discursives enfin
libérées de la censure et des contraintes de l’usage.
NOTES
1

G. Sand (1869). Lettre autographe signée à Pauline Viardot, Nohant, 17 janvier, 6 p., in-8, coll.
Lovenjoul, C. 572, fol. 45.
2
G. Sand (1869). Lettre autographe signée à Buloz, Nohant, 23 février, 7 p., in-8, coll. Aurore Sand,
C. 112, fol. 14.

BIBLIOGRAPHIE
Athanasiu, A. (1970). Scris şi personalitate. Bucureşti : Editura Ştiinţifică.
Frank, V. (1956). L’écriture, projection de la personnalité. Paris : Payot.
516

Lelia Trocan: Écriture et authenticité

Karénine, W. (1926). George Sand, sa vie et ses œuvres. Vol. IV. Paris : Plon.
Sand, G. (1869). Lettres d’un voyageur. Paris : Michel Lévy frères.
Sand, G. (1964-1991). Correspondance. Tomes I-XXV. Paris : Garnier.

517

Les grands espaces de circulation en tant qu’hétérotopies
chez Frédéric Beigbeder
Alina ŢENESCU
Université de Craiova,
Faculté des Lettres

ABSTRACT: Large Traffic Spaces as Heterotopia with Frédéric Beigbeder
In this research paper on the railway station and the airway station as heterotopias inFrench media novels by Frédéric Beigbeder, we aim to explore several aspects
linked to the appropriation and comprehension of the railway and railroad space bycharacters that populate the French writer’s novels. We would also like to establish atypology of functions and meanings of the railway station/airway station, as they
emerge from the corpus of chosen novels: the railway station as public spacesometimes deserted, the railway station as a space of urban sociability and empathy,
the airway station as heterotopia in the imaginary of the drug addict, the railway
station as photographic representation of a space other, the airway station as
metaphor of the passage outside place and as a common non-place in comic books.
KEYWORDS: places, heterotopias, railway-station, airway-station, French media
literature

0. Introduction
Le voyage en train produit sa propre culture. Des règles de comportement sontsouscrites à la culture du voyage sur la voie de fer. Des comportements uniques
dans les cabines des passagers ont surgi par contraste avec la vie qui se déroule endehors de l’espace de la gare. D’ailleurs, le voyage sur la voie de fer comporte ses
propres surprises. Quelques-unes en sont strictement culturelles, tandis qued’autres concernent le besoin croissant des affaires à tisser des relations dans lemonde entier par la multiplication des contacts personnels. Dans l’analyse del’espace de la gare, nous allons considérer non pas seulement la signification del’espace ferroviaire pour les personnages qui peuplent les romans de FrédéricBeigbeder, mais aussi les expériences particulières que les personnages ont àl’intérieur de cet espace.
Dans cette étude sur la gare et l’aérogare en tant qu’hétérotopies dans lesromans français médiatiques de Frédéric Beigbeder, nous allons explorer quelques
aspects liés à l’appropriation et à la compréhension de l’espace ferroviaire par lespersonnages de ses romans et établir une typologie des fonctions et significations
de la gare/aérogare, telles qu’elles surgissent dans le corpus des romans étudiés : lagare comme espace public parfois désert, la gare en tant qu’espace de sociabilité
518

Alina Ţenescu: Les grands espaces de circulation en tant qu’hétérotopies chez...

urbaine et d’empathie, la gare comme hétérotopie dans l’imaginaire du drogué, lagare comme représentation photographique d’un espace autre, l’aérogare commemétaphore du passage hors lieu et comme non-lieu1 commun dans la bande
dessinée.
1. La gare comme espace public parfois désert
Un premier terme de cette classification/typologie des significations du lieu
ferroviaire dans la littérature française médiatique intègre la fonction de la gare entant qu’espace public parfois désert chez Frédéric Beigbeder
Chez Frédéric Beigbeder, la gare en tant que lieu est connue, et reconnue, parses usagers comme fréquentée, et très rarement comme espace désert.
Parfois déserte, la nature de la gare s’en trouve modifiée, vidée de son sens
habituel, l’architecture et son usage n’étant plus liés :Vienne était une ville morte. À moins qu’un couvre-feu ait été décrété en notrehonneur ? Ses habitants semblaient claquemurés derrière leurs volets vanille fraise.
Le retour à la gare déserte fut pénible. En comparaison, la retraite de Russie avait dûêtre une promenade de santé. Jean-Georges se noyait sous les références littéraires.
Il mélangeait Zweig, Freud, Musil, Hitler et Schnitzler dans un maelström decuistreries incultes. [...]C’était vraiment pire que la campagne russe. Au moins làbas, la garde mourait mais ne rendait pas...
2
Le soir, nous avons pris des trains qui rentraient.

Dans Mémoires d’un jeune homme dérangé, l’espace de la gare, devenu neutre,
est la représentation, grandeur réelle, d’un projet architectural urbain postmodernede Vienne où l’on peut apprécier de ses qualités spatiales et des effets de celles-ci,
mais aussi de ses valeurs signifiantes au cadre de la ville où cet espace est inscrit :la gare déserte donne l’impression d’une ville déserte et vice-versa: « Vienne était
une ville morte. À moins qu’un couvre-feu ait été décrété en notre honneur ? Ses
habitants semblaient claquemurés derrière leurs volets vanille fraise. Le retour à lagare déserte fut pénible [...]. »3
Tandis que la valeur signifiante du bâtiment public de la gare est définie par desstéréotypes architecturaux (le hall, sa colonnade, les escaliers), la valeur signifiantede la gare en tant que lieu est identifiée par les passagers et les voyageurs selon leurpropre perception de cet espace. Si les passagers, les voyageurs et leurs us etcoutumes (regarder les panneaux des départs, prendre un billet, attendre,
rencontrer, regarder les panneaux ou les écrans de télé emplacés au cadre du nonlieu) peuvent confirmer l’organigramme d’une gare, ils ne peuvent pas facilement
définir une valeur signifiante de celle-ci. Parfois, chez Frédéric Beigbeder, etsurtout dans Mémoires d’un jeune homme dérangé, la gare se transforme en simple
lieu de passage pour des passagers « ivre-morts » qui ne perçoivent plus l’espacede la gare comme lien avec une nouvelle ville, comme moyen d’accès à une
nouvelle cartographie mentale d’un espace inconnu, mais plutôt en tant que simple
espace de transit qui n’est plus conscientisé en termes de perception de lieu ou519

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

d’espace, mais comme un élément dans une succession d’espaces-autres, sans âme,condensés dans une suite d’événements, de sôuleries décadentes dans l’expériencedes personnages : gare de Vienne, taxi, hôtel, bain, aspirine, déguisement, taxi,
arrivée au bal :Ivres-morts, nous descendons du train un quart d’heure après son entrée en gare deVienne. Nous errons dans la ville à la recherche d’un hôtel. Nous effrayons les
autochtones. Nous sommes devenus les hooligans cravatés, ça sonne encore mieux
que les ricaneurs pantalonnés. Nous montons dans un autobus in petto, sine die etmanu militari. Jean-Georges s’endort sur les genoux d’une vieille dame en criant «Heil Kurt Waldheim ! » et nous sommes jetés de l’autobus a priori, ipso facto et ex
abrupto. Il n’en rate pas une. Plusieurs d’entre nous (dont moi) avons envie de lelatter. Trop mal à la tête pour ça. Condensons la suite des événements : taxi, hôtel,4
bain, aspirine, déguisement, taxi, arrivée au bal. En piteux état, mais parés.

Parfois, la gare déserte dévoile une conception urbaine surmoderne, où lacontrainte de l’espace public ferroviaire a été prise en considération, plutôt quecelle, pourtant si riche en références, d’une gare qui se transforme en lieu qui
abrite. En 99 francs de Frédéric Beigbeder, la gare devient un espace qui n’abrite
plus, mais isole, cloisonne des passagers reconnus comme malfaiteurs, qui sontarrêtés à l’intérieur du buffet de la gare:
Et maintenant mettez-vous dans la peau du commissaire Sanchez Ferlosio, 53 ans,dans son étroit bureau cannois. C’est la fin de journée, vous voyez tranquillement
arriver le week-end et les cigales qui chantent et un ballon de blanc au comptoir duBuffet de la Gare, quand soudain c’est le branle-bas de combat : vous recevez unmandat d’arrêt international par e-mail avec en pièce jointe une RealVideo. Vous
double cliquez sur l’icône et vous vous retrouvez en train de mater trois Français en
noir et blanc qui sortent d’une villa en s’écriant : « Tu crois que la vidéo
enregistre ? — Non, c’est juste un interphone. — De toute façon, même s’il y avait
une trace, personne ne nous connaît ici » avant de s’approcher de l’objectif avec un
gros caillou à la main.
Vous déchiffrez péniblement un message en anglais, titré « First Degree Murder
Prosecution» (tout de même), vous comprenez mal l’anglais mais, grosso modo, il
semble y être question d’une enquête de la Police de Floride auprès de lamunicipalité de Miami à propos des autorisations de tournage en plein air au mois defévrier.5

De l’espace d’un lieu réel, la gare, on transite inconsciemment vers un lieu
virtuel, celui électronique et, dans ce passage, on transfert aussi les expériences
perceptives et sensorielles du personnage malfaiteur de 99 francs, Octave Parango
d’un espace réel à un espace virtuel qui renvoie pourtant à des images réelles –l’enregistrement transmis via e-mail du crime commis à Miami par les trois
publicitaires (y inclus Octave Parango) :520

Alina Ţenescu: Les grands espaces de circulation en tant qu’hétérotopies chez...
C’est la fin de journée, vous voyez tranquillement arriver le week-end et les cigales
qui chantent et un ballon de blanc au comptoir du Buffet de la Gare, quand soudain
c’est le branle-bas de combat : vous recevez un mandat d’arrêt international par email avec en pièce jointe une RealVideo. Vous double cliquez sur l’icône et vous
vous retrouvez en train de mater trois Français en noir et blanc qui sortent d’une
6
villa en s’écriant : « Tu crois que la vidéo enregistre ? »2. La gare – espace de sociabilité urbaine et d’empathie
La gare n’est pas seulement un espace public parfois désert, elle peut aussi
représenter un espace relationnel à sa propre histoire. La gare peut être considérée
ainsi un espace d’échanges, pour les voyageurs, mais aussi pour les différentes
catégories socio-professionnelles qui y travaillent. La gare représente donc unespace de socialisation en milieu urbain, mais aussi une structure qui attire des gensvenant d’horizons divers, interagissant entre eux. La gare constitue un sited’échanges interpersonnels, de mélange à travers l’afflux de passagers quiinteragissent à l’intérieur d’un espace de transit où d’habitude les relations
interpersonnelles qui se nouent sont fragiles et temporaires.
La gare évolue d’un non-lieu vers un point d’échanges entre des gens qui seregardent furtivement, qui se côtoient, qui interagissent à l’intérieur de son espace.
La gestion de cet espace est une question fondamentale pour la gare tant pour ses
fonctions propres (transit etc.) que pour l’espace de socialisation et d’empathie
qu’elle représente. Chez Frédéric Beigbeder, la gare devient aussi un espace demanifestation d’empathie, de résonnement avec les autres, d’identification avec
l’histoire de l’autre, de compréhension de la vie de l’autre, à l’intérieur d’un espace
public où l’individu peut deviner – derrière chacun des inconnus de la foule qui
deviennent pour un instant connus –, « une pensée supérieure » qui le dépasse etqui « n’est pas le fait du hasard », mais la manifestation de la foi dans l’émotion
partagée avec les autres :Souvent, quand je suis dans une gare ou dans un aéroport, que je vois des foules
aller et venir, je tente d’imaginer l’histoire, la vie de chacun. Je me dis qu’il n’est
pas possible que, derrière chacun d’eux, il n’y ait pas une pensée supérieure qui nous
dépasse. Pas possible que ce soit le fait du hasard. Et c’est précisément parce que jesuis persuadé que c’est impossible, que je suis renvoyé à ma foi en y trouvant le seul
7
sens et, j’ose utiliser le mot, le seul sens rationnel !

3. L’aérogare comme hétérotopie dans l’imaginaire du drogué
Parfois, la gare/aérogare devient chez Frédéric Beigbeder un emplacement sanslieu réel, puisque transférée dans l’imaginaire délirant du drogué dans Nouvelles
sous ecstasy. C’est un emplacement qui entretient avec 1’espace réel de la société
un rapport général d’analogie directe ou inversée. C’est un espace réel rendu irréel
dans le délire de la drogue :521

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Tu crois qu’on a bien fait de voler son képi ? Tu es sûr que les policiers courent
moins vite que nous ? Elle est à toi cette moto ? Tu es certaine de pouvoir conduiredans cet état ? Tu veux pas ralentir ? Pourquoi prendre le périph’ ? Est-il malin de se
pencher comme ça dans les virages à 180 à l’heure ? [...] Demain fera-t-il jour ?
Pourquoi se rendre à l’aéroport de Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle ? La vie change-t-ellequand on change de ville ? À quoi sert-il de voyager dans un monde uniforme ? Tun’as pas froid ? Comment ? Tu n’entends rien de ce que je dis à cause de toncasque ? Je peux crier n’importe quoi alors ? Chanter « I wanna hold your hand » ?
[...]Où allons-nous garer cet engin ? Devant l’aérogare 1 ou dans le parking ?
Pourquoi cette place de parking porte-t-elle le numéro 1 D6 ?
Cela ressemble à « indécise », pas vrai ? Combien de temps elle dure cette pilule ?8

C’est un lieu autre que l’emplacement qu’il reflète et dont il parle, une
hétérotopie9; l’(aéro)gare renvoie à une place que le drogué a occupée à un certain
moment avant le délire, mais aussi à la place qu’il occupe au moment du délire, à lafois absolument réelle, en liaison avec l’espace qui l’entoure, qui porte des traces
du réel de son expérience (la ville de Paris, l’aérogare 1 , l’aéroport RoissyCharles-de-Gaulle), et en même temps irréelle, puisqu’elle est perçue dans l’espace
imaginaire du délire sous l’effet de la drogue.
C’est une hétérotopie dans une hétérotopie, celle de l’espace du délire dudrogué, une hétérotopie liée à un découpage du temps, c’est-à-dire elle ouvre surune hétérochronie ; l’hétérotopie se met à fonctionner lorsque le personnage deNouvelles sous ecstasy se trouve dans une sorte de rupture absolue avec son temps
traditionnel, lorsqu’il est transposé dans le délire de la drogue ; cet espace-autrecommence avec une étrange hétérochronie qu’est, pour l’individu, la dissolution dela vie et l’effacement de son individualité sous l’effet de la drogue (ecstasy). La
drogue est celle qui crée un espace d’illusion qui dénonce comme illusoire tout
espace réel, y inclus celui de l’(aéro)gare, et tous les emplacements à l’intérieur
desquels la vie du personnage est cloisonnée. La drogue crée un autre espace, un
espace autre qui donne l’impression du réel et l’impression de liberté, aussi parfait,
mais aussi bien désordonné que l’espace réel, un espace autre où surgissent destraces de lieux et de non-lieux réels (la ville, la aérogare, l’aéroport) dans un délire
qui alterne avec de brefs instants de conscientisation des effets de l’ecstasy : « Où
allons-nous garer cet engin ? Devant l’aérogare 1 ou dans le parking ? Pourquoi
cette place de parking porte-t-elle le numéro 1 D6 ? Cela ressemble à « indécise »,pas vrai ? Combien de temps elle dure cette pilule ? »10

4. La gare – représentation photographique d’un espace autre
Dans Windows on the World de Frédéric Beigbeder, la photographie sépia d’un
accident de train ayant eu lieu à la gare Montparnasse le 22 octobre 1895 peut êtreconsidérée comme objective, tandis que le souvenir de la photographie est perçu
comme subjectif.
La vision mentale et rétrospective de la photographie sépia d’un accident detrain ayant eu lieu à la gare Montparnasse le 22 octobre 1895 se textualise, c’est-à522

Alina Ţenescu: Les grands espaces de circulation en tant qu’hétérotopies chez...

dire se transmute en verbal narratif et descriptif complexe dans Windows on theWorld. L’écrivain Frédéric Beigbeder essaie de rendre l’atmosphère de l’expositionde Paul Virilio en décrivant l’installation qui consiste en une succession de salles
obscures et bruyantes, où sont projetées des vidéos de désastres et qui se caractérise
par l’omniprésence de la fumée et des équipes de secours communiquant par
talkies-walkies :9 h 08Dans La Plaisanterie de Milan Kundera, un des personnages pose cette question :«Vous pensez que les destructions peuvent être belles ? » Je me déplace comme un
somnambule, assommé par l’exposition « Ce qui arrive » conçue par le philosophe
et urbaniste Paul Virilio en collaboration avec l’agence France-Presse et l’Institut
national de l’audiovisuel, du 29 novembre 2002 au 30 mars 2003. Aux murs de la
fondation Cartier sont accrochées des photographies sépia d’un accident de train
ayant eu lieu à la gare Montparnasse le 22 octobre 1895 : une locomotive à vapeur
avait traversé la façade du premier étage avant de chuter sur le pavé de la place. Un
attroupement d’hommes portant chapeau melon entoure la carcasse écrasée.
L’installation consiste en une succession de salles obscures et bruyantes, où sontprojetées des vidéos de désastres. [...] quelques humains minuscules déambulent
autour de grues qui semblent des sauterelles impuissantes. À l’arrière plan, lesquelques panneaux de béton restés debout du World Trade Center forment undérisoire rempart. Le plus frappant est encore la boue.
L’immeuble de béton et de fer s’est mué en motte boueuse. La propreté artificielle
est devenue saleté naturelle. Les tours lisses et étincelantes se réduisent à un
répugnant désordre chaotique. [...] Impossible de ne pas avoir la gorge nouée en
scrutant pareil carnage. Je n’arrive toutefois pas à me débarrasser d’un sentiment demalaise, le même qu’en écrivant ce livre : a-t-on le droit ? Est-il normal d’être à cepoint fasciné par la destruction ? La question de Kundera résonne étrangement au
milieu de ces catastrophes.
Les rues de New York sont blanches, couvertes de papiers et de poussière commes’il avait neigé ; au milieu un bébé noir dort dans sa poussette. L’exposition deVirilio a fait scandale lors de son inauguration. N’est-il pas trop tôt pour esthétiser
une telle désolation? Certes, l’art n’est pas obligatoire et personne n’est obligé devisiter une exposition, ni de lire un livre.11

La salle d’exposition représente en effet une hétérotopie, elle abrite un espace
autre: la représentation quasi cinématographique de la gare Montparnasse où a eu
lieu un accident le 22 octobre 1895. Le désir de rendre la représentation du lieu dudésastre aussi proche du réel que possible (par la technologie des talkies-walkies
qui imitent les cris de panique lors de l’accident et l’omniprésence de la fumée) ne
fait qu’augmenter l’impression désagréable de fictionnalité :Aux murs de la fondation Cartier sont accrochées des photographies sépia d’un
accident de train ayant eu lieu à la gare Montparnasse le 22 octobre 1895 : unelocomotive à vapeur avait traversé la façade du premier étage avant de chuter sur lepavé de la place. Un attroupement d’hommes portant chapeau melon entoure lacarcasse écrasée. L’installation consiste en une succession de salles obscures et523

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010
bruyantes, où sont projetées des vidéos de désastres. Omniprésence de la fumée etdes équipes de secours communiquant par talkies-walkies (je remarque que les crisde panique font plus chic en anglais, donnant l’impression désagréable de regarderune fiction). Sur un grand écran apparaissent les images des pelleteuses de Ground
Zero (une vidéo numérique de Tony Oursler de dix minutes diffusée en boucle) : unecolonne de fumée blanche surplombe un gigantesque amas de ferraille; [...]12

La représentation photographique de la gare à partir de l’exposition de Paul
Virilio sert de support à un développement identificatoire : identité physique au
niveau du spectateur, identité psychique parce qu’elle met en jeu la mémoire del’accident ferroviaire, l’imaginaire, l’intellect de celui qui regarde la photographie
sous les yeux et qui développe en même temps l’expression langagière de celui qui
remémore et décrit le non-lieu ravagé par l’accident.
5. L’(aéro)gare comme métaphore du passage hors lieu
L’aérogare devient dans Windows on the World une sorte de contre-emplacement,
une hétérotopie dans laquelle les emplacements réels de la tragédie de 11
septembre 2001 à New York sont à la fois représentés, contestés et inversés,transformés en des sortes de lieux qui sont hors de tous les lieux, bien que pourtantils soient effectivement localisables dans la cartographie mentale du personnage
qui assiste et se transforme dans le chroniquer des derniers moments avant lacatastrophe.
Ces lieux, parce qu’ils sont absolument autres que tous les emplacements qu’ils
reflètent et dont ils parlent sont des hétérotopies, ou des métaphores du passage
hors lieu, de l’autre côté des fenêtres ouvertes sur le monde (Windows on theWorld) ; entre les non-lieux et ces espaces autres, ces hétérotopies, il y a sans douteun lien représenté par le « miroir noir ». Le miroir noir est un lieu sans lieu, un lien
entre le monde des derniers moments avant le désastre de World Trade Center, le
11 septembre 2001, et l’indescriptible de l’au-delà après le désastre. Dans le miroir
noir, le narrateur se voit là où il n’est pas encore, dans un espace irréel qui s’ouvre
virtuellement derrière la surface, où il pressent ce qui va arriver aux Twin Towers.
Le miroir noir reflète une ombre qui lui restitue sa propre visibilité avantl’accident, qui lui permet de se regarder là où il est encore absent.
Mais c’est également une hétérotopie, dans la mesure où le miroir noir a, sur laplace qu’il occupe, une sorte d’effet en retour – il reflète l’image des avions quiviennent de s’écraser sur New York – des cargos qui « se croisent dans
l’obscurité – lumières rouges comme dans une aérogare aquatique », glissant sur lasurface de celui-ci ; c’est à partir de ce regard qui en quelque sorte se porte sur letémoin des derniers moments avant le désastre de World Trade Center de New
York, le 11 septembre 2001, du fond de cet espace virtuel qui est de l’autre côté dumiroir, qu’il revient vers lui-même et il commence à se reconstituer là où il setrouve – sur la place de la tragédie ; le miroir noir sur lequel glissent les lumières
rouges comme dans une aérogare aquatique fonctionne comme une hétérotopie en
ce qu’il rend la place que le narrateur-témoin occupe juste avant la tragédie de524

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Twin Towers à la fois absolument réelle, en liaison avec tout l’espace qui l’entoure– le restaurant Windows on the World (Fenêtres sur le Monde – aux 106e et 107eétages de la Tour Nord de World Trade Center) et les environs –, et absolument
irréelle, puisqu’elle est obligée, pour être perçue, de passer par le non-lieu virtuelqu’est l’aérogare aquatique, métaphore du passage hors lieu lors du désastre :Je fredonne ces paroles comme un cantique. I’ve got peace deep in my soul I’ve got
love making me hope. [...]
J’ai honte de mon bonheur catholique. Je suis indécent devant le plus grandcrématorium du monde. Obscènement, inexplicablement content de vivre,
simplement parce que je pense aux gens que j’aime. Les avions vont droit dans lemur et notre société aussi.
Nous sommes des kamikazes qui veulent rester vivants. Seul l’amour me donne ledroit d’espérer. Les cargos se croisent dans l’obscurité - lumières rouges commedans une aérogare aquatique, glissant sur le miroir noir. Des oiseaux s’envolent versles étoiles mortes. Je passe devant le Cunard Building, où l’on achetait, il y a unsiècle, son billet pour voyager à bord du Titanic. L’embouchure de la rivière polluée
se confond avec le ciel. Nous flirtons sans cesse avec le néant, la mort est notresoeur, il est possible d’aimer, sans doute notre bonheur se cache-t-il quelque partdans ce chaos. Dans trente ans y aurait- il une démocratie mondiale ? Dans trenteans, je serai obligé de déchanter comme le reste de la planète, mais je m’en fousparce que dans trente ans, j’en aurai 70. Quelque part, au loin, sur la mer, la lune neva pas tarder à se refléter et alors l’eau ressemblera à une piste de danse ou à une
pierre tombale. Je suis désolé de vivre mais mon tour viendra. Mon tour viendra.13

6. L’aérogare privée et l’héliport – des non-lieux communs dans la bande
dessinée
L’aérogare privée et l’héliport privé deviennent des non-lieux communs dans labande dessinée Rester normal de Frédéric Beigbeder et Philippe Bertrand 14. Le fils
Junior d’un père qui pèse plus de cinq milliards de dollars embarque ou débarquedans une aérogare privée, à l’abri des regards indiscrets. Il est possible, surdemande, d’avoir accès à des zones d’embarquement distinctes de l’héliport, àl’écart de l’aérogare privée, toujours tout près de la résidence. Mr Junior peut ainsi
se détendre pleinement et apprécier le service aérien discret en toute tranquillité.
L’hélicoptère garé dans le champ, l’héliport privé devant la résidence sontsymboliques de la commodité d’une expérience de voyage de luxe qui dépasselargement toutes les attentes des gens qui veulent rester « normaux » :525

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Fig. 1
Frédéric Beigbeder et Philippe Bertrand, Rester normal, Paris : Dargaud, 2002, p. 3.

Pour les riches de la Suisse, un pays où « fort peu d’histoires commencent, mais
où beaucoup se terminent », il existe aussi un hangar privé d’avion, l’aérogare
privée qui abrite un aéronef doué d’un système de divertissements à bord,

Fig. 2Frédéric Beigbeder et Philippe Bertrand, Rester normal, Paris : Dargaud, 2002, p. 18.

526

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mais aussi d’un écran principal à commandes audio, des sièges à prise électriques
qui permettent d’utiliser à bord un ordinateur portable et d’autres gadgets, ainsi quedes menus personnalisés, des boissons (champagne) et des repas de première classe
adaptés à leurs goûts ainsi qu’un service de consommations et de rafraîchissements
qui assurent leur arrivée à destination détendus, reposés et prêts à affronter lajournée.
La problématique de la perception de l’espace peut être comprise commegestion des contradictions engendrées par la distance, qui empêche l’interaction,même s’il s’agit, dans ce cas, d’un non-lieu représenté à petite échelle dans une
bande dessinée : entre les bornes de l’enclavement (distance infinie – la métaphore
du monde comme village global) et de l’ubiquité, les situations intermédiaires
peuvent être traitées selon trois modalités : la coprésence (distance annulée par la
co-localisation au cadre du non-lieu), le transport (un déplacement entre deux lieux
par l’intermédiaire d’un non-lieu – le moyen de transport : l’avion), latélécommunication dans l’avion du père de Mr. Junior (les gadgets technologiquesprésentés à la page 19, qui sont autant de non-lieux dans un non-lieu (avion) inclus
dans un autre non-lieu (l’aérogare privée)). La co-localisation nous semble être untrait particulièrement intéressant si nous tenons compte du fait que dans la BD laco-présence des deux non-lieux (le hangar en tant que contenant et l’autre non-lieu,
l’avion, en tant que contenu) donne naissance à de nouveaux rapports de proportion
entre les deux non-lieux : le non-lieu contenu est aussi grand que le non-lieu
contenant dans la représentation de la BD, dominant l’entier champ visuel desvignettes BD de la page 18 de Rester normal, au centre des quatre autres vignettes.
Cette représentation spatiale du non-lieu n’est pas du tout naïve ou simpliste,d’autant plus que l’on se rend compte qu’une certaine cartographie mentale devient
instrument de mesure de l’appropriation spatiale du monde qui devient village
global, représenté dans la BD sous la forme d’une petite carte géographique où nesont mises en évidence que les espaces qui comptent pour, les espaces localisables
pour les personnages – la mère du Mr Junior et Mr Souleiman, le partenaired’affaires du père de Mr Junior – qui n’appréhendent que les lieux qui leur sontfamiliers, tandis que le reste du monde devient pour eux un non-lieu, un espacesans âme, sans importance, habité par les autres, par les non-employés.
La carte géographique représentée en miniature dans la BD renvoie à une
certaine cartographie cognitive que la mère du Mr Junior emploie inconsciemmentcomme instrument de mesure de l’appropriation spatiale du monde qui équivaut àl’appropriation spatiale du monde comme son propre monde, en ignorant tout cequi sort de son propre système de perception. La carte géographique imaginée parla mère du Junior est une représentation de l’espace géographique tel qu’elle lecomprend. Cette carte met en valeur l’étendue de l’espace, sa localisation relative
par rapport aux espaces voisins, ainsi que la localisation des éléments qu’il
contient. La carte sert à représenter des phénomènes dont la configuration spatiale
produit du sens. La focalisation égoïste sur soi rend visibles les espaces
d’importance personnelle (la Suisse, l’Arabie Saoudite), tandis que tous les autres
espaces voisins deviennent des non-lieux, puisque rendus invisibles par527

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l’indifférence du sujet percepteur (ils sont le siège des non-employés, paropposition au monde des riches dans lequel elle vit et, par conséquent, ils sontassignés dans la légende de la carte et dans la représentation miniaturisée du mondeune hachure gris clair – gris foncé) :Fig. 3Frédéric Beigbeder et Philippe Bertrand, Rester normal, Paris : Dargaud, 2002, p. 17.

7. Conclusions
Dans cet article, nous nous sommes proposés de démontrer que, chez FrédéricBeigbeder, les grands espaces de circulation en tant qu’hétérotopies sont connus etreconnus, par leurs usagers, comme fréquentés, et très rarement comme espaces
déserts. La gare et l’aérogare ne sont pas seulement des espaces de sociabilité
urbaine et d’empathie, mais ils constituent aussi des hétérotopies dans l’imaginaire
du drogué dans Nouvelles sous ecstasy. Nous voulons enfin montrer que l’aérogaren’est pas seulement un non-lieu commun dans la bande dessinée Rester normal,
mais qu’elle peut aussi être perçue comme métaphore du passage hors lieu,
528

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lorsqu’elle devient – dans Windows on the World – une sorte de contreemplacement, une hétérotopie dans laquelle les emplacements réels de la tragédiede 11 septembre 2001 à New York sont à la fois représentés, contestés et inversés,transformés en des sortes de lieux qui sont hors de tous les lieux, bien que pourtantils soient effectivement localisables dans la cartographie mentale du personnage
qui assiste et se transforme dans le chroniquer des derniers moments avant lacatastrophe.
NOTES
1

Le non-lieu est défini la première fois par Marc Augé dans son ouvrage Les non-lieux. Introductionà une anthropologie de la surmodernité, Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1992 comme non-identitaire,
non-relationnel et non-historique. Il se réfère aussi bien aux grandes espaces de circulation,qu’aux moyens de transport, aux médias et aux points de transit et aux lieux des occupations
provisoires et des loisirs (les chaînes d’hôtels et les squats, les clubs de vacances, les camps deréfugiés, les bidonvilles), etc.
2
Frédéric Beigbeder, Mémoires d’un jeune homme dérangé, Paris, La Table Ronde, 2001, 76.
3
Ibid., 76.
4
Ibid., 66-67.
5
Frédéric Beigbeder, 99 francs, Paris, Grasset et Fasquelle, 2000, 233.
6
Frédéric Beigbeder, Mémoires d’un jeune homme dérangé, Paris, La Table Ronde, 2001, 67.
7Jean Michel di Falco, Frédéric Beigbeder, Je crois-Moi non plus, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 2004, 32.
8
Frédéric Beigbeder, Nouvelles sous ecstasy, Paris, Gallimard, 1999, 17.
9
L’hétérotopie (du grec topos, « lieu », et hétéro, « autre »: « lieu autre ») est un concept forgé parMichel Foucault dans une conférence de 1967 intitulée « Des espaces autres ». Il y définit leshétérotopies comme une localisation physique de l’utopie. Ce sont des espaces concrets qui
hébergent l’imaginaire, ou des espaces qui sont employés aussi pour la mise à l’écart. Ce sontdonc des lieux à l’intérieur d’une société qui en constituent le négatif, ou sont pour le moins aux
marges, des espaces autres, des espaces d’entrée dans un monde autre. Source: définition del’hétérotopie sur Wikipedia, l’Encyclopédie libre, <http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9t%
C3%A9rotopie>. Page consultée le 13 janvier 2010.
10
Frédéric Beigbeder, Nouvelles sous ecstasy, Paris, Gallimard, 1999, 17.
11
Frédéric Beigbeder, Windows on the World, Paris, Grasset, 2003, 161-162.
12
Ibid., 162.
13
Ibid., 368.
14
Frédéric Beigbeder et Philippe Bertrand, Rester normal, Paris, Dargaud, 2002.

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——— (2000). 99 francs. Paris : Grasset et Fasquelle.
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——— (2003). Windows on the World. Paris : Grasset.
529

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Beigbeder, Frédéric, Bertrand, Philippe (2002). Rester normal. Paris : Dargaud.
Blanckeman, B. (2002). Les fictions singulières – étude sur le roman françaiscontemporain. Paris : Prétexte Editeur.
Foucault, Michel (1984). « Des espaces autres ». Architecture, Mouvement,
Continuité, n° 5, octobre.
Wikipédia. L’encyclopédie libre. Article « Hétérotopie ». URL : <http://fr.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Hétérotopie>. Page consultée le 13 janvier 2010.

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Speaking Skills in Teaching English to Medicine Students
Rodica VELEAUniversity of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova

ABSTRACT
There is always a temptation to teach in a traditional way which is not a bad
method. And we always have certain misgiving about speaking skills. That ishappening also because sometimes we give our students everything but theopportunities to act in the real life. It always depends on the needs of the learners wedeal with. In spite of the circumstances we are trying to find a way to get thestudents to speak. We described the development of an academic speaking course.
The approach presents how we integrated task-based work encouraging students to
speak with an overall purpose for achieving it. The materials were refined throughsuccessive trials using student and teacher feedback along with classroom
observation. Besides reading and reviewing, speaking can provide that opportunity.
Activities of this sort, different from the normal textbook language learning are
enjoyable ways of improving speaking skills and can lead to more confidence in
speaking the target language
KEYWORDS: young learners, self criticism, rehearse, error analysis activity,
competitive spirit

In teaching English as a second language and English for specific purposes, when
we reflect on our activity, we always think of the different events during theprocess of learning namely speaking, listening reading and writing. With no doubt
we realize we sometimes have plusses and sometimes minuses about some of theskills. We feel that something more could be done and we are permanently ready to
improve by bringing new techniques in our work with the students. We manage to
give students what we consider the necessary tools and even, now more than ever,
we are giving them the chance to put them into work through different new
methods. We imagine all the time exercises, situations to make them feel the
English language reality, understand how it is in the real world where they have to
use the English they learned. When speaking about teaching grammar rules wepermanently have the possibility to give the students several tests and check theirexpertise, see if, or to what extent, they have learned to apply those rules which ofcourse can always be improved.
To produce the language, to act in real-like situations, in several necessary stepsof course, to use speaking exercises, this is what encourages our students in theprocess of learning the language together with the medical vocabulary and becomea very effective method. And we have plenty of resources to do that in the English
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010class and not only, through speaking exercises, through grammar or vocabulary
exercises.
In the medical school we have groups that go from 20 to 50 students who comefrom different environments and levels of English. We may have advanced learners
and in the same time students who need a lot of work to improve their knowledge:
beginners and intermediate level students. We may say we deal with a very serious
work and all quite in the same time since we have a 2 hours practical course
weekly for 14 weeks each semester. With the groups of students we have in the
medical school, there might be situations when a teacher could only just apply the
traditional method, the well known grammar-translation exercises and tests tomeasure the passive knowledge of the students, and not offer them creative
activities in the English language learning process. We could not be satisfied to use
the old methods with our new generations of students and we decided that thedifficulties cannot make us less creative so we were trying hard, with all thepossibilities we had, to arrive in the end to have students that speak a goodlanguage with no fear, even if they have never been in an English environment.
The present paper describes one of the types of work we carried out to explore
the relationship between the student learning style, the emotional intelligence andthe progress in English when using simulation, dialogues, role play. In teaching
speaking skills in the medical English class it is not enough to provide students
with models or opportunities to speak. It is well known that students will speak
after they have acquired sufficient language and they are motivated tocommunicate. We have to pay attention to the way they build their conversation
since there is all the time the possibility:- to translate a function from the mother tongue to the target language forexample,- to forget or to neglect the right pronunciation,- to use the intonation from the mother tongue or simply to be very shy,
- to use false friends,- to forget the grammar rules in the middle of the conversation,- to feel uncomfortable with the atmosphere we have in the classroom,- to fear or to hesitate .
In their need of learning how to speak we are always the back up team and help
them, teach them how to learn to speak.
“The audio video speaking” lessons
We did a lot of “work” together with our students to succeed in our attempt, paying
attention to the way we stimulated the students’ curiosity. They needed several
instructions and we created also a special atmosphere in order to encourage
speaking, communication, being aware of the fact that communicative approachedbased activities, like role play, simulation, require real communication andstimulate students’ motivation. We put to work very useful elements like: authentic
materials, student selected materials, together with topics that capture the interest
532

Rodica Velea: Speaking Skills in Teaching English to Medicine Studentsof the students. Our purpose was to increase production and make them feel more
comfortable when doing this type of activity and a powerful tool for the students
was of course when we promoted a kind of autonomy in our language classroom.
Can we learn to draw without a pencil in our hand or dance just sitting down? It
is well known we have to work on it to learn, by getting involved, by doing it. How
to internalize rules if we don’t create the needed situation, so we helped students tocreate, to discover what they needed in order to remember and finally to use
vocabulary and functions and structures. All the participants had to play activeroles in designing this activity which is one of their favourite also because of theuse of a video in the classroom since it is watching television like and thecharacters are themselves.
We are going to relate our experience we had with our students and hope thatmight be an interesting option for colleagues in other institutions since through thisactivity we looked for ways of building soft skills into pair work and othercommunicative activities to mirror the real world.
When we had the opportunity we split the large groups of students into small
ones, once a week. It was this chance to deal with a class of just 17 or 20 students
that made us think of that type of weekly lesson as the “speaking” lesson. With
small groups of students it was much easier for us to deal with them, we asked
them to group into pairs, and choose among a series of real life situations wesuggested or just gave them. That task encouraged them to create dialogues, towrite them down, to repeat those several times and finally to speak in front of theclass.
In the previous lessons they had learnt passively the language through reading
and writing activities without adapting their knowledge to different situations thatlife can provide. The idea to put into practice, namely to act in front of theircolleagues, the different situations they created, was to use in a more active
stimulating and also amusing way the language. They had to prepare simulations orrole-plays which is usually an activity that motivates the students.
When needed, the teacher role was to provide the correct information, on
specific vocabulary, or regarding intonation, pronunciation and of course to
structure the activities and to provide together with the students the relaxed,
supportive atmosphere necessary and essential to develop the speaking skills.
It was very important for the students themselves to be involved in that type ofactivity so they felt a supplementary need to ask, to suggest, to bring theircontribution, to gather information; they felt the need to use new words, newstructures, since the suggested situations made them more communicative thanusual to express what they had in mind. That was the type of task that differentiatedthat new activity from the traditional teaching, where we supplied everything thatwas necessary, and the books, the blackboard, the chalk were many times the only
didactic material needed for the lesson to go on. For it was known to everybody,the teacher usually had the historical duty to give lectures about the subject hetaught, what in the medical school could be that useful vocabulary for their future
profession—and the students had just to listen and to make notes of the new lesson533

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

and make some exercises. In this type of work we had the opportunity to examine
the areas where English grammar and pronunciation overlap, including rhythm,
weak forms, contractions, and grammatical word endings and to have a whole
image of the students level followed by discussions which made clearer why theseareas are important.
By our approach we succeeded to have the students act like in the real life withthe language they had at their disposal, to actively use in spontaneous lines the
dialogues, sometimes suggested and sometimes created by themselves for the given
situations. After they were provided with real reasons or goals for communication
they had to gain new identities, to become different characters, and speak as—aparent, a son or a daughter, a nurse, a doctor, a physician and, a patient sufferingfrom different diseases, etc. which was very important. In that being “different”
way, the young people had that opportunity to show how spontaneous according to
the demands of the situations they can be, they created and imagined. They had to
discover the natural taking of turns when speaking with another person and in thesame time to take sufficient time for the ideas to be communicated. They were
surprised to discover how that task transformed some of their colleagues into new
personalities we did not know they existed, which made them more capable toexpress themselves in the target skill.
The two things that high motivated our students were the TV and the video
camera. They prepared their dialogues and conversations much more carefully
when in the next step they knew they were going to be watched by the teacher andtheir classmates and of course appreciated according to the success of theperformance. All began with some new feelings, they were shy but curious andeager to be recorded, then to watch themselves, and listen to the sound of their
voices, speaking the language they were learning. And even they are adults there
was a shadow of mystery over it. When in the previous years we had activities withaudio tape recorders and we taped their voices, it was not the same; the students
didn’t feel very much involved. In future they will eventually get used to the video
camera, to the film with the recorded small performances but the surprise, the fun
and pleasure of the moment of discovering themselves among the characters on thescreen still remain, and of course we teachers we will be preoccupied to create new
methods to obtain better results with our student’s speaking skills.
Tthis activity has a game—like nature that increases students’ motivation, putthem to work, make them practice speaking in an easier way. This method provides
less controlled and then less stressful work that offer the possibility to students to
use English for communication. While in other activities the teacher bring didactic
materials as a support which help students in their practice this method encourages
autonomous strategy use. Jones et al. (1987) call this “scaffolding instruction.”
Students’ performance being recorded, they may begin to think aloud after theactivity is over which gives the teacher the opportunity to see how the students use
their previous knowledge concerning the time-creating devices in spontaneous oral
communication. The recording activity is used to measure the students’ progress,
as formative assessment. It helps us teachers think how we can adapt
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Rodica Velea: Speaking Skills in Teaching English to Medicine Students

communicative methodology to make it suitable for learners at very low levels. It is
well known that communicative activities naturally involve freedom and creativity,
which very often is unsuitable for adult beginners, also because one skill requires
the others. In order to succeed in their speaking activity students understand now
better they need a lot of reading, listening and writing exercises.
Here are the main steps of the audio-video method:
1. First we have to explain the method we want to apply in the speaking class, andthe students are told that they could improve their pronunciation, their fluency andthey could learn easier the spoken language by the audio-video method. They are
told that their speaking activities will be video recorded twice in case the firstsession will not do.
Then when the method was presented and understood, we give the students thesituations they have to work out—similar to those we have studied together during
the previous lessons—helping and sending them to the books that could offer themhelp. We give them on pieces of paper different situations, for example: parents
and children on a trip or in an airplane, where the children inform their parents thatthey have a sudden stomach-ache, while the parents try to persuade them to explain
and give details on their symptoms to a medical professional on that plane or
doctor and nurse speaking a baby patient suffering from an epidemic disease, etc.
Before that activity we worked with the other teachers of English of our teamand we performed and recorded dialogues already written on the given themes tobe able to offer our students some models or if it was possible we already had
recorded dialogues performed by native speakers. In designing our speaking
activity we applied what Richards (1990: 79-80) suggested that goals must be set,samples of which include how to use in a conversation hesitation devices andconversational fillers.
The students enjoy that part very much and while they are listening to therecorded material in the target language, they try to write down the words they cancatch and also learn eventually some new structures. Then in groups of two they
have to prepare the written part of their task. The teacher has an important role inthat moment because the students need to be supported and encouraged to speak, toperform their part, thing that, till now, they haven’t done before, even if they had
created other dialogues as tasks in the previous lessons. It happens very often tohave a very noisy class when preparing these dialogues since students need further
information, new words, new structures encountered in their mother tongue.
They may need dictionaries for their purpose. The teacher has to face a very
active way of sharing information from group to group, correcting when it is thecase when students eager to use new vocabulary forget about grammar or about theformal or informal way of speaking. This activity makes the students compare thetypes of conversation that are present in course books and on the tapes they listened
to. In that moment when students know they are to be videotaped they begin to pay
more attention to the way these conversations are constructed and to what extent
they are mere vehicles for targeted structures to what they have never payed535

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

attention before.
This stage makes the students work at home with a dictionary to achieve thetask and that could offer them both accuracy and fluency practice. They become
more aware of the fact that only through practice they can reach automatization. As
Sharwood-Smith (1981: 166) points out, “it is quite clear and uncontroversial to
say that most spontaneous performance is attained by dint of practice.”
2. When the students arrive to the second step they play their dialogues one group
to another and of course there are several problems to be solved before the final
performance. It is surprisingly emotional that part when, as a teacher you realize
you have in front of you adults that rehearse their parts as in their first year of
school. They have emotions, a lot of questions on how to pronounce this or that but
more than everything they are preoccupied by their intonation, the accents, therhythm and fluency. Since we work with a few groups of students, we have time to
pay attention and to correct as much as possible if there are any mistakes. We
suggest proper words or phrases for the circumstances met in the dialogues, we
correct the formal or informal language and usually we discretely add new ideas
without disturbing the spontaneity of the young age.
When we begin to video tape we already have the impression of being among
real professionals. The first group of students is the one with greater emotions andthat’s why when they finish their part we let them in charge of the camera, theactivity becoming almost entirely theirs, the teacher being forgot until the end ofthat step. It is recommended to keep the group in turn to perform in a separate
room, if possible, and to have a screen in a second room for the students to observe
without disturbing their colleagues. Students are advised to take notes and toobserve the possible errors and also to tell their opinion on their colleague’s
performance.
3. The next step consists of a second viewing of the recorded material, in order toanalyze the errors. Some of them they deal with great fears, when it is to view therecordings but it were always great fun to observe, to criticise, and to correct. The
atmosphere is great, the students learn much easier from their colleagues mistakes
and they are never angry about their marks. They enjoy seeing themselves on thescreen, listening to their real voices and to the taped voices of their colleagues
which is a new thing to everybody.
The most enjoyable part, they avoided, was for them to hear their voices
speaking English and to discover how shy they could be, which was not the case in
the mother tongue. This experience made us discover some of the causes andeffects of the work-related stress in non-native speaker English language students
performing in a non-English speaking environment. In the light of this approach
research we can suggest that the teacher development particularly that tailored to
the needs of the individual can the best solution.
After the whole performance the video is stopped and students begin to discuss
about their production, to correct when necessary starting with self-criticism.
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Rodica Velea: Speaking Skills in Teaching English to Medicine Students

Anyone has the right to say his/her opinion. Usually, interesting opinions arise
about the ways of pronouncing some sounds that under normal circumstances
would have passed unnoticed. This stage is known as an error-analysis step, in
which students and teacher review important points of grammar and phonetics, andstudents repeat the correct form of their dialogue.
This activity allows students to understand also that in real life communication,
one sometimes has to answer unexpected questions and then keeping silent in orderto think is not indicated as an appropriate strategy. Instead of this, repeating one’s
interlocutor’s question may be employed as a time creating tool. That is a good
moment to emphasise what students have already learned about the time creating
devices as it was suggested by Hieke (1981) and Crystal (1981) (quoted in Arevart& Nation, 1991: 91) when they said that fillers and hesitation markers are featuresof well-formedness that contribute to a greater quality of the speech. Nolasco &Arthur (1987) stated also that the impression of fluency is given by their use inspeech. The use of role play adds variety to the kinds of activities the students are
asked to perform. Feedback tasks are incorporated in this type of activity in the
speaking class. This task allows students to listen to their oral performance several
times and improve it through repeated recordings. The comparison usually helps
them to see the improvement they have made. As students are satisfied with theirwork they become motivated and want further activities of a similar kind.
Our activity worked out well and our students were quite satisfied with theirresults. They have shown more enthusiasm then in other activities, they had not to
be encouraged into doing this very new activity and they asked to repeat it as manytimes as possible. This activity can be performed with any kind of dialogues, theresult will be a positive one as long as it contains useful vocabulary for the students
who may also use a piece of narrative and transform it into a role-play and act it.
All they need is to be supported, which in terms of teaching means to be suppliedwith phrases, idioms, new vocabulary, ideas, correct pronunciation, of course to becorrected when necessary and all the possible tools we may bring to them together
with a competitive spirit, anything that may serve.
As students become more advanced in the study of medicine their new
vocabulary consists of mainly very specialized words, of lower frequency which
offer them fewer opportunities for exposure to those words or use of these. We
consider our purpose is to help the students learn and articulate the words of their
special vocabulary, help them to express new ideas and get used to newer andnewer situations and circumstances, use in a more correct way the language they
had learned and adapt it finally to their purpose, make them speak the right word in
the right moment, actively use the language, become creative and imaginative, gain
communicative competence.
REFERENCES
Arevart, S., & P. Nation (1991). “Fluency improvement in a second language.”
RELC Journal, 22, 1, 84-94.
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

Jones, B.F., A.S. Palincsar, D.S. Ogleand, & E.G. Carr (1987). Strategic teaching
and learning: Cognitive instruction in the content areas. Alexandria, VA:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Nolasco, R., & L. Arthur (1987). Conversation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Richards, J. (1990). The language teaching matrix. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Sharwood-Smith, M. (1981). “Consciousness-raising and the second language
learner.” Applied linguistics, 2, 159-169.

538

Nominalizations in Legal Language
Alina-Maria ZAHARIA
University of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages
ABSTRACTThe use of nominalizations instead of verbs is a common feature of the legal
language, because in the legal style the accent is put on the noun pattern rather thanon the verb pattern. The European and British legal texts are both full of
nominalizations and noun phrases which make the text hard to read and ambiguous.
Typical English texts tend to provide the reader with a lot of descriptions, additional
information or definitions and that is why the accent is put on the noun pattern rather
than on the verb pattern. Nominalizations tend to be longer than the base verb andmay be sometimes difficult to read and understand. They add objectivity to the text
and allow things to be stated as generally as possible. But they also tend to create
wordiness because they require articles. The long nominal constructions bring agreater degree of precision containing much information within a single lexical unit.
KEYWORDS: nominalizations, precision, postmodification, wordiness

Introduction
Legal discourse is characterized by nominalizations, which is the process of turning
verbs or adjectives into nouns. Although nominalizations are correct from agrammatical point of view, they may lead to wordiness and can make sentences
cumbersome. When analysing nominalizations one has to understand the meaningof the modifiers and of the other words in the noun phrase and the prepositional
phrases that may follow. Nominalizations are frequently used in legal texts but they
can also be found in other types of specialized languages. When using
nominalizations the meaning of a strong verb is split between a copular verb and anoun phrase and that is why nominalizations reduce the number of strong verbs in atext (Gotti, 2005: 78). According to Peter Tiersma passive voice andnominalizations are used in order to obscure the agent of the action (Tiersma, 1999:
77).
Nominalizations tend to be longer than the base verb and may be sometimes
difficult to read and understand. They add objectivity to the text and allow things to
be stated as generally as possible. But they also tend to create wordiness because
they require articles. The long nominal constructions bring a greater degree ofprecision containing much information within a single lexical unit.
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

Lakoff thinks that if the position between different lexical items is changed bothin written and spoken language, one can slightly manipulate the meaning. For
example if the action is expressed by a noun and the agent is separated from it by acopular verb, this will obscure the link between them; but if the strong verb comes
after the agent the direct connection between them is more obvious (Lakoff, 198:
128-132). This type of construction is used when the drafter needs to express
something as generally and objectively as possible and when there is the need ofcovering the possibility of anyone performing a certain action (Tiersma, 1999: 7778). Nominalizations allow for a greater conciseness and precision of expression,even if they increase the number of words in the sentence and even if thepossibility of using a verb instead would lead to shorter constructions (Gotti, 2005:
78).
Butt thinks that the use of nominalizations represents “the hallmark of thedesired formality” (Butt, 2002: 153) because these types constructions outline thespecificity of the text, distinguishing it from general texts. In spite of this special
character of nominalizations, they make the text not very friendly for the reader,demanding more effort for interpretation. Therefore Plain English researchers arein favour of using strong verbs instead of nominalizations because they think themessage of the text is more efficiently understood and interpreted in this way.
2. Different Theoretical Approaches to Nominalizations
Nominalizations are “symbolic units which encode their meanings” (Heyvaert,
2003: 46). Halliday defines nominalization as a process “whereby any element orgroup of elements is made to function as a nominal group in the clause” (Halliday,
1994: 41).
Nominalizations can be classified in various categories. One basic classificationof nominalizations is:- nominalizations consisting of nouns derived from verbs or adjectives:
e.g.: They rejected my complaint → their rejection of my complaint.

- nominalizations consisting of noun groups, nominal clauses, infinitives or
gerunds:
e.g.: Treaty on the Functioning of European Union

Quirk’s classification of nominalizations is based on the morphologicalformation of the nominalised noun. Therefore nominalizations can be divided in:- deverbal nominalizations (-er nominals):e.g. (...) a further period (“the extension period”) for which the offender is to be subject
to a licence (...) (Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, part 2, Sentencing, p. 11)

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Alina-Maria Zaharia: Nominalizations in Legal Language- verbal nominalizations (derived from verbs by adding -ing):
e.g. (...) the court considers necessary for the purpose of protecting members of the
public from serious harm (...) (Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, part 2,
Sentencing, p. 11)

According to Heyvaert gerundive nominalizations are “clause like” because
they “derive from the functional level of the atemporal clausal head which includes
objects, adverbials and non-grounding auxiliaries” (Heyvaert, 2003: 225).
Nominalizations are characterized by timelessness or “neutrality to temporalreference” which means that a nominalization can be expanded by a time adverbialwith reference to the present, past or future (Lundquest, Jaravella, 2000: 52).
Due to the fact that legislative language makes use of many definitions, the useof nominalizations is necessary because it concentrates the information and“because relations between the elements are closer in a NP than in a sentence”(Lundquest, Jarvella, 2000: 53).
Nominalization can refer to every derivation of nouns from other word class orto the productive process of word formation. Nominalizations can turn actions into
processes or abstractions. Nominalizations can also be used to eliminate the agentsof the action from the picture. Nouns give a more objective impression than a verb.

3. Stylistic Functions of Nominalizations
Nominalizations can be characterized by conciseness and impreciseness. Whenusing nominalizations legal language seems to be more concise. This concisenesscan be achieved by modifying the head of the nominal group by a pre-modifier,post-modifier or a relative clause or apposition. With the help of nominalization
many scientific drafters are able to describe actions and phenomena efficiently andcan even categorize them. The following sentence is taken from the statute
Criminal Justice and Immigration Act:
e.g.: An extended sentence of detention is a sentence of detention the term of which isequal to the aggregate of (...) (Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, 2008, part 2, p.
11)

As presented in the above sentence, when verbs or adjectives are used todemonstrate the same process, the structure becomes so clumsy, losing its brevityof expressing. In this sentence we have many nominal constructions: an extended
sentence of detention which is the subject of the sentence and then we havesentence of detention which is the predicate noun.
Nominalised verbs allow the speaker to omit reference to the actor, thus giving
an impression of impreciseness to the text. Peter Tiersma gives an example where
the lawyer can depersonalize an incident without making reference to the victim.
So instead of saying the defendant injured the girl at 5:30 P.M., the defendant`s
attorney can write that the girl`s injury happened at 5:30 PM. In this way the541

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

drafter avoids the reference to the doer of the action, making the statement
ambiguous and drawing the attention from the defendant.
The use of nominalization in legislative documents permits laws to be stated as
broadly as possible. As for example:(a) Cutting down, destroying, or injuring any kind of wood or timber standing or
growing upon the lands of another. (California Penal Code, Section 602, letter a).

As we can see in this sentence there is an iteration of verbal nominalizations(cutting, destroying, injuring) which confer the text a degree of authoritativenessand impose some obligations and restrictions to the reader.
Another stylistic function of nominalization is formality. A text packed up withnominalizations confers technicality to the text. The use of nominalization makes it
possible to develop the arguments gradually.
As I mentioned before nominalizations can also add objectivity to the text. Thisobjectivity can be created by omitting the actual actor of the sentence, creating
obscurity. The attention of the receiver is focused more on the other events in thesentence rather than on the actor. Nominalizations help at deemphasizing the actor
or agent.
Nominalizations add objectivity to the text and allow things to be stated as
generally as possible. But they also tend to create wordiness because they require
articles. The long nominal constructions bring a greater degree of precisioncontaining much information within a single lexical unit.
4. Different Types of Nominalization in Legal Documents
Legislative documents consist of a variety of nominalizations. There are certain
types of nominalizations which are most frequently found in legal documents.
Among these I can mention the following:- nominalizations constructed from verbs having the suffix -age, -ment or -tion,
as for example in nouns derived from verbs: regulation, interpretation, average,
shortage, adjustment, application etc. They add objectivity to the text and allow
things to be stated as general as possible.
- one of the most frequently found category of nominalization in legal English isa phrase beginning with the verbs to have and to make, as for example:
to have an objection instead of to object
to have a concern instead of to worry, to careto have reservations about instead of to doubt
to make a suggestion instead of to suggest
to make a proposal instead of to propose
to make an amendment instead of to amend

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Alina-Maria Zaharia: Nominalizations in Legal Language- another common type of nominalizations used in legal documents are theexpressions constructed with the verbs to give, to reach and to do:
to give an answer toto give an apology
to reach a conclusion
to reach an agreement
to reach an end
to do a draft of
to hold the opinion;- there are some types of nominalizations which make the text seem morescientific and analytical making use of complicated phrases with verbs like toachieve, to evidence, to effectuate or to realize:
to exhibit improvement instead of to improve
to demonstrate success instead of to succeed
to evidence size reduction instead of to reduce- other examples of frequently found nominalizations are:to be dependent upon
to be in violation of
to bring suit against
to come to a resolution
to give noticeto place emphasis upon
to make a referral
Clausal nominalization refers to any finite or non-finite clause which functions
as a noun in a clause. It includes nominal clauses, nominalised non-finite verbal
groups, etc. Clausal nominalization is frequently found in statutes and directives:(2B) An extended sentence of detention is a sentence of detention the term of whichis equal to the aggregate of—(a) the appropriate custodial term, and(b) a further period (“the extension period”) for which the offender is to be subject
to a licence and which is of such length as the court considers necessary for the
purpose of protecting members of the public from serious harm occasioned by thecommission by him of further specified offences. (Criminal Justice and Immigration
Act, 2008, part 2, Sentencing, p. 11)

The structure of this sentence is different in comparison with the sentence takenout from the European directive. The sentence is split into three paragraphs, the lasttwo paragraphs containing the explanation of the term sentence of detention. The
sentence begins with a long noun phrase which is the subject of the main clause: anextended sentence of detention. The lexical unit sentence of detention acts as thehead noun phrase which is premodified by the indefinite article an and the543Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Ştiinţe Filologice, Limbi Străine Aplicate, nr. 1-2/2010

adjective extended. Then we have the noun the term which is postmodified by the
relative clause of which is equal to the aggregate. There are two more instances ofpostmodification by relative clauses introduced by the relative pronoun which.
According to Quirk et alii (1997: 1244), “nominal relative clauses are uniqueamong relative clauses in that they ‘contain’ their antecedents.” The long genitive
construction with of is also frequently used in this text to indicate that the focus of
the information is on the head noun: the purpose of protecting members of the
public.
In European legislative documents we can find instances when nominalised
non-finite verbal groups include the infinitive and the gerund, as in the following
example:Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and inparticular Article 113 thereof, (...)

According to Peter Tiersma most of the nominalizations were created in Law
French, by the addition of the suffix -al to the verb like in to try – trial, propose –proposal.
The legal style prefers postmodification to premodification. And this is due tothe desire for precision because postmodification is less ambiguous than
premodification. Now, I will take two examples of postmodification one from aEuropean directive and another from a British Act of Parliament.
Given the desirability of registering the identity and whereabouts of all persons
providing remittance services and of according them all a measure of acceptance,
irrespective of whether they are able to meet the full range of conditions for
authorisation as payment institutions, so that none are forced into the black
economy and bring all persons providing remittance service within the ambit ofcertain minimum legal and regulatory requirements, it is appropriate and in line withthe rationale of Special Recommendation VI of the Financial Action Task Force on
Money Laundering to provide a mechanism whereby payment service providers
unable to meet all those conditions may nevertheless be treated as payment
institutions. (Directive 2007/64/EC, L 319/3)

This is an extremely long sentence taken from a European directive. In thissentence there are only four predicates and one can observe the high amount ofnouns in comparison with the other parts of speech. There is a long chain of
postmodifications which gives additional information about the head noun. For
example the noun phrase full range of conditions is postmodified by the
prepositional phrase for authorization, thus stating the exact purpose of theconditions. So, postmodification can also avoid ambiguity providing the reader
with additional details. But in this text we can also find some examples of nouns
which are premodified. For example in the following noun phrase: the ambit ofcertain minimum legal and regulatory requirements, the head noun is premodified
by a series of adjectives like: certain, minimum, legal, and regulatory. Or the noun
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phrase payment service providers is also an example of premodification where thehead noun provider is premodified by the two predeterminers payment and service.
Noun phrases may also be ambiguous as for example the rationale of Special
Recommendation VI of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering
because of the long number of postmodifiers.
The recent trend in legal drafting is to reduce the use of long nominal chains
and to use verbs as much as possible. We have the following example taken from amodel of a contract:
A sponsorship agreement is an agreement under which, in the course of a business, aparty to it makes a contribution towards something, whether the contribution is inmoney or takes any other form.

This example consists of a long chain of nominal constructions. So, instead ofusing the nominalization makes a contribution, the legal drafted could replace itwith the verb to contribute or the complex noun construction the provision ofservices or of contributions could be replaced with providing services orcontributions.

Conclusions
Nominalizations appear regularly in legal writings and contribute to the wordinessand objectivity of the text. Nominalizations are often associated with the scientificstyle because they preserve the impersonal tone and eliminate the agent of theaction from a sentence. They can turn actions into static processes and improve thetextual cohesion of the text.
The long nominal constructions bring a greater degree of precision containing
much information within a single lexical unit. Typical English texts tend to provide
the reader with a lot of descriptions, additional information or definitions and thatis why the accent is put on the noun pattern rather than on the verb pattern.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Butt, Peter J., & Richard Castle (2006). Modern legal drafting: A guide to using
clearer language. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act (2008). URL: <http://www.statutelaw.
gov.uk>.
Directive 2007/64/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13
November 2007 on payment services in the internal market amending
Directives 97/7/EC, 2002/65/EC, 2005/60/EC and 2006/48/EC and repealing
Directive 97/5/EC . URL: <http://www.eur-lex.europa.eu>.
Gotti, M. (2005). Investigating specialized discourse. Bern: Peter Lang.
Halliday, Mak (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 2nd Edition.
London: Arnold.
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Heyvaert, Liesbeth (2003). A Cognitive Functional Approach to Nominalizations inEnglish. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Lakoff, George, & Mark Johnson (1981). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press.
Lundquest, D.L., & R.J. Jarvella (eds.) (2000). Language, Text and Knowledge:
Mental models of expert communication. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter
Quirk, et alii (1973). A Grammar of Contemporary English. London: LongmansGroup Ltd.
——— (1997). Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London:
Longman.
Tiersma, P. (1999). The Language of the Law. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.

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Rhetorical Figures in the Advertising Text
Roxana ZAMFIRA
University of Craiova,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages

ABSTRACTThis paper makes a presentation of rhetorical figures in order to point out their rolein the advertising text. Two taxonomies have been selected, one described by
Daniela Rovenţa-Frumuşani, the other made by Edward F. McQuarrie and DavidGlen Mick. In essence, the former articulates the role of rhetoric in the ideology ofadvertising as a discourse of present times, whereas the latter directs the analysis ofrhetorical figures in terms of their effectiveness in the conscience of consumers. The
more practical purposes that stand out in the latter direct, in a way, the ideologicalfeatures of advertising discourse identified in the former, towards the practicalrealization of the primary function of this discourse, namely that of consumers being
determined to purchase the advertised products: the conative function.
KEYWORDS: semantic level, logical-syntactic level, sound level, tropes

This paper makes a presentation of rhetorical figures in order to point out their rolein the advertising text. We have selected two taxonomies, one described by Daniela
Rovenţa-Frumuşani, the other made by Edward F. McQuarrie and David Glen
Mick. In essence, the former articulates the role of rhetoric in the ideology ofadvertising as a discourse of present times, whereas the latter directs the analysis ofrhetorical figures in terms of their effectiveness in the conscience of consumers.
1. General considerations
In Encyclopaedia Britannica 2002, rhetoric is defined as “the principles of training
communicators – those seeking to persuade or inform; in the 20th century it has
undergone a shift or emphasis from the speaker or writer to the auditor or reader.”According to Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics,
Within linguistics, rhetoric can be seen as a part of the pragmatically grounded text
linguistics, characterized by (a) the pragmatic aspects of a speech act, where one isconscious of its effect and perlocution, and (b) by the changing text internal featuresof a situatively suitable, argumentative and stylistic structure. ‘Rhetorical’ heremeans any kind of persuasive use of language in private (everyday use) and in the
public arena (politics, advertising, law). Rhetoric stands at the interdisciplinaryintersection of linguistics, sociology, and language psychology. (Bussmann, 1998:
1008)

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Further on, it is necessary to establish that rhetoric manifests itself under theform of rhetorical figures, and to explain what rhetorical figures are.
In Dicţionar de ştiinţe ale limbii, Mihaela Mancaş defines a rhetoric figure as a“deviation from the normal linguistic usage, a change in a certain level oflanguage, which facilitates the poetic or the oratorical expression, different fromthe point of view of the degree of expressiveness or of persuasion, compared to thecommon manner of expression.” (Bidu-Vrănceanu et alii, 2001: 213) (mytranslation)
In the same line of thought, according to McQuarrie & Mick (1996),
A rhetorical figure can be defined as an artful deviation in the form taken by astatement. […] More formally, a rhetorical figure occurs when an expression
deviates from expectation, the expression is not rejected as nonsensical or faulty, thedeviation occurs at the level of form rather than content, and the deviation conforms
to a template that is invariant across a variety of content and contexts.

A similar definition of a rhetorical figure, also called a figure of speech, isprovided in Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics:
Ancient term for any form of expression in which the normal use of language ismanipulated, stretched, or altered for rhetorical effect. E.g. in metaphor, a word
which is normally used with reference to one domain is extended to another; in a
figure such as chiasmus, words are placed in a deliberately striking order. Many
individual figures, such as these, are distinguished in traditional western rhetoric.
Some, like metaphor, have been taken over directly into linguistics, e.g. intypologies of semantic change. (Matthews, 2007: 138)

Linguist David Crystal underlines why an account of figurative language isclosely related to the idea of discourse:
A clue lies in the traditional designation of this topic – as ‘figures of speech’ –suggesting that the kinds of semantic contrast involved are of much greater
relevance than the study of the written language alone, and hinting that they relate tomuch wider stretches of language than the individual word or phrase. Also, althoughthe ‘classical’ accounts of these figures are typically illustrated from literature, there
is a much broader tradition, which can be traced back to the subject of classicalrhetoric. The literary use of figurative language falls within this tradition, but sodoes the use made of it by many other varieties, such as advertising, politicalspeaking, journalism, and religion. (Crystal, 2003: 421)

As early as 1965, Gui Bonsiepe noticed that “the message of the advertiser […]is the rhetoric of the modern age.” At the same time, rhetoric “is generally definedas the art of persuasion, or the study of the means of persuasion. The aim of
rhetoric is primarily to shape opinions, to determine the attitude of other people, orto influence their actions. Where force rules, there is no need of rhetoric.”(Bonsiepe, 1965: 37)
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Ezra Pound suggested that “rhetoric be understood as the art of the “advertising
agent for a new soap” (Ellmann & Feidelson, 1965: 144). Where the artist and thescientist aim at a sense of realization in the present tense, the rhetorician aims at
persuasion and so has to modulate the present with an eye toward what can shape adesired future.” (Charles Altieri, In: Walter Jost, & Wendy Olmsted (eds.) 2004:
478)
A brief account of the evolution in the study of rhetoric in the modern age,linked to the phenomenon of advertising, is provided by McQuarrie, Mick, & Glenin A Laboratory Study of Verbal Rhetoric and Message Repetition:
Contemporary consumers are deluged by advertising. Their resulting lack of interestand defence mechanisms have challenged advertisers to develop strategies that canrise above the commotion and motivate consumers to process ads. Among thesestrategies – based on insights that trace back to antiquity (Todorov 1982) – is the useof figures of speech, also known as rhetorical figures (e.g. rhyme, hyperbole, puns,
metaphor).
Investigation into the nature, processes and effects of rhetorical figures inadvertising was pioneered in Europe during the 1960s by Roland Barthes (1985,
originally published 1964), Dubois et alii (1970), Jacques Durand (translated andreported in Durand, 1987), and Geoffrey Leech (1969). Subsequent work was
scattered and slow to accelerate until about 15 years ago. Since then there has been asurge of research on advertising rhetoric by scholars worldwide, drawing on avariety of methods. These range from text analyses and literary interpretations tointerview-based studies with consumers, and from advertising copy-testing tolaboratory experiments (see, for example, Stern, 1990; McQuarrie & Mick, 1992,
1999; Tanaka, 1992; Forceville, 1994; Leigh, 1994; Scott, 1994; Dingena, 1994;
McGuire, 2000; Mothersbaugh et alii, 2002).
(McQuarrie, Mick, & Glen, 2009: 287-8)

2. The role of rhetorical figures
A very general account of rhetorical devices and their function as composing
features of advertising language is made by Sara Thorne:
Rhetorical devices create patterns at the level of words and clauses. Antithesis sets
key words or ideas in opposition for dramatic effect or to distinguish between
different attitudes or brands; listing indicates specific features that may attract thebuyer; patterning balances similar or contrasting features to draw attention to a
product or its features; repetition highlights key points or a particular brand name.
(Thorne, 2008: 304)

In order to extend our discussion, as stated at the beginning of this paper, I haveselected two taxonomies of rhetorical figures, each of them directing the role ofrhetorical figures in the advertising text in two senses: an ideological and apractical one.

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2.1. An ideological direction

A taxonomy chosen to illustrate this point is the one presented by Daniela RovenţaFrumuşani. Borrowing a classification made by another author, she appreciates therhetorical message as follows:
The advertising message, which renders excellence and exemplarity everlasting,stages a biaxial rhetoric: linguistic and iconic, capable of updating the pertinence ofimpertinence in the “architecture of the slogan.” Blanche Grunig (1990), taking theself-referential message of the Paris Match magazine “poids des mots, choc desphotos”, distinguishes the main formal structures that are used and usable in slogans.
(Rovenţa-Frumuşani, 2004: 171) (my translation)

This author identifies three levels at which rhetoric figures function in theadvertising message: the semantic level, the logical-syntactic level, and the soundlevel. I have replaced some of the examples of advertisements provided by theauthor to illustrate each of these, or I have translated others, as most of them weretaken from French and Romanian ads.
At the semantic level, she enumerates polysemy, antonymy, word composition,and grammatical class changing.
An example of polysemy can be noticed in an ad in which the adjective“attached” can mean either “joined or fixed to something,” or “liking someone verymuch or loving them”: it is a slogan for Ford Motor Company that says “Naomi
Guy is very attached to hers” and shows a famous rock climber, Naomi Guy, who
is climbing a high cliff while being sustained by a rope that is firmly attached toher Ford Escort parked on top of the cliff. (Laviosa, 2005)
Antonymy can take the form of an oxymoron: “The new IBM tradition”; it isalso differentiated between dictionary antonymy (“Head & Shoulders: Two inOne”), and antonymy created by language in progress (“IHOP Restaurant. Comehungry. Leave happy”).
Word composition has internal motivation (e.g. a make of car called“Visiodrive” (Glamour, No 109, April 2010: 134)).
Grammatical class changing can be identified in the transformation of brandnames into adjectives: “Shouldn’t your baby be a Gerber baby?”
Rovenţa-Frumuşani appreciates that “At the logical-syntactic level, the same
principle of frustrated expectation is exploited, the principle of surprise, or eventhat of dynamiting logical principles”: (Rovenţa-Frumuşani, 2004: 172) (mytranslation)· the transgression of the principle of non-contradiction: “L’Inattendu tantattendu” (“The Unexpected so much expected for”) – an ad for the perfume called
L’Innattendu;· the transgression of natural logic: “în sfârşit o publicitate care nu mai esteîntreruptă de filme” (“at last, advertising is not interrupted by films anymore”) – anad for an advertising film festival;
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· pragmatic illogisms: “cu cât citeşti LIRE, cu atât doreşti să citeşti altceva”(“the more you read READ, the more you want to read something different” – itfunctions only for those who know that LIRE magazine presents the latest
publications found in bookshops;· intruding into a classical formula: “The Taming of the Stew” (title ofcookbook), derived from the title of Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew;· intertext manipulation: “Je pense, donc je lis la Presse” (“I think, therefore I
read the Press”) – the intertext related to the philosophical statement “Cogito ergosum” (“I think, therefore I am”) adds a connotation of rationality and elitism to theeveryday activity of reading the respective newspaper;· syntactic transfers (of the chiasmus type): “inteligenţa are nevoie de spaţiu;spaţiul are nevoie de inteligenţă” (“intelligence needs space; space needs
intelligence”).
Daniela Rovenţa-Frumuşani continues her presentation with the following
commentaries:
The intrusion into fixed formulas is an extremely productive mechanism in thecontemporary advertising production, due both to generalized intertextuality, whichmarks postmodern culture, and to mnemonic advantages and those of notoriety thatit presents. The intrusion into a fixed formula extends the sonorous similarity, or thatof a (generally binary) initial construction: A magazine with text-appeal /vs/ awoman with sex appeal […] or a striking antonymy: Easy said, easy done /vs/
Easier said than done.
The figure as frustrated expectation (R. Barthes) is extremely poignant,“informative,” because the likelihood of the appearance of the processed message ispractically null. In addition, like in the case of crossword puzzles or quizzes, thereceiver has been stirred to guess (guessing games, problem solving activity), “hehas the opportunity to realize a performance, to confirm his affiliation to the culturalcommunity, by reinforcing the positive component of his identity” (V. Dâncu, 1999:
147). (Rovenţa-Frumuşani, 2004: 173) (my translation)

Rovenţa-Frumuşani ends the presentation of this classification with the soundlevel, where the striking expression is rendered by “symmetries, parallelisms,
recurrences.” She gives the examples of:· harmony, alliteration: “Don’t get mad. Get Glad.” (a brand of sealable
plastic wrap); (Star November 25, 2003: 31);
· the rhymed structure of a brand: “Do the Dew” (Mountain Dew brand, acarbonated drink). The verb “do” articulates “both the pulsations of theunconscious, and the undoubted notoriety”;· repetitive structures – in this case ternary: “Fresh. Smooth. Real. It’s all
here.” (Bud Light beer).
Finally, Daniela Rovenţa-Frumuşani articulates the directions of thisclassification towards an ideology of advertising discourse:551

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In an era when signs are manufactured serially, there rises the issue of the intrinsic
quality of the (advertising, pictorial, cinema etc.) sign, but mostly of the underlying
ideology, because the system of connotations spread by any kind of message is themark of ideology. In the world of sign populations, it is natural to ask ourselves up
to which point we can guarantee a meaning to objects and to what direction.
Deriving from the consumerist psychology, two alternatives seem to take shape: theascetic way, the refusal, the ataraxy of the ancient Greeks who didn’t accept thegenesis of to be out of the accumulation of to have, and the way of the advertising
universe for which wellbeing passes through the saturation of having. At this point,
the debate is far from being settled, as well as the altering of the world of HAVING
with values of the universe of BEING (the problem of advertising mythology and ofadvertising symbolism). (Rovenţa-Frumuşani, 2004: 175) (my translation)
2.2. A practical purpose

It is at this point that a second taxonomy of rhetorical figures can be introduced,
which, in a way, materializes the ideological features of the advertising discourse
identified earlier.
Edward F. McQuarrie and David Glen Mick first present this taxonomy in theirarticle Figures of Rhetoric in Advertising Language (1996), then they examine theeffects of its application in two other studies: Verbal Rhetoric versus Message
Repetition Under Heavy Processing Load and Incidental Exposure to Advertising(2006) and A laboratory study of the effect of verbal rhetoric versus repetition
when consumers are not directed to process advertising (2009).
The authors classify figures of rhetoric at three levels: (1) figurative text andnon-figurative text; (2) according to modes of figuration: schemes and tropes; (3)according to rhetorical operations: repetition, reversal, substitution anddestabilization.
According to McQuarrie, & Mick (1996),
A key contribution of rhetoric is to explain how certain kinds of text structure, i.e.,rhetorical figures, can produce incongruity in advertising texts. It is important toacknowledge that any particular figurative expression can deviate to a greater or
lesser extent and thus be more or less incongruous (Leech, 1969). This corollary
applies at two levels: that of any individual figure (a particular occurrence of rhyme
or metaphor, for instance), and at the aggregate level (some figures, such as puns,
may in general involve a greater degree of deviation than others, such asalliteration).

The same authors explain that, as consumers do not have to start reading anadvertising message, or finish reading it, an important function of rhetorical figures
is to motivate potential readers. “In this regard, Berlyne (1971) found incongruity(deviation) to be among those factors that call to and arrest attention. Hence, whenad exposure is not forced, consumers should allocate a greater amount of attention
to figurative ad language as compared to non-figurative ad language, ceterisparibus.” (McQuarrie, & Mick, 1996)
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Besides positive effects on attention, the authors also enumerate ad liking andrecall as deriving from the artful deviation that figures constitute. On the other
hand, they recognize that these effects are subjective, depending on a wide series offactors, and quite difficult to predict. From this point of view, they attempt such ananalysis in their two other studies.
Further on, McQuarrie and Mick classify rhetorical figures according to modesof figuration. They provide the following explanation:
These modes correspond to the classical distinction between schemes and tropes(Leech 1969). A figure in the schematic mode occurs when a text contains excessiveorder or regularity, while a figure in the tropic mode occurs when a text contains a
deficiency of order or irregularities. Schemes and tropes thus encompass two distinct
modes of formal deviation. Familiar examples of schematic figures would include
rhyme and alliteration, while metaphors and puns would be familiar examples oftropic figures. (McQuarrie, & Mick, 1996)

The authors enrich their explanation by introducing the qualitative andquantitative distinction between schemes and tropes.
The qualitative distinction is explained with the aid of the more general
distinction between under- and over-coded texts (Eco, 1979). “In overcoding there
are more possible organizations of information than are necessary for message
repetition, while in undercoding, the readily available organizations of information
are insufficient. Schemes thus fit a model of over-coding while tropes fit a modelof under-coding.” (McQuarrie, & Mick, 1996)
Regarding the quantitative distinction,[…] a depth of processing perspective argues that on average schemes will be lessdeviant than tropes. This is because excess regularity is obtained via rearrangementsof the surface of the text, i.e., it occurs at a sensory level, as when one repeats
sounds to achieve a rhyme or inverts the order of words to create an antimetabole.
By contrast, a rhetorical question or pun is not a sensorially apparent feature of theheadline, but becomes manifest as the text is related to semantic and backgroundknowledge […]. Deviation thus tends to be greater in the case of tropes because
irregularity represents incongruity occurring at a deeper (semantic) level ofprocessing.
(McQuarrie, & Mick, 1996)

Let us take the example of antimetabole or antimetathesis. According toMihaela Mancaş, “Most of the time, antimetathesis is synonymous with thecomplex (or complicated) chiasmus, a figure that puts in parallel the same lexicalelements, with reversed grammatical functions (following the pattern AB-B’A’).”(Bidu-Vrănceanu et al. 2001: 58) (my translation) E.g., an ad for Estée Laudermakeup powder: “The long wear you love. The way you love to wear it.”(Glamour, No 101 August 2009: 1)
Further on, at the last level of their framework, McQuarrie and Mick distinguishbetween simple and complex schemes and tropes producing four rhetorical
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operations: repetition, reversal, substitution, and destabilization. The excessiveorder or disorder that constitutes rhetorical figures emerges from these operations.
They are defined as follows:· Repetition combines multiple instances of some element of the expression
without changing the meaning of that element. In advertising we find repetition
applied to sounds so as to create the figures of rhyme, chime, and alliteration or
assonance. Repetition applied to words creates the figures known as anaphora,
epistrophe, epanalepsis and anadiplosis. Repetition applied to phrase structure
yields the figure of parison.
· Reversal combines within an expression elements that are mirror images of
one another (the example of the classical figure of antimetabole applies here). The
English language permits semantic as well as syntactic reversals, in the form ofbinary pairs where one term may be thought of as the reverse or opposite of theother (high/low, easy/tough etc.)· Substitution selects an expression that requires an adjustment by the message
recipient in order to grasp the intended content. Both of the tropic operations
involve a turn such that an expression takes on an unexpected or unconventional
meaning. Simple tropes produced by substitution have a tightly constrained
resolution, while complex tropes produced by destabilization have a loosely
constrained resolution. Because tropes of substitution have a single resolution, we
can speak of the recipient applying a correction to what a communicator offers(Fogelin, 1988). The adjustments required by tropes of substitution always takeplace along a dimension, or more generally within some kind of preestablishedrelationship. Four dimensions were pertinent to the analysis of our sample ofadvertisements: exaggerated/understated claims (e.g., ellipsis); strong/weakassertive force (e.g., rhetorical question); and part/whole relations (e.g., metonym).
· Destabilization selects an expression such that the initial context renders its
meaning indeterminate. By “indeterminate” we mean that multiple co-existing
meanings are made available, no one of which is the final word. Whereas in a tropeof substitution, one says something other than what is meant, and relies on therecipient to make the necessary correction, in a trope of destabilization one means
more than is said, and relies on the recipient to develop the implications. Tropes ofsubstitution make a switch while tropes of destabilization unsettle. Examples of
figures that operate by destabilization include irony, paradox, metaphor and pun.
McQuarrie and Mick conclude that, according to this taxonomy, the advertiser
has the possibility to vary the degree of processing demand over a substantial
range.
That is, schemes in general will be less demanding to process than tropes because
excess regularity is less deviant than irregular usage. Moreover, rhyme and otherfigures of repetition will represent the simplest and least demanding type of scheme.
A similar pattern will hold for tropes, making figures of destabilization such as pun
and paradox the most complex and demanding of all the rhetorical operations. Taken
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audiences whose resources for processing may differ while continuing to draw thebenefits of an artfully deviant message. (McQuarrie, & Mick, 1996)

McQuarrie and Mick add further ideas to their findings, in their two more recent
studies. Namely, in developing their taxonomy of rhetorical figures in 1996, theyargued that these may be particularly effective when consumers are exposed to ads
only incidentally.
Provided there is an initial recognition of the artful deviation, they [McQuarrie andMick] predict that a consumer will be motivated to process the ad further in order tograsp, resolve, and potentially appreciate the incongruity. However, subsequentempirical projects have provided incomplete support for this proposition.
(McQuarrie, & Mick, 2006: 7)

In A laboratory study of the effect of verbal rhetoric versus repetition when
consumers are not directed to process advertising, the same authors examine theeffect of repetition on ads containing two types of rhetorical figures: easy-tounderstand rhymes and challenging puns.
The findings indicate that high levels of repetition may not be necessary when ad
headlines contain such rhetorical figures, even under conditions where subjects are
not directed to process ads. Moreover, in contrast to some prior work, rhymes appear
to be at least as effective as puns when consumers are free to ignore ads. Overall, theresearch supports the idea that getting the ad message right is probably more
important than simply repeating the message a great number of times.
(McQuarrie, & Mick, 2009: 287)

3. Conclusions
In conclusion, after a general view over two taxonomies of rhetorical figures inadvertising, we could say that the more practical purposes that stand out in thelatter, direct, in a way, the ideological features of advertising discourse identified in
the former, towards the practical realization of the primary function of this
discourse, namely that of consumers being determined to purchase the advertised
products: the conative function.
BIBLIOGRAPHY*** (2002). Encyclopaedia Britannica. Deluxe Edition CD. Published by:
Britannica.co.uk.
*** (2009). Glamour (British), No 101, August. London: Condé Nast Publications.
*** (2010). Glamour (British), No 109, April. London: Condé Nast Publications.
*** (2003). Star, November 25. American Media, Inc.
Bidu-Vrănceanu, Angela, Cristina Călăraşu, Liliana Ionescu-Ruxăndoiu, Mihaela
Mancaş, & Gabriela Pană Dindelegan (2001). Dicţionar de ştiinţe ale limbii.
Bucureşti: Nemira.
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Bonsiepe, Gui (1965). Visual/Verbal Rhetoric. Retrieved 5 April 2010 from<http://www.asomatic.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/rhetoric_bonsiepe.pdf>.
Booth, Wayne C. (2004). The Rhetoric of Rhetoric. The Quest for Effective
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Crystal, David (2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Drăgancea, Svetlana (2006). Imaginea obiectelor publicitare din perspectivă
lingvistică. Chişinău. Retrieved 22 April 2008 from <http://www.cnaa.acad.md/
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Jost, Walter; Olmsted, Wendy ed. (2004) A Companion to Rhetoric and Rhetorical
Criticism. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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Nothing, and Art. The Pennsylvania State University Press.
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