This volume brings together the proceedings of the international conference Mihai Eminescu 170 years after his birth – Necessary reassessments, organized by the Center for Research and Professional Development “Romanian Studies in an International Context” (STUR), under the aegis of the “Ovidius” University of Constanţa, which took place on November 28, 2020, in online format. It continues the series of volumes edited by STUR: Actualitatea lui Caragiale 1912 2012 (2012), Junimea și impactul ei după 150 de ani (2013), Literatura, teatrul și filmul – In honor of playwright Matei Vişniec (2015), Culturi și civilizații est european. In memoriam Aida Todi (2016), Studiile și în context în inter și transdisciplinar. In memoriam Marin Mincu (2017), Ovidius în România. In memoriam Magistri Stephani Cucu (2018), Romanian Studies in the Year of the Centenary (2019) and 100 Years of the Romanian Novel (2020).
Like all previous volumes, this collection of essays was also subjected to a specialized expertise by scientific referees of the highest academic standards. We thank them once again for the support given to our project: Prof. univ. dr. Mircea Martin, University of Bucharest, corresponding member of the Romanian Academy; Christian Moraru, Professor of American Literature and Critical Theory, University of North Carolina, Greensboro; Prof. univ. dr. Lăcrămioara Petrescu, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași.
While this volume was in the editing process, we received the tragic news of the disappearance from among us of the honorary member of STUR, Christina Zarifopol-Illias, the discoverer of the unpublished correspondence between Eminescu and Veronica Micle, so, naturally, we dedicate this book to her memory
The volume begins with the texts of the two plenary lectures that opened the event. Christian Moraru, from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, entitles his meditation on the current status of Eminescu studies The National Shibboleth: Eminescu, Patrimonialization, and the Recognition Factory and laments the little international knowledge of Eminescu's work, in contrast to the great interest it enjoys in Romania. And we cannot but unanimously agree with the thought that eminescuology could be more concerned with the dissemination of Eminescu's work in an international context, not only through studies written in well-circulated languages, but also by appealing to critical operators synchronous with contemporary theoretical concerns, worldwide. Complementing this outside perspective, Elena Ionescu, from the University of Bucharest, chooses to discuss two of Eminescu's model exegeses, those signed by Edgar Papu and Zoe Dumitrescu Bușulenga, who are noted for their depth and common interest in Romanesque sensibility and for "probing the sonorous valences and the connection between poetry and music."
The contributions of the members and guests of the STUR Center on Eminescu themes bring to the forefront the most diverse concerns. Mona Momescu analyzes the transformation of the Eminescu figure, the central canon of Romanian culture, into a representative cultural icon for our collective identity. The case studies that illustrate this phenomenon are the events organized by Romanian institutions, held abroad, especially in New York, where the author taught Romanian studies for many years. Looking from the other side of the world, Marius Virgil Florea, a member of STUR and a graduate of Nanjing Normal University in China, where he will remain to teach Romanian, offers a broad picture of the reception of Eminescu's work in this cultural space, especially through translations.
Marina Cap Bun brings back into discussion the topicality of Eminescu's journalism, ensured not only by the depth of the poet's thinking, but also by the eternally repetitive strengths of Romanian society. Lăcrămioara Berechet investigates the Presence of Eminescu's "visual models" in the interwar novel. Alina Buzatu proposes a rereading of the rarely used text Archaeus. Florentina Nicolae analyzes Zoonyms in Eminescu's early lyric poetry, choosing entonyms as a case study.
There is no shortage of stylistic studies, such as those signed by Ioana Vasiloiu (Eminescu in T. Vianu's stylistic studies) and Cosmin Căprioară (Eminescu - in search of the right word).
The echoes of the author's German background are analyzed by Edith Hilde Kaiter, in her study German Culture and Mentalities in the Eminescu Literary Universe, and Florentina Gabriela Rusu focuses on Transpositions from Eminescu's lyrics into German: equivalent semantic and syntactic structures.
Ana Sîrbu, from the Eminescu International Academic Center in Chisinau, analyzes Eminescu's Golden Quant. Angelo Nicolae Mitchievici dwells on the dilemmatic detractors of Eminescu's work. Mirela Mihaela Doga discusses the theoretical landmarks of a possible Eminescu pedagogical system.
We would like to point out the presence in the summary of the volume of a significant number of doctoral students from the Doctoral School of Humanities at the "Ovidius" University of Constanța: Cristina Ileana Ilea (Rogojină) (Resurrection, necromancy and the motif of the bequest in Mihai Eminescu's fairy tales), Mădălina Stoica ("But beautiful and without a body..." - A reading of the body in Mihai Eminescu's lyric poetry), Luminița Moiseanu (Radu) (Metamorphoses of Eminescu's fantastic prose), Simona Bitaracu (Micăuţă) (Intercultural dialogue in Mihai Eminescu's journalism), Robert Andrei Stoica (The soteriological valences of Mihai Eminescu's literature. Mystical scenarios and the morphology of the shaman's ecstatic journey in "Poor Dionysus" and "Avatarii pharaonului Tlá"), Mihaela Ramona Nour (Mândreanu) (Eminescu and Caragiale), Alina Anamaria Ganea (Eminescu and politics), Alina Roxana Cioromelea (Panait) (Eminescu figure in film adaptations).
As has happened in almost all STUR volumes, the most promising students are also present, with fragments of their future undergraduate works: Maria Lavinia Ghimiciu (The Concept of "thirst" in Eminescu's poetics) and Augustin Virgiliu Petcu (The inorganic universe of a family chronicle. "The Fall of the House of Usher", by Edgar Allan Poe).
Although less extensive, this time too, the "Matei Vişniec Workshop" is not missing, resulting from the research of the working group dedicated to the author, established within STUR in 2014. Two doctoral students whose theses are in the final stages of writing communicate their research results in this context: Simona Nicoleta Minciu inventories Animal Presences in the work of Matei Vișniec, and Alice Safta is interested in Dramatic Poetics in the work of Matei Vișniec. A third PhD student, Emel Ismail, extensively reviews a meeting event of the “Cercul de Studii Romanianeşti”, which has been operating alongside the STUR center since 2014, with Matei Vişniec, the topic of the debate being his novel in progress Un secol de ceaţă, from which we had the honor of publishing previously unpublished fragments in the previous STUR volume.
We hope that this volume will also constitute a useful source of information, both for students, master’s and doctoral students, and for the general public, already familiar with the study volumes of the STUR center.
The volume coordinators