Bulletin of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library
PHILOBIBLON
Volume XII
2007
Cluj University Press 2007
Director: Doru RADOSAV Editors: István KIRÁLY, Florina ILIŞ and Ágnes KORONDI Editor of the English Text: Sally WOOD-LAMONT Scientific Advisors: Florina ILIŞ (Criticism and Literary Theory) Gyöngyi ORBÁN (Hungarian Literature and Literary Theory) Doru RADOSAV and Ionuţ COSTEA (History) Enikő ŠKOLKA (Psychology and Cognitive Sciences) Sally WOOD-LAMONT and Ana Maria CĂPÂLNEANU (Librarianship) Translators: Kata RUSU and Ágnes KORONDI Front Cover: arch. Tiberiu TRENEA photogr. György TASNÁDI
The PHILOBIBLON Editorial Office welcomes manuscripts for publication!
Correspondence related to articles, etc. should be addressed to: PHILOBIBLON “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library Str. Clinicilor nr.2 400006 CLUJ, Romania Tel: +40-264-597092/137 Fax: +40-264-597633 E-mail: [email protected]
The Contents of the issues of PHILOBIBLON, and the Abstracts of the main articles are available online at: http://www.bcucluj.ro/philo/philo.html
The articles of this periodical are included in the EBSCO Publishing products.
ISSN 1224 -7448
Contents
CULTURE, BOOKS, SOCIETY: ADRIAN MARINO AND HIS HORIZONS
Mircea POPA, Adrian Marino or the Daemon of Erudition...... 11
Adrian Marino’s Last Pages...... 24
Emilia-Mariana SOPORAN, An Active Friendship in the Realms of Multiculturalism: Andrei Pippidi–Adrian Marino……………………. 42
Alex GOLDIŞ, The Ideological System of Adrian Marino…………... 59
Florina ILIS, Adrian Marino and the Idea of Literature from a Hermeneutical Perspective……………………………………...…….. 70
Károly VERESS, On the Border of Text and Experience – About Adrian Marino’s Hermeneutics…………………………………...…... 81
Rodica FRENŢIU, Tatakau Hikaku Bungaku. Adrian Marino and the Militant Comparatism in Japan………………………………………. 115
Bujor PĂDUREANU, Das Phänomen des Agon bei Nietzsche...... 128
Ovidiu PECICAN, A Patriarch of Militant Europeanism: Adrian Marino………………………………………………………………... 162
Constantin M. POPA, Adrian Marino – The Impenitent Critic of Ideas...... 173
Monica SPIRIDON, Under the Zodiac Sign of the Alternative…..... 189
Gábor GYŐRFFY, An Autochthon Alternative of Free Culture during Communism………………………………………………………….. 195
István FEHÉR M., Idea and Tradition of Europe in the Light of Its Own History...... 205
Doru POP, Liberty as a Profession…………………...……………... 229
5
István KIRÁLY V., Liberty and Truth – Fragments about the “Cave- myth”…………………………… ………………………………..... 236
Sidonia GRAMA NEDEIANU, The Catharsis of Going out into the Street: Experiencing the 1989 Romanian Revolution………………... 251
LIBRARIANSHIP: HERMENEUTICA BIBLIOTHECARIA
Mircea ANGHELESCU, Adrian Marino and the Existential Library. An Essay………………………………………………………...……….. 279
Felix OSTROVSCHI, A Different Discourse – Adrian Marino……. 284
Rozália PORÁCZKY, Hungarian Cultural History in the Second Half of the 19th Century in Transylvania...... 296
Gheorghe VAIS, The University Library of Cluj – 1906–1909…….. 307
Luminiţa TOMUŢA, Remodelling a Library – Remodelling Mentalities...... 352
Gabriela MORĂRESCU, 2005: a New Approach to Branch Libraries…...... 358
Mariana FALUP, Achievements and Perspectives in Library Automation and Modernization…………………………………...…. 375
Carmen CRIŞAN, Using the Scientific Databases Subscribed to by the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library in the Year 2005…...…... 382
Alina Ioana ŞUTA, From the International Exchange of Publications to the Exchange of Experience – a Polish Contact…………………...… 403
Costel DUMITRAŞCU, Bibliographic Information or Tracking the Book in the Library…………………………………………………... 413
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS OF THE LIBRARY
Emilia-Mariana SOPORAN, The Adrian Marino Archive Collection of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library……………………… 419
6
Judit KOLUMBÁN, Exhibition of 16–18th Century Manuscripts in the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Homo Scribens: Memory Culture and the Typology of Writing in the 16–18th Century……...… 428
MISCELLANEA
Ruxandra CESEREANU, Adrian Marino between Unit-ideas and Zeitgeist………………………………………………………………. 437
Iulia GRAD, Jewish Philosophy: between Jerusalem and Athens….. 441
Raluca SOARE, A Man, a Book, a Library. Traian Brad – a Servant of Books……………………………………………………………...…. 447
Ildikó BÁN, Lidia Kulikovski: Library Services for People with Special Needs (Textbook for Librarians)……………………………………... 450
Ioana ROBU–Sally WOOD-LAMONT, The 10th Conference of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL)...... 454
7
CULTURE, BOOKS, SOCIETY
ADRIAN MARINO AND HIS HORIZONS
Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Adrian Marino or the Daemon of Erudition
Mircea POPA Faculty of Letters, “1 December 1918” University, Alba Iulia
Keywords: professional, uomo universale, comparatist, road-finder and opener, European values
Abstract The paper presents Adrian Marino, the daemon of erudition, the uomo universale in extinction. He was that type of erudite who lived at the confluence of two or three cultures, and aspired towards the universal Republic of Letters. He had fought for an open and dialogical culture, though his aspirations towards culture had been rejected for more than a decade by the interdiction of his signature right. Each of Adrian Marino’s books from Viaţa lui Alexandru Macedonski, until the Biografia ideii de literatură, and Pentru Europa put up in value the national potential of literary ideology, the authentic signals of our Europeanisation. Marino the comparativist and the ideologue was a voice that we needed, a constructive civic spirit who always had in sight each stratum of society, sailing over vast spaces the way he used to do in his literary works.
E-mail: [email protected]
Adrian Marino, the renowned man of culture and the outstanding comparatist unexpectedly passed away in Cluj on the night of 16 and 17 March in full creative power. He was a real phenomenon in the domains of our literary criticism and history that substantially marked Romanian literary life for a half century. In a period, when books were written about party activists and about the literary stream of the “Contemporanul” (magazine published by the socialist circle) Marino demonstrated that our literature had an other side as well, and which absolutely deserved to be explored and emphasized: symbolism, modernism, avant-garde. Thus he revealed the European vocation of Romanian literature along the Romanian presence in the international value-circulation. In a period of suppression by the postulations of the protochronist literature, by the suburban spirit of the Groapa and of Morometian ruralism, Adrian Marino turned our face towards Europe, revealing to us another model of our cultural mentality built up with such
11 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 enhancement in Cahiers roumains d’etudes Littéraires through which we attained another view on literature. For many the journal from Cluj represented a genuine literary school, a model of literary manifestation beyond serial novels and welcome criticism that dominated the literary actuality of the period. Settled down in Cluj after eight years of detention and other six of house arrest, Adrian Marino was the author of a literary creation, which together with the work of the members of the Sibiu Literary Circle – who also returned after an long absence – had visibly influenced the literary destiny of many creators, thus essentially contributing to the opening of ideas which appeared at the horizon simultaneously with the political loosening that scattered the mists of a smothering and obscure proletarian culture. The expressive and stylistic refinement, the ample circumscription of the problems were nourished by an elaborate and high quality culture which fertilized new spiritual realms for example that of the literary mentalities and ideas. Adrian Marino was a champion of ideological criticism, of the comparativist approach, and of the literary idea – a line launched in 1973 (with his Dictionary of the Literary Ideas and the above mentioned journal which was edited by him in 1973– 1980). This was conceived as a kind of alternative option to the official culture, for the stiffened officials of the age refused to offer him a position worthy of his knowledge and competence. Later, it was him who rejected the socialist charity and preferred working without “service certificate” or, as he liked to declare, “I remained up to this very day an entirely free professional”. The comparativist phase was also sustained both by means of a long series of study travels and by means of books attempting to bring the West home to us, for “I in the first place wanted to study in foreign libraries, to publish in another environment, arrested and imprisoned in full intellectual growth, nipped in the bud.” An entire sequence of travel journals, impressions and commentaries were thus born, such as Ole Espagna, 1974, Carnete Europene (European Notebooks), 1976, Prezenţe româneşti şi realităţi europene (Romanian Presences and European Realities), 1978. This was the time when he wrote his first book published in our country about Mircea Eliade [Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade (The Hermeneutics of Mircea Eliade), 1980], and another book about a French comparatist, Etiemble (Etiemble ou le comparatisme militant, 1982). “Militant comparatism” was a befitting characterization to him as well, for he indeed militated for the renewal of tradition in the interwar period: “I
12 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 wanted to start a tradition of Romanian theoretical studies, a completely neglected territory before”. He used the contact with the western world, his preoccupation with outdated texts and problems also as a method of self-defense, of survival beyond daily realities. “I was practically living in another world and another experience materialized through the books, coins, ceramics and different objects, reminding me of famous games and cultural monuments which were essential for me”. Work brought its well- earned retribution. His books were translated and published in France, Italy, the United States, Japan, and his activity was remunerated with the Herder Prize in 1985. However, he systematically refused any honour from the Romanian state (the proposal of “Honorary Citizen” of Cluj, the “doctor honoris causa” grade of the University of Cluj, and the membership of the Romanian Academy). He understood that he was meant to carry his cross until the end, because for many “I was and I continued to be a political prisoner”, willing to demonstrate that there was life beyond the institutional medium of a system that turned him into a marginal character. In all these years he was working at home in Rákóczi Street 72 (today Eremia Grigorescu 72), where during his working hours he disliked being disturbed even by phone, which was usually answered by his wife, Mrs Lidia Bote. This does not mean that he was not an affable host to his friends and acquaintances, what is more, many bookish people from Cluj found at him an open door, precious advice, encouragement, and often books missing from the common library network. He led a Benedictine life – the life of a “solitary” man. He entitled his memoirs – which are to be published within five years from his death – Viaţa unui om singur (The Life of a Solitary Man), and preferred to turn his own personal space of living into a place of European ideas and celebration of our culture. With Adrian Marino a species in process of extinction dies out: the type of uomo universale which lived at the confluence of two or three cultures, and which aspired towards the universal Republic of Letters, where every humanist of the age should have right of residence. He permanently sought to bring Europe to us, if we could not reach it in the period of communist terrorism where any contact with Europe was frozen. He described countries and institutions of culture, characterized the people he had known. He permanently fought for opening and dialogue in culture, he, the person whose aspirations towards culture had been rejected for more than a decade by interdiction of his right of signature. When it was given back, he knew how to humiliate his generation colleagues – former and more recent adepts of proletarian
13 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 culture – with his erudition, productiveness and tenacity for the creative work. He was a phenomenon of which those in my generation had taken full benefit. I visited him as many times as I could, as many times as I felt the need to find a book, information, a piece of advice, encouragement. A strange thing happened to Adrian Marino the critic. He made his debut in literature in the period before the Second World War under the patronage of George Călinescu, when the “divine critic” was publishing the review Jurnalul literar (Literary Journal), which Adrian Marino, student at that period used to read with devotion. The student dared to address a letter to the master, which he encouragingly answered to the post address of the editorial office: “Adrian Marino forget coyness. Come and let us talk!” (No. 47/1939). Willing to follow the Lovinescian example and launch a review for “those who come” (evidence that some later succesful critics and poets had made their debuts here, such as Al. Piru, G. Ivaşcu or Şt. Aug. Doinaş), Călinescu encouraged him and protected him, and later on made Marino his assistant next to Al. Piru, G. Ivaşcu and Dinu Pillat. Marino even made his doctoral dissertation under his supervision in 1946, choosing as his research theme in disagreement with the master’s inclination, who was then charmed by Eminescu, exactly his most contested rival, Alexanru Macedonski’s Life (Viaţa lui Al. Macedonski). The book could not appear until 1966, when his detachment from the master – formally decided back in 1946–47, as an answer to Călinescu’s servility towards the new power – was received with open surprise by some of his collaborators and could be made public. In a dialogue on the Călinescian inheritance Adrian Marino had shown himself to be more on the side of Tudor Vianu and the detachment gained more intensity with time. The few letters received from Călinescu and preserved in Adrian Marino’s archive, published by us in the Tribuna (The Tribune) review in 1996, did not yet indicate the rupture (though in some letters sent to him by Al. Piru, some teasing tones can be detected on the “Old Man’s” account, who used to put them to the prolonged toil of proofreading his works). The program and the aspirations of the young man can be seen in one of his rare public appearances, namely within the conference text held in 1944 at a sort of student congress, where he spoke About Literary Culture (Despre cultura literară). The text was published in the same year in the student review U. Preocupări universitare (U. University Preoccupations). In this he fixed some guidelines of a clearly assumed program of study and activity: rigorous lecture, detailed knowledge of the classical literature, profound and specialized school, suppression of dilettantism and of undigested impressions, the assuming
14 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 of some objectives with encyclopaedic character. Seen from the angle of his realizations the juvenile program of the young critic, Adrian Marino was perfectly adapted to his lifestyle and performances. The young student recommended a state of seriousness absolutely necessary for a new fulfilment on the European value scale. He felt that his generation must carry on the work began by Mircea Eliade’s generation and round it up to another level. He did not consider that serial-novels and critical impressionism would represent a solution, or that the Călinescian- exacerbated imagery enthusiastically imitated by contemporaries – jostling towards fragmentation and not towards the constructions of synthesis – would be recommendable for the critical spirit of the moment. Instead these partial enquiries he proposed far-reaching cultural initiatives, with a conceptually dominated theoretic reflection, in a context crossed by doctrinarian confrontations in which the life of the ideas is placed in the foreground. The hermeneutic perspective, comparativism, literary ideology in general, mentality studies, the political and literary imaginary dominated his works. He often declared that he was an “ideologue” and not a literary critic, a critic of ideas as it is more adequate to say. He instinctively felt “I do not belong to «the literary life», where I have always been a foreign entity, marginal, with all the troubles, qualities and deficiencies of this difficult status. The men of letters felt that I am not one of their species.” “We are still the victims of the aestheticist prejudice” – he used to say, reason for which he openly declared his separation from literary journalism, from peripatetic formulations, intellectual prudishness, and he had thus chosen another field of action for which he manifested the force and the enthusiasm of a neo-paşoptist. With his pioneer calling he placed his activity into the middle of other tides under other sailcloths, which could carry him far as possible towards other more fertile areas. He was an equal dialogue partner to the world’s great comparatists, with great creators of aesthetic and ideological systems, and by following his letters we are surprised to find that all literary values of the moment were keeping a fertile dialogue with the “solitary” from Cluj. Seemingly isolated from his contemporaries – more or less devoted servants of an official ideology – Marino was connected to another system of norms and values based on the idea of intransigence, on the superior ethics of writing. He never ignored the document, the biographic source, namely the most precise source (in time and place) of information, because in his opinion the age of improvisations, quotes by ear, unfounded take-overs, with other words the age of critical amateurism had reached its end, and he pleaded for the
15 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 documentation of the assertions with their exact sources based on authentic documents, which were capable of correcting the errors of approximation, the evaluating judgments, the stages of reception. He considered both the ideological as well as the sociologic, anthropologic, historical, literary and cultural context, a fact which often transfigured the critical act into a clumsy, heavy-weight machinery. This was therefore hard to control in its intimate functionality, as some contemporaries believed it to be, for whom the hyperbolized development of an enormous system of notes represented even the abolishment of the genuine critical intuition. Thus the critic delineated the object of his new preoccupation regarding this issue: “The criticism of the literary ideas starts on the other hand with the premise that the pleasure of analyzing a qualitatively literary idea makes level with the analysis of literary texts, sometimes even more superior and intense due to the profusion of intellectual associations and connotations implied by it”. In his opinion this critical direction was neither compatible with serial-novels and fragmentariness, nor with the generally impressionistic act and the elementary subjectivism. The critic had carried several campaigns on this theme and had irritated many spirits. However, he kept his attitude and position unaltered and sustained it with convincing scientific arguments, for each of his works from the period following the declaration of his belief evolved his point of view and turned it even more stable. It was also the case of Critica ideilor literare (The Critique of the Literary Ideas) (1974), a unique work of the kind in our literary historiography, where the concept of “criticism of the literary ideas” received new connotations. The delimitation from the past was more categorical not lacking the attempt of retrieving some forgotten or lost senses, but also through integration into a pre-existent system through a permanent process of algorithms and rapport to the ideological context of the time. This alteration of angles and various reference systems based on the careful examination of the dialectics of opposites simultaneously presupposing evolution and rupture made him approach the hermeneutic working system, applied on other occasions as well. This deep organic militarism permanently regards the situation of Romanian literature within European currents of value – a fundamental issue of his books. All over, where he talked about literary currents and tendencies, the Romanian comparatist insisted upon the method in which these currents had been born and configured on national scale, weaving each time a deep network of interconnections, influences, similitudes,
16 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 convergences between the great literatures of the world and our literature. What Wellek and Warren had forgotten to do was done by Adrian Marino, conferring thus other dimensions to the precursory renewals of the Avant-garde, as well as of Romanticism or Realism. Often the immense crucible of the literary ideas, manifesting in the national space was not only recurring, but it was also the bearer of new senses and nuances, which often placed us in a favourable world context. Each of Adrian Marino’s books from Viaţa lui Alexandru Macedonski, until the Biografia ideii de literatură, and Pentru Europa put up in value the national potential of literary ideology, the authentic signals of our Europeanization. However, Adrian Marino’s creational dimension has to be measured from the perspective of the obtained results, of his books, which recognize better than any speculation the preceding stages, and the alterations and silt marked by time. These phases opened up, naturally, with his Macedonskian writing phase. This phase was marked by the elaboration of the monographs Viaţa lui Alexandru Macedonski (The Life of Alexandru Macedonski) (1966), Opera lui Alexandru Macedonski (The Work of Alexandru Macedonski) (1967), and the publication of Opere I-VIII (Works I–VIII) (1966–1980), realized in collaboration with Elisabeta Brâncuşi. This was a phase of systematic radiograph of the period the inimitable poet wrote and lived in, a phase of plunging into the profundity of Macedonski’s works, a phase not entirely abolishing historicism, instead subjecting it to the stipulation of restructuring the creative personality of the analyzed subject in rapport to a cultural pattern: Macedonskianism being a way of existence determined according to the conceptions on art and literature. It was the first well- articulated biography of man and work, which corresponded to the inner voice, as it was dealing with a complex personality with various faces, but towards which he proved to have certain structural affinities. The Macedonskian self-respect, idolatry, singularity, and the expansive feature of the taken measures were continuously situated “à rebours” compared with the contemporaries, the “wounded” withdrawal within the frames of a singular programme, the wide range of preoccupations, the ambition of becoming a European, rapid connection to the different systems and currents of idea, sometimes even contrary to each other, fanaticism, programmed defiance of the realities: all these made the Macedonskian character a man of transition, a man exceeding his age. The writer’s “rehabilitation” had been made by an exemplary method, by revealing the real dimensions of a genial creator in permanent contrast
17 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 with his age. Marino’s books dedicated to Macedonski unquestionably represented the most spectacular restoring to actuality of an unjustly forgotten and misinterpreted Romanian writer. The appearance of these writings with a twenty-year delay occurred in a moment when the critic Adrian Marino was making his first steps towards another type of comprehending literature. The sequence of articles published in the Lumea (The World), review dedicated to the Romanian Enlightenment, already attested the new orientation that he was inclining towards: the criticism of the literary ideas. This phase was directly inaugurated by the Dicţionarul de idei literare (The Dictionary of the Literary Ideas) from 1973 and consolidated by the Critica ideilor literare (The Critique of the Literary Ideas) (1974), Hermenetica lui Mircea Eliade (Mircea Eliade’s Hermeneutics) (1980) and Hermeneutica ideii de literature (The Hermeneutics of the Idea of Literature) (1987). These books appeared on the market after some kind of initiation in domain with Introducere in critica literară (Introduction to Literary Criticism) (1968), Modern, modernism şi modernitate (Modern, Modernism and Modernity) (1969), and Clasicism, baroc, romantism (Classicism, Baroque, Romatism) (1971). Systematically following the way in which the acceptations and invariants of the term of literature were constituted, the author operated in a double system from the beginning: terminological and significant, referring thus to philological, cultural and historical arguments. First of all the “original frame” was delimited in which the literary idea had been born, and its cultural circuit had been established, because the idea as such could not be understood inside its tradition and history. The term was drawn out of all its external and encrusted meanings by the analysis of its etymologic, litterae and gramata meanings by way of setting-up two oppositional groups – written/oral, sacred/profane –, the dialectic of which determined the establishment of a genuine mythology of literature as a sum of the books and as a utopia of the library. The practiced hermeneutic approach, was reiterated in other dimensions and parameters in the massive series of the Biografia ideii de literatură (The Biography of the Idea of Literature), in which all the sense-generating metamorphoses and reinfoldings related to the harmonization endured by them in the reading process were repeated. It is an international work, worthy of any research institute in the world both through the entirely modern and actual theme, and through its method. Each volume contains over one hundred pages of bibliography, from which nothing worthy of attention is missing. If the first volume has a rather introductive character, distinctly with theoretical debates, then
18 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 with the second, consecrated to the Century of Lights, we actually enter into the mentality alterations and the enrichment of the concept in the 20th century. The differentiating notes, the formative accents, moments of crisis, and diversification are observed. Thus, if in the Century of Lights the accent was placed more on “popularization”, now specialization and elitism start to predominate, the rapport between the sacred and profane literature changes in favour of the latter, and the cleavage between poetry and other literary branches, as well as between written and oral registers increases significantly. The chapter “Literature about Literature” is totally remarkable by its excellent analysis of the tendencies from actual criticism and through the significant conceptual explanations. The last chapter “Classicizing of the Idea of Literature” discusses on both a national and international scale the situation of books, libraries, bibliographic and encyclopaedic instruments regarding literature. When reading it, the reader becomes acquainted with the constructive and informative efforts of the author. The fifth volume comes with important reflections regarding the six dominant concepts: national literature, universal literature, popular literature, mass literature, subliterature and paraliterature. If the first concepts are older, and have a past and evolution that can be tracked in time, the last ones are creations of the 20th century when the diversity of literary forms and reader types has multiplied. The terms are followed by the author in all their complexity and acceptations in a hermeneutical come-and-go, part-and-whole movement that highlight his analytic qualities, in such a way that the domain of the history of literary ideas now gains a new configuration. The method the author uses to record the conceptual changes of meaning brought up by the totalitarian regimes, especially the communist ones, which deliberately altered the meaning of certain terms, for example “popular literature” gaining the meaning of “literature for the people”. The author brings an essential contribution to the elucidation of the notions of subliterature and paraliterature, the first being opposed to the binomial distribution of major literature – minor literature. The latter finding rapports to the mass-media system, comic books, movie and television scripts, production for consume magazines, etc., beginning to infest the traditional creation. The critic of idea’s ambitious project conceived as a culmination of a life-long activity finishes with the author’s intention to offer “a basic reference point for critical and literary historical orientation and valuation.” The sixth volume constitutes a well-thought and balanced conclusion of the previously uttered points of view, in which many of the
19 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 concepts entered the crisis phase and needed to be reconsidered as well. This is the same in the case of the concept of literature – too restrictively defined by the reductionists, or too indulgently by the avantgardists –, which also must be given back its original meaning. Beyond these extreme forms and situations, the author searches viable points of view, the secure ground for reinstalling the terms can only be the aesthetic valorisation, discussing confidently the criteria of a good definition, and with his accustomed methodological rigorousness and superior spirit of synthesis lingering over each factor of the discussion, namely over the cultural, ideological, aesthetical, historical, sociological, etc. criteria, by abolishing the stereotypes, digressing discussions and common places. The book signals all these mental mutations, takes sides, expresses his position, creates a situation of mental comfort. His ideas in Epilog (Epilogue) are especially noteworthy, being a kind of creed of the author intransigently on duty for over six decades, a man devoted to writing and to his great problems transforming him in into a front-liner, and into a solitary long-distance runner. Beginning with the year of the Romanian revolution the preoccupations of comparativism underwent certain changes and accommodations. We now perceive the critic’s new orientation, his new definition in rapport with the mentality shifts that occurred. His pro- European attitude increased by materializing in categorical journalistic appearances, as well as in his active political engagement to the National Democratic Peasants’ Party beside Corneliu Coposu, Doina Cornea, Ana Blandiana (on the Civic Alliance line), or in the circles of the Anti- Totalitarian Front, to which he gave structure and operational base. On the other hand, the books that he opted for have an obvious political- ideological dimension. The first one was Pentru Europa. Întegrarea României. Aspecte ideologice şi culturale (For Europe. Romania’s Intergration. Ideological and Cultural Aspects) (1995), then followed by Politică şi cultură. Pentru o nouă cultură română (Politics and Culture. For a New Romanian Culture) (1996), Revenirea în Europa, idei şi controverse româneşti, 1990–1995 (Return to Europe, Romanian Ideas and Controverses 1990–1995) (1996), or even Cenzura în România (Censorship in Romania), a small “introductory historical sketch” (2000), a kind of introduction to a vast work, Cenzură şi libertate în România (Censorship and Liberty in Romania) on which he worked until the last moment and which was never finished. His point of view was nuanced in the Sorin Antohi interview book Al treilea discurs. Cultură, ideologie şi politică în România (The Third Discourse. Culture, Ideology and Politics
20 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 in Romania) published in 2001 by the Polirom Publishing House. This book follows ruthlessly and by no parti pris the actual situation of Romanian culture at that hour, the manner in which we positioned and will position ourselves towards the changes occurring in the country. This was actually initiated in Politics and Culture, where the starting point was constituted by the situation of Romanian culture in the totalitarian period, situation that marked ideologically and morally each generation implicated in the development of the present day Romanian culture. The frames of this situation are marked in various situations and aspects, and the liberation from the past induced a significant exaggeration of the political factor: “we are living a period of intensive politization of Romanian society and culture, but things still have a predominantly spontaneous, sometimes even fuzzy feature. A well-formulated, argued politics of idea is what we are often short of” – stated Adrian Marino in the introduction of the article “Literatură şi politică” (Literature and Politics). He argued for firmer steps for the writer on the field of political ideas, because the transition phase must also be a welcomed clarifying and settling phase of society and of the cultural flux on other structural basis. The line of continuity must reflect the resumption of our culture’s tradition of resistance against the interference of the political factor and against the distortion of applied aesthetics. The repudiation of any kind of irrationalism and dogmatism, of accidental tendencies and nationalist reminiscences represent actions of emergency regarding the elimination of the disastrous effects of communist collaborationism. One's finding the way out from the labyrinth has to be a test of individual experience, from this results also the analysis of some specific cases: the Noica case, the Mircea Eliade case, the Cetatea Totală (Total Fortress) case of Constantin Dumitrescu, then the books of some insurgents of the type of Andrei Pleşu, Mircea Dinescu, Alina Mungiu, Octavian Paler, Ioan Petru Culianu, Horia R. Patapievici, Doina Cornea, Virgil Nemoianu, Matei Călinescu, Andrei Cornea, Sorin Antohi and others, who directly attacked the stringent problems of our society. The fundamental attitude towards these phenomena was called by Adrian Marino “neo-paşoptism” and it was discussed in the Sorin Antohi interview-book. This would be similar to the “third discourse”, the one at the confluence between autochthonism and Europeanism, between the isolation holding on to specificities and European integration. “In my opinion – asserted Adrian Marino – it is important for the present day Romanian youth to see that everything does not start with 1989 or 2000, that there are local traditions of liberal thinking and even of actions in the sense of some liberal ideas… I might
21 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 write a book, a message for Romania in the spirit of neo-paşoptism, but for now I have other plans instead. I am talking to an alter ego and I am making confessions in an unusual manner. I do not have anything to hide, I am an extrovert temper, and I tell everything I have in my head. I believe that after a period of inhibitions, of censorship and fear, of isolation and of total Romanian muzzling, Romanians should start to speak freely and openly.” Such phrasings are to be met at each step in Adrian Marino’s writings after 1989. He truly felt obliged to be actively present at the democratization of the country, at the public debate, to step out in the limelight and mobilize the conformist spirits petrified in their apolitical attitudes, by the necessity of a more strenuous activity from the civil society in order to establish another climate of feeling and thinking. His signature can be traced in publications of a great variety, beginning with Sfera politicii (The Sphere of Politics), Libertatea (Liberty), Mozaicul (The Mosaic), Timpul (The Time), Tribuna Aredealului (Transylvanian Tribune), Observatorul cultural (Cultural Observer), Dilema (The Dilemma), 22, etc., where his fundamentally liberal, rationalist, neo- paşoptist way of thinking comprehensively attacked all serious problems of Romania, lashing the governing political class for its immorality and immobility, emphasizing the dangers of stagnation in transitions. A firm conscience, a persuasive and intransigent action style, a stable scale of values, clear objectives are the essential elements of this tireless effort for returning to normality, for the effacement of any shapes of totalitarianism. Adrian Marino, who endured year after year obstruction, moral misery, and the effects of “class-struggle” that induced him to make his publishing debut at 44, was not merciful with the thick-headed and pervert individuals supported by the communist system, for whom the Lustration law should have been applied back in the first year of the Revolution. In certain cases he felt the need of delimiting even from Cioran or Noica, by not agreeing to the idea of “Romanians in delirium”, with some brethren’s dark or exalted state of spirit, who lost the sight of the final task. Intolerant towards himself and towards others, Marino the comparativist and the ideologue was a voice that we needed, a constructive civic spirit who always had in sight each stratum of society, sailing over vast spaces the way he used to do in his literary works. His house on Eremia Grigorescu Street in Cluj Napoca, stuffed with countless books, files and notes was a House of ideas, a kind of free Institute, a meeting point of meridians of freedom, competition and simulative action. Now, when Romanian comparativism is flimsier than ever,
22 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 lacking personalities, the absence of Adrian Marino from the battlefield of the ideas and from public literary life represents an enormous loss. We miss him more and more, his encouraging, and guiding glance, and the need for masters is growing acuter than ever.
23 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Adrian Marino’s Last Pages1
Keywords: idea of freedom, politico-social freedom, personal freedom, freedom of press, democracy, civil rights, human rights, right to revolution, natural law, absolutism, Enlightenment, French Revolution
Abstract: This article contains the last pages written by Adrian Marino before he died. The study presents the evolution of the idea of freedom in Transylvania in the first half of the 19th century. Investigating the philosophical and political writings of scholars and thinkers like I. Budai- Deleanu, Moise Nicoară, D. Ţichindeal, Petru Maior, Gh. Bariţ etc. and the several petitions addressed to the Habsburg emperors, Adrian Marino outlines the way in which the basic ideas of the Enlightenment and of the French Revolution were assimilated by the Romanian political- philosophical discourse. Because of the absolutistic regime, civil and human rights (such as the right to resistance, revolt and revolution) could not be discussed and demanded in a way that would have threatened the socio-political status quo. Therefore the entire discussion about political and social freedom was projected into the abstract sphere of concepts, ideas and purely theoretical systems. However, the notions and ideas debated penetrated the Romanian political language and prepared the ground for concrete political actions.
Politico-social freedom By a concurrence of historical circumstances the idea of freedom went through the most spectacular and fecund evolution in Transylvania in the first half of the 19th century. From an abstract principle and an essentially practical, speculative theory, the idea of freedom became a leading idea, a forceful idea, a concept with practical, politico-social, direct and immediate efficiency. It was, actually, the first concrete demand and experience of freedom as an active socio-political principle in the Romanians, a veritable historical event. At the same time it was the centre of a constellation of adjacent meanings and the force that animated them all. And if it was yet expressed prudently, with limits, this was due to the same difficult historical circumstances. The idea of freedom could
1 Adrian Marino was working on a book on censorship. This is an excerpt from this book.
24 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 not be expressed clearly and entirely because of the absolutistic regime and the censorship, specific to the age. In spite of all these difficulties the ideological progress of the idea of freedom was remarkable.
Personal freedom On the level of the immediate social, pragmatic existence the freedom of thinking, religion, verbal expression written or printed was reduced to the essential and concisely defined idea of personal liberty. It was the most concentrated, direct and immediately perceptible form of freedom. By affirming, demanding and defending these ideas we are removed from the area of theoretical abstraction into the domain of immediate social realities. The idea of freedom, in this way, made the decisive leap towards politics.1 Respectively – to reduce everything to the essential –, towards organized and legislated forms in a constitutional frame, with a democratic system of government. If we accept that I. Budai-Deleanu wrote the first version of his Ţiganiada (The Gypsiad) in the year 1800, we observe that the Romanians from Transylvania began, for the first time, to be aware of such new political ideas as “constitution”, “law”, “democracy”, “citizen” etc., already from the beginning of the 19th century. The ideological influence of the French Revolution was immediate and contagious. In this respect, Canto XI from Ţiganiada has central importance from the point of view of the idea of political liberty. Freedom granted by law is confirmed by a democratic constitution. The debate on the best system of government proposes, very much in the spirit of the 18th century, a compromising solution: “demo-aristo-monarchic” (“demo- aristo-monarhicească”) (Ţiganiada, XI, 70). Somewhat differently formulated, the idea can be found at Montesquieu (De l’Esprit des Lois, XI, ch. VI), illustrating the counterbalancing of state-powers, at Baron d’Holbach (Du Systèm social, I.II. ch. II) and others. It was the most progressive view of the age. The primary meaning was the elimination of class privileges and the initiation of a democratic regime. In this spirit, Moise Nicoară (in a text from 1819) assimilated the idea of “people” to “the poor” (“sărăcimea”), respectively, to the majority of the population, which is the basic principle of democracy: “By communities is understood neither the clergy, nor the nobility but the people, the poor in fact” (“Prin comunităţi nu se înţelege clerul, nici nobilii sau nemeşii, ci poporul adecă
1 D. Bojincă, Biblioteca românească (Romanian Library), III, 1830, p. 8.
25 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 sărăcimea.”).1 And the “people”, respectively, “the poor” exercise their power, respectively, their sovereignty within the democratic system by deputies. The idea appeared in the same texts and context. The Transylvanian political consciousness of the age took a step forward. Evidently, the notion of law had already been known, formulated and applied in the Austro-Hungarian Empire before, but in the form of “letters patent”, “aulic decree”, “imperial decree” etc. These were the expressions of the imperial will, more or less well-meaning, as in the privileged case of Joseph II, within the limits of absolutistic authority. In the same meaning the notion did not have – and could not have – a democratic content. We return once more to Budai-Deleanu, the first Transylvanian ideologists to define the new content of the notion “law”. He asked for “good and just laws” (Ţiganiada, XI, 51), meaning that “none should rule without law” (“niciunul să nu stăpânească fără numai legea”) (XI, 206). The turnabout was radical. The arbitrary supreme authority was abolished, replaced with the truly “revolutionary” new principle: the equality of “citizens” (the notion itself also appears, XI, 64, 65) before the law, this being equal for everyone. It is one of the “general rights” of “civic society”; these were considered to be fundamental by the same I. Budai-Deleanu.2 Freedom or “slobozenia”3 was the first of these more and more defined rights. The idea is very clear in Moise Nicoară’s formulation: “Freedom and full will without any impediment to do what the law allows one to do, as well as total freedom without any constraint not to do what the law forbids” (“Slobozenia şi plină voie fără vreo împiedecare a şi face ceea ce legea îi dă dreptul, precum şi slobozenia întreagă fără nici o silinţă, a nu face aceea la ce îl opreşte legea”).4 This definition of liberty – as well as its later developments – had a specifically abstract, radical character, without any reference to the immediate politico-social realities in Transylvania (as in the case of the
1 Cornelia Bodea, “Moise Nicoară (1784–1861) şi rolul său pentru emanciparea naţional-religioasă a românilor din Banat şi Crişana” [Moise Nicoară (1784– 1861) and His Role in the National-Religious Emancipation of the Romanians from Banat and Crişana], (doctoral dissertation) part I, p. 63. 2 Ion Budai-Deleanu, Scrieri inedite (Unpublished Writings), edited, introduced and annotated by Iosif Pervain, Cluj-Napoca, Dacia Publishing House, 1970, p. 82. 3 This is an obsolete form for the word ‘freedom’ in Romanian. (Translator’s note.) 4 Cornelia Bodea, op. cit., p. 93–94.
26 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
French Revolution), but this definition was not commented on or directly referred to in contemporary situations and events. Because of this the definition of freedom maintained its doctrinal purity without disturbing the constituted politico-social order. This permitted the expression and analysis of the idea, thoroughly, in conditions of purely theoretical total freedom. This was an important aspect as the analysis of the idea of freedom inevitably showed lights and shadows, positive and negative aspects. All the theoreticians of the idea of freedom from Transylvania were fully aware of the fact that freedom is at the same time an ambiguous and explosive reality, a constructive or destructive force, according to circumstances. In a modern formulation, it is polyvalent, polysemantic. It is a proof of real lucidity and objectivity. Freedom – we are told – has, according to the circumstances, “good” and “bad” aspects. For the pioneers of the idea, this clairvoyance was a remarkable truth. Into the regime of total freedom, equivalent to bellum omnium contra omnes (we may recall Hobbes and his Leviathan, 1651), the law introduces a principle of order and, therefore, of general security. Its absence transforms society into a field of generalized ferocity (in the 19th century there would be talk about “social Darwinism”). D. Ţichindeal, according to all indications, was the first Romanian author who signalled this negative situation in his Filosoficeşti şi politiceşti prin fabule moralnice învăţături (Philosophical and Political Thoughts by Means of Moral Fables and Lessons) (1814): “Where freedom is greater, turbulence is worse for freedom without wise laws and control is a ferocious beast.” (“Acolo unde e mai mare slobozenie, acolo e mai rea turbarea căci slobozenia fără de legile înţelepte şi stăpânire e sălbatecă fiară.”)1 The law introduces another important corrective into the relationship between the individual, the “citizen” and state authority. The former can assume the liberty not to obey the law. What is more: he can choose to bypass superior regulations, orders or interdictions. Or, in D. Ţichindeal’s words, he can have an “open and free way” towards the enlightened monarch.2 He can address him directly, to complain about different transgressions. And more than this, to remind him that he himself must respect the law and should not change it arbitrarily. Although he referred only to church regulations, Petru Maior invoked the principle that “not all authority is
1 D. Ţichindeal, Fabule şi moralnice învăţături (Fables and Moral Lessons), edited and introduced by Virgil Vintilescu, Timişoara, Facla Publishing House, 1975, p. 486. 2 Ibid., p. 326.
27 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 free to renew the law” (“nu toată puterea are volnicia a face înoire în lege”).1 Bishop Bob, for example, had no right to ignore the canons. In the most radical interpretation (Moise Nicoară), laws were recognized to be “greater and more powerful than one side or the other, even than the emperor or the priest” (“mai mari şi mai puternice decât o parte sau alta, chiar decât împăratul sau popicul”).2 The subversive potential of this amendment was considerable. It opened a way for the theoretico-ideological legitimation of revolt. For the first time in Romanian political thinking, the right to revolution was proclaimed and justified at the same time. The situation is extremely significant from the perspective of the history of ideas. Because of the absolutistic regime political freedom and the right to resistance, revolt and revolution could not be openly demanded. Therefore the entire discussion was projected into the abstract sphere of concepts, ideas and purely theoretical systems. They could penetrate and circulate at the height of an absolutistic regime because of the great prestige of the enlightenment ideology, illustrated by famous philosophers, authors and works, intensely translated. To this was added the policy of the “enlightened despotism”, of Josephinism, realised by important reforms, being in a great measure reflected in the language. The great notoriety of the American and then of the French Revolution followed by the republican and Napoleonic wars, having political effects of primary importance, reached Transylvania too, as we have seen. The immediate political sense covered and overshadowed the ideological sense of events and direct influences. But, in a historical perspective, the new political ideology spread over and conquered, step by step, the field. It was the essential ideologico-political event in Transylvania in the first half of the 19th century. It is instructive to follow the career made by the idea of revolution in the Transylvanian society of the age. The notion penetrated quickly and can be discovered almost everywhere: in chronicles, petitions presented to the monarch, newspaper articles (beginning with the third
1 Petru Maior, Istoria bisericei românilor atât a cestor din coace, precum şi a celor din colo de Dunăre (The Ecclesiastical History of the Romanians Living on This and the Other Side of the Danube), Buda, 1813, p. 325. 2 Cf. Emanuel Turczynski, De la iluminism la liberalismul timpuriu. Vocile politice şi revendicările lor în spaţiul românesc (From the Enlightenment to the Early Liberalism. The Political Voices and Their Demands in the Romanian Region), Bucharest, the Publishing House of the Romanian Cultural Foundation, 2002, p. 130.
28 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 decade) etc. In an absolutistic context this circulation – at first sight – is paradoxical. But if we look attentively, we observe that the subversive force of the idea was confined, prudently, only to allusions, the direct references to immediate political situations being carefully avoided. Not always, however. In the founding manifesto of the Society for the Cultivation of Romanian Language (April 1808) great “messianic” hopes were placed in a revolution: “If an unfortunate revolution humiliated us, one more fortunate may raise us”.1 So it was perceived as a veritably forceful idea. Moise Nicoară (1819) had the same conviction. Revolution in spe gives an explanation and, at the same time, a more [illegible word] solution to the politico-social crisis: “These evils cannot be cured unless by revolution and revolt” (“Răutăţile acestea nu se pot vindeca decât prin revoluţie şi răscoală”).2 We may remember that Nicolae Stoica of Haţeg, a traditional chronicler, used the word “revolt” (“rebelie”) as well. Meanwhile political language evolved: it was permeated by ideology and adapted to the contemporary western vocabulary. The word evolved from “turbulence” (“tulburare”), “rebellious against the state” (accusation made against Şincai3), against the politico- social order, from being at the impulse of civic and political disobedience, to the supreme sacrifice in the name of freedom. Freedom (slobozia) was the basic motivation, evident echo of the French Revolution. The idea had already appeared in Ţiganiada, XII, 115, by demanding the right: “Either to freedom or to death” (“Ori la slobozie sau la moarte”). Then it assumed the form of a popular movement and enthusiasm as in Andrei Mureşanu’s poems, Un răsunet (An Echo) (1839), Glasul unui român (The Voice of a Romanian) (1843). The idea was made national in order to become the expression of the famous French device, liberty, equality, fraternity, which got generalized;4 in order to become, in February 1848, a non-violent, but radical change of the entire legal order of the society. A very explicit text belongs to Gh. Bariţ. His essential preoccupation to clear up all confusion related to the
1 Cf. Mircea Popa, Aspecte şi interferenţe iluministe (Enlightenment Aspects and Interferences), Timişoara, Western Publishing House, 1997, p. 205. 2 Cornelia Bodea, op. cit., p. 75. 3 Gheorghe Hou, “1796 Ancheta lui Gheorghe Şincai acuzat de rebeliune” (1796 The Inquiry in the Case of Gheorghe Şincai Accused of Rebellion), Vatra (The Hearth), VI, 56, 1976, p. 581. 4 George Bariţ, Scrieri social-politice (Socio-Political Writings), study and anthology by Victor Cheresteşiu, Camil Mureşan and George Em. Marica, Bucharest, Political Publishing House, 1962, p. 190.
29 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 term itself is to be remembered. This proves that for many people the notion was still doubtful and compromising (1848). “First of all, let us explain the term revolution thoroughly. When we say revolution [revolution: evident proof of French influence – our note] we are far from understanding this as bloody revolts, frightening turbulences, civil wars, repelling the state into anarchy. God forbid! Revolution means none of these, on the contrary; this word is understood only as a total change of those laws and governments, which could not be suffered anymore because of their injustice oppressing peoples who, though groaning under them, were not able to shake them off unless by a miracle…”1 Until this stage of conceptual clarification, still elementary, the idea of revolution had gone through several stages. It had been the object of some analysis, summary at first, but more and more conclusive. It had been explained and justified by invoking a right little known and cultivated as yet, the right to revolution. Arguments had been brought up in the favour of this right, whose content widened quite quickly. It became at the same time civil, politic and democratic. The accent shifted more and more towards the ideas like individual, man, citizen, democracy, equality. This was an important ideological moment: for the first time Romanian political consciousness began to assimilate and to demand the liberty of an alternative political right, besides, beyond or against the constituted legal order.
Human rights If, in 1785, a Dutch newspaper sympathising with the uprising led by Horea, Cloşca and Crişan (also defended by the future Girondist revolutionary J.-P. Brissot2) demanded the abolition of serfdom in the name of “the sacred rights of mankind”, the same rights were to be claimed by the Romanians from Transylvania as well. The memorandum submitted to the emperor Leopold II in March 1971, known as Supplex Libellus Valachorum, opened a new way for an entire series of petitions. They illustrated tacitly a fundamental right come into use, that of addressing petitions and reclamations to supreme state authorities. The
1 George Bariţ, op. cit., p. 127–128. 2 Pompiliu Teodor, “L’esprit de la révolution démocratique; J.-P. Brissot et la revolt de Horea”, Cahiers Roumains d’Études Littéraires, 2/1977, pp. 30-43; formerly: Nicolae Edroiu, Răsunetul european al răscoalei lui Horea (1784– 1785) [The European Echo of Horea’s Uprising (1784–1785)], Cluj, Dacia Publishing House, 1971.
30 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 bureaucratic structure of the Habsburg Empire favoured this pre- democratic practice. Being, first of all, the expression of some deep interior unrest, but also the ideological reflection of the French Revolution then in full development, Supplex Libellus Valachorum, signed by “the clergy, nobility, military and citizen class of the whole Romanian nation from Transylvania”, had its ideological base clearly in the Enlightenment. This fact can also be explained by the intellectual formation of its new animators: Samuil Micu, Ioan Piuariu Molnar, Iosif Meheşi, Petru Maior, Gh. Şincai, Petru Pană and others. Each of them was extremely receptive to the idea that in addition to historical rights existed the rights of the “civil society” in general. This is why “both the rights of each man apart and of the community of citizens” (“drepturile şi a omului fieştecăruia deosebi şi a însoţirii cetăţeneşti”), in the sense of juribus civilis, as it was written in the Supplex, was referred to.1 In the Latin version, printed by Piuariu Molnar in 1791 at Iaşi as a fictive place, human and civil rights were announced as: jura et simplicita, tum hominis, tum civis jura. Both expressions sanctioned the first Romanian formulation of the (French) Declaration from 1789, being understood according to its spirit and its letter. It had enjoyed a certain audience since then and it had been largely spread in the progressive Romanian circles having ideological preoccupations. This proves that “civil rights” were not talked about only in the Supplex, but in other petitions of the age as well, that from 1st March and 12th September 1791, where there were demanded insistently “the creation of the civil community” (“izvodirile însoţirii cetăţeneşti”), “the essential rights due to the community of citizens” [“cuviincioasele conţivilitaşului esenţial(e) drepturi”] etc. A supplication from 1st July 1792 formulated once more some demands for the Romanians “as equity and justice demands” (“după cum cere echitatea şi dreptatea”). A. Papiu Ilarian was therefore not wrong when he wrote, in 1869, talking about Gh. Bariţ’s works and ideas, that the Romanians from Transylvania “claimed alone in the east of Europe [that year – our note] the human and civil rights”. Unfortunately,
1 D. Prodan, Supplex Libellus Valachorum. Din istoria formării naţiunii române (Supplex Libellus Valachorum. From the History of the Formation of the Romanian Nation), new revised and enlarged edition, Bucureşti, Scientific and Encyclopaedic Publishing House, 1984; Supplex Libellus Valachorum or the Political Struggle of the Romanians in Transylvania during the 18th Century, Bucharest, Publishing House of the Academy of the Socialist Republic of Romania, 1971.
31 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 the history of ideas had not been cultivated in Romania in order to contextualize and emphasize this principle. The mentioned memorandum from 1792 was unsuccessful; however, the idea upon which it had been based did not die. On the contrary, it circulated intensely, being revived and reconfirmed even at the height of the Napoleonic era when “human and civil rights”, without being theoretically denied, had practically been suppressed in their country by the emperor’s authoritarian regime. But in the outside the principle always radiated and I. Budai-Deleanu in Ţiganiada (XI, 49) noted doctrinairely: “All the people who are in this world are born alike; neither does their nature differentiate them at their birth. Therefore, according to their nature they all are the same and they all have the same rights.” (“Oamenii toţi câţi sunt pe lume se nasc asemenea; nici firea din sineşi îi osebeşte la naşterea lor. Aşa dar din fire toţi sunt de potrivă şi toţi au aceleaşi drepturi.”) In his turn, in 1814, in his Fabule (Fables) (112), D. Ţichindeal wrote: “Sacred justice demands that everyone should be given his due” (“Sfânta dreptate cere ca fieştecăruia să i se de ce i se cuvine.”). In 1815, the same Ţichindeal submitted petitions to Emperor Francis I, in his capacity as (the order is totally significant) “man, citizen, priest and subject” (“als Mann, Bürger, Priester und Unterthan”). He also invoked “the most sacred right to self-defence” (“Das geheiligste Recht der Selbstvertheidigung”). The notions had entered, as we can see, in the language of the age and our enlightened writers were not afraid to use them before the authorities. The invoked firmness inscribed a date into the ideological consciousness of the age. For the first time a fundamental political principle had a thought-out formulation, expressed in all its consequences. A new idea in pure, abstract, absolute state made its apparition. It initiated an innovative conception of the relationship between individual and state, between laic, rational, individual conscience and dominant religious mentality. The breach was considerable and without precedent in Romanian history. It is almost amazing to learn that I. Budai-Deleanu expressed this notion very categorically at the end of his life, about 1818: “Man’s natural rights can be prescribed by no positive law… Any law has to be just first of all… It is unjust to deprive someone of his freedom, of his civil and political existence.” (“Drepturile naturale ale omului nu pot fi prescrise prin nici o lege pozitivă... Orice lege trebuie să fie în primul rând dreaptă... Este
32 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 nedrept să răpeşti altuia libertatea sa, existenţa cetăţenească şi politică.”)1 A shift can be observed from the generally speaking “anthropological” notion of “man” to the notion of humanity; a moral and social category as well as a new notion, which appeared in the Romanian ideological vocabulary of the age. It was invoked by Aron Budai “the spirit of this age praised for the humanity, which demands that everyone should be given his right” (“spiritul acestui veac lăudat pentru umanitatea care cere ca fiecăruia să i se dea dreptul său”).2 For Moise Nicoară – with the same conviction – there was no other guarantee for respecting justice: “Without which all human and imperial laws are only illusions.” (“Fără de care toate legile omeneşti şi împărăteşti sunt numai amăgiri.”) From here originates “justice, resistance to oppression, the right to petitions” (“dreptatea, rezistenţa la opresiune, dreptul la petiţie”)3 and others. We do not pretend to have made a complete inventory of the texts, which eulogized “human rights”. But all indices lead to the conclusion of a principle unanimously accepted (in this ideological sphere), of a veritable axiom. To mention a concluding example: even an honest spirit, a rigid theologian as Timotei Cipariu subscribed to it. He cited with eulogy on several occasions “human rights”. He mentioned – who would have expected? – even the “Jacobins”.4 The regeneration and enrichment of the politico-ideological vocabulary is evident.
Natural rights We were going through a period of quick and radical modernization of the ideological language, a process which directly enriched the national language. A new notion, specific to the 18th century, penetrated suddenly: the law of nature. It was invoked as fundamental argument in the legitimation of human rights in the two essential interpretations of the age: the Montesquieu phase (De l’Esprit des Lois), “necessary rapports which derive from the nature of things” (Voltaire can be mentioned too
1 Ion Budai-Deleanu, De originibus populorum Transylvaniae. Despre originile popoarelor din Tranilvania (On the Origin of the Peoples of Transylvania), edited by Ladislau Gyémánt, introduced by Ştefan Pascu and Ladislau Gyémánt, annotated and translated by Ladislau Gyémánt, Bucharest, Encyclopaedic Publishing House, 1991, I, p. 320. 2 D. Prodan, op. cit., p. 387. 3 Cornelia Bodea, op. cit., p. 299. 4 Mircea Popa, Timotei Cipariu. Ipostazele enciclopedismului (Timotei Cipariu. The Aspects of Encyclopaedianism), Bucharest, Minerva Publishing House, 1993, pp. 56, 67.
33 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 writing in the Dictionnaire philosophique: “natural law independent of all human conventions”); and the scientistic phase: natural causes, causes- effects scientifically studied in the sense of the German definition: Naturlehre. Thus the first Romanian writers of the Enlightenment began to assimilate it too, the first one being Gh. Şincai in Învăţătură firească spre surparea superstiţiilor norodului (Elementary Education Designed to Erase People’s Superstition). The science of nature or the “natural teaching” (“învăţătura firească”) is “the teaching that speaks about the populations, powers and things of the ages” (“învăţătura care vorbeşte despre populaţiile, puterile şi lucrurile timpurilor”).1 A translation and adaptation of I. H. Helmuth’s book, Volksnaturlehre zur Dämpfung des Aberglaubens (several editions published between 1786 and 1800), Şincai’s text, penetrated by an evident polemic spirit, unfortunately, remained unpublished. Petru Maior was also familiar with the idea; he used the notion of “natural right”. There was a different situation in the case of Samuil Micu’s adaptation, Filozofia cea lucrătoare a rânduielilor dreptului firei (Practical Philosophy of the Order of Natural Law) (printed in Sibiu, 1800). “By «natural law» is meant that teaching... through which natural laws or those laws, which are showed by our mind concerning the desire for good things and the avoidance of bad ones, are arranged” (“Prin «dreptul firei» se înţelege acea învăţătură...prin care legile cele fireşti sau celea ce ne arată mintea despre poftirea lucrurilor celor bune şi despre fugirea de cele rele se ticluesc.”)2 Nature is submitted to a double observation: the objective study of natural phenomena and the moral exigencies of natural common sense. The wind of the conception of the “naturally good man”, widely spread as well, also appeared [I. Budai-Deleanu, Ţiganiada, VI, 31 “good nature” (“firea bună”)]. Step by step, the notion of “nature” became more and more discursive, polemic, politicised. Its assimilation, more and more extended and intense, became a veritable commonplace of the age. The fundamental interpretation was permanently political, therefore polemical, vindicative, defensive (justification of individual rights), but also offensive (against the laws which ignored these rights or which were repressive). However, the different contexts in which “natural
1 Gheorghe Şincai, Învăţătură firească spre surparea superstiţiilor norodului, Bucharest, Scientific Publishing House, 1964, p. 67. 2 Cf. Lucian Blaga, Gândirea românească în Transilvania în secolul al XVIII-lea (The Romanian Thought in Transylvania in the 18th Century), in Opere (Works), 12, Bucharest, Minerva Publishing House, 1995, p. 116.
34 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 rights” were invoked introduced new nuances and specifications, permanently actualizing them: a Supplex from 1st March 1791 referred directly to “natural justice” (“dreptatea firii”). There was a conviction that such an argument would soften the severity of the authorities and would guarantee individual freedom. This was a typical ideal and illusion of the Enlightenment. Another hope was that it would be transformed into a legal principle and actually formulated as a concrete law. For D. Ţichindeal “natural goodwill” (“fireasca omenie”), “natural law” (“legea cea firească”) was a central notion, recognized and proclaimed prior to and superior to any “civil” law. The distinction opened a way for the contestation of the actual “imperial” political legislation: “natural law… is much older, wiser and more perfect than civil law and this (is) the eternal law” [“legea cea firească… cu mult mai bătrână, mai înţeleaptă şi mai perfectă iaste decât legea cea cetăţenească şi aceasta (este) legea vecinică”]. It guarantees individual, natural rights, and its is superior to any “privilege”: “that each and every person to be esteemed as he should and ought to be and as he deserves” (“ca toate şi fieşte care să se preţuiască atât cât trebuie şi i se cuvine şi e vrednic”).1 Moise Nicoară had the same thoughts in a text which may be termed at least nonconformist, actually being subversive, an Appeal addressed to Emperor Francis I (1819): “Everyone should be given back his natural right, which he had before the Empire, in order to be able to defend himself strongly against oppression, persecution and injustice.” (“Dee-se tot insului înapoi dreptul firesc sau al naturii, care l-a avut înainte de Împărăţie ca să se poată apăra după puterea sa de asupriri, de gonimir şi nedreptate.”)2 There was at the same time the conviction that such an argument would soften the severity of the authorities and would guarantee the individual freedom. This was a typical ideal and illusion of the Enlightenment. Another hope was that it would be formulated into a law principle and actually into a concrete law. This expectation had not been fulfilled at that time. But at least nothing hindered its study in a university course, as in Damaschin Bojincă’s course, Despre diritul persoanelor (On Civil Law) (1834).3 Simion Bărnuţiu would resume the discussion in the university lectures he held at Iaşi.
1 D. Ţichindeal, op. cit., p. 393. 2 Cornelia Bodea, op. cit., p. 70. 3 Nicolae Bocşan, „Cursul de drept al lui Damaschin Bojincă (1834)” (Damaschin Bojincă’s law course), in Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai, 23, 1978, Historia 4, pp. 23–31.
35 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Political freedom The ground is cleared for highlighting and evaluating the most important principle of the politico-social consciousness of the age: political freedom. This is all the more important as it represented a veritable leading idea, an exemplary paradigmatic formula for the entire ideological ensemble of the discussed period. Its status was the more specific, the more exemplar as the objective conditions – the entire historical context of the age – allowed only a purely abstract, entirely theoretical reflection and definition, far from any direct practical implication. In an absolutistic regime, even if tolerant in some aspects, political freedom could not be considered unless as a pure abstraction, as an eminently theoretico-ideological principle. This conferred clarity, rigour and efficiency to the idea, but purely demonstrative, because all such formulas met with the political restrictions of the age. Freedom was admitted as an essential natural right, but not as an inspirator of new politico-social institutions, immediately applicable, which may disturb or change the existing order. Other innovative ideological principles, enounced for the first time in Transylvania had the same abstract, purely theoretical status – inoffensive on the immediate socio-political level, with great consequences in the long run. The idea of progress, typical for the 18th century Enlightenment, with prolongations into the next century, was interpreted extensively in a liberal sense: “Through progress and freedom” (1844).1 This was an important and daring innovation in an absolutistic regime. The same is true about “crime against humanity” (E. Murgu, 1840),2 the radical accusation of the infringement of human rights, ideology getting affirmed in this period. The moment was emblematic for the entire evolution of the politico-social thinking of the age: from the theory of natural right to the liberal doctrine. The most important aspect of this evolution was that free expression was politicized and openly claimed, officially sanctioned, legalized. The idea was implicit in all the articles written in the defence of free expression and formerly surveyed.
The freedom of press The radicalization was progressive. The most conclusive formulas occurred beginning with the fourth decade: “Press must be free”
1 Emanuel Turczynski, op. cit., p. 197. 2 Eftimie Murgu, Scrieri (Writings), edited and introduced by I. D. Suciu, Bucharest, Encyclopaedic Publishing House, 1969, p. 21.
36 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
(“Tiparul terbuie să fie liber”) (Gh. Bariţ, 1845). The moment was important. It consecrated effectively the passage from the ideological principle to the text of law, in the purely theoretical perspective, for the time being, of some new constitutions. The new stage was equivalent to a true change of the politico-social regime. The equally important distinction between “ecclesiastic” laws and laic laws (respectively civil, political, laic ones) dated from this same period. Religious dogma lost ground before laic principle. The most conclusive example of this change of mentality was offered by T. Cipariu, otherwise sever and rigid clergyman. He rose to Gh. Bariţ’s defence and affirmed that a “journalist” can express such an idea “only where press is free” (“numai unde e presul liber”). Essentially, free press is the expression of the freedom of personal will [(“each man should follow the way he likes best”) (“meargă tot omul pe calea care-i mai place”)].1 It is the basic principle of any liberty and, according to modern terminology, of liberalism. In spite of all the historical relativism of political ideas (especially in an underdeveloped culture), it can be asserted that the transition from the affirmation of free will to that of political will took place in Transylvania beginning with the second decade of the 19th century. The situation is equivalent to the transition from natural rights to democratic [(“civil”, “laic”) (“cetăţeneşti” “mireneşti”)] rights, respectively to the discovery of the idea of constitution. In the strict terms of the age Petru Maior spoke of “nature, mother of all, who commands that the understanding and will of every man should be fulfilled” (“natură, mama tuturor, care porunceşte a se deplini înţelegerea şi voinţa fieştecăruia om”).2 Budai Deleanu continued this idea and formulated it in democratic spirit. In the Ţiganiada (X, 62, 63) he associated the idea of “natural rights” (“drepturi fireşti”) with that of “democratic laws” (“legilor democratice”); important direct influence of the French Revolution. Romanian civil consciousness may never have been penetrated by more numerous abstract, universal, fundamentally subversive principles – beyond any preoccupation with deep and extensive assimilation – than in the “democratic laws”. Even “civil rights” fall into this category. And these were the direct expression of “mankind” (“neamului omenesc”), a leap into universality in which Romanian
1 Mircea Popa, op. cit., pp. 47, 210. 2 Petru Maior, Scrieri (Writings), critical edition edited by Florea Fugariu, preface, chronological table by Maria Protase, Bucharest, Minerva Publishing House, B.P.T., 1976, II, p. 242.
37 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 consciousness participated; not only through I. Budai-Deleanu, but also through D. Ţichindeal, D. Bojincă, Moise Nicoară (and we are not convinced that the list is complete). D. Ţichindeal was a great apologist of the consciousness of mankind: “Listen to the voice of humanity” (“Ascultaţi glasul omenirii”). He was convinced that “what is better for all people, and not to one person alone; only that is useful for the entire mankind” (“ce e mai bine pentru toate noroadele, decât pentru un singur norod, singur aceia a neamului omenesc de comun folositoriu”).1 He was not alone, of course. D. Bojincă invoked in the same sense “the liberty… of all man” (“libertatea tuturor oamenilor”).2 The implicit or explicit subject of this principle was that the Romanian people should not be an exception to the general rule. Therefore all should develop, logically, by way of direct consequence. It was for the first time that an acute political controversy of great European actuality was taken over on the highest level of abstraction in the Romanian countries as well. All the principles of political freedom had, in the same way, an identically high degree of generalization. All the invoked principles fell under the widely circulating general formula of: “the rights of both man and civil society” (“drepturile atât ale omului, cât şi ale societăţii civile”). It is evident that the entire theoretical substantiation and organization had a specific aim in the circumstances of an absolutistic age: the promulgation of a law or constitution which should accord rights to the Romanians. Meanwhile they formed an outlaw category, a discrimination they could not accept. This was proved by the fact that the idea of “justice” had already been present and insistently underlined in all the petitions and the supplexes addressed to the Habsburg crown since the previous century. The first one was the Supplex from 1804: “For the burdens of the People never speak of joy. But lightening the People’s difficulties and giving them justice is the basis of sovereignty.” (“Pentru că greutatea Norodului niciodată nu vesteşte bucurie. Dar uşurarea şi dreptatea Norodului iaste temeiul stăpânirii.”)3 The painful lack of a law or a constitution that would have defined and guaranteed the rights of the Romanians explains the insistence on – we could even say the obsession with – the thought that the idea of “justice” was being infringed. The most typical example may be I. Budai-Deleanu. He invoked “justice” in his literary work, the
1 D. Ţichindeal, op. cit., pp. 44, 90, 128. 2 D. Bojincă, op. cit., p. XCVIII. 3 D. Prodan, Încă un Supplex Libellus românesc, 1804 (Another Romanian Supplex Libellus, 1804), Cluj, Dacia Publishing House, 1970, p. 81.
38 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Ţiganiada [version B. 9–14: “Placing in power all his rights” (“Punând tot dreptul în putere”)], as well as in his ideologico-historical studies: “a nation has no right to harm another nation” (“un neam nu are dreptul să pricinuiască vătămarea altui neam”).1 The idea that Romanians would be only… “tolerated” in Transylvania was rejected for the same reason.2 The answer to the question asked by Gh. Bariţ in 1846, Ce este barbaria (What Barbarism Is), was “the club-law” (“dreptul pumnului”) and “clerical anathema” (“anathema popească”).3 There are two major obstacles against justice and political freedom. Justice cannot be obtained unless in liberty. The two notions therefore intermingle. This was the answer of the age to the essential question, conclusion of the entire thinking and assimilation process of a political principle: Is liberty useful or not?4 The answer was naturally in the affirmative; with the specification that an “indigenous” reflection of the idea of political liberty should be initiated as an accompaniment. Because this idea was less known at that time, an attentive survey was necessary. In a transitional period of great ideological interaction the motivation of justice and implicitly that of political freedom, inevitably, had different sources. Some of them were even contradictory. The theological argument still maintained its authority: “Does not the wakening voice of God, nature and mankind resound that the free man should not oppress his likes… when the sacred voice of freedom and justice resounds all over the enlightened world” (“Nu răsune oare glasul deşteptător al lui Dumnezeu, al naturii şi al omenirii ca omul liber să nu apese pe semenul său... când în toată lumea luminată sună sfântul glas al libertăţii şi dreptăţii”) (1842).5 Afterwards, the argument became simpler, was “laicized” and Moise Nicoară invoked only “the unwritten law present in everyone’s heart” (“legea nescrisă, dar prezentă în toate inimile”). It is prior to all human laws; it is a “primitive”, “natural” law, urging the human being to oppose “the usurpation of his rights”
1 Ion Budai-Deleanu, De originibus populorum Transilvaniae, I, pp. LIV–LV. 2 Al. Ciorănescu, Opera istorică a lui Budai-Deleanu (Budai-Deleanu’s Historical Works), Bucharest, Monitorul Oficial (Official Monitor), 1938, p. 106. 3 Texte privind dezvoltarea gândirii social-politice în România (Texts on the Development of Social-Political Thinking in Romania), Bucharest, Academic Publishing House, 1954, p. 259. 4 (C. Negruzzi), Elemente de dreptul politic după mai mulţi autori de un filo- român (The Elements of Political Law after Several Authors by a Philo- Romanian), Braşov, in Ioan Gott’s press, 1846, p. 72. 5 D. Prodan, Supplex Libellus Valachorum, p. 142.
39 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
(“uzurparea drepturilor sale”).1 According to the seducing, idealized view of the age, it had a radical, absolute aspect, typical to any firm adhesion of principles. However, experience corrected this exalted vision. Compiling some sources of the age, Samuil Micu retained also the idea that freedom must be regulated, limited in order to reach an acceptable practical stage of national and social existence: “… In order that practice and freedom should remain, the good must many times be diminished for the benefit of all people” (“… Ca să se ţie practica şi slobozenia de multe ori trebuie ca binele în folosul tuturor oamenilor să se împuţineze”).2 The explication was given by D. Ţichindeal, shortly afterwards, in a simple and direct language: “Freedom without wise laws is a wild beast” (“Slobozenia fără de legile înţelepte e sălbatecă fiară”).3 This implies restrictions and exigencies, regulations of principle defined by a democratic constitution. This is (or would be) its fundamental justification. A new, innovative, “revolutionary” notion, initiated at the height of an absolutistic regime. It was the most characteristic aspect of the age: the appearance of some new, radical, purely abstract political concepts. Political freedom is, essentially, constitutional or it does not exist. Against this background, the idea of political freedom – central ideal of Romanian civic consciousness – unfolded thoroughly and with all its energy. It was derived from the invocation of the mentioned fundamental, constitutional principles, as well as from an immediate politico-social exigency, imperatively felt. First of all, the right to free expression was demanded, and therefore the right to defence, protest and reclamation as well, this being the first important manifestation of political freedom. All the petitions of the age, the different supplex-es were inspired from and supposed the invocation of this right to protest, direct confrontation with state authority by insistent and repeated allusions. Things went as far as violent insubordination, armed revolt. Horea’s uprising (1784) was inspired from these principles. A proof to this is its international echo, the propagandistic support displayed by the contemporary theoreticians of the right to revolt. The best-known, the Girondist J.-P. Brissot de Warville was very explicit, especially in his text from 1785: Seconde lettre d’un défenseur du peuple concernant l’émigration, et principalement sur la revolt des Valaques où l’on discute à fond le droit de revolt du peuple (Dublin–Paris).
1 Cornelia Bodea, op. cit., p. 142. 2 Lucian Blaga, op. cit., p. 164. 3 D. Ţichindeal, op. cit., p. 131.
40 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Favourable or neutral echoes were also identified in the English press and the German newspapers and magazines from Transylvania.1 The idea that natural rights may confront or even contest state authority – a generally little-known fact – was present in Samuil Micu’s first philosophical- political writings. He has the notion [Legile Firei... (Natural Laws...), 1800] that the “Emperor’s” powers can and must be limited when they are “against natural law or against the law of God” (“împotriva legii fireşti sau împotriva legii lui Dumnezeu”).2 In a passage [Învăţătura metafizicii (The Doctrine of Metaphysics), § 65], which seems to have been introduced as an allusion, it was specified that “the people rise up against the emperor” (“norodul se scoală împotriva împăratului”) when this “becoming terribly wild, falls upon the people’s goods and life” (“sălbătăcindu-se cumplit, tăbăreşte în averile şi în viaţa norodului”).3 The perturbation of the public (“obşteşti”) tranquillity and peace originates from here. The – decisive – argument was taken over from the 1791 Supplex. The rights of the Romanians were openly acknowledged and it was stated the inevitable succession of their “rebellion” (“rebeliei”) in the case “the emperor does not give justice” (“împăratul nu face dreptate”).4 Naturally, the idea became radical in the ultimate stage. The right to revolt was justified, in identical terms, also by Moise Nicoară in a text from 1819.5 These are the well-attested Romanian beginnings of the idea of revolution.6
1 Nicolae Edroiu, op. cit., pp. 54, 108, passim. 2 Lucian Blaga, op. cit., p. 120. 3 Samuil Micu, Scrieri filozofice (Philosophical Writings), introduced by Pompiliu Teodor and Dumitru Ghişe, Bucharest, State Publishing House, 1966, p. 102. 4 D. Prodan, op. cit., pp. 52, 89. 5 Cornelia Bodea, op. cit., pp. 56, 57, 306–307. 6 An overall view, Adrian Marino, “Începuturile ideii de revoluţie” (The Beginnings of the Idea of Revolution), Lumea (The World), III, 25, 17 June 1965.
41 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
An Active Friendship in the Realm of Multiculturalism Andrei Pippidi - Adrian Marino
Emilia-Mariana SOPORAN “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: correspondence, exchange of books, culture, history, literature, article writing, Cahiers
Abstract The paper presents an elevated exchange of letters and ideas of two outstanding personalities: the historian Andrei Pippidi and the ideologue Adrian Marino. Their productive connection unfolds in the following letters. As it appears from the content of these epistles there is a long collaboration between them on cultural scale through the permanent exchange of ideas and information, of articles and books on the basis of “trust, appreciation, sympathy, cooperation and personal interest taken in each other”.
E-mail: [email protected]
The correspondence of Romanian and foreign cultural personalities is also included amongst the documents of the Adrian Marino archival collection – collected and classified attentively and patiently by the great literary critic himself, and donated to the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library in Cluj-Napoca. “The letters have the great advantage of allowing you at the same time to remain isolated and sociable, organized and adapted to various situations; polite and distant, expeditious and efficient with economy of time, gestures and means, in permanent contact and still intermittent, selective and widely available”.1 From his rich correspondence entrusted for lecturing, we bring to the attention of those interested, the letters addressed by the historian Andrei Pippidi, a remarkable personality of contemporary Romanian culture, to the literary critic Adrian Marino. As it appears from the content of these epistles there is a long cultural collaboration between them through the permanent exchange of ideas and information, of
1 Adrian Marino, Prezenţe româneşti şi realităţi europene. Jurnal intelectual, (Romanian Presences and European Realities. Intellectual Diary) Iaşi, 2004, p. 81.
42 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 articles and books on the basis of “trust, appreciation, sympathy, cooperation and personal interest taken in each other”.1 Andrei Pippidi is a specialist in the history of the Middle Ages and of the Modern era. As a researcher of the Southeast European Study Institute he had the possibility of thorough documentation by analyzing the documents from the archives of other countries (England, Switzerland, France, etc.). Access to new information regarding foreign relations of Romanian countries have helped him to explain and to engage in European history some aspects of Romanian society from the Middle Ages and form the period of the Modern. Due to the elaborateness of his refined style and historical knowledge, Andrei Pippidi has become one of those “friends” whom Adrian Marino considers accomplices of his own success: “success is in great measure the result of some friendships and personal relations (…) without efficient, functional relations, good relationships with the press and publishing houses, active friends of our culture, hardly anything is possible”.2 This fact is confirmed by various historical and bibliographic information from the beginning of their correspondence. Hence the attention manifested by Mr. Marino when he thanked him by naming him in the preface of his last book Libertate şi cenzură în România, (Liberty and Censorship in Romania) is also worthy of note. In the transcription of his letters we kept the author’s punctuation and orthography, as well as the lines under some parts of the texts that were considered necessary in order to highlight some particular significations. For the optimal understanding of his texts by the large public he appealed to supplementary explanations presented in the form of notes, obviously necessary for the two conversing persons. Additionally the telephone number of Mr. Pippidi has been censored. All the letters sent by Andrei Pippidi to Mr. Adrian Marino have been transcribed and preserved in the Adrian Marino archival collection of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library in Cluj-Napoca.
1 Ibid., p. 80. 2 Ibid., p. 79.
43 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
11 Bucharest, 14th January 1977
Dear Mr. Marino, I received your letter with immense pleasure and the delay of the answer is caused by nothing else but the time of reflection that it requested. I am equally joyful for the chance of wishing you at my turn many and productive years, as well for the honour that you are according me by appealing to my collaboration for one of the future numbers that you are publishing. This number could not be other than the 2/1979, and the subject that I am allowing myself to propose would be Morlaques et Valaques, contributions à l’étude d’un thème littéraire du XVIIIe siecle. It is about an interesting “ethnographic” description of Romanians, an exotic people, comparable to those savage populations on the American continent that were discovered in one of the editions of the biographies of a Herzegovinian heyduck, translated from Italian to French and then to English. At the origins of this curious text stands the notorious Viaggio in Dalmatia by Fortis.2 I consider that the presentation of Romanians as “bons sauvages” is significant for highlighting the approach of European Enlightenment towards us (for not saying it the other way around!). Therefore I would be grateful if you would let me know the time you allot me for writing this article, of course with the condition that you agree with the proposed subject. I do not know if it is necessary to commit myself on the issue of the reviews as long as I do not possess any information regarding the fate of the one I sent you last year (Cantemir). My cordial regards,
Andrei Pippidi,
1 “Cahiers. Corespondenţă română, 1978”, (Cahiers. Romanian Correspondence, 1978), “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Archive stock Adrian Marino, Marino Fd. 24, p. 41. 2 Alberto Fortis, Viaggio in Dalmazia, 2nd vol., Venice, 1774.
44 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
21 Dear Mr. Marino Being asked by Mr. Professor Berza2 to write a review for your journal, I allow myself to send the enclosed pages. Sorry for the delay. Is the intention of publishing an appreciation about “Daco-Romania” still actual? I also have the impression that the material turned out to be too long, but only in these circumstances does a discussion make sense. Thanking you for your – I’m hoping – kind interest that you shall give evidence of when seeing these pages, please accept the assurance of my greatest respect,
Andrei Pippidi,
33 Dear Mr. Marino, I am in hurry to assure you that your preoccupation is needless. When I accepted to submit an article, I already knew that I was going to Paris (at the end of this month), a journey that I do not make often, but which this time shall probably last until June. The main part of the material is already assembled – only a few corrections remained to be done, among which the one that you had the kindness to suggest at B. N. – the article shall arrive on 1 May. Is it too late? In this case I could suggest sending it to you in the course of April. I am aware of the importance of the remarks that you are asking from me, and I hope the answer shall satisfy you. On my return I intend to come to Cluj for a few days: I very much hope to have the opportunity of meeting you then. Thanking for your best wishes that you accompany me on the beginning of a road that I am looking forward to with great excitement. Please accept the assurances of my devoted feelings and my cordial greetings,
Andrei Pippidi
1 “Cahiers. Corespondenţă română, 1977” (Cahiers. Romanian Correspondance, 1977), “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Archive stock Adrian Marino, Marino Fd. 19, p. 57. 2 Mihai I. Berza, Romanian historian, specialist in the history of the Middle Ages (1907–1978). 3 “Cahiers. Corespondenţă română, 1978”, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Adrian Marino Archival stock, Marino Fd. 24, f. 42.
45 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
41 Bucharest, 18 September 1978
Dear Mr. Marino, I do not know how to ask for your apologies for the nuisance that the delay of the article has caused you. The truth is that I should not have made any commitment before having the article written. On my departure I only knew approximately how and about what I was going to talk. I wrote it in Paris, but later than I expected, around April-May, it turned out long (26 pages!) and I awaited my return, tarried with two more months, thus until August, to give its final shape. The “child” is called Naissance, renaissances et mort du Bon Sauvage: à propos de Morlaques et de Valaques. It is more than I said it would be. The unknown text about Romanians from 1778, to which I attached an other one about the customs of the Dalmatian Morlachs after the memories of a Napoleonic officer. This text is nothing but an alleged reason for certain reflections on the literature of travelogues and of fiction inspired by the Southeast of Europe in the period of the Renaissance until the nineteenth century, though the Enlightenment gains the widest prominence. I do not imagine that it can enter either in the number that we (oh dear!, I’m ashamed!) agreed on, nor in some other (it is too long, isn’t it?) But I would like you to believe me that I did not let myself be taken away by other temptations, that you so well know. I minded my business instead and managed to accomplish in my tarrying other things as well. Of course, I discovered documents of an overwhelming number and variety. Allow me to blandish you with some from this abundance and to put at your disposal, if and when you want, the Caterina Macedonski-Leboeuf’ letters to Barutel from 1889–1895. Possibly you know them. They are amusing: gossip, recollections of her father, the general, very copious confessions and this characterization of Alexandru: “Mon frère est journaliste et poete trés discuté de son temps, parce qu’il a su s’atléres la hamé de tous par ses satyres (sic!). Il a écrit du mal du Roi et de la Reine, ensuite du bien et comme ça ne prenait pas, encore du mal, mais a part ces poésies qui veulent être decadentes, il a de trés belles nuits. Malheuresment, lui écrit en roumain” (that is, not in French like her!) Silly things…
1 Cahiers. Corespondenţă română, 1977, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Adrian Marino archive stock, Marino Fd.19, p. 43.
46 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
I saw your book in the libraries in Paris and I congratulate you. Another subject that I would be happy discuss with you is the episode of the encounter of the Knight Oliveira with Marie-Elisabeth de Bonffremont and her husband, the Prince Radu Cantacuzino. But first, forgive me and write me a few words so that I know what I should do with the article. Please accept, respected Mr. Marino, the assurances of my highest consideration,
Andrei Pippidi
51 Dear Mr. Marino, I had a hesitation at the moment of dating this letter, not only because I do not know, indeed, which day it is, but also due to the fact that I anticipate my delay again. Indeed, you are waiting for the titles that I would propose in exchange for the books that you benevolently and confidently offered me. It was not an easy option and the list remains open. However, not for the reason that my library would be short of works about the eighteenth century, Enlightenment, etc., but because I find it hard to detach myself from them. Here it is, provisionally, a list from which you can choose, not two, but three or more volumes because I believe that it still does not match exactly the value of those that I owe you. 1. J. Bronowski and Bruce Mazlish. The Western Intellectual Tradition (1963), a useful synthesis of ideas from Leonardo to Hegel. 2. French Popular Imagery (1974), more than a 145 p. exposition catalogue, since beside an introduction by Jean Adhémar and the copious commentaries it comprises very suggestive reproductions for the history of popular culture. 3. Gino Damerini, Caterina Dolfin tron (Milan, 1929), biography, slightly obsolescent tone of a “femma de lettres” from the eighteenth century, but interesting for the Venetian atmosphere and with a documentary appendix containing letters. 4. J. Segond, Le problème de génie (Paris, 1930), book that could on no account leave a literature theorist and aesthetician disinterested.
1 “Corespondenţă internă, 1979”, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Adrian Marino archive stock, Marino Fd. 99, p. 117.
47 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
I repeat, if you happen to have some of them, I can suggest other books as well. Elena Siupiur writes with ardour, only that as Penelope, she unravels everything that she has woven, which does not mean that you will have to wait ten years. She read the final version of my first pages yesterday. I encountered Miss Holban the other day and I will call on her again. I am sure that she will hand you a nice article. It remains for me, respected Mr. Marino, to thank you again for the friendly reception and give my respectful homage to your lady. Accept the assurances of my devoted sentiments,
Andrei Pippidi
61 20 Mai 1979
Dear Mr. Marino, It seems to me that life seldom gives us the opportunity to cause pleasure to our fellows. I consider thus a favourable junction that it befell to find books, which should be useful to you, though in a smaller measure than the valuable edition of the Porphyirogenitus. I also thank you for the excerpt. The article, beside the satisfaction that I suppose each reader feels, it has offered me that other, more bitter one of seeing the fatal effects of (late) Enlightenment in Romanian culture: theatre censorship from Alexandru Şuţu2 until today. Mrs. Holban was amazed not to find Cahiers on the shelf in the Academy Library. I would like to mention for those who would like to listen this omission of the Bianu3 epigones. Mrs. Siupiur does not stop writing except when she reads on the phone, about two-three pages of her work. In a few days it will be ready. The other collaborators are all right? Out-ils pondu leurs oeufs d’or? I am very delighted with the book of the Polish fellow. Please accept, dear Mr. Marino, the assurances of my devoted sentiments, Andrei Pippidi
1 Idem, p. 128. 2 Alexandru Şuţu, ruler of Moldova between 1801–1802 and of Muntenia in 1802, 1806, 1818–1821. 3 Ion Bianu, philologist, bibliographer and literary historian (1856–1935).
48 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
71 Bucharest, 26 November 1979
Dear Mr. Marino, I too have, like many others, a weakness: when I have to write a letter that is unpleasant for me or for the addressee, I let time go by, in the hope that who knows why, I might be absolved from this obligation. So for more than a week, your letter has been lying as a scolding on my worktable (one way of expressing: this desk is covered with a heap of books and journals, as always when I am in the middle of a writing a study). I am even sorrier for this delay as it is befitting for me to thank you for the publishing of the study on the “Morlachs”. The issue is very good the way it is, though I am afraid it would not have been of a lower level without the “Morlachs”. Now, concerning the next issue, the one with the “Journeys”. In September, when I thought I could keep my word I was very busy with the completion of my doctoral dissertation, and your absence from the country has encouraged me! Since then I am continuously held up and retained by another obligation: the plan study, with an unyielding resonance, an exhaustive research about the library of the Mavrocordats,2 about the Eastern and Byzantine sources of the Phanariot culture. The truth is that until the end of the year I cannot do anything! I read Baczko,3 but it would be unfair to make a superficial review to such a wonderful book. Then what do I propose? Either I return the book so that you have it at hand, and for the presentation of the Foreign Travellers you address directly the Editors of the collection (Mrs. Holban, Gh. Snagov, 28, or Dr. Paul Cernovodeanu, the “N. Iorga” Institute of History, Aviatorilor Boulevard, 1). The latter shall certainly be willing to do it: he is also the author of the book Societatea feudală românească văzută de călători străini (sec. XV–XVIII), [Romanian Feudal Society Seen by Foreign Travellers (15–18th century)] from 1973. Or you wait until January. The third solution would be for you to cancel the two reviews, at least for the
1 “Cahiers. Corespondenţă, 1979”, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Adrian Marino archive stock, Marino Fd. 29, p. 14. 2 The name of a Phanariot family distinguished in the history of the Ottoman Empire, Wallachia, Moldavia, and modern Greece. 3 Bronislaw Baczko, Polish writer (b. 1924).
49 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 summary of the thematic issue. The other for Baczko’s book shall find a place in another context later too. Please believe me I am desolate to put you in such a mess, I imagine that any delay starts to become annoying, therefore in order to get your answer sooner, I allow myself to give you my phone number, XXXXXX, and the one from the Institute – the Secretary’s Office 507290 (here, daily after midday). Once again, I apologize. Accept please, with my respectful homage for Mrs. Marino, my ashamed, but not less cordial greetings,
Andrei Pippidi
81 Bucharest, 6 December ’79
Dear Mr. Marino, I accept your decision. Come what may, it remains for the upcoming month. I am waiting for an answer from Mrs. Anghelescu (the last time that I inquired after her she was in hospital!) about the copyrights. Will the extracts be ready until January? Accept please, the assurances of my cordial, devoted sentiments,
Andrei Pippidi
92 Bucharest, 31 January 1980
Dearest Mr. Marino, In November I promised: “in January”. And January it is (still), so I am posting you in about ½ hour the review – discussion – commentary. I attempted to make something other than a usual bibliographic presentation, urged by the esteem that I bear for the journal that will publish me (right?), as for the work itself. The praises spring
1 Ibid., p. 15. 2 “Cahiers. Corespondenţă, 1980”, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Adrian Marino archival stock, Marino Fd. 34, p. 16. On this letter Mr. Adrian Marino made the following note: “Ana Spaleru 15 A Buc. I”.
50 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 from my true conviction that we have a good work for 100 years in the travelogue collection. What should I do with the Utopia? How long can I keep it? If you could shift the review for the next number… I did not get the extracts from the Good Savage. Really, it is a pity, why? I reckon the answer: typography, etc. Surely you do not have any blame. Please accept, thus with delay, my best wishes for your good health in a prosperous year. I attach my cordial respects to Mrs. Marino, With devoted sentiments,
Adrian Pippidi
101 Bucharest, 21 February 1980
Dear Mr. Marino, I did not instantly answer – as I should have – your last letter, which arrived almost at the same time with the expected extracts, a double occasion of thanking you. Are you ready to oblige me once more? I hesitated to address you this request, not venturing to confide the pleasure that the news caused me, about Lionello Sozzi and Jaques Proust expressing a favourable opinion about my article. But after giving it a second thought, I believe I can be forgiven – at my age – for my rejoicing over such appreciations. I even need them in order to convince myself from time to time that I too can do something good. Thence I allow myself asking you to transcribe, only for my personal use, the benevolent words of your correspondents. It happens that, from the two colleagues whom I offered the first extracts, one did not read it until today, and the other has found it “weak”. I have been thus rather discouraged when I received from you the assurances of other, more enviable echoes. Best wishes,
Andrei Pippidi
1 “Corespondenţă internă, 1980”, (Internal Correspondence, 1980), “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Adrian Marino archive stock, Marino Fd. 100, p. 33.
51 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
111 Bucharest, 8 May 1981
Dear Mr. Marino, Today I received the first sign of your return into the country (Welcome!) and I hurry to send you the book you borrowed me as you have the delicacy of saying “from some time”. I am blushing! Not talking then about the shame of not being able to write the promised review… On the other hand I do not know whether the Cahiers shall continue to appear. Anyway, I have seen the proof-correcting, due to Mrs. Anghelescu’s kindness, who is yet again very hard to find without a telephone. Also related to the reconstitution of your library, I was expecting an answer after I have sent you Hommes et idées du Sud-Est européen.2 I considered it better for you to find it on your return. If it somehow got lost, please ask my friend, Mihai Gherman, at the Cluj Academy Library, who has anyway four copies in his custody, or you can wait for my first visit, which will not be delayed too much, because at the end of this month or at the beginning of the next month I will have to arrive to Cluj in order to defend my Doctoral Dissertation. I will have then the pleasure of writing a new dedication to the volume, with the same devoted sentiments,
Andrei Pippidi
123 Bucharest, 29 November 2000
Dearest Mr. Marino, Here it is, finally, the Xerox-copy of the much-searched article. Is it worth or not the trouble, you will decide. But honour is saved: I
1 “Corespondenţă internă, 1981”, (Internal Correspondence, 1981), “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Adrian Marino archive stock, Marino Fd. 101, p. 77. 2 Andrei Pippidi, Hommes et idées du Sud-Est européen à l’aube de l’age moderne, Bucharest, Paris, 1980. 3 “Corespondenţa română”, (Romanian Correspondence), 2000, vol. II, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Adrian Marino archive stock, Marino Fd. 425/2, p. 67.
52 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 managed to find the volume only at the library of the Theological Institute. I did not receive the acknowledgement of the package posted about ten days ago to your address. It is my book, recently appeared in Iaşi, in which many texts – older and more recent – are collected. It might still be on the road... Please accept, dearest Mr. Marino, the cordial assurances of my best thoughts, Andrei Pippidi
131 Bucharest, 6 December 2000
Dearest Mr. Marino, Exactly, when I started to worry, I received your letter, in about two hours when I called you to inquire whether you received my book. Meanwhile I assume that you have also received my article from the “Raze de lumină” (Sunbeams). Even if you do not need it anymore, you will find that I did everything I could do to be at your service. In order to answer your questions, Ţurlea’s book N. Iorga în viaţa politică a României2 (N. Iorga in the Political Life of Romania), is an assiduous book. I can say that I have supervised each page of the text and the author had then my collaboration as a former university colleague and as an honourable – as I considered then – person. Afterwards it was embarrassing to see his degrading metamorphosis, that I have denounced him myself in “22” breaking publicly and definitely every relation with him. Much weaker is the work of Titu Georgescu Nicolae Iorga împotriva hitlerismului (Nicolae Iorga against Hitlerism),3 also because of the moment of its writing (however, it has a good preface written by M. Berza). Both books can be read for the conflict of Călinescu regarding the suspending of Neamul Românesc (Romanian Nation). I believe that you have Scrisori către Catinca4 (Letters to Catinca), the publication of my
1 „Andrei Pippidi”, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Archival stock Adrian Marino, Marino Fd. 449, p. 1. 2 Petre Ţurlea, Nicolae Iorga în viaţa politică a României (Nicolae Iorga in Romania’s Political Life), Bucharest, 1991. 3 Titu Georgescu, Nicolae Iorga împotriva hitlerismului (Nicolae Iorga against Hitlerism), Bucharest, 1966. 4 Nicolae Iorga, Scrisori către Catinca 1900-1939 (Letters to Catinca 1900– 1939), Bucharest, 1991.
53 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 grandparents’ correspondence, which in a chapter refers to the grim atmosphere of suspicion by the police during the regal dictatorship. Concerning the “Constitution” of Constantin (not Nicolae) Mavrocordat published in “Mercure de France”, the bibliography is very rich. I would start with Gh. I. Brătianu, Două veacuri de la reforma lui Constantin Mavrocordat, (Two Decades from the Reforms of Constantin Mavrocordat), A.A.R. in S.I., s. III, T. XXIX, 1947 (pp. 435–443 contain the French text itself). Another guiding mark is the study of Şerban Papacostea, La grande charte de Constantin Mavrocordato (1741) et les reformes en Valachie et en Moldavie, in Symposium. L’époque phanariote, Thessaloniki, 1974, pp. 365–376. There is another special article about this propagandist publication in France, facilitated by Desfontaines1 Abbey, one of Voltaire’s adversaries, in R.E.S.E.E.2 around 1980, not in 1981, XIX, 4: is Anne-Marie Cassoly, Autour de l’insertion dans le “Mercure de France” de la “Constitution” de Constantin Mavrocordato. Finally I would add Remus Niculescu, Portretul unui domn din epoca luminilor: Constantin Mavrocordat, văzut de Jean-Etienne Liotard3, (The portrait of a ruler from the age of the Enlightenment) in Studii şi cercetări de istoria artei, (Studies and Researches of Art History) s. Plastic Art, T. 41, 1994, p. 43–54. There is another tiny volume by Florin Constantiniu, Constantin Mavrocordat,4 a biography written for the series of rulers at the Editura Militară. Depasta5 was one of the Greek adulators for the Greeks. The French translation of the hrisov had another public in target. I like to think that what preoccupies us is before the elections that cannot be, anyhow, other than disastrous. But my father, in August 1944, was at Sinaia translating the Eleaţi, a perpetually enviable example. Please accept, dear Mr. Marino, our best wishes for the on- coming holidays. Happy New Year!
Andrei Pippidi
1 L’abbé Desfontaines, French writer (1685–1745). 2 R.E.S.E.E. = Revue des études sud-est européennes. 3 Remus Niculescu, Portretul unui domn din epoca luminilor văzut de Jean- Etienne Liotard (The Portrait of a Ruler as seen by Jean-Etienne Liotard), in S.C.I.A.-A.P., 1994. 4 Florin Constantiniu, Constantin Mavrocordat, Bucharest, 1985. 5 Petru Depasta the Peloponnesian, erudite Greek chronicle, established in the Romanian Countries, physician in the court of Constantin Mavrocordat.
54 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
141 Bucharest, 25 January 2001
Dearest Mr. Marino, Why do I write to you, despite the hazards of the post that you warned me of, when I could transmit on the phone as well my thanks for the review – brought in as a gift for the beginning of the weekend – that I have just read? Because when addressing you, I feel the need for solemnity. I would like that the expression of my gratitude for those understanding and benevolent words that you wrote about my book to remain somehow fixed. You remember – however, I could never forget – that you gave me the accolade to my doctorate 20 years ago. The two volumes that you had given to me remained in a special place in my library (Constantine Porphyrogenitus2 in the best edition, rarity, being even very handy at that current moment). The solidarity that you are declaring to me after two decades is especially precious to me. We are in good terms: of course, my friend Vlad, whose loss I cannot console myself of, Constantiniu, naturally, though it is impossible for me to understand his admiration for Ceauşescu and Antonescu, Boia rather superficially – I do not know Mr. Voicu, and I do not think that he is a historian. I am glad that you liked the images about Lăcusteanu3 (it is due to my father who had put this book,4 which he liked, into my hand). You have accurately recognized in the passage regarding Sabina Cantacuzino,5 a pro domo allusion. Finally, I could not have wished for a more attentive reader who is more considerate and more willing to declare his affinities. Please, accept once again my best wishes and for a long life, equally sincere also after so many years. Please pass on these greetings to your wife. Andrei Pippidi
1 “Andrei Pippidi”, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Adrian Marino archival stock, Marino Fd. 449, p. 2. 2 Byzantine emperor, 1000 B. C., author of the famous treaty De administrando imperio. 3 Grigore Lăcusteanu, senator and Romanian officer (1813–1883). 4 Grigore Lăcusteanu, Amintirile colonelului Lăcusteanu (The Memories of Col. Lăcusteanu), Bucharest, 1933. 5 Sabina Cantacuzino, Romanian writer (1863–1941), daughter of I. C. Brătianu and wife of physician Constantin Cantacuzino.
55 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
151 Bucharest, 1 November 2001
Dearest Mr. Marino, Thank you for the good words on Alina’s book. I shall let her, tell you what pleasure she had while reading the article from the “Observator”. I started to search for information about Leonte Radu. Being “piqué” (stung as one could say) I tried to reply to the trust that you always had in me. What did I find then? The text of the System, that is of the basic documentary, is Hurmuzaki, supl. I to vol. VI, p. 82–96. The only article dealing with him is the one by Valerian Popovici2 (a sad figure of the Iaşi University from the Stalinist period). Some new data about the confederative conspiracy, in the volume Lucrările sesiunii generale ştiinţifice din 2–12 iunie 1950, (Works of the General Scientific Session from 2–12 June, 1950) Bucharest, Ed. Acad., 1951, p. 1993–2000. A commentary appears at Platon, Moldova şi începuturile revoluţiei de la 1848, (Moldova and the Beginnings of the 1848 Revolution), Chişinău, ed. Univeristas, 1993, p. 141–143. He emphasizes the fact that L. Radu and the scribe N. Ene, had not done anything but transcribed the documents. These belonged according to Radu’s declarations to the owner from Văleni, to the Agha Alecu Roset, and their content would not have been known (flagrant contradiction!). what is more, our man insinuates that, “if other, bigger houses were searched, much uglier papers would be found”… The year is 1839. The appellation “confederative conspiracy” deals with the intention of building a confederation Moldova-Muntenia-Serbia, with a hereditary foreign prince, after the Western model “such as in Europe”. At Traian Ichim, Alecu Russo. Cîteva date nouă cu privire la viaţa şi familia lui, (Alecu Russo. Some New Data Regarding His Life and Family) extracted from “Viaţa Românească”, (Romanian Life), [1923], p. 25, is a reference to the boundaries of the estate from Horniceni of the “divested equerry Leon Radu”. The article is very interesting because it contains the list of the inventoried books at the death of Alecu Russo, his personal library. The quote allows us to
1 Ibid., p. 3. 2 Valerian Popovici, historian (1908–1967).
56 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 understand that Leon Radu emigrated after the conspiracy had been revealed, or he was exiled. I was curious to see General Radu Rosetti’s opinion on Alecu Roset, the Rosetti Family, I, Bucharest, 1938, p. 134–136, born in 1795, died in 1837, buried in the Tălpari church from Iaşi, son of Constantin and of Anastasia Beldiman, married Profira Miclescu. He has been a permanent maverick, a restless and fiery spirit, always in conflict with the esquires and the Russian consul. If it is to believe L. Radu, the project of the constitutional reformation already exists “with a year or more” preceding the death of Rosetti, thus in 1835–1836. It is very possible that Radu had blamed the dead man, so that he will not be called to account for it. Two from the Alecu brothers, though clerics, the bishop Veniamin and the abbot Ghenadie have actively taken part in the political life of the period. Veniamin and another brother, Scarlat have taken part at the revolutionary movement of 1848. Here it is a brief orientation in the subject matter. It was a pleasure for me to be at your service. With the most affectionate salutations,
Andrei Pippidi
P.S. My apologies for the delay. There is always a story with our correspondence. I gave it to Alina to post it, but meanwhile she went abroad, I retrieved it with difficulty.
161 MERRY CHRISTMAS and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR These are Alina’s and my wishes for You and the esteemed Madam. In order to assure you of our best wishes, we added a work that will, possibly, be of use when writing the opus about censorship. A sign of friendly solidarity, on the threshold of a New Year, which we wish will be full of happiness and equally good.
Andrei Pippidi
1 “Andrei Pippidi”, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Adrian Marino archival stock, Marino Fd. 449, p. 4, Greeting card.
57 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
171 The angel comes to bring “the miraculous news” and the affectionate thoughts of Alina and me. I have not yet seen Sorin’s last book about which you write in “România literară” (Literary Romania) (or “22”, I do not remember where I saw it), but I believe the difference is in the chosen interlocutor, who of course has the same stimulant verve. Happy New Year. Merry Christmas.
Anderi Pippidi
182 Bucharest, 2 April 2001
Dearest Mr. Marino, Here are other signs of respectful affection from Alina – not to mention, shared by me. For now I am busy with the lecture of Antohi’s dialogues. Naturally I sympathize with both speakers. Around here, we too have our entertainment. At a contest for the Director of the Iorga Institute I had as an adversary the politician Scurtu, Presidential Counsellor, who gave me four votes out of 5. Please accept Alina’s and my best wishes,
Andrei Pippidi
1 “Corespondenţa română”, 2001, vol. II, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Adrian Marino archival stock, Marino Fd. 430/2, p. 56, illustrated postcard. 2 “Corespondenţa română”, 2001, vol. I, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Archival stock Adrian Marino, Marino Fd. 430/1, p. 46.
58 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The Ideological System of Adrian Marino
Alex GOLDIŞ MA Student “Babeş-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: idea of Europe, militant action, Enlightenment, paşoptism, Europe as an ideological model, post-revolutionary Romania, encyclopaedism, “cultural resistance” or literary resistance, reconstruction of the public space
Abstract The paper is an attempt to demonstrate the fact that the return of the theoretician to Enlightenment and “pasoptism”1 represents in fact a return to polyvalence and to the multifunctionality of the concept of Europe. The main theories formulated by Adrian Marino’s ideological works can also be read as an evolution of “Europe” from the state of possibility towards a specific political concept. Generally Europe becomes a grid, an ordering scheme of Romanian space, in the measure in which the author confesses that his preoccupation regarding the “way in which the Romanian spirit and culture grasp and assimilate this reality in expansion”.
E-mail: [email protected]
1. The Idea of Europe The central theme that crosses like a red line the complete works of Adrian Marino – from literary theory creations to journals or ideological writings – is, as the author calls it himself “the idea of Europe” (my italics). Adrian Marino’s insistence is not incidental regarding the fact that Europe is in the first place an idea. The author confers it a highly personal theoretical content. Even if not particularly enunciated, this fact, Europe, appears as a source irradiating all the systems constructed by Adrian Marino. An idea of force, a concept of maximum efficiency that prepares a wide range of other distinctions. Thus, before discussing all the main theories formulated by Adrian
1 Paşoptism, paşoptist – Romanian terms denominating the ideology of the participants of the 1848 Revolution in the Romanian countries and the representatives of this ideology.
59 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Marino’s ideological works, we must elucidate the term “Europe” with its area of semantic extension. Firstly, an evolution or at least a variation of the term “Europe” can be recognized in the work of Adrian Marino. If in his journals he rather spoke about an intellectual Europe seen through an aesthetic lens, in his works of comparatism – Etiemble ou le comparatisme militante (1982), Comparatism şi teoria literaturii (Comparativism and Theory of Literature) (1998) – Europe gains a more palpable ideological content. A bluntly politicized Europe, gained from the abstract sphere of the idea is to be found only in the volumes appearing after 1989. However, the militant aspect is obvious right from his very first writings, but this content has been kept in a latent state. Otherwise the author often manifests against aestheticism or against the theories that make abstraction of the ideological perspective. The development of Marino’s writings can also be read as an evolution of “Europe” from the state of possibility towards a specific political concept. Hence it follows that Europe is not an abstract, a priori idea, a purely ideological construction, but a living, combative reality. It represents in the words of the author “by excellence an ideology and an active political idea, affirmed openly and without inhibitions”.1 Superficially seen or from a height, the concept of Europe promulgated by Adrian Marino may seem paradoxical. It is used both in contexts denoting the universal as in particular or actual situations. Only that in a fragment from Carnete europene (European Notebooks), Marino signals and explains this semblant ambiguity. Referring to the conditions of promotion of a writer’s work on “universal” scale, the author remarks: “I deliberately avoid the content of the word “universal”, which cannot have the particular, immediately verifiable content that I intend to express.”2 Therefore, at the very moment when he talks about a Europe under the sign of the universal or of the general, Marino keeps in sight a well- defined system of relations. In this context I consider it appropriate to relate a dichotomy that the author often actualizes: it is the one between the absolute values (postulated by G. Călinescu or by E. Lovinescu) and the values in use. The universal which Marino refers to would be one of
1 Adrian Marino, Pentru Europa – Integrarea României. Aspecte ideologice şi culturale (For Europe – The Integration of Romania. Ideological and Cultural Aspects), Iaşi, Polirom, 1995, p. 13. 2 Idem, Carnete europene – Însemnare a călătoriilor mele făcută în anii 1969– 1975, (European Booklets – Record of my Journeys in the Years 1969–1975) second edition, Bucharest, Noul Orfeu, 2003, p. 108.
60 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 circulation, in which the works are integrated in a larger European context opposed to the “absolute universal”, self-sufficient, autarchic of the aesthetic. Furthermore Marino is one of the first Romanian personalities who constantly and systematically emphasize the fact that “it must be meditated on the material, quantitative, constant and systematic fact of success.”1 The “absolute” of Marino is not poetical or abstract, but practical and militant: “I believe that I belong to a form of culture where truth is however possible” notes the author.”2 However, in Marino’s arguments the gradual ascension of Europe on the scale of the universal is interesting. In Pentru Europa (For Europe), the ideologue retraces a history of the idea of European literature.3 If for the creators of this expression a militant universalist connotation has been involved, then in the 19th century, in the academic circles its meaning is restricted to a pure theoretical and descriptive acceptance. With all these in addition to Etiemble or Wellek, the theoretician believes that we are dealing with a double universalization of the term: from East to West (in the sense in which oriental literatures also start to be encompassed), but also from the literary towards the universal- human. Through these two processes of extension the “universalist and intrinsic vocation of European literature” is also recovered. In this excellent theoretical demonstration in steps, Marino however avoids a too abstract sense with no theoretical covering: “We do not wish to claim a utopian universal competence, but only to think constantly about literature in the context of universality.” Further, within the frame of Marino’s writings, the concept of Europe is strewn in a large series of reflections. From an imagological perspective, for example, for Romanians there exists a “financial Europe” that “gives all the time”, and this overshadows a “spiritual Europe of rights and liberties”.4 The ideologue is preoccupied with the image of Europe in the Romanian conscience, regardless of it’s appearance as a “wonderful, incredible land” or, on the contrary as a “as a general synonym for foreignness”. Generally Europe becomes a grid, an ordering scheme of Romanian space, in the measure in which the author confesses that his preoccupation regarding the “way in which the Romanian spirit and culture grasp and assimilate this reality in
1 Ibid., p. 42. 2 Ibid., p. 56. 3 Idem, Pentru Europa – Integrarea României. Aspecte ideologice şi culturale. 4 Ibid., p. 22.
61 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 expansion”.1 I shall attempt to demonstrate the fact that the return of the theoretician to the Enlightenment and “pasoptism” represents in fact a return to polyvalence and to the multifunctionality of the concept of Europe: in the first half of the 19th century this turns into mentor, trainer, public opinion, honour board, awarding commission, authority that decides in all essential cultural, social and political problems of the Romanian nation”.2 The volume Libertate şi cenzură în România3 (Liberty and Censorship in Romania) is a history of Romania from the perspective of Europeanism with its main branches: liberalism and democracy. I believe in fact, that the subtle oxymoronic formula – “to bring Europe home” (italics mine) – succeds in granting the complete degree of complexity of the European idea at Adrian Marino: the fight for Europe does not level with the combat for obtaining the familiar, the common, that which is already ours. Though we have actually never stepped out from Europe, we are in the position of fighting more than ever for its idea. The actualization of the European idea presupposes thus a re- memorization, or what is more, a process of anamnesis (in the Platonic sense), that to re-actualize a latently existing reality in the Romanian historic conscience. When he proposes to retrieve “the Romanians’ tradition of the idea of freedom”,4 the ideologist unavoidably assumes the role of the national memory archivist.
2. Encyclopaedism as a historical solution After 1989, the problem of memory is becoming more acute with the degree of “the hermetic isolation from Europe by the totalitarian system of Romania and of the entire Soviet block”.5 Along democracy and liberalism, the European idea enters in shadow for a period of fifty years, though it maintains some factors of continuity inasmuch as – in Marino’s opinion – “Romanian literature has never completely and radically left Europe”.6 Starting from a few observations of Alina Mungiu, the ideologist makes some rather interesting observations, which stand in fact on the basis of his entire political reflection after eighty nine:
1 Ibid., p. 107. 2 Ibid., p. 177. 3 Idem, Libertate şi cenzură în România – Începuturi (Liberty and Censorship in Romania – Beginnings), Iaşi, Polirom, 2005. 4 Ibid., p. 7. 5 Idem, Pentru Europa, cit. ed., p. 42. 6 Ibid., p. 53.
62 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 after the totalitarian regime, Romania is confronting a trauma of identity: “isolated and torn apart from his future, the new Romania does not recognize itself in the old one”.1 What is more, Marino formulates a few constant themes which place the new Romanian world in a stadium of the beginnings: the absence of a democratic tradition, of the theoretical synthesis and of political science. In this context of a Romania without his past and without the idea of future, the process of anamnesis definitely gains weight. Furthermore, in one of his journals the ideologist directly connects the idea of rememorizing to the one of synthesis: “Rememorizing in my opinion has no less than one very positive, determinative aspect; it permanently compels to summary and synthesis to classification and organization”.2 The only solution in the case of a state the recent memories of which have been erased is the recovery of the lost time through the encyclopaedism of memory of certain exemplary historical moments. Because it does not have any recent memories about democracy and Europe, the Romanian will have to reflect on the manner in which he shall approach these on the different stages of its evolution. Marino pleads thus for the particularity of the aesthetic culture in rapport with the West. If Europeans can focus on specialized and fragmentary studies, the East can only prefer, for now, a global knowledge through which he might recover the lost time and to integrate within “the sphere of the essential references” 3. The (post)totalitarian world and the period of Enlightenment are theoretically overlapping each other in the system of Adrian Marino. In very different contexts in more than a hundred and fifty years historical distance, the ideals of the two Romanias – the paşoptist and the communist – meet. This fact is directly and repeatedly expressed by the ideologue: “A reviewer of my book Etiemble ou le comparatisme militant, otherwise a very eulogizing review, has a single regret: the influences of the Enlightenment. He did not realize that in 1981–1982, amid the golden age of the restrictive period, the appraisal of free communication, of the universal fortress of letters, of cosmopolitism or others, represented – at least in intention – an act of independence, if not anti-totalitarian spiritual resistance”.4
1 Adrian Marino, Politică şi cultură - Pentru o nouă cultură română (Politics and Culture – For a new Romanian culture), Iaşi, Polirom, 1996, p. 192. 2 Idem, Carnete europene, cit. ed., p. 55. 3 Idem, Pentru Europa, cit. ed., p. 60. 4 Ibid., p. 61.
63 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Thus, between paşoptism and the post communist world there is an enormous historical chasm “predominantly nationalist and forever anti-European”.1 Actually, pointed out Adrian Marino, the communist system was more like a continuation of the anti-European conception regarding the state and the mistrust towards the European idea. The process of abandoning the liberal ideas and Europe goes back to the representatives of the Junimea2 organization and to the theory of Maiorescu on the theory of “forms without essence”, then passing through “superjunimism”3 and the extreme nationalism of Nae Ionescu. The totalitarian system only brought forward the isolationist tendencies of the Romanian thinking estranged from the paşoptist ideal. The journals of Adrian Marino are nothing but oblique forms of discussing European realities: “I used to write journey books as well and I considered – sometimes – from a superior naivety – that I could bring Europe home”.4 In Evadări în lumea liberă (Escapes into the Free World), the ideologue can openly confess the fact that “journals have in the first place a very precise ideological and polemic meaning”.5 Accordingly, for an ideologue Europe is a project thought through and assumed – both theoretically and existentially – on multiple levels. Then again, the nature of the journal is altered in order to uphold the ideological project of its author. In almost every journey book, Marino insisted on a few expressions as “intellectual journal”, “anti-literature” or “anti-tourism”. In writings impregnated by such powerful ideological significance, any kind of aesthetic cheapness or tourist frivolity is programmatically rejected. Not less are the journey fragments escapes from a platitudinous, anti-denotative discourse of hollow claptraps so peculiar to the totalitarian system. Marino rejected literature and the stylistic ornament for the simple reason, because, in the totalitarian
1 Ibid., p. 34. 2 Organization founded in 1863 in Iaşi under the rule of Alexadru Ioan Cuza by a group of young intellectuals willing to give another course to Romanian culture and literature. The political program of this association shall be subordinated to the cultural one. The Junimists have fiercely criticized the 1848 revolution, which they considered an imitation of the French model. They were not against changes or western culture, but insisted on the fact that changes had to be made slowly, in a pace that could be followed by the Romanian society. (Translator’s note.) 3 Ibid., p. 146. 4 Ibid., p. 31. 5 Idem, Evadări în lumea liberă (Escapes into the Free World), Iaşi, European Institute,1993, p. 6.
64 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Romania, literature was tightly connected with illusion and lies. The thirst for Europe is also the thirst for the lost referentiality of discourse. On the other hand culture for the author was a “vast abstract encyclopaedia”, 1 “any journey presumes a special hermeneutics”,2 while the modern man is defined as the “man of the ideas in motion”.3 The famous concept of “values of circulation” is probably the main reflex of this vision of culture as spatial extension. The volume Prezenţe româneşti şi realităţi europene (Romanian Presences and European Realities) contains even an interesting journey taxonomy from the point of view of the traveller’s knowledge level”. 4 In the post communist period Marino symptomatically abandoned the journey fragments. An entirely different discourse was required here in this world freshly emerged on the surface of history. There were two modalities of action and implicitly two stages that these writings give evidence of: a “battle of ideas” and “militant writings” were firstly required, which had to familiarize the wide public with the concepts of Europeanism, liberalism and democracy. We are speaking of an “indispensable preliminary phase” of definition and of popularization followed then by “historiographic studies”.5 The ideologue was in one person an arbitrator of the new public space and a researcher trying to documentarily explore the democratic tradition of Romanian culture. The two approaches: one facing actuality, the other turning towards the past, both originating from the same encyclopaedic imperative. For a staggered Romania, which suddenly remained without its history, the continuous re-stabilization with its past was crucial. Or, as we have shown, remembrance was an important factor of synthesis and encyclopaedism in the system built by Adrian Marino.
1 Idem, Carnete europene, cit. ed., p. 47. 2 Ibid., p. 30. 3 Ibid., p. 9. 4 “…in function of the thirst of knowledge of the traveller: 1. the one who does not know a thing ... and cannot travel; 2. the one who knows something, but cannot travel; 3. the one who cannot travel, but does not know a thing; 4. the one who can travel and understands – the most rare species.” (Adrian Marino, Prezenţe româneşti şi realităţi europene. Jurnal intelectual, Bucharest, Albatros, 1978, p. 31.). 5 Idem, Pentru Europa, cit. ed., pp. 5–7.
65 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
2.1. The program of actuality Adrian Marino’s ideological books which would illustrate the “preliminary phase” of the pro-European politics are in spite of their fragmentariness, real maps of concepts. Even if not projected like a system, they are inevitably organized into a very coherent program. For Europe or Culture and Politics are genuine radiographs of the post-revolutionary world in the measure in which they are discussing all the major issues of Romanian society. Created by assembling some previously published fragments, the books inevitably contain a series of repetitions; however, this “baroque style” implying permanent recurrences with nuances – was convenient to Marino.1 The ideologue involuntarily handled the great themes of the “new world”. In his political articles Marino started from the premise that he was dealing with another social-political reality that had to be restructured and re-ordered. The ideological “morning” of paşoptism was related to communism from this aspect as well. Thus the ideologue had the obligation to reconstruct the “meaning of words” by delimiting the old concepts from the new ones. Adrian Marino perfectly understood that any revolution is primarily equal with a semantic revolution. Therefore, the theoretician placed new expressions in the Romanian discourse, as “cultural resistance” or literary resistance, decomposing with utmost attention and circumspection each ambiguous mechanism that these notions deal with. In Culture and Politics Marino proposed right under that determined impulse which characterized him a taxonomy of social resistance in the communist Romania. The general conclusion of this analysis was a cautious and a circumstantial one: “In such cases of great dilemma and doubt, there are only – as a matter of fact – strictly individual and unique answers and solutions”,2 Marino concluded after the examination of the “Noica case”. Ambiguity is the main coordinate of the public conduct in the totalitarian space. Generally, the commentaries of the ideologist excel at the explanation of the social and psychological mechanisms of communism: from the myth of the “irreversible situation” and to the writer’s schizoid condition – all these being exact labels of the totalitarian community. Marino was also a very good diagnostician in the sense that he identified the most acute diseases
1 “I am not at all embarrassed by being defined as a Baroque spirit; in any case, I like insistent, rhythmical, easily obsessive returns, in architectonic superimposure.” (Idem, Carnete europene, cit. ed., p. 12). 2 Ibid., p. 101.
66 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 of the post-communist world: “a guilty conscience of (pseudo) collaboration and a false conscience of (pseudo)resistance”.1 Through his entire publicist activity after December 22nd, Adrian Marino indicated himself the arbitrator of the European idea. The reconstruction of the public space became the ideologue’s main preoccupation, which he saw as totally deformed by the communist repression. The break-down of dictatorship left behind “an amorphous, indifferent, undecided, morally and civically underdeveloped society”. 2 Accordingly, the public domain in a wider sense was the domain of predilection of the militant action. Marino underlined the necessity of the switch from the role of the individual (or “mass man” expression set about by Hannah Arendt) to the role of the citizen. The development of a political scientific reflection had an important role in the process of constructing a middle class opened towards the liberal values according to Adrian Marino. The ideologist congratulated, encouraged and guided all those studies that attempted to scrutinize the problems of the new society – he commented on political scientists such as Alina Mungiu, Sorin Antohi, Stelian Tănase or Dan Pavel. Actually these volumes inaugurated in Marino’s conception “the most original chapter of culture after 1989”.3 Apoliticality, the flight from assuming a precise ideological position was the gravest problem of thoise involved in social activities in Romania. The observations regarding the intellectual’s role in the new policy are also very precise, though it must be mentioned that his predilect space is the opposition – “it is hard to conciliate the analytical spirit with political partisanship”.4 In this context Marino identified the two political camps that argued their legitimacy in the Romanian post- revolutionary opposition: the radicalism of the old generation of political prisoners was in this context the competitor of the new generation’s relativism and pragmatism.5
2.2 The historiographic project The only solution in the amnesia-phenomenon caused by the totalitarian system – as we have seen it – was encyclopaedism as a form of memory transposed into synthesis. The volume Libertate şi cenzură în
1 Ibid., p. 115. 2 Ibid., p. 156. 3 Adrian Marino, Cultură şi politică, cit. ed., p. 120. 4 Ibid., p. 152. 5 Ibid., pp. 153–155.
67 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
România1 was thus the direct expression of an encyclopaedism transformed into act, a symptom of the memory in action. Marino’s historiographic project can be likened to the platonic anamnesis inasmuch as the latter denotes an a priori knowledge of ideas, which only need to be re-actualized. They have existed since the beginnings of Romanian thinking, only that they have been shadowed by different political and cultural phenomena. The last volume of Adrian Marino therefore has an expressive active and polemic sense, a reaction to the rightist and leftist ideology: “between these two compact groups, centrist Romanian culture remained fragile, intimidated, isolated, without great actualized traditions”2 asserted the ideologue in one of the articles replicated in Pentru Europa. Due to the militant sense of the project, when one is reading Libertate şi cenzură în România must take into consideration Adrian Marino’s other political positions as well. When the ideologue returned to the origins of the idea of liberty, he did not accomplish an act of free historical encyclopaedism, but he enterprised an action of strict actuality for the Romanian debates. Enlightenment was brought back into the actuality not just in order to exemplify the meaning of a tradition, but especially in order to offer a living example. The multiple parallelisms of the Enlightenment and the (post)communist situation illustrate this. The most valorous chapters in Libertate şi cenzură în România, are those that put into debate common dilemmas of Enlightenment and totalitarianism. The fragments on the liberalization of press – being otherwise the richest in information, signalling that the author insisted upon this issue – represent in fact new extensions of latent meanings of the condition of Romania in the 1980s. Adrian Marino’s ideological work is a history with many openings towards the recent history of communism. The study is also interesting from another point of view, Adrian Marino’s poetics. If up to this point the author’s favourite theme had been Europe, then Libertate şi ideologie (Liberty and Ideology) was equivalent with a “return to the homeland”.3 The researcher could culturally return home, if in this “home”-term the idea of Europe began to articulate increasingly. Marino’s work is essential for the Romanian culture in the measure in which Enlightenment and paşoptism are not viewed from an aesthetic but from an ideological angle. The researcher even testified
1 Adrian Marino, Libertate şi cenzură în România. Începuturi, Iaşi, Polirom, 2005. 2 Idem, Pentru Europa, cit. ed., p. 145. 3 Ibid., p. 8.
68 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 certain “voluptuousness” in his proposal of alternative hero-models for the Romanian culture (evaluated thus from an ideological angle). On the other hand, Marino subtly argued the fact that the actions/writings of Enlightenment and paşoptism had in fact no aesthetic finality. The prolonged obsession of Romanian culture to literarily valorize these writings actually represents nothing but an error of reception. Despite the title of the book, I believe that this time too Europe was the subject that confers specificity and relief to Marino’s historiographic project. Its images and situations were so intense within the ideology of the Enlightenment that it succeeder in including other categories as well such as liberty, democracy or laicization. The fragments in which the researcher approximated the birth of the idea of Europe in the Romanians’ supra-conscience give evidence of great subtlety. The first “form without essence” – thus the first reflexive division of Romanian society, was equal with the discovery of a “grandiose but empty Europe”.1 If in the West Europe had been formed organically, in the Romanian states, it “represented only a model and an ideological ideal” – went on the researcher. The configuration of Europe as an ideological model was equivalent with the first shift of paradigm, with the first step towards freeing itself from the traditional society (“to be effectively for the first time contemporary with history”2). Subsequently I would say that Europe for Adrian Marino in Libertate şi cenzură în România was a political supra-reflection in Claude Lefort’s manner (“the politician is an auto-representation of society”). The Romanian society gains a precise liberal and democratic orientation only in the moment when it perceives the distance towards Europe (when this latter appears as a “mirage” – the researcher himself used the word). The modern political organization will be oulined when society does not correspond to itself anymore, when it is predisposed to a work of thinking upon itself. Thus, for Marino, Europe was exactly the grid, the scheme which systematically imposes the reflection of Romanian society upon its own identity.
1 Ibid., p. 136. 2 Idem, Pentru Europa, cit. ed., p 167.
69 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Adrian Marino and the Idea of Literature from a Hermeneutical Perspective
Florina ILIS “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: hermeneutics, methodology of hermeneutics, literary criticism, hermeneutics of the idea of literature, hermeneutical model, preconception, hermeneutics of religious ideas, literary hermeneutics
Abstract Adrian Marino, trying to impose hermeneutics upon Romanian literary criticism, developed a new methodology of hermeneutics and a real critical system. The study analyses this system, comparing Marino’s hermeneutics to the systems of such outstanding hermeneutists as Heidegger or Schleirmacher. Being very well acquainted with the hermeneutical tradition, Adrian Marino elaborated a kind of synthesis of the hermeneutical interpretation methods and techniques, but he also developed a method of hermeneutical analysis for the texts of literary theory, thereby inventing a new discipline, the hermeneutics of the idea of literature.
E-mail: [email protected]
Already in 1974, when he was publishing Critica ideilor literare (The Critique of Literary Ideas), Adrian Marino had formulated a very precise idea about hermeneutics. As a true pioneer of the new method of treating literary texts, he endeavoured to impose this upon Romanian literary criticism, opposing it, as a method of study, to the imprecise, subjective and vague style of the impressionistic criticism, as well as to the historicist style of Positivist criticism. An entire chapter from the Critica ideilor literare was dedicated to hermeneutics as a method of understanding and interpreting the literary text. True to his principle of elaborating from the beginning an adequate methodology, that should help him afterwards in enterprising the act of criticism from positions as objective as they could be, Adrian Marino proceeded in the same way with the hermeneutical method as well. Before applying it concretely, he defined it in different studies, developing a “new methodology” able to sustain his theoretical measures: “As far as we are concerned, we intend
70 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 to bring back hermeneutics to the centre of literary studies through the development of a new methodology (italics mine), radically different from all the methods of the actual Romanian criticism. […] It should constitute at the same time an attempt of contribution to the general theory of contemporary hermeneutics.”1 Then, with the pride of a person who is looking upon a well done work, Adrian Marino, far from remaining in this contemplation of the solidity of the science that he has just elaborated, urged others also to try its efficacy and offered, in Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade (Mircea Eliade’s Hermeneutics), an example of analysis through which “the new method of hermeneutics” functions in conformity with the severest critical demands. But Adrian Marino had already been emphasizing – since the Critica ideilor literare – that his new method cannot be applied by anyone and, still less by someone situated outside the critical understanding of the ideas: “Therefore not any critic can study any idea. In the case of the literary ideas he must have – under any form – the vocation of ideas, of ideological imagination, the critic of ideas being a veritable creator of ideas (italics mine).”2 For the critic of ideas or the creator of ideas employed in this “adventure of ideas” the interpretative process does not stop when the idea has been experienced or interiorized, but it continues with a complex process of “objectivization”, the act of participation at the life of the idea taking place in the form of a “dialectical process of cognition”, process observable at the level of a well configured theoretical system. Adrian Marino managed to build such a theoretical system, constructed as a “model”, elaborating the methodological principles necessary to any analysis of hermeneutical nature. In spite of the clarity with which he systematically expounded his ideas, the direction, which he had outlined for the criticism of literary ideas, unfortunately did not find a too fertile field in the Romanian literary landscape, already under the critical tradition established by Călinescu. On the other hand, what Adrian Marino succeeded in – and this fact remains incontestable – was the “audacity” with which he managed to draw the attention of the Romanian criticism to Mircea Eliade’s hermeneutics3, clearing thus the way for other studies about the Romanian scholar exiled in the Occident. Furthermore, and this was even
1 Adrian Marino, Critica ideilor literare, Cluj-Napoca, Dacia Publishing House, 1974, p. 234. 2 Ibid. 3 The French translation of Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade was published at Gallimard in 1981.
71 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 more important in those times, he managed to place him in a Romanian philosophical tradition, even if not an explicitly hermeneutical one, but one presenting all the data for such a development. Thus Mircea Eliade was situated, for the first time in the post-war period, in “the family of Romanian spirits”, the same family as Lucian Blaga, Constantin Noica and Mircea Vulcănescu. We shall try to analyze the critical system imposed by Adrian Marino upon the Romanian literary criticism, observing especially in what measure the hermeneutical method, conceived as a hermeneutics of the literary idea, expresses in its most authentic sense one of the most profound ways of interpreting and understanding the literary text. The systematic project – its essential directions had already been discernible since the paper Introducere în critica literară (Introduction to literary criticism) written in 1968 – elaborated by Adrian Marino, was developed into a real critical system in the course of the following years when one after the other appeared: Modern, Modernism, Modernitate (Modern, Modernism, Modernity) (1969), Dicţionarul de idei literare (The Dictionary of Literary Ideas) (1973), Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade (Mircea Eliade’s Hermeneutics) (1980) and, in 1987, Hermeneutica ideii de literatură (The Hermeneutics of the Idea of Literature). These are only the essential works included in this critical project. The systematic application of the concepts belonging to the criticism of literary ideas developed by Adrian Marino appears most thoroughly expressed in his six-volume work, Biografia ideii de literatură (The Biography of the Idea of Literature) (1991–2000). Insisting upon the idea, that “the hermeneutical method” should not be applied mechanically and in any case, Adrian Marino was aware of the fact, that in order not to fall into the trap of a rigid interpretative frame, external to the analysed literary idea, there is need of an “internal”, “progressive” investigation, that should form a “passage”1 towards the real essence of the literary ideas. This approach, which presupposes the existence of a centre and a circle of significations constitutive to the idea, derives from a theme well known to philosophical hermeneutics, the theme of the circle, a theme expressed first by Schleiermacher and developed, later on, by M. Heidegger. Schleiermacher described – while formulating one of the basic rules of hermeneutics, which presupposed the understanding of the whole from the part and of the part from the
1 Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica ideii de literatură, Cluj-Napoca, Dacia Publishing House, 1987, p. 11.
72 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 whole – a certain need of identification on the interpreter’s part with the author of the text.1 Heidegger on the other hand tried, first of all, to consolidate an epistemological foundation for the hermeneutics of poetic interpretation. Defining existence in metaphorical terms, as being necessarily “interpretative”, even “hermeneutical”, Heidegger assented, that in this philosophical context, art and literature become one of the highest forms of cognition of human life.2 Schleiermacher’s idea that the whole should be recovered from the part and the part from the whole, taken over also by Heidegger, was also defined by Adrian Marino in a kind of programme text of the hermeneutical method, the Herméneutique et lecture simultanée, published in Cahiers roumains d’études littéraires: “Il est évident que toute lecture systématique va du tout á la parties et de la parties au tout, du niveau historique actuel de la totalité aux éléments historiques composants, ramenés en bloc devant l’esprit investigateur.”3 But with Adrian Marino, the sense of divination, which the interpreter of a text must possess in order to be able to reach the author’s “internal and external life”, did not present a sine qua non condition of the interpretation, when there was no difference between the historic and the actual level. In order to avoid the trap of any kind of metaphysical interpretation, hazardous in that age, Adrian Marino endeavoured to confer an image as “objective” and “scientific” as possible to the hermeneutical method in comparison with other analytical methods of literary ideas and texts. Without neglecting, however, these philosophical perspectives, for the hermeneutics of the idea of literature Adrian Marino devised a specific system of interpretation, which was built into a veritable hermeneutical model, whose functioning initially presupposes a preconception (Vorassetzung, présuposé), a term borrowed from the Heideggerian philosophy. Unless considering beforehand this notion a kind of central motive of the method4 elaborated by Adrian Marino, the theoretical scaffold, upon which the critic of ideas constructs his analysis, loses its whole coherence. Different however from Heidegger’s thought,
1 F. Mussner, Histoire de l’herméneutique, Paris, Les Editions du CERF, 1972, p. 22. 2 Felix Martinez Bonati, Hermeneutics Criticism and the Description of Form, in Interpretation of Narrative, Edited by Mario J. Valdés and Owen J. Miller, Toronto, Buffalo, London, University of Toronto Press, 1976, p. 80. 3 Adrian Marino, “Herméneutique et lecture simultanée”, in Cahiers roumains d’études littéraires, nr. 4, 1977, p. 34. 4 Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica ideii de literatură, Cluj-Napoca, Dacia Publishing House, 1987, p. 19.
73 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 where the cognition of the world is conditioned and substantiated existentially, Adrian Marino’s approach, where the preconception functions in a logical, ideatic system, conceived the cognition of the world as having a strictly objective sense. Before undertaking any analysis of Adrian Marino’s work method, a specification is necessary: this method of interpretation is not a schematic frame that might be applied mechanically in the case of any literary phenomena. On the contrary, even inside Adrian Marino’s thought there is, for example, an essential difference between the hermeneutics of religious ideas, practised by Mircea Eliade and the literary hermeneutics. These two, dealing with structurally different phenomena, lead to the construction of diverse methodologies of interpretation. Secondly, although the method of hermeneutical interpretation and understanding described by Adrian Marino leads to the idea that the method of investigation itself functions in “circles”, in reality this operates simultaneously in directions that presuppose distinct levels in the hermeneutical process. If the hermeneutics of religious ideas, promoted by Mircea Eliade presupposes that the impulse to “decipher, discover signs and significations”1 should also acquire an ontological status, even if “essentially objective, textualized and historicized”,2 then the hermeneutics of the idea of literature appears as “the theory, method and practice of correct text interpretation and understanding”.3 In addition the ontological content attenuates for the benefit of some textual practices, which liberate the hermeneutical process from any kind of aprioristic determination. Aware of the fact that, analysing Mircea Eliade’s hermeneutics, the religious phenomenon requires also an approach less favoured in the communist era, Adrian Marino, with a thorough sense of objectivity, tried to define the hermeneutical process practiced by the historian of religions in a “scientific” manner. Thus, Adrian Marino thought – following the direction proposed by Bultmann and Gadamer –, Mircea Eliade regarded the act of interpretation as being more than an “understanding” of the sheer data of the text. He underlined, moreover, the necessity to understand the “inner” significations, by an “ontological” transposal into the “original” state of the text or, in the present case, of the studied
1 Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade, Cluj-Napoca, Dacia Publishing House, 1980, p. 47. 2 Ibid., p. 48. 3 Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica ideii de literatură, Cluj-Napoca, Dacia Publishing House, 1987, p. 11.
74 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 religious phenomenon. Describing this aspect, slightly suspicious of mysticism, Adrian Marino did not hesitate to ask himself the question, in what measure the hermeneutist’s “participation” at the “original” state of the text – doubled by the effort of re-creation, as a “creative transposal” – “borders on or is apt to be confused with a kind of spiritual experience”1. But the answer, in Mircea Eliade’s case, by no means led towards what was considered to be the direction followed by Schleiermacher, Dilthey and, later on, by Paul Ricoeur, for whom the process of understanding the religious phenomenon should be doubled by an act of “mystical” experience. On the contrary, Adrian Marino expressed, here as well, a point of view of his own towards a kind of “intellectual receptive euphoria”; euphoria, which was presupposed by “the vital and existential plenitude of cognition and understanding”.2 For Adrian Marino the explanatory system of Mircea Eliade’s hermeneutics was not causal, but “ontological and existential”. If the hermeneutics of religions operates with certain ontological signifiers, literary hermeneutics – having its origin in the older philological tradition of interpreting the sacred texts – remains in a literary area according to Adrian Marino’s conception. Being very well acquainted with the hermeneutical tradition, from F. D. E. Schleiermacher to Dilthey, from Heidegger to H. G. Gadamer or from R. Bultmann to Paul Ricoeur, Adrian Marino proposed to himself a kind of synthesis of the hermeneutical interpretation methods and techniques, but developing by the concrete application of these upon the “idea of literature” a methodology which originated from an essentially personal view, totally different from the practice of literary hermeneutics having as a single objective to recognize the author’s meaning and intention. Because there was no such method of hermeneutical analysis for the texts of literary theory, Adrian Marino invented one, discovering, in the case of the hermeneutics of the idea of literature “a new reading system”. Essentially, this new system of understanding and interpreting the literary ideas aims at “deciphering, clarifying and interpreting the explicit and implicit meanings of the idea of literature in an organized and significant way”.3 The hermeneutics thus elaborated “operates at a double level: terminological and semantic”.4 Therefore, there is no allusion to the ontological sense of the hermeneutics of the idea of literature in this
1 Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade, op.cit., p. 67. 2 Ibid., p. 68. 3 Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica ideii de literatură, op.cit., p. 15. 4 Ibid.
75 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 equation. As Adrian Marino conceived it, this “new hermeneutics” creates its own methodology and its own analytical techniques, being situated on a different level of interpretation than literary hermeneutics, a missing level, which had however to be “invented”. “Inventing” a new system of interpretation, Adrian Marino elaborated a new science, a criticism of ideas, which, however, unfortunately, was not adopted by other literary historians and critics in the Romanian area. If interpretation is one of the essential principles on which this hermeneutics is built, the objective of interpretation can only be “the correct understanding of literary ideas”. The notion of “interpretation”, essential in hermeneutics, forms one of the constitutive conditions of the hermeneutics elaborated by Paul Ricoeur. If, however, with Paul Ricoeur the double role of hermeneutics has to manifest itself first as “the reconstitution of the text’s inner dynamics”, and then as “the restitution of the work’s capability to project itself outwards”,1 the interpretation functioning as a complex ontological process, with Adrian Marino the detachment from the ontological background is more than evident. This is mostly due to the differentiation of the studied object, as it could be seen, Adrian Marino himself differentiating clearly between the study of literature as literature and the study of the idea of literature in formation. In order to succeed in his research, Adrian Marino offered himself the luxury to create, starting from the traditional elements of hermeneutics, a separate discipline whose object of study should be one alone, and inevitably, unique. Aware of the fact that it is difficult to understand the hermeneutics of the idea of literature without a methodology as explicitly described as possible, Adrian Marino elaborated a detailed “system of interpretation”, formulating accurately the mechanisms of the interpretation and understanding of the idea of literature. In Adrian Marino’s view both interpretation and understanding, as basic functions of the hermeneutics of the idea of literature, implied an “objective sense”, the logical and causal character of the relationship between interpretation and understanding, generating a research method with three phases. The three research phases of the idea of literature unfold related to the double level (terminological and semantic) in which this kind of hermeneutics operates. If the first phase – “the recuperation of the whole historical tradition” – can be incorporated to the terminological level, the other two – “the hermeneutical inductions and deductions”, as well as the last, “the
1 Paul Ricoeur, Eseuri de hermeneutică (Essays in Hermeneutics), Bucureşti, Humanitas, 1995, p. 29.
76 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 re-projection of these inductions-deductions upon the analysed meanings of the idea of literature”1 – appear at the semantic level. The interpretative system of the idea of literature presupposes specific interdependent contexts, aided by which Adrian Marino analyzed the idea of literature in the spirit of a hermeneutical model that advances circularly through certain cycles of interpretation. This evolves from that which the historian of ideas calls the original background – that is from the etymological basis of the idea of literature – towards the genetic and auto-destructive stratum – that is towards the inner mechanisms of the production of literature, but also towards the mechanisms which undermine the idea of literature itself. The strata or levels that form the hermeneutical model succeed one another according to the inner logic imposed by the demonstration of the interpretative analysis aimed at the idea of literature: original stratum, cultural stratum, quantitative stratum, specific stratum, heteronymic stratum, hierarchic stratum and genetic and auto-destructive stratum. Adrian Marino analyzed the concept of literature according to this model, which functions in successive interpretative strata, following the sinuous route of an “ascendant spiral”. Through this analysis he demonstrated the fiability of his interpretative model in a convincing way. Relying on an almost exhaustive documentation of the scientific domain, the critic advanced with an enviable theoretic assurance through a vast domain of investigation that was often hard to analyze in the historical context from which the written testimonies were missing. But the infallibility of his investigation system was verified especially before these obstacles hard to surmount. Defining oral literature in relation to the written one, as well as sacred literature in relation to the profane one, was only one of the difficulties. Beyond the rigour and the methodological qualities of the hermeneutical model configured by Adrian Marino, what is really impressive in Hermeneutica ideii de literatură, but also, later on, in the massive Biografie a ideii de literatură, is the rich documentary and bibliographic material he studied, as well as his extraordinary capacity to synthesize and abstract the analyzed literary processes. From all these points of view, the volumes on the criticism of the literary ideas, published by Adrian Marino between 1968 and 2000, have three polemic directions. A first polemic direction had already been acknowledged and implicitly assumed by Adrian Marino starting with the
1 Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica ideii de literatură, op.cit., p. 19.
77 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 volume Introducere în critica literară, published in 1968. In its preface the critic situated himself on polemic positions with regard to the dilettantism displayed by the criticism of the age: “[...] the present book proposes a resolute way out from improvisation and dilettantism, which does not mean in the least that it issues invitations to pedantry and bookishness”.1 Otherwise, the moderate critical spirit, the distance from any kind of excess characterizes Adrian Marino’s entire opera, constituting the red thread of his criticism. On the other hand, being situated on a polemic position with regard to the dilettante criticism of the age, as well as to the obsolete language of the Romanian critical tradition, from Maiorescu and Gherea to Lovinescu and Călinescu, Adrian Marino took a step of great intellectual courage in 1968. He militated for the renewal of the critical methods of analysis by a re-evaluation of critical concepts, and, implicitly, for the actualization of the critical discourse to the new currents of modern criticism asserted in Western European culture. One could already see at that time too that the Romanian critic intuited: the chance of Romanian literary criticism would be to “get synchronized” with European criticism. He sustained later on as well, that it is necessary to “deprovincialize” Romanian culture. He did this in a period of total intellectual fossilization, in 1987, in the Preface to Hermenutica ideii de literatură. True, however, to his principle of originality in aesthetic judgments, Adrian Marino hastened to underline that the analytic instruments of modern European criticism cannot be borrowed mechanically and without being beforehand assimilated, confronted and synthesized according to the principles of one’s own analytic method.2 The second polemic direction of Adrian Marino’s critical work appertains to the methodological idea pursued by him during his entire career. This “ideal” expressed the critic’s conviction, that beyond any subjective mark, literary criticism can become a systematic discipline, based on objective concepts and practices, creating its own analytical and interpretative methods. Moreover – Adrian Marino sustained – in order to consolidate this option for method steps should be taken to constitute an encyclopaedist direction in Romanian culture. The conviction, that the essential instruments by which the status of a culture is established are represented by the encyclopaedic or the synthetic and reference works, constituted one of the main lines of thought for Adrian Marino. He
1 Adrian Marino, Introducere în critica literară, op.cit., p. 6. 2 Ibid., p. 9.
78 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 developed the same idea much later in Politică şi cultură (Politics and Culture), when – the communist censorship having disappeared – he could analyze it from the point of view of the relationship between culture and the complexes that the Romanian culture developed in the course of the years, being unable to surpass them. From this point of view, the last chapter from Politică şi cultură, O nouă cultură română (A New Romanian Culture) and especially the last subchapter represents a veritable process of conscience of the Romanian culture in its totality. But far from being in accord with the actual spirit of the age, which denounced without trying to find solutions for the problems which were raised, Adrian Marino, in his own usual active and militant spirit, analyzed the complexes of Romanian culture with extraordinary lucidity, also trying, for the first time after 1989, to outline energetically some future directions of development, directions that would allow the Romanian culture to assert itself in the European circuit of values.1 Another important aspect of the programmatic measures undertaken by Adrian Marino is the fact – already underlined in the Argument – that by the problematization of the Romanian culture, not its personality and originality is questioned, for that must be preserved, but mainly the forms in which culture is organized and the ideological motivation of these forms.2 Thus regarded, the integration of Romanian culture in Europe is no more a problem of essence or content, but one of form, which refers first of all to the cultural organizational structures, and only in the second place to the manifestational expressions of culture that need to be synchronized with the similar manifestations from the rest of Europe. Thirdly, the polemics Adrian Marino was engaged in do not aim at the surface and they are not simple critical exercises that go against the autochthonous wave, but, beyond the firmness with which the critic expresses his principles, these polemics are penetrated with an active, militant spirit, a spirit which Marino maintained even in his later books, which analyzed political ideas. Far from having virulent accents, his militantism originated from exclusively cultural principles; however it was not situated in the secure domain of theoretical-ideological neutrality.3 If, however, during the years of the communist period,
1 Adrian Marino, Politică şi cultură. Pentru o nouă cultură română (Politics and Culture. For a New Romanian Culture), Iaşi, Polirom Publishing House, 1996, p. 334. 2Ibid., p. 198. 3 Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica ideii de literatură, op.cit., p. 29.
79 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Adrian Marino’s militantism was rigorously maintained in the cultural sphere, in the period immediately following the year 1989, the critic of ideas manifested himself freely, assuming entirely the militant side of his active spirit, disinhibited, open to dialogues without complexes with the great European cultures. Adrian Marino’s critical work, though elaborated in the course of several decades, presents a thematic and conceptual coherence hard to equal in Romanian literature. Initially, when Adrian Marino engaged himself in the direction of idea criticism, his approach had a purely cultural character, being embedded in the literary sphere. As he advanced in his investigations, deepening the “abstract” character of the ideas, the critic enlarged his sphere of interests, including in it cultural areas complementary to the literary domain, but which, in the theoretical analysis, helped to express a complex perspective upon the studied phenomena. Thus, the hermeneutics of ideas meant for Adrian Marino more than a critical method for evaluating and re-evaluating literary and religious ideas, according to a pre-established methodological program. It allowed him, moreover, to develop a systematic discipline offering interpretative solutions in the most complex situations. No doubt, Constantin M. Popa was right to affirm in one of the first monographic works dedicated to Adrian Marino, that through the hermeneutical model he conceived, the critic of ideas realized “our third critical system after Mihail Dragomirescu and Mircea Eliade.”1
1 Constantin M. Popa, Hermeneutica lui Adrian Marino (Adrian Marino’s Hermeneutics), Craiova, Aius Publishing House, 1993, p. 56.
80 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
On the Border of Text and Experience – About Adrian Marino’s Hermeneutics –
Károly VERESS Faculty of History and Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, “Babeş-Bolyai” University, Cluj
Keywords: hermeneutics, literary hermeneutics, textual exegesis, method, signification, sense, interpretation, comprehension, hermeneutical circle, objectivity, archaic man, metaphysical way of existence, archaic ontology, linguistic medium, text, universality, the conflict of interpretations, hierophany, symbol, religious experience
Abstract The study deals with Adrian Marino’s scientific activity developed in the domain of hermeneutics in the 1970s and considered to be trailblazing in the Romanian culture under the intellectual circumstances of that age. The paper is based on Marino’s works written about Mircea Eliade’s hermeneutics and about literary hermeneutics. It focuses on two main aspects of this hermeneutical achievement. On one hand it tries to investigate critically whether Marino’s basic hypothesis can be verified. This hypothesis stated that, in Mircea Eliade’s works written in the domains of history of religions, anthropology of religion, phenomenology of religion – works which explore the historical forms, cultural configurations and semantic contents of the universal religious mythology and symbol system – one can in fact discern the outlines of a universal hermeneutical conception that may be compared with Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics. On the other hand our study makes an attempt to show all the deficiencies and limits of Marino’s hermeneutical view which arose from his structuralist view and his epistemological-methodological approach. Having compared the essential points of the problems investigated by Marino with Eliade’s statements as well as with Gadamer’s and Ricoeur’s relevant ideas, the present study concludes that Marino’s characteristic misunderstandings related to the hermeneutical conception arose exactly from the hermeneutical situation which served as a medium for his investigations and, in fact, these misunderstandings have proved to be hermeneutically fertile.
E-mail: [email protected]
81 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The necessity of hermeneutics Adrian Marino dealt with the questions of hermeneutics in two comprehensive, monographic studies in the first half of the 1980s. His book entitled Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade (Mircea Eliade’s Hermeneutics) published in 1980 was followed by another work, Hermeneutica ideii de literatură (The Hermeneutics of the Idea of Literature) in 1987.1 By writing these two works and the preliminary studies connected to them, the author undertook an attempt of great importance: to introduce a hermeneutical view to the Romanian literary theory, more widely to the Romanian intellectual culture. Marino considered – in agreement with Constantin Noica’s remarks and reflections – that in Mircea Eliade’s works in the history of religions and the anthropology of religion an intellectual tradition different from the prevailing epistemological view of modernity had been revived: the hermeneutical tradition, which on the whole was not alien from the heritage and mentality of Romanian culture. Thus, to investigate Eliade’s hermeneutical achievement in the intellectual horizon of the Romanian culture does not imply an outward attitude. It means to position oneself into a hermeneutical situation where significations may occur during a unified process in the horizons of religious historical investigations such as Eliade’s and of the “Romanian hermeneutical tradition”, mutually open to one other.2 This conception fitted in the leading Romanian intellectuals’ emancipatory effort, which became a programme in the second half of the 19th century and strengthened anew in the critical periods of the 20th century: the effort to put an end to the provinciality of Romanian culture
1 Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade, Cluj-Napoca, Dacia Publishing House, 1980; French translation: Paris, Gallimard, 1981; Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica ideii de literatură, Cluj-Napoca, Dacia Publishing House, 1987. 2 Alluding to Hans-Georg Gadamer’s basic idea according to which “during the process of comprehension a true fusion of horizons takes place” [cf. Hans-Georg Gadamer, Igazság és módszer. Egy filozófiai hermeneutika vázlata (Truth and Method. The Outline of a Philosophical Hermeneutics), Budapest, Gondolat, 1984, p. 217.], Marino quoted one of Constantin Noica’s diary notes referring to the fact that in the Romanian intellectual tradition instead of speaking about Eliade’s hermeneutics “one can rather speak from inside Eliade’s hermeneutics” („a vorbi întru hermeneutica lui Eliade” – cf. Jurnal de idei (The Diary of Ideas) (VII). Cronica, 1978/29). He referred to an intellectual similarity and correspondence in which the hermeneutical act comes to life so to say naturally. Cf. Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade, pp. 18–19.
82 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 and to connect this to the universal intellectual circuit. For Marino, this endeavour was connected with the attempt to rethink the theoretical horizons and methodological bases of literary critical thinking.1 He thought that in order to offset positivism a new method of textual analysis, criticism and interpretation was needed. The reconstruction of Mircea Eliade’s hermeneutics was a suitable new theoretical background for the realization of this programme, since it could be considered as a “second” Romanian “critical system” in the “deprovincialization” process of the Romanian critical thinking and culture. This reconstruction could establish a “Romanian hermeneutical tradition”.2 According to Marino this was possible because Eliade’s researches in the history of religions laid the foundations of an organized and systematic interpretative reflection which – since every hermeneutical pursuit is an open process – also integrated the most important previous hermeneutical achievements. Several constituents of Eliade’s hermeneutical results achieved in the domain of the religious history and connected with the interpretation of myths and symbols seemed to verify this idea: Eliade’s hermeneutical investigations were based on texts, they approached texts by means of texts, which were separated and could be interpreted according to strict rules and schemes; his interpretations, based on the interplay of the part and the whole, were open to the perspective of totality; in the course of his investigation he did not speak about something, but – with Noica’s words – he spoke amid something, that is: he did not objectify the investigated religious phenomena, but positioning himself into and standing in the historical course of the religious experience he explored its inner, organic meaning relations; during his investigations he was all the time conscious of his historicity and he presented historic reality in the act of comprehension where one may experience how significations occur and exist.3
1 See Adrian Marino’s systematic works referring to this: Introducere în critica literară (Introduction to Literary Criticism), Bucharest, Tineretului Publishing House, 1968 (in Hungarian: Bevezetés az irodalomkritikába, Bucharest, Kriterion Publishing House, 1979); Critica ideilor literare (The Critique of Literary Ideas), Cluj-Napoca, Dacia Publishing House, 1974; German translation 1976; French translation 1978. 2 Cf. Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade, pp. 20, 21, 22. Later on Marino himself wrote that the main aim of Mircea Eliade’s Hermeneutics was to enforce, or even discover, revive the hermeneutical tradition in the Romanian culture. Cf. Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica ideii de literatură, Preface, p. 5. 3 Cf. Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade, pp. 16, 17.
83 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Marino approached his own achievement too in this hermeneutical context. According to the preface of the Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade he considered this work a “hermeneutical book” written in the spirit of hermeneutics and using hermeneutical methods, since – in accordance with Eliade’s principles – this book was also based on the analysis and interpretation of texts and it strived continuously to discover the signification of the studied texts and to place these significations in a wider contexts. Thus Marino was right to regard his undertaking as a hermeneutics focusing on Mircea Eliade’s hermeneutics.1 Adrian Marino’s other great hermeneutical achievement, the work entitled Hermeneutica ideii de literatură had a similar approach. It developed a literary hermeneutics, a hermeneutical idea of literature. In this book the author completed a rather long investigation process; he discussed in a more detailed manner the problems he had already treated in some introductory and experimental studies published by him in this domain in Romanian, German and English. Marino defined this work as an attempt to think about and describe literature in a new, unusual way; a definite attempt to define and interpret literature – investigated in its complexity and its ramifications – in a new perspective and according to a specific method. This was an attempt to analyze literature thoroughly, to discover all its main and secondary meanings and all the explicit and implicit connections between these significations.2 His starting point was that literature is litera, letter basically and in its essential aspects and that the “literal” interpretation of literature has always been favoured in the cultures with a hermeneutical tradition. This had no equivalent in the approaches to literature to Marino’s knowledge in his time. Because of this, to prescribe to the readers a new reading method which required the re-creation of the literary work during the reading process was not without risks and methodological difficulties. The reader had to learn, to “acquire” the hermeneutics operating in this new method, and he/she could “criticize” only after having acquired this knowledge. For this reason he constructed his conception as a hermeneutics aimed at the hermeneutics of literature. His work was conceived as a monograph with encyclopaedic amplitude. The different parts were studied in relation to the systematic totality of literature in this book. The concise synthesis of the studied material was included in a hermeneutical continuum which appeared as an open process progressing towards the more and more
1 Cf. ibid., p. 9. 2 Cf. Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica ideii de literatură, Preface, p. 5.
84 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 perfect, deep and comprehensive understanding of literature. This was based on the new source interpreting method and on the cohesion of the argumentation.1 Why did Marino consider all these important in the intellectual and cultural context of his researches? In this case also, as in his investigations referring to Eliade’s hermeneutics, Marino took into consideration that the hermeneutical approach occurred in a culture with “European” and “universal” bases and coordinates, in which, however, this kind of approach was somewhat unusual and several points of support were required for its consolidation. The lack of the hermeneutical tradition was associated on the one hand with the indifference shown towards it, on the other hand with the aversion to it manifested on the level of a publicity lacking absorption in study and serious counter- arguments. Marino, however, firmly believed in the possibility of an “original” Romanian literary hermeneutics. This was not some typically utopian plan, but the inner organic system of requirements of the literary culture which suggested that it could not be renewed and it could not develop without the ideas, principles, basic investigations and special solutions appertaining to the new approach and without the radical deprovincialization involved by these.2
The application of hermeneutics The study of religious symbols and myths, as well as the critical investigation of literary phenomena meant for Marino both the realization of the hermeneutical process and – through the exploration of the phenomena’s hermeneutical nature – the possibility to create and develop his own hermeneutical conception. It is important that studying Eliade’s works in religious anthropology and history Marino noticed and demonstrated the latent hermeneutics inherent in Eliade’s texts which permeated his conception. But it is similarly important that a specific interpretation of hermeneutics, characteristic to Marino, operated in this investigation. It is quite an interesting question: what did Marino mean by hermeneutics and how did he interpret this while he was making efforts to introduce a hermeneutical tradition to the Romanian culture? In Marino’s case too, the essence of the hermeneutical pursuit was justified by the fact that his own conception of hermeneutics took shape while he was outlining Eliade’s hermeneutics.
1 Cf, ibid., pp. 6, 7. 2 Cf. ibid., pp. 7–8, 8.
85 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Marino revealed many features in Eliade’s oeuvre which seemed to justify the statement according to which Mircea Eliade and Constantin Noica were “the first Romanian hermeneutists”.1 According to him, Eliade had discovered a series of hermeneutical processes during his investigations, which had been formulated theoretically by Gadamer and Ricoeur parallel to him. Naturally, he acknowledged that Eliade did not strive to elaborate a philosophical conception of hermeneutics. He rather developed his hermeneutics on the grounds of “empiricism”, by means of hermeneutical intuition and reflection related to the investigation of empiric phenomena and in the course of direct and authentic communication with the “texts”. He took for a starting point the texts written in different cultures and historical periods and, through them, the direct encounter with the essential hermeneutical situation: the necessity to explain and interpret texts. This kind of approach made Eliade’s hermeneutics devoid of speculations, concrete, technical, almost “philological”. Thus the hermeneutics practiced by Eliade was connected to the Schleiermacherian tradition, but actually it encompassed all the hermeneutical processes from the interpretation of biblical texts to the universal mythological exegesis.2 According to Marino, in Mircea Eliade’s work we can discover a hermeneutics being in the process of formation, constructed in actu as the progressing process of textual exegesis. This remark was associated with an observation differing from the traditional ideal of method and referring to “a non methodical” approach. According to this Eliade’s hermeneutics was guided neither by dogmatic principles, nor by methodological preconceptions. Instead it was characterized by the work in progress “method”; it followed the methodological principles elaborated in interaction with the occurring problems. These principles went hand in hand with the problems and they were continuously specified, completed and actualized. Marino pointed out that through this spontaneous, “empirical” hermeneutics the inner structural organization and the ontologically well-founded character of the hermeneutical process were also really revealed.3 We find the same ideas about the central role of the texts and about the lack of method in Marino’s works discussing the literary hermeneutics. He believed that literary hermeneutics was a specific hermeneutics applied to literature. Hermeneutics, from this point of view,
1 Cf. ibid. 2 Cf. Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade, pp. 25, 26. 3 Cf. ibid., pp. 26, 28.
86 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 remained the theory, method and practice of the “correct” interpretation of texts, mainly literary texts. The primariness of the text conferred a solid philological basis for the hermeneutical activity connected with literature; this activity was aimed at the discovery, reading and interpretation of texts; the need of documentation and interpretation was organically connected with the texts. Because of this – according to Marino – literary hermeneutics was often mistaken for “philology” and “textual commentary”. However, in this case no pre-defined methodological rules were applied, but rather an inner method operated. As the final outcome of this inner method it was demonstrated how literature in the totality of its textual formulations analyzed and interpreted itself.1
Marino’s view on hermeneutics Having said all these we can now ask the question: what did Marino mean by hermeneutics? What kind of hermeneutical conception can be reconstructed in Marino’s case if he outlined the hermeneutics of religion and literature in this way? Following Marino’s hermeneutical investigation we observe that he used the term “hermeneutics” in a double sense and this carried a conceptual duality too. On the one hand he meant by this term an intellectual attitude which basically differed from the epistemological pursuits of the cognitional tradition characteristic to modernity both in what regards its theoretical horizon and its methodological basis. On the other hand he meant by hermeneutics the interpretative-cognitional practice in which the semantic contents and meaning relations of religious symbols and myths, respectively of literary works of art were truly revealed. Therefore Marino considered hermeneutics to be that insight and investigation in the process of which he explored the hermeneutical content of the researches in the history and anthropology of religion such as Eliade’s, respectively the hermeneutical content of the philological and interpretative activities performed on literary texts. But the practical process which was explored – namely Eliade’s interpretative investigation of the sacred symbols and myths, respectively the readers’ reception of literary texts – was also considered to be hermeneutics. It is not difficult to recognize in these two directions of activity the duality inherent in the hermeneutical tradition which characterized the entire history of hermeneutics previous to the apparition of philosophical
1 Cf. Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica ideii de literatură, pp. 11, 12.
87 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 hermeneutics: on the one hand hermeneutics was the system of rules on which the interpretation of texts was based, it was the methodology of interpretation; on the other hand it was the practice of text interpretation, the exegesis. This duality was present in Marino’s conception of hermeneutics when he considered that hermeneutics on the one hand is the “art”, the “method”, the “science” of deciphering the religious or any kind of significations; on the other hand it was an exegesis aimed at everything from the texts and symbols of a concrete, particular religion to a universal mythology including the culture of each people and each historical period.1 However, the duality referred to produced a difference too, in which the characteristics of Marino’s conception of hermeneutics were really revealed. In Eliade’s case the methodological component was included in the empirical plane of the exegesis and it was formed according to the current inner conditions and necessities of the interpretative process. In Marino’s case – regarding Eliade’s hermeneutics and later on literary hermeneutics – this methodological component took the shape of an independently organized and theoretically elaborated system, detached from the interpretative practice. In other words: hermeneutics was re-epistemologized on a theoretical level by Marino, it assumed once again the features which the practical hermeneutical process tended to supersede. Thus the “hermeneutics” of hermeneutics actually was the epistemological attitude – elaborated in detail and systematized, trying to bring a new approach – towards that living hermeneutical process which had been discovered by Eliade during his investigations, respectively which took place while the reader-receiver interpreted literary texts. This was not changed by Marino’s unique realization that the idea of a “universal hermeneutics”, related to
1 Marino emphasized two main directions in Eliade’s hermeneutics: 1. hermeneutics as the creation and tradition of the signification of sacred texts, the investigation trying to reveal the signification of the ultimate reality determined by these texts; 2. the investigation method of these significations, the methodological efforts made in order to present the religious values of the different historical ages. Cf. Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade, p. 30. The first definition connected Eliade’s hermeneutical investigations to the hermeneutical tradition of the exegesis of sacred texts which survived in the biblical hermeneutics. The second extended these investigations towards a methodological direction, (re)incorporating hermeneutics in the epistemological paradigm.
88 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics, had taken shape in Eliade’s religious historical and anthropological investigations.1
Eliade’s hermeneutics Let us examine which were those components and characteristics in Eliade’s investigations in religious history, phenomenology and anthropology due to which Marino – based on Eliade’s several allusions regarding this matter – thought of and investigated this intellectual achievement as a hermeneutics operating on an empirical level. According to Eliade’s basic idea, man is a homo semnificans, a being who fills the world he lives in with significations. The lack of significations is an anti-human state. Man’s basic way of existence is to subsist in world full of significations. This has already appeared on the level of the archaic consciousness. Significations arose as if “spontaneously” in the primitive consciousness. They neither sprang from the “physical” world nor had a “genetic” origin; they were the organic “creations” of the mind, the products of the language. Consciousness conferred original and organic significations to the phenomena. The human mind cannot function without creating and discovering significations. Man settles and becomes aware of his place in the cosmos on the level of primary reflection and contemplation through these phenomena. From this perspective the whole intellectual life of humanity is a comprehensive depot of significations, a global hermeneutical storehouse.2 The significations are concentrated into signs and symbols and the mythologies formed by these. The world is revealed as a language, the living process of meaning formation, a cosmos carrying complexly articulated significations. The mythological and symbolic language preceded language as a means of expression and communication. Its signs carry original significations which have a magical, prophetical or metaphysical signification. Each encounter with them is anamnesis-like,
1 Marino emphasized that it is a wrong statement that Eliade’s hermeneutics dealt only with myths and symbols. Actually, it carried the premises of a philosophical hermeneutics. Eliade himself pointed out – Marino wrote – that he was always interested in the elaboration of a universal “hermeneutical method” and not of a personal philosophical anthropology. Cf. ibid., pp. 31, 31–32. 2 Cf. ibid., pp. 43, 46, 48.
89 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 a recollection of the original signification and a recalling of it from the depth of memory.1 The original signification is necessarily hidden because it refers to existence as the transcendent ultimate truth encompassing and sustaining all that exists. It transmits deep, hermetical truths related to existence. Because of this the archaic mentality connected with the original significations was mysterious, enigmatic; every disclosure related to them required an initiation. Hermeneutics is in fact the extension, the consequence of this attitude. To bring to the surface the original signification referring to the “absolute reality” is possible only by getting in touch with the sacred.2 In this respect hermeneutics is actually the inherent and spontaneous creation of the mind.3 Eliade considered that this primeval spiritual state an archaic ontology was concealed in the semantic contents of the documents of cultural and religious ethnography which informed us about and that it revealed itself in the course of the meaning disclosing investigation. The “secrets” inherent in these semantic contents require exploration, deciphering, consequently a hermeneutics in the case of the modern man too. This can be elaborated as an interpretative investigation which confronts us with the original significations forgotten, neglected, deformed in the modern age, therefore requiring interpretation. The hermeneutics constructed in this way can be practiced as a humanist discipline whose source and basis is the existential ontology rooted in the archaic unity of the transcendental and the experimental, the sacred and the profane, and which refers human existence to the ultimate reality.4
The difference between sense and signification Taking Eliade’s hermeneutics as a starting point Marino considered that the sign and the semantic content of the text were organized on two levels in the hermeneutical process. This was suggested by the differentiation between the terms “sense” (sens) and “signification” (semnificaţie). Sense is the general aim of a text, its basic, essential, comprehensive semantic content. Signification is some possible “connotation”, “semantic” interpretation of the essential sense.5 Marino thought that this idea was analogous with the differentiation between
1 Cf. ibid., p. 44. 2 Cf. ibid., pp. 39, 40. 3 Cf. ibid., p. 47. 4 Cf. ibid., pp. 45, 48. 5 Cf. ibid., p. 38.
90 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 sense and signification introduced by Paul Ricoeur: the sense of the text is formed by its “inner relations and structure”, the signification is the text’s “realization in the reading person’s own speech”. The text has a semiological dimension through its sense and it acquires semantic dimensions through its signification.1 Though Marino tried to approach his ideas on Eliade’s hermeneutics to Ricoeur’s conception of hermeneutics, this analogy turned out to be in fact only apparent. Marino’s definition of sense combined the two “meanings” of sense almost unobserved: the conception of the direction sense and substantial sense. We approach the meaningful text on the basis of one of these two sense-conceptions. In the two cases we regard the text either as an achievement which opens, positions the interpretative process in the direction of certain significations or as a creation with a particular semantic content. In Marino’s view – it seems – signification wad related to the latter sense- conception and it can be defined on this basis as possible “connotations” of some sole deep sense unravelling during an external interpretative process. Sense is deep, internal, unique and unchanged; signification is superficial, external, divers and varied. On the other hand in Ricoeur’s work the sense of the text was the direction opened and carried by the text. The intention of the text (and this is not equivalent with the author’s intention) operates and the text communicates something in this direction. The text, which became independent of the author and the reader in the sense, is at its own self, which means that sense is the selfhood of the text. The sense is carried by the deep semantics manifesting itself during the structural analysis. On the other hand, signification is the actuality of the text created in reading, the realization of the text as a text in the relationship with its environment and its audience – as a text which is itself and the reader’s “own speech” at the same time.2
1 Cf. Paul Ricoeur, Mi a szöveg? (What Is the Text?), in: Idem, Válogatott irodalomelméleti tanulmányok (Selected Studies in Theory of Literature), Budapest, Osiris Publishing House, 1999, p. 27. 2 Cf. ibid., pp. 28, 29. Marino’s idea about the relationship between sense and signification contained another contradiction rather difficult to solve, the problematic relationship between the permanence and changeability of the signification: on the one hand the signification of the text is identical with the text itself and repeatable, on the other hand it changes in the course of its representations. Regarding this we may refer to E. D. Hirsch’s point of view to which Marino too made some references. Hirsch’s viewpoint is an intermediary
91 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
between Ricoeur’s and Marino’s view, the latter being a simplified, schematized version of the former. (Hirsch, differently from Ricoeur, focused on the author instead of the text.) According to Hirsch’s statement, the word “signification” has two distinct meanings: “There is a difference between the signification of the text (which does not change) and the present day signification of the text (which changes). The signification of the text is that which the author wanted to signify by using certain linguistic symbols. Having a linguistic character this signification is collective, which means that it is identical with itself and it can be reproduced in more than one consciousness. Since it can be reproduced, it is always the same, no matter when and where someone understands it. Nevertheless, each time this signification is constructed its signification for the person who constructs it (its significance) is different.” One can notice that for Hirsch “signification” meant sense, while he substituted the denomination signification for “significance”. Cf. E. D. Hirsch: Gadamer értelmezéselmélete (Gadamer’s Interpretation Theory), in: Tibor Fabiny (ed.), A hermeneutika elmélete. Második rész (The Theory of Hermeneutics. Second part), Ikonológia és műértelmezés 3 (Iconology and Interpretation 3.), Szeged, 1987, p. 395. However, the concept “significance” introduced by Hirsch also contained a semantic component which went beyond the accepted semantic meaning of “signification”: he mentioned significance as “the significance of signification referring to the present situation”. Cf. ibid. In another study he explained the reference to the “present situation” by the “explanation of the signification”, the “ars explicandi”, namely the actual sense of the exegesis. This contained, besides that which the exegetes of the Bible called interpretation – What does the given text signify? –, also that which we traditionally know by the name of application, which is significance: What is the use or value of the text in question, what is its signification that can be applied to our particular situation? The sole signification, the interpretation whose aim is to explore the sense of the text, to understand its signification forms at the same time the necessary basis “for the infinite number of tasks of the application”. Cf. E. D. Hirsch: Régi és új a hermeneutikában (Old and New in Hermeneutics), in: A hermeneutika elmélete. Második rész (The Theory of Hermeneutics. Second part), p. 433. Therefore Hirsch referred here to the roots of the organic connection between interpretation and application inherent in the exegetical practice. Such a unity of interpretation and application is a natural concomitant of the Eliade-like hermeneutics conceived as a universal mythological exegesis. However, the entire problem of application unfortunately was left out from Marino’s reconstruction of Eliade’s hermeneutics, though the basic principle of the Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics formulating the unity of interpretation– comprehension–application drew the attention to this question and Marino himself referred to this principle on several occasions from another direction. Marino operated with a semantically contextualized unity of interpretation and comprehension which prevented Eliade’s hermeneutics from going beyond the limits of the text and description.
92 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The terminological difference between sense and signification pointed out by Ricoeur is essential. Signification is not identical with the modus(es) of the sense as Marino’s formulation suggested. In fact the text has a sense as regarded in itself, while the text actualized in the reader’s speech carries significations. It is a further question how the significations are connected to the sense of the text, this being the question of interpretation.
The problem of interpretation With reference to the problem of interpretation Marino tried to answer two interrelated questions. As regards the problem of signification the “hermeneutics” conceivable as interpretation seems to be inexhaustible. In different interpretative contexts the same sense manifests itself as the multitude of simultaneous, interrelated significations open to further interpretations. Under these circumstances the question occurs: on what is the certainty of interpretation based? Moreover, Marino thought that the real task of interpretation was not to associate to the sense different significations, but to trace the multitude of significations back to an obvious or hidden, but anyway “true”, “primary”, “original” sense. How can the interpretation establish a connection between the multitude of significations and the unity of sense? These questions actually carry hidden premises. The first one – the ontological postulate of interpretation – presented itself to Marino’s idea of interpretation directly from Eliade’s hermeneutics: each signification carries the absolute certainty of a basic, unalterable revelation. The hermeneutical interpretation restores, recreates and displays this ultimate reality which is the ontological basis of the signification each time; the certainty of interpretation originates from the display of this reality.1 Interpretation is not simply the acquisition of signification, but the display and reconstruction of the reality revealed in the signification; it is a process progressing from the signification to the reality forming its basis. The second question – the hermeneutical postulate of interpretation – is related to the nature of comprehension as seen by Marino inspired by Eliade’s view in this too.
1 Cf. Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade, p. 52.
93 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Marino could not detach himself from the epistemological- methodological habits connected with the notions and practice of cognition even while problematizing comprehension. He regarded comprehension in general hermeneutical terms as the ultimate object of interpretation. He thought that we reveal and interpret significations in order to “understand” them. According to this, comprehension is the ultimate and main aim of the hermeneutical act, the termination of the interpretative process.1 But in fact the process of comprehension takes place in the course of the interpretation; its internal semantic content is unravelled, brought to light in the multitude and variety of significations. Interpretation does not lead to comprehension by a logical, discursive way; instead comprehension develops and happens in its fullness during the interpretation. Marino himself admitted this unity of interpretation and comprehension which interpenetrate and complete one another. He referred to Gadamer’s and Ricoeur’s idea of comprehension in order to support this.2 But it is problematical how Marino saw the way in which the unity of interpretation and comprehension can be realized.
The problem of comprehension Marino – despite his references to philosophical hermeneutics – regressed compared to the philosophical hermeneutical conception of comprehension when he accepted the classical idea according to which hermeneutics is the artistic doctrine of understanding texts. This regression can be explained by the fact that in Eliade’s case the question of comprehension occurred as the particular problem of understanding religious phenomena. Thus the problem of comprehension became for Marino – based on Eliade – the question of discovering the implicit and explicit semantic contents of the texts (documenting religious manifestations).3 Because of this comprehension seemed to be conceivable from the direction of its connections with the cognitive process. Marino realized as well that cognition in itself did not necessarily mean comprehension. The structure of comprehension was
1 Cf. ibid., p. 53. 2 Gademer: “The concept of comprehension [...] is not a concept of method...”; “Comprehension is an existential characteristic of human life itself”; hermeneutics is not the doctrine of “the art of comprehension”; “...comprehension and interpretation are one and the same thing after all”; “Interpretation is the executive form of comprehension”. Cf. H.-G. Gadamer, op. cit., pp. 188, 190, 272. 3 Cf. Adrian Marino, op. cit., p. 54.
94 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 nearer to intuition and revelation.1 According to this realization, it was necessary – in order to clarify the notion of comprehension – to move from the direction of the cognitive process towards the process of living. The semantic content of the religious text carries the revelation of the ultimate reality. The comprehension of the text’s signification means on a basic level to apprehend, experience and explore this revelation intuitively. In this basic sense comprehension is existential comprehension, by its means man finds his essential place in the cosmos, the everlasting existential and sense unity between man and cosmos is restored.2 The conception of comprehension outlined as the connection between revelation and intuition naturally offered the possibility for Marino to situate the problem of comprehension into a perspective opened by the Heideggerian-Gadamerian existential ontology. According to this, comprehension is the way of existence of the Dasein. Comprehension means for man to exist in a basic, essential way.3 But this momentary approach towards the philosophical hermeneutics was combined with a more important regress in Marino’s works. Since Marino – based on Eliade – thought with reference to the relationship between comprehension and existence that an existential life-relation is established with the object of understanding in the comprehension process and this always requires a certain degree of “feeling”, “subjective” approach and “participation”.4 The comprehension of a religious text’s semantic content is based on some kind of existential
1 Cf. ibid., p. 56. 2 Cf. ibid., pp. 58, 59. 3 Cf. ibid., p. 60. 4 Marino also indicated that the conception of comprehension with an existential basis carries in fact a methodological option, since there were two schools, two opposite trends in contemporaneous history of religion and religious hermeneutics: a) the one – marked by R. Otto’s, C. G. Jung’s and K. Kerényi’s works – returned to the spirit of positivism and subordinated comprehension to causal interpretation; its representatives thought that any causal, scientific interpretation was reductionistic, the interpretative process and the comprehension was concluded by the exhaustion of the problem; therefore comprehension operated as a reductive interpretation; b) the other – to which Eliade’s investigations belonged – constructed an ontological, existential interpretative system and not a causal one; its representatives believed that the significations were inexhaustible because of their polyvalence; therefore comprehension could not be finished, it always went on and it could be amplified through extensive interpretation. Cf. ibid., pp. 62, 63.
95 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 reciprocity. On the one hand the interpreter has to place himself into the religious man’s spiritual position of existence, into his dispositions which generate significations; he has to participate in these. On the other hand the he has to transmit these semantic contents in the spirit of “congeniality”, to receive them into the intimacy of his particular existential situation, to interiorize and acquire them subjectively.1 In this terminological context Marino placed back the conception of comprehension – which had an existential basis and opened towards philosophical hermeneutics – into a former stage of the hermeneutical tradition, the context of Schleiermacher’s and Dilthey’s terminology. He placed it against a psychological and philosophical background based on the ideas of “congeniality” and identification-experiencing-acquiring- (re)creation. That Marino tried to outline the essence of comprehension through the semantic content of the Latin term comprehendere and the importance he attributed to intention in the act of understanding seems to prove this.2
The relation between interpretation and comprehension The comprehension idea based on the revelation-intuition relationship also shows how Marino thought that the unity of comprehension and interpretation can be realized. Referring to Schleiermacher, Gadamer and Ricoeur, Marino believed that hermeneutics achieves its aim if the internal, deep, often hidden sense of texts and actions is discovered in the content of significations.3 This
1 Cf. ibid., pp. 63, 64, 65. 2 The term comprehendere expresses that comprehension is the interiorization of the sense; to understand a text means to draw it into your way of existence (com- prend), to make it the part of your own world. “In order to understand this [other] world interiorly we have to live it anew.” Cf. ibid., pp. 65, 66. Marino indicated that the original meaning of comprehendere was close to the English verb to realize: to realize, to apprehend, to form a notion about it, to acquire it intellectually, which implies the re-discovery of the problem, its personal re- creation. This process is an intellectual and a sympathetic, a rational and an existential connection at the same time. Cf. ibid., p. 67. Moreover, the act of comprehension requires the exploration of the original senses and intentions, the exploration of significations in statu nascendi. The original authorial “intention” or the intention of the text is primary, determinant in what we realize, re-create in our own world. The aim of comprehension is: to understand the author better than he understood himself. Cf. ibid., pp. 69, 70, 71. This latter idea explicitly refers to Schleiermacher’s comprehension idea. 3 Cf. ibid., pp. 41, 42.
96 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 actually means that the intuitive comprehension is unfolded, made explicit. Comprehensive thinking, identifying itself intellectually with the relative content of the intuitively experienced situations, develops interpretatively this content and expresses it in symbolic, cosmological, metaphysical terms. Thus interpretation reorganizes the unstructured, undifferentiated act of intuition into a structured, clear, rational system of sense relations open to intellectual approach and comprehension. Here the interpretation does not establish an external, discursive logical relationship between the sense of the given text or life situation open to the ultimate reality and its revelations created in the multitude of significations, but it discloses the experienced unity of sense and signification(s). It connects the sense with the significations by developing and converting the undifferentiated connexion inherent in the intuitive unity of comprehension into structured sense relations. Therefore interpretation has an existential basis just like comprehension. This also shows that interpretation is not connected with comprehension only externally, but in fact it is the comprehension structured and made explicit in its concepts and content. While discussing the relationship between interpretation and comprehension, Marino emphasized continually the problem of interpretation. He dealt with the questions related to comprehension too expressly from this direction. This can be explained by the fact that – though he often referred to Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics – he mainly focused on the hermeneutical problem of the text and this was discussed in detail by Ricoeur. Thus he agreed with Ricoeur that hermeneutics is “the science of interpretation” and that “real hermeneutics” is the interpretation applied to a particular text.1 From this point of view Marino too believed that Ricoeur’s interpretation- hermeneutics was closer to the spirit of Eliade’s hermeneutical investigations than Gadamer’s comprehension-hermeneutics.
The objectivity of interpretation The way in which Marino discussed all those hermeneutical “categories” for which Eliade’s investigations provided a basis proves the inconsistency of Marino’s hermeneutics conception. He was ever searching for new principles and categories to base his reconstruction of Eliade’s hermeneutics on and he elaborated several methodological premises in order to establish the objectivity of interpretation. Because of
1 Cf. ibid., p. 32.
97 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 this he studied a series of methodological terms and tried to force them into the frame of a hermeneutical view by reinterpreting and redefining them. These terms in fact did not originate from the essence of a hermeneutical attitude; they rather extended the methodological horizon of the structuralist, system-centred investigations to the hermeneutical investigations too. The following category pairs are such terms: morphology and typology, system and structure, part and whole, induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis. By explaining these expressions Marino made great efforts to unify the epistemological and hermeneutical approaches. This inevitably led to the epistemologization of hermeneutics which thus became estranged from its own essence. Such hybridization could only be sustained if he permanently represented the essence of the hermeneutical attitude as the carrier of a new methodological ideal. This suggested at the same time that hermeneutical investigations have a dominantly methodological character. This suggestion seems to be proved by the fact that Marino developed Eliade’s hermeneutics from Eliade’s own conception of religious history, phenomenology and anthropology and he did not confront it with a detailed, universalized hermeneutical conception. In this way the characteristics of Eliade’s approach inevitably left their mark on Marino’s conception of hermeneutics. This is the most obvious in the case of the objectivity of interpretation. Marino was greatly interested in the issue of the objectivity of interpretation. Eliade’s basic idea, that the transcendent, the essential, the true and ultimate reality coincides with the primeval, the absolutely primordial, is revealed to the greatest extent. Therefore every interpretative-comprehensive investigation can only achieve its aim effectively, it can only reveal the real sense of the phenomenon, if it succeeds in tracing the sense back to its ultimate basis of reality. This also implies that the present experience, the actual reading of the text is taken to refer to a sacred and archaic past. Marino showed from Eliade’s investigations that the hermeneutical effort has a regressive and “maieutic” character, its aim is to adopt, to actualize the archaic attitude. He proved this with propositions taken from Eliade. According to Eliade, every interpretation starts out from a “centre” and is organized around it. The primeval moment is the fixed, stabile “centre” of comprehension. The phenomena are always revealed in a double form during the interpretative process: on the one hand in their historical multiplicity, on the other hand in their unity with their
98 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 primeval source of existence.1 Eliade thought at the same time that the past can be revealed and acquired only in the coordinates and structures of the present. He perceived the hermeneutical act as mediation between the past and the present. Tradition is the elongation, living continuation of the past in the present. The hermeneutics urged by Eliade is integrated into this tradition. To be the interpreter contemporary of the religious text in this respect means to situate oneself and to be standing continuously in the alternation of the regressive-progressive, anticipative-retrospective perspectives. In this play of perspectives the signification system of the interpreted phenomenon meets and is identified with the interpreter’s system elaborated by the interpreter in order to explore and understand this signification system with its help.2 The two systems are conformed to one another according to the principles of some kind of “hermeneutical coherence” in their interpretative relationship. This explains to us why Marino thought possible – while reconstructing Eliade’s hermeneutics – to reconcile the semiotic and structuralist methodological principles and terminological frames with the hermeneutical investigations.3
1 Cf. ibid., pp. 116, 150, 152. 2 Cf. ibid., pp. 130, 144, 148, 149. 3 We are thinking of such statements: typization is itself a typically hermeneutical operation; the model, the pattern suggests that the sense is inscribed in its own archetype; the synchronic character of morphological typologies and classifications requires atemporality; comprehension presupposes a synchronic reading of the interpreted phenomena and not a diachronic one, some kind of “synchronization” – we may add – of the past and the present in the interpretative process. Cf. ibid., pp. 80, 81, 82. In this same context we can understand why Marino was so much interested in the problem of the “hermeneutical coherence” which carries some inconsistency of methodology and view. It is problematic how the continuously evolving play of interpretation built of differences and inconsistencies can be reconciled with the demand of logical consistency. But Marino emphasized that the aim of Eliade’s hermeneutics was to reveal the basic connections of significations, the structure, namely the coherently structured whole. Cf. ibid., pp. 82, 83. The “hermeneutical coherence” here refers to the internal systematic organization of the text, the latent coherence of the structural connections which determine this organization. For the interpretation starts out from the premise that every hierophany presupposes a complex system of statements referring to the ultimate reality and the interpretation has to reveal this system. Cf. ibid., pp. 84, 85. Marino transferred the methodologized structuralist-hermeneutical, epistemological-hermeneutical hybrid view obtained from the reconstruction of Eliade’s hermeneutics to the literary hermeneutics too later on. He operated with a literary hermeneutics whose aim was to discover, reveal and interpret the
99 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
In this way Marino thought to find a steady basis for the objectivity of the interpretation in the fact that the interpretation aiming at real comprehension reveals and establishes an organic relationship between the multitude of significances created in the semantic dimension of the text and the intellectual centre these significations are based on. At the same time it connects the present of the interpretative process with the primordial reality revealed as referential content in the interpretation. Marino believed that Mircea Eliade’s whole hermeneutical work was based on an essential principle: comprehension cannot be achieved without revealing the primordial moment, without the eternal return to the “origin” of the phenomena.1 It seems that by this Marino supported a methodological demand with an ontological argument: interpretation is objective if it reveals and restores the metaphysical unity characteristic to the archaic man’s and the religious modern man’s way of existence; the metaphysical unity carried by the semantic content of religious symbols, myths and rites and of the different hierophanies connected to them. In other words, the objectivity of interpretation is guaranteed if the semantic content of the existent religious documents can be matched to a reality they are giving information about. But in reality this problem is much more complex.
The archaic man The different religious documents, texts, hierophanies, which can be studied by the historians of religion, if the positivistic epistemological models are laid aside and they are seen in a hermeneutical perspective, prove to be not just some descriptions informing us about men’s way of living in past ages, or about ancient societies’ archaic way of existence. Eliade himself emphasized too on every occasion that the archaic man did not live his life independently of these religious contents. And these were not only settled on him step by explicit and implicit senses of literary texts in an organized and systematic manner and on a double level, the level of terminology and the level of signification. According to Marino, this hermeneutics can be realized as a self- regulating interpretative system – a kind of hermeneutical model –, which ensures the necessary conditions for understanding literature and art in general. This is achieved by combining the principle of the literal, close and objective reading of the literary work with the preliminary comprehension, “knowledge” referring to the nature of “literature”. Cf. Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica ideii de literatură, pp. 13–21. 1 Cf. Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade, p. 112.
100 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 step as a spiritual level in the course of his life, they recurred and were left as a heritage to subsequent ages. Eliade stated explicitly in the introductory lines of his book entitled The Myth of the Eternal Return that the archaic metaphysical conceptions did not always receive a theoretical linguistic form, though the semantic content of the different myths, rites and symbols carry a metaphysical system consisting of coherent statements referring to the ultimate reality. The point is that the metaphysical position revealed by the semantic content of these documents organically belonged to the archaic man’s attitude towards the world and existence. It was materialized and it manifested itself in the most basic, common and profane elements of one’s behaviour as action even there and then when words had not yet been enough to express it.1 The archaic man lived in a particular metaphysical interpretation of the world while this world interpretation had always existed in his actions and relationships; it manifested itself spiritually in this natural process of interpretation and existence, it became structured and conscious in the semantic content of linguistic and textual formations. These spiritual formations organically belonged to the archaic man’s existential process and to his interpretation of existence as his existential awareness. They themselves supported and carried this interpretation of existence, they shaped this attitude towards existence through its sense and thus they were the parts and the participants of the existential happening. In this context one must ask the question: who was the archaic man, the homo religiosus? What kind of image had Eliade about him? The difference between the archaic and the modern man is not that the former connected his everyday life processes with the primordial existential basis, while the latter does not do this. The difference consists of the fact that the archaic man acted as the carrier and the representative of a different way of existence than the modern man. Amid his uncertain, endangered and accidental circumstances of life he was tormented by a continuous existential thirst, all his actions were marked by his striving to maintain and consolidate his connection with existence, that is with the sacred, the ultimate reality. His rites, myths and symbols not only inform us about this, they are rather the organic participants and shapers of this way of existence. He succeeded in maintaining continuously and renewing from time to time his connection with existence by their means. In this relationship the archaic man lived his existence in an organic unity
1 Cf. Mircea Eliade, Mitul eternei reîntoarceri (The Myth of the Eternal Return), in: Idem, Eseuri (Essays), Bucharest, Scientific Publishing House, 1991, p. 13.
101 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 with the eternal, the universal, no matter how accidental his existential state was. In contrast with this, the modern man, being thrown into the world and having a relative existential security, lives in a state of forgetfulness of being through which he loses his organic connection with the cosmic existential dimensions of universality and eternity in the particular life situations of his finite, historical way of existence. Religious experiences offer some possibility to the modern religious man to experience the archaic man’s way of existence. The basic difference between the archaic and modern man’s way of existence consists of the fact that while the archaic man’s way of existence carried and represented a metaphysical interpretation of existence, the modern man’s way of existence is without metaphysics and thus it is not organized in terms of a unified and comprehensive interpretation of existence.
The metaphysical way of existence Why was the archaic man’s way of existence metaphysical? By reading Eliade’s texts attentively, one can realize that this was not so because of a substantially ontological grounding. The metaphysical aspect did not lie in the fact that the sacred as ultimate reality, as true existence ensured the firm basis of the everyday existence for the archaic man. The metaphysical aspect was not given by means of the sacred, but it was ensured through the myth and the rite. The archaic man’s existence received its metaphysical dimension from the fact that the myth and the rite formed it and not from it being based on the sacred. And the essence of this form was that it held the phenomena of the profane, everyday life in organic unity with the sacred, the reality and existence.1 The metaphysical way of existence in its internal, essential form is not different from the non metaphysical one. This internal form structures this mode of existence in such a manner that the particular experiential moments of life can be experienced in organic unity with the existential dimensions open to universality and eternity. The myth, the rite, the symbol and the hierophany carry this kind of existential formulation; to have a metaphysical way of existence means to be living in the meaning relations of these existential moments which structure and formulate experience. Let us resume the discussion of the meanwhile suspended issue and let us investigate what the objectivity of interpretation means in this
1 Eliade often emphasized that the “form” in which some profane, experiential moment became real, sacred, connected with existence was given by the myth or the rite. E.g. cf. ibid., p. 19.
102 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 context. What we said above may suggest that it refers by no means to the operation of such a referential relationship as Marino intimated. Namely, objectivity is not achieved by retracing the multiplicity of present significations to the unity of sense of an ancient, primordial existential base. The interpretative process does not mean, even figuratively, a backward movement in time, it does not realize some kind of return to the primordial existential state, and it does not endeavour to restore the archaic unity in the modern man’s existential circumstances. The archaic is valid and valuable not because it was some kind of perfect state of ancient times past for ever, but because it is the way of existence of the universal: the metaphysical way of existence and existential interpretation in its case have the same essential, inner form, the same structural character, the same meaning relations in the most different historical forms, hierophanies, myths and rites of the primitive religiosity. And a hierophany is universal not because it represents the sacred as a comprehensive and ultimate reality in the experiential, but because it carries this interrelatedness and unity of the sacred and the profane in its inner, essential form.1 Thus, in this sense, there is nothing to return to, and there is nothing to restore. The interpretation is objectivity when it reveals the universal form which carries and represents the basic structures of existence and it connects the multiplicity of significations with the unity of the essential form. This requires that the “prehistoric”,
1 In his famous Traité Eliade stated explicitly too that every hierophany carries and reveals the paradoxical coincidence of the sacred and the profane, existence and non-existence, the absolute and the relative, the eternal and the changeable. What is paradoxical in this, is not the manifestation of the sacred in stones or trees, but the fact that it manifests itself, namely that the encounter of the two ways of existence takes a form, and that the unity (one-ness, unity of existence and sense) of this form becomes more important than the difference of the “totally different” (Rudolf Otto). Cf. Mircea Eliade, Tratat de istorie a religiilor (Treatise on History of Religions), Bucharest, Humanitas, 1992, p. 38. Eliade also stated here that the only difference between the appearance of a hierophany in a religious system and the interpretation and investigation of its semantic content is the difference of the “form” and the “formula”. The hierophany as the form which carries the unity of existence and sense manifests itself independently of any other interpretation. The form is visible, which means that it shows the interrelatedness and unity (the being-together and unity of opposite essences) concretely as sense on itself. Thus its natural state is to be always in interpretation, even before we begin to interpret or reveal it. The way in which the analytic descriptive language of verbal hermeneutics formulates the interrelated unity in statements in the course of the interpretation differs from this concrete manifestation.
103 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 to which the concrete, the particular (the peculiar) and the historic refer, should not be considered as the ancient preliminary, but as the universal. This reflexive and speculative horizon of universality gives the true sense of the historic. Modernity tore apart this original unity of the metaphysical way of existence by this making the metaphysical contents of existence empty. The modern man is forced to live in a non- metaphysical existential form in which the particular and the universal, the concrete and the abstract seem to refer to one another only outwardly, by means of methodological and technical constructions. According to Eliade’s hypothesis, the modern man’s religious experience can create some connections between the two ways of existence. Because of this the nostalgia after the primordial states of ancient times does not cherish the modern man’s wish for reversing history, but it rather supports his efforts to enforce the authentic forms of the true religious experience.
The linguistic medium The archaic man’s metaphysical way of existence and the modern man’s non-metaphysical way of existence basically differ in their form. Form is the inner system of connections, the structuring medium which organizes the elements of existence into meaning relations, in other words: converts them into texts. The two ways of existence essentially differ in the mode of formulation. They are differently spoken of when described and even their self reflexive statements are dissimilar. The myth, the rite, the symbol are organized as a medium, as a textual universe carrying, shaping and representing the metaphysical way of existence not by means of its reference, but through its linguistic form. In this linguistic medium the particular existential elements and universal sense aspects are brought to unity. And in this the experiential, linguistic and spiritual reflexivity and speculativeness – which shape and carry this medium – form the “primordial” content of sense and unity of form which are revealed by the significations created on the different semantic levels and to which the interpretative efforts, directed towards significations, can be traced back. Thus it is proved that the interpretative text – in case it speaks correctly, that is objectively – narrates always what the myth, the rite and the symbol are about. It organizes into a system of statements the meaning relations represented and revealed by the myth, the rite and the symbol as experienced life forms. Therefore it can be justly asked whether the investigations in the history and anthropology of religions, which open hermeneutical perspectives, are really important for the modern man because they inform him about the
104 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 metaphysical constructions of an archaic, primordial reality; or rather because they interpretatively open the textual universe of the myths, rites and symbols carrying metaphysical constructions and the meaning relations of this textual universe towards the modern man’s life and textual universe. Therefore, from a hermeneutical point of view, the result of a correct interpretation and comprehension is more than to reveal the essence of the religious experience. Such interpretation means to place the interpreter intellectually into the sense creating process in which the speculative, metaphysical unity of experience is restored. Instead of changing our knowledge about the religious experience, this interpretation rather modifies our attitude towards it.
The circle of comprehension With reference to the objectivity of interpretation Marino also discussed the issue of the circularity of the interpretative process. He demonstrated in connection with Eliade that comprehension is always based on previous understanding and that the exegesis presupposes anticipation directed to the meaning relations. He agreed with Eliade that we comprehend what we are predestined to understand by our learning, our cultural attitude as well as by the experienced historical moment.1 Marino realized that the circularity of comprehension actually takes place as the interplay of the opposite logical and experiential moments of the interpretative process, as a continuous pendular movement between intuition and reflection, induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, part and whole, past and present, the sacred and the profane. But neither in this case could he disregard the logical- epistemological limits of the methodological approach to hermeneutics. Exactly in connection with the study of the hermeneutical circle becomes evident that the limits of this approach restrict the entire hermeneutical problem of the interpretation and comprehension to the terminological sphere of cognition. Marino’s discussion of the hermeneutical circle as the question of “hermeneutical cognition” is another example to the hybridization of the epistemological and hermeneutical approach. He investigated how the hermeneutical cognition following the movement of the hermeneutical circle – which seems to be a logical tautology – proceeds. Can some new information be created in the interpretative process if only that which appears in the conclusion was comprised in the premises? Combining the
1 Cf. Adrian Marino, Hermeneutica lui Micea Eliade, p. 110.
105 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 logical model with the historicity inspired by Eliade Marino believed that the solution of the problem was that, though the premise of comprehension is always given, the hermeneutist’s attitude however is always predetermined by the specific spiritual and historical situation and his previous understandings of the interpreted issue derived from this situation.1 Thus the circular motion of the interpretation begins always differently in the case of each concrete return to the same sense element. However, – due to the limits of his approach – Marino did not perceive that the hermeneutical attitude does not allow asking in earnest the question whether a linear, progressive movement exists in the process of interpretation-comprehension. It is true that in the same process of sense creation we can perceive and follow the ever progressive motion of interpretation which goes beyond the revealed and understood meaning relations. But the relationship between the two different acts of comprehension – even if they are the two different re-interpretative phases of the same meaning relation – cannot be described as progression, since each new comprehensive process leads in fact to a different and not a better understanding.2
The limits of interpretation Having studied the numerous problems related to the objectivity of interpretation according to the above mentioned view, Marino perceived the limits of interpretation. He believed that all the factors related to the existential, cultural and historical conditions of the interpretative-comprehensive process make the interpretation subjective. Therefore, the question whether objective interpretation exists or not cannot be answered unambiguously in the affirmative. The hermeneutical interpretation is objective between the boundaries set by its object: objectivity depends on the documents, their sense and semantic contents. But as seen from the direction of the context of the interpreter and the
1 Cf. ibid., pp. 110, 111. 2 This problem is clarified by Gadamer in connection with the statement that comprehension is more than the reproduction of a finished work; it is a creative attitude itself. “Comprehension – Gadamer said – in fact is not a better understanding either in the sense of a greater amount of positive knowledge resulted from clearer notions or as the advantage of awareness over the unawareness of creation. It is enough to say that we understand otherwise when we comprehend at all.” H.-G. Gadamer, op. cit., p. 211.
106 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 interpretative act this objectivity becomes subjective. This holds true vice versa as well: the interpreter’s subjectivity also becomes objective.1 As we have seen so far, due to his approach permeated by methodological habits of a structuralist and epistemological character, Marino considered it natural to raise the question referring to the objectivity of interpretation. But it did not occur to him whether the questions raised within the dual terminological domain of objectivity and subjectivity have any relevance at all for the true hermeneutical attitude. The reason why this question was not usually asked must be sought not only in the limits of Marino’s approach but also in the fact that he tried to build his basic statements related to Eliade’s hermeneutics on Ricoeur’s conception of hermeneutics. Whenever it was necessary to confront Eliade’s hermeneutics with a more universal hermeneutics, Marino considered Ricoeur’s hermeneutics to be handier than Gadamer’s. The former preserved and continued to develop many elements of the semiotic and structuralist antecedents of the hermeneutical attitude as well as of its methodological commitments. Thus Marino considered the question of the objectivity of interpretation worth to be studied thoroughly because he attached importance to the manner in which Ricoeur differentiated between “objective” and “subjective” interpretation. He saw in this the fulfilment of two conditions quite important for the success of the hermeneutical investigations. The first is related to the fact that, it seems, Ricoeur managed to find a criterion which, if applied, guarantees the objectivity of interpretation in each case. Its essence, according to Marino, is that the interpreter has to place himself continuously into the interpreted text’s reference domain, respectively into its specific horizon opened from here. This means – in Hirsch’s words – that he has to use the inherent and original perspective, excluding any other point of view or perspective.2 The other condition is related to “the conflict of interpretations”. Eliade’s religious historical studies also reveal that the history of religions is also the history of different and conflicting interpretations at the same time. Approaches differing from one another as regards their direction and their point of view reveal the operation of the principle stating the polyvalence of interpretations which results in the conflict of interpretations. In order that the hermeneutical investigation may be
1 Cf. Adrian Marino, op. cit., pp. 201, 204. 2 Cf. ibid. p. 34.
107 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 successful, it also becomes necessary to harmonize the great variety and different validity of the interpretations. This goes hand in hand with the hierarchization of interpretations, the inclusion of the new interpretations in one of the traditional interpretation types. Marino believed that the Ricoeurian criterion of the objectivity of interpretations could have a decisive role in the conflict of interpretations too.1
The secret of the text Let us compare now the question of the objectivity of interpretation – raised in connection with Ricoeur – with Ricoeur’s own discussion of this problem. Returning to the Ricoeurian differentiation between the text’s sense and signification, this reveals that Ricoeur did not differentiate the subjective and objective interpretation in the sense Marino alluded to. In fact the problem of the objective interpretation is not raised as the question of the text’s reference, the question of the relationship between the text and the world. Ricoeur separated the problem of the objective interpretation from the acquiring of the text in the reading process, a subjective interpretation. The reading process, even if it is adjusted to the text’s intensions, preserves much from the psychological dimension of the interpretation practiced and perceived as acquiring (Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Bultmann). According to this psychological dimension the reader’s manifestation connects another text – which actualizes the text in the direction of its context and its audience – to the text, in which the interpretation of the text is extended towards the reader’s self- interpretation. The reader, trying to understand the text, in fact creates his own text which helps him to understand himself better or in a different way. This holds true only if we regard the text itself too as the medium of the author’s self-interpretation and self-comprehension. But the interpretation should not stop at this psychological process, because the text’s essence and sense does not consist of its being the mediator and the interpreter of the authorial intention. Ricoeur emphasized the hermeneutical importance of the structural analysis because he considered that structural analysis can reveal the text’s deep semantics, that meaning relation which holds together and unites the text from inside and which enforces the text’s own intention (independent from the writer’s) and articulates the content communicated by the text itself. The text according to its “intention” or “will” draws us into its own sense
1 Cf. ibid. pp. 35, 36, 37.
108 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 direction, it “wants” us placed in the same direction as itself, in the meaning relation carried and opened by it.1 Therefore the objective interpretation is not directed to the text from the outside, but it is an intra- textual interpretation, namely the self-interpretative act of the text, which interprets itself as a meaning relation having a well-determined direction. That, which happens as the objective interpretation, is in fact performed in the text “as the work of the sense directed to itself”. The text’s natural way of existence is the continuous (self-)interpretation.2 We, as interpreters, can do nothing else than participate ourselves as well in this self-interpretative process of the text.3 In this respect to interpret means “to choose the mental path opened by the text, we start on the road the text took”, namely we place ourselves in the text’s sense direction and we go on with it.4 In such cases the text interpretation, namely the “hermeneutist’s speech” is “a repetition which revives the speech of the text”.5 Ricoeur’s idea of the objective interpretation consists of two important elements: on the one hand it reveals the secret of the text, the real situation that the text’s actual way of existence is to be in a continuous self-interpretative state; on the other hand Marino’s thought, according to which the objective interpretation would be realized by placing oneself into the text’s referential plane, is corrected. At the same time the Ricoeurian approach to the problem of the text is really related to Eliade’s idea which we have discussed in connection with the archaic man and his metaphysical way of existence. Ricoeur’s text conception actually reveals the text’s true existential state, its metaphysical way of existence. The continuous (self)interpretation, the reflexivity and speculativeness which accompany this as well as the particular existential contents placed into a universal
1 Cf. P. Ricoeur, op. cit., p. 29. 2 Cf. ibid. p. 32. 3 This Ricoeurian thought is similar to Gadamer’s conception according to which “the concept of the text as the central category of the linguistic structure can be defined only if we take the concept of interpretation as our starting point. For the concept of the text is characterized by the fact that it manifests itself only in harmony with the interpretation and setting out from this – as the actually given and that which is to be understood.” H.-G. Gadamer, Szöveg és interpretáció (Text and Interpretation), in: Bacsó Béla (ed.), Szöveg és interpretáció, Cserépfalvi’s edition, s. a., p. 24. 4 Cf. ibid., p. 32. 5 Ibid., p. 33.
109 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 horizon are together the criteria of the metaphysical way of existence. The secret of the text is condensed into the paradoxical aspect that, though the text is always about “something” and this “something” is always revealed as a “world” by means of the text – and as the reference of the text –, the sense of the text does not originate from this in reality, but from that essential, inner and universal form which holds in an organic unity the world (as the referential content of the text) and the text (as the manifestation of the world). The text is in fact realized as the interrelatedness of these particular circumstances – the world as content and the text as a well defined system of signs – and the horizon of universality. The text’s inner meaning relation (as the particular world which forms the reference of the text) and the organic unity of the universal horizon opening in the text (as form) manifest themselves on the text itself as form independently from any other interpretation. The text speaks of a particular world, but speaking of it in a universal linguistic context and an open interpretative horizon it appears in its context as a text having sense before anyone would start to read it. Consequently, the objective interpretation can be realized not by placing ourselves into the referential plane of the text, but by revealing the text’s metaphysical way of existence; by partaking and participating in that continuous self-creating and self-building interpretation of existence and of the world which is the text’s natural way of existence as a continuous interpretative process. The text grants us the joy of creation and not the experience of being thrown into the world. But undoubtedly, if the interpretation places itself correctly into the text’s sense direction, it discovers in its referential plane that which the text would really like to communicate: the ontological frame of a world is outlined in the text’s metaphysical horizon. In these cases the text’s meaning relations are opened to a (possible) reference and not a (real) reference determines the directions of the sense. A text which lacks its metaphysical horizon and the specific way of existence characterized by continuous interpretation is not a real text anymore. It is only a system of descriptive statements connected with the described object according to outward rules.
The power of the symbol In this context it is worth discussing another problem raised by Ricoeur when adopting Eliade’s symbol conception. This problem, while revealing the nature of that linguistic context into which Marino placed Eliade’s whole hermeneutics, corrected in some measure the
110 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 methodological alienation which occurred between this linguistic context and textual universe as well as the living spirit of hermeneutics; alienation resulting inevitably from Marino’s epistemological, semiotic, structuralist approach. We are referring to the problem of the double meaning. This is not identical with and cannot be reduced to the duality of sense and signification discussed in detail before. Ricoeur – referring to Elide’s discussion and allusions related to cosmic symbolism from the Traité – showed the essential characteristic of the symbol which is the condition of linguistic completeness. The linguistic completeness is created by the relationship between sense and sense, where one sense is placed inside the other. The symbol’s way of existence is based on the interconnectedness of two senses. “The symbol is determined – Ricoeur wrote – in a double sense as it is connected to something and with something. On the one hand it is connected to the primary, literal, perceptible phenomena of the symbol: this creates the obscurity. On the other hand the literal sense is connected with the symbolic sense inherent in it; I call this the symbol’s revelatory faculty. The symbol has power due to this – despite its obscurity.”1 Ricoeur’s formulation reveals that what we stated with reference to the myth, the rite, the hierophany and the text, holds true for the symbol too: it is an internally formed, organic essential unity, meaning relation. However, it requires special attention. In the symbol the particular sense horizon of a sensory-experiential component is interconnected with the universal sense horizon of an intellectual component. Thus the sensory-experiential component does not remain purely concrete and particular, but it acquires a sense horizon in which it becomes open towards universal meaning relations; as a sense it surpasses its existential particularity. Its obscurity originates from here. But something similar happens in the opposite direction too: the universal and abstract intellectual sense acquires an experiential sense horizon in which it becomes open towards the concrete particular meaning relations, it manifests itself in the sensory-experiential. The symbol’s revelatory faculty originates from here. The symbol can be reduced neither to the one nor to the other meaning relation, but it is based on the inward interconnectedness and unity of form of the two. Its inner cohesion is created by structural unification of the particular and universal meaning
1 P. Ricoeur, Az interpretációk konfliktusa, in: Fabiny Tibor (ed.), A hermeneutika elmélete. Első rész. (The Theory of Hermeneutics. First part.) Ikonológia és Műértelmezés 3. (Iconology and Interpretation 3.), Szeged, 1987, pp. 210–211.
111 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 relations open to one another. The symbol requires special attention because of the nature of this unification. For this is more than the interconnectedness of forms as we have shown in the case of the hierophany or of the text, this is a special way of existence in which the two meaning relations dwell in one another. The particular and universal meaning relations penetrate one another reciprocally, they reveal and interpret one another. The symbol is determined because the experiential meaning relation interprets the universal one, while the universal meaning relation interprets the experiential one. One is the other’s interpreter in Peirce’s sense. Namely, that the meaning relation revealed in the one is the component of the other and vice versa. Without this neither the particular, nor the universal meaning relation would separately have the fullness of sense carried by the symbol by means of their unity. The power of the symbol originates from this. All this shows that the linguistic medium revealed by the symbol is not only determined, but it is a complete language at the same time.1 It includes the experiential particular and the universal, the sensory concrete and the abstract intellectual components at the same time. It cannot talk about the one without speaking of the other too. It cannot speak of the sensory without representing it in the universal horizon and as carrying the universal. And it cannot speak of the universal without revealing it as something belonging to and present in the sensory. It lends a metaphysical dimension to the particular experiential sense and an existential dimension to the universal sense. Consequently, the symbol’s existential structure is more than the hierophany or the metaphysical way of existence of the text. The obscurity of the symbol is the metaphysical obscurity, but its revelatory faculty is the existential openness. Therefore the symbol does not only speak, it speaks to me. In addition to the particular experience speaking in the language of the universal meaning relations in the symbol, the universal sense speaks to me in the language of my particular existence. In this sense we can tell that the symbol’s way of existence is determined, confined and it is a complete way of existence at the same time: a way of existence characterized by metaphysical and existential unity. The man living in the symbol’s linguistic medium can only be the whole man with his entire experience.
1 Cf. ibid., p. 211.
112 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Observations and hopes Finally, we must make two observations regarding Marino’s hermeneutical investigations. The fact that Marino’s hermeneutical efforts – despite their unquestionable scientific expertise and seriousness – did not achieve their aim in the investigation of religious phenomena – which, by their nature, almost voluntarily offer themselves to interpretation – must have been due to the “hermeneutical situation” Marino made his investigations in. In the intellectual context of the 1970s and 1980s this was shaped as a situation whose terminological and methodological horizon was not yet really hermeneutical. Marino tried to interpret, understand and apply hermeneutics relying on the epistemological preliminarity structures of a non-hermeneutical situation and in its semiotic, structuralist and methodological horizon. Thus it is no wonder that this interpretation was often done in a non-hermeneutical manner. Despite this, even those essential points and moments when Marino misunderstood and misinterpreted hermeneutics in a non-hermeneutical manner proved to be real hermeneutical deeds and events due exactly to the hermeneutical productivity of misunderstanding. Our second observation is closely related to the former. The point of view offered by the indicated situation gives a characteristic starting point and a determined direction to Marino’s investigations referring to Eliade’s hermeneutics. Marino – due to an intellectual habit arising from the structuralist approach – placed the text into the centre of his hermeneutical investigations, and he followed the guidelines offered by the tradition of textual hermeneutics. Thus he proceeded in Eliade’s case too as if he had had to deal with texts in Eliade’s hermeneutics as well. In this way he did not realize or did not attach sufficient importance to the fact that in Eliade’s hermeneutics to progress in the textual exegesis meant to progress to the living religious experience as to a hermeneutical experience.1 Whereas the real essence and greatness of Eliade’s hermeneutics lay in the fact that it outlined and discussed the religious experience as a hermeneutical experience. The text, the symbol
1 We can prove with several quotations that for Eliade the religious experience was the starting point and the true domain of interpretations realized as hermeneutical achievements; e. g. he wrote related to the identification of the existential moments of cosmic and human existence: “Let us try to understand that man’s existential situation for whom all these identifications are not just mere thoughts, but lived experiences.” Mircea Eliade, A szent és a profane (The Sacred and the Profane), Budapest, Europe Publishing House, 1987, p. 155.
113 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 and the mythology appeared as the linguistic medium of the religious experience in this process; a linguistic universe in which the religious experience is revealed as world experience. If we survey this development from the point of view of the Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics, we may be witnesses to the “empirical” realization of a “universal hermeneutics” in Eliade’s oeuvre. And it is not impossible that the Gadamerian hermeneutics’ universal linguistic aspects will be outlined for us in the linguistic medium of the symbol and the myth. But if we pay attention to the fact that the meaning relations revealed in the interconnected metaphysical and existential structures of the symbol and the myth can start speaking as philosophical thoughts too in the context of intellectual-linguistic universality, reflexivity and speculativeness, then we can finally conjecture that the real inheritor of the archaic tradition is not the modern man’s present day religious experience, but rather the philosophy of the future.
114 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Tatakau Hikaku Bungaku. Adrian Marino and the Militant Comparatism in Japan
Rodica FRENŢIU Faculty of Letters, “Babeş-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: Adrian Marino, Japanese literature, “world literature”, comparative literature, militant comparatism, René Étiemble, universality, internationalism, cosmopolitanism, universalism
Abstract The paper presents the Japanese translation of Adrian Marino’s book Étiemble ou le comparatisme militant, the first book of Romanian literary criticism translated in Japan. At the same time the basic issues related to comparative literature in general and in particular in Japan are also presented. The new comparativist science elaborated by René Étiemble, proposed a new humanism without boundaries, oriented towards a unity of attitudes, preoccupations and ideas, which will certainly be predominant in the 21st century. The proposal of “universal literature” seems to be a great opening of horizons. This includes the literature of every nation from West and East, both the Oriental and the Occidental literature. This theory adopted by Marino too, suggested that only comparative literature could fully understand the complex relationship between the different cultures.
E-mail: [email protected]
Forsaking Eurocentrism, opening up to the Literature of the world, without value-appreciations dictated by a supreme hierarchic centre, the ideological implication of the comparativist research, its direct confrontation with the social and political, undoubtedly implies the opening towards universality. The new comparativist science proposed by René Étiemble, a research domain situated beyond the positions of the academic, positivistic and historical erudition, draws all the literature of the world, from East to West, to the attention of the branch study, each of them having the occasion to actively take part in the round table initiated by the “new type of comparativist”. A lucid mind of his age, an attentive spirit to the changes of his age, Adrian Marino reacted strongly to the change of the comparativist
115 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 research proposed by Étiemble, which reached a period of crisis, a fact noticed already in 1958 by René Wellek and reaffirmed in 1995.1 Adrian Marino acknowledged the French scholar’s merits resulting from the difference of horizons, of mentality and work style as compared to his branch colleagues and considered him the only one able to lay the foundations of a renewed, combative comparatism. Marino dedicated a volume, the first of its kind, to this specialist in comparative literature, and connoisseur of oriental languages. The work entitled Etiemble ou le comparatisme militant was pubished published by the Gallimard Publishing House in Paris in 1982. It contained the Romanian scholar’s opinion about the afore mentioned issue: “La différence d’esprit, d’horizon, de mentalité et de style de travail entre Étiemble et le reste du comparatisme, ou – plus exactement – la plupart de ses collègues est donc considérable. Il importe de le préciser d’entrée: d’une part pour marquer l’apport original de cet esprit non conformiste; de l’autre, pour nous expliquer certaines positions en cul-de-sac du comparatisme actuel. Étiemble donne à ses cours et à ses interventions un tour très souvent polémique; il n’hésite pas à prendre parti sur les problèmes politiques et idéologiques les plus brûlants; il veut infléchir le comparatisme vers des prises de position concernant les nouveaux rapports idéologiques et autres (Ouest-Est, Tiers Monde, États-Unis, Union Soviétique, Chine, etc.); bref, il rêve d’un comparatisme mis à jour, complètement rajeuni, combatif. Son militantisme idéologique, culturel, littéraire est donc fondamental; le comparatisme lui-même n’est que l’une des applications possibles.”2 The book on the militant comparatism of Étiemble, written by a Romanian author has not only been received well by the public but also by the branch publications in France and outside France. It was reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement,3 Gazetta de Lausanne,4 La Libre Belgique,5 Rivista di Letterature moderne e comparative,6 World Literature Today7 and then translated into other languages.1
1 See Charles Bernheimer, Introduction. The Anxieties of Comparison, in: Charles Bernheimer (ed.), Comparative Literature in the Age of Multiculturalism, Baltimore and London, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, pp. 2–17. 2 Adrian Marino, Etiemble ou le comparatisme militant, Paris, Gallimard, 1982, pp. 12–13. 3 Issue 10 December 1982. 4 Issue 7 August 1982. 5 Issue 3 August 1982. 6 Issue 2/1984. 7 Issue 1983.
116 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Adrian Marino’s book defending energetically the principle of “world literature”, of the East–West and Occident–Orient literary relations, of the free literary communications, of the equality between literatures, was published by the Keisô Shobô Publishing House in Tokyo in October 1988, under the title Tatakau Hikaku Bungaku (Militant Comparatism). It was translated by Hiroshi Watanabe and Nobuhiro Satô, the former being specialist in French literature and translator of several works such as Comparative Literature by H. Frentz and N. P. Stallknecht, What is Comparative Literature by P. Brunel, C. Pichois and A. M. Rousseau, Faith and Literature by Philip Tratford, the latter specialist in Japanese literature. The volume of the Romanian author was introduced to the Japanese, as a work penetrated by the univeralist perspective introduced to the study of comparative literature at that time by Étiemble, the creator of the “Connaissance de l’Orient” collection, founded in 1956, under the auspices of UNESCO and Gallimard, where several Arab, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Persian, Vietnamese etc. masterpieces had been published. René Étiemble, nicknamed “the terrible child of French comparatism”, already proposed the repudiation of the historic perspective in comparativist analyses in Comparaison n’est pas raison (1957), translated in Japanese by A. Shiga, under the title Hikaku Bungaku no Kiken – Hikaku wa Rinarazu.2 The French scholar considered both conservationism and nationalism noxious factors in the study of the cultural-literary phenomenon, and that only the liberation from the constraints of a rigid system of interpretation can facilitate the creation of a comparativist type that would militate for a new humanism. The Japanese translators recognized in the Postscript to the Japanese version Adrian Marino’ sympathy for the “militant comparatism of Étiemble”, but observed at the same time “the original ideas of the author as a theoretician and a literary critic”3. On the other hand, the two Japanese translators expressed their gratitude to Adrian Marino in the name of science for the debate proposed by the book also in their
1 See Adrian Marino, Corespondenţă (Correspondence), in: Manuscripts – Adrian Marino Collection 416, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj- Napoca. 2 “Hikaku Bunka Kenkyû, Tokyo Daigaku Kyôyôgakubu Kiyô” (The Bulletin of Comparative Literature of Tokyo University), IV, 1963. 3 Adrian Marino, Tatakau Hikaku Bungaku, Translated in Japanese by Hiroshi Watanabe and Nobuhiro Satō, Tokyo, Keisō Shobō Publishing House, 1988, p. 212.
117 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 personal correspondence with the Romanian author. They mentioned that this research widens the theoretical horizon of understanding and interpretation of the one interested in the issues of compared literature, completing its speciality bibliography. Nobuhiro Satô directly thanked the Romanian comparatist: „Cette excellente oeuvre-ci nous a éclairé sur l’état présent du comparatisme et ses problèmes. Je vous remercie des bienfaits de la science.”1 Professor Hiroshi Watanabe expressed his wish to read the last edition of the Romanian specialist’s volume, Comparatisme et théorie de la littérature (1988, P.U.F., Paris). He acknowledged that, though his students found the text “quite difficult”, he read the Japanese translation together with them,2 trying to understand the depths of the new type of comparatism. The Japanese publication of Adrian Marino’s book, Etiemble ou le comparatisme militant has also its anecdotic part. The translation was made without first informing the author, who learned about the apparition of the book through Isamu Taniguchi, Professor of the “St. Andrew” University in Osaka, literary theoretician, aesthetician and semiotician, the Romanian critic had corresponded with for over a decade. Having participated at the Summer Courses organized by the Bucharest University in 1974, Isamu Taniguchi was familiar with the Romanian works of literary criticism. He read Iordan, Ivănescu, Coşeriu and Marino. He was so impressed by the latter’s work, Dicţionarului de idei literare (Dictionary of the Literary Ideas),3 that he contacted its author, asking his permission to translate the Critica ideii de literatură (The Critique of the Idea of Literature) in Japanese. However, the project was not finished after all, despite the fact that some of Marino’s letters allude to the fact that in 1979 there was even an agreement in this sense between the Dacia and the Jiritsu-Shobo Publishing Houses. Thus Adrian Marino was announced “to his amazement” by Isamu Taniguchi about the appearance of a Japanese translation of the book published by Gallimard. Marino in his turn informed Étiemble who informed Gallimard about the illicit edition of the book. On 1 December 1988 Adrian Marino recieved a message from the Parisian publishing house’s employee responsible for the copyright problems related to foreign authors’ works that they had received no requests from Japan for the translation of the book. An
1 Idem, Corespondenţă, in: Manuscripts – Adrian Marino Collection 419: 40, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca. 2 Adrian Marino Collection 419: 56. 3 Adrian Marino, Dicţionarului de idei literare, Bucharest, Eminescu Publishing House, 1973.
118 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 investigation was launched, and finally the error is discovered – surprisingly fast. The Tuttle Mori Agency from Tokyo confused two volumes by the Romanian author: Etiemble ou le comparatisme militant, published by Gallimard, and Comparatisme et théorie de la littérature, published by Presses Universitaires de France. And as the Japanese usually do not quote the complete title, it had taken a while for those at the P.U.F. to realize, that actually it was about the book published by Gallimard.1 The volume signed by Adrian Marino, Etiemble ou le comparatisme militant was appreciated by the two Japanese translators as an “energetic work, discussing the true way of existence of Modern Comparative Literature, based on Etiemble Theory of Literature which was founded on a worldwide point of view.”2 The translation had additionally, compared with the original, an index, and a last page which introduced the translators, the publishing house and contains the copyright indications etc. The Japanese version of the book in question was signalled in the Tosho Shinbun (Book Review)3 and in Hikaku Bungaku (Comparative Literature Review),4 being welcomed by the reviewers.5 One of this chronicles, entitled The Rejection of Eurocentrism. An Actual and Substantial Literature (Yôroppachûshinshugi o kyozetsu. Konnichiteki katsu gutaiteki de ikita hikaku bungaku ga), signed by Eiko Imabashi, insistently remarked the new path proposed by Étiemble in the study of comparative literature, a research perspective that had already gained followers among such as the Romanian comparatist. According to the study, the valorization of all cultures, de-metropolization, the equivalence of values according to a universal system of values shall regenerate the comparativist studies, having beneficial influences upon the researches of this kind in Europe and Japan. The issue of România literară (Literary Romania) published on 14 December 1989, commented on the Japanese reviews and even republished a fragment from them, namely the one that attempted to understand why a Romanian comparatist opted for this kind of approach to comparative literature: “We also believe that the opinions promoted in
1 See Adrian Marino Collection 419: 2–11. 2 English translation by Isamu Taniguchi, in the Adrian Marino Collection 419: 45. 3 Issue 619/3, XII, 1988. 4 Issue 28 November 1988. 5 See Adrian Marino Collection 419: 48.
119 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 this book by Mr. Marino originated from the particular historical conditions which resulted in the exclusion of the East-European area (to which he belonged) from the Western system, in spite of its European conscience.” Adrian Marino explicitly acknowledged the truth of this statement after a few years, at the 13th Congress of the “International Association of Comparative Literature” (1991), organized in Tokyo, where he even presented a communication in this sense: “European” and “World” Literature: A New Comparative View, Proceedings... The study of comparative literature as an “academic discipline” did not respond to the requirements of the age. From the perspective of a “new comparativist spirit, other objectives are imposed, other aims are to be followed in this domain of research, which can so smoothly cross the frontiers between nations. Comparative literature can no longer remain neuter towards the ideological, or indifferent towards the political and the social. The research proposed by this science needs to transform from a positivist one, from a simple analyser of facts as “sources” of influence, the circulation of literary themes, etc. into an implicated, militant one that serves the East–West relations through a board of disciplines with interest for anti-nationalism, anti-Eurocentrism, anti-imperialism, anti- colonialism, internationalism, cosmopolitanism, universalism, cooperation, free communication. All these are undoubtedly pleading for a new humanism and a new positivism: “Here are, then, a number of themes that overtly or covertly contest the official communist ideology. We have mentioned this episode only as an illustrative instance of the new comparativist spirit that has been taking shape in the East – in our case in Romania – under totalitarian conditions. In the space where we lived, or, better said, survived.”1 “It is the first book of Romanian literary criticism that was translated in Japan, an absolute premiere in every sense”, confessed Marino about Etiembe ou le comparatisme militant in a letter addressed to the Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of Japan in Bucharest,2 adding that until 1989, he had been the only comparatist from the East European countries, who was translated in Japanese. Naturally this caused a great stir in Romania too. In the România literară3 an article appeared with the title O carte românească de literatură comparată în Japonia (A
1 Adrian Marino, “European” and “World Literature”: A New Comparative View, in: Proceedings of the XIIIth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association, Tokyo, ICLA’91, 1991, p. 301. 2 Adrian Marino Collection 419: 2. 3 Issue XXII, 10, 9 March 1989.
120 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Romanian Book on Comparative Literature in Japan), signed by Iulia Mugescu. The Curentul (The Current)1 also consigned the event through the article Critic român tradus în Japonia (Romanian Critic Translated in Japan), where the recent publication of Adrian Marino’s work abroad was considered as being “indeed spectacular”. In the Luceafărul,2 A. Silvestri noticed in the article Proiecte ale unui “nou comparatism” (Projects of a "New Comparatism”) the entrance of Romanian thoughts into the world circuit: “The Romanian point of view in the universal dialogue of ideas is more and more interesting.” The Utunk (Our Way)3 published the material Marino – Japánul (Marino in Japanese). Neither did the review Convorbiri literare (Literary Conversations) overlook this moment, it published Viorel Cacoveanu’s article Succese ale criticii literare româneşti (Successes of Romanian Literary Criticism). This author discussed again the issue in the Steaua magazine4 under the title Tradus în Japonia (Translated in Japan) where he noted: “A Romanian author living in Cluj-Napoca, published in Paris and translated in Tokyo… Concealing, or more exactly controlling his emotions, Adrian Marino confesses that ‘it has been a total surprise!’ ”
The background of the volume’s Japanese translation was one that was opened at the end 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century by Tsubouchi Shoyo, Shakespeare’s translator in the Meiji period (1868-1912). In conformity with the spirit of the age of “modernization” which was in quest of the “European model”5, Professor Tsubouchi used Macaulay Posnett’s book, Comparative Literature published in 1886 as a bibliographic source for his course of comparative literature held at the Waseda University, Tokyo. However, years passed until the period when – after the World War II – Japan emerged completely from its cultural isolation, which characterized her during the period of the war, and adopted an “open” attitude towards the world. In 1948 The Japan Comparative Literature Association (JCLA) was founded, and from then on, the researches sought to find Western influences in Japanese literature, a highly contrastive attitude with that from the time of the war,
1 Issue LX, 5996, March–April 1989. 2 Issue XXXII, 40, 7 October 1989. 3 Issue 6/1989. 4 Issue XL, 3/1989. 5 Cf. Yoshihiro Ohsawa, Beyond Centrism and Regionalism: Comparative Literature in Japan, in: Comparative Literature Worldwide: Issues and Methods, Vol. II, Montevideo, ICLA, 2000, p. 37.
121 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 when the distinguishing features of the Japanese culture were only emphasized.1 The time had come for revising the theoretical problems raised by this discipline, for “expanding” the concept of the literary text, laying thus down the basis of comparative literature in Japan. The branch specialists became aware what a wide horizon they were required when encountering the different cultures. They were not allowed to be nationalistic and nor could they be indifferent towards other cultures, which led to an apparent and temporary impasse for the Japanese comparatists: “Japanese comparatists often feel themselves torn between the need to employ a multicultural approach and a desire to preserve their own cultural identities. This inner conflict surfaces in the different roles comparatists play: at home, they focus on the universal aspects present in their native literatures. Abroad, they emphasize the significance of their cultural heritage.”2 René Étiemble proposed a solution to this crisis, also signalled by the Japanese researchers. Étiemble, who talked about the “new humanism” and “universalism”, who wrote about Chinese and Western poetry, and who followed Y. Kagami and Lewis W. Bush who published Japanalia, Reference Book to Things Japanese in Tokyo, in 1937, brought in his turn – among other writings – contemporaneous confessions on the “insinuation” of Europe and America in Japan.3 Carrying on the French scholar’s ideas, Adrian Marino completed the definition given in 1969 by Owen Aldrige to comparative literature in his collection of essays Comparative Literature: Matter and Method. For Aldrige the object of study of this discipline would be a national literature compared to another/other national literature(s): “Briefly defined, comparative literature can be considered the study of any literary phenomenon from the perspective of more than one national literature or in conjunction with another intellectual discipline or even several”,4 adding to it the dimension of the psychological, historical and sociological context. The specialist’s attention is reoriented towards the relation of literature to history, society and to itself. The consequences would be most beneficial. Methodologically and theoretically5
1 Ibid. p. 39. 2 Ibid. pp. 42–43. 3 See René Étiemble, Japanalia, In Romanian translation by Tea Preda, in: “Secolul 20” (The 20th Century), 1972/6–7, pp.146–150. 4 Apud Charles Bernheimer, op. cit., p. 3. 5 See Adrian Marino, Où situer la “litterature universelle”?, in: Cahiers roumains d’études littéraires, 1975/3, pp. 64–81.
122 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 comparative literature would step out from an exclusive geographical localization, becoming “worldwide”, while the historical category – inevitably subject to evolution and development – would expand towards “universality”. Space and time tend to expand and superpose, to transform into a unitary cultural knowledge, without guaranties of any kind. The comparative literature proposed by the “new comparatist” can testify in this sense: “... the new comparatist perspective proposes a new humanism without boundaries, oriented toward a unity of attitudes, preoccupations and ideas, which will certainly be predominant in the twenty-first century. So tomorrow’s world will not be ‘cosmopolitan’, but universal, in the plain sense of the term.”1 “Do I have the right to speak about these cultures to which I do not belong?”,2 Am I entitled to speak about a culture that I do not belong to? – the comparatists ceaselessly wonder. In the same order of ideas, could one preoccupied with universal literature but born in a certain cultural horizon, understand completely the difference, for example, between the relation towards the model in the Occident, where the new, the original is primary, and in the Orient, where what has already been said is emphasized, and the real threat is not to be “traditional”?!3 Or how could the fact be interpreted that the terms of “lyric” and “narrative”, having a long history in Europe, are recent terms in China, and how could the fact be explained that the Chinese “fu” cannot be translated to any European language?! The difficulties signalled by the specialists are multiple and various. Only a “universal literature”, “reviewed”, interpreted as a “dynamic concept” with an open content and signification, permanently enriching, joined to the changes of the age could cover the conception and definition of this research domain. The “temporal (historical) comparatism”, doubled by the “geographical” one could redefine what Goethe called Weltliteratur, opening itself up to universality. According to Marino: “La littérature universelle prend ainsi des allures et des dimensions (vraiment) mondiales. Elle est constituée par ‘l’ensemble des littératures nationales’, de ‘toutes les littératures, vivants ou mortes, dont nous avons gardé des traces écrites, ou seulement orales, et ce, sans
1 Adrian Marino, “European” and “World Literature”, op. cit., p. 307. 2 Charles Bernheimer, op. cit., p. 9. 3 Cf. Earl Miner, Some Theoretical and Methodological Topics for Comparative Literature, in: Poetics Today, Vol. 8, 1987, No.1, pp. 124, 128.
123 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 discrimination langagière, politique ou religieuse’. Expression d’un véritable oecuménisme littéraire.”1 This might also explain why the book on Étiemble was translated to Japanese, the author confessed.2 A book that appeared at a large Western publishing house, in which an eulogy is made to the East– West relationships, to the Far Eastern, “exotic”, literature, including the Japanese, could not let pass unnoticed such a great oriental culture as the Japanese, now interested in the international exchange of ideas in various fields. “The present work which discusses so pertinently the actual problems of comparative literature – admit the translators in the Postscript – contains precious suggestions for the future of comparative literature in Japan. We engaged into this translation with the conviction that it contains stimulating suggestions for the future study of comparative literature in Japan. We hope that this book shall be useful in the jump that comparative literature has to make in order to become a new science, corresponding to the requirements of the age.” (“Hikaku bungaku no konnichitekina mondai o senei ni ronjite iru gencho ga, waga kuni no hikaku bungaku kenkyû no shôrai ni taishite mo jûyôna jisa o fukumu mono de ari, nihon hikaku bungakukai e no shigekitekina teigen to nari uru ni chigai nai to kakushin shite yakushutsu o kokoromita. Honsho ga, jidai ni fusawashii atarasii gakumon to shite no hikaku bungaku no hzaku ni yakutateba saiwai de aru.”)3 The Postscript in what follows the chapters of the book are succinctly presented, the translation of the titles being true to the letter and the spirit of the original: Echianburu no hihantekisentôshugi (Le militantisme critique d’Etiemble); Tôzai kankei (Relations Est-Ouest); Hankokkashugi (Antinationalisme); Yôroppa chûshinshugi ni kôshite (Contre l’européocentrisme); Teikokushugi oyobi shokuminchishugi ni kôshite (Contre l’impérialisme et le colonialisme); Kokusaishugi, sekaishugi, fuhenshugi (Internationalisme, cosmopolitisme, universalisme); Shokankei. Kôryû. Kyôryoku. (Relations, échanges, coopération); Jiyûna komyunikçshon (Communications libres); Atarashii
1 Adrian Marino, Réviser la littérature universelle (I), in: Synthesis, no. VIII, Bucharest, The Publishing House of the Academy of the Socialist Republic of Romania, 1981, p. 200. 2 See Monica Gheţ, „Comparatismul militant” – un început de „globalizare”, (Militant Comparativism – a Beginning of Globalisation), Interview with Adrian Marino, in: Observator cultural (Cultural Observer), 2003, no. 186, 16.09–22.09., p. 6. 3 Adrian Marino, Tatakau Hikaku Bungaku..., p. 214.
124 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 hyûmanizumu ni mukete (Pour un nouvel humanisme); Atarashii hikakubungakusha ni mukete (Pour un nouveau comparativiste). The chapter Tôzai kankei is especially emphasized in the Postscript of the translation. Passages from the original text are quoted in it stating that the literature of the different nations is equal in value (“the classical Chinese literature is not inferior to the masterpieces of American or European literature”). Some of these quotations refer to the influence – this time operating in the opposite direction – of the Oriental culture upon the Western one (“the Noh theatre has renewed the methods of dramatic composition in Europe and America”), suggesting that only comparative literature could fully understand the complexity of the different relations and influences between cultures: “In fact the complicated problems occurring between East and West, that is between the Asian and European peoples, can only be clarified by comparative literature. (“Jissai “higashi” to “nishi”, tsumari ajia to yôroppa no bungaku oyobi ryôsha no kankei ga motarasu fukuzatsuna mondai o akirakani dekiru no wa hikaku bungaku o oite hoka ni nai.”)1 The Japanese translators also noticed that the multiple points of view, applied by the author of the book while discussing his theme, are approachs, which often seem to be tributary to the ideological. However, – the Japanese experts also added – taking into account that we are talking about a researcher belonging to the East- European space, this fact seems to be natural.2 Though not at all a novelty, it happens also today that some voices consider universalism a disguised form of Eurocentrism.3 Thus they attempt to demonstrate that such concepts as “humanism”, “liberal democracy” and “universality” belong exclusively to Western cultures, being impossible to operate with them in some other culture: “... these categories, normally conceived to be essential, universal, and abstract as to be applicable to non-Western cultures, are actually socio-culturally and historically specific to the (modern) West.”4 In this way the fact of comparing literatures to each other can lead through its negative side to a form of imperialism. In his turn, Adrian Marino5 saw this possibility of interpreting universality as a potential destroyer of the specific of a
1 Ibid., pp. 213–214. 2 Ibid., p. 213. 3 Takayuchi Yokota-Murakami, Don Juan East/West. On the Problematics of Comparative Literature, Suny Series: “The Margins of Literature”, New York, State University of New York Press, 1998, pp. 164–168. 4 Ibid., p. 155. 5 Cf. Adrian Marino, Où situer la “litterature universelle”?, pp. 67–68.
125 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 national literature; however, exacerbated nationalism may make impossible the meeting of a culture with another. The comparatists’ attention was attracted again by this paradox some decades later, registering and analyzing once again the eternal crisis of comparative literature: “The more literatures you try to compare, the more like a colonizing imperialist you may seem. If you stress what these literatures have in common – thematically, morally, politically - you may be accused of imposing a universalist model that suppresses particular differences so as to foster the old humanist dream of man’s worldwide similarity to man. If, on the other hand, you stress differences, then the basis of comparison becomes problematic, and your respect for the uniqueness of particular cultural formations may suggest the impossibility of any meaningful relation between cultures.”1 The debates on the definition of “world literature”, and on the object that comparative literature should study continue, the discussions having already some results. While an article2 published in the second half of the past century noticed how slowly the signification of the word “world” in the phrase “world literature” shifted from “western” to “western+oriental”, today a comparison between the Japanese novel Murasaki Shikibu Genji Monogatari (Tale of Genji) and Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu is no longer surprising, as it is supported by the comparativist researches, for example, Donald Keene’s researches dedicated to Japanese literature. The comparatist’s necessary work instruments, such as literary encyclopaedias, (Encyclopaedia of Literature) or the bibliographic collections (Bibliography of Comparative Literature, The Guide to Comparative Literature) at the present already contain a great variety of materials, including the masterpieces of universal literature: “Gilgamesh, the Panchatantra, the Arabian Nights, the Bhagavadgita, the Noh plays, Chinese poetry, the Tale of Genji, Kalidasa’s Sakuntala, the Wisdom of the East Series Hafiz of Shiraz, the Jakata, All Men Are Brothers, and Monkey.”3 Thus they approached much that, which Adrian Marino called the “ideal library”.4 The “multicultural” canon had won the case. On the one hand, the diversity of the world’s literary production is taken into account, however, on the
1 Charles Bernheimer, op. cit., p. 9. 2 G. L. Anderson, “Cathay and the Way Thither”: Oriental Literature in the World Literature Program, in: The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 40, 1956, No. 6 (Oct.), pp. 316–318. 3 Ibid., p. 317. 4 Adrian Marino, Où situer la „litterature universelle”?, p. 66.
126 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 other hand, it is important that this literary production should be representative for each culture, suggesting thus the intrinsic relationship between literature and the culture it represents. No doubt, the issue raised by the comparativist research is far from being solved through simple anthologies or compendiums of universal literature: “I do not think – some specialists state – that the cultivation of multilingualism and multiculturalism alone would solve the problems faced by comparative literature simply because multilingualism and multiculturalism are already part of comparative literature’s constitutive, disciplinary features.”1 However, “universal literature” seems to open up many horizons as it includes all literature from the West and from the East, the Oriental and the Occidental ones. I have always considered – revealed Adrian Marino2 – that this conception is the real base of “free communications” (from an ideological point of view) and of the definition of “comparativist literature” (from the perspective of literary theory). The comparativist’s task has become to revalorize literature along its two coordinates, its individuality and its political and social implications. “One of the major tasks facing literary scholars today is a renewed articulation of the value of literature which respects both its individual, subjective aspects – among them, the sensual pleasure of verbal craftsmanship; the delightfully inconsequential play of reality and illusion; the temporary liberation from time and the entry into what Maurice Blanchot calls the space of one’s own death – and its social and political implications and imbrications.”3 The comparativists – Adrian Marino seemed to conclude in every page in which he discussed “militant comparativism” – are ready to assume this task based on their knowledge on the construction and operation of literature in different cultures. In this era of “multiculturalism” and “globalization” (the “militant comparativism” which I had theorized once, stated the Romanian researcher at some time or other,4 cultivated a beginning of globalization “avant la letter”) the literary comparatists’ dilemmas seem to have found an answer to the questions that they generated.
1 Rey Chow, In the Name of Comparative Literature, in: Charles Bernheimer (ed.), Comparative Literature in the Age of Multiculturalism, Baltimore and London, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, p. 109. 2 Monica Gheţ, op. cit., p. 5. 3 Charles Bernheimer, op. cit., p. 16. 4 Monica Gheţ, op. cit., p. 6.
127 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Das Phänomen des Agon bei Nietzsche (The Phenomenon of the Agon at Nietzsche)
Bujor PĂDUREANU PhD Student, Albert Ludwig Universität, Freiburg
Keywords: Agon, Nietzsche Friedrich, Greek Philosophy, competition, festivity, art
Abstract Contrary to the world-as-play, the Agon is above all an existential phenomenon that is characterized by the human presence. The agon differentiates itself from conflict in that it takes place according to rules and develops as horizon in the dynamics of victory. Its origin brings with it an existential modification of existence in general, inasmuch as play is the general way of life for Greek society. The tight-knit coalescence between agon and poetry shows, for instance, its deep affiliation to Greek cultural form. The agon is regarded by Nietzsche as a self-evident path of philosophy for the Greeks, and it is from himself also in the modern form further practiced. The agon moves in the same direction as the world-as- play, and lies in an analogy with it – although both are very different from one another. In this constellation of regarding the world as play and the life principle of the agon, the phenomenon of art develops by the Greeks, and the tragedy itself will be a part of this constellation.
E-mail: [email protected]
128 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Motto: „Eifernder stämme bewerb / einigte tempel und spiel / Und keine weisheit bis heut / hat dort die Gründer vertieft.”1
Reference to Adrian Marino
Who has ever been forced to doubt his age is only a step from questioning the ages themselves, and who has understood the transitoriness of ages, the corruption of institutional hierarchies, ideologists’ chronic disease, the narrow partiality of any political party, the short-sightedness of nationalisms, for that person an individual road seems to be the only way for avoiding any kind of danger. However, even individuality survives its sickly self-dependence only if it creates itself beyond its own self in gestures, words, acts, signs, thoughts, works and values. Such a transfigured individuality – contemporary to the gestures, words, acts, signs and works, which are continuously in dialogue – was Adrian Marino, his ethos requiring from any individual to let himself measured only in the dispute of values and not otherwise. He reached through his writings the existence that exists, but instead of an Olympian behaviour, a detached wisdom and a disinterested or sterile “generosity” he had a totally different attitude: the old master in the world of his fellow citizens. Instead of dictating – in his retirement – his ‘last wisdom’ into books, he entered the arena of disputes; he became an active militant of a party, but without letting himself be reduced to its interests. He performed institutional activities, but without abusing the ‘order’ of any hierarchy. Passionately he let himself be drawn into disputes on the public good, disputes many times already lost; however, he was not discouraged by the fact that he had been ‘defeated’. He was often on the border of the ridiculous, but without being afraid of being laughed at, without being afraid of not being understood. When he had truth to tell, he stepped out and told it with the naivety of a Greek citizen who cannot be stopped by anything in uttering his truth, but who respects his auditor. In the eyes of the Byzantine world surrounding him, his image rather resembled Don Quixote than Cervantes, but all who had to understand could understand that he was in fact both Cervantes and Don Quixote together – the author, in order to utter freely his thoughts, took the shape
1 Stefan George IX, 13 Hyperion
129 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 of Don Quixote, his character. After distance had dried the emotional vapour of facts and disputes, the calligraphy of his lesson became clearer and clearer; it rewrote, in fact, the ethos of contest and worldly trust between individuals and values which had been the original paradigm of the Greek beginning, and which, whenever the European question is asked, is proved to be true. *
1.1 Der allgemeine Gedanke des Agon Der Gedanke des Agon entspringt in Nietzsches Philosophie aus seiner Auseinandersetzung und seiner Begegnung mit der griechischen Welt.1 Nietzsche, der Philosoph und Philologe, hat 1872 eine philologische Studie mit dem Titel Homers Wettkampf verfasst, in welcher er den Wettkampf-Gedanken nicht nur philologisch, sondern auch aus einer tief philosophischen Perspektive heraus gedacht hat.2
1 „Die fruchtbarste und eigentümlichste Idee, unter der Nietzsche das Griechentum betrachtet, ist die des Agon.” (Kurt Hildebrandt, Nietzsches Wettkampf mit Sokrates und Plato, 1922, S.7) 2 Die Kombination der Philologie und Philosophie in Nietzsches früherer Zeit zeigt sich exemplarisch in der Entstehungs-Geschichte des Gedankens des Wettkampfs bei Homer. Ernst Vogt hat in seinem Aufsatz Nietzsche und der Wettkampf Homers, in: Antike und Abendland 11, 1965, S. 103-113 diesen Gedanken ausführlich aus der philologischen Perspektive bearbeitet. Die erste Station in der Untersuchung des Wettkampfs konkretisiert er in der Erarbeitung des Aufsatzes Der Florentinische Tractat über Homer und Hesiod, ihr Geschlecht und ihren Wettkampf, aber auch dieser Text findet seinen Anfang noch in seiner Studentenzeit: „Nietzsches Beschäftigung mit dem ‚Certamen’ reicht weit zurück. Im Juli 1867 hielt der damals zweiundzwanzigjährige Student in dem auf eine Anregung Ritschls hin entstandenen Philologischen Verein zu Leipzig, zu dessen Gründern Nietzsche zählte, einen Vortrag ‚Der Sängerkrieg auf Euböa’. Das Thema ist ganz offensichtlich im Anschluss an den Untertitel des 1846 in Dresden uraufgeführten Tannhäuser formuliert, doch weist die Untersuchung im übrigen keinerlei Einfluss Wagners auf, sondern gibt sich bewusst philologisch. Sie zielt darauf ab, die geltende Ansicht, die Erzählung vom Wettkampf Homers und Hesiods sei ein ‚splendidum mendacium’ der alexandrinischen Grammatiker, in ihren wesentlichen Punkten zu erschüttern. Insbesondere wendet sich Nietzsche gegen eine mythisch-allegorische Deutung des Wettkampfs, die der Neigung der Zeit entgegenzukommen suche, indem sie ihn als den symbolischen Ausdruck des Kampfes zweier verschiedener Kunstrichtungen, einer homerischen und einer hesiodeischen, fasse. In ausgesprochenem Gegensatz dazu geht es ihm darum, durch das Rankenwerk von Legenden zu einem historischen Kern der Erzählung vorzustoßen.” (Ernst Vogt, op. cit., S. 105) Vogt erfasst die wichtigen
130 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Allerdings referiert er oft über den Wettkampf in allen Schriften aus dem Kreis der Geburt der Tragödie, ebenso in späteren Werken und dem Nachlass, insofern kann man sagen, dass der Agon Gedanke sein ganzes Werk durchzieht. In seiner philosophischen Rhetorik verhält sich Nietzsche selbst zu anderen Philosophen in der Form des philosophischen Agon. Nietzsche sieht das Agonale im ganzen Spektrum des griechischen Lebens aufgehen, insofern es sich als konstitutiv für die griechische Welt beweist. Das Phänomen des Agon in der griechischen Kultur wurde von J. Burckhardt1 in seinem Werk Griechische Kulturgeschichte gründlich thematisiert. Burckhard erörtert das agonale „Prinzip” als einen originären Zug der griechischen Kultur. Burckhard denkt den Agon als den Urgrund der griechischen Kultur; zugleich fasst er die griechische „Existenz” derartig auf: „die Agone verlangen das Ganze Dasein.”2 Nietzsches Position steht Burckhardts Perspektive sehr nah, unterscheidet sich jedoch gleichzeitig von dieser in dem Sinne, dass er den Agon in eine philosophische Ebene rückt und in Analogie mit dem Welt-Spiel des
Schlussfolgerungen dieses Aufsatzes zusammen: „Das Ergebnis seiner Untersuchung ist für Nietzsche, „dass der historische Hindergrund des Âgõn gut bezeugt ist, der Âgõn selbst aber von den ältesten Zeiten griechischer Geschichtsschreibung an ein wirkendes Element ist”. (Ernst Vogt, op. cit., S. 107) Nietzsches Aufsatz ‚Der Florentinischen Tractat über Homer und Hesiod, ihr Geschlecht und ihren Wettkampf’, erscheint in Rheinisches Museum, Band 25 (1870) und 28 (1873). Am 25. Juli 1872 schreibt er in einem Brief an Rohde: “Ich habe einen Entwurf zur nächsten Schrift unter den Händen, genannt ‚Homers Wettkampf’. Du magst immer lachen über die Unermüdlichkeit meiner agonalen Betrachtungen; diesmal kommt etwas heraus.” (KSB 4, S. 35) Dieses Detail zeigt seine Beständigkeit darin den Gedanken des Wettkampf zu verfolgen, auch wenn er ihm selbst nach der vernommenen philologischen Kritik ironisch vorkommt. Was aber philologisch nicht ganz vollbracht scheint, wird philosophisch weiter vertieft. Der Text Homers Wettkampf, steht in einer logischen Reihe, welche Nietzsches Untersuchung über den Gedanken des Wettkampfs zusammenlegt. „Mit anderen Worten: An dem im ‚Certamen’ geschilderten Wettkampf Homers und Hesiods hat sich Nietzsches Auffassung von Funktion und Bedeutung des Agonalen innerhalb der Welt des frühen Griechentums entwickelt.” (Vogt,1965, S.112) Dieser Aufsatz bildet nur die ersten Ergebnisse, von welchen Nietzsches philosophischer Gedanke des Wettkampfs sich weiter entwickeln wird. 1Der koloniale und agonale Mensch, in: Jakob Burckhardt, Griechische Kulturgeschichte, Band 4, München, 1977. Nietzsche war mit Burckhardt vertraut; obwohl er erstmals 1875 das Buch von Burckhard las, ist zu vermuten, dass es zwischen beiden zu diesem Thema Meinungsaustausch gab. 2 (Op. cit., IV/ S.118)
131 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Heraklit setzt, wodurch eine neue philosophische Dimension gewonnen wird. Der „agonale Instinkt” durchzieht die griechische Welt von Homer bis Sokrates, der im philosophischen Dialog „eine neue Art Agon entdeckte”. Bemerkenswert ist die Vielfältigkeit des Agon im gesamten kulturellen Spektrum, die Nietzsche betrachtet: der Wettkampf der Dichter, der Musische Agon, der olympisch-sportliche Agon, der philosophische Dialog bei Platon als Agon; der erotische Agon (Symposion), Sokrates und die neue „Art Agon”, „eine Variante [im] Ringkampf zwischen jungen Männern und Jünglingen”, der politische Agon und der Agon vor Gericht.
- „Der Wettkampf! Und das Aristokratische, Geburtsmäßige, Edle bei den Griechen! Es kämpfen keine Individuen, sondern Ideen mit einander.” (KSA 7, 396) 1; - „Die antiken Mittel der Erziehung: der Wettkampf und die Liebe.” (KSA 397); - „Der Wettkampf vor Gericht.” (KSA 7, 400); - „Der Dialog der Tragödie aus dem Wettkampf entstanden.” (KSA 7, 400); - „Die Götter-Wettkämpfe” (KSA 7, 400); - „Dann der Wettkampf in dem Staat bei den im Kultus in der Erziehung in der Kultur (Plato und Sophisten)” (KSA 7, 4001).
1. 2.1 Der „Ursprung” des Wettkampfs Der Agon offenbart seine lebendigen Wurzeln schon in der homerischen Dichtung. Unter dem Namen Homer begegnen und trennen sich zwei Welt-Perspektiven, die Nietzsche mit den Begriffen der vor- homerischen2 und nach-homerischen Welt bezeichnet. Im nach-
1 Nietzsche wird unter Angabe der Band- und Seitenzahl zitiert nach: Kritische Studienausgabe (KSA), hrsg., v. G. Colli und M. Montinari, München /Berlin/New York 1980 2„Nietzsche gliedert die „ältere hellenische Geschichte” in vier antagonistisch aufeinander bezogene „Kunststufen”: Dionysisch I: (eigentlich vor-dionysisch); Zeitraum: indefinit (vorhomerisch); illustriert durch Titanenkämpfe und orientalisch-barbarische Rohheit (Sakäen, etc.), Weisheit des Silen; Apollinisch I: Zeitraum: (10.-8. Jh.); illustriert durch homerisches Epos und olympische Religion; Dionysisch II: Zeitraum: 7. Jh. (?); illustriert durch Eindringen des Dionysoskultus, Entwicklung des Dithyrambus;
132 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 homerischen Zeitabschnitt als Wendepunkt entspringt der Wettkampf, welcher, eigentlich ebenso für Nietzsche wie für Burckhard, als nachhomerische Phänomen besteht. Die Entstehung des Wettkampfs ist ein langer Prozess, der sich in der künstlerischen Tätigkeit spiegelt, aber sich als selbständiges Phänomen zunächst nur in der Polis entfalten wird. „Die Lust am Wettkampf ist jedoch keineswegs das wesentlichste Merkmal der homerischen Welt, erst später in der Polis wird es alles Tun und Denken beherrschen.”1 Es ist ein wunderbarer „Zufall”, dass der Anfang der großen Dichtung und der Anfang der agonalen Lebensform bei den Griechen zusammen fällt! Im Gegensatz zum „Begriff der modernen Humanität”, der eine „Abscheidung” des Menschen von der Natur sieht, erfasst Nietzsche keine radikale Trennung zwischen den „natürlichen” Eigenschaften und jenen, die als eigentlich „menschlich” bezeichnet werden, sondern er ist der Auffassung, dass beide „untrennbar verwachsen” seien, insofern sie als „edelste Kräfte” den „unheimlichen Doppelcharakter” der Natur in sich tragen. Hier spielt Nietzsche auf die Kategorien apollinisch und dionysisch an. Wichtig ist die Behauptung, dass diese beiden Kategorien apollinisch und dionysisch die Existenz von der Natur bis in die hochstilisierten menschlichen Gestalten durchwalten und als Kunsttriebe den Weg vom Chaos zur Welt entwerfen. In der vor-homerischen Zeit bleiben wir noch in dem schreckliche Boden dieses Prozesses. Unter unseren Augen entfaltet sich die „Welt des Kampfes und der Grausamkeit”. Das Werden zeigt sich in seiner rohen Erscheinung. Das Bild des „humansten Menschen” scheint uns abgründig, indem es „einen Zug von Grausamkeit, von tigerartiger Vernichtungslust an sich” aufweist. Hinter der homerischen Welt liegt etwas, was den künstlerischen Blick Homers nur verklärt aufscheinen lässt, das ist das Dasein der „schlimmen Eris”, das noch sehr weit vor der „guten Eris” entfernt ist. Nietzsche stellt die ganze Homerische Welt, die eine gedichtete Welt ist, unter einen phänomenologischen Verdacht; er geht in umgekehrter, enthüllender Richtung vom Gedicht zur Realität, wo er die Wurzel der hellenischen Welt sucht. Man stellt sich die Frage: „Was aber liegt, als der Geburtsschoß alles Hellenischen, hinter der homerischen
Apollinisch II: Zeitraum: 6. Jh. (?); illustriert durch dorische Lyrik (Pindar) und dorische Architektur (Tempel); Apollon-Religion (Delphi).” (Barbara von Reibnitz, Ein Kommentar zu Friedrich Nietzsche, „Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geist der Musik” Stuttgart/Weimar, 1992, S.152) 1 Renata von Scheliha: Vom Wettkampf der Dichter. Der musische Agon bei den Griechen, Amsterdam, 1987, S.
133 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Welt?” Der Philosoph antwortet: „Nur in Nacht und Grauen, in die Erzeugnisse einer an das Gräßliche gewöhnten Phantasie. Welche irdische Existenz spiegeln diese widerlich-furchtbaren theogonischen Sagen wieder: ein Leben, über dem allein die Kinder der Nacht, der Streit, die Liebesbegier, die Täuschung das Alter und der Tod walten. Denken wir uns die schwer zu atmende Luft des hesiodischen Gedichtes noch verdichtet und verfinstert und ohne alle die Milderungen und Reinigungen, welche, von Delphi und von zahlreichen Göttersitzen aus, über Hellas hinströmten: mischen wir diese verdickte böotische Luft mit der finsteren Wollüstigkeit der Etrusker; dann würde uns eine solche Wirklichkeit eine Mythenwelt erpressen, in der Uranos Kronos und Zeus und die Titanenkämpfe wie eine Erleichterung dünken müßten; der Kampf ist in dieser brütenden Atmosphäre das Heil, die Rettung, die Grausamkeit des Sieges ist die Spitze des Lebensjubels. Und wie sich in Wahrheit vom Morde und der Mordsühne aus der Begriff des griechischen Rechtes entwickelt hat, so nimmt auch die edlere Kultur ihren ersten Siegeskranz vom Altar der Mordsühne. Hinter jenem blutigen Zeitalter her zieht sich eine Wellenfurche tief hinein in die hellenische Geschichte. Die Namen des Orpheus, des Musäus und ihrer Kulte verrathen, zu welchen Folgerungen der unausgesetzte Anblick einer Welt des Kampfes und der Grausamkeit drängte – zum Ekel am Dasein, zur Auffassung dieses Daseins als einer abzubüßenden Strafe, zum Glauben an die Identität von Dasein und Verschuldetsein. Gerade diese Folgerungen aber sind nicht spezifisch hellenisch: in ihnen berührt sich Griechenland mit Indien und überhaupt mit dem Orient.” (KSA 1, 786) [Meine Hervorhebung] Die homerische Welt ist von natur-dionysischen Mächten durchwaltet; Die ewige Lust am Werden und die Lust am Krieg und Vernichten gehören zusammen; Kämpfen und Siegen in Zerstörung, in einer Welt, in der nur „der Streit, die Täuschung, das Alter und der Tod walten”. Nietzsches Blick auf das bloße Bild der Triebkräfte im Kampf und zu Zerstörung ist ein Blick auf die Wurzel des Lebens. Wenn er schreibt, „Kampf und Lust des Sieges wurden anerkannt”, dann bedeutet das, dass diese Grundfassung des Lebens zum Ausgangpunkt des „griechischen Genius” wird. Zwischen dem „bloßen” Dasein und der gedichteten Welt ruht der große Künstler Homer und mit ihm die ursprüngliche Kunst; „Der apollinische Homer ist nur der Fortsetzer jenes allgemein menschlichen Kunstprozesses” (KSA 7, 397). Diese „reale” Welt erscheint im homerischen Epos als gedichtete Welt, die
134 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 durch „künstlerische Täuschung” schön wirkt, insofern bloßes Dasein und verklärte Realität zusammen die Welt bilden. „In dieser werden wir bereits durch die außerordentliche künstlerische Bestimmtheit, Ruhe und Reinheit der Linien über die rein stoffliche Verschmelzung hinweggehoben: ihre Farben erscheinen, durch eine künstlerische Täuschung, lichter, milder, wärmer, ihre Menschen, in dieser farbigen warmen Beleuchtung, besser und sympathischer.” (KSA 1, 785) [Meine Hervorhebung] Homer erweist sich für Nietzsche als der paradigmatische Künstler schlechthin, der zugleich einen Namen für das ursprüngliche Phänomen der Kunst1 vertritt; seine Kunst ist als „vollkommener Sieg der apollinischen Illusion zu begreifen.” (KSA 1, 38)
1. 2.2 Hesiod und die Gute Eris - die Göttin des Streits Zwischen Kampf und Wettkampf besteht ein „ethischer”, d. h. ein existentieller Unterschied, der seine Quelle in einem Lebens-Sprung im Ganzen hat! Was ich Lebens-Sprung nenne, zeichnet sich als ein Sprung in eine andere Lebensansicht aus. Die Auffassung vom Wettkampf unterscheidet sich vom Kampf zunächst dadurch, dass der Kampf selbst immer mit Zerstörung verbunden ist, aber der Wettkampf stellt sich in den Horizont des Sieges, und er ist ein Spiel, das durch feste Prinzipien geregelt ist: im Wettkampf gibt es keine Tötung, keine endgültige Zerstörung. Die Erscheinung des Wettstreites als Lebensform spiegelt eine ganz andere, eine gewandelte Welt, im Vergleich zu der Welt die im Kampf gespiegelt wird. Wie es geschieht, dass der Kampf sich in einen Wettkampf umwandelt, bleibt uns ein Rätsel. Nietzsche interpretiert diesen Sprung als eine Antwort des „hellenischen Genius” auf das bloße, fragwürdige Dasein. Was immer diese „Antwort” bedeutet, können wir genauer verstehen, wenn wir diesen Gedanken in Analogie mit dem Gedanken der Kunst bei Nietzsche bringen. Wir fügen noch eine Stelle hinzu, wo derselbe Gedanke aufgefasst, zum Vollzug kommt, nämlich in Die Geburt der Tragödie, wenn Nietzsche zum Verhältnis Kunst-Naturwirklichkeit überlegt, dass die Kunst „ein metaphysisches Supplement2 der Naturwirklichkeit” an
1 „Der feste Punkt, um den sich das griechische Volk kristallisiert, ist seine Sprache. Der feste Punkt, an dem seine Kultur sich kristallisiert, ist Homer. Also beidemal sind es Kunstwerke.” (KSA 7, 506) 2 „Denn dass es im Leben wirklich so tragisch zugeht, würde am wenigsten die Entstehung einer Kunstform erklären; wenn anders die Kunst nicht nur Nachahmung der Naturwirklichkeit, sondern gerade ein metaphysisches
135 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 der Naturwirklichkeit ist; das bedeutet, dass die Kunst gegenüber der Naturwirklichkeit als etwas Neues auftritt, deren Überwindung eigentlich ist; aber dadurch, dass sie sich „neben” die gegebene Naturwirklichkeit stellt, wird sie selbst zur „Naturwirklichkeit”, obwohl sie als Kunst entspringt und zunächst nur als Kunst besteht. Zwischen der gegebenen Naturwirklichkeit und der qualitativ neuen ‘Naturwirklichkeit’, welche sich als Kunst zeigt, liegt eine große Differenz. Aus der Perspektive der Kunst entsteht eine andere, veränderte Wahrnehmung der Naturwirklichkeit; Vermöge der Kunst gewinnt der Mensch eine andere Position gegenüber der Naturwirklichkeit, und mit dieser neuen Position bildet er eine neue Naturwirklichkeit, welche man als eine verklärte (metaphysische) Naturwirklichkeit bezeichnen kann. Die Kunst wirkt dadurch, dass sie die Naturwirklichkeit zu verklären imstande ist; deshalb ist die Kunst ein Weg die Naturwirklichkeit zu verändern und zugleich für den sich in der Kunst hingebenden Menschen eine Möglichkeit zu vollenden. Ein ähnlicher Gedankenvollzug liegt in der Aussage, dass der Wettkampf die „Antwort” des griechischen Genius ist. Gegenüber der grausamen Existenz der homerischen Zeit, wo „die Täuschung, das Alter und der Tod walten”, wo der „Ekel am Dasein” „als abzubüssende Strafe” verfasst ist, wo des Menschen Dasein und seines Lebens Sinn durch „den Glauben an die Identität von Dasein und verschuldet sein” in Frage gestellt wird (und vernichtet), entdeckt er aus diesem Leiden heraus die andere Seite des Kampfes, die Gute Eris; auf ihr schafft er einen Weg des Sieges und der Schönheit, der die Welt verklärt und aus dessen Lichte der hellenische Genius des Wettkampfs entspringt. In der Begegnung zwischen Mensch und Dasein bringt der Mensch eine „Antwort” und einen neuen Weg mit sich, welcher der Agon, und als solcher zu einem innenwohnenden Bestandteil der griechischen Welt wird: Beide wachsen zusammen!1 Möglicherweise ist Nietzsches Interpretation plausibel, wenn er behauptet, dass man den Agon nicht von etwas anderem, z. B. von Kampf ableiten kann, aber man muss auszeichnen, dass man gewissermaßen die ganze griechische Kultur im Horizont des Agon deuten kann.„Der Kampf und die Lust am Siegen wurde anerkannt“ aber
Supplement der Naturwirklichkeit ist, zu deren Überwindung neben sie gestellt.” (KSA 1, 151) [Meine Hervorhebung] 1 «La forme de l`Âgõn est inhérent à l´esprit grec.» Jacqueline Duchemin, L`AGON dans la tragédie grecque, Paris 1945, S. 235.
136 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
„der hellenische Genius hatte noch eine andere Antwort auf die Frage bereit „was will ein Leben des Kampfes und des Sieges?” und gibt diese Antwort in der ganzen Breite der griechischen Geschichte.” (KSA 1, 785-786) Der Sprung vom Kampf zum Wettkampf wird zu den Antworten den griechischen Genius gedacht, und als existentielle Form des griechischen Lebens gebildet. Um dieses auf einem anderen Weg zu zeigen: Nietzsche appelliert an den ethischen Begriff der Eris von Hesiod, der von „zwei Erisgöttinnen […] auf Erden” ausgeht. „Die eine Eris möchte man, wenn man Verstand hat, ebenso loben als die andre tadeln; denn eine ganz getrennte Gemüthsart haben diese beiden Göttinnen. Denn die Eine fördert den schlimmen Krieg und Hader, die Grausame! Kein Sterblicher mag sie leiden, sondern unter dem Joch der Noth erweist man der schwerlastenden Eris Ehre, nach dem Rathschlusse der Unsterblichen. Diese gebar, als die ältere, die schwarze Nacht; die andre aber stellte Zeus der hochwaltende hin auf die Wurzeln der Erde und unter die Menschen, als eine viel bessere. Sie treibt auch den ungeschickten Mann zur Arbeit; und schaut einer, der des Besitzthums ermangelt, auf den Anderen, der reich ist, so eilt er sich in gleicher Weise zu säen und zu pflanzen und das Haus wohl zu bestellen; der Nachbar wetteifert mit dem Nachbarn, der zum Wohlstande hinstrebt. Gut ist diese Eris für die Menschen. Auch der Töpfer grollt dem Töpfer und der Zimmermann dem Zimmermann, es neidet der Bettler den Bettler und der Sänger den Sänger.” (KSA 1, 787) Die Zweideutigkeit der Eris gilt als Voraussetzung für die Existenz der guten und schlechten Eris, aber beantwortet noch nicht, warum die schlechte Eris zur guten Eris geworden ist. Der apollinische Trieb ist der Trieb zu gestalten und zu transfigurieren, seine Kraft ist der Sieg des Lebendigen über die Kräfte der Vernichtung. Der „agonale Instinkt” schafft den Sieg des Lebens und bändigt den „Tiger” der Vernichtung. „Wunderbarer Prozess, wie der allgemeine Kampf aller Griechen allmählich auf allen Gebieten eine díkh anerkennt: wo kommt diese her? Der Wettkampf entfesselt das Individuum: und zugleich bändigt er dasselbe nach ewigen Gesetzen.” (KSA 7, 402) Ohne das Argument der „ethischen” Eigenschaft ist es nicht möglich den Wettkampf zu begreifen, wobei anzusehen wäre, dass „ethisch” nicht in Sinne eines „moralischen Imperativs” zu verstehen ist, sondern vielmehr als eine „Art” zu leben, ein Ethos im Sinne des Heraklit-Fragments 119, oder im Sinne der Gerechtigkeit. Nietzsche spricht von einer „anderen Ethik”, welche mehr der „Schlimmen Eris”
137 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 zugehört, welche durch den Wettkampf eine Horizontveränderung erfährt: sie wird zur „guten Eris”. „Und nicht Aristoteles allein, sondern das gesamte griechische Altertum denkt anders über Groll und Neid als wir und urteilt wie Hesiod, der einmal eine Eris als böse bezeichnet, diejenige nämlich, welche die Menschen zum feindseligen Vernichtungskampfe gegen einander führt, und dann wieder eine andere Eris als gute preist, die als Eifersucht Groll Neid die Menschen zur Tat reizt, aber nicht zur Tat des Vernichtungskampfes, sondern zur Tat des Wettkampfes. Der Grieche ist neidisch und empfindet diese Eigenschaft nicht als Makel, sondern als Wirkung einer wohltätigen Gottheit.” ( KSA 1, 788) [Meine Hervorhebung] In einer sauberen Logik gedacht, kann man sagen, dass der Neid ein Vollzug des „göttlichen Neid[es]” sei, denn das Göttliche neigte immer zum Sieg. Die direkte Schlussfolgerung ist, dass der Wettkampf zu Ehren der Götter vollzogen wird und der Sieger als ein Günstling des Gottes betrachtet wird. Sieger und Besiegte befinden sich zugleich im Horizont des Spiels, das ein göttliches Spiel ist.
1. 2.3 Götter und Menschen Spiel Götter-Spiel und Menschen-Spiel hängen zusammen, obwohl ein Sterblicher niemals die Götter zum Wettkampf herausfordern dürfte. Damit ist noch einmal bestätigt, dass der Wettkampf immer gerechten Regeln folgt; er ist zugleich Spiel und Gerechtigkeit. Wenn ein Sterblicher die Götter zum Wettstreit herausfordert, dann beginnt er eine Akt der Hybris! Hybris bezeichnet die „Überschreitung der dem Menschen gesetzten Grenzen”; in unserem Fall ist der Frevler der Mensch, der sich mit den Göttern gleich zu stellen anmaßt. Wenn der Mensch das tut, dann muss er die schrecklichsten Strafen der Götter ertragen. „Diese Vorstellung entfremdet ihm nicht etwa seine Götter: deren Bedeutung im Gegentheil damit umschrieben ist, daß mit ihnen der Mensch nie den Wettkampf wagen darf, er dessen Seele gegen jedes andre lebende Wesen eifersüchtig erglüht. Im Kampfe des Thamyris mit den Musen, des Marsyas mit Apoll, im ergreifenden Schicksale der Niobe erschien das schreckliche Gegeneinander der zwei Mächte, die nie mit einander kämpfen dürfen, von Mensch und Gott.” (KSA , 788) [Meine Hervorhebung] Die Götter spielen nicht im menschlichen Sinne. Gleichwohl scheint für die Menschen der Götter Tun ein „Spiel” zu sein. Ihnen dünkt nur ein Spiel zu sein, was für den Menschen ungeheuer, schrecklich, unmöglich ist. Aus der Perspektive des Gottes scheint der Mensch
138 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
„kindisch”: „Der Mann heißt kindisch vor Gott wie der Knabe vor dem Mann.” (Heraklit B 79) Doch der Mensch darf die Götter nicht provozieren, weil es ihm nicht ansteht sich mit den Göttern (den übermenschlichen Mächten) gleich zu stellen. Im Gegenteil betrachten und genießen die Götter den Wettkampf der Menschen. Göttliches und menschliches begegnet sich im Ereignis der Agone1 in einer einzigartigen griechischen Mischung; in dem Fest Ereignis werden durch die neuen Wettkämpfe die gestorbenen Helden gefeiert und der Sieger des Wettkampfes erfreut die Götter. Die Eris in ihrer „guten” Seite ermöglicht den Wettkampf und „der göttliche Neid” bringt ihn weiter auf den Weg der Sieges: Aber der Kampf ist noch nicht als gerechter Wettstreit gestiftet.
1. 3.1 Der Künstlerische Agon Der Kampf ums Dasein wird durch die Dichtung in einen freien Kampf transfiguriert, überwunden, und aus dieser Perspektive zeigt sich der Wettkampf als ein verklärter Kampf. „Der Dichter überwindet den Kampf ums Dasein, indem er ihn zum einem freien Wettkampfe idealisiert...” (KSA 7, 398) Die Dynamik der griechischen Dichtung und der Wettkampf wachsen in einem lebendigen Dialog miteinander; die Dichtung transfiguriert den Kampf, und durch das Wettspiel wird der Dichtung dem Welt ihre Siegesgestalt verleihen. In dieser Weise beweist sich der musische Agon als ein ausgezeichneter Teil des „allgemeinen” Agon, insbesondere weil, wie man zeigen kann, der Dichter zunächst wie im Wettkampf „voran” „geht” und „de[n] Kampf um [das] Dasein [überwindet] indem er ihn zu einem freien Wettkampfe idealisiert”, „er erfindet die Sprache, er differenziert”; und zweitens, wie „die Entscheidung im agon”, „macht uns mehr zum Dichter”. “Die homerische Frage. Künstler und Publikum. Das Individuum: der differenzirende apollinische Trieb, Formen und damit — scheinbar — Individuen schaffend. Der apollinische Homer ist nur der
1 „Der Anlass für die Spiele. In epischer Tradition finden a. [Agon] bei Bestattungsfeierlichkeiten für Helden statt, und Â. Êpitáfioi werden für diejenigen in Athen gehalten, die im Krieg fielen (Arist. Ath. pol. 58), in Sparta (Paus. 3,14,1) und im übrigen Griechenland, auch in Etrurien und Rom. Religiöse Feierlichkeiten schlossen a. ein, und besonders Â. mousikoi als einen Hauptteil. Die Bewerber, die nach der Vollkommenheit des Geistes und des Körpers streben, erfreuen die Götter. Die bevorzugte Stellung und die Vorrechte der Athleten in späteren Zeiten beruhten auf dem Glauben, dass sie die Lieblinge der Götter seien.” (Der Neue Pauly, Band 1, S.137-138)
139 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Fortsetzer jenes allgemein menschlichen Kunstprozesses, dem wir die Individuation verdanken. Der Dichter geht voran, er erfindet die Sprache, differenzirt. Der Dichter überwindet den Kampf um's Dasein, indem er ihn zu einem freien Wettkampfe idealisirt. Hier ist das Dasein, um das noch gekämpft wird, das Dasein im Lobe, im Nachruhm. Der Dichter erzieht: die tigerartigen Zerfleischungstriebe der Griechen weiß er zu übertragen in die gute Eris. Das Volk Apollo's ist auch das Volk der Individuen. Ausdruck der Wettkampf. Die Gymnastik der idealisirte Krieg. Das Staatenprinzip vornehmlich die Eris kleiner göttlicher Kultussphären.” (KSA 7, 398) [Meine Hervorhebung] Das Schaffen des Dichters ist „jener allgemein menschliche Kunstprozess”, der die Verhältnisse zum Dasein verändert: er sieht jetzt ein „Dasein im Lobe, im Nachrum”. Im Gedicht wird der Sieg und der Sieger gefeiert. Der Sieg bringt etwas Neues ins Dasein. Und dieses Neue gehört zum Apollinischen Prinzip, nämlich, der Sieger zeigt sich als die erste Konfiguration des Individuums. Wenn dem Musterbild der dionysisch und apollinisch auf dem Spüren gehen, dann entdecken wir im Wettkampf die apollinischen Kräfte des Sieges, und in der Spannung des Streits finden wir die dionysischen Kräfte einverleibt. Zunächst bedeuten die Regeln des Wettkampfs eine Einschränkung, aber durch seinen offenen Weg (Möglichkeit) zum Sieg wird die Lust am Leben auch gesteigert. Die Regeln sind nicht nur bloße Formen der Begrenzungen sondern sie stellen das Leben und die Welt in eine andere Perspektive, bringen eigentlich ein neues Ethos. Im Unterschied zum Kampf, dessen Ausgang auf die einen Seite die Vernichtung und auf die andere Seite den Lebensjubel der Sieger stellt, stellt der Wettkampf sich ganz in den Horizont des Siegers, insofern auch der Besiegte sich ihm unterstellt. Sieg und Sieger werden zu etwas Allgemeinem, werden als neues Gestalt der Welt gefeiert. Mit jedem neuen Wettkampf triumphiert die Dynamik des Spiels im Horizont des Sieges. Was immerfort lebt ist das Spiel als der Weg der Sieg-Dynamik. Der Wettkampf verleiht dem menschlichen Dasein immer wieder die Sieg-Gestalt als Horizont. Im Geiste dieses Ethos werden die Heroen und die großen Individuen der griechischen Kultur erscheinen. Das Feiern der Götter durch den Sieg der Kunst wird zu den höchsten Zuständen der griechischen Städte, in denen die Poesie und die Tragödie blühen werden. Der Sieger bezeichnet den „höchsten Menschen” und er wird als solcher gefeiert; er stiftet einen Menschentypus, der zum Maßstab wird! Aber das ist nicht ein „ästhetisches”, sondern ein „universales” Urteil; das zeigt, dass die
140 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Dichtung in ihrem Ursprung keine „ästhetische”, sondern eine Weltgestalt ist. „Der Dichter als Lehrer des Wahren. Symbolische Deutung, weil er durchaus recht behalten soll. [...] Das Urtheil im Wettkampfe ist nicht ästhetisch, sondern universal. [...] Der Dichter wird beurtheilt als „höchster Mensch”, sein Lied als wahr, gut, schön. Die Homer-Lieder das Resultat von Wettgesängen. Auch die des Hesiod. Ein Sänger der der Ilias, wie der der Odyssee. Die Namen Homer und Hesiod sind Siegespreise.” (KSA 7, 395) [Meine Hervorhebung] Nietzsches Gedanke, dass der Dichter als „Lehrer des Wahren“1 auftritt, bezeichnet den griechischen Anfang und hat ein großes Gewicht in der Gesamtheit seiner Philosophie. Dass der künstlerische Prozess einen allgemeinen Wert hat und nicht von anderen Werten (Theorie oder Moral) abzuleiten ist, insofern erzeugt sich im künstlerischen Prozess selbst ein neuer Ethos und dichtet sich eine Weltperspektive. Die Dichtung „erzieht”, sagt Nietzsche, aber der Agon erzieht auch, und beides gehört zur griechischen Paideia. Zwischen Agon und Dichtung ereignet sich etwas ganz Neues, dessen Ursprung nur in der Begegnung von Dichtung und Agon zu denken ist. Der Agon wirkt auf die Dichtung: „Die Entscheidung im agon ist nur das Geständniß: der und der macht uns mehr zum Dichter: dem folgen wir, da schaffen wir die Bilder schneller. Also ein künstlerisches Urtheil, aus einer Erregung der künstlerischen Fähigkeit gewonnen. Nicht aus Begriffen. So lebt der Mythus fort, indem der Dichter seinen Traum überträgt. Alle Kunstgesetze beziehn sich auf das Übertragen. Aesthetik hat nur Sinn als Naturwissenschaft: wie das Apollinische und das Dionysische.” (KSA 7, 396) [Meine Hervorhebung] “Die Schulen, und der Wettkampf als Voraussetzung der Künste.” (KSA 7, 400) Der Dichter schafft durch die „Übertragung” eine neue Weltperspektive, welche in dem Horizont der Kunst und des Sieges zugleich ruht; er erzieht zum Wettkampf, und durch den Wettkampf wird immer wieder ein neuer Genius gefördert. Was eigentlich in dieser Umwandlung vom Kampf zum Wettkampf geschieht, ist ein existenzieller Sprung! Es wird ein neues Ethos gestiftet, und dieses Ethos schafft eigentlich eine neue Weltgestalt.
1 Auch Hölderlin vertrat in seinen Aufsätzen diesen Gedanken, wenn er die Poesie die „Lehrerin der Menschheit” nannte: „Die Poesie bekömmt dadurch eine Höhere Würde, sie wird am Ende wieder, was am Anfang war – Lehrerin der Menschheit.” Hölderlin, in: Sämtliche Werke, 1015; auch Platon sagte, dass Homer der Lehrer aller Griechen war.
141 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
1. 3.2 Der Agon und die Tragödie Die Erscheinung der Tragödie geschieht selbst in der Dynamik des Agon. Die Aufführungen von Tragödien, Komödien und Satyrspielen gehören zu den großen Ereignissen der griechischen Welt. Die Tragödien wurden anlässlich der großen Feste gespielt1. In diesem Sinne waren die Tragödien die ursprünglich wahre Art zu Feiern. Auf der anderen Seite treten die Autoren der Tragödie in Wettstreit gegeneinander. Der Weg zum Publikum geht über den Wettkampf, der unter dem Namen des Musischen Agon bekannt ist. „Die Aufführungen von Tragödien, Komödien und Satyrspielen, bei denen die Dichter und später auch die Schauspieler um den ersten Preis wetteiferten, waren bis um Ende des 5. Jahrhunderts auf Attika beschränkt und mit dem Dionysoskultus verbunden. Man bezeichnete sie mit dem Namen der Feste, an denen sie stattfanden oder nannte sie zusammen mit den Wettkämpfen der Dithyramben-Chöre die Dionysischen Agone. Seit dem 4. Jahrhundert verbreitete sich diese Art der Agone über die gesamte griechische Welt. Sie gehören als fester Bestandteil zu fast allen größeren hellenistischen Festen; sie wurden nicht nur im Zusammenhang mit dem Dionysoskult, sondern auch anderen Göttern zu Ehren abgehalten, zum Beispiel für Zeus, Apollo, für die Musen, die Chariten, für Serapis, und hießen nun zumeist `die skenischen Agone` (agones skenioi).” (Renata von Scheliha, S..61-62)2 [Meine Hervorhebung] Der Musische Agon als ein Weg, Kunst zu schaffen und zugleich als Wettstreit ist tief in die Kunst der Tragödie einbezogen. Nicht nur, dass es keinen anderen Weg außer dem Agon gab, auf welchem man Dichter (Autor) einer Tragödie werden konnte, sondern beides: Tragödie zu schreiben und sich im Wetteifer mit anderen Tragödienschreibern zu messen gehörten essentiell in den Bereich des Schaffendenprozesses.
1 „Zwei Feste sind für die musischen Agone von besonderem Interesse, da sie mit dramatischen Aufführungen verbunden waren: die Großen (oder Städtischen) Dionysien, das Hauptfest der Stadt Athen, das im attischen Monat Elaphebolion (März/April) abgehalten wurde, und die Lenäen im Monat Gamelion (Januar/Februar). Beide Frühjahresfestes wurden mit dem Einsetzen der Vegetationsperiode zu Ehren des Wien- und Fruchtbarkeitsgottes Dionysos gefeiert.” ( Bernhard Zimmermann, Die Griechische Komödie, 1998, S.17) 2 „Die erste Aufführung einer Tragödie fand an den von Peisistratos gegründeten Städtischen Dionysien statt, im März-April des Jahres 534 v. Chr., dem Monat, den die Athener ´Elaphebolion´ nannten.” (von Scheliha,1987, S. 63.)
142 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
„Der Wettkampf unter Künstlern setzt das rechte Publikum voraus.” (KSA 7, 402) Deutlicher gesagt, im Wettkampf begegnet der Dichter einem „Publikum”, das kein Leser oder nur Zuhörer ist, sondern ein „Publikum von Dichtern” ist, letzteres ist aufgefordert und von sich aus bestrebt, die Dichtung mitzudichten. Das Publikum nimmt aktiv am schöpferischen Prozess teil dadurch, dass es dem Dichter auf dem Weg der dichterischen Phantasie folgt und zugleich diese Phantasie mit- vollzieht. Der Wettkampf der Dichter bringt nicht von Anfang an das Kunstwerk als Sieg mit sich. Nachdem mehrere (3Tagödien oder 5Komödien) gespielt werden, wird der Sieger gewählt. Nur der Dichter, dessen Kunstwerk vor dem Publikum und mit dem Publikum die anderen Kunstwerke besiegt hat, darf sich als Sieger betrachten. Man kann nicht Autor werden ohne Sieger zu sein. Um richtig zu verstehen, was Nietzsche denkt, wenn er sagt, dass das Urteil kein „ästhetisches” Urteil, sondern ein „universales Urteil” ist, müssen wir möglicherweise noch einmal versuchen, den ganzen Prozess des Tragödienspiels zu veranschaulichen.1 Die Tragödie wurde grundsätzlich immer gespielt, d. h. gesungen und nicht gelesen; der Chor singt und bewegt sich im Rhythmus eines graziösen Tanzes. Die Bilder und die Metaphern schweben vor den Augen der „Zuschauer”, insofern der “Zuschauer” die Sprache der Dichter mit-vollzieht und an dem gesehenen Ereignis teilnimmt. Nietzsches Satz, „Der Dichter nur möglich unter einem Publikum von Dichtern.” (KSA 7, 395), mag ungewöhnlich klingen, aber er spricht zutreffend die „Verwandtschaft” zwischen Dichter und Publikum aus. Zwischen dem Publikum und der Tragödie liegt keine moralische, theoretische oder ästhetische Optik (im modernen Sinne), sondern das Publikum singt mit dem Dichter und verhält sich zu dessen Tragödie wie der Künstler zu seinem Werk. Was der Dichter aus seiner Fantasie geschaffen hat, wiederholt der „Zuschauer” durch sehen, hören und Mitdichten. Man kann die gespielte Tragödie nicht verstehen, ohne dass sie gleichzeitig von dem Zuschauer mitgedichtet ist. Zwischen Publikum und Dichtung vermittelt keine andere Instanz als der gemeinsame künstlerischen Vision. Das „Publikum” besteht nicht aus passiven Zuschauern, die das Spektakel als künstliche Inszenierung, wahrnehmen und interpretieren; es wäre für das Publikum der Tragödie nicht möglich gewesen das Spiel zu verstehen, ohne sich ganz auf das Spiel einzulassen. Die Gestalt der Dichtung geht
1 In ihrem Buch Vom Wettkampf der Dichter * Der Musische Agon bei den Griechen, CASTRVM PREG, Amsterdam, stellt Renata von Scheliha eine sehr anschauliche und überzeugende Beschreibung des Musischen Agon dar.
143 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 in der Rivalität nicht mit der Realität auf, sondern sie entspringt als die Weltgestalt als solche überhaupt. Im dichterischen Schaffen entspringt die Welt im Ganzen, sie wird als solche wahrgenommen und erlebt, insofern sie nur als gedichtete zur Erscheinung kommt. Die Welt wird nicht in eine reale und irreale eingeteilt. Die „Realität” ist selbst mythisch. Der Zuschauer hat keinen „kritischen” Abstand, fällt kein theoretisches Urteil und zieht keine moralischen Schlussfolgerungen; er sieht das Spiel nicht als „Spektakel”, sondern als Geschehen, als Ereignis, in das er mit einbezogen ist, in das er schöpferisch mit-eingeht; er selbst verweilt in dem Spektakel. Das bedeutet allerdings nicht, dass es in der Tragödie keine Ethik, keine reflektierten Gedanken oder keine ästhetischen Werte gäbe; jedes der erhaltenen Stücke kann das Gegenteil beweisen; aber es handelt sich bei ihm nicht um selbständige Werte, aus deren Perspektive man die Kunstwerke beurteilen könnte; die Kunst scheint auf dem Weg der Fantasie, und im künstlerischen Prozess erst wird die Welt gestaltet, sie orientiert sich also nicht an anderen Werten. Sie hat kein Paradigma, weil sie sich selbst als Archetypus entwickelt. Die Tragödie ist nicht von „außen” zu betrachten. Der Zuschauer steht vom Anfang an ganz im Bann des Spiels der Tragödie. Für die Griechen bringt die Tragödie die Kunde über das Schicksal der Stadt. Jeder fühlt sich von der Tragödie angesprochen und jeden spricht sie (die Bühne) an. Der künstlerische Prozess ist ein allgemeiner Prozess, wo sich Dichter und Publikum begegnen, und so ereignet sich der künstlerischen Welt Gestalt. „Ein phantasiereiches Publikum. Dies ist gleichsam sein Stoff, den er formt. Das Dichten selbst nur eine Reizung und Leitung der Phantasie. Der eigentliche Genuß das Produziren von Bildern, an der Hand des Dichters. Also Dichter und Kritiker ein unsinniger Gegensatz – sondern Bildhauer und Marmor, Dichter und Stoff.” (KSA 7, 791) Die Begegnung Künstler - Publikum fand in dem gespielten und zusammen fantasierten Werk statt, und wurde von verwandten „künstlerischen Fähigkeiten” ermöglicht. „Also ein künstlerisches Urteil, aus einer Erregung der künstlerischen Fähigkeit gewonnen. Nicht aus Begriffen” (KSA 7, 395) [Meine Hervorhebung] Was Nietzsche unter dem „künstlerischen Urteil” versteht, ist im Unterschied zum „theoretischen Urteil”, dass es erstens zum kunstschaffenden Prozess gehört und zugleich „universales Urteil”, d. h. ein allgemein gültiges Urteil ist, weil das Publikum eigentlich die Tragödie niemals außerhalb ihres Bereiches versteht.
144 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
1. 3.3 Der Wettkampf und der künstlerische Prozess Der Wettkampf und der künstlerische Prozess sind untrennbar miteinander verflochten; nur auf dem Weg des Wettkampfs wird bei den Griechen jemand zum Künstler; was in der Erziehung geübt wird, wird im Wettkampf praktiziert. Eine Atmosphäre der Rivalität herrscht in der literarischen und philosophischen Welt der Griechen. „Misstrauisch-eifersüchtig traten die großen musikalischen Meister, Pindar und Simonides, neben einander hin; wetteifernd begegnet der Sophist, der höhere Lehrer Altertums, dem anderen Sophisten; selbst die allgemeinste Art der Belehrung, durch das Drama, wurde dem Volke nur erteilt unter der Form eines ungeheuren Ringens der großen musikalischen und dramatischen Künstler. Wie wunderbar. „Auch der Künstler grollt dem Künstler!” Und der moderne Mensch fürchtet nichts so sehr an einem Künstler als die persönliche Kampfregung, während der Grieche den Künstler nur im persönlichen Kampfe kennt.” (KSA 1, 791) Im Wettstreit stellt der Dichter sein Werk in der Öffentlichkeit der Polis. Das Vertrauen in die Offenheit der Stadt bestimmt die Grundfassung jedes Bürgers; der Dichter will der erste Dichter seiner Stadt werden; eine weltliche Vertraulichkeit waltet in dem ganzen Verfahren – Dichter zu werden, deswegen ist der Wettkampf für die Griechen der ordnungsgemäße Weg für jemanden, der “die Lust am einzeln Wirklichen jeder Art und wollen es nicht verneinen“1 hat.
1 „Kritik der Entwicklung. Falsche Annahme einer naturgemäßen Entwicklung. Die Entartung ist hinter jeder großen Erscheinung her; in jedem Augenblick ist der Ansatz zum Ende da. Die Entartung liegt in dem leichten Nachmachen und Äusserlich-Verstehen der großen Vorbilder: d.h. das Vorbild reizt die eitlern Naturen zum Nachmachen und Gleichmachen oder Überbieten. Die Kette von einem Genius zum andern ist selten eine gerade Linie: so zwischen Aeschylus und Sophocles keineswegs. Es lagen eine Masse Entwicklungswege nach Aeschylus noch offen; Sophocles schlug einen von ihnen ein. Das Verhängnisvolle aller grossen Begabungen: sie reissen mit sich fort und veröden um sich, wie Rom in einer Einöde liegt. Viele Kräfte, embryonisch noch, werden so erdrückt. Zu zeigen, wie überwiegend auch in Hellas die Entartung ist, wie selten und kurz das Grosse, wie mangelhaft (von der falschen Seite) geschätzt. Wie steif müssen die Anfänge der Tragödie bei Thespis gewesen sein! d.h. die Kunstmäßigen Nachformungen der urwüchsigen Orgien. So war die Prosa erst sehr steif im Verhältnis zur wirklichen Rede. Die Gefahren sind: man hat die Lust am Inhalte oder man ist gleichgültig gegen den Inhalt und erstrebt Sinnesreize des Klanges usw. Das Agonale ist auch die Gefahr bei aller Entwicklung; es überreizt den Trieb zum Schaffen. - Der glücklichste Fall in der Entwicklung, wenn sich mehrere Genie's gegenseitig in Schranken halten. Ob nicht sehr viele herrliche
145 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Der Sieg im Agon erfordert nicht wie im Kampf die Zerstörung des Gegners und seines Wertes, sondern der Sieg befördert die Hervorbringung eines neuen Werkes. Durch diese Förderung des Wettkampfes sind der Agon und der künstlerische Prozess nicht mehr zu trennen; beide tragen zum Erscheinen der neuen Werke bei.
1.3.4 Das „Verhältnis des Wettkampfs zur Conception des Kunstwerkes”1 Die Radikalität Nietzsches Konzeption über das Kunstwerk und über das Kunstschaffen zeigt sich am eindeutigsten, wenn das Verhältnis zwischen der Erscheinung des Kunstwerks und seiner „Umwelt” gefragt wird. Zunächst präsentiert Nietzsche den Unterschied zwischen antiker und moderner Perspektive in Bezug auf das Phänomen der Kunstwerkerscheinung. „Und der moderne Mensch fürchtet nichts so sehr an einem Künstler als die persönliche Kampfregung, während der
Möglichkeiten im Keime erstickt sind? Wer würde z.B. Theocrit noch zu seiner Zeit für möglich halten, wenn er nicht da wäre? Die grösste Thatsache bleibt immer der frühzeitig panhellenische Homer. Alles Gute stammt doch von ihm her: aber zugleich ist er die gewaltigste Schranke geblieben, dies gab. Er verflachte, und deshalb kämpften die Ernstern so gegen ihn, umsonst. Homer siegte immer. Das Unterdrückende der grossen geistigen Mächte ist auch hier sichtbar, aber welcher Unterschied: Homer oder eine Bibel als solche Macht! Die Lust am Rausche, die Lust am Listigen, an der Rache, am Neide, an der Schmähung, an der Unzüchtigkeit – alles das wurde von den Griechen anerkannt, als menschlich, und darauf hin eingeordnet in das Gebäude der Gesellschaft und Sitte. Die Weisheit ihrer Institutionen liegt in dem Mangel einer Scheidung zwischen gut und böse, schwarz und weiss. Die Natur, wie sie sich zeigt, wird nicht weggeleugnet, sondern nur eingeordnet, auf bestimmte Culte und Tage beschränkt. Dies ist die Wurzel aller Freisinnigkeit des Alterthums; man suchte für die Naturkräfte eine mässige Entladung, nicht eine Vernichtung und Verneinung. – Das ganze System von neuer Ordnung ist dann der Staat. Er war nicht auf bestimmte Individuen, sondern auf die regulären menschlichen Eigenschaften hin construirt: es zeigt sich in seiner Gründung die Schärfe der Beobachtung und der Sinn für das Thatsächliche, besonders für das Typisch- Thatsächliche, was die Griechen zur Wissenschaft Historie Geographie usw. befähigte. Es war nicht ein beschränktes priesterliches Sittengesetz, welches bei der Gründung des Staates befahl. Woher haben die Griechen diese Freiheit? Wohl schon von Homer; aber woher hat er's? – Die Dichter sind nicht die weisesten und logisch gebildesten Wesen; aber sie haben die Lust am einzeln Wirklichen jeder Art und wollen es nicht verneinen, aber doch so mässigen, dass es nicht alles todt macht.” (KSA 8, 79) [Meine Hervorhebung] 1 KSA 1, 791
146 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Grieche den Künstler nur im persönlichen Kampfe kennt. Dort wo der moderne Mensch die Schwäche des Kunstwerks wittert, sucht der Hellene die Quelle seiner höchsten Kraft!” (KSA 1, 790) Im Unterschied zur modernen Ästhetik, welche den Prozess des Kunstschaffens theoretisch betrachtet wie in der Auslegung der Romantiker das Verhältnis des Subjekts (Genius) mit dem Absolut, und der Künstler in ein ursprünglich-theoretisches Verhältnis mit dem Begriff der Schönheit und der Wahrheit gesehen wird, ist bei Nietzsche die Kunstschaffung aus der Perspektive des Künstler-Phänomens gedacht, und freilich wird der Künstler im seiner lebendigen Leibhaftigkeit aufgefasst. Der künstlerische Prozess geschieht im Streit der verschiedenen Kräfte – im Neid auf das Große und mit Eifer am Werk: es ist ein Wettkampf zwischen dem Künstler (Einem) und anderen Künstlern (Vielen), oder zwischen vielen und „einem Genie”1. Das Künstler-Dasein2, das in sich widerstrebende Kräfte trägt, das in seiner Tätigkeit die Dynamik des Willen zur Macht sichtbar macht, und dessen Schaffens-Sinn in dem Horizont des Weltspiels liegt, zeigt sich gegenüber dem anderer Künstler in einem ständigen Wettkampf. Die erzieherische Bedeutung des Wettkampfs ist für den Künstler und für den Philosophen unverzichtbar: „Nur der Wettkampf machte mich zum Dichter, zum Sophisten, zum Redner!” (KSA 1, 790) Die agonale Kunst bewegt sich auch nach ihrer Entstehung in der Welt der Kunstwerke selbst jenseits des „Subjekts” Künstler in einem Streit der Werte; der Künstler setzt sich, insofern er seine Kunstwerke in diesen unpersönlichen Bereich der Kultur stellt, selbst in ein größeres Spiel, in dem sein Werk jenseits von ihm weiter spielt.
1. 4.1 Der Agon als allgemeines Lebensprinzip
1 „Das ist der Kern der hellenischen Wettkampf-Vorstellung: sie verabscheut die Alleinherrschaft und fürchtet ihre Gefahren, sie begehrt, als Schutzmittel gegen das Genie - ein zweites Genie.” (KSA 1, 789) 2 „Das Phänomen „Künstler” ist noch am leichtesten durchsichtig: - von da aus hinzublicken auf die Grundinstinkte der Macht, der Natur usw.! Auch der Religion und Moral! „das Spiel”, das Unnützliche, als Ideal des mit Kraft Überhäuften, als „kindlich”. Die „Kindlichkeit” Gottes, paîV paízon.” (KSA 12, 129)
147 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Der Agon ist bei den Griechen ein allgemeines Lebensprinzip1 geworden, und eine entscheidende Art sich zum Dasein zu verhalten, ohne welche die ganze griechische Kultur2 schwer zu begreifen ist! Die Rolle des Agon in der griechischen Welt wurde auch von Jakob Burckhardt in seiner Griechischen Kulturgeschichte als das durchwaltendes „Prinzip” der griechischen Paideia erfasst. „Das tägliche Leben von Jugend auf, die Agora, die Gespräche, der Krieg usw. taten das übrige zur Ausbildung des einzelnen. Es entstand eine Existenz, wie sie auf Erden weder vorher noch nachher noch anderswo vorgekommen ist: Alles vom Agon durchdrungen und beherrscht und ausgehend von dem Grundfundament, dass durch das Erziehen (paideúein) alles zu erreichen sei,...” [Meine Hervorhebung]3 Dass der Wettkampf von den Griechen innerhalb der allgemeinen Erziehung praktiziert wurde, ist nicht nur ein Beweis, dass der Wettkampf ein Ethos hat, sondern auch, dass der Wettkampf der beste Weg des Einzelnen zum Selbst ist. Im ursprünglichen Sinne der Erziehung ist der Wettkampf ein Stimulationsmittel, darüber hinaus unterbindet er die Herausbildung eines einzigen Genies. „Das ist der Kern der hellenischen Wettkampf-Vorstellung: sie verabscheuet die Alleinherrschaft und fürchtet ihre Gefahr, sie begehrt, als Schutzmittel gegen ein Genie ein zweites Genie.” (KSA 1, 798) Und das ist nicht nur eine spezielle Erziehung, sondern Nietzsche nennt sie die „hellenische Volkspädagogik”. „Sie scheinen zu glauben, dass die Selbstsucht d.h. das Individuelle nur das kräftigste Agens ist, seinen Charakter aber als „gut” und „böse” wesentlich von den Zielen bekommt, nach denen es sich ausreckt. Für die Alten aber war das Ziel der agonalen Erziehung die Wohlfahrt des Ganzen, der staatlichen Gesellschaft. Jeder Athener z.B. sollte sein Selbst im Wettkampfe soweit entwickeln, als es Athen vom höchsten Nutzen sei und am wenigsten
1 „L`Âgõn donc est un fait constant qui s`a affirme de plus en plus dans l´histoire littéraire du V-e siècle. Chaque genre lui garde un caractère original. Mais il existe partout, dans l’éxamen philosophique comme au cours des procès devant les tribunaux, dans l`exposé historique comme au centre de la comédie ancienne. Il répond, de tout évidence, à une tendance profonde de l`esprit grec. » (Jacqueline Duchemin, L`AGON dans la tragédie grecque, Paris 1945, S. 37.) 2 „Nehmen wir dagegen den Wettkampf aus dem griechischen Leben hinweg, so sehen wir sofort in jenen vorhomerischen Abgrund einer grauenhaften Wildheit des Hasses und der Vernichtungslust.” (KSA 1, 791) 3 Burckhardt Jakob, Der koloniale und agonale Mensch, in:, Griechische Kulturgeschichte, Band , 1977, S. 116
148 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Schaden bringe. Es war kein Ehrgeiz in's Ungemessene und Unzumessende, wie meistens der moderne Ehrgeiz: an das Wohl seiner Mutterstadt dachte der Jüngling, wenn er um die Wette lief oder warf oder sang; ihren Ruhm wollte er in dem seinigen mehren; seinen Stadtgöttern weihte er die Kränze, die die Kampfrichter ehrend auf sein Haupt setzten.” (KSA 1, 790) „Jeder Grieche empfand in sich von Kindheit an den brennenden Wunsch, im Kampf der Städte ein Werkzeug zum Heilen seiner Stadt zu sein: darin war seine Selbstsucht entflammt, darin war sie gezügelt und umschränkt.“ (KSA 1, 790) Der Gedanke des Agon als die vorherrschende Lebensstimmung im Gesamtbild der Griechen, ist von Nietzsche auch in seiner Schrift Die Philosophie im tragischen Zeitalter der Griechen erfasst, hier bewegt sich aber die Präsenz des Agon im Dialog mit dem kosmischen Streit und der ewigen Gerechtigkeit. „Alles geschieht gemäß diesem Streite, und gerade dieser Streit offenbart die ewige Gerechtigkeit. Es ist eine wundervolle, aus dem reinsten Borne des Hellenischen geschöpfte Vorstellung, welche den Streit als das fortwährende Walten einer einheitlichen, strengen, an ewige Gesetze gebundenen Gerechtigkeit betrachtet. Nur ein Grieche war im Stande, diese Vorstellung als Fundament einer Kosmodicee zu finden; es ist die gute Eris Hesiods, zum Weltprincip verklärt, es ist der Wettkampfgedanke des einzelnen Griechen und des griechischen Staates, aus den Gymnasien und Palästren, aus den künstlerischen Agonen, aus dem Ringen der politischen Parteien und der Städte mit einander, in's Allgemeinste übertragen, so daß jetzt das Räderwerk des Kosmos in ihm sich dreht. Wie jeder Grieche kämpft als ob er allein im Recht sei, und ein unendlich sicheres Maaß des richterlichen Urtheils in jedem Augenblick bestimmt, wohin der Sieg sich neigt, so ringen die Qualitäten mit einander, nach unverbrüchlichen, dem Kampfe immanenten Gesetzen und Maaßen. Die Dinge selbst, an deren Feststehen und Standhalten der enge Menschen- und Thierkopf glaubt, haben gar keine eigentliche Existenz, sie sind das Erblitzen und der Funkenschlag gezückter Schwerter, sie sind das Aufglänzen des Siegs, im Kampfe der entgegengesetzten Qualitäten.” (KSA 1, 826) [Meine Hervorhebung] Nietzsche sieht die Dynamik der ganzen griechischen Welt im Horizont des Wettkampfs! Nicht aus einer Theorie oder einem moralischen Imperativ ist die griechische Größe entstanden sondern aus dieser lebendigen Dynamik, aus dem künstlerischen Genius – dem Ethos des Wettkampfs. Warum hat der Wettkampf nur bei den Griechen eine solche Vollendung bewirkt? Das ist eine andere Frage! Aber wir können
149 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 feststellen, dass er bei den Griechen zur prägnantesten Lebensform überhaupt geworden ist. Jede neue Generation wird in der Paideia der Wettspiele erzogen und reicht die Fackel weiter, die in der Hand der Sieger ununterbrochen brennt: „Jeder Hellene gibt die Fackel des Wettkampfes weiter; an jeder großen Tugend entzündet sich eine neue Größe.” (KSA 1, 788)
1. 5.1 Der Agon in der Philosophie In der philosophischen Reihe der griechischen Welt war Heraklit der erste, der durch seinen Gedanken vom spielenden Kind, pais paizon, ein neues und transfiguriertes Weltbild des Alles Geschehen eröffnet hat. Dieser große Gedanke bleibt durch seine denkerische Spannung noch unvergleichlich. Auf der anderen Seite wächst das Phänomen des Agon mit dem griechischen Dasein zusammen und wird zur gestaltungsgebenden Kraftquelle des griechischen Lebens überhaupt. Daher werden sich die nachkommenden Philosophen mehr oder weniger in dem Strom des agonalen Phänomens bewegen, das die ganzen Lebensstrukturen umfasst. Der Wettkampf als allgemeine Lebensform der Griechen wird vom Philosophen in der philosophischen Weise praktiziert und als philosophischer Weg weiter vertieft. In dieser Weise bewegen sich die Philosophen selbst, leben und lernen die Philosophie auf dem Wege des Wettstreits: Sophisten streiten auf der öffentlichen Bühne, Sokrates entwickelt die Dialektik als eine „Art Ringen“ und Platon wird, nach seinem Eingeständnis, nur durch den Eifer des Wettkampfs zu Platon.
1. 5.2 Sokrates und der Wettkampf Die Welt aus der Perspektive des Spiels zu betrachten, das heißt für Nietzsche erstens, das Weltgeschehen als göttliches Spiel zu interpretieren und zweitens, die Philosophie selbst in den Horizont dieses Spiels zu stellen. Der Agon ist die Art, in der die Philosophie den spielerischen Sinn der Welt vollzieht (transfiguriert). Wenn die Philosophie ihren agonalen Modus aufgibt und das Agon nicht mehr reflektiert, dann stellt sie sich außerdem dem Vollzug des Spiels, sie wird dekadent oder pervertiert sich, sie wird zur Moral, und sie wird die absolute Wahrheit beanspruchen. Aus dieser Perspektive sieht Nietzsche Sokrates einerseits in enger Verbindung mit dem Agon, andererseits nicht weniger Sokrates’ Identität betreffend, Sokrates’ Umwandlung des Agon und damit dessen Philosophie zu einer moralischen (theoretischen)
150 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Wissenschaft. Diesen zweiten Schritt des Sokrates kritisiert Nietzsche und nennt als eine Perversion1 der Philosophie selbst. Es gibt keinen anderen Philosophen, der so präsent in der Paideia-Welt der Jugendlichen2, war wie Sokrates. Nicht nur als in das dialektische Denken einleitende Autorität sondern auch als Mitspieler und in das Spiel Bringender, und als Spiel Macher erobert er die Jugendwelt. Als „Fechtmeister” und „großer Erotiker” wird er in Athen zu einer großartigen Gestalt. „Ich habe zu verstehn gegeben, womit Sokrates abstossen konnte: es bleibt um so mehr zu erklären, dass er fascinirte. – Dass er eine neue Art Agon entdeckte, dass er der erste Fechtmeister davon für die vornehmen Kreise Athen's war, ist das Eine. Er fascinirte, indem er an den agonalen Trieb der Hellenen rührte, – er brachte eine Variante in den Ringkampf zwischen jungen Männern und Jünglingen. Sokrates war auch ein grosser Erotiker.” (KSA 6, 71) [Meine Hervorhebung] Die Faszination des Sokrates ist ein wichtiges Element seiner erotischen Philosophie. Wenn hingegen Sokrates das Spiel des erotischen Dialogs in „Ernst” umwandelt, dann wird er damit „dekadent”. „Sokrates war der Hanswurst, der sich ernst nehmen machte: was geschah da eigentlich?” (KSA 6, 70) Der absolute „Ernst” der Moral bedeutet für Sokrates zu glauben, „dass das Denken, an dem Leitfaden der Causalität, bis in die tiefsten Abgründe des Seins reiche, und dass das Denken das Sein nicht nur zu erkennen, sondern sogar zu corrigiren im Stande sei.” (KSA 1, 99) Dadurch begibt Sokrates gerade Gegenteil, was Nietzsche durch des Heraklits Mund, allen Philosophen empfiehlt, das Spiel nicht als „Ernst”, nicht „moralisch” zu interpretieren: „es ist ein Spiel, nehmt's nicht zu pathetisch, und vor Allem nicht moralisch!” (KSA 1, 832) Sokrates, der „erste negative Philosoph” (KSA 7, 399) nimmt als
1 „Sokrates ist ein Moment der tiefsten Perversität in der Geschichte der Menschen.” (KSA 13, 289) 2 „...er ging in den Tod, mit jener Ruhe, mit der er nach Plato's Schilderung als der letzte der Zecher im frühen Tagesgrauen das Symposion verlässt; um einen neuen Tag zu beginnen; indess hinter ihm, auf den Bänken und auf der Erde, die verschlafenen Tischgenossen zurückbleiben, um von Sokrates, dem wahrhaften Erotiker, zu träumen. Der sterbende Sokrates wurde das neue, noch nie sonst geschaute Ideal der edlen griechischen Jugend: vor allen hat sich der typische hellenische Jüngling, Plato, mit aller inbrünstigen Hingebung seiner Schwärmerseele vor diesem Bilde niedergeworfen.” (KSA 1, 91)
151 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 pathetischen „Ernst”, als Moral, was eigentlich ein ursprüngliches Spiel sei.
1. 5.3 Platon und seine Wettkampferfahrung Platons agonaler Weg in der Philosophie ist viel komplexer als das sokratische Modell, welches sich auf der einen Seite auf den „Schauspieler” und auf der anderen Seite auf den „Moralisten” begrenzt. Platon ist für Nietzsche ein großer Künstler-Philosoph: er kombiniert das Spiel der Erotik mit der künstlerischen Perspektive, seine Dialektik ist eine „künstlerisch” gedichtete Dialektik, aber „in der Form des geistreichen Gesprächs” praktiziert. Der Wettkampf Weg und künstlerische Hervorbringung bildet zugleich die Genialität der Dialoge Platons. Sokrates ist ein großer Schauspieler und ein „Meister des Wettkampfs”, aber erst Platon wird in seinen genialen Dialogen, als Schriftsteller, zum Spielschaffenden. Er lädt in seinen Dialogen jeden wettkämpfenden Philosophen der vorsokratischen Philosophie, jeden Sophisten, Dichter, Mediziner, Politiker, Rhetoriker, ein aufzutreten. Sokrates, Protagoras, Alkibiades, Aristophanes, Pausanias, Hippias u.s.w., sind alle großen Figuren, welche seine Dialoge beleben. Er inszeniert alle verschiedenen Richtungen der Philosophie, welche schon in der Philosophie vor ihm vorhanden war, indessen bringt alle in eine ununterbrochene Konkurrenz. Ein unendlicher Agon zieht sich durch sein ganzes Werk, in dem er zugleich Wettkämpfer und Künstler und damit immer der große „Spieler” ist. „Das, was z.B. bei Plato von besonderer künstlerischer Bedeutung an seinen Dialogen ist, ist meistens das Resultat eines Wetteifers mit der Kunst der Redner, der Sophisten, der Dramatiker seiner Zeit, zu dem Zweckerfunden, dass er zuletzt sagen konnte: „Seht, ich kann das auch, was meine großen Nebenbuhler können; ja, ich kann es besser als sie. Kein Protagoras hat so schöne Mythen gedichtet wie ich, kein Dramatiker ein so belebtes und fesselndes Ganze, wie das Symposium, kein Redner solche Rede verfasst, wie ich sie im Gorgias hinstelle - und nun verwerfe ich das alles zusammen und verurteile alle nachbildende Kunst! Nur der Wettkampf machte mich zum Dichter, zum Sophisten, zum Redner!” (KSA 1, 790) [Meine Hervorhebung]
1. 5.4 Eros, Agon und die Philosophie
152 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Der Wettkampf1 ist für Platon nicht nur ein Weg, um Philosoph zu werden, sondern auch ein Weg, auf dem die Philosophie selbst sich vollendet: „Philosophie nach Art des Plato wäre eher als ein erotischer Wettbewerb zu definieren.” (KSA 6, 127) Zunächst bedeutet das, dass die Philosophie ihren Ur-Sprung im erotischen Spiel hat. „Plato geht weiter. Er sagt mit einer Unschuld, zu der man Grieche sein muss und nicht „Christ”, dass es gar keine platonische Philosophie geben würde, wenn es nicht so schöne Jünglinge in Athen gäbe: deren Anblick sei es erst, was die Seele des Philosophen in einen erotischen Taumel versetze und ihr keine Ruhe lasse, bis sie den Samen aller hohen Dinge in ein so schönes Erdreich hinabgesenkt habe. Auch ein wunderlicher Heiliger! – man traut seinen Ohren nicht, gesetzt selbst, dass man Plato traut. Zum Mindesten erräth man, dass in Athen anders philosophirt wurde, vor Allem öffentlich. Nichts ist weniger griechisch als die Begriffs-Spinneweberei eines Einsiedlers, amor intellectualis dei nach Art des Spinoza. Philosophie nach Art des Plato wäre eher als ein erotischer Wettbewerb zu definiren, als eine Fortbildung und Verinnerlichung der alten agonalen Gymnastik und deren Voraussetzungen… Was wuchs zuletzt aus dieser philosophischen Erotik Plato's heraus? Eine neue Kunstform des griechischen Agon, die Dialektik. – Ich erinnere noch, gegen Schopenhauer und zu Ehren Plato's, daran, dass auch die ganze höhere Cultur und Litteratur des klassischen Frankreichs auf dem Boden des geschlechtlichen Interesses aufgewachsen ist. Man darf überall bei ihr die Galanterie, die Sinne, den Geschlechts-Wettbewerb, das „Weib” suchen, - man wird nie umsonst suchen…” (KSA 6, 127) [Meine Hervorhebung] Nietzsche findet die Quelle der platonischen Philosophie in den fundamentalen Lebens- und seinen Triebstrukturen, aus denen „eine neue Kunstform des griechischen Agon, die Dialektik” entsteht. Und das zu verstehen, muss man über die „schriftlichen” Werke Platons hinausschauen. Zunächst bleibt der Eros für Platon eine Quelle seiner Philosophie, und die Philosophie, im Sinne Platons, auch wenn sie sich über das erotische Spiel durch Verstand und Idealität durch seine dialogische Struktur erhebt, verlässt niemals den Bereich des erotisch idealisierten Wettbewerbs. In dieser Perspektive ist auch das philosophische Werk nichts anderes als die Liebe zum (er-)zeugen:
1 „Homer, in der Welt der hellenischen Zwietracht, der panhellenische Grieche. Der Wettkampf der Griechen zeigt sich auch im Symposion, in der Form des geistreichen Gesprächs.” (KSA 8, 67) [Meine Hervorhebung]
153 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Zweitens ist die Dialektik, obwohl sie ein reiner Erkenntnisweg zu sein scheint, eine reine Methode, so lange sie sich in Dialogform bewegt, sie ist von den Wettkampf dem erotische Drang nicht zu trennen. „Zuletzt ist es die mesquine Thatsache, daß der agonale Instinkt alle diese geborenen Dialektiker dazu zwang, ihre Personal-Fähigkeit als oberste Eigenschaft zu verherrlichen, und alles übrige Gute als bedingt durch sie darzustellen. Der antiwissenschaftliche Geist dieser ganzen „Philosophie”: sie will Recht behalten.” (KSA 3, S.330) Das agonale Prinzip zu erfassen, wie Nietzsche das tut, bedeutet nicht unbedingt, die Sophisten zu verteidigen und die platonische Philosophie zu bekämpfen. Der Philosoph bleibt auch im philosophischen Agon Philosoph, und der Sophist bestätigt sich, gerade als Sophist, hauptsächlich wenn er im Dialog bleibt. Die Bekämpfung der Sophisten durch Sokrates bedeutet nicht unbedingt die Bekämpfung des Wettkampfs, jedenfalls nicht, so lange man im Dialog und Wettstreit dies tut. Der Wettkampf der Rhetorik bei Sophisten und die Dialektik im Dialog bei Platon gehören aus Nietzsche Perspektive zusammen. „Der Kampf der Wissenschaft Sophisten Die Sophisten sind nichts weiter als Realisten: sie formuliren die allen gang und gäben Werthe und Praktiken zum Range der Werthe, - sie haben den Muth, den alle starken Geister haben, um ihre Unmoralität zu wissen… Glaubt man vielleicht, daß diese kleinen griechischen Freistädte, welche sich vor Wuth und Eifersucht gern aufgefressen hätten, von menschenfreundlichen und rechtschaffenen Principien geleitet wurden? Macht man vielleicht dem Thukydides einen Vorwurf aus seiner Rede, die er den athenischen Gesandten in den Mund legt, als sie mit den Meliern über Untergang oder Unterwerfung verhandeln? Inmitten dieser entsetzlichen Spannung von Tugend zu reden war nur vollendeten Tartuffes möglich - oder Abseits-Gestellten, Einsiedlern, Flüchtlingen und Auswanderern aus der Realität… alles Leute, die negirten, um selber leben zu können - Die Sophisten waren Griechen: als Sokrates und Plato die Partei der Tugend und Gerechtigkeit nahmen, waren sie Juden oder ich weiß nicht was - Die Taktik Grote's zur Verteidigung der Sophisten ist falsch: er will sie zu Ehrenmännern und Moral-Standarten erheben - aber ihre Ehre war, keinen Schwindel mit großen Worten und Tugenden zu treiben…” (KSA 13, 332)
1. 6 Nietzsche - Denker innerhalb der Kunst des Agon Nietzsche selbst zeichnet sich aus als ein Denker innerhalb der Kunst des Agon: “Ich kenne keine andre Art, mit grossen Aufgaben zu
154 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 verkehren als das Spiel: dies ist, als Anzeichen der Grösse, eine wesentliche Voraussetzung.” (KSA 6, 297) Aber schon in seinen früheren Schriften waltet überall eine allgemeine agonale Atmosphäre. Dementsprechend merken wir den Kampf der Disziplinen zwischen Wissenschaft und Kunst, den Kampf der Mystik mit der Wissenschaft, zwischen Wissenschaft und Weisheit, danach gibt es Kampf zwischen Kunst und Zivilisation, usw. - „Der Kampf zwischen Kunst und Wissenschaft” (KSA 7, 59); - „Kampf der Mystik mit der Wissenschaft” (KSA 7, 132); - „Der theoretische Genius als Vernichter der hellenischen apollinischen Kunst” (KSA 7, 133); - „Kampf dieser beiden Formen der Kunst” (KSA 7, 133); - „Mächtiger Kampf der Civilisation gegen den Geist der Musik.“ (KSA 7, 285); - „Diese höchste Bildung erkenne ich bis jetzt nur als Wiedererweckung des Hellenenthums. Kampf gegen die Civilisation.” (KSA 7, 385); - „Der Kampf des Wissens mit dem Wissen!” (KSA 7, 427); - „Der Philosoph. Betrachtungen über den Kampf von Kunst und Erkenntniss.” (KSA 7, 452); - „Kampf im Philosophen.” (KSA 7, 453); - „Kunst. Begriff der Kultur. Kampf der Wissenschaft.” (KSA 7, 550); - „Philosophen (Kampf gegen die Religion) - Phaedo. Historiker (Kampf gegen das Mythische) - Thucydides.” (KSA 7, 754); - „Wie ist der Kampf Plato's gegen die Rhetorik zu verstehen?” (KSA 8, 104); - „Kampf zwischen Leben und Erkennen” (KSA 8, 115); - „Heraclit. Kampf gegen den Mythus” (KSA 8, 119); - „Wissenschaft und Weisheit im Kampfe.” (KSA 8, 97); - „(Kampf des Heraclit gegen Homer und Hesiod, Pythagoras gegen die Verweltlichung, alle gegen den Mythus, besonders Democrit)” (KSA 8, 104). Sein eigenes Denken liegt innerhalb der Agon-Dynamik, er selbst hat seine philosophische Richtung als „umgedrehte[n] Platonismus” (KSA 1, 199) bezeichnet, und seine erste Schrift, Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geist der Musik, charakterisiert er als anti- modern1. Seine Betrachtungen gegenüber der Gegenwart bleiben
1 „Diese Schrift ist antimodern: sie glaubt an die moderne Kunst, sonst an nichts, und im Grunde auch nicht an die moderne Kunst, sondern an die moderne Musik, und im Grunde nicht an die moderne Musik überhaupt, sondern nur an Wagner…
155 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
„unzeitgemäß” (KSA 8, 304) und selbst er nennt sich unzeitgemäß: „Ich bin darin auch heute noch, was ich war -„unzeitgemäß.” (KSA 11, 557) Sein Weg in der philosophischen Arena bildet die Verhältnisse ein es fortdauernden agonen Netzgewebes. Die Setzung der Philosophie in den Horizont des unendlichen Agon, oder anders gesagt in ein fortdauerndes Gespräch bildet Nietzsches spezifische Ansicht über die Philosophie in seiner geschichtlichen und zugleich in seiner gegenwärtigen Perspektive. Die Vielfältigkeit der philosophischen Richtungen entsteht und wird im Geist des Agon erhalten. Der Philosoph misst sich mit seinesgleichen, indem auch der Wettkampf immer ein Spiel zwischen Gleichen ist: Heraklit kämpft gegen Homer und Hesiod, Platon mit Protagoras, Nietzsche misst sich mit Sokrates und Platon, usw., insofern die Dynamik des Denkens niemals unter die Tyrannei eines einzigen Genies geraten wird. Dies hat weitere wichtige Wirkungen auf die Philosophie selbst: in dem Werk eines Denkers oder in der Tradition der Philosophie können keine übernatürlichen Gedanken, d. h. dem Mensch zugehörigen Gedanken oder „Ideen” überdauern, die sich nicht immer wieder an einem anderen Denker messen ließen. Im Wettkampf zwischen den Menschen kann Unmenschliches (Übernatürliche) nicht überdauern. Weil es keine endgültige Weltansicht geben kann, muss sich jeder große philosophische Gedanke im offenen Gespräch immer neu beurkunden.
1.7 Der Wettkampf und das Welt-Spiel Nietzsche hat sehr früh eine Beziehung zwischen dem Welt- Spiel-Begriff des Heraklit und dem Wettkampf gesehen, aber die Frage bleibt nun: Wie verhält sich das Phänomen des Agon zu dem Weltspiel- Gedanken? Wie wird die Beziehung zwischen dem Gedanken des kosmischen Spiels und dem existentiellen Phänomen des Agon erfasst? In seinem Nachlass gibt es mehrere Stellen, in denen Nietzsche verschiedene Zusammenhänge zwischen Heraklits Weltspiel und Wettkampf zu erschließen versucht. - „Heraklit. Verklärung des Kampfs. Die Welt ein Spiel.” (KSA 7, 399); - „Begriff des Wettkampfs aus Heraclit zu entwickeln.” (KSA 7, 400); - „Heraklit` Verklärung des Wettkampfs.” (KSA 7, 407);
Und im Grunde vielleicht nicht einmal an Wagner, es sei denn faute de mieux.” (KSA 13, 227)
156 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
- „Das künstlerische Spiel des Kosmos. Heraclit.” (KSA 7, 421); - „(Der Wettkampf. Heraclit.).” (KSA 7, 422); - „Heraclit. Cosmodicee der Kunst.” (KSA 7, 526); - „An Heraklit Wettkampf. Spiel.” (KSA 7, 530); - „Heraklit: apollinisches Ideal, alles Schein und Spiel.” (KSA 7, 540); - „Heraclit. Wettkampf. Spiel.” (KSA 7, 547). Obwohl zwischen den beiden Gedanken überall Ähnlichkeiten vorhanden sind, stellt Nietzsche nicht von Anfang an ein festes Verhältnis zwischen beiden fest, sondern er versucht eine flexible Ähnlichkeit zu zeigen, welche zugleich verbündet und differenziert. „Heraklit beschreibt nur die vorhandene Welt.” (KSA 1, 832) Das Phänomen des Agon und der Gedanke des „kosmischen Spiels” gehören zu der „vorhandenen Welt”, insofern Nietzsches Provokation und zugleich die Zurückhaltung in philosophischen Formulierungen über den Zusammenhang beider seine denkerische Welt Ansicht spiegelt, dass er nicht einfach ein Intellektuell gemäß Verhältnis auf die Sache übertragen will, sondern zunächst die Sache selbst eine eigene Richtung und Bedeutung in der Selbstbewegung zeigen lassen will. „Der Honig ist, nach Heraklit, zugleich bitter und süß, und die Welt selbst ist ein Mischkrug, der beständig umgerührt werden muß. Aus dem Krieg des Entgegengesetzten entsteht alles Werden: die bestimmten, als andauernd uns erscheinenden Qualitäten drücken nur das momentane Übergewicht des einen Kämpfers aus, aber der Krieg ist damit nicht zu Ende, das Ringen dauert in Ewigkeit fort. Alles geschieht gemäß diesem Streite, und gerade dieser Streit offenbart die ewige Gerechtigkeit. Es ist eine wundervolle, aus dem reinsten Borne des Hellenischen geschöpfte Vorstellung, welche den Streit als das fortwährende Walten einer einheitlichen, strengen, an ewige Gesetze gebundenen Gerechtigkeit betrachtet. Nur ein Grieche war im Stande, diese Vorstellung als Fundament einer Kosmodicee zu finden; es ist die gute Eris Hesiods, zum Weltprincip verklärt, es ist der Wettkampfgedanke des einzelnen Griechen und des griechischen Staates, aus den Gymnasien und Palästren, aus den künstlerischen Agonen, aus dem Ringen der politischen Parteien und der Städte mit einander, in's Allgemeinste übertragen, so daß jetzt das Räderwerk des Kosmos in ihm sich dreht. Wie jeder Grieche kämpft als ob er allein im Recht sei, und ein unendlich sicheres; Maaß des richterlichen Urtheils in jedem Augenblick bestimmt, wohin der Sieg sich neigt, so ringen die Qualitäten mit einander, nach unverbrüchlichen, dem Kampfe immanenten Gesetzen und Maaßen. Die Dinge selbst, an deren Feststehen und Standhalten der enge Menschen-
157 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 und Thierkopf glaubt, haben gar keine eigentliche Existenz, sie sind das Erblitzen und der Funkenschlag gezückter Schwerter, sie sind das Aufglänzen des Siegs, im Kampfe der entgegengesetzten Qualitäten.” (KSA 1, 826) Der homerische Wettkampf und Heraklits Gedanke, dass „Die Welt ein Spiel” sei, bilden sich in einem Zusammenhang wie zwei analoge Gedanken. Aber was heißt, dass das Welt-Spiel analog zum Agon ist? Zunächst müssen wir verstehen, was für Nietzsche eine Analogie bedeutet und danach, warum die beiden Gedanken eine Analogie bilden. Eine Analogie bringt in Vergleich zwei ähnliche Gedanken oder Phänomene, welche viele gleichartigen Eigenschaften zeigen, aber doch unterschiedlich bleiben. Ein Analogieschluss funktioniert nicht nach dem Prinzip Ursache-Wirkung, bzw. dass eins vom anderen verursacht wird, oder eins vom anderen abgeleitet werden kann. Nietzsches philosophischer „Begriff” der Analogie unterscheidet sich von der mathematischen Analogie. Für Nietzsche besteht die Analogie zwischen verschiedenen Phänomenen in ihrer Ähnlichkeit und nicht in ihrer Gleichheit. Eine Gleichheit wäre eine Übertagung von der mathematischen Analogie auf den philosophischen Bereich, d. h. eine un- philosophische Nivellierung. Wenn es so ist, welche Rolle spielt dann eine solche Analogie? Durch Vergleichen kann man verwandte Eigenschaften entdecken; auf ein sichtbares Phänomen kann man ein andere, wenige sichtbares Phänomen, deuten und verstehen. Im „Vergleichen” sind zwei verschiedene Bereiche1 zur Deutung gebracht, einer entspricht dem anderen. Dadurch erhalten verschiedene Phänomene, die eine große Ähnlichkeit miteinander verbindet, eine gemeinsame Richtung. Erfassen wir die dreifache Analogie zwischen 1. dem Wettkampf, 2. dem Dialog in der Tragödie oder „die Wechselrede zwischen dem Held[-en] und dem Chorführer” und 3. dem „dialektischen” Dialog in Platons Werk. „Der Dialog ist bekanntlich nicht ursprünglich in der Tragödie; erst seitdem es zwei Schauspieler gab, also verhältnismäßig spät, entwickelte sich der
1 Ein zutreffendes Beispiel für den „entsprechenden” Charakter der Analogie ist der folgende Aphorismus aus Nietzsches Nachlass: „Jede Religion hat für ihre höchsten Bilder ein Analogon in einem Seelenzustande. Der Gott Mahomets die Einsamkeit der Wüste, fernes Gebrüll des Löwen, Vision eines schrecklichen Kämpfers. Der Gott der Christen - alles was sich Männer und Weiber bei dem Worte „Liebe” denken. Der Gott der Griechen: eine schöne Traumgestalt.” (KSA 8, 28)
158 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Dialog. Schon vorher gab es ein Analogon in der Wechselrede zwischen dem Helden und dem Chorführer: aber hier war doch der dialektische Streit bei der Unterordnung des einen unter den anderen unmöglich. Sobald aber zwei gleichberechtigte Hauptspieler sich gegenüber standen, so erhob sich, einem tief hellenischen Triebe gemäß, der Wettkampf und zwar der Wettkampf mit Wort und Grund: während der verliebte Dialog der griechischen Tragödie immer fern blieb. Mit jenem Wettkampf wurde an ein Element in der Brust des Zuhörers appellirt, das bis dahin als kunstfeindlich und musenverhaßt aus den festlichen Räumen der dramatischen Künste verbannt war: die „böse” Eris. Die gute Eris waltete ja von Alters her bei allen musischen Handlungen und führte in der Tragödie drei wettkämpfende Dichter vor das zum Richten versammelte Volk. Als aber das Abbild des Wortzwistes aus der Gerichtshalle sich auch in die Tragödie eingedrängt hatte, da entstand zum ersten Male ein Dualismus in dem Wesen und der Wirkung des Musikdramas. Von jetzt ab gab es Theile der Tragödie, in denen das Mitleiden zurücktrat, gegenüber der hellen Freude am klirrenden Waffenspiel der Dialektik. Der Held des Dramas durfte nicht unterliegen, er mußte also jetzt auch zum Worthelden gemacht werden. Der Prozeß, der in der sogenannten Stichomythie seinen Anfang genommen hatte, setzte sich fort und drang auch in die längeren Reden der Hauptspieler. Allmählich sprechen alle Personen mit einem solchen Aufwand von Scharfsinn, Klarheit und Durchsichtigkeit, so dass für uns wirklich beim Lesen einer sophokleischen Tragödie ein verwirrender Gesammteindruck entsteht. Es ist uns als ob alle diese Figuren nicht am Tragischen, sondern an einer Superfötation des Logischen zu Grunde giengen. Man mag nur einmal vergleichen, wie ganz anders die Helden Shakespeare's dialektisiren: über allem ihren Denken, Vermuthen und Schließen liegt eine gewisse musikalische Schönheit und Verinnerlichung ausgegossen, während in der späteren griechischen Tragödie ein sehr bedenklicher Dualismus des Stils herrscht, hier die Macht der Musik, dort die der Dialektik. Letztere dringt immer übermächtiger vor, bis sie auch in dem Bau des ganzen Drama's das entscheidende Wort spricht. Der Prozeß endet mit dem Intriguenstück: damit erst ist jener Dualismus vollständig überwunden, in Folge totaler Vernichtung des einen Wettkämpfers, der Musik.” (KSA 1, 546) [Meine Hervorhebung] Man kann sehen, wie anders als mathematisch und geometrisch Nietzsche denkt. Innerhalb der Dynamik der lebendigen Kultur entwickeln sich ganz anderen Formen als im abstrakten Denken. Diese dreifache Analogie zeigt eine dreifache „Gegensätzlichkeit”: 1. Der
159 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Wettkampf bezieht sich auf die Lebensdynamik: die beiden Rivalen, die am Anfang als Wettkämpfer „gleich“ sind, erleben (ertragen) durch das Spiel eine Existenz-Umwandlung; einer wird zum Sieger und der andere zum Verlierer, und diese Umwandlung gehört zum Spiel. Das Ergebnis gilt nach den Spielregeln bis zum nächsten Wettkampf. Dann fängt das Spiel von vorne an. Der Wettkampf hat einen allgemeinen Charakter, insofern findet er in verschiedenen Bereichen seine Anwendung. 2. Der in der Tragödie1 entfaltete „tragische” Gegensatz lässt sich nur durch eine ekstatische Lebensbejahung überwinden. 3. Der philosophische Dialog ist ein Kampf der Ideen. In der philosophischen Debatte der Ideen, die zugleich Kampf und Spiel ist, wird eine Idee als falsch und eine andere als wahr bewiesen. Das Verfahren des Erkennens und Denkens stellt die beiden „Konkurrenten” unter die Perspektive des siegreichen (wahren) Gedankens. Auch der „Verlierer” nimmt Anteil an der Wahrheit des Siegers. Auch wenn wir zwischen Sophistik und Dialektik unterscheiden wollen, können wir die Dialektik selbst unter der Optik des Agon interpretieren. Wenn Nietzsche die Genealogie des Dialoges aus der Perspektive des Wettkampfes denkt, will er zeigen, dass seine Urform zur Lebensform gehört, in welche der „agonale Trieb” einverleibt ist und die keinen erkenntnis-theoretischen, sondern einen existentiellen Ursprung hat. Der Wettkampf als Lebensform erträgt die Analogie mit dem Kampf der Ideen. Aus der Perspektive des agonalen Phänomens gesehen sind das „kosmische Spiel” und der Wettkampf zwei verschiedene Sachen, die jedoch zugleich bestimmte Ähnlichkeiten haben, die es ermöglichen, beide als eine Analogie zu begreifen. Das bedeutet nicht, dass wir den Wettkampf aus dem Welt-Spiel ableiten können, und auf der anderen Seite, dass sich der Wettkampf nicht auf das Welt-Spiel gründet. Der Agon und das kosmische Spiel sind beide Spiele, welche sich nach einer „inneren Ordnung” in einem spontanen Vollzug ereignen, aber während das kosmische Spiel ein Spiel ohne Mensch ist – ein Spiel der Natur –, wird der phänomenal-existentielle Agon immer vom Menschen gespielt, und baut sich auf als eine Weise des Menschen in der Welt zu sein. Zwischen der Betrachtung des „kosmischen Spiels” und der Teilnahme am Agon des menschlichen Daseins liegt eine tiefe Gemeinsamkeit: beide folgen derselbe Richtung des Weltgeschehens – der Spiel-Dynamik. Paradoxerweise sieht der Betrachter im kosmischen Spiel ein Spiel, das ohne Mensch geschieht; und der Wettkämpfer spielt
1 „Das Tragische als Spiel.” (KSA 7, 548)
160 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 immer selbst in dem Agonspiel, entweder als Sieger oder als Verlierer. Also zeigt sich die Ähnlichkeit nur insofern, als zwischen beiden Gedanken auf unterschiedlichem Wege eine unüberwindbare Differenz besteht. Der Agon ist vielleicht die Antwort des Menschen zu dem kosmischen Spiel, er ist sein Weg, oder sein Bekenntnis als Mitspieler; er ist eine Nachahmung oder eine Darstellung, ein Natur-Spiel, in dem sich der Mensch selbst als Spieler stellt! Die verschiedenen Interpretationen des agonalen Phänomens, unterzeichnen sein analoges Verhältnis zum kosmischen Spiel, das sich in und mit seiner Differenz dennoch in der Konstellation Weltspiel bewegt. Der Wettkampf hat seinen Ursprung im „agonalen Instinkt” und das Welt-Spiel in Heraklits „künstlerischer” Weltbetrachtung. Analog gesehen hängen die beiden Gedanken zusammen, und in derselben Analogie bleiben beide unterschiedlich. Der Vollzug des Spiels im menschlichen Leben ist der Weltbetrachtung als Welt-Spiel nicht fremd, aber findet im Welt-Spiel auch keinen „metaphysischen” Grund. Der „Grund” des Welt-Spiels bleibt uns genau so wie der „Grund” des Wettkampfes verborgen, oder besser gesagt, bleibt uns „abgründig”. Das Spiel hat keinen Grund. Auf der anderen Seite gibt es zwischen den beiden Phänomenen keine Ursache-Wirkung Beziehungen und überhaupt keine „abstrakten” Beziehungen. Zwischen dem Welt-Spiel und dem Agon liegt trotz aller Ähnlichkeiten eine unüberwindliche Kluft. Jenseits dieser Kluft, in der Analogie, begegnen sich beide in einander korrespondierenden Erscheinungsformen, die sich als diskontinuierliche Ähnlichkeit interpretieren lassen. Der Sinn der analogen Darstellung ist es das zu zeigen, was beide Gedanken als gemeinsame Richtung haben - das Spiel. Die diskontinuierliche Ähnlichkeit ist eine phänomenale Ähnlichkeit, in welcher wir denselben Sinn erkennen. In dieser Konstellation der Weltbetrachtung als Spiel und des Lebensprinzips des Agone entwickelt sich das Phänomen der Kunst (Tragödie) bei den Griechen, und die Tragödie selbst wird ein Teil dieser Konstellation sein.
161 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
A Patriarch of Militant Europeanism: Adrian Marino
Ovidiu PECICAN Faculty of European Studies, “Babeş-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: European integration, pro-Occidental, paşoptism, civical- liberal, democrat, militant spirit
Abstract The paper delineates the personality and work of Adrian Marino, a person with spectacular and protean character leading a marginal but febrile and authentic intellectual life, who made the attempt of remodelling a historical party, and set himself to the construction of a Transylvanian periodical essential for the democratic debate. A character neither popular, nor comfortable: the democratic ideologue proposing orientation towards the European Union not only on the scale of Romania’s foreign alliances but also as a model of civilization.
E-mail: [email protected]
1. Europe in our country The resurrection of Europeanism as an ideology in the post- communist Romania was accomplished in a villa in the centre of Cluj- Napoca, in the library of a great scholar – old in age, but not in spirit – in the years after the 1989 revolution.1 At that time – after a two-year period when Ion Iliescu and his entourage believed that the autochthonous revolutionary verve could be satisfied by a Gorbachevist government of a Perestroika-Glastnost type – the arrest of the last president of the URSS, his ill timed release, and the dissolution of the communist colossus from the East, in 1991, threw the Romanian government into a persistent confusion for the oncoming years. The voice which could be heard by
1 The texts gathered here under a common title appeared independently during the preceding year in the cultural reviews Steaua, Idei în dialog and, respectively, Apostrof. One of them was published in English in the scientific periodical Studia Europaea. Connected with one another, these texts gain a new relevance, reason for which we have brought them together here in order to emphasize their complementarity. Despite this fact, the author is aware that they can hardly reveal the complexities of the man of culture Adrian Marino whose work we have always admired discreetly but consequently.
162 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 anyone who wanted to listen, proposing the natural orientation towards the European Union – not only on the scale of Romania’s foreign alliances but also as a model of civilization – was the voice of Adrian Marino. Through a series of articles, studies, essays and answers to investigations, Marino, who was a literary critic and a hermeneutist of encyclopaedic orientation until then, elaborated, between the years 1991– 1994, that which was to become the content of the first Europeanist manifesto-book in Romania after the communism. Due to a fortunate coincidence, Silviu Lupescu editor at the European Institute from Iaşi, inaugurated his new publishing house, Polirom, in 1995 exactly with the volume Pentru Europa. Integrarea României. Aspecte ideologice şi culturale (For Europe. Romania’s Integration. Ideological and Cultural Aspects). Moreover, this book seems to be also the last one published during Adrian Marino’s lifetime; its second edition – revised and completed – has recently appeared in order to celebrate a decade since the establishment of the Polirom Publishing House. This decade was enormously important for Romania and for the autochthonous ideas related to Europeanism whose patriarch was Adrian Marino. Meanwhile, the Democrat Convention1 came to power in 1996 and this oriented the country firmly towards the EU and NATO. From this point on, due to Adrian Marino’s ideas – whose prophetic content was incomprehensible for the previous government – the pro-Occidental political orientation became the objective faithfully followed by all responsible public forces and by every realist opinion leader. However, none of the official leaders hastened to acknowledge the historical merits of the thinker from the Grigorescu district in Cluj-Napoca. A bitter irony of fate, the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party – in the name of which he underwent long years of detention and house arrest – coming to power did not requires Adrian Marino’s services as a first line dignitary, as it would have been proper and wise to do. On the contrary, the tribulations from this party made the scholar to return more bitterly to his daily schedule of meditation on his notes and books, resulting in his six-volume construction Biografia ideii de literatură (The Biography of the Idea of Literature). However, in the meantime a publishing house
1 The Democrat Convention won the Romanian elections in 1996 and their candidate Emil Constantinescu became president. The main purpose of the Democrat Convention was to form an effective opposition against the all- dominating National Salvation Front, a political force made up mostly of former second and third rank communists, which assumed leadership of the country after the 1989 revolution. (Translator’s note)
163 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 from Craiova published the precious completion of Pentru Europa (For Europe), the anthology of the Romanian post-war Europeanist thinking Revenirea în Europa (Return into Europe). With generosity and phenomenal perspicacity – considering the myriads of publications that appeared after December 1989 –, Adrian Marino traced, copied and collected between the covers of this volume some of the most important texts written by Romanian authors urging that we should join the EU and the European list of values. As I had been conducting a course of “European idea” at the Faculty of European Studies since the establishment of the Faculty in 1994, I was eager to include the two books – as soon as they appeared – into my list of compulsory readings, delighted to benefit from the results of Adrian Marino’s efforts to re-establish a tradition of our own which had formerly been represented by other illustrious voices as well. Thus, these books have become the basic bibliographical landmarks for the Europeanist generations formed at the university in Cluj. By the initiative of the philosophy professor Andrei Marga, the rector of the university at that time, the faculty had the privilege of inviting Adrian Marino to accept an award of excellence on 13th of January 1997. On this occasion he delivered a lecture in front of a full conference hall. The fully earned praises uttered by Andrei Marga, Nicolae Păun and by the author of the present paper expressed the publicly assumed awareness of the value that Adrian Marino represented for the community from Cluj, for Romania, and for the founding of the actual Europeanism in our country. The real emulation aroused by the books and public interventions of the father of our Europeanism was also mirrored in the book-production of the intellectuals from Cluj regarding the European issue. The fact that Marino included in the second edition of the volume entitled Pentru Europa (For Europe) a bibliography of the domain, exempts me from the obligation of repeating the most significant titles. In this context I wish only to make a confession: the second part of my volume Europa, o idee în mers (Europe – a Progressing Idea), contains a short anthology, significant as an attempt of reconstructing the landscape of our Europeanism from the inter-war period. It was inspired by the model given in Adrian Marino’s anthology, which took into account the contributions from the next stage. I tried to create a work which would complete Marino’s book by reclaiming an occulted tradition from between the two World Wars. Far from keeping away from such an endeavour, the writer promptly commented it in the press in a comprehensive manner.
164 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Unfortunately, such a febrile and authentic intellectual life, enormously stimulated by the personal example of the scholar – then in his seventies – could not overcome some marginality unless through some angry outbursts, generating debates. Although he was recognized by the writer generation of the eighties, he was elected the honorary leader of ASPRO (The Association of Professional Writers from Romania), and reviews of the capital – from 22 to Cuvântul – published his writings, Marino never assumed the central role that he deserved through his work. The appreciations received from civil society organizations – the award of the Faculty of European Studies, “Babeş- Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca; the ASPRO award; honorary member of the “Pro Europa” League – indicate where the reception of Adrian Marino’s cultural contribution was the promptest and accomplished on the highest level. Furthermore, I would allow myself to say that this is the most important forum, for in this space less submitted to official “modelling” and to the idiosyncrasies of the paper gods of the day took place the unreserved contact with the vigorous work of the thinker. As I have – beginning with 1990 – discreetly witnessed the scholar’s last fifteen years of life, I can only underline my astonishment that his ebullience roused at each of our meetings. Talking fast, with baroque gestures, modulating his voice through inflexions impregnated with the most diverse connotations – in a Călinescian manner, prolonging the vowels and even touching high tonalities –, Adrian Marino was a spectacular and protean character. He made the attempt of remodelling a historical party, and he set himself to the construction of a Transylvanian periodical, essential for democratic debate, but mainly he tried to embody a new personage, neither popular, nor comfortable: the democratic ideologue of an age which was democratic by construction and which pretended to be post-ideological. Today we realize that he succeeded in this metamorphose as well. Leaving this life, Adrian Marino – the late assistant of Călinescu, the late Gulag prisoner, the late literary critic and ideologue of our Europeanness – left behind a vast and complex cultural inheritance, whose value is difficult for us to estimate at present due to its amplitude and import.
2. The Marino-Grigurcu dialogue on the European integration Now, when Adrian Marino has taken leave of us passing into the pages of the history of our contemporaneous culture, arrives the hour of the first balanced evaluations of this enormous thinker of the age that we
165 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 are living in. The preliminaries of such estimation have already happened. One of the first persons who reflected on the ideas sketched by Marino in his books and essays spread by reviews was Gheorghe Grigurcu. His volume În jurul libertăţii (Around Liberty)1 contains two significant texts in this order of ideas. Both are polemic commentaries on the positions illustrated by the author of the manifesto-volume Pentru Europa (For Europe).2 Their review justified in the first place by the sagacity and pertinence of observation, also has the gift of more clearly highlighting the accents of the ideas of the Europeanist Adrian Marino. In the essay Orient versus Occident? (East versus West?),3 Gheorghe Grigurcu observed that the juxtaposition of the two horizontal extremes of the European continent and civilization, made by the thinker from Cluj for methodological and stylistic reasons in order to contrast the discrepancies of the two ways of being European, was not necessarily adequate. “East and West represent two at least apparently conflicting impulses of Romanian history.”4 By this definition Grigurcu placed the coordinates of our historical development in an idealist, spiritualist horizon, which almost subsumable to a psychoanalysis of civilization. Thus, he shifted the discussion on a scale of mega-tendencies which Marino, the adept of a militant attitude and style, moving exclusively in the sphere of ideas and referring continuously to pragmatic-factual reference points,5 did not consider opportune to attend. He preferred to define Europe as active ideology and politics,6 programmatically placing in parenthesis the ineffable aspects, factually hard to demonstrate, eventually having metaphysical relevance. Proceeding in this way, neither of the two authors was wrong; but they did not meet either. The one preferred to recover the potential unexploited – and even incriminated – by the other, namely the entire – speculative – scheme of mechanisms and structures that delineate the manifestations of a spirituality configured otherwise than the one exhaustible within the terms of the rational. The other assumed the rigor to speak only of that which can be proved and of the facts which can be measured by means of the spirit. We are situated at the meeting point of Enlightenment with Romanticism, so to speak, in the cultural space crossed by philosophical
1 Gheorghe Grigurcu, În jurul libertăţii, Iaşi, Timpul Publishing House, 2002. 2 Adrian Marino, Pentru Europa, second, enlarged edition, Iaşi, Polirom, 2005. 3 Pp. 138–144. 4 P. 138. 5 Adrian Marino, Pentru Europa, p. 10. 6 Ibid., p. 11.
166 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 sensibilities such as Giambattista Vico’s, Herder’s, Goethe’s as well as of other precursors of the orientations that the 19th century was to germinate. While Marino seemed to be a last adept of the Enlightenment – metamorphosed, however, into a “paşoptist” inspired by the idea of a Europe united around the democratic idea based on the radiant equilibrium of reason –, Gheorghe Grigurcu, who as a lyrical author could not be unfamiliar with the tremor of the “invisible”, had something from Hölderlin’s and Novalis’ unappeased appetency towards the glamour of the classic antiquity remodelled by some sort of totalizing sensibility. In the text which I have referred to before, Gheorghe Grigurcu was criticizing the restrictive perspective “characteristic to the Enlightenment based on the image of an exclusively rational, administrative, thrifty Europe”. Likewise, in the second text I mentioned, entitled “Cum putem fi europeni” (How Can We Be Europeans?),1 he became much more explicit. The recurrent European Enlightenment – he said – must be subjected to a critical examination, being characterized by an “exclusively rationalist discourse that abolishes irrational values: religion, metaphysics, myth, revelation, the sentiment of tragic, metaphor, style, etc. namely – creation.” This discourse would hide “the most vivid, deep and fertile side of the European spirit, the aspect of humanity related with the absolute.” Forsaking this, integration is limited. Thus we place ourselves “on the line of a sterile average, of an administrative-cultural moderateness, encyclopaedically desolate.” The danger would be an “excess of convenience under which contrarieties smoulder and seeds of reserves are concealed which will ruthlessly rise up at a given moment”.2 Rightist culture is also European, expressing values specific to Europe. One must take into consideration values such as “«mysticism» and the «nebulous» and the «irrational» and the «experiencing» and «authenticity» and the «nationalist-intuitive» reflection, without necessarily being… anti-European, since they manifested themselves in Europe, in concordance with other tendencies and orientations from other parts of the continent.”3 Grigurcu asked himself: “Why should we resort to a unilateral impoverished Europeanism? Why should we not enhance the concept with everything that would belong as a value, without prejudices and aprioristic schemes, to its sphere? Why should we consider its natural, specific components obstacles?”4
1 Pp. 163–174. 2 P. 164. 3 P. 169. 4 P. 170.
167 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
In this way – in Gheorghe Grigurcu’s opinion – Adrian Marino would mock exactly the “basis of creation and of spiritual life.” The critic from Târgu Jiu recommended as a remedy the substitution juxtaposition for complementarity. Whether we like it or not, interferences – otherwise advantageous – take place anyway. Along the gradual westernization of the Eastern elite, proclaimed by Marino, the reverse process should also be seen (“an inhalation of the Eastern spirit, in the spiritual sense, under the sign of metaphysics and of creation”). Gheorghe Grigurcu was right in all these. Any diminishing of the entirety of impulses and manifestations of a Europe in full ebullience – not, as it was once believed, touched by an irremediable crisis of values – remains a partial one. However Solomonic might such a judgment seem, Adrian Marino was not mistaken either. After a century when most of Europe’s mistakes had been caused by irrationalism, mystical spirit, and mythologies fuelled by a passéist enthusiasm and an ideologically manipulated visionariness, after different combinations of authoritarianism and dictatorial tendencies, to prefer a directly and openly assumed clear rationalism together with a democratic scale of values became a priority in any case. According Grigurcu, Marino, being attached to a materialist and pragmatic Europe, was in fact situated in a symbolic horizon (because synthetic and dichotomic, expressing everything through one and not through a diversity of features). However, from all this, the impoverishment of the European model might result. The central culture, conceived as a solution by Marino, might soon gain “a centralist atmosphere… monopolist, breaking polycentrism.”1 At my turn, I would however not equate the hunt for ideas and the didactic mission of an enlightened rationalism – as the one practiced by Adrian Marino – with materialism. As to the mediation between the extremes of thinking through a formal pondering and through the attachment to the values of a centrist moderation, we are far, for the moment, from a possible installation of a tyranny of the petit bourgeois spirit against which the artistic avant-garde rose once (shifted later in several cases towards fascism or communism). Grigurcu formulated punctual objections regarding both the West and East. If the desecration of the West seemed to be for him a partial truth, he was positive that neither Russian culture can be excluded from the European spirit. The critic of boundless Europeanism was not wrong, the West keeps intact – or at least seems to be apt to reconstitute –
1 P. 174.
168 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 an attention towards the sacred that seemed to be decreased in the 20th century on a few sections. Nevertheless, the laicization of the state, a certain anticlerical and agnostic tradition present on the level of western political culture in last two decades is unquestionable. Today it proves to be vigorous enough so that the forging of the new communitarian Europe should not obsessively depend on the religious confession, and political, juridical or economical criteria becoming more important in joining the EU. What regards Russia, this “other Europe”, which carries on the Byzantine ecumenist projects in a sense and embraces plenty suggestions coming from the Asian horizon, if none contests her Europeanism, on the other hand the Europeanization process can be continued. There are other obstacles as well in front of a conjunction between Russia and the West; and they should be discussed separately. Inaugurated in Romania by P. P. Carp and then continued by Nae Ionescu and D. Gusti, the discussion deserves to go on due to its particular interest for our geopolitical evolution. For the time being I would only say that the debate on European themes between Adrian Marino and Gheorghe Gricurcu deserves to be recorded as an invitation to a lucid discussion on the most significant tendency of the Romanian public life in the post communist period.
3. Adrian Marino’s lights In Adrian Marino’s book Politică şi cultură. Pentru o nouă cultură română (Politics and Culture. For a New Romanian Culture)1 the present-day reader shall undoubtedly recognize right from the (sub)title a manifesto signed by the leading critic of the first post-communist decade. Frankly speaking, hard as one may look around, there is no such a book in – not at all insignificant – book-production of that period. Neither Ion Bogdan Lefter’s and Gheorghe Crăciun’s endeavours of elaborating theories on the margin of literary criticism of the eighties and of other active contingencies on the active market, nor the excellent literary duels of Gheorghe Grigurcu, nor other endeavours are equal to the wide horizons without complexes and the directness lacking complaisance of the diagnoses and of Marino. What makes the reading of the pages into an indispensable exercise of the free and powerful spirits is, however, the short-circuiting tension transmitting the author’s interior rush in settling
1Adrian Marino, Politică şi cultură. Pentru o nouă cultură română, Iaşi, Polirom Publishing House, 1995.
169 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 his accounts with a political era short in cultural achievements, the feveverish invitation to the crusade aimed at the reconquering of national dignity in culture. As the author states in the preface, the book was conceived in order to continue another volume of essays, not less programmatical. We are speaking about Pentru Europa. Integrarea României. Aspecte ideologice şi culturale (1995), which together with Politică şi cultură constitutes a diptych of Romanian civic and cultural prosperity in a paradigm of occidentalist syncronism and of critical over-taking, without concessions, of tradition as a premise to the commitment in great creative efforts with lasting results. As the author himself qualifies it, it is “a book fundamentally critical towards the past, profoundly implicated in the immediate reality and energetically oriented towards the future.” From this methodical reference to the three temporal modes the rigorous and systematic spirit of evaluation and projecting is discernible. Marino does not commit the mistake of so many other confreres of converting one in the other or of interchanging these. For him the past does not become a substitute for the present, nor – any the less – for the future. He neither mistakes the ensuing with the actual moment in an operation so dear to the utopians. The preparation of future through a good anchoring in the present, mediated by the selection of the values of the past by means of reason constituting a valid critical judgment – here it is a program so much anti-impressionist and coherent, as it is revolutionary in its own way. Aware of the trump cards of such a position, Marino asserts: “The actual Romanian culture has a prime necessity for this kind of books as well, as «personal» as possible. Nonconformist and combative. Well- documented and proved with arguments. As supple as possible in the debate of ideas, but intransigent in conclusions. Free, honest, well- intentioned thinking, expressed until the end and without complexes.” Indeed, by so many characteristics few from the contributions of the last fifteen years manage to stand against even in part. Even so, they exist and should not be under-estimated. And on some instant someone might create a list and discuss them, offering thus the image of a brave mountaintop in its relative isolation… Marino even proposes his own list effective around the year 1995. In its content are names like Andrei Pleşu, H.-R. Patapievici, Alina Mungiu, Gabriel Andreescu, Andrei Cornea, Sorin Antohi, Stelian Tănase, Dan Pavel. When the other articles and essays or interviews and answers to the questionnaires scattered by Adrian Marino through the reviews of the 1995–2000 period was published, it became clear that the list had changed: some of the
170 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 mentioned ones leaving it, other newcomers completing it. Just a few examples, one from the first, the other two from the last category: while Andrei Pleşu who ran in direct conflicts with the author commented in this study and was left out, the name of Marta Petreu and probably of Ruxandra Cesereanu or of the historian Marius Oprea completed – without exhausting – the anthology from the preface of Politică şi cultură (Politics and culture). The situation from that time has changed in any other aspects as well. Many have grasped the quasi-aphoristic idea of the essayist that “a project can always be amended and improved. A non-existent project makes place only to vacuum and total sterility. Only ideas pull us out – essentially – from nothingness and sub-history.” The idea of premeditating a track from the end of which to condense the affluence of revelation of the itinerary through a manifestation in reality of the invisible object from the intimacy of your imaginative and perseverant way of thinking is not always a certitude in the life of the surrounding institutions and characters. But it is certain that at least sometimes, due to the clearness of formulation and of its classic ostentation, Marino’s thought has reverberated in the consciences reflecting from these throughout actions. There is much truth and intuition also in the view that “…in the actual state the ideological text – in order to be thoroughly accessible to a medium level as high and as large as possible – needs to be more than a mere newspaper publication, but less than an academic study…” Formulation is a precaution from the panoply of the Enlightenment practiced by Marino and ironized by others. It would have been perhaps otherwise if the “Enlightenment” identified here would have benefited by other readings than the historian ones – which circumscribe only the 18th century, and seldom the first part of the following decade” – or the philosophical ones in the line of Habermas. There are countries like Denmark, where right in the moment I am writing these, the educational policies identifying the entire life as a map of permanent and diversified instruction on ample popular dimensions, give incredible results. But there Gruntvig is not seen as an outdated 20th century personality and the thought of a golden mediocrity is not instantly qualified either, without reflection, worthy of contempt, geniality remaining what it is: just a happy exception. The entire logic is turned over, the solitude sacralized by the encounter with the great performance being in contrast with the scheme of a spiritual elevation along the others. Thus instead the brilliant’s glitter, the diadem is celebrated, the opponent of the unique is –
171 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 salutary and through the chances of affirmation that it offers to many – the gearing, the system. And not least of all, the upsurge that generates competition ceases to be egoist and self-celebrating, being replaced by generosity and openness. I never tire of saying: through the concentration of attitudes and thoughts of great goodwill, perfectly reasonable in superficial context, exalted, passéist and to a certain degree rather sensationalist and irrational, Adrian Marino becomes – and has become – a kind of a civic- liberal prophet and a democrat intransigent, biting and sagacious. Sooner or later, someone shall doubtlessly claim his legacy so hastily deserted by spirits of seeming affinity.
172 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Adrian Marino – The Impenitent Critic of Ideas
Constantin M. POPA Editor in chief of the review “Mozaicul”, Craiova
Keywords: critic of ideas, paşoptism, “the third discourse”, Europeanism, censorship, comparative literature, literary criticism, hermeneutic tradition, popular literature
Abstract The paper presents the evolution of Adrian Marino’s work from the monographic volume about Alexandru Macedonski to the impressive six volume literary encyclopaedia, The Biography of the Idea of Literature. An uncompromising personality, Adrian Marino was irreversibly attracted to the concepts of plurality, tolerance, democracy and he never abandoned the critical spirit. As a critic of ideas he analyzed the Romanian literary critical, political and cultural tradition and tired to shape its present and future course according to his liberal and neo- paşoptist ideals.
E-mail: [email protected]
Adrian Marino’s oeuvre is essentially significant through its multiple layers of reference, and through the spiral of its evolution, with all the levels and articulations disciplined by the inexhaustible exploration of the “basic intuitions”. The two volumes comprising the “Macedonskian monographic system” (Alexandru Macendonski’s Life and Work) had been devised before the traumatic experience of the “Gulag” and were published after 1965. These volumes represent a compact literary historical synthesis in which the biographic “interpretation” attempts to sketch the moral portrait on a strictly documentary basis and a striving towards exhaustiveness. The author’s natural appetence for defining structural antinomies (the impossibility of reconciliation between reality and dream in the emir- poet’s consciousness), for discovering the ideological principle which
173 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 governed Macedonski’s spirit (paşoptism)1, for the method of delimitations and concentric references on the level of ideas (aesthetic, political-social, philosophical, etc.) could already be observed in these early works, but the dismissal of the temptation to follow Călinescu’s aphoristic formulation was also present in them. The scholar would continue to seek his own ways, which assure him the independence and freedom of thinking. The Întroducere în critica literară (Introduction to Literary Criticism) is more than an academic treaty. It is a work of critical creation experimenting the technique of quotes, of “sedimentary reading”, each proposition being richly illustrated with representative references to both Romanian and foreign works. This was a subtle way to indicate the need for “new, multilateral, large, specialized” information in the isolated circumstances of the Romanian intellectual. The syncretism of the Marinian style was prefigured in this work; the enumerative structure of sentences described by Sorin Alexandrescu in terms which denominated the excess: “what you expected to be reserved, controlled, symmetrical, now turns into a baroque arborescence, the general outlines are dissolved in the details, the original work becomes the biography of the work.2 Adrian Marino, fascinated by Baltasar Gracián – whom he confessed to have temperamental affinities with – and his Oráculo manual y arte de prudencia, manifested himself as an essayist of the alternative complementarity. Indeed, his “travel”-books ¡Olé! España, Carnete Europene (European Notebooks), Prezenţe româneşti şi realităţi Europene, (Romanian Presences and European Realities), Evadări în lumea liberă, (Escapes into the Free World) are, above all, documents of insubordination and protest against the abnormalities generated by an oppressive, totalitarian government. Dominantly polemical (liberation from the “Dinicu Golescu-complex”), these books have an explicit ideological meaning. The governing idea of these febrile, both descriptive and analytical confessions is not culture – as one might think at first sight –, but freedom. Freedom as a mental state. “To have a physical and intellectual space at your disposal, this is freedom”, Adrian Marino wrote. To find the “free world” again, but also to find internal freedom; to
1 The ideology of Revolutions of 1848 in the Romanian countries, aiming at the modernization and Europeanization of Romanian culture, paşopt meaning patruzeci şi opt, that is forty-eight. (Translator’s note) 2 “Un european: Sir Adrian Marino” (A European: Sir Adrian Marino), In: Identitate în ruptură, (Identity in Rupture), Bucharest, Univers Publishing House, 2000, p. 112.
174 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 liberate yourself from any kind of inhibition, to communicate and show solidarity with the western spirit on the threshold of a century in a “united Europe” are ideas, obsessions, themes which must also be understood as acts of resistance to the forms of isolation, autarchy, dirigisme, levelling, amateurism and improvisation characterizing Romania in the last few decades. ¡Olé España, reprinted in 1995, remained an exciting confession of these intense struggles. The inevitably bookish contact with the Iberian space was completed with experiences searched for in the social and human sphere. Marino used to dive under smooth surfaces. His favourite milieu was always a closed space (although he did not avoid the crowded streets, the exuberance of market places, in a word, the rhythm of everyday life): a hotel room, the reading room of the library, the home of an acquaintance, the solemn interior of a museum. The eye attentively records the mechanisms of everyday existence without being greatly surprised; the course of life is dominated by the discipline of culture. In contrast with this vital stability is the tension full off expectation; the eye discovers the precise intention in the accidental gesture, the cowardice under the deceptive mask of conformism and it transforms the glide on the smooth surface of appearances into a sharp descent into the depth of things. Past and present are connected through the continuity of reflection, through the power of resistance, through the loyalty towards oneself. Ingenious dialogues in a passionate tone reveal – beyond a strong vitality – an acutely vulnerable, lively responsiveness irradiating everything related to the actual course of the world and its problems. Although the author did not intend it so, his personal diary turned into “literature” instantaneously, the “essay” becoming alterity exactly through the enthusiasm of participation, through the exemplarity of the reactions, and through the authenticity of perception, in this case – as we have stated – essentially ideological. Giving account of the “things one has seen” implies assuming the full responsibility of a free conscience. Particular existence was metamorphosed into meditation and “text”. No matter how “personal”, this expressed nothing but an inquiry after the sense of actuality, an orientation in the everyday life fictionalized in this way. Despite his intentions, the protagonist became a character after all. He could not evade the “autobiographical pact”. The spirit of Spain entered him with its aridity and grandeur, with its asceticism and full pomposity. Established in an almost abstract space of
175 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 dissociations, Adrian Marino – who is in fact a moralist –, praised the Spanish gravity and seriousness, observing adequately: “the Spaniard does not have a symbolist vocation. He does not study the nuances, does not accept half-measures and he always carries his things through.” This assertion – polemicizing subsidiarily with our endemic superficiality and irresponsibility – defines in fact this Romanian intellectual, who was among the firsts who recognized in this country that succeeding and gaining competence and a Romanian personality on a European level, means “fighting, first of all, through yourself and for yourself”. Unlike Julien Green, Adrian Marino could say at any time: he was exactly the man of the journal he wrote. Julien Benda in La Trahison des clercs demanded detachedness and superior wisdom of the intellectual, qualities which should give weight to his words. Assuming his singularity represented for Adrian Marino his ontological condition itself. He acknowledged no “mentor”, and did not consider himself the part of any institutional system. He did not follow a particular direction, though he invented – as we shall see – a tradition for himself. He had his own ideas and wisdom, his favourite books and personalities, his myths. He had the reputation of an uncomfortable personality, though he did many good deeds. His humane side is completely revealed in the “duplex” Al treilea discurs. Cultură, ideologie şi politică în România. Adrian Marino în dialog cu Sorin Antohi, (The Third Discourse. Culture, Ideology and Politics in Romania. Adrian Marino in Dialogue with Sorin Antohi). Without being very numerous, books of conversation (the type Alexandru Paleologu – Stelian Tănase, Petru Dumitriu – Eugen Simion, Adrian Severin – Gabriel Andreescu, or Vladimir Tismăneanu – Mircea Mihăieş) essentially belong to the autobiographical discourse, and can be associated with the trend imposed in the Romanian literature of the last decade: the trend of confessions. The availability for dialogue in Adrian Marino’s case became an opportunity to interpret the experienced reality, and especially to promote – as a challenge – a set of principles, themes, crucial points, and virtualities belonging to his neo-paşoptist orientation. His interlocutor, Professor Sorin Antohi, the one who had launched the formula “the third discourse”, made this expression into a systematic ideological construction placed under the sign of the alternative. He instinctively resisted the temptation of monopolizing the conversation (how harmful this temptation can be we have seen in the case of the Liiceanu – Cioran “duplex”), accepting the dialogue as an intercessory exercise.
176 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The biography of Adrian Marino [Autoportret cu societate, (Self-portrait with Society)] is the history of permanent redefinition, perpetual entrenching in the armour of his work, overwhelming for those who intend to question his bibliographic existence. Directly, colloquially, following plain sincerity, the solitary scholar revealed his intellectual identity marked by appetence for the criticism of ideas – a yet marginal, “exotic” domain, taking into consideration the traditional Romanian preoccupations. Present in the public sphere, after 1989, the literary hermeneutist validated the conscience of civic duty through direct implication into social and political life. Disappointments, disgraceful moments, adversities appeared. This also explains why the strategies of recrimination were resorted to. They became relevant not as much in particular situations (Mr. Alecu, this “Maurice Chevalier of the Romanian essay” suspected to have “just lectures, but not studies”), but more in the general horizon of ideas, which in the spirit of the “third discourse” denotes – “positive detachedness”. Marino observed and bluntly reported the ambiguities, errors, betrayals and infamies of his age. His experiences (from the homo captivus to the homo viator) mostly free of the dross of resentments passed over the contingent and retrieved exemplarity. The turns of the dialogue, natural and unavoidable in a debate (resonant but also retaining the beneficial aggressiveness of a case that requires to be communicated) regarding “Romania and the West”, the aspirations of the present day Romanian culture or the relationship between society and politics were supervised by a rigorous, rational authority which imposed coherence in the name of the main idea: “the third discourse”. On the other hand, each chapter is followed by an analytical summary, speaking of its wide- ranging and poignant approaches. Here are some conversational “themes”: “From Thracians to Romanians: the Persistence of Deficiencies”, “Resistance through Culture?”, “A Professional”, “Rejecting the Hierarchies”, “The Marino Archive”, “The Gaol: a Liberal Spirit between the Legionaries and the Communists”, “Can G. Călinescu Be Translated?”, “«Culturally Colonized». Romanian Encyclopaedic Traditions”, “Foreigners’ View about us”, “Professional Relationships with Foreign Researchers around Étiemble”, “The Noica «School» Initiatory Groups. Compromise and Collaboration in Communism”, “Life in Cluj”, “Our Political Class”, “The Myth of Master Manole in a Folkloric Reservation”, etc. Adrian Marino was irreversibly attracted to the concepts of plurality, tolerance, democracy, never deserting the critical spirit. Rarely
177 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 did his way of thinking offer the surprise of subjective evaluations (the “irremediable” regionalism of the society in Cluj, the “modern versions” of the paşoptist heroines, the obduracy of invoking undeserved friendships), because the majority of the hypotheses of the projective scenario project were aimed at the categorial, the duration and the efficiency of the transposition into act. The analysis of the Romania from that time was equivalent to an ideological reading, having as coordinates “the profound bolshevization of the Romanian nation”, the mediocrity of our political class, “the national defects”, the role of intellectuals and of civil society, the fate of the political prisoner and the negative image of a “culture of publicists and poets”. All these were acknowledged to be “obsessions” of the rationalist’s existence, who simultaneously pleaded for a Romanian and a European future, for the creative emulation, respectively for a non- epigonic, and firmly edified culture without complexes. To connect your name to great syntheses, to reference works, was the message of Adrian Marino, the critic of ideas to the new generation: “Young publicists, do write articles, but, in the same time, focus also on two-three fundamental problems, which you would like to solve! There are several extremely interesting issues in Romanian culture which deserve your attention. Study the sources, enter the libraries, and do not confine yourselves to the commentary of the latest book published! Unfortunately, newly published books need presentation for reasons of advertising. However, criticism cannot be made only through literary chronicles focusing on the present. Literary criticism does not operate like this in western countries!” The “Manifesto” to the youth has obviously a grave tone, but also a tinge of compliant quixotism, both characteristic to the elaborator of ideas. The third discourse contained a neo-paşoptist ideological message which had as an aim to put an end to Romania’s isolation by giving up the servile attitude towards the West as well as the nationalist and protochronistic autochthonism. We have the possibility to build a country due to the fact that – as Catherina Durandin said – “in Romania the 1848 Revolution has not been finished even to this day”. Adrian Marino’s liberal creed is obvious and it belongs to a larger context. The question of European integration dominated the movement of ideas in these years, and expressed essentially the awareness – as much as there is – of our identity. Adrian Marino was probably the most suitable person to survey the present through an ideological approach also within the field of political science. He accomplished a construction in which Europeanism
178 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 appeared as a highly complex notion, Revenirea în Europa (Return to Europe), along with Pentru Europa (For Europe) and Politică şi cultură (Politics and Culture), elaborating a corpus and clearly expressing his ideological program. The author remained the same from one book to the other, steadily maintaining his options and attitudes. Therefore, as these options and attitudes were quite numerous and profound, we can talk about the existence of a consequent creed. Revenirea în Europa (Return to Europe) proposed a structural ideological outlook upon a set of European political ideas characteristic to the Romania of the 1990–1995’s in its most pregnant aspects. These were sometimes exaggerated and full of controversies, but they always maintained their actuality, due to their enormous importance. Anthologizing the texts of the over eighty authors who expressed their opinion in the European question, Adrian Marino set up a genuine debate in the five sections of the book (“What is Europe?”, “Romania and the European Integration”, “Romania Between East and West”, “Pros and Cons for the European Idea”, “Romanian Actions for Europe”) the protagonist of which turned out to be Romania instead of Europe. For the emergency of the Euro-Atlantic integration was, indeed, an absolute priority. Obviously, in about fifty years, one can read the pages of this volume as an ideological novel and be seduced by the ingenuity of “direction”, by the acuity of “editing”, which did their utmost to maintain permanently the tension of ideas. Everything became literature and Adrian Marino knew this the best. However, today the actions must be viewed in their immediate context. Unavoidably, the selected texts, opinions are unequal in quality. Besides important names, occasional or totally obscure publicists appear as well. In their texts rigorous analysis was substituted for slogans and emotional attitudes. Nevertheless, the book as a whole remains all the more significant, being the document of Romanian public opinion, of the reactions to the European idea. Romania’s status is controversial, polemically argued, and the pros and cons were balanced by the author of the book who remained objective, listening to each party. This fact does not mean that his position is eluded or ambiguous. On the contrary, it is firmly asserted: “Though I declared myself openly – and a long time ago – a convinced and resolute partisan of Romania’s European integration on every level, I am not hindered by this to see at the same time, with widely open eyes the surrounding reality: the difficulties of our country’s European
179 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 integration are especially high.”1 This is an invitation to a professional, systematic, radical analysis – basically an invitation to normality. It is a superior ideological measure that reveals the morality of the thinker, a model for any authentic intellectual situated in a fluid and still equivocal political milieu. The critic of ideas was aware of the risk he took, but, at the same time, he was also aware of the therapeutic value of the harsh lucidity able to produce fundamental changes. The return to Europe means the reaffirmation of a usurped belonging (“irrevocably Romanian- Europeans with a double spiritual-cultural inheritance and identity) and the (economical, political, social, cultural) reintegration of our country into the European system of institutions and values. We should not forget an extremely important fact: Adrian Marino is not a politician, but a political scientist, a thinker, a theoretician. The issues of Romania, liberty, democracy, liberalism are the parts of a vast research program.2 Censorship is a subject belonging to this program and it does not comply with any superficial or comfortable game of the historical or morphological dimensions. On the contrary, having flirted with the dogmatic pedantries, bureaucratically increasing very quickly, virulent, exclusivist and institutionalized by equivalent gestures, censorship sacrifices to its greed new and new victims by sealing a tenebrous pact with the religious or worldly power. Instead of guarding the purity of ideas, it watches with perverse mystic fervour over the stability of an inclement tyrannical authority, which feels the threat of mutinous thinking – emblem of a fantasizing and humble liberty. This was the milieu of Adrian Marino’s new project of idea criticism, prefigured by the volume Cenzura în România. Schiţă istorică introductivă, (Censorship in Romania. Introductory Historical Sketch). This “colonist”, who – as it was brilliantly said by Monica Spiridon – cultivated, enclosed and parcelled out the austere and arid field of ideas on his own, forcing it to bear fruits, was trying to rediscover the ways of the “freedom of thought and expression”, which had been continuously repressed by the more or less totalitarian prohibitions, deforesting, through the luxurious branches of some inextricable theoretical implications, the autochthon tradition of a long resistance to oppression. The “Introduction”, claiming the importance of the undertaking, fixes the
1 Adrian Marino, Revenirea în Europa, Craiova, Aius, 1996, p. 195. 2 See Cristian Preda, „Contra – cultura neopaşoptistă” (“Contra – Neo-paşoptist culture”), in: 22, no. 16, 2001, p. 13.
180 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 coordinates of the future ideological edifice, undoubtedly ambitious, integrative and polemic. The historical projection of the forms of censorship operating in the Romanian space highlights on the one hand the essential similarities with the “captive thought” in Europe, and on the other hand, the specific particularities. The “beginnings” of censorship were related to religion in our country. Twenty years after the establishment in the Catholic countries of the famous Index librorum prohibitorum, it was applied in Transylvania as well – the “heretic” books being strictly controlled in the case of the Jesuit College from Cluj (1579). The orthodox version of censorship was based on a Slavonic index translated around the middle of the 17th century under a more than significant title, Cărţile cele mincinoase, pe care nu se cade a le ţinea şi a le citi drept credincioşii Hristiani (The untruthful books, that are not befitting to be kept and to be read by true Christians). Its aim was to fight against the Catholic and Protestant proselytism. The first list of banned publications to be made up on Romanian territory was elaborated in the 18th century in Transylvania (thus the Batthyaneum Library from Alba Iulia was purged). The Romanian “samizdat”, considered to be “extremely dangerous” by the Habsburg authorities as it propagated the ideas of the French Revolution, appeared also in this century. In an age when the restrictive mentality is getting harsher, in Moldova and in Walachia the climate of illuminated absolutism had a favourable impact as the monopoly of clerical censorship was abolished; though this did not mean the liberalization of book trade. However, didactical materials were free to publish. The restrictive nature always represents the nucleus of the various particular historical configurations that censorship takes on. “The 19th century – the author remarked – is in all respects decisive for the theory and practice of censorship in the Romanian countries, for the grandeur and decadence of these repressive forms of European importance and actuality.”1 It is worth mentioning that in Transylvania the spirit of organization and control had methods of extreme intolerance and harshness. Adrian Marino recorded some paradigmatic cases for the “law of progressive aggravation from the centre to periphery”. Censors
1 Adrian Marino, Cenzura în România (Censorship in Romania), Craiova, Aius, 2000, p. 25.
181 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 revealed an excess of zeal towards Gheorghe Şincai or Petru Maior. The latter was put into the ambiguous situation of “censored – censor” and was compelled to obey the servitude of an unenviable profession. The institution of censorship underwent radical changes and oscillating dynamics in the Romanian countries, where under the Russian occupation and with the introduction of the Organic Regulations (1831– 1832) censorship turned into a “natural” instrument of political power. As an analyst, Adrian Marino enumerated the characteristic traits of an intransigent, police-like system of supervision: bureaucracy and centralization, “vigilance”, the use of some procedures which would make a career (elimination and modification of titles, words, entire passages, banning of entire books, drawing up “black lists”, the appearance of “informers”, withdrawing from “circulation”). As it appears, this was an arsenal of means and a repressive language, which were generally present after 23 August 1944. Other important moments in the evolution of censorship were the Revolutions of 1848 and the union of Moldova and Walachia in 1859. A “press law” appeared, and simultaneously the first press trials in the Principalities were started. (C. D. Aricescu, B. P. Hasdeu, Al. Macedonski, G. Panu etc.). Freedom of expression was considered to be a right, and in 1884 I. C. Brătianu declared press to be the “fourth power in the state”. The 20th century was characterized by absurd incongruities as regards the expression of the idea of freedom. Censorship would become the regime of shameful, occasionally criminal inequities, induced by wars and dictatorships. One can reflect upon the first trial of “collaborationism” (1919) Ioan Slavici, A. de Herz, Dem Teodorescu and Tudor Arghezi being accused; or upon the scandals provoked when writers such us Geo Bogza, Felix Aderca, H. Bonciu or Mircea Eliade were accused for writing obscene, “pornographic” texts (in Eliade’s case the novel Domnişoara Christina [Miss Cristina] being labelled as such!). In such cases the political connotations are obvious. A separate chapter evokes the new structures of totalitarian censorship in two equally noxious forms: fascist-Antonescian and communist. The methods of communist censorship – inspired by the soviet model – improved in accordance with the ideological imperatives of the epoch and as the policy of the unique party changed. Adrian Marino described the Romanian writers’ special attitudes to censorship, outlining eight typical situations in gradual order, from the “deletion” of a passage, a chapter, a poem from a volume, to the loss of the right to signature or the total and final ban of some authors.
182 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The theoretician could not overlook the works which reflect upon and classify censorship as a historical manifestation, successively actualizing the stricter and stricter criteria and norms of repression. In this sense the typology proposed by Matei Călinescu was appreciated. This typology is speculatively built on three levels: pre-censorship (“which includes the totality of pressures on an author, its most important aspect being self-censorship”), censorship (“official, repressive, censorship in the traditional sense of the word”) and post-censorship (“the unhappy conscience of the «approved» author, who blames himself”). In this pioneering work following the destiny of the Book in conditions of ideological, political and – in our days – economical aggression, there is no room for details. The alert narration, the “dry, informative, summarizing” style are able to configure a hardly studied phenomenon. We have yet to speak about the chapter dealing with the insidious forms of censorship in the period following the Revolution of 1989, which is essential, as tension of experience, to the future construction attempting to demonstrate the “historic tradition of the idea of liberty” in the Romanian culture as a form of opposition to the “initializing, guru, «Upanishad»”-type teachings, and, in general, to any dogmatic-traditionalistic exaggeration. Though tempted by the confrontation with the act of deconstructing a theoretical model, in our opinion the “oriented” search of the amplitude of a comparative-integrative knowledge about culture can be much more advantageous; without this it is impossible to understand the Romanian cultural personality. Because, we must admit, Adrian Marino remains the great critic of ideas creating a new hermeneutical system based on the comprehension of literature as a critical history of literary ideas, essentially convergent with the preoccupations to place the Romanian literature within European and universal coordinates. His intention rests on an extremely original synthesis of structural, hermeneutic and model theory (Peter Wunderli) elements. “Elements” of a hermeneutic thinking (interpretative event and exigency of “comprehension”) characterize the author of the Dictionarul de idei literare (Dictionary of Literary Ideas), both in the period of critical re-evaluations when he re-read the Opera lui Alexandru Macedonski (The Work of Alexandru Macedonski), and in the prestigious comparativist syntheses Littérature roumaine. Littératures occidentals. Rencontres, Étiemble ou le comparatisme militant and Comparatisme et théorie de la littérature. The latter, written in French, published in 1988
183 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 by the “Presses Universitaires de France” and translated into Romanian ten years later1 continued the attempt to renew the comparativist science launched in Étiemble ou le comparatisme militant, proposing as a substitute for traditional positivism – evidently in crisis – a genuine theoretical orientation, destined to ensure real autonomy for the discipline in conformity with the idea of the universality of literature. The change of perspective was thought “from within” and it belonged to a “reformist” action that had protagonists such as René Étiemble, René Wellek, or more recently Haskell M. Block, Guy Lafleche and others. The centre of Marino’s theory was the concept of the invariant: “The invariant imposes the definition and illustration of the permanent, of the essential and through this of the universality of literature. It is the key-element of theoretic comparatism”, concluded the author.2 Thus, through the establishment of comparativist poetics, comparative literature was separated from the sphere of canonized literary criticism and history. It became an independent field of study, with a precise object and a specific method. Adrian Marino tried to prevent the inherent misunderstandings, confusions, complexes, objections and criticisms provoked by this undertaking, uncomfortable for the conformist, dogmatic, frivolous spirits. The bibliographic apparatus – we shall talk about it below – impressive through its dimensions and comprehensiveness exceeds the usual extent of a system of references, of a single “file” of problems being rather the “documentary infrastructure” of the hermeneutic approach in this veritable organon for the use of comparatists. We must underline the use of the mechanisms of the preconception, and of the adequate reading techniques. For the “comparative method” claimed by the “new paradigm”, can operate effectively only if it adopts a hermeneutical epistemology. If the definition of comparative literature and poetics is based on the existence of universal literature consisting of each nation’s literature, small and large, (the Goethean Weltliteratur), which is identical with literature itself – as Marino claimed –, then the deciphering of general significations presupposes “simultaneous reading”, the inductive-deductive examination of the literary field, the analysis of facts indispensably being followed by a final synthesis. Besides, a comparative study requires: that the texts should be analyzed depending on the correlation between part and whole; a typological
1 Adrian Marino, Comparatism şi teoria literaturii, Iaşi, Polirom, 1998. 2 Ibid. p. 66.
184 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 approach; the valorisation of the model; that the indications of analogy and similarity, as well as the re-actualized method of parallels and comparison should be used; a phenomenological description; and finally the “crucible” of verification, all the more efficient, as the coherence and clarity of the scheme and of the hermeneutical “circuits” are more obvious. The focal point of the work is a possible definition of comparative literariness. On theoretical level the problem of literariness (the “aporia” of literariness) is formulated in the following way: “Let us admit that the ensemble of national literatures, in other words, universal literature forms a single world literature, which is in fact mistaken for literature. Thus literature becomes a total, general and structurally uniform reality, being the spatial and temporal dimension of literariness. It forms a «system», whose «model» shall become the model of literariness.1 Expressing the very same neo-paşoptist program, this book, a true rarity in our culture in lack of a significant tradition of literary theory, ends with a credo: “A literary «universality» specifically localized in time and space and formulated with all the possible «personality». This is and remains our essential objective.” Adrian Marino’s hermeneutics, beside the Dictionary and his works of comparative literature is configured in Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade (Mircea Eliade’s Hermeneutics) (the reconstruction of an empirical model), Hermeneutica ideii de literatură (The Hermeneutics of the Idea of Literature) and Biografia ideii de literatură (The Biography of the Idea of Literature). This works approach pollemically the modern hermeneutical formulations, namely Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Wahrheit und Methode, Paul Ricoeur’s Le conflit des intérpretations, or Emilio Betti’s Teoria generale della interpretatione. Certainly, the number of references is enormous; in Adrian Marino’s case the ritual of erudition is fascinating; the critical references being more than a simple “base”, they are an essential section of the argumentation. Marino’s “idea books” must be connected with the wish to liberate criticism from the tutelage of positivism and impressionism, and to make it into a relevant discipline including both “exegesis” and its historical integration into comprehension itself (Wirkungsgeschichte). More simply, the historical life of the idea of literature (The Biography) consists of its textual development in different languages and cultural contexts. It offers the historic documentary raw material which can be
1 Ibid., p. 212.
185 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 verified. The Hermeneutics had the role to interpret this material, to observe the recurrences, to arrange them into “models”. The Biography offered a domain of observation; The Hermeneutics detects a sense, an interior “logic”. Adrian Marino was in quest of his family of affinities and correspondences (with the confessed intention of integration) establishing a Romanian hermeneutical tradition. It was an act of retrieval, which implied access into the areas of primordial depths, into the world of hyerophanies, in order to decrypt “meanings” and “significations” through the precursors’ capacity of metaphoric, symbolic or cosmogonic thinking. The “invention” of a hermeneutic tradition was based on autochthonous initiatives, such as: Trilogia cunoaşterii (The Trilogy of Knowledge) by Lucian Blaga, Dimensiunea românească a existenţei (The Romanian Dimension of Existence) by Mircea Vulcănescu, Nostalgia paradisului (The Nostalgia of Paradise) by Nichifor Crainic, Devenirea întru fiinţă (Becoming in-to Being) Constantin Noica, and the Mircea Eliade’s works, “initiatory” sources for any elaboration of an interpretative structure. Before turning into a system of incorruptible geometries, Marino’s hermeneutics was par excellence creative due to its openness. The “system” permanently formulated and reformulated itself in a process of superior adjustment of thinking to “behaviour” and practical experience. The ontological represented a perpetual “initial point”, the starting point of an undertaking that affected the whole life of literature and required the “being” of the idea on multiple levels, aspiring towards the same objective: the accomplishment of a model. The six volumes of The Biography of the Idea of Literature, a really encyclopaedic work, are developed on two axes: one which accumulates and systematizes the conceptual formation through definitions of literature having a biographic character, and another etymologically oriented, having as an aim to clarify the invariants of the same idea. In the dispute of the “quasi-metaphysic essentialists” with the “pragmatic functionalists”, Marino proposed the nominalistic solution based on the textual reality of the notions defining literature. The “ages” of the idea of literature are submitted to a spectral analysis beginning with Antiquity, a globalizing and universalistic period, followed by the Middle Ages and Renaissance, when the polarity of sacred/profane determined the use of some more and more differentiated acceptations of literature, then the Baroque, the Enlightenment (the ideologization of literature took place), the 19th century, a century of
186 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 rupture, in which the “meanings of the idea of literature become divergent and the differences explosive”, and finally, the 20th century being marked hereditarily by the crisis of the idea of literature. The apparently arid space of definitions seems to be endangered – after the routes of literary ideology have been walked over – by the temptation of easily symmetrical oppositions and of comfortable dichotomies. This, however, is out of the question. The suspected – premature and conspiratorial – relaxations are disproved by the polemic, implacable, lively pulse of the construction. Let us dwell on the discussion referring to the concepts of national literature and universal literature, being in a particular tension due to the complexity of the ideological, politic, social and cultural context characterizing the 20th century. If the evidence that national identity is given in the first place by linguistic identity is generally accepted, difficulties arise as regards the theoretical reflection due to the ambiguities generated by a dynamic reality, tributary to political interferences (exacerbation of nationalism). Therefore, some traditional concepts must be radically reformulated, “the «national» soliloquy tending more and more to be replaced by the «international» dialogue”. The appearance of a new type of writers, who assumed a double identity – national and supranational –, illustrates the most important changes in the 20th century literary consciousness. The author convincingly demonstrates that one can simultaneously be “Romanian”, “European”, and “universal”. The analysis of the present time literary phenomenon outlines – among other aspects – two representative situations: the substitution of Euro-centrism for polycentrism (“polysystem theory”) and the questioning of institutionalized canons. Adrian Marino made another assertion that sounded like heresy: just like the concepts national and international literature, the idea of popular literature had an important, spectacular evolution. It evolved from the traditional “folkloric” meaning to acceptations defined through the ideas of mass literature, subliterature and paraliterature. With these we enter again a virgin field, since there are no anterior Romanian references that are worth remembering. Referring to literature, society and ideology, the critic of ideas explained the appearance of mass literature, a new concept “historically dated, product of the generalization of the 20th century mass society.” Its essential characteristics would be: the amount of literary production, its great success and wide-ranging audience. The value of a book is equivalent with its spreading and advertising (Robert Escarpit). People
187 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 talk more and more about the “industry of literature”, “market”, “business”. Literature is a specific commercial product, and the book becomes “merchandise”. Submitted to standardization and exploited in the media, mass literature has become a diabolical ideological and propagandistic instrument “praised as a form of manipulation of great «revolutionary» effectiveness on the one hand, and criticized as an instrument of alienating the masses on the other hand.”1 The development of mass culture and the increasing role of media probably mark, with all their incalculable consequences, “the most profound «cultural revolution» of the 20th century.” The idea of literary value being in crisis official concepts have been repudiated and substituted with negative notions. Thus we face the formation of a new reality dominated by subliterature, paraliterature, antiliterature; a phenomenon which, accepted volens nolens, presupposes that “inferior” literary genres are rehabilitated, hierarchies become relative, and the literary art receives a new status. The first and only literary encyclopaedia in our culture is finished with a big question mark generated by the statement according to which as we cannot talk about the entropy of literature, “one can talk about non-literature, anti-literature too only in purely theoretical, speculative, hypothetical terms which cannot be verified in the immediate, current reality of literature”.2
1 Adrian Marino, Biografia ideii de literatură, vol. V, Cluj-Napoca, Dacia Publishing House, 1998, p. 143. 2 Adrian Marino, Biografia ideii de literatură, vol. VI, Cluj-Napoca, Dacia Publishing House, 2000, p. 218.
188 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Under the Zodiac Sign of the Alternative An Aest(ethic)al Alternative Model
Monica SPIRIDON Faculty of Letters, Department of Communication and Public Relations, University of Bucharest
Keywords: alternative, idea of literature, comparative literature, culture and politics, militancy, utopia, Republic of Letters
Abstract Adrian Marino’s life and scientific activity seems to have been marked by the zodiac sign of the alternative. He elaborated a challenging encyclopaedic construction dealing with the notion of literature (The Hermeneutics of the Idea of Literature, The Biography of the Idea of Literature, The Dictionary of Literary Ideas) and adopted an alternative method for the study of comparative literature. Being an adept of alternatives and relativistic thinking, he defied the uniformity and authoritarian character of the communist regime and managed to become an independently thinking professional. Though a great scholar, Marino considered important not to neglect activity for the sake of theory: he endeavoured to reconcile culture and politics trying to reform both and emphasizing their complementarity. His oeuvre had both a militant and a utopian aspect. His works, outlining a pro-European and pro-democratic system of values, made him a true citizen of the Republic of Letters of his age.
E-mail: [email protected]
In the course of time we have become accustomed to regard Adrian Marino as a devotee of far-reaching critical projects. Methodically built on the basis of theoretical hypotheses solid as ferro-concrete, and finalized with an enviable effectiveness, these projects seemed to contradict the ethnic fatality of the abandoned, unfinished wall.1 The
1 Allusion to the Romanian folk poem, Monastirea Argeşului (The Monastery on the Argeş River) narrating the story of the architect Manole, the builder of the monastery who had to sacrifice his wife walling her into the church in order to finish the beautiful building on a place where an unfinished and abandoned wall stood before. (Translator’s note.)
189 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 hermeneutist strived to accomplish a challenging encyclopaedic construction comprising various fields and dealing with the nebulous notion currently called by us literature and with its dynamics in European culture [Hermeneutica ideii de literatură (The Hermeneutics of the Idea of Literature), Biografia ideii de literatură I-VI (The Biography of the Idea of Literature I-VI), Dicţionar de idei literare (The Dictionary of Literary Ideas)]. Drawing into its gravitational field a sequence of independent studies with different atmosphere, the monograph on Etiemble (Etiemble et le comparatisme militant), contributed to the reanimation of comparative literature studies in a moment when this discipline was emerging with difficulty from a long lethargic period. Finally, he elaborated a massive synthesis focusing on Mircea Eliade [Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade (Mircea Eliade’s Hermeneutics)]. This gathers the heteroclite intellectual data about a protean and controversial character in a convincing case study. In parallel with the daily work on large ‘academic building sites’, during the era of communist dictatorship, Adrian Marino published – under the frivolous disguise of some journey-notes – fragments from what seemed to be a systematic subterranean meditation on the condition of culture in the present world. After 1990, two revelatory volumes confirmed such a supposition, displaying the missing details of the figure on the carpet. They completed the perspective by contextualizing the ideas of the man of letters Adrian Marino, adding to it an explicit intellectual credo. Seen globally and retrospectively, Adrian Marino’s writings emphasize the basic options of a critic, for whom the ultimate aim of literature is always beyond literature itself in the cultural and the ideological. From a more general point of view, the convergent orientation of Adrian Marino’s cultural heritage is striking. The way in which this heritage was devised and formulated illustrates alike a model of the Alternative. I mean that in Marino’s system of values, the alternative way became the legitimizing principle. One of the most dangerous consequences of the totalitarian conception is that the power must always have the last and decisive word in all domains. According to Adrian Marino, relativistic thinking, alternatives and dilemmas are among the most dangerous adversaries of the totalitarian spirit. The intellectual’s natural opposition to the terror gains the aspect of tenacious action, beginning with alternative options to the canons and the norms in use; not a sterile, disintegrating refusal, but an edifying solution which changes opposition to deeds.
190 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
What else is, basically, the criticism of the idea of literature, the way in which the author of the Hermeneutics and the Biography projected it? Let us admit that in the beginning even the severest literary theoreticians might have considered the view of this work eccentric. It was persistently pleading for heretic hypotheses and was justifying unacceptable reforms. Its aim was to make us admit, for example, that the literal has an original ascendancy over the literary. To make us find comfort in the idea that the aesthetic is only an accidental and late aspect of literariness. To make us consider the most daring campaigns for the renewal of creation through belligerency a simple selective actualization of the virtualities already inventoried in the genetic matrix of the notion of literature. Finally, as if all these did not suffice, it would make us admit that our everyday literature is not the privileged chapter of culture. And where the situation seems to be like this, we plunge into the pathologic; more precisely, into the disease – endemic to our culture – of abusive literarization of some autonomous neighbouring domains. If we change perspective turning to the field of comparative, literature, we shall discover the same paradigm of the alternative. Adrian Marino was among those who insistently proposed a radical reform in this domain. His counter-offer suggested the replacement of the short- sighted traditional positivism with a theory-centred orientation with nominalistic nuances. This would mean to abandon the hunt for influences and instead to identify the universals, the recurrences, the speculative topoi with intensive circulation. Therefore he supported here an ecumenism able to overturn the meaning of the frustrating polarity central/peripheral and to transform culture into a market of values with free circulation in any direction. We could continue to enumerate the domains placed by the intellectual Adrian Marino under the Zodiac Sign of the Alternative. It would eventually extend from the direction of culture towards life. Even Adrian Marino’s – now definitively rounded – biography opposed the universe of communist concentration camps, and did not allow itself to be assimilated by it. The former inhabitant of the autochthon Gulag, who after detention received a bounty of house arrest in Bărăgan, found a way of defying the official path that should have been followed. Adrian Marino made a career as a professional, in the strictest literal meaning of the word. It is to be noted, however, that the advocate of the alternative did not lose sight of the inherent risks: “Since we did not intend to offer an
191 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 idyllic picture of the aspects of the actual Romanian culture, we do not in the least mean to idealize the alternative culture – declared the author at a given moment. Its original vice or sin is ambiguity.” The above mentioned danger is rooted in the synonymy between the principle of the alternative and a concept which can be and is manipulated – through its nature – in opposite directions: the absolute theoretical and practical freedom. In the communist society, but unfortunately also in the Western consumer democracies the principle of liberty was sometimes skilfully manoeuvred to the point when people turned against it. What is more, protests always have a double edge, as they can be retrieved, moderated, reduced to stereotypes, to clichés and – why not? – they can be transformed into saleable goods. (I would add that no one understood this mechanism better than a theoretician of the avant- garde such as Adrian Marino.) Another constant of Adrian Marino’s system of thinking was the equation postulated between the cultural and the political. Continuing for a moment the former order of ideas, it can be said that the alternative “Culture or Politics?” (obsessive in our culture) is replaced by an alternative complementarity between the cultural and the political. Moreover, it requires a concerted reform of both terms. In Adrian Marino’s opinion the reinvention of Romanian liberal democracy would be the number one political problem. In this respect the intellectual from Cluj had an exhaustive programme within his reach. I am going to stop only at some of his important results. Among these, the normalization of the political vocabulary, firstly through the rehabilitation of certain terms, demonized by communism, such as bourgeoisie, middle class, private property, capitalism, privatization, free market, stock-market, bankruptcy, etc. (Political semantics is an indispensable instrument for diagnosing the state of facts everywhere in the world. In France, for example, The Structure of the Political Vocabulary is being published for each decade, in order to take the ideological temperature of the moment). It is also to be noted that the reform suggested by Adrian Marino in the 90’s, referred not only to the discourse of power, but equally that of the opposition as well. Maybe this latter one in the first place, as it was still timorous, hesitating, and marked by taboos. As ever, verbal stereotypes betray automatisms of thinking: in the case of one wing the statist mirage, the myth of egalitarianism, the Hegelian-Marxist hypothesis of the so called conformity to law (“zakonomernost”) of communism etc; in the case of the other wing, the
192 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 small influence on reality, marked by the older generation’s inopportune nostalgias as well as their stiff and vain rigorism. In Adrian Marino’s view, in order to become truly effective, the political life should be based on balance and upon a perfect cooperation between idea and action, between the abstract speculation and the particular act. The dramatic incompatibility postulated – because of different, not always innocent, reasons – between culture and politics can be rescinded by elevating abstraction to the level of action in both spheres. Thus culture can become a guide and an instrument of politics, and to know an aspect of to do. Here we discover the moulding connection, which explains the options of a hermeneutist, comparatist, critic, political essayist, in a word of an intellectual such as Adrian Marino. His faith in the pragmatic dignity of theory constrained idealism and militancy to cooperation. In his books the productive fusion and confusion between the logic of the manifesto and of utopia is always striking. At first sight the militant side is perhaps more obvious than the other, and it is occasionally indicated by emphatic signs. Let us remember the militant epithet attributed to Mircea Eliade’s hermeneutics and Etiemble’s studies in comparative literature; or the programme of cultural action hardly hidden in the critique of the notion of literature and in the narration of its biography. He manifests himself impetuously only in the volumes of the Biography published after 1990 – especially in the volume demystifying the so called Marxist aesthetics. One of his essay volumes is called Pentru Europa (For Europe). The subtitle of the other is Pentru o nouă cultură română (For a New Romanian Culture). In comparison with its militancy, the utopian line of Adrian Marino’s work somehow remains hidden. Though – I only confess it now – when I first learned about the project of an analysis of the idea of literature elaborated thrice (Hermeneutics; Biography; Dictionary) I found it very enthusiastic and… quixotic. Adrian Marino’ essay, Don Quijote a greşit adresa (Don Quixote missed the address) is revelatory in this sense. It starts out from a book by Octavian Paler and tries to explain the triumph of Mitică over Don Quixote in the Carpathian-Danubian- Pontic space. In short, utopia represents for Adrian Marino the invigorating belief in the active force of ideas and even that of the illusion: and this in any domain from politics to literary theory or inversely. How would the utopian fortress – Adrian Marino had undoubtedly been dreaming about – actually look like? Politically and socially it would be a stable Romania,
193 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 based on a vigorous capitalist economy and on an enterprising bourgeoisie, where the active intellectual personalities with civic vocation are to be found in a modern party: urban, resolutely pro-democratic and pro-European, with an economical conception free of any leftism. The intellectual-ideological illusions will be abandoned only then. “Utopia? Complete historical visionarism with a liberal character? Or reverie, however, in the sense of history?” – put the rhetorical question the author himself. In their spiritual version the reveries of Adrian Marino materialize in a sui generis Republic of Letters. Originating from the antiquity, having a great career during the Enlightenment, this expression metaphorically denotes a community and solidarity of scholars from all over the world, symptomatically qualified by Adrian Marino as: “spiritual, brotherly, strong, independent, critical and militant, capable of determining currents of opinions, scales of value and international cultural reputations.” Adrian Marino has always been sufficiently close to and distanced from the objects he explored, so that the clear evaluation of Romanian culture that he constantly and tenaciously projected proved to have profound affective and moral implications. Seen in the horizon of the longue durée, the intellectual from Cluj, who has recently passed away, left behind a lifework which undeniably confirms his status as a distinguished innate citizen of the Republic of Letters.
194 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
An Autochthon Alternative of Free Culture during Communism
Gábor GYŐRFFY PhD Student, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: daily resistance, freedom within the system, “third Romanian culture”
Abstract The work of Adrian Marino, written mostly during the communist period, sets an example of cultural independence from the political power. It is an individual solution that undermined the anti-intellectualism promoted by the perfidious institutional circles of those times. His ideological works published after 1989 are confessions about the relationship between culture and power in the communist era: they present an alternative approach to the situation of Romanian literature under the totalitarian regime.
E-mail: [email protected]
The relationship between politics and culture, as regards the subjection of cultural life to political interests, entered a specific dimension in 20th Century Europe as a result of the emergence of right and left totalitarian ideologies. Control upon human communication, almost total restriction of freedom of expression, doubled by a propaganda which tended to reshape and uniformize the way of thinking of the entire society – these are the characteristics of the regimes which succeeded to redress the course of history in a significant part of the continent towards giving up on all conceptions regarding individual liberty. Romania was the scene of both totalitarian experiences, the fascist as well as the communist, in a period when the influences of a professional coercion apparatus had taken on the most aggressive and violent forms. The communist experience, which lasted for more than four decades, was constituted in Romania through a system in which the state party managed to maintain control not only over society, but also over culture until the last minutes of its breakdown. The situation of literature – patronized if promoting the ideology of the political party, tolerated to certain limits and often banned when overstepping the
195 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 imposed line – faithfully reflects the condition of the Romanian intellectual in the communist period, as well as the various forms of the relationship between politics and culture. Adrian Marino belonged to the category of cultured men who rejected any collaboration with the regime and who repudiated any kind of dialogue by way of which he would have recognized the official culture. His cultural-ideological formation made him preserve his spiritual independence, made him search for a modality of cultural survival in the period of communist totalitarianism, when two alternatives seemed to exist: “silence, failure, isolation, stepping out from actuality, thus being definitively sentenced to sterility, to literary suicide”, or the option of accepting compromise and adaptation.1 In Adrian Marino’s case, the solution of the dilemma manifested in the rejection of the official doctrine, but at the same time also in the desire to create in a world in which basic cultural values were being destroyed, and in the attempt to find those fissures in the system which would facilitate the communication of ideas reflecting the European liberal tradition. Adrian Marino made his debut at eighteen in the Jurnalul literar (Literary Journal) magazine; a graduate of the Faculty of Lettres from Iaşi and Bucharest, he obtained his PhD degree in 1946 with the dissertation entitled Viaţa lui Alexandru Macedonski (The Life of Alexandru Macedonski), a work that appeared only in 1965 due to the interdiction of publishing. He was arrested in 1949 for “illegal” activities within the circles of the National Peasant Party University Youth organization and imprisoned for eight years, after which he underwent six more years of house arrest in Lăteşti village, Bărăgan. After the traumatizing experience of freedom deprival and his rehabilitation in 1965, Adrian Marino realized the emergence of a literary life conceived according to the official hierarchal criteria, based on mentality, style, language and a scale of values which were not to his liking. In the period after 1948 socialist realism and party literature had been imposed as the sole models for creation, thus art became totally subordinated to political interests. Despite the given conditions, Marino’s activity reflects a consequent insubordination to the political power, which he achieved to build and preserve throughout the entire communist period, as he recalls: “The most difficult thing in a totalitarian regime is to maintain a permanently normal and equal behavior, to remain as
1 Adrian Marino, Politică şi cultură (Politics and Culture), Iaşi, Polirom, 1996, p. 80.
196 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 consequent as possible, not only to revolt once openly [...] There is, however, another type of “heroism” as well: the heroism of insubordination, of protest and of continuous implicit – I would say daily – “resistance”, of non-conformism, of exiting the dressage and totalitarian triteness, of breaking and defying the mental and propagandistic clichés. […] Not to be under any circumstances in the service of power, not to be a literary servant.”1 Adrian Marino had assumed the role of a spokesman of autochthon culture, even if his cultural experiences in the seventies during his travels to the West would have offered the alternative of exile. His ideal of freedom within the system expressed hope for the possibility of taking an alternative itinerary – other than exile or collaboration with the regime –, despite the restriction on the free circulation of ideas, the cultural deadlock and the ideological pressure, which turned the independent act of creation into a gesture of insubordination. This aspiration shall be confirmed in his works, which express independence of spirit and professional freedom in the age of supervised culture. His conception about literary creation in communist Romania is based on his belief in the existence of a literary alternative, a “third Romanian culture”, which is different from the culture of exile and diaspora, as well as from the officially accepted, propagandistic culture serving the political power: “it did exist then, though I cannot prove this fact: an alternative Romanian culture. For me this is something fundamental. It is not true that the entire Romanian culture was leveled out. […] Indeed, it had mostly been so, but there existed a minimal layer of intellectuals, that was totally different.” As a representative of this third power, less known throughout the country, Adrian Marino delimits in his study entitled Situaţia culturii române actuale2 (The Situation of the Present Romanian Culture) the essential features of an independent Romanian culture, which is politically uncommitted and creates as freely as possible within the limits imposed by the regime. At the same time he also mentions the existence of a silent conflict – growing more and more acute in the eighties – between the cultural leadership and the real creators attempting stubbornly to withstand the “plans, hierarchies, mediocrity and arrogance of the cultural black coats of the age.”3 The more rigid the system became, the more
1 Adrian Marino, Evadări în lumea liberă (Escapes into the Free World), Iaşi, European Institute, 1993, pp. 5–6. 2 The study was written in 1982, being included in the volume Politică şi cultură. 3 Adrian Marino, Politică şi cultură (Politics and Culture), p. 54.
197 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 uncertain it grew on the inside; there were whole series of complicities, simulations and tacit tolerances, which reduced the shocks coming from above. Dissociating himself from the official culture and striving to elaborate a parallel structure, Marino had attempted in fact to accomplish a cultural utopia, the keystones of which lay in his external relations. His publications in France, Italy and Japan, his books on literary ideas, hermeneutics, literary theory and comparatistics appeared only due to personal initiatives and relations, without the implication of the state or of any Romanian publishing house.1 The attempt to draw up a lucid evaluation of the social psychology from the period of dictatorship, based on the distinction between official and alternative culture, returns systematically throughout his works. The chapter dealing with this issue in the volume Politică şi cultură (Politics and Culture) is an x-ray of the main features that define the two types of culture2. The essence of official culture is the firm ranking in a closed circuit of values promoted by the communist regime with the assistance of some typical institutions of the centralized state, all of them placed in pyramidal structure, from the Ministry of Culture, the Romanian Academy, the Writers’ Union down to the publicist and editorial system. All these institutions depend on the state budget through a blackmailing mechanism, which in fact was the control-lever upon culture. At the same time, Marino does not hesitate to assert that some control mechanisms were likewise adopted by those rising to political power after 1989 by means of introducing the political decision factor into cultural life. The ranking system typical to the totalitarian regime brings forth a monopoly of the literary opinion, which regards itself definitive and inexpugnable. In the Romanian communist world, similarly to other communist regimes, the literary-cultural hierarchies were copying – theoretically at least – the political hierarchies. The authoritarian system created its own values, the essence of which was political adherence and fidelity, that came to replace literary value – a factor considered unessential. On the other hand, another phenomenon interfered, i.e. the absence of a valid differentiation of values: those being members of the same creative union and serving the same regime, those who accepted the pact with the regime were all consecrated by the official hierarchy of values. Hence, no delimitation existed between the status of being a
1 Adrian Marino, Pentru Europa (For Europe), 2nd edition, Iaşi, Polirom, 2005, p. 107. 2 See chapter “Official culture, alternative culture”, pp. 256–299.
198 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 member of the Writers’ Union and being simply a “writer”, which category would belong to a special radical system of values. Once he entered the circuit, the writer accepted his role of a state clerk, whose advancement on the hierarchic scale depends on the “continuous balancing between public acceptance of the dogma and perception of immediate reality, the ability to assume self-censorship perfectly […] feigning ideological commitment and loyalty to the party.” 1 Consequently, in concordance with his belief in alternative culture, which is the expression of an independent literary conscience, Marino refused to fit in the system: he did not accept the cultural functions ensuing from the status of an “official writer” and avoided subjection to any institutions and ideologies. Therefore he did not benefit from the rewards and personal advantages granted through the “sinister” institution of the Literary Fund that became a means of coagulation of the official literature. He did not accept membership in the Romanian Academy even after 1989, because in his opinion it represented the continuation of the soviet-type institution that was modeled at the end of the forties. Liberty as a state of spirit, as a personal experience and a confession is reflected in his travel journals with ostentatiously European titles, written after his visits in West European countries.2 The explicit ideological meaning in the substratum of the texts expresses constant insubordination to any limits imposed on the freedom of thinking. The system of perception of the free world is radically opposed to the totalitarian homogenizing tendencies, thus the latter are uncovered through implicit comparisons transmitting liberal messages of solidarism with the European values. However, maintaining his lucidity towards western culture, Adrian Marino rejected the idea of its unconditional superiority, attempting a “permanent undermining of the latent admiration, a continuous demystification of the consecrated masterpieces and values, a lucid refutal from within of the great myths and hierarchies”3. Coming in contact with the so called free cultures, Marino searched in their substance for those universal constant factors embedded in European
1 Adrian Marino, Politică şi cultură, p. 272. 2 ¡Ole! Espana (1974); Carnete europene, (European Notebooks) (1976); Prezenţe româneşti şi realităţi europene, (Romanian Presences and European Realities), (1978); Evadări în lumea liberă (Escapes into the Free World), (1993). 3 Adrian Marino, Carnete europene, Bucharest, Noul Orfeu Publishing House, 2003, p. 32.
199 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 tradition, which are independent from an arbitrary hierarchy. These he interpreted according to an atemporal, generally valid reference system. Consequently, his journals correspond to a cultural program which aims to accumulate essential values in a continuous, systematic, and selective way. During the isolation of the Ceauşescu era Marino endorsed the necessity of encyclopedism, of a totalizing way of thinking, meant to compensate the intellectual unevenness in rapport to a West that had reached the stage of narrow specialization. This cultural program with a large perspective rejected the actual political situation, that of a country under communist dictatorship, and it dispersed the “myth of the irreversible situation” according to which communism would be in power for ever, thus reaffirming the belief in a culture liberated from the constraints of political power. Unable to express his radical anti-communist and anti-Marxist ideas openly, Adrian Marino found moral salvation by taking refuge in such free forms of creation which were tolerated in that period. Literary criticism, such as comparatism and theory of literature, had actually been disguises of idea criticism, which was itself a means of breaking out from the imposed canons.1 The historical perspective of Critica ideiilor literare (The Criticism of Literary Ideas) or Biografia ideii de literatură (The Biography of the Idea of Literature) was the only way to connect to the corresponding European ideas: “I practiced comparative literature and theory of literature […] as a form of intellectual survival – evokes Marino. Do not forget, that I came from where I came and I had to make myself supported and tolerated within the publicistic limits of the age. […] For me it was a way of coming out of isolation. For me comparatism was a method of breaking the ice, of stepping out into the world, of defying censorship in somewhat semi-legal, semi-illegal ways and, at the same time, it was a method of expressing myself freely.”2 However, not even these works of Marino avoided the attacks of those in control of the literary scene: during the meeting of university professors of philosophy in 1980, Pavel Apostol launched a violent attack against the study Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade (The Hermeneutics of Mircea Eliade), which appeared the same year and was immediately
1 See Sorin Alexandrescu, Un european: Sir Adrian Marino, (A European: Sir Adrian Marino), in: Idem, Identitate şi ruptură. Mentalităţi româneşti postbelice, (Identuty and Rupture. Romanian Post-war Mentalities), Bucharest, Univers Publishing House, 2000, p. 104. 2 Adrian Marino la optzeci de ani (Adrian Marino at Eighty), Echinox, vol. I, 2001, pp. 243–254.
200 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 translated into French at the Gallimard publishing house. He accused the author of betraying Marxist ideas and promoting idealism and mysticism. The journal Cahiers roumains d`études littéraires, published at the Univers publishing house, represented another form of free manifestation and another way of finding a fissure in the system of censorship, of supervised literature, a way of profiting from the favorable conjunctures in order to impose the spirit of free literature. This was the first Romanian journal of literary studies of European standards, edited in a foreign language. It was founded and edited by Adrian Marino between 1973 and 1980, the decade of the communist “cultural revolution”, the period when cultural relations with the western world were abruptly broken off. However, being a periodical collection of studies, the magazine was tolerated by the political power in its endeavor of creating a positive image from an international perspective. This operation would not have been successful without the collaboration on different levels of complicity of certain people in decision-making positions. The magazine was practically unknown within the country, being regarded as suspicious by the doctrinaires of official literature, and having therefore a restricted area of circulation. Nevertheless, it was welcomed abroad and it enjoyed great prestige among international comparatists, being the only Romanian magazine at that time which had an individual box at the National Library in Paris.1 Regarding the forms of pressure that literary creation had been subjected to in the communist era, as well as the methods of rejecting the official propagandistic literature, immediately after the downfall of communism Adrian Marino delineated an analysis of the relationship between power and culture from the perspective of the “literary resistance” – a term which expanded later into the concept “resistance through culture”.2 Attempting at the same time an examination of personal and collective conscience, Marino proposed a definition grid for the concept of literary resistance, meant to cover the complex realities of the age.
1 See Al treilea discurs. Cultură, ideologie şi politică în România. Adrian Marino în dialog cu Sorin Antohi. (The Third Discourse. Culture, Ideology and Politics in Romania. Adrian Marino in Dialogue with Sorin Antohi), Iaşi, Polirom, 2001, p. 27. 2 Written in 1991, and 1995, both studies were published in the volume Politică şi cultură, (Politics and Culture), (1996), entitled Rezistenţa literară, (Literary Resistance), (pp. 21–27), as well as Rezistenţa prin cultură, o problemă deschisă (Resistance through Culture, An Open Problem), (pp. 28–40).
201 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
His typology distinguishes between passive resistance, which is tacit and lacks the assumption of declared political or ideological commitments, and active resistance, which presumes explicit denial of collaboration, of accepting the totalitarian order. Because of the necessity to re-evaluate the concept of literary resistance objectively, Marino drew attention to the tendencies to mythicize and idealize this notion and specified four defining aspects that characterize it: the free critical spirit manifested in the systematic rejection, elusion and impugnment of official norms, dogmas, directives and hierarchies; the usage of an independent critical language other than the “wooden language” of official criticism; the circulation of liberal literary values; the introduction of non-canonic literary themes. Within the frame of the same theme, although without the intention to offer an exhaustive synthesis of the existing manifestations of cultural resistance – impossible to achieve due to the absence of a complete file on these –, Adrian Marino presented a classification of the forms of resistance from literature “written for the drawer” to texts smuggled out of the country and collaboration with publications or radio stations considered dangerous by the regime. Adrian Marino’s ideological works are based on the definition of certain structural antinomies, which developed around particular key concepts. The discussion of the relationship between power and culture recurs in his works on censorship and freedom of expression. The first of these, Cenzura în România. Schiţă istorică introductivă (Censorship in Romania. An Introductory Historical Sketch), was intended to be a survey on the essential phases and aspects of the evolution of censorship from its beginnings to the 20th century – a study that served as the basic version of the Romanian chapter from the vast encyclopedia entitled Censorship: A World Encyclopedia, edited by Derek Jones in 2001. The study defines itself as part of the program of idea criticism and it reveals the forms of censorship in Romania, the similarities with the corresponding European practices, as well as the specific particularities. Beginning with the religious censorship of the Middle Ages, the author records the moments which marked the permanent antagonism between the freedom of expression and “captive thinking”: the secularized censorship of the Enlightenment in the 18th century, the movement of resistance and the repressions from 1848, the press regime after the unification of Moldova and Wallachia. A historical retrospection on the control of publications in Transylvania is also presented. The chapter discussing the 20th century deals with the two manifestations of totalitarian censorship: the fascist and the communist
202 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 one. Despite the fact that the practice of censorship was born back in the ancient times, nothing equals the severe control based on the Soviet model and the development of its methods after the 23rd of August, 1944. Throughout the course of time the ideological background of the repressive interventions underwent essential modifications, which were often sudden and inopportune, culminating in the official dissolution of the profile institution in 1977, which brought on the instauration of arbitrariness regarding the control of publications and self-censorship. The methods practiced by the communist regime are reflected by the specific relationship of the Romanian authors with the institution of censorship. Eight typical situations are presented and ranked according to what extent the text was meddled with, from taking out a paragraph, a chapter or a title to banning an author’s work completely.1 As a matter of fact, Adrian Marino’s own experience is demonstrative in this respect: he was banned and deprived of his right of signature for two decades; consequently, Viaţa lui Alexandru Macedonski (The Life of Alexandru Macedonski), which was announced to be published in 1946, appeared only in 1965; the article Decadentismul (Decadentism) from Dicţionarul de idei literare (The Dictionary of Literary Ideas, 1973) suffered multiple interventions; the chapter entitled Autonomia literaturii (The Autonomy of Literature) was taken out from the volume Hermeneutica ideii de literatură (The Hermeneutics of the Idea of Literature, 1987), although it appeared in fragments under improvised titles in the magazine Transilvania, without mentioning the word “autonomy” – rigorously interdicted in that period. The complete text was published only abroad, in an Italian version. In the last years of his life, Adrian Marino had preoccupations prevalently related to ideology. The project which began with the sketch about censorship was continued in Libertate şi cenzură în România. Începuturi (Liberty and Censorship in Romania. Beginnings), which represents in fact an extension of the study over a complementary theme, namely, the history of the liberal ideology within the Romanian domain. Intended as the opening volume of a synthesis about the freedom of thinking, this writing encompasses a period of time from the beginnings to the first decades of the 19th century. The next two volumes, which would have presented the consolidation of the liberal ideology after 1848 and the confrontation between liberalism and the rightist and leftist forms
1 Adrian Marino, Cenzura în România (Censorship in Romania), Craiova, Aius Publishing House, 2000, pp. 70–81.
203 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 of totalitarianism, were not finalized due to the author’s death in March 2005. The work of Adrian Marino, written mostly during the communist period, sets an example of cultural independence from the political power. It is an individual solution that undermined the anti- intellectualism promoted by the perfidious institutional circles of those times. His ideological works published after 1989 are confessions about the relationship between culture and power in the communist era, they present an alternative approach to the situation of Romanian literature under the totalitarian regime.
204 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Idea and Tradition of Europe in the Light of Its Own History
István FEHÉR M. Department of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy, “Eötvös Loránd” University, Budapest
Keywords: European tradition, historical determination, united Europe, European values, philosophy, Herder, “europäische Republik”, Kant’s vision of Europe, Rorty, globalization, Gadamer, reflexive discussion, Hegel, freedom, Marxism, secularized eschatology, Heidegger, Husserl, European crisis
Abstract The paper gives a short panorama of the tradition and philosophical history of the idea of Europe. It presents different phases of the discussion about Europe – discussion that usually emerged in the periods of radical social-political re-arrangements, crisis or insecurity of the European values – from Greek culture, through Bayle’s République des Lettres or Kant’s and Hegel’s writings, to Postmodern philosophers such as Gadamer, Heidegger and Rorty who had to face the problems that occurred after the geographical, political unification of Europe in the 1990s. The study raises the questions: What does the concept of Europe mean? Where was it born, and what are the perspectives for it? What are the characteristics of European culture? On what principles has the European Union been built? It argues that Europe and philosophy organically belong together, for Europe itself can be regarded as a philosophical idea.
E-mail: [email protected]
I. Theoretical discussions on Europe or on some specifically European tradition – as any kind of theoretic discussion independent of its subject matter in general – are mostly characterized by being influenced by their given historical context. The motivational background and the general tone of the disputes vary throughout the ages. The very fact that we are talking today about Europe, about specific European values or traditions is surely the result of specific historical conditions. The disappearance of Europe’s Yalta-division occurring at the end of the
205 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 eighties brought as a historical event within reach the perspective of Eastern and Western Europe joining together, and gave new impulse, in the following decade, to the unification-process that had already been active in Western Europe for decades. Consequently, the approaching perspective of Europe unifying and united, raised, in the middle of the unification process, a number of issues with renewed topicality; not in the last place the question related to the idea of the unifying Europe–an idea not necessarily geographically intended. After Europe seemed to become geographically united the question arose whether there was anything else beside the geographical element common to this area now being unified? Until this very day, the discussion about Europe has undergone different phases. Thereby it generally emerged in periods of radical social-political re-arrangements, crisis or insecurity regarding values claimed to be specifically European. In the following I shall briefly refer to some phases of this dispute.
II. The idea of the unity of Europe’s is not new: we can encounter it in different ways and different contexts throughout the history of Europe. This idea comes predominantly to the fore in the age of Enlightenment. One of its characteristic representations is the notion of the republic of learned men, scholars and erudite persons, namely the République des Lettres conceived by Bayle, which was meant to connect scholars from different countries and really maintained the contact between the majority of European intellectuals of the age. Herder spoke about a “European Republic” (“europäische Republik“) in this context. He thought that “in Europe the totality of learned men constitutes a state of their own”1. These scholars, he argued, “form a chain of interconnected links throughout the progress of time”, “some kind of an invisible church, even in those places where they have not heard about each other at all. The common spirit of the enlightened and enlightening Europe is inextinguishable”, sounded his optimistic prophecy.2 Enlightenment, however, was more than a concern of learned men. It did not remain a mere intellectual movement. “Apart from all these, Enlightenment aimed at chieving a complete reform of social conditions and
1 Johann Gottfried Herder, Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit, hrsg. von Heinz Stolpe, Berlin und Weimar, Aufbau, 1965, Bd. 2, pp. 260, 40. 2 Johann Gottfried Herder, Briefe zur Beförderung der Humanität, hrsg. von Heinz Stolpe in Zusammenarbeit mit Hans-Joachim Kruse und Dietrich Simon, Berlin und Weimar, Aufbau, 1971, Bd. 1, p. 81.
206 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 human life.” It “emerged with the claim to lay anew the foundations of social-communal existence by surpassing the theological-religious backgrounds, in the effect of promoting public welfare through commerce and agriculture, through the improvement of judicial affairs and the consolidation of infrastructure. […] Enlightenment was a comprenhensive, all-European phenomenon, […] and ultimately it can only be interpreted and analyzed in a cross-European context”.1 Against this background it is no surprise that a scholar, a “learned man” such as Immanuel Kant – in fact one of the greatest minds of the Enlightenment – attempted to conceive of “the whole of Europe” as a “single federal state”, not merely on a cultural, but on a political level as well.2 Kant called “such a union of different countries a permanent state- congress”.3 At the same time he confined its jurisdiction within well- defined limits by restricting it in this way: “Nevertheless here a congress represents an arbitrary and at all times dissolvable meeting of different states and not a constitution-based connection (such as in the case of the American states) [...].“4 As can be seen, Kant manifestly supported the idea of Europe as “a single federal state”, but disagreed to a large extent about its constitutional establishment. His disagreement follows from reasons of principle. According to him, a constitution had only sense in association
1 Richard von Dülmen, “Ende der ’selbtstverschuldeten Unmündigkeit’: Das Zeitalter der Aufkärung”, Idem, Kultur und Alltag in der Frühen Neuzeit., Bd. 3: Religion, Magie, Aufklärung, München, 1994, 212. See Europa. Ein historisches Lesebuch, hrsg. Wolfgang Behringer, München, 1999, p. 169. (Italics are mine: F.M.I.) 2 I. Kant, Die Metaphysik der Sitten. Erster Teil. Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Rechtslehre. Des öffentlichen Rechts zweiter Abschnitt. Das Völkerrecht, § 61. Kant, Werke in zwölf Bänden, Werkausgabe, (hereafter: WA), hrsg. von Wilhelm Weischedel, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, 1977, Bd. 8, p. 475. In Hungarian see: Az erkölcsök metafizikája (The Metaphysic of Morals), in: Kant, Az erkölcsök metafizikájának alapvetése. A gyakorlati ész kritikája. Az erkölcsök metafi- zikája, (Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. The Critique of Practical Reason. The Metaphysics of Morals), transl. Berényi Gábor, Budapest, Gondolat, 1991, p. 459. (Italics are mine F.M.I.) This perspective defined in Kant’s view the “majority of ministers in the European courts” “in the first half of the 16th century at the meeting of the general orders of society held in Hague” (ibid.). 3 Cited from the German Edition, p. 474, see in the cited Hungarian edition p. 458. 4 Cited from the German Edition, p. 475, see in the cited Hungarian edition p. 458.
207 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 with one single state, understood in terms of one “moral person”. Whereas an “alliance of nations” was not far from Kant’s federalist perspective, a “state of nations” most certainly was.1
1 See Kant: Zum ewigen Frieden. Ein philosophischer Entwurf, A 7; WA, Bd. 11, p. 197. In Hungarian: Kant, Az örök békéről (Perpetual Peace), transl. Mesterházi Miklós, in: Kant, Történetfilozófiai írások (Writings on Philosophy of History), Budapest, Ictus, 1996, p. 258. “It is a society of men whom no one else has any right to command or to dispose except the state itself. It is a trunk with its own roots. But to incorporate it into another state, like a graft, is to destroy its existence as a moral person, reducing it to a thing; such incorporation thus contradicts the idea of the original contract without which no right over people can be conceived.” (Italics are mine F.M.I.) Cf. A 28 (ibid., 208. hg. resp. quoted Hungarian transl., 269.): “Second definitive article for a perpetual peace “The Law of Nations Shall be Founded on a Federation of Free States”; – Peoples, as states, like individuals, may be judged to injure one another merely by their coexistence in the state of nature (i.e., while independent of external laws). Each of them, may and should for the sake of its own security demand that the others enter with it into a constitution similar to the civil constitution, for under such a constitution each can be secure in his right. This would be a league of nations, but it would not have to be a state consisting of nations. That would be contradictory, since a state implies the relation of a superior (legislating) to an inferior (obeying), i.e., the people, and many nations in one state would then constitute only one nation. This contradicts the presupposition, for here we have to weigh the rights of nations against each other so far as they are distinct states and not amalgamated into one.” (Italics are mine: F.M.I.). Above all, we should act on Kant’s doctrinal consideration: “The idea of international law presupposes the separate existence of many independent but neighbouring states. Although this condition is itself a state of war (unless a federative union prevents the outbreak of hostilities), this is rationally preferable to the amalgamation of states under one superior power, as this would end in one universal monarchy, and laws always lose in vigour what government gains in extent; hence a soulless despotism falls into anarchy after stifling the seeds of the law. Nevertheless, every state, or its ruler, desires to establish lasting peace in this way, aspiring if possible to rule the whole world. But nature wills otherwise. She employs two means to separate peoples and to prevent them from mixing: differences of language and of religion. These differences involve a tendency to mutual hatred and pretexts for war, but the progress of civilization and men's gradual approach to greater harmony in their principles finally leads to peaceful agreement. This is not like that peace which despotism (in the burial ground of freedom) produces through a weakening of all powers; it is, on the contrary, produced and maintained by their equilibrium in liveliest competition.” (62; ibid., 225 hg., resp. 285. hg.; Italics are mine: F.M.I.).[The English translation of the excerpts from Kant’s text is taken from the following site:
208 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
III. Europe’s unification process was initiated after the Second World War under the influence of recent atrocious historical experience and inheritance and, in order to prevent wars and ensure peace in the future, unification was set in motion in terms of an international economic process. Indeed, economic and political instances remained its promoters and carriers up to this day. In opposition to the Enlightenment, there can be no question here of the simultaneous unfolding and development of some ideological movement with the re-founding of communitarian existence. “The starting point was inherent in the economic sphere, where the marketing processes develop their dynamics.”1 Could it be possible – we may ask here – that, in spite of the collapse of communism that had meanwhile taken place, the thesis (claimed to be outdated and regarded as having been settled for good) according to which existence precedes and determines consciousness, or, in our case, the economic basis precedes and determines legal and political super-structure, has not fully lost its validity? This question may legitimately be asked especially if we direct our attention upon the process running parallel with the unification of Europe, namely, the process of globalization assimilating the entire planet; globalization that “establishes beyond the traditional national control of markets, an international control as well”, while it “is becoming more and more emancipated [...] from under political regulation and is globally expanding.” 2 Richard Rorty, one of the leading philosophers of our days, wrote that if the “formation of hereditary castes,” begun in the eighties, “continues unimpeded, and if the pressures of globalization create such castes not only in the United States but in all the old democracies, we shall end up in some kind of an Orwellian world” – in a world in which „there may be no supranational analogue of Big Brother, or any official creed [...]. But there will be an analogue of the Inner Party – namely, the international, cosmopolitan super-rich”–, while the job of intellectuals like Rorty himself „will be to make sure that the decisions made by the Inner Party are carried out smoothly and efficiently”, to keep „the proles http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/kant/kant1.htm (The translator.)] 1 Rüdiger Bubner, “Was wird aus der Verfassung Europas?“ (in Eine Verfassung für Europa, 2. aktualisierte und erw. Auflage, hrsg. K. Beckmann, J. Dieringer, U. Hufeld, Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2005, p. 97). 2 Rüdiger Bubner, Polis und Staat. Grundlinien der Politischen Philosophie, Frankfurt/Main, Suhrkamp, 2002, p. 171.
209 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 quiet”, and „to keep up the pretense that national politics might someday make a difference.”1 Rorty goes on to make the point somewhat further: „It is no comfort to those in danger of being immiserated by globalization to be told that, since national governments are now irrelevant, we must think up a replacement for such governments.” Although the nation-state has ceased to be „the elemental unit of capitalism,” it nevertheless „remains the entity which makes decisions about social benefits, and thus about social justice.”2 In his latest book that appeared at the millenary turn, Rorty has brought up the question again. He says here that „the central fact of globalization is that the econemic situation of the citizens of a nation state has passed beyond the control of the laws of that state. [...] We now have a global overclass which makes all the major economic decisions, and makes them in entire independence of the legislatures, and a fortiori of the will of the voters, of any given country. The money accumulated by this overclass is as easily used for illegal purposes [...] as it is for legal ones. The absence of a global polity means that the super- rich can operate without any thought of any interests save their own.3 In his study discussing features common to the New Testament and the Communist Manifesto, Rorty claims that both texts teach us the susceptibility to inequality, and nourish our trust in the future. Both want to encourage us. They are „expressions of hope” and do not aim at putting forward claims to knowledge. Christianity and Socialism – both denote the same subject matter, therefore an idea such as “Christian socialism” sounds almost as a pleonasm: “nowadays you cannot hope for the fraternity which the Gospels preach without hoping that democratic goverments will redistribute money and opportunity in a way that the market never will.”4
IV. Even if we put aside its relation to globalization, the fact cannot be doubted: the realistic emerging perspective of Europe’s geographical- political unification as a historical development has brought on the question: is there beyond the geographical element something else that
1 Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country. The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in the History of American Civilization, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1998, pp. 86f. 2 Ibid., p. 98. 3 Richard Rorty, Philosophy and Social Hope, London – New York: Penguin Books, 2000, p. 233. 4 Ibid., pp. 201ff. quote p. 205.
210 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 keeps this land together? In what way should we view the idea of Europe? The idea that – due to political changes – seems to have taken the place of the word “West”, which had similar connotations at the beginning of the century. And which, as soon as it appeared, was surrounded by perplexity. In his article entitled “Vom Wort zum Begriff” from 1995, Hans-Georg Gadamer – reflecting on the history of our century – states the following: “Today the word West does not sound as modern as it used to in my youth when Oswald Spengler was actually declaring its decline. Nowadays people speak rather about Europe instead, however in this respect no one actually knows how and what it will be; we only know at best how we would like it to be.”1 The extent to which the changes initiated by the political processes influenced people’s minds is well displayed in Gadamer’s opening address at the 1989 Heidegger- symposium in Budapest: “The first significant step we are taking today,” he said, “consists in the fact that an awakening Europe becomes absorbed in conversation with herself.” These words mirror the hermeneutical conception of Europe as an unfinished and unfinishable conversation with itself, a conversation which is continuously striving towards infinity.2 A conversation is obviously something polyphonic, with many interlocutors; and the different voices – criticizing, complementing each other, and arguing with one another – do not merge into a monolithic element. The perplexity in Gadamer’s voice is far from being a coincidence. This can be explained to a considerable extent by the above- mentioned claim that this process has economical-political origins, its ideological background and motivation is rather obscure or opaque. Therefore investigation is all the more important. The last phase of the debates regarding Europe, as has previously been claimed, started to develop around the early nineties.
1 H.-G. Gadamer, “Vom Wort zum Begriff. Die Aufgabe der Hermeneutik als Philosophie” (1995), in: Gadamer Lesebuch, hrsg. J. Grondin, Tübingen, Mohr, 1997, p. 100. 2 H.-G. Gadamer, “Grußwort an das Symposium“, in: Wege und Irrwege des neueren Umganges mit Heideggers Werk. Ein deutsch-ungarisches Symposium, ed. I. M. Fehér, Berlin, Duncker & Humblot, 1991, p. 16.; in Hungarian: “A szümpózium köszöntése” (Welcoming the Symposium), in: Utak és tévutak. A budapesti Heidegger-konferencia előadásai (Right and Erroneous Ways. The Lectures of the Budapest Heidegger Conference), ed. Fehér M. István, Budapest, Atlantisz, 1991, p. 20.
211 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Around that time, from among the numerous publications and editions on the theme of the European unification, the works presenting the issue from an intellectual-cultural point of view were fairly frequent. However, in the second half of the nineties the number of these writings – as well as the enthusiastic-optimistic tone chareacteristic of themir approach – started to drop significantly. One of these works was the volume The History of the Idea of Europe edited by Kevin Wilson and Jan van der Dussen. In its preface the editors drew up the following questions: What kind of Europe are we building and why? What is the relation between this new Europe and the European history and experience? Are there specifically European values? Is there some kind of a coherent recognizable European identity? What does Europe mean, and what does it mean to be European? In order to answer all these questions it may be useful for us to turn towards the European history, in order to find in it a sort of European-ness.1 In the following I am going to present some essential propositions of this book. First of all it is essential to remind of the fact that the idea of Europe has actually emerged after the French Revolution – this confirms what I mentioned under point II. In the preceding period we could only talk about Europe in geographical terms. It was associated with the idea of freedom in the Greek culture, with Christianity in the 15th century, with the politics of the balance of power in the 16th, and it was interconnected with the notion of civilization in the 18th century. This idea of Europe, articulated along the notions of freedom, Christianity, civilization, sometimes vanished for centuries. We can speak about its more permanent presence only in the past two centuries. The notion of the European cultural history as an idea arises in the early 19th century. All the different political and religious currents of the early 19th century (reactionaries and conservatives, Catholics and Protestants, liberals and democrats) created their view concerning Europe’s historical development, with which different requirements and ideals were associated. Thus the ideals of freedom and Christianity were projected back into the distant past and were subjected to elaborate examination, while civilization became more or less a synonym for progress.2 Let us remind here, only in relation to Christianity, of Novalis’s famous work entitled Die Christenheit oder Europa, which begins with the following
1 The History of the Idea of Europe, eds. K. Wilson, Jan van der Dussen, London & New York, Routledge, 2nd, revised edition, 1995, (first ed.: 1993), p. 9. 2 Pim den Boer, “Europe to 1914: The Making of an Idea”, in: The History of the Idea of Europe, p. 14.
212 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 lines: “Those were beautiful, lofty times when Europe was a Christian land, when one Christendom inhabited this humanly fashioned part of the world; one grand common interest bound the most distant provinces of the wide spiritual realm”.1 Reading these lines we can recognize the typical Christianizing, past-oriented romanticist world of the early 19th century. The expression “Europe”, as indicated in The History of the Idea of Europe, is not to be found in the Bible.2 It is worthy to add some complementary thoughts to the argumentation of The History of the Idea of Europe. Firstly, it is notable that not only Romanticism, but also contemporary German idealism connected European spiritual life to the Christian idea, putting the accent in Christianity upon the thought of the freedom of the individual identified with her intellectual, spiritual essence. For Hegel, philosophy is the result of the intellect, of free thinking,3 and “the particular aspect” of philosophy “is coeval with the particular aspect of those people, in the circle of whom it appears, with their constitution, government, ethos, social life, […] and religion.”4 Philosophy is the conceptually manifested self-consciousness, or the gaining self-awareness, of world history; this latter culminating in the German Christian world that emphasizes the independence and internal freedom of the individual. As such, it presupposes the basic nature of culture: freedom of thought does not exist without political, religious-conscientious freedom, and without being aware of the infinite value of the individual. In his lectures on the philosophy of history, Hegel emphasizes this distinctive feature: “European humanity […] appears by nature as the freer” he writes: “the principle of the freedom of the individual […] became the principle of the European state life”.5 Although the “European spirit has spent its youth in Greece”, the “phase of intimacy
1 Novalis, Fragmente und Studien. Die Christenheit oder Europa, hrsg. C. Paschek, Stuttgart, Reclam, 1984, p. 67. 2 Pim den Boer, “Europe to 1914: The Making of an Idea”, in: The History of the Idea of Europe, p. 19. 3 Hegel, Előadások a filozófia történetéről (Lectures on the History of Philosophy), transl. Szemere Samu, I. vol., Budapest, Academic Publishing House, 1977, vol. I. p. 21.; cf. pp. 37. ff. 4 Ibid., p. 59. 5 G.W.F. Hegel: Előadások a világtörténet filozófiájáról (Lectures on the Philosophy of World History), transl. Szemere Samu, Budapest: Academic Publishing House, 1979, p. 191.
213 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
[…] is missing at the Greeks”.1 “The principle of Christian religion is the subjective insight”.2 “Man will only become real as a spiritual being, if he overcomes his naturalness.”3 Freedom of religion and conscience, citizen autonomy, the independence of thinking, its being-by-itself, as well as individuality as a value in itself: these conceptual elements complexly intersect one another according to Hegel. The freedom taht Hegel has in mind does not overlook the general; that is, it is not seen to coincide with what is arbitrary, uncontrolled or unmotivated. In this respect Hegel – in spite of all the otherwise existing and not at all irrelevant differences – fundamentally is connected to Kant. For Kant freedom made sense and significance only in regard to morality; freedom torn away from morality did not receive any special attention from Kant.4 Moreover: Kant – being the philosopher of the community of citizens respecting each other and who are obedient to the commonly adopted laws – only took a scornful notice (if he noticed it at all) of freedom uncommitted to ethics and reason, as well as of freedom that is above the laws of man: this is
1 Ibid., pp. 412., 573. 2 Ibid., p. 609.; cf. also ibid., p. 640. 3 Ibid., p.650. 4 I shall only mention two characteristic examples. When in his main work, in the Critique of Pure Reason Kant introduces the concept of freedom, he writes the following: “If we grant that morality necessarily presupposes freedom [...] as a property of our will; [...] and if at the same time we grant that speculative reason has proved that such freedom does not allow being thought, then [...] freedom, and with it morality, would have to yield to the mechanism of nature.” (Kritik der reinen Ver- nunft, B XXII; see A tiszta ész kritikája, transl. Alexander Bernát and Bánóczi József, Budapest, Academic Publishing House, 1981, p. 19.; new publ. transl. Kis János, Budapest: Ictus, 1995, p. 41. English translation by Norman Kemp-Smith http://hermes.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Philosophy/Kant/cpr/02pref-b.htm) It appears that Kant is exclusively interested in freedom as the condition of morality. In other words, Kant is in fact interested in morality; and in freedom only because morality is impossible without freedom. See also in the Critique of Practical Reason: “Freedom, however, is the only one of all the ideas of the speculative reason of which we know the possibility a priori [...], because it is the condition of the moral law” “[...] had not the moral law been previously distinctly thought in our reason, we should never consider ourselves justified in assuming such a thing as freedom.” (see Kant, Az erkölcsök metafizikájának alapvetése. A gyakorlati ész kritikája. Az erkölcsök metafi- zikája, transl. Berényi Gábor, Budapest, Gondolat, 1991, p. 106. English translations by Thomas Kingsmill Abbott http://www.4literature.net/Immanuel_Kant/Critique_of_Practical_Reason/.)
214 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 nothing but “lawless freedom”, “the freedom of combat”, “rudeness”, “degradation of humanity”.1 If for Kant morality means that we subject ourselves to the moral law and thus it involves subjection, fulfilment of obligations, duties, then this was accepted also by Hegel in his own way. He went so far as to state: “freedom is only possible through obedience”.2 This kind of obedience was at the same time very much distinguished from blind submission. “In such obedience man is free,” he wrote articulately coming back to the issue of freedom, “because particularity is obedient to generality. Man himself has a conscience and therefore he must be free to be obedient”.3 It has become of use to speak about European culture as a culture crucially (positively or negatively, but in any case) determined by the Jewish-Christian tradition. And it might also be relevant to refer here to the fact that atheism is and remains to be a specifically European phenomenon; it could only emerge on the base of Christianity. Man’s domination over nature and the subjection of nature is also a project with biblical origin. Max Weber has shown essential parallels between Protestantism and the spirit of capitalism. In European culture despite all kinds of secularization the Jewish-Christian tradition remained to be of fundamental importance. People could turn into atheists or become religiously disinterested: the habit, the mentality, the morality, outlook upon life and the philosophy of life (with or without the transcendent grounding) show common features. In opposition to the static-cyclic time perception of Greek and Oriental cultures and religions, the linear- eschatological time perception, as well as ideas such as: the uniqueness and non-repetitive character of history, the importance of individuality, the infinite value of the individual/individual soul (immortality of the individual soul), human equality (the equality of man in front of God and later on in front of the law) and man’s freedom (his having been created
1 Kant, Az örök békéről (Perpetual Peace), transl. Mesterházi Miklós. In Kant: Történetfilozófiai írások (Works on Philosophy of History), Budapest, Ictus, 1996, p. 270.: “When we see the attachment of savages to their lawless freedom, preferring ceaseless combat to subjection to a lawful constraint which they might establish, and thus preferring senseless freedom to rational freedom, we regard it with deep contempt as barbarity, rudeness, and a brutish degradation of humanity.” (Italics are mine: F.M.I.); also cf. ibid., p. 273. English translation from http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/PS4173/Kant.htm. 2 Hegel, Előadások a világtörténet filozófiájáról, p. 573. 3 Ibid., p. 705.
215 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 to be free to choose between right and wrong) are by all means distinctive features of the Christian tradition. This tradition defined European culture at the core and permeated it even where history in secularized forms aimed at some worldly target, or where – like, e.g., in the case of the French Revolution – the ideas of equality and freedom (ideas otherwise also rooted in the Christian idea of fraternity) came to be expressed in a sharply reinterpreted judicial-political form. The industrial revolution, the natural sciences, the technical development, the prosperity of free commerce, individualism, liberalism, positivism, the thought of progression, have often been indicated – and sometimes without any praise or enthusiasm – as phenomena inherent in and intrinsic to the Jewish-Christian tradition or of secularized forms of this tradition. The numerous historical manifestations of utopian socialism, Marxism and social democracy – as the offspring of the early Christian idea of equality – do not represent an exception either; on the contrary, they thoroughly fit into this tradition. Inasmuch as these were combined with atheism, anti- religiousness, the reason lay less in objections as to the subject matter than in the way of comportment. This as was the case for example with Marxism which opposed religion mainly on grounds of ideology- criticism, namely the role which religion played in the political- ideological justification of the actual social order. Marxism can be regarded as the manifestation of the early Christian social-communistic idea, and it cannot be fully understood without tracing it back to the Christian context1 – first of all to eschatology. The motivation of the component of religion-criticism is unequivocally the apologetic- ideological function of religion. Marx did not want to terminate the (Hegelian) philosophy identified with religion; he rather wanted to carry it out. Marxism is a secularized eschatology and as such is part and parcel of European-Christian thought. Marx inquired after the realization of the civilian-Christian ideas; his dispute was carried out against the background of the same ideas. He did not argue with the ideas, he was rather concerned with they way they have come (or have not come) to fruition; in any case, he was also animated by these same ideas. The Marxist (earthly) realm of freedom is the radicalization of Enlightenment thought of human freedom and equality; and both notions date back to Christianity. Man was created free by God, as the outstanding figure of renaissance Platonism Pico della Mirandola has vividly explained in his
1 Bertrand Russel discovers quite detailed correspondences between the two (see A History of Western Philosophy, London, Allen and Unwin, 1947, p. 383.).
216 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 work entitled De hominis dignitate; man’s dignity lies in the fact that man – in opposition to other creations which have a predetermined place in the order of creation – is endowed with free will regarding his place and fate. Belonging to, and commitment to, the cultural heritage of the Jewish- Christian tradition and its secularized version has been – and still is – a tacit ingredient of the idea of Europe.
V. The name of Europe as a continent falls into the obscurity of the past. In the 5th century B.C. Herodotus wrote that he did not know why the world was thought to be made up of three parts and that these three continents – Asia, Africa and Europe – bore women names. Such division of the world goes back to ancient times. In Greek mythology, Europe is the daughter of a Phoenician king. Zeus falls in love with her, changes into a bull, takes her to Crete, takes up human shape and begets three sons from her. The rape of Europe became one of the favourite recurrent themes of literary creations and visual art works, starting from the Greeks through the Renaissance and Baroque up to the modern times. At the end of the 19th century the enhancing crisis of liberal culture created some kind of a European consciousness, European identity in the sense that scholars realized this culture was endangered and was approacing a crisis. The debate on the issue of Europe broke out at the turn of the century with the participation of thinkers such as F. Nietzsche, G. Simmel, Ortega y Gasset, Paul Valéry, E. Husserl, M. Heidegger.1 The crisis of liberal culture and the trauma of World War I gave rise to new approaches, projects and searches for solutions. Among these we must emphasize Friedrich Naumann’s Central-Europe plan that maximally revived the conceptions of idealism and people’s rights to autonomy. In Naumann’s view, the constrained Germanization of the Central-European nations was definitely damaging, harmful, and useless. He was exemplarily tolerant towards the various nations and ethnicities. He even praised Jews for transmitting and teaching the correct approach to good cooperation in business and work. The Jews and the smaller nations, noticed Naumann, have fought loyally in war and therefore deserve respect. He went as far as suggesting or presuming a kind of a Central-European identity.2
1 Pim den Boer, “Europe to 1914: The Making of an Idea”, in: The History of the Idea of Europe, p. 19. 2 Peter Bugge, “The Nation Supreme: The Idea of Europe 1914–1945”, in: The History of the Idea of Europe, p. 92.
217 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The History of the Idea of Europe does not reach ultimately a definite, unitary conclusion. Europe – if it can be defined at all – may be described as something that is "unity in diversity". Europe always appears as the continent that never submitted to any one ruler, as the continent that has never been content with final truths and steadily continued to question, make researches and to debate: Europe remained self-critical, obtaining thus a unique dynamism. Europe’s basic paradox is that it does not contain some exclusively European essence.1 At this point it is worth returning to Gadamer’s views. The above presented idea that Europe has never been reunited under the rule of a single ruler or dominated by a single religion or ideology was emphasized in Gadamer’s writings in the last two decades. In a lecture held in 1985 – before the political changes –, which was characteristically entitled Die Vielfalt Europas, Gadamer reminded: “Only in Europe are such intellectual activities as science, art, religion and philosophy differentiated. Who can tell whether Tsuang-Tse or any other Chinese sage, was a religious man, a savant, a thinker or a poet?”2 Gadamer returned to the same thought in a lecture held in the early nineties saying that in fact it is purely arbitrary whether we denominate the conversation between a Chinese sage and his disciple philosophy, religion or poetry.3 He has also equally accentuated Europe’s multilinguism in both these lectures. In the former he emphasized the natural languages and the natural language communities according to his hermeneutical perspective, considering the emergence of a universal language undesirable. In the latter he commented critically upon the answer which a responsible director in the East-German provinces gave to the question, “What language should be thought in schools?” The answer sounded: “Nothing’s easier – computer language!”4 Even if Gadamer has emphatically referred to the characteristically European difference of the intellectual activities, to the autonomy of science, art, religion and philosophy from one another, he nevertheless reminded us in his former lecture that philosophy is closely
1 Ibid., p. 11. 2 H.-G. Gadamer, Die Vielfalt Europas. Erbe und Zukunft, Stuttgart, Robert Bosch Stiftung, 1985, p. 14. 3 H.-G. Gadamer, “Europa und die Oikoumene“, in: Europa und die Philosophie, pp. 67–86., here p. 68. See the reprint in Gadamer, Hermeneutik im Rückblick. Gesammelte Werke (herafter: GW) Bd. 10, Tübingen, Mohr, 1995, pp. 267–284. 4 Die Vielfalt Europas, p. 30; “Europa und die Oikoumene“, in: Europa und die Philosophie, pp. 78f.
218 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 interconnected with our European civilization. For philosophy, in the widest sense of theoria, is a collective term for science as such. Even Newton’s famous work, which made him the father of modern physics, even this work had the title Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica, i.e. the mathematical principles of natural philosophy – reminded Gadamer. In our Western culture philosophy was connected to science from the beginning. “This is the novelty that resulted in the unity of Europe”, and which, proceeding from the scientificculture that had come into being in Europe, determined in several important respects in its irradiance the situation of world civilization up to this day, said Gadamer in the middle of the eighties.1 Gadamer’s claim that despite any subsequent separation and differentiation, philosophy and culture organically belong together in the process of European culture has a long and honourable tradition. Gadamer’s own mentors – Husserl and Heidegger – had also variously formulated this claim. The idea that Europe and philosophy organically belong together, that Europe’s exclusive differentiating characteristic is philosophy,2 and that therefore Europe’s essence is constituted by philosophy, is strongly articulated within the life-work of both thinkers, even if their method of defining philosophy shows characteristic differences from time to time. Both Husserl and Heidegger were inspired by the historical moment. In accordance with the intellectual climate of the interwar period, similarly to the numerous diagnoses of this period, they both expanded on Europe’s deepening crisis, and searched for a way out. In a certain way, it is Europe’s salvation that is at stake for both of them. The attempt to return to the origins is generally the sign of a crisis; and it is motivated by the wish to pursue, re-discover the endangered, basically threatened, and disrupted identity. In the Letter on Humanism written directly after the World War II, Heidegger states the following: “But the western world is not thought of here just regionally as the Occident, as distinguished from the Orient, not merely as Europe, but rather world-historically in terms of its intimacy with the source (of the Western world).”3
1 Die Vielfalt Europas, p. 13. 2 See for example “Europa und die Oikoumene“, in: Europa und die Philosophie, p. 67 : “Philosophy was absolutely created in Europe”. 3 “Brief über den »Humanismus«“, in: M. Heidegger: Wegmarken, Gesamtausgabe, Bd. 9, hrsg. F.-W. von Herrmann, Frankfurt/Main: Klostermann, 1976, p. 338.: “Allein auch das Abendland ist nicht regional als Occident im Unterschied zum
219 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
That Europe’s exclusive distinctive characteristic is philosophy, may be expressed in the fact that Europe itself can be regarded as a directly philosophical idea. The typical example here is Husserl, who in his 1935 lecture entitled “Philosophy and the Crisis of European Man” was urged by the experience of progressing crisis to explore the “philosophical-historical idea of European man”.1 It will be useful to quote somewhat longer from Husserl’s investigations: “We may ask,” Husserl wrote “ ‘How is the spiritual image [geistige Gestalt] of Europe to be characterized?’ This does not mean Europe geographically, [...] as though European man were to be in this way confined to the circle of those who live together in this territory. [...] Clearly the title Europe designates the unity of a spiritual life and a creative activity – with all its aims, interests, cares and troubles, with its plans, its establishments, its institutions. [...] ‘The spiritual image of Europe’ – what is it? It is exhibiting the philosophical idea immanent in the history of Europe (of spiritual Europe). To put it another way, it is its immanent teleology, which, if we consider mankind in general, manifests itself as a new human epoch emerging and beginning to grow”.2 “Spiritually Europe has a birthplace. By this I do not mean a geographical place, in some one land [...]. I refer, rather, to a spiritual birthplace in a nation or in certain men or groups of men belonging to this nation. It is the ancient Greek nation in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. In it there grows up a new kind of attitude of individuals toward their environing world. As a consequence, there emerges a completely new type of spiritual structure, rapidly growing into a systematically rounded cultural form that the Greeks called philosophy. Correctly translated, in its original sense, this means nothing but universal science, science of the world as a whole, of the universal unity of all beings. [...] In the
Orient gedacht, nicht bloß als Europa, sondern weltgeschichtlich aus der Nähe zum Ursprung“ (Italics are mine: F.M.I.). (English translation by Miles Groth. http://www.wagner.edu/departments/psychology/filestore2/download/101/Martin HeideggerLETTER_ON_HUMANISM.pdf) 1 E. Husserl, “Az európai emberiség válsága és a filozófia” (Philosophy and the Crisis of European Mankind), in: Husserl, Válogatott tanulmányai (Collected Works), Budapest, Gondolat Publishing House, 1972, p. 323. (All the quotations from this work are taken from Quentin Lauer’s English translation. http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/husserl_philcris.html) 2 E. Husserl, “Az európai emberiség válsága és a filozófia”, p. 329.
220 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 emergence of philosophy in this sense, a sense, that is, which includes all sciences, I see [...] the original phenomenon of spiritual Europe.”1 Europe’s philosophical-historical idea, the idea of the spiritual Europe urged Husserl to probe into the origins of this idea. This he localizes within the new orientation created by the Greeks: philosophy. Philosophy means a theoretical comportment, living for the truth, through which “a new kind of supranational condition could arise”.2 Two years before Husserl’s lecture, Heidegger in his rectorial address had similarly claimed that “[...] the beginning of our spiritual-historical existence [...] is the departure, the setting out [Aufbruch], of Greek philosophy. Here, for the first time, Western man [der abendländische Mensch] rises up, from a base in a popular culture [Volkstum] and by means of his language, against the totality of what is and questions and comprehends it as the being that it is. All science is philosophy, whether it knows and wills it – or not. All science remains bound to that beginning of philosophy. From it science draws the strength of its essence, assuming that it still remains at all equal to this beginning.”3 As we can see, Heidegger, similarly to Husserl, connects philosophy to sciences, tracing philosophy back to the Greeks. (In the latter respect it is plausible to assume the retroaction of Heidegger’s thoughts to the old Husserl.) Beside these basic parallels, some rather significant differences also emerge between Husserl and Heidegger, to which it will not be useless to refer. According to Husserl “the European crisis has its roots in a mistaken rationalism”; he thought that “the form of development given to ratio in the rationalism of the Enlightenment was an aberration”, which resulted in “what has become for man an unbearable unclarity regarding
1 Ibid., p. 332. 2 Ibid., p. 351. I attempted to investigate the questions regarding Europe’s “spiritual image” against a more detailed historical background in my study entitled “»Die geistige Gestalt Europas« – was ist das?“; see Von der Idee zum Konvent. Eine interdisziplinäre Betrachtung des europäischen Integrationsprozesses, hrsg. J. Dieringer, S. Okruch (Andrássy-Schriftenreihe, Bd. 3), Budapest: s. a. [2005], pp. 17–33. 3 “A német egyetem önmegnyilatkozása” (The Self-Asserion of the German University), in: M. Heidegger, Az idő fogalma. A német egyetem önmegnyilatko- zása. A rektorátus (The Concept of Time. The Self-Assertion of the German University. The Rectorate) 1933/34, Budapest, Kossuth Publishing House, 1992, p. 63. (English translation from the following edition: Gunther Neske and Emil Kettering (eds.), Martin Heidegger and National Socialism, New York, Paragon House, 1990. http://www.eco.utexas.edu/~hmcleave/350kPEEHeideggerSelf- Assertion.pdf )
221 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 his own existence and his infinite tasks”. According to Heidegger the aberration, or deviation, had been committed much earlier, by the Greeks. Heidegger grasped this also as a kind of forgetting, but differently from Husserl. It was for him not a self-oblivious rationalism, or the self- oblivion of rationalism, but the forgetting of being: man had forgotten the Being. Husserl had placed his trust in some kind of renewed, some new kind of rationalism, rationalism which underwent a (transcendental phenomenological) self-awareness. However, this could not become a way out for Heidegger. On the contrary: the concepts of ratio and rationalism required a critical re-examination ensuing from their fundaments. But in spite of this not at all irrelevant difference, there is another common trait relating the two thinkers to each other. Husserl tended to think that his philosophy could only operate against the crisis and in the service of a spiritual rebirth. He envisaged his philosophy “in the form of a science whose scope is universal, wherein an entirely new scientific thinking is established in which every conceivable question, whether of being, of norm, or of so-called 'existence', finds its place.”1 Similarly, Heidegger’s own intellectual efforts – despite all his reserve towards the Husserlian rhetoric regarding scientism, intellectual teleology, or rationalism and spirit –, the renewed questioning concerning the meaning of being carried, in his self-understanding, the hope of a solution. According to the old Husserl a philosopher is a clerk responsible for mankind.2 Similarly, in the thirties Heidegger talked about the “preservation of the beginning of Western knowledge in the Greek World” and “in keeping with this, the responsibility for the Western world.”3 At the same time, contrary to Husserl – and his emphatic, but mainly powerless rhetoric –, Heidegger had few illusions regarding the power of philosophy to influence history, to save or at least to shape Europe.4
1 E. Husserl, “Az európai emberiség válsága és a filozófia”, p. 365. 2 Cf. Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften und die transzendentalen Phänomenologie, § 7, Husserliana, Bd. VI, hrsg. W. Biemel, Den Haag, Nijhoff, 1954, p. 15. 3 A rektorátus 1933/34. Tények és gondolatok (The Rectorate 1933/34. Facts and Thoughts), in: M. Heidegger, Az idő fogalma. A német egyetem önmegnyilatkozá- sa. The rectorate 1933/34, p. 83. 4 See “Europa und die deutsche Philosophie“, p. 33.; Einführung in die Metaphysik, Tübingen, Niemeyer, p. 6. On the other hand, Husserl scourged as a genuine missionary “the incredulity in the human mission of the West” (“Az európai emberiség válsága és a filozófia”, p. 367.)
222 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
VI. After World War II the debate on Europe settled. The heated discussions of the beginning of the century and of the interwar period had been dominated by the convulsions of European history and by awareness of the crisis. Oswald Spengler dramatically prophesied the decline of the West. For Husserl the alternative was: “The crisis of European existence can end in only one of two ways: in the ruin of a Europe [...], fallen into a barbarian hatred of spirit; or in the rebirth of Europe from the spirit of philosophy [...].”1 Heidegger at the beginning of his lecture held in 1936 in Rome spoke in a similar tone about a “naked either-or”: “Europe’s salvation or Europe’s destruction [Zerstörung]”.2 The debate on Europe was re-opened at the beginning of the 1990s. Contrary to the general and dramatic character of the former debate, the renewed discussion was characterized by an encouraging tone and the hope that Europe would soon be unified. This change was due to the favourable historical developments that preceded and made possible the new debate: European division was terminated, the antagonistic political blocks ceased to exist. This time the conditions encouraged optimistic tone and trust in the future They might have done so, though, in the long run. By contrast, the hopes regarding a unified Europe were soon to be surrounded by an atmosphere of insecurity and perplexity which began to spread. The repeatedly mentioned fact that the unification process was governed by economic-political-judicial factors and that it lacked ideological content had played a significant role in this failure. In his mentioned lecture held in the early eighties Gadamer expressed the hope that “Europe’s unity is more than a merely power-political [machtpolitisch] issue”. From a contemporary perpective one cannot simply dismiss the concern, according to which the European economic-political processes, within this the developments around the European constitution, might lead to “the despotism of a future world domination disguised in a theory of
1 “Az európai emberiség válsága és a filozófia”, p. 366. 2 M. Heidegger: “Europa und die deutsche Philosophie“, in: Europa und die Philosophie, p. 31. See also “Wege zur Aussprache“, in: Denkerfahrungen, hrsg. H. Heidegger, Frankfurt/Main: Klostermann, 1983, p. 16. (“Rettung des Abendlandes“), pp. 20f. (“drohende Entwurzelung des Abendlandes“, “Erneuerung des Grundgefüges abendländischen Seins“).
223 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 human rights”.1 Such concern is supported by Kant’s federalist views that reject universal monarchy.2 The unification that has been taking place is in any case far from the characteristics of Christian-German spirituality, which were so important for Hegel. Hegel had acknowledged the claim to “satisfy the finite needs”,3 and as is known, he was among the first thinkers who focussed their attention upon the latest developments of Anglo-Saxon political economy, and made a basic account of them. He even reserved a place apart for it under the name “civil society” in his Philosophy of Right. “But this branch,” emphasized Hegel, “concerns the particular; but exactly in the particular there are no immanent boundaries. Here the accumulation of wealth and refinement can become excessive”4. The civil society “does not eradicate the inequality between men [...] evolved by nature”, on the contrary, it deepens it more, and “develops it into the inequality of wealth, and moreover to the inequality of intellectual and moral education.”5 “If the civil society operates unhindered, then its industry and population is continuously increasing […]: on the one hand the more and more wealth is accumulated. On the other hand peculiar work becomes more and more isolated and limited, and this results in the increasing dependence and misery of the class attached to this working method”.6 In Hegel’s view, all these wrongs should be amended by the state. This state, however, the nation state, becomes nowadays more and more overshadowed by the process of expanding globalization, so that finally, as it seems, it practically “decays.” The eminent role attributed to the state evokes, of course, the totalitarian distortions of the 20th century. This role, together with the importance of the universal perspective of the world spirit – the state being presented as the earthly incarnation of the world spirit –, is apt to question Hegel’s topicality in this respect. Nevertheless, this observation would not do justice to Hegel in the last
1 Rüdiger Bubner, Polis und Staat. Grundlinien der Politischen Philosophie, Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 2002, p. 184. 2 See above, in the places referred in note 1. p. 208. I have discussed the topic somewhat more in detail in my obseervations related to R. Bubner’s study quoted in note 1. p. 209.: “Die Verfassung und das Volk Überlegungen im Anschluß an den Aufsatz Rüdiger Bubners” (see Eine Verfassung für Europa, hrsg. K. Beckmann, J. Dieringer, U. Hufeld, Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2005, pp. 107–117). 3 Hegel, Előadások a világtörténet filozófiájáról, cited edition, 101. 4 Ibid. See also Jogfilozófia (Philosophy of Right), §191. 5 Jogfilozófia, § 200. 6 Jogfilozófia, § 242.
224 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 resort, since what he did was to call attention to a question which had not been resolved to this very day. Hegel’s importance lies rather in the enforcement of the communitarian view (this is carried on in the present- day debates by the so-called communitarian standpoint), in emphasizing the importance of historicism and traditions.
VII. After this short review, I would like to consider the issue more closely: what does the concept of Europe mean for us; is there something that we might define as a European tradition – for instance, the universalism of natural law, constraint of rational argumentation, human dignity, religious tolerance, participatory or representative democracy –, or were these made to be an European heritage only by euro-centric history of ideas that had begun with the Enlightenment? Instead of some “substantive” answer, I would rather sketch a consideration that could be called methodologist. European tradition is a reflexive, reflected tradition, it is conscious of itself as a tradition, and thematizes this issue. Considered more closely: the very moment we are asking “is there any tradition that sets a standard for us?” – is there, or is there not? and if there is, which one, and in what sense? –, the simple fact of asking this question testifies to the fact that our relation to the tradition has ceased to be a naïve, matter-of-fact relation; it is no longer unproblematic, unreflected.1 By simply asking the question, the naïve, thoughtless identification is done away with (or it has always already been done away with).2 The discipline mainly concerned with tradition – the essence, vivacity, transmittal of tradition, the connection to or the detachment from it3 –, is called hermeneutics. It is antidogmatic and pluralistic because it asserts that tradition and above all the interpretation
1 Concerning this question see further details in my study “A megtört tradíció. A hagyomány létmódja idegenség és ismerősség között” (The Broken Tradition. The Condition of Tradition between Familiarity and Unfamiliarity) (Protestáns Szemle, LXIII, 2001/2-3, 61–75.). 2 “A historical consciousness is inherent in our understanding of Christian tradition, just as in the understanding of the classical Greeks. What binds us to the great Christian-Greek tradition, though this might be a living tradition: is the awareness of otherness – being aware of the fact that we no longer belong to it – that defines us all.” (Gadamer: GW, Bd. 2, p. 122.). 3 “It may belong to the essence of tradition that it exists only when acquired by someone, however, it is an essential feature of man that he can break and criticize tradition [...].” [Igazság és módszer (Truth and Method), transl. Bonyhai Gábor, Budapest, Gondolat, 1984, p. 17.]
225 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 of tradition is endless (and at the same time that the interpretation of tradition is of great importance). It is the doctrine or rather the habit of mutual understanding and endless, continuous dialogue. According to hermeneutics there are no interpretational monopoles, hegemonies, and that similar to the way there is no first word, in like manner there is no last one in the infiniet series of interpretations as well as discussions.1 It is an approach, having as a point of departure the self-critical position, according to which the other party may be right.2 Suppose we identify the European tradition with any item of the enumeration – universalism of natural law, constraint of rational argumentation, human dignity, etc. – or with any further concepts: we should realize that we do in any case do interpreting (or even more: have always already done interpreting). We have in one way or another fixed in what sense we understand the notions of the universalism of natural law, the coercion of rational argumentation, and the others. We have to do so by claiming: European tradition is constituted for me by such and such values, and the latter have such and such menaning (here and now, for me).
1 See Gadamer GW, Bd. 2, p. 478. (= Igazság és módszer, p. 388.); GW, Bd. 8, p. 408. 2 See Gadamer: GW, Bd. 10, p. 274.: “The art of understanding is above all things the art of paying attention. In addition to this we must be open to the possibility, that the other may be right.” [Die Kunst des Verstehens ist sicher vor allen Dingen die Kunst des Zuhörens. Dazu gehört aber auch noch, daß man offenläßt, ob nicht der Andere recht haben könnte.] Cf. Jean Grondin: Von Heidegger zu Gadamer. Unterwegs zur Hermeneutik. Darmstadt: WB, 2001, p. 106.: “The core of his hermeneutics is that the other may be right – emphasized Gadamer in the last few years. According to this, hermeneutics is the art of being able to accept that we are wrong.” [“Die Seele seiner Hermeneutik, hat Hans-Georg Gadamer in den letzten Jahren immer wieder betont, bestehe darin, dass der andere Recht haben könnte. Die Hermeneutik sei gewissermaßen die Kunst, Unrecht haben zu können”]. See Grondin: Hans-Georg Gadamer. Eine Biographie, Mohr Siebeck, Tü- bingen, 1999, 354, 371.; idem, Einführung in die philosophische Hermeneutik, Darmstadt: WB, 1991, 160. [in Hungarian: Bevezetés a filozófiai hermeneutikába (Introduction to Philosophical Hermeneutics), transl. Nyírő Miklós, Budapest, Osiris, 2002, p. 174.): “The possibility that the other may be right is the soul of Hermeneutics.” – For the particularly hermeneutical disposition “there is no higher principle than being and remaining open for discussion. But this always implies that we acknowledge beforehand that our discussion partner may be right or even superior to us.” (GW, Bd. 2, p. 505.) No dialogue, discussion “is possible if either partner considers himself to be in a superior position”. (GW, Bd. 2, p. 116.) In this feature appears what may be called the democratic comportment of hermeneutics par excellence.
226 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
“The humanist tradition is the tradition that we must turn back to”,1 writes Gadamer, and humanism and its different forms – Antique, Renaissance, Modern and Postmodern –, and in addition to this, the ideals of education, civilization, and edification (Bildung) and their configurations may beclaimed to form the basis of the hermeneutical tradition. (This statement can also be assumed to be a “weak substantive” answer.) For what is at issue for interpretation, or for the tradition of interpretation, is that in addition to extending our knowledge, we also perform an act of self-interpretation, whereby we ourselves undergo a change and become different. Without this character European tradition, and along with it art and its role in human life, would sink into a not necessarily barbarian, uncouth tradition, but anyway into a tradition lacking culture. Without this the community of scholars spanning over nations and ages, Bayle’s République des Lettres and its interpreting successors and late descendants would similarly not obtain their rights. And this would be, as Richard Rorty expressed it in his influential work, “the termination of discussion”, “resulting form this, the freezing of culture” and finally “man’s dehumanization”2 We had better not have illusions, anyway. And it is no need for us to use great words either. If we look at the above enumerated values of European tradition – the universalism of natural law, coercion of rational argumentation, human dignity, etc. –, and amplifying this list we add to it the tradition of interpretation, and then, wanting to cast an eye upon reality, we open up the newspaper in order to find out from it what is the essence of Europe, of the European Union, we find the headline of the leading article in the foreign policy column saying: “EU: Fight for the Money”. This may have a sobering effect on us.3 – From this article we can find out for instance, that an “important internal fight is going on between and around the members of the German-French-British ‘leading trio’ [...]: when these three agree, the other member states have nothing to do.” – Well, yes, we may recall: in the ancient Roman Empire also there were wealthier and poorer provinces. And of course, in the centre of the empire the rich had a greater influence. Viewed from this perspective of live reality, all the differences among universalists of natural law, rational argumentators, the adepts of human dignity or the members of the community of interpreters are being
1 Igazság és módszer, p. 36. 2 R. Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1979, p. 377. 3 Népszabadság, 2003, July 30, p. 3.
227 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 put in their true light and thereby simultaneously pushed into the background–they fade simply away in the perspective of what there is.
228 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Liberty as a Profession
Doru POP Faculty of Political, Administritative and Communication Sciences, Department of Journalism, “Babeş-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: freedom, liberty, “ideological Centre”, liberalism, pluralism, humanism, Europeanism, opened dialogue
Abstract A “history of Freedom” in Romanian culture is not possible without a history of understanding the roots of intolerance, dogmatism and aggressive isolationism in our recent past. Adrian Marino managed to give freedom and liberty a consistency far deeper than the mere ideological compatibility. A practitioner of a „liberal profession”, Marino assumed this role of not being employed by the State as an ontological statement, not just as an attitude towards the Communist regime, or as a social ideal. Throughout his entire life Adrian Marino practiced three great Freedoms and dedicated all his intellectual efforts to them: the freedom of conscience, the freedom of expression and the freedom of thinking, all of them more than utopian ideologies, but difficult to realize in a peripheral culture like the Romanian one. For Marino freedom is based on a liberal (read it critical) model for the conscience, opposing any kind of fundamentalism.
E-mail: [email protected]
When I first met Adrian Marino in 1991 I was „a young intellectual rising star”, and I was about to leave Romania for the first time, going to France for a comparative literature scholarship, and I was looking forward to getting from this meeting – with a thirsty desire to broaden my horizon – a professional safe conduct, an academic ointment. But Marino accommodated me in his house, in a somewhat colloquial way – there were the last minutes of the BBC news report at five – and he told me straight away (and I remember I was quite shocked at the time): „he wasn’t, isn’t and never would be on the payroll of any public institution in Romania”. Later, on several occasions (that took place in the same way) when we met, he told me, repeated and confirmed that this
229 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 was one of his social gestures that he was most proud of, that of always having been a practitioner of a „liberal profession”. Marino assumed this role of not being employed by the State as an ontological statement, not just as an attitude towards the Communist regime, or as a social ideal. As for any manifest Enlightenment ideologue, freedom also meant for Marino the liberation from all sources of mysticism, the presupposition of a critical, secular and public rationality, the acquiescence of the most profound consequences of personal liberties. The desire to evade the „canons”, especially religious canons, explains why Marino was so constantly virulent against all the signs of the Romanian „mystical philosophy”. His critique of Noica, Cioran or Nae Ionescu was based on this deep-seated affiliation to a certain kind of freedom, a freedom that despises any proliferation of obedience. For Marino cultural figures like Ţuţea or Noica were to blame for their own lack of respect for freedom, liberalism and pluralism and not simply for their cultural value. Still, in 2005, “one side” of the Romanian cultural press virulently attacked Adrian Marino, an old and sick man, isolated in his home, in his self-assumed exile in Cluj. This furibund attack came from an intellectual group that evolved around some of the disciples of Noica, and the assailment that did not cease even after the death of the renowned comparatist. Remarkably, this was just the tip of the iceberg of a more profound conflict existing in the Romanian culture, before, during and after the Communist period. This is a continuous war between two main ideological streams that generated two types of intellectuals in modern Romania – one, based on the so called values of the local Zeitgeist and one aiming to integrate European values and models. If we were to follow Marino’s position on the topic, the evolution of the Romanian culture is to be understood along two major intellectual lineages. On the one hand there is the group “descending” from a narrow, “localism” oriented perspective, built on a Romanian self-centred standpoint. The other envisions a Romanian culture based on European core standards and principles. In this sense, Nae Ionescu and his latter disciples were merely a product of a long line of intellectuals going back to the prevarications of the “founding fathers” of nationalism. Moreover, it is no secret that Nae Ionescu was “The Cultural Master” for Eliade, Cioran and Noica. And, as shown by Marino, following this intellectual genealogy, Noica was closer to Ceauşescu’s national-communism by praising and using nationalism in his intellectual praxis, than to any European axioms.
230 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
It is a historical fact that Noica was the “coach” of Gabriel Liiceanu and Andrei Pleşu, both virulent judges of Marino’s cultural place in the contemporary Romanian literature. Needless to say that since Marino was amongst the few who dared to criticize the Noica model, the public execution of Marino by the “Păltiniş” disciples can be seen as a “witchcraft trial” of unparalleled proportions. This was just an example of what Marino called “Noica’s negative effect”, but transgressing the biographic dimension of this fact, the consequences of the inheritance of the Romanian “autochthonous bucolic philosophy” are more malignant than this. Marino was inherently against any sort of local pride, of national bias – himself being less of a Romanian, or for that matter a Transylvanian, than a European. His overt cultural purpose being that of open dialogue – not with the local culture, but rather one of cross-cultural relevance – he belongs to the very small group of protesters, of radical cultural eccentrics, of marginals who wanted and succeeded in acquiring “Western culture”, without joining any “spiritual churches” of local resonance. Marino has transparently explained his rejection of the Noica & Eliade models.1 Due to the fact that communism has generated a type of intelligentsia that was a “docile instrument for propaganda”, the writers and the intellectuals of that epoch have become “employees, bureaucrats and civil servants” of the regime. Both Noica and Eliade have shown that their willingness to cooperate with the communist regime was deeper than necessary. Marino uses the example of Noica, who proposed to his students to consider him as a “Marxism trainer” and thus has imposed a personal example of a way of “resisting” the communist ideology by means of a personal network, based on double language, dissimulations and, finally, an acceptable “agreement” with the Devil. Marino’s central objection to Noica’s line of thought comes from interpreting the following dictum of the “last modern philosopher”. Noica is noted to have told his “disciples” that “happiness has many tastes and communism has given me the best of them”.2 This, being obviously a double meaning expression, is nonetheless for Marino an example of applying a Marxist perspective on freedom, conceived as a “need of conscience”. For a pedagogue of urban dialogue and civil criticism this was a natural rejection.
1 Adrian Marino, Politică şi cultură. Pentru o nouă cultură română (Politics and Culture. For a New Romanian Culture), Iaşi, Polirom, 1996. 2 Quoted by Marino, ibid., p. 86.
231 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
For Marino freedom is based on a liberal (meaning critical) model for the conscience, opposing any kind of fundamentalism, superficiality and disdain for the individual. As he himself recounts, after he was released from prison (and later founded Cahiers roumains d'études littéraires) he has followed another path of “cultural resistance”, one of alternative ideas, that of a literary rebel and of a bizarre cultural specimen. Marino was against all the “Maurice Chevaliers” of local essay writing (albeit of liberal origins), against the journalistic dimension of a “Balkan literature” and against all the manifestations of false “spiritualism”, of the “dissimulated orthodoxy” in our culture. The private versus the national, the individual against the institutions supported by the State, freedom opposed to the practices of joining one group or another, globalism as a form of rejecting the pressure of localism, critical attitude towards concepts and ideas, in contrast with all the manifestations of “belletrist criticism” – these were his key concepts. In this respect, comparatism and literary theory were the acceptable forms of “cultural survival” for him, the main goal of such a standpoint being to follow and achieve an ideal, and finally, to gain European relevance for his works. As he claimed in his criticism of Noica and his followers, the two main shortcomings of their perspective on culture and society were not inherent to their work, but were in fact the fundamental disbelief in democracy and the utterly anti-Western and anti- European side of such approaches. Romanian culture cannot have European relevance if the “West” is blamed for all the defects of Capitalism and if “the Europe of butter” is opposed to a “spiritual Romania”. Marino states that this kind of “westwards criticism” has produced only “messianic black coats” like Steinhardt, Ţuţea or Noica, and suggests that “we don’t need mystical prophets anymore” or “tragic existential feeling”, but “durable creations in all the fields of knowledge”.1 So the key concept that Marino has promoted in order to counteract this pernicious trend was “neo-paşoptism”; in other terms, a “new culture” based on a systematic approach to social or literary phenomena, more theoretical, with deep roots in critical thinking. This was his personal example – no matter what his subject or his work objective was. Marino postulated for himself a project builder role; he was a careful researcher and a thorough reviewer of cultural phenomena. He was described as the last encyclopaedic, not only for the Romanian
1 Ibid., p. 230.
232 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
“Literary Republic”, but also for the European literature and culture. Obviously, he remains one of the last Illuminists and the absence of any trace of backwardness and of autarchy, the integration of his books and ideas in the global dialogue are proofs of the success of such an effort. But he was also a militant, stating that there is a social need in the Romanian politics of culture for projecting European values in their rightful place and destroying the myth of an “autarchic, prosperous Romania”. Putting the sign of equality between Europe and “foreignness” is the most malignant cultural gesture, which generates the most detrimental after-effects. Marino was against any form of cultural imposture, and even when he was working with cultural concepts, with the history of ideas or when he was following his latter call, that for political studies, the attitude of the non-affiliated worker remained declared and programmatic for him. Comparative literature as a cultural practice was for Marino, as it is obvious from the standpoint of his study Etiemble,1 a highway for “free cultural exchange”. By 1995 he gave up literature for ideology, and his studies were focusing more and more on one central idea: freedom. Needless to say that the overt partisan attitude of the examiner is never counterbalanced by the academic sobriety and the equanimity of intellectual discourse. In the end Marino transformed his own life into an institution of freedom, being a model not just on the cultural level, but also on the level of personal social relevance. Marino was against the “culture of fragment”, that has characterized Romanian intellectuals since the creation of the modern state, he believed that a “delirious, exalting and contradictory” Romania (proposed by Cioran) has to be replaced by a culture dominated by “honesty, morals and order”. Although the idea of freedom in Romania might seem a paradox in itself, a perfect oxymoron, still Adrian Marino managed to give freedom and liberty a consistency far deeper than the mere ideological compatibility. In his last work2 Marino finds ways to explain not only the roots of these concepts, but he discovers something of an oddity, the sources of these concepts in Romanian history of ideas. Freedom – and this is Marino’s main argument – is closely connected with two strong ideas and ideological concepts: „Europeanism” and „Paşoptism”. Naturally, only a civic culture and a
1 Idem, Etiemble ou le comparatisme militant, Paris, Gallimard, 1982. 2 Idem, Libertatea şi cenzură în România. Începuturi (Freedom and Censorship in Romania. Beginnings), Iaşi, Polirom, 2005.
233 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 civil society can become sources of European integration in his view, for this is the only method to overcome the “nationalist, ethnic and anti- European ideology” which developed in the post World War I Romania. His standpoint? He claimed the priority of the ideological centre. Marino explains his preference for this “ideological Centre” with the argument that both the Left and the Right “cultures” have had negative consequences in the late 20th Century.1 The centre is characterized by “axiological balance”, liberalism, pluralism, humanism and Europeanism, based on human rights and civic responsibility, while the other two alternatives are either centralist and homogeneous, or violent and non-ethical. Marino speaks of three grand Freedoms, those that he has practiced his entire life and those he dedicated all his intellectual efforts to: the freedom of conscience, the freedom of expression and the freedom of thinking, all of them more than utopian ideologies, but difficult to realize in a peripheral culture like the Romanian one. The free thinking he practiced and exercised in his work has its roots in a 1799 formula: „every individual is free to think... as he is able to” („tot insul e slobod a gândi... după cum se pricepe”). At the bitter end of freedom („slobozenie”) there is to be found – for the Transylvanian writers of the 18th Century (and later on for Marino himself) – the moronity („dobitocenia”). How does Marino translate the moronic cultural attitudes – mostly found in the political and social writings of our time? They are to be recognized in the “Mioriţa” dimension of Romanian writers. The free man is, inherently, the man who does not depend on anything, the man who has discovered the freedom from any forms of constraint (social, political or cultural). The model Marino followed needs to be understood in this respect. The critical posture and the critical spirit must be the necessary and compulsory guarantee for all the freedoms of the individual. Questioning these principles is an utter manifestation of the intolerance for Freedom with a capital letter. Finally, as he revealed is his brief study on censorship,2 all forms of Censorship and intolerance (self censorship, economic censorship, ideological pressures and so on) are nothing but manifestations of perverting social and cultural realities. A “history of
1 See idem, Pentru Europa. Integrarea României. Aspecte ideologice şi culturale (For Europe. The Integration of Romania. Ideological and Cultural Aspects), Iaşi, Polirom, 1995. 2 Idem, Cenzura în România. Schiţă istorică introductivă (Censorship in Romania. Introductory Historical Sketch), Craiova, Aius, 2000.
234 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Freedom” in Romanian culture is not possible without a history of understanding the roots of intolerance, dogmatism and aggressive isolationism in our recent past. And for such an effort the presence of one personal example may not be enough.
235 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Liberty and Truth – Fragments about the “Cave-myth”–
István KIRÁLY V. Faculty of History and Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, “Babeş-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca
Motto:
“Whatever happens with historical human beings comes in each case from a decision about the essence of truth that happened long ago and is never up to humans alone.” Martin Heidegger1
„Philosophy is destined to deal with the Deepest and most disturbing questions. It would hardly survive, if they were definitively solved.” József Hajós2
Keywords: truth, liberty, cave-myth, essence of truth, search for truth, paideia, aletheia, openness, language and philosophy, poetic language, hermeneutics of natural sciences, scientific truth
Abstract This study, related to Plato’s cave-myth, attempts to open up the meaning and existential importance of the essence of truth by focusing on the interdependence of liberty and truth. It points out that the essence of truth is liberty and vice versa, the essence of liberty is truth, for without the
1 Martin Heidegger, Plato’ Doctrine of Truth. English translation by Thomas Sheehan, in: Martin Heidegger, Pathmarks, ed. William McNeill, Cambridge, UK, and New York, Cambridge University Press, 1998, p. 182. (The motto in the Hungarian version of this study was taken from the following edition: Martin Heidegger, “Platón tanítása az igazság lényegéről”, in: idem., Útjelzők, Budapest, Osiris, 2003, p. 224.) 2 József Hajós, “Ötlések” (Ideas), in Színkép – A Romániai Magyar Szó Melléklete (Spectrum – The Supplement of the “Hungarian Word of Romania”), 28–29th June, 2003, p. A.
236 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 liberty and openness of search there can be no (artistic, scientific or philosophical) truth at all. Far from giving a final definition of this relationship, the paper illustrates the way in which these two essential components of human life constantly refer to, question and open up one another, showing that, according to the Heideggerian motto: “Whatever happens with historical human beings comes in each case from a decision about the essence of truth that happened long ago and is never up to humans alone.”
E-mail: [email protected]
1. One may wonder why is it that we, human beings are always inclined or even “compelled” to think about and grasp notions like truth, good, beauty etc. only in contrast with their conceptual counterparts: untruth, evil, ugliness etc. These conceptual opposites constantly refer to one another, and eventually they prove to be continuously interlinked, each notion of these pairs indispensably requiring its counterpart. The question asked above does neither refer to how the mentioned oppositions are divided for example in a “proper” or a “non- proper” way… nor does it try to find or discover a way to surpass somehow “dialectically” the polarities. The question’s aim is to make understandable the interdependence of the opposites as opposites, and above all to throw light on the ontological source where we may possibly find their origin too. Therefore those roots would be interesting, from which and from where springs the intermediarity – and not the commonness, commonality – of the opposites: truth and falsity, truth and untruth; opposites which belong together, moreover are interdependent. These roots later on decide the counterparts’ historical fate. But this source, of course, is probably deeper and beyond any kind of “theory of science”, epistemology or logical formalism. For, as Martin Heidegger formulates as well: such a question actually refers to the essence of truth. According to the “title” these fragmentary sentences would treat however “liberty” as well as “truth”, wouldn’t they? Moreover the title states the relationship “between” them with an “and”, that is, exactly as “and”. But what does really mean – first of all and actually – to treat/to think about “liberty”? And, likewise, what does it mean at all – again first of all or in the first place – to regard “truth”?
237 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
However, if we really consider all these questions – as questions! –, we may immediately find out that to think about “liberty” actually means to investigate – for its own possibilities – the “truth” related to it, respectively, together with and by this investigation to operate “truth” in a very essential sense! And if we have considered this as well, then it may probably occur that we cannot in fact “treat” truth otherwise than as the operation and “assertion” of liberty itself; operation and assertion divided in a determined way and very much asserted! In this way it may strike the eye from the beginning that the “and” present in the main title is not a simple “conjunction” – which therefore would “serve” for connecting some notions “with” it1 –; on the contrary: it is the problematising-thematising connecting-name of the interconnected intercommunication of liberty and truth. Therefore, according to all these, “Liberty and Truth” in the title tells that liberty and truth belonging to one another do belong historically to our own selves or our existence – and through this – to existence in general too, as specifically our own existential possibilities, as question, respectively as provoking difficulty. According to these: we would belong to our (existential) possibilities as belonging to ourselves in the expressed question/case of liberty and truth; we would belong to existence – and existence to us as well – placed into these notions and “contained” by them in an accentuated and questioning way… We have heard for a long time and frequently: truth is the benefactor and ally of liberty. It is also frequently said that, on the contrary, being in the possession of truth often ensures the domination over others… And also that: truth exactly liberates! It may not be accidental that nowadays the renamed and “operationalised” collective name of liberty(s) is “justice”2… We obviously often hear that: neither liberty is boundless arbitrariness, nor truth is absolute or everlasting… That is, liberty is delimited by non-liberty or the sham-liberty of arbitrariness and truth is
1 Say: we connect – and this actually always remains an external connection – a problem of “speciality” (liberty), belonging to the domains of “political philosophy”, “moral philosophy”, or “philosophy of law”, with another “speciality” problem (truth), this time an “epistemological” one. 2 There is here a pun that cannot be rendered in English. In Hungarian “justice” is derived from the same stem as “truth”.
238 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 delimited by untruth, falsehood and the historicity of truth. In other words: these make the two notions “relative”. Truth and liberty bear – usually with a reconciled dejection – the not quite meaningful attribute of relativity rather in relation to themselves, their own imperfection and not in relation with one another. Consequently they relate to – more precisely they are compared to – one another as being “relative”; obviously this relationship is “relative” as well… Therefore when, all of a sudden, Heidegger thought of showing the essence of truth as being expressly and definitely in liberty, in the essence of liberty, this has not really caused an uproar.1 For, between the many relative things everything always finds its similarly relative place shortly and easily. That is to say: it gets lost. It is therefore a question, whether truth and liberty can be defined at all as relation(s)/relationship(s), respectively attribute-like state(s), or they rather are – in a more profound sense – the existence-like divisions of belonging to one another, respectively of belonging to (the) existence.
2. The tale of Plato’s allegory of the cave is about education, according to its main theme, or, to be more precise, about the paideia.2 Meanwhile and to the same extent the myth is about truth as well, and, as it can be proved, about liberty, too... For here education is outlined as the “art of bending the soul”, which – captivating the entire soul – orientates the abilities and “organ” present in everyone’s mind towards the Idea of Good. By this it makes able for the soul to contemplate the being and the being’s brightest core, moreover to reside perseveringly at this core from now on. However, the paideia here clearly outlines the absorption in truth and at the same time it outlines this also as absorption in liberty! Actually there is more than this. Here truth and liberty are not only devised as being in some kind of eurhythmic parallelism; they are presented as being interlaced, interwoven, the one supposing/questioning
1 It has caused by no means as much uproar as for example the Heideggerian thought of the aletheia, notion connected also with the issue of truth. 2 See Plato, Az állam. Részletek (The Republic. Excerpts), selected, introduced and annotated by Sándor Pál, Budapest, Gondolat Publishing House, 1968, pp. 194–198.
239 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 the other, and/but at the same time they increase and complete one another. Nevertheless, the cave myth – at least seemingly – presents and narrativizes liberty as a kind of “condition” for truth, more precisely as its “milieu”. The people chained since their childhood at first are at the mercy of those who, using the firelight from behind the scenes, confine their perception to the illusory truths of the shadow world. On the other hand (their) liberty – namely (their) liberation from the chains, which is quite casual and it does not depend on the chained persons themselves or it has an “educational” (paideuticos) aim – will practically be an “appropriate” milieu for truth. Later on the liberated individuals encounter the beings and get to know them “in” this environment, this cognitive process being actually orientated toward truth. At first, of course, the search for truth is not directed towards the things themselves, but towards the light. In the beginning this is the firelight, then, gradually, it becomes the “true” light, that of the Sun. Only in sunlight things appear in their truth; all that is truth and true or, on the contrary, is shadow, illusion and falsehood is compared to it and measured by it. True enough, in the myth liberty itself consists at first only in the possibilities to turn round, to move… This, however, is a decisive bearing as regards the matter of truth. For this only has made clear that, though in the cave some things can be regarded as being true without this liberty – that means, while being chained –, there is not and there cannot be at all any actual truth without freedom! There is not and there cannot be truth exactly because one does not – cannot – turn round and “move”. That is to say, because there is not and there cannot be: search for truth! Here therefore liberty belongs to, or – and this is probably even more important – is interweaved with truth in the first place as the possibility and prerequisite of the search for truth. Without coexistence with liberty there can be no truth at all; may this truth be defined, conceived and asserted as “rightness”, “appropriateness” or even as aletheia, as unconcealment. This therefore means that when we search for truth in a certain fundamental sense we are already “at” truth. For without this search no “knowledge”, “truth” etc. can be born, can exist or, if it does exist, it lacks all sense. But it is also clear that the name of this searchingly existing-in-truth, being-in-truth is no other than: liberty!
240 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The “search for truth” – more narrowly, “specifically” called “cognition”, or even “investigation”, that is: the search for knowledge – is not merely an accidental or external prerequisite of truth, but it is precisely its constant source, component and definite coefficient. Without this probably there is no “truth” at all that can be obtained. Therefore liberty – as the being-in-truth constituted together with the search for knowledge and truth – is at the same time precisely a continuous (internal) “component” of truth as well. On the contrary, for example the stupidity of “omniscience” consists exactly in the fact that such a person “could know everything”, however, he could never know that he “knows” at all. For “to know” one needs exactly to experience the knowledge of not-knowing that is constituted only during the search of truth. And this is not characteristic to the “omniscient” person. For he necessarily always knows everything ab ovo… Otherwise he would not be called “omniscient”. The situation is the same with the immortal too: such a person “does never die”, but meanwhile he never lives a moment at all. Consequently things like “truth” and “liberty” exist only in and through the existence of that finite – mortal – being, which, exactly because of this, has a relationship full of risks with existence… Of course, the situation is the same with “falsity”, too. “Falsity”, untruth also acquires its meaning and its (dangerous) weight only in and from the being-in-truth constituted in and through the search for truth. However, all this indicates that being-in-truth is not simply outlined in the mere opposition with untruth, but it appears as real being-in-untruth. But this is far from referring us to some conceptual or other kind of “dialectic”; it rather sends us to a more profound openness. Namely, the openness of search! The search and the openness that is constituted and outlined through it and in it – therefore asserted, articulated and never without a direction – give on the one hand the weight of liberty and its real “ontological” dimensions, on the other hand its relevance related to truth. Of course, this holds good vice versa as well. Therefore the question arises: is there something like that which is usually called “one’s own truth”, “self-truth” or “truth according to one’s own conviction” etc.? For each of these expressions actually means that far from asking the question referring to the essence of truth we close or suspend this same inquiry! In the same way we would suspend communication by using “private languages”. For, when Pilate asks Jesus, “What is truth?”, in fact he receives no answer because the
241 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 question has no “room” or “space”. Not only because the question of “truth” is asked during the trial of a prisoner, but mainly because the inquiry is made in the atmosphere of already decided, formed and outlined convictions etc. In what regards the belief that the so-called “self-truths” are harmless for one another – this harmlessness also “constituting plurality” –, it would probably be better to consider that as much as Pilate contributed to Jesus’ death, so much contributed Jesus’ conviction to the destruction of Pilate’s Roman Empire.1 However, “truth” is not to be found where knowledge, already formed convictions, “epistemological” evidences or petrified beliefs exist, but only where and when the question referring to/searching for the essence of truth can work and is working. Consequently truth exists where liberty is working as well; that is, where liberty can be asked and can happen with regard to (the) truth. Therefore the question referring to the essence of truth actually is the question of that liberty with and through which truth exists and works; that is: through which the question of liberty itself is problematised, more precisely thematised in its weight related to truth. In other words: the essence of truth – leading through and back to the essence of liberty – is in fact the explicit inquiry that constitutes the essence and structure of liberty itself. How else would/could (the) liberty, (the) truth and (the meaning of) existence find each other in interrelation? If, however, – and how else could it possibly be? – the strength and weight of the questionable/questioning interconnected intercommunication of liberty and truth really penetrates to the point of the meaning of existence, then probably the problem of truth is bound to the being too – and not only to the “ideas”, “knowledge” and assertions “formed about it”. And bound it is like that which “correctly” and “adequately” “corresponds” to it.
1 I cannot agree for example with Mihály Vajda who does not place the so-called “self-truths” into a historical – more precisely existential historical – context and dimension. For in this context it could become clear that the “truths” which have not been or allegedly cannot be converted into doctrines – like the teaching of Jesus – how easily “acquire” their dogmas, and that they do not function merely as a (private) “way of life” in these cases. See: Mihály Vajda, Igazság és/vagy szabadság (Truth and/or Liberty) in: idem, Nem az örökkévalóságnak – Filozófiai (láb)jegyzetek [Not for the Eternity – Philosophical (Foot)Notes] Budapest, Osiris, 1996, pp. 78–83.
242 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
3. The question inquiring after the essence of truth essentially may not even refer to the quidditas and the qualia-s of truth. Therefore it does not (merely) ask what the epistemological or pragmatic criteria of truth consist of or the parameters by which decisions can be made relating to truth. For all these questions are – essentially – “secondary” for the inquiry referring to the essence of truth. That is, they are ab ovo and “implicitly” standing in the – always historical! – questionability or in the process of decision making that concerns the essence of truth. It is another matter whether their inquiry of all times knows about this standing-in and takes this into consideration or, whether it really and explicitly questions it... For example the “almost three thousand years old” truth of the Pythagorean theorem, that can easily seem “eternal”, consists of the fact that its validity has been confirmed and outlined anew since then by repeated questioning. The situation is the same in the case of Euclidean geometry as well... The “permanence” or “definiteness” of truth consists only of this. The truth of the so called “analytical truths” or tautologies too is revalidated only by the history of successive generations of finite and mortal “rational beings” without which validation they would have no sense at all. For mathematics, physics or formal logic cannot be imagined without the history of the successive lives of mathematicians, physicians and logicians as well as their mutually inspiring works that re-question one another and offer new proofs.1 This means that truth actually is and happens only when and where the question referring to the essence of truth opens up and is kept open as well – at least according to possibility and horizon – in an explicit questioning. The question opening to the essence of truth has another name as well: liberty! For neither “truth”, nor “liberty” are some kind of “notions” waiting and longing yet for their “perfect” definition. On the contrary, they are questions and problems that instead of being defined
1 This is the actual ontological relevance of the probably right assertion – which can be considered a descriptive assertion – that the immediate essence of communicating/transmitting scientific truths (this may also be called the pedagogy of scientific truths) consists in demonstration. That is: each and every scientific truth is questioned and – if it seems valid once more! – proved anew each time when communicated. It is essential that more is “handed over” on these occasions than the “additional” knowledge or “information” surrounding the formal or objective content or the “demonstrations” of the theorems, formulas etc.
243 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 must/should rather always be asked – in a way that the question referring to the one may open up to the other as well.
4. Three years after the publication of Being and Time, in 1930, in a lecture entitled On the Essence of Truth – considered a turning point in his oeuvre – Heidegger re-examines the problem of liberty. Here thought strives towards the essence of truth. On this road – probably not accidentally at all – it encounters liberty. Of course, it is not unusual to seek the essence of truth in liberty. But this is so not only “from the point of view” of truth, but that of liberty as well. Thus it becomes clear ab ovo and again that liberty is not just some “state” that is given to us or not (and if it is given, then obviously it is constantly “limited” etc.). Liberty actually has an existential character, it is characteristic to one’s existence. Having a relation-like attitude towards the being supposes that one should be situated in the openness. This is the basis of all assertions related to which the “epistemological” problem of “rightness” – of “truth”, “falsity”– afterwards constantly occurs. But even the possible “rightness” and “wrongness” of the assertions originates from that openness in which the assertion can be brought at all to its right “state”, “form”. The rightness thus achieved is built on the possibility and accomplishing of those corrections that can only be made on the basis of openness, respectively as openness. Therefore, we must be open ab ovo to the urgings of such a correction, for only thus the question of “rightness” or “wrongness”, occurring related to the assertions, may have some consequence at all…1 In other words: liberty here (as well) will become the essence of truth as something that actually is the basis, source, exponent, coefficient of the “interior” possibility of truth.2 We are able to form correct judgements – more precisely to form “judgements” at all –, only if meanwhile we are and remain free to let that something to be and to manifest itself “as something”. And if, related to all these, we reckon with the possibility of being right or wrong – continually correcting
1 With reference to this see also the paper entitled Állítás (asszerció), kérdezés és tagadás (Assertion, Questioning and Denial) from the volume István Király V., Kérdő jelezés [Question(ing) Mark(ing)], Bratislava, Kalligram, 2004. 2 See: Martin Heidegger, Az igazság lényegéről, in: idem, Útjelzők, Budapest, Osiris, 2003, pp. 173–193.
244 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
“ourselves” too – in a way that suits the weight of the question being at stake. Therefore truth and liberty refer to one another, but they do this in a basic sense and way which already urges the modification of the essence of both truth and liberty. Liberty is revealed to be “letting-be” (Sein-lassen), letting the being to – possibly – reveal itself in the openness in its unconcealment as a – possible – self-self. Truth will become aletheia (unconcealment), while liberty will be a letting-be openness to existence which exists while it lets be, which depends on possibilities and is divided in these – and it is not some kind of “characteristic” or “state”. “To be free” therefore means to be open to the manifestation/appearance of unconcealment and to the quite self- concealing guidance of this, while one is in the problematic and weighty concealment. Consequently, it means that one must be open to one’s endeavour to let-oneself-be! Therefore and repeatedly: liberty is not some characteristic of humans, on the contrary, – if we need to think here in property relations – actually the human being is the one “owned” by liberty.1
5. In this way, of course, truth transcends that, which is usually regarded the subject and domain of epistemology and logic as “cognition”, respectively “science”. For thus one can realise that for example works of art or more generally art have their own truth. And this is not an indifferent or secondary truth at all. For how could we people actually face for example such things like the truth “related to” ungratefulness or avarice, if not by the means of Shakespeare’s Iago or Balzac’s Gobseck? And in what “judgements” or “assertions” “is placed” the truth of these works of art? Truth, however, can only transcend the narrower and more “special” existentiality of “cognition” – meant as studying and specifically outlined – in an existentially and horizon-like way. It can obtain a world-like importance, only if it exists and happens always in a common essentiality with liberty. However, what differentiates to some extent typically the various – scientific or literary-artistic etc. – “texts” is that they exist within the language. The language essential to these texts has an
1 Ibid.
245 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 ontological character, belongs to the historical world and is well articulated. This manifests itself while one is “merely reading” the texts. The language of the literary work of art is specific and of distinguished importance because “the poetical evocative power of language created by sound as well as meaning is intimately interwoven”.1 This interconnectedness cannot be superseded and is ever valid. In this respect literary texts are “eminent” texts for Gadamer too. Contrary to this, for example philosophical texts are characterised by a certain “intermediarity”. For these essentially “operate” with notions. Because this they cannot achieve the unity of sound and meaning characteristic to the work of art. However, they are bound to language as well – this being a constantly essential aspect for them. This is why the “eminence” of the relationship between philosophical texts, respectively philosophy and language consists in the fact that their words and texts perpetually surpass, transcend themselves. Because of this, philosophers actually – or: consequently – have no “texts” at all. And even if there are such things, they essentially are the soul’s continuous historical conversation with itself that cannot be ended – thus “progressing towards infinity”. (As conversation, philosophy is – from a different direction, but – as “near” to the essence/existence of language, connected to existence in general, as poetry, which, beyond having a certain meaning, is identical with that which it means…) According to this, poetry is not conversation, or it is – would be – that, which in the final, completed work is only the – one – end of conversation. Indeed, philosophy could not survive if it were like this… In a well defined and historically divided western tradition all this appears as a kind of miserable “imperfection” of philosophy. This does not merely – and in the first place – mean that words become degraded and worn out during their theoretical “use”, but that they are “imperfect” from the beginning. This is because they are merely and excessively: human words. Contrary to this – according to Gadamer’s hermeneutics – the “divine” word is perfect; because it is “one alone”. Obviously, in the case of poetic word “perfect” has a different meaning, namely: its formulation is final. A poem simply cannot be written “with other words”…
1 See: István Fehér M., József Attila esztétikai írásai és Gadamer hermeneutikája – Irodalmi szöveg és filozófiai szöveg (Attila József’s Writings in Aesthetics and Gadamer’s Hermeneutics – Literary Text and Philosophical Text), Bratislava, Kalligram, 2003, pp. 164, 166.
246 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
According to me, this means that, related to the formulation of poetic words, all “understanding by itself” is impossible. That is, poetry, maybe in contrast with other texts, always and ab ovo – and not only as the consequence of temporal distances etc. – claims the efforts of a hermeneutical interpretation; it demands application, the self-changing challenges of making the text one’s own. As Heidegger puts it, poetry always and essentially urges us to dialogue by this. To a dialogue in which precisely the conversation of poets and thinkers may prove the most important and the most existence- like from the perspective of the subject, language, conversation and its importance… But in what else does the significance of poetry’s perfection consist, if not in the fact that it orientates man – as a contrast – towards (his) language as a constantly emerging want of language and existence? Therefore it can be asked, whether philosophy has really some other “task”, related to which we could regretfully state, that it has no adequate, specific language of its own…1 Contrary to this, divine word, is “one alone”, as we have seen it. This does not mean that there is only “one piece” of it, for God talks quite a lot in the Bible. It would/could rather mean that this word contains the “whole thing” at once and as a whole. Compared to this, of course, human word is “imperfect”. That is, it is dependent on logic, grammar, etymology, language theory etc. and even hermeneutics… In other words: divine word may be considered a word that has no language at all, respectively it has no need of such a thing – at least it seems so. The special problem, however, is in this case as well that this word is addressed to man, who, on the other hand, has to struggle continuously with the multitude of words and their meanings in his language/languages – if only because the disposition made at Babel. Consequently: “even being dependent upon conversation is the sign of imperfection and finitude.”2 This, naturally, cannot happen with God… Gods – besides many other things – do not philosophize, but, maybe, they only present man with philosophy; and – at least according to Aristotle – this is their most important (good) deed. According to this, however, there would be no sound reason for us to complain that we are constrained to practice philosophy, or even hermeneutics etc. For: only because divine word is without language, and
1 Cf. ibid., p. 181. 2 Ibid., p. 183.
247 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 poetical language is definitive, a challenging and even unavoidable opportunity presents itself, an opportunity to “elaborate theories”… and of course to practice philosophy/hermeneutics as well. For only these have to/are able to undo themselves and transcend themselves continuously – in dialogue –, while moving in the directions of truth and liberty, which are always and historically opened or opening to possibilities (and always dangerous).
6. But even (natural-)scientific discovery will be pointless within the historical and linguistic situation outlined above unless “it subordinates itself to the hints of this situation and answers these by interpreting the conjectures formulated in them.”1 So it becomes more and more clear that – in relation to natural sciences – the “place” of truth is not in assertion or verification, but rather in the real, living scientific discovery itself.2 And this has not, after all, psychological, “epistemological” or “epistemological-methodological” character, respectively importance, but ontological one. This is why we should here mention that nowadays the “hermeneutics of natural sciences” is being outlined once again, a hermeneutics that efficiently reaches back to the Diltheyian, Husserlian and most importantly to the Heideggerian tradition. The philosophical- hermeneutical value of such efforts cannot be overrated. For – either admittedly or unadmittedly – they tend to make acknowledged and to undertake the otherwise elementary fact that natural sciences are probably “cultivated” by the same Being-here (Dasein) – as its own and not at all secondary or indifferent way of existence –, which operates in the case of “spiritual sciences”, religions/theologies listening to divine words or all the arts and technical or political “professions”; and, of course, in the case of philosophy. Therefore, as long as we “hermeneutically” or “phenomenologically” distinguish “the thing itself” according to the ways by which it manifests itself, is made accessible – that is, according to the “methods of the exact natural sciences”, the “methods of spiritual
1 Theodore J. Kisiel, A természettudományos felfedezés hermeneutikája (The Hermeneutics of the Natural-Scientific Discovery), in: Tibor Schwendtner, László Roppolyi and Olga Kiss (eds.), Hermeneutika és a természettudományok (Hermeneutics and Natural Sciencies), Budapest, Áron Publishing House, 2001, p. 102. 2 Ibid., p. 91.
248 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 sciences” etc. – (though many of these aspects are acceptable and important), we actually neglect the “more essential” aspect that for us “things” can only appear – as meanings – together with the risks of their manifestation… And this, of course, is valid in the case of natural sciences, as well as it is related to the other ways of existence of the Dasein, which are always specifically divided. Moreover, it is their essential, fundamental aspect – which, however, was hardly made explicit. Therefore it is totally wrong to consider Heidegger’s “critique of – natural and social – science” as referring merely to science. On the contrary: his critique of science – leading to the critique of “metaphysics” and more generally to the critique of “philosophy”– actually widens and deepens to a polemos of existential history. In other words: it becomes the – in its essence entirely factic – critique and actual challenge of the “fate” of existential history… Since, for example: “Mathematics is a human science as well as other sciences… and we need to count only because we are temporally finite beings.”1 Consequently, not even Heidegger’s reflections aim to simply undo or suspend for example all the results/convictions related to the “criteria” of truth; and still less to give new “criteria” to science. Heidegger only reflects on the essence of truth and in this he loosens up/liberates or re-questions all former cogitation about the essence of truth. He does not say that science does its job wrongly, respectively, that it forms wrong statements and propositions about wrongly presented facts. He only asks questions referring to the sense that determines the place, “role” and perspectives of science in existential history. And he asks, of course, whether these questions can be answered or not “within” the confines of science itself. For, when we ask these questions, it is revealed that the “correctness” of assertions – including scientific assertions as well – is made possible only by the openness of the relation constituted, respectively divided by these questions, more precisely by the investigation itself, “and that, which makes this correctness possible, can claim the essence of truth by a more genuine right.”2 Although hereby the idea, that assertion is the only or the true, the essential “place” of truth, proves to be false, this does not mean that,
1 See: Oskar Becker, Măreţia şi limitele gîndirii matematice (The Greatness and the Limits of Mathematical Thinking), Bucharest, Scientific Publishing House, 1968, pp. 168–169. 2 Martin Heidegger, Az igazság lényegéről (On the Essence of Truth), p. 179.
249 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 in this way, assertions are ab ovo “untrue”, or that some truth or even the essence of truth does not abide in them as in “places”… It means that “all this” “is within the assertion”, but truth/the essence of truth is not confined only to this. Meanwhile the assertion itself, respectively the possibility of its correspondence to “objects” is actually based on the openness of the attitude divided precisely by the assertion itself. This openness of attitude, after all, proves to be exactly (the) liberty. Therefore, if we say that the essence of truth is liberty – and here “essence” probably is not understood as a “pure” generality distilled to a flavourless, colourless, odourless state – this means exactly the opening up of the questioning investigation and the questioning and questionable relation in the openness – as the actual and real existential history of the dependence-on-existence brought into Being-here. Moreover, indeed: “Whatever happens with historical human beings comes in each case from a decision about the essence of truth that happened long ago and is never up to humans alone.”1
1 Martin Heidegger, Platón tanítása az igazság lényegéről (Plato’s Doctrine of Truth), p. 224.
250 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The Catharsis of Going out into the Street: Experiencing the 1989 Romanian Revolution∗
Sidonia GRAMA NEDEIANU PhD student “Babeş-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: the anthropology of the 1989 revolution, liminality, 1990 testimonies, revolution as lived and as narrated
Abstract The violent event of the 1989 Romanian revolution was experienced both as transforming and traumatic. Using vivid, synaesthesic testimonies on those days, the paper highlights the liminality of the revolution-as-lived, its symbolic dimension, the existential dilemmas and the harsh reflexivity triggered then, while critically examining narrative patterns of the revolution-as-told.
E-mail: [email protected]
Motto: “The year of 1989 has given me back my true identity. I sharply realized which world I have been living on. Adrian Marino∗
The bloody violence of the 1989 founding event of Romanian post communist democracy was experienced both as transforming and traumatic. The violent death until the dictators’ fall had a sacrificial dimension, whilst that provoked afterwards was a legitimizing death.
∗ This paper was presented at the EASA (European Association of Social Anthropology) Conference, Bristol, UK, 2006, within the panel “Everyday life of revolutionary movements”. ∗(In translation: “Anul 1989 mi-a redat adevărata identitate. Mi-am dat seama exact pe ce lume trăiesc.”) Adrian Marino in a dialogue to Sorin Antohi. Al treilea discurs. Cultură, ideologie şi politică în România. (The Third Discourse. Culture, Ideology and Politics in Romania), Iaşi, Polirom, 2001, pp. 36-38.
251 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Ultimately, the physical and psychical violence of the revolution dramatically legitimized the new leaders who came to power. This paper develops an ethnographic analysis, based primarily on 1990 testimonies of some people from the capital who went out into the streets at that time. It tries to capture the dramatic atmosphere of the street revolutionary movement, as well as to reveal recurrent themes and patterns in the narratives on revolution, since the revolution as lived and as told are inextricably intertwined. It stresses the highly liminal character of the revolution as experienced, and its symbolic dimensions, spreading light on the existential dilemmas and the harsh reflexivity triggered then by the momentous of December 1989. By focusing on the symbolic dimensions of the revolutionary experience, this account on the revolution as lived would like to offer a closer, more empathic view on what is analytically called the mass mobilization or popular revolt, as one of the key factors and a distinct phase in a revolutionary process. How did people experience those days of revolution? What made them revolt and put their life at stake? How did they perceive the abrupt moment of rupture between a world which collapsed and another one which was to be imagined? How did they face violent death, the unknown, the great hopes and fears? Whilst desperately trying to liberate themselves from an overwhelming past by exorcizing it, what was the future they imagined like? It seems that such essentially new experiences in one’s life were, at that time, instinctively expressed through rituals and symbols. A time of deep crisis, the revolution instantly revived old recurrent historical myths, which were subsequently manipulated for political use. This was a time when people dramatically revaluated their whole life, a moment which turned into a crucial autobiographical point of reference, of before and after 1989. Despite the deep meanings of those experiences, subsequently, even highly comprehensive accounts or descriptions of the revolution have tended to leave them apart or just to mention them in passing.1
1 For instance, in a recent competent and comprehensive analysis of the 1989 Romanian Revolution, the British historian, Peter Siani Davies, refers also to the revolutionaries’ state of mind by describing it in terms of mass behaviour, as homogenous crowd driven by destructiveness and adrenaline. „Charged with adrenaline and freed from traditional constraints, after years of numbing tedium, the ordinary Romanian began to play an active role in the unfolding events. (...) The most obvious way of showing commitment to the revolution was joining the huge mass on the streets.”) Peter Siani Davies, The Romanian Revolution of
252 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Moreover, in the making of collective and social memory(ies) of the revolution these aspects are becoming more and more faded. Actually, they tend to be silenced. Even though flashes still persist in the participant’s memories, they are barely scattered through the clusters of narratives on the revolution which have been socially produced during more than a decade and a half elapsed since the events. This is the reason why implicitly I also urge here to situate historically (culturally and socially) every testimony or account we work with or provoke as researchers, because the work of memory which refines in time the significances of the past, might also bury them deeply beneath different circumstances and current political interests.1
Sketches of the revolution ‘as it happened’ In order to contextualize our discussion I would like to remind you of some background information on the events of December 1989, by providing an overview on the Romanian revolution as a linear, chronological reconstruction of the events.2 Nonetheless, there is an inherent ambivalence of the term ‘history’, meaning both ‘what happened’ and ‘that which is said to have happened’, which fluidly overlaps the socio-historical process and the knowledge of that process, namely the story, or the narratives on that process.3 And inevitably, any historical and anthropological account on a past event plays actually on this ambivalence between the events as happened, as remembered and narrated.
December 1989, Cornell University Press, 2005, p. 116, 117. On a contrary, this paper aims at subverting such a simplistic interpretation of the revolution in the streets, by revealing its complexity and depth as a phenomenon, and the dimensions which the official discourse on the revolution have systematically silenced during this span of time. 1 I have developed this idea in the article Sidonia Grama Nedeianu, „Memory Features of the 1989 Romanian Revolution: Competing Narratives on the Revolution”, in: Oral History and (Post)socialist Societies, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Unipress, Freiburg, 2007, under printing. 2 The brief reconstruction of the events we propose here is primarily based on central and local newspapers and draws mainly on the inquisitive description made by Stelian Tănase, a Romanian journalist and political analyst, in his book The Miracle of the Revolution, while some aspects were clarified or nuanced from oral sources. 3 Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past. Power and the Production of History, Boston, Beacon Press, 1995, p.22.
253 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
As it is probably known, alongside the historical changes that swept across Central and Eastern Europe in 1989 – which political analysts labelled as anticommunist, peaceful revolutions – the Romanian revolution seemed to be an exceptional one, because of its violence and the slow pace of radical political and social reforms, which have been only hesitantly initiated since then. The physical and psychical violence engendered by the turmoil of those events, the obscurities of some aspects of the revolution that have remained unexplained, and the highly elusive question of who should bear responsibility for most of the victims have led, inevitably, to difficult memories. The revolutionary situation arose on December 15, 1989, in Timişoara, a multicultural city on the Western border of Romania. There, from an initial silent gathering of some protestant believers to sustain their pastor, László Tőkés, who was to be disciplinarily removed by the local authorities, on account of his political critique (concerning the Hungarian minority problems), the events turned rapidly and intensively into a mass anti-dictatorial revolt. It finally transformed into a genuine revolutionary movement since, in spite of the fiercely bloody repression of the army forces against the population vehemently protesting in the streets, it culminated on December 20 with the establishment of a new local political organization, the Democratic Front, based at the Opera House of Timişoara, and having a political program proposal. That was the day when the Army had to withdraw from the streets, partly fraternizing with the mass protestors, and when Timişoara was declared the first Free city in Romania. Despite the strong informational blockade, the news about Timişoara managed to spread informally throughout the country.1 On December 21, the President Ceauşescu ordered an official meeting to manipulate again the nationalism and to publicly condemn what he had defined in terms of ‘antinational, fascist and terrorist actions’, which were organized by ‘the reactionary, imperialist, irredentist, xenophobic circles, and the foreign intelligence services’, in order to ‘destroy the independence and sovereignty of our socialist country’.2 There was a fatal breach in the contrived public demonstration,
1 Some of these aspects were very much clarified through oral sources, namely interviews and informal discussions with revolutionaries from Timişoara at different moments during my fieldwork since 2000. 2 ‘Camarade Nicolae Ceauşescu’s speech at the radio and television’, in Scânteia, the Organ of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, 21 December 1989, p.1.
254 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 broadcast live by the National Television, when an unexpected scream and, afterwards, voices shouting ‘Timişoara, Timişoara’ interrupted his speech, giving a signal to the country that something was about to happen. People from several cities throughout Romania and from the capital took the risk of going out into the streets, in spite of the officially declared ‘state of emergency’. They were protesting against the cruel dictator, who eventually proved to be ironically frail. A more or less similar evolution of events occurred then in Bucharest, as well as in other main cities in Romania, such as Cluj, Arad, Sibiu, Tg. Mureş, etc. Next morning, on December 22, 1989, in the capital of the country, after a dramatic night with barricades and violent confrontations, columns of protestors from the industrial area of the city flowed to the centre. The news that the Minister of Defence, Vasile Milea, had committed suicide fostered the army’s fraternization with the people. While the crowds were assaulting the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, the Ceauşescus fled by helicopter from the terrace of the official building, which had been surrounded by revolutionaries. That was the de facto end of the dictatorial regime.1 The day of December 22 could be also considered a distinct phase in the evolution of those historical events because the legitimization of the new political power emerged in the revolution began then, as performed through the live broadcast of the Free Romanian Television.2 The power nucleus was formed primarily by former high- ranking communists, dissidents from inside the communist party, representatives of the army and the administration. Some of the opponents to communism, the most well-known and appreciated figures, had also been courteously invited to join the newly established political body, CFSN (Council of the National Salvation Front), to ensure its symbolical capital and reinforce its legitimization. Even though the two fugitive dictators were actually captured after several hours that very day,
1 Stelian Tănase, Miracolul Revoluţiei (The Miracle of the Revolution), Bucharest, Humanitas, 1999, pp. 269, 273. 2 A comprehensive analysis of this dramatic process of legitimization of the new political leaders is part of the analysis on the Romanian Revolution Live Broadcast, belonging to the National Television Archive, which I previously published as part of my BA thesis, Sidonia Grama Nedeianu, Revirimentul simbolurilor in revolutia romana din decembrie 1989 (The Sudden Change of Symbols in the Romanian Revolution from December 1989), Caietele Tranziţiei 1, 1997, pp. 102–106.
255 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 the Romanian Television Live kept silence on that, maintaining an incredible suspense that lasted until the evidence of the dictators’ death was proved by a videotape that was broadcast on December 26. A day before, on Christmas day, in the barracks of Târgovişte, where the dictators had been arrested for several days, an emergency military tribunal had charged them with genocide and sentenced them to death after an improvised trial that lasted 55 minutes. Their execution took place immediately.1 From December 22, the day of the first live broadcast of the revolution and the constitution of the National Salvation Front, until December 26, the dictators’ execution broadcast, the psychosis of the terrorists, as a ubiquitous threat of unidentified elite shooters, terrifyingly monopolized the public. All in all, the physic and psychic violence inflicted the following heavy casualties: 1107 dead and 3352 injured people, which includes 162 dead and 1107 injured victims before December 22 (those were victims of Ceausescu’s repression), and 942 dead and 2245 injured individuals after the day of the dictators’ forced departure (victims of the terrorist psychosis). These sad figures mean that ‘the manipulation produced more victims than the repression.’2 As regards the end of the revolution, which is always problematic, one could assert that the revolutionary situation was almost over at the end of the year, when everyday life attempted to enter a normal pace, even if echoes of the turmoil of events still resounded. On the other hand, from a political point of view, one might conventionally consider as a short-term end of the revolution (as its first political outcomes), the date of the first free elections, May 20, 1990, with the overwhelming victory of the National Salvation Front, and Ion Iliescu, the main political protagonist of the revolution, being elected president.3
1 Tănase, op.cit., p. 272. 2 This remark was made by a controversial protagonist of the revolution, the Minister of the Army, an old nationalistic communist, Nicolae Militaru, who was appointed by the new president, Ion Iliescu, after Milea’s suicide. It was published in the central newspaper Adevǎrul, 22 December 1994. 3 The National Salvation Front (NSF), the first political body of the revolution, and its leader, Ion Iliescu, in spite of the fact that it was only provisionally established in order to cope with the vacuum of power, and to prepare the first elections, subsequently participated in elections, monopolizing therefore the symbolic capital of the revolution; hence its overwhelming victory in the 1990 elections as well as the subsequent ones under Iliescu’s leadership (even if it changed the name several times).
256 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Despite this apparent unanimity, the entire period was marked by violence and vehement political contestation of the new political power (the interethnic conflict from Tg. Mureş, March 15–20, 1990, and the continuous protests in the University Square, in April 22–June 13, 1990, which were bloodily stopped by the ferocious “mineriade”). On the other hand, in the long run, it seems that, in the public debate, the end of the revolution has not come yet, since even on its 15th commemoration there were public discourses claiming that ‘the revolution had to continue’.1
Revolutionary experience as liminality Now, beyond a conventional historical reconstruction of the events (a kind of surgery of the facts as ‘they happened’, from the multitude of narratives on what happened, which, admittedly, is far from being easy or unproblematic), an ethnographic account would shed light on rather different aspects. The analysis of such a founding historical event is more likely to emphasis the process of ‘reordering worlds of meaning’,2 which that moment provoked, or might be merely a pretext for ’plunging into the midst of existential dilemmas of life’.3 Therefore, speaking about the Romanian revolution it means more than labelling it as an abruptly violent end of a dictatorial (neo- stalinist) regime, and a slow and painful transition toward liberal values and market economy. What highly characterized the experience of that event (especially the revolutionary situation that lasted until the end of the year) as a radical change and rupture at many levels might be well described in terms of ‘liminality’.4 From a political point of view, the revolutionary
1 Cf. my fieldnotes ‘The revolution has to continue’ was a recurrent statement in the official discourses of revolutionaries representatives from Timişoara, within the program of the 15th commemoration, in which I took part as a participant observer. That was a multi-sited fieldwork on the commemoration of the revolution in Timişoara, Cluj and Bucharest, 15-22 December 2004, which was published as an article: Sidonia Grama, ‘In Between Spaces of Remembering and Sites of Memory. The 15th Commemoration of the Romanian Revolution in Timişoara’, in: Philobiblon, vol. 10–11, Cluj, Cluj University Press, 2006, pp. 310–314. 2 Catherine Verdery, The Political Lives of Dead Bodies, New York, Columbia University Press, 1999, p. 33. 3 Clifford Geertz, The Interpretations of Culture, New York, Basic Books, 1973, p. 29. 4 Victor Turner, The Forest of Symbols. Aspects of Ndembu Ritual, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1967.
257 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 time as a period ‘betwixt and between’1 a no longer existing order and a not yet established one, opened ‘a potentially unlimited series of alternative social arrangements’; ’In this gap between ordered worlds, almost anything may happen’.2 There is something as a melting pot which refines different ideas, projects, social expectancies. Consequently, the particular trajectory that the Romanian events took towards the new social and political order did not simply happen within – what political analysts and politicians call – a ‘vacuum of power’. The new socio-political configuration was not, therefore, ‘ineluctable’ as the official political discourse likes to claim. The concept of liminality thoughtfully reconsiders the transition between worlds or status. It is no longer a negative term marking an absence, like the above mentioned political term, or even as other anthropologists have described it: as no man’s land, of timelessness, and where nothing happens.3 On the contrary, liminality refers to a dramatically intense period with benign and malign potential as well; ‘a realm of pure possibility whence novel configurations of ideas and relations may arise’,4 ‘a realm of primitive hypothesis, where there is a certain freedom to juggle with the factors of existence’,5 ‘a stage of reflection’.6 To empathically describe the revolution as lived, a researcher should scrutinize particular testimonies which still encapsulate those genuine experiences, filling the interstices of the multitude of accounts on revolution largely produced in the public space, with competing, multi vocal meanings. Such samples of testimonies are those gathered at the beginning of January 1990, by a group of ethnologists from Bucharest which had the idea to go out in the streets and record eyewitness testimonies.7 At that time echoes of those traumatic events still resounded, while in
1 Victor Turner, Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1974. 2 Ibid., p.14. 3 Edmund Leach, Culture and Communication, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1974, p. 34. 4 Victor Turner, The Forest of Symbols, p. 97. 5 Ibid., pp. 105–106. 6 Ibid., p. 105. 7 The witness’ testimonies were published in a valuable volume of oral histories: Irina Nicolau (coord.), Vom muri şi vom fi liberi (We Shall Die and We Shall Be Free), Bucharest, Meridiane, 1990.
258 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 everyday life, a sort of normal pace was to be found. That was a period when the street continued to be a public arena, a stage on which the anticommunist character of the revolution (previously silenced or, at least, very feeble in 22 December 1989) was getting more vocal and radicalized. In the mean time, on the international mass media arena, the ‘miracle of the Romanian revolution’ turned to be suspiciously questionable.1 The narratives produced then, even if do not excel in providing sheer factual information that a (positivist) historical reconstruction of a past event might seek, are still invaluable sources. There are plenty of metaphors in these narratives, which encapsulate mythical elements of the memory as a ‘special clue to the past, as windows of the making and remaking of individual and collective consciousness’.2 For, ‘an event lived is finished, bound with experience. But an event remembered is boundless, because it is the key to all that happened before and after it’3. The specific moments the narratives refer to, are: the beginning of the revolt in Bucharest, since the dictator’s fateful meeting on December 21, the night of the cruel repression, the fraternisation of the army in 22, and flashes of the next days until the end of the year and the beginning of the new one. Within these accounts one can find vivid, almost synaesthetic descriptions of the atmosphere in the streets, collective gestures, patterns of interactions, and moreover, precious insights into very personal experiences and inner conflicts. Tracking down metaphors within testimonies, I hereby propose an account of the revolution-as-lived, as a polyphonic text which preserves a richness of voices, hesitancies and searching for meanings.4
1 The book was launched in a context in which the previous positive and rather exhilarating international echoes of the dramatic Romanian revolution had turned into an opposite scepticism and negativism. It was the period when the media coverage of the events and the huge disinformation involved became an issue of debate among journalists and political analysts, especially in the French media. See, for instance, Michel Castex, Une mensonge gros comme le siecle. Roumanie, histoire d’une manipulation, Paris, Albin Michel, 1990. 2 Raphael Samuel and Paul Thompson, The Myths We Live By, London, Routledge, 1990, p. 21. 3 Apud. Walter Benjamin, in: Alessandro Portelli, The peculiarities of oral history, History Workshop 12, 1981, p. 175. 4 The longer excerpts I use in this paper are also fragments of the interviews published in Irina Nicolau, op.cit.
259 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Breach and crisis On the 21st of December, the moment of the national television broadcast of the meeting in Bucharest was experienced as a breach, as signalling the end and the simultaneous beginning of something indefinite but hoped for. There was an acute sensation of ‘Now! Now!; It has to happen!’; and ‘the impression that everything was over then’, as well as, recalling later, that ‘everything began then’1. After the shouting heard in the street and the interruption of the broadcast, ‘I ran away; I said to myself, oh, guys, it’s over, they have caught fire; and I rush into the metro station to catch the train quickly, to get there’2. The perception of time precipitated into an extremely intense rhythm and a compulsion of going out there, in the streets, arose. Even though one may say that going into the streets has always been a rather banal form of protest, especially in democratic countries, at that time, in Romania, after almost half a century of totalitarianism, this act of protest meant far more. It became a crucial, existential choice and a catharsis. Since 21st of December, the city centre of Bucharest turned into an axis mundi, magnetically attracting an increasing number of people. Day and night, there was an ongoing pilgrimage, while time had been suspended. That was the prime arena of the revolution. Gradually, the urban space achieved completely new social and psychological dimensions through different forms of space appropriation and configuration, patterns of interaction, and new forms of communication. Thus, instinctively rushing into the street, immediately after that particular signal of breach when the situation was still extremely risky and reversible, people gathered together (re)discovering the exhilarating feeling of community and the temptation of liberty: ‘We began to shout: We want liberty!; Without violence!; Timisoara, […] we knelt; […] and everything was beautiful: friends, acquaintances, we kissed each other, we hugged each other, joyfully’( worker, 27 years old); [In the University square, a lot of people, with a flag with the emblem cut off]: ‘Then, I began to cry, we met each other, everything that we couldn’t say openly so many years, to tell instantly…I think it was a sort of shock’(students, 22 and 27 years old) At the narrative level, the frenetic, breathtaking quality of that time is expressed through short, elliptical sentences. Yet, there had been a spectre of the Timişoara bloody repression in the air, making the atmosphere both tense and exhilarating. On behalf
1 Irina Nicolau (coord.), op. cit., 15-17. 2 Ibid. p. 18, worker 27 years old.
260 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 of the dead of Timisoara, people in the street knelt, lit candles, prayed, staying in circles, instituting islands of sacredness. The urban space was controlled and strictly delimited by military forces. Barriers of riot-shield bearers blocked the main crossroads to the city centre. The potential for confrontation between the protestors and the military forces led to a dynamic of space appropriation by different form of delimitations: from a symbolical belt of carnations on a bridge, inviting to non-violence, to proper barricades and escalation of violence. ‘Our barricade’ and ‘theirs’; the space markers reflected the us/them dichotomy. However, these borders were many times trespassed, as ritual attempts to convert the hostility of the situation into a non-hostile one, since ‘the crossing of frontiers and thresholds is always hedged about with ritual’.1 Therefore, some of the people in the street, mostly youngsters, approached the soldiers in a friendly and humorous manner: ‘Those who were the most courageous went to the first line [to the USLA troops] and gave them cigarettes; they told them: actually we are staying here to take your shields and to sledge on them.’( Photographer, 20 years old) Since then, a ritual of giving had been gradually instituted, carrying different meanings and symbolic effects in ‘maintenance or alteration of social relationships’2, primarily between soldiers and population. Other protestors had forced the soldiers to face reality and to realize that the people in front of them were neither hooligans, nor foreign agents or enemies, as Ceausescu’s official discourse had labelled them, but they were likely to be their own friends or relatives. Virtual kinship relations had fostered, therefore, an identification of those involved in a sheer illegitimate confrontation. The mystified definition of the situation had been thus challenged: ‘In front of a USLA barrier, well built soldiers, in their military service; people ask them, the classical questions: don’t you have brothers at home, don’t you have parents, how can you do this?; one of them with a very tough face, was utterly overwhelmed, he turned back and went away; there was a group of people who were insistently asking him: man, look at us, I might be your brother, I might be your chum, perhaps we had a beer together.’ (Student, 27 years old) These types of questions became very common, as attempts to personalize the relationship, and moreover, as a powerful form of
1 Edmund Leach, op. cit., p. 35. 2 Raymond Firth, Symbols: Public and Private, Ithaca NY, Cornell University Press, 1973, p. 402.
261 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 questioning the military forces’ consciences1. Even after several scenes of violence had happened, there was still a bizarre mixture of intermittent hostility and non-hostility between the demonstrators and the military forces, until the beginning of firings and the bloody repression from the night of December 21 to 22. ‘The tanks have demolished the barricade, people have burnt our barricade […] after a while, people have already spoken with them, amicable relations; on tanks they spoke with them like at a picnic: How are you? They were smoking, one could move freely… [when he came back in the square, after midnight] there were beer and candies in a lorry, the cars were burning, that yellowish light, with beer… it was like in a Latin revolution, I said, man, it is exactly our style … [until] they began to fire, those are firing, so this is not a game any more’ (Worker, 27 years old) Paradoxically, the accounts of that night, as a moment of high crisis – when tanks crashed barricades and protestors, hundreds of people were killed and even more wounded filled the hospitals – are not accurately recalled; the facts are mixed up, a lot of images are juxtaposed. Moreover, that moment seems to be avoided in most of the testimonies recorded in 1990. Even if the interviewees were explicitly invited to speak about the moment of firings, they described it in a fatalist key, by indefinite, vague or confusing terms to refer to the repressive forces they confronted that night: ‘Barricade at Dalles, barricades of armoured cars; beyond them terrorists, here us […] at the Inter[continental], a tank is crashing the barricade; through the hole made those have entered and are beginning to fire at people; Who was shooting…? Who might have been…?’(Students, 27, and 22 years old) What is striking in this account is the use of the term terrorists. The term itself made history in the Romanian revolution context, having highly ambiguous and slippery semantics. It was firstly used in Ceausescu’s discourse to define the revolt from Timişoara, labelling the street
1 These aspects of identification and personalization of the relationship between soldiers and population at that time might have now a particular relevance in the context of the revolution trials. In spite of the face to face relations in the street, even after more than a decade from those events, some of the army officers put into trial for the casualties of the revolution up to December 22, claimed that they had been misinformed that protestors were foreign agents; or there is a tendency to affirm that people in the street were mostly hooligans and drunkards. I noticed these tendencies also when I participated in several sessions of the trials of the revolution from Cluj, in April–May 2001.
262 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 protestors in these terms1, to be subsequently took over, after Ceausescu’s fall in 22 December, by the new (political and opinion) leaders of the revolution and publicly launched at the television, in order to define the highly elusive enemy of the Revolution (always in capital letters). And, at that stage of the revolution, it had powerful and damaging effects, as we will see later. Therefore, bearing in mind the chronology of the events, in the witnesses’ recollection about the night of 21 December, the moment of confrontation with the repressive forces, the very term of ‘terrorists’ seems to be premature and dissonant. At the narrative level, it was obviously used retrospectively, from a perspective charged with subsequent grasps of the events. For the memory is never a mere reproduction of the past events, but a re-construction from the present; as Halbwachs put it, ‘the mind reconstructs its memory under the pressure of society’.2 In spite of the face-to-face encounters between protestors and the repressive forces, the 1990 testimonies systematically avoid the identification of those military forces involved in the repression. As a narrative strategy, they were impersonally and pejoratively called ‘ăia’ (them). In the context of the beginning of 1990, soon after the entire odyssey of the Romanian revolution had been meaningfully accomplished, – namely after the glorious fraternization of the army and the common fight against the ubiquitous threat of ‘terrorists’ as the common enemy –, one hardly might admit that the same victorious army was previously involved in the bloody repression. This has been one of the many difficult memories related to the Romanian revolution, extremely painful and uneasy to cope with. Such avoidances meant a sort of relief from flagrant cognitive dissonances.
From fratricide to fraternisation Therefore, most of the testimonies tend to silence the moment of confrontations during the night of December 21. The accounts jump indistinctly to the day of 22 of December which is recalled as ‘a proper day for doing a revolution’, the frenetic day of the Army fraternisation
1 Officially, the events from Timişoara were defined in Ceauşescu’s speech from 21 December 1989 in the following terms: “actions with terrorist character, organized and provoked in close relations with reactionary, imperialist circles”. “The Army was attacked by terrorists groups” (in: Scânteia, December 21, 1989, p. 1.) 2 Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 1992, p. 51.
263 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 with the protestors. Again, the compulsion of going down to the centre meant a kind of magnetic fascination. In the morning, after the traces of the previous repression being insistently cleaned, there was a transient, tense incertitude and fear in the air. This state of mind had influenced and shaped patterns of collective behaviour and social interactions. ‘On the second day, the second amazing fact, it was at the crack of dawn, I was going again to the city centre. Groups of people were going in the same direction, people didn’t say anything, we were looking at one another […] people tried to pretend that they were going to work, it means that old fear,[…] and the moment when we gathered together in a greater number, we suddenly began to shout; we had seen that we were many, all of us we had actually come on the same purpose, people were coming from everywhere; we began to talk with the soldiers; ‘’The Army is with us!’’ We were shouting from everywhere; the terrorists, – I call terrorists those antiterrorist-fighters, with helmets and shields, for they were the most frightening – the terrorists were running away’. (Students 27 and 22 years old) At that very moment of high reversibility, shouting ‘the Army is with us’ was not a mere slogan, but an invocation, a performative utterance1 meant to produce the envisaged effects. All the ritualised approaches to the army (through ritual giving, identification, humour) had ultimately, symbolical effectiveness:2 the army fraternized with the people.3 What is more, during the whole revolutionary process, the performative utterance ‘The army is with us!’ has developed in time different meanings and connotations, depending on the different stages of the revolution. Thus, until December 22, this invocation had fostered the Army fraternization with the street protestors, afterwards it was intensively chanted in the public squares to reinforce this achievement, and also, it was invoked as a sort of protection against the frightful unknown terrorists and the confusing rumours which spread around. After the end of the revolutionary situation, at the beginning of the 1990, when for the first time the role of the army in the repression was more vocally put into questions, the slogan “The Army is with us!” became
1 See J.L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1976. 2 See Claude Levy Strauss, Structural Anthropology, New York, Basic Books, 1963. 3 The pressure of the crowds in the street, as well as the news of the Army Minister ‘suicide’ – all these on the background of the profoundly irreversible changes in Central Europe – had definitely influenced the decision at the high level of the army to disobey an almost defunct regime.
264 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 politically instrumentalized in order to dissuade the attempts to search for those responsible for so many victims, both in the repression of the uprising and after the state breakdown. Undoubtedly, the ‘fraternization’ was crucial to the fate of the revolution. I would consider it not only as a particular moment or turning point in the loyalty of the army but more broadly, as a process and a gap at many levels of society. Abruptly or gradually, it represented a shift of world visions and attitudes, both at the institutional and private level. Within the state institutions the attitudes towards this change ranged from the state of expectancy of those who, throughout the period of changes, beginning with the Timisoara revolt up until that day, had been cautiously (or cowardly) expected to see what would happen with that ambiguous and reversible situation and only then they opportunistically hurried to expressed their loyalty to the revolution; to the radical shift, which occurred literally over night, as in the attitude of the repressive forces. From fratricide to fraternization, the case of the Romanian army is paradigmatic. In other repressive institutions1, as the political prison, Jilava, where protestors had been arrested in 21 December and spent the night there, dramatic shifts, with a touch of grotesqueness, occurred: ‘At Jilava it had been hell: only whimpers and roars, the investigation […] they treated us awfully until 12 pm when they began to ask: how do you feel? [on the 22 of December, being released] the chief of the prison: “from now on will be good both for us and for you; now be gentlemen, ladies first.’’ Many girls, having bruises, crying, they waved kisses at us. Those executioners, during the night, had shifted completely…’ (Ethnomusicologist, 67 years old) In the meantime the 22nd of December, the day of fraternization meant an explosion of joy and solidarity, which revived a profound sense of community, between soldiers and people, even a state of communitas, as ‘the quick’ of human interrelatedness’.2 Again, a reinforced ritual of gifts
1 Shifting attitudes at institutional level and especially in the Securitate and Militia remain to be explored further. At that time, Securitate played a very ambiguous and covered role. Until December 22 the Interior Minister forces were more visibly involved in arresting the protestors and in supporting form the second line the military forces in charged with the repression in the streets. Moreover the Securitate representatives were also involved in secretly filming the entire evolution of the events. At the beginning of 1990, when the trials of the revolution opened, few representatives of the Interior Minister were sentenced only for their involvement in illegal arrestment of the protestors. 2 Victor Turner, The ritual Process, Chicago, Aldine, 1969, p. 127.
265 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 had conveyed then meanings of thankfulness and hopes. There were unforgettable moments, whose stories still preserve the highly emotional atmosphere of those days [Beyond the Royal Square people were shouting] “The Army is with us!” These ones had put down their guns; general enthusiasm, ecstasy; they lit a cigarette, relaxed […] people invaded them, they got up on the tanks, throwing food, oranges to the soldiers; I burst into tears; it bursts me even now; people were kissing the soldiers, hugging them; Well, this is the story.’ (Worker, 27 years old) An old world had succumbed; a new one was to emerge. In the ‘betwixt and between’, social metaphors of both ‘dissolution, decomposition and growth and transformations1 had emerged. Rituals of destroying, as well as a cluster of discourses attempting to mark and to organize the new world, proliferated then in the public sphere. The crowds who ascended the building of the former Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party (CC), a former forbidden space, ‘began to throw, to break, to tear the party’s emblems; as it usually happens in a revolutionary time’. ‘At a certain moment everybody rushed to speak; […] it was crazy, all kinds of proclamations’ (Worker). For the revolution meant also a breach at the discursive level. The previous overwhelming wooden language of the communist ideology was shattered. The long lasting silence and fear imposed in the totalitarian period made people feel a sudden compulsion to speak frankly and freely, to express publicly their thoughts, and to become vocal, even if very difficult to articulate a new natural language. On the other hand, in the confusing struggle for power, two main alternative spaces of discourses were at stake: the balcony of the former CC, at the Palace Square (the place where Ceausescu used to hold his contrived speeches had been reconverted), and the television. They became symbolic places, forums of discursive practice. The highly contradictory and competing discourses, the performative utterances conveyed there, information and misinformation, proclamations, and abundant rumours spread over, barely configured a desperate attempt to order in the vacuum left by Ceausescu’s fled. Actually the chaos of the transition to an undefined new world was totally reflected there.
Going out into street as an existential choice From the very beginning, on 21 of December, going out into the street was essentially a matter of choice. Many people made it, either
1 Victor Turner, The Forest of Symbols, p. 99.
266 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 instinctively or after a long, painful deliberation. The tense alternative to go out or to stay home was ultimately a crucial existential choice. Consequently, the street – as an open space, dangerously exposed, a space of risk-taking and contestation of political regime – versus the home – as a closed space of fear, of escaping reality – became the symbolic dimensions of the city. That opposition admitted a third possibility: the pavement as a limbo, a transitory space of insecurity, anxiety, and indecision. Surprisingly, the symbolic dimension of the street has been a recurrent theme in the realm of narratives of the revolution. The tense perception of space still persists as flash-bulb memories, not only in the 1990 testimonies, where it is overwhelmingly recalled, but also in more recent narratives.1 While at the individual level, going out in the streets was a transforming experience, as a collective action it had political efficacy. ‘The way to the demonstration had been the most terrible moment in my life.’(Students) ‘And then I ran away…I ran away from home into the middle of the world, to the Intercontinental. For such a long time I’d wanted to go out, to shout; I had been feeling embarrassed…[…] but that very day I went out: at the rear lines, to the middle, on the lateral, then even in the first lines, in the front of that cordon at the Intercontinental […] Once Liiceanu said: “there are people guilty by silence, guilty by avoidance, and guilty by participation”…so, I went out then …’(Ethnomusicologist, 65 years old) ‘I went out there, to the Inter, because some friends of mine had told me that people were dying there’ (an amateur photographer, 20 years old) Confronting these kinds of testimonies one can see different ages, slightly different deep motivations, but the same need to be there, in the middle of the world, where violent death had transformed the ordinary space of the city into a sacred space. For some of the mature people who had spent their adulthood in the midst of totalitarianism, going out in the street was a sort of therapy for long lasting internalised fear, for complicity and culpability. Being there, facing death and experiencing solidarity might have been ultimately, a ritual of expiation. Although there was an
1 There are several participant’s testimonies from Cluj or from Bucharest that I recorded since 2000 which clearly recall, as in a slow motion picture, the psychological implications of the moment of stepping down from the pavement to the street, a moment perceived as a highly irreversible decision: ‘and when I stepped down I felt like there would be no return’ (Doru Maries, interview 2006 Bucharest). Ultimately, these kind of gestures made a difference in terms of people’s agency and mass mobilization.
267 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 awareness of this profound meaning, some people found it painfully difficult to make a decision. Being in between seems to be a distinct state of mind, correlated with certain categories of age and gender, objectified in attitudes and behaviour, and visible in spatial configurations: ‘On 21st of December, there was a sea of youngsters who were howling, shouting slogans; we, the middle generation, were howling, crying, kissing; we were not going to the midst of the street, we were in an intermediate position, between the endangered street and the institute where we could have sheltered; we were somewhere in between.’ (Art historian, 40 years old) The option of going out in the streets or staying home tended to be gendered, as well. While men were supposed to make up their minds to go and fight, women were expected to stay home or to go back to their hometowns to tell the story of the street. To trespass this stereotype was even more difficult: ‘And men had a sort of glorious hallo and they were discussing with each other how to send us back… go back at least you to tell; I didn’t want to go back home.’(Student) In the tense feeling of not being able to overcome an inner constraint, a woman felt that she might be partly absolved by delegating men to go in the street: ‘The boys had left home about 2 or 3 times, you have the impression that you calm down a bit, that you give them something and they leave with it, so that you are absolved by a half of the guilt. It seemed to me that it was the essential moment of your life as human being; I was desperate, I had been living a terrible desperation. (Art historian, 40 years) There was a time of reflexivity, of harsh evaluation of one’s entire life. In the highly charged psychological dimension of the urban space at that time, going back home turned into an introspective questioning of the meaningfulness of life. Ultimately, for everyone, no matter of age, gender, profession, being there had an existential value: ‘I will never be able to make up for lost time the fact that I hadn’t been there, that evening; you can’t make up for it even if you die.’ (Student, 26 years old) However, the Romanian revolution as a popular revolt has a distinct generational feature: it was called a ‘youngsters’ revolution’. Besides its political use in the official discourse, that had a deeper significance as subjective experience. Those who instinctively went out in the street were mostly adolescent and young people between 17–30 years old. Their enthusiasm, bravery or unconsciousness was so contagious that made many other people follow them. And nowadays, if one goes to the
268 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Heroes’ Cemetery, one observes that most of the graves there bear those young people’s names. Going out into the street and facing death meant overcoming fear. This word appears frequently in the accounts. There were even slogans insistently shouted in December 21 and 22: ‘We are not afraid anymore!’ The fear experience was gendered and generational; it was cultural, therefore. Different types and strata of fear were experienced then. The young people’s fear was rather ‘a physical fear, like that of an animal, [felt] when people died by us’.1 Whilst some middle aged people faced that ‘old fear’ which they had known very well for such a long time, a fear with embarrassing and paralysing effects, the internalised fear, as a significant feature of the totalitarian system. Fear was in the background of everyday lives. Those days revealed it painfully. Most of them recognized it, some of them had tried hard to cope with, but not many of them managed to overcome it. Subsequently, from 22 December onwards, a new pervasive fear arose in the social drama of the revolution: It was ‘the great fear’ of terrorists – very much like that of the French revolution, brilliantly described by Lefebvre.2 That liminal time of crisis fostered a harsh awareness and reflexivity. In the adult participants’ testimonies (and moreover in other types of public discourses), at that time mea culpa discourses, feeling of shame, embarrassment, culpability for their long passive complicity with the dictatorial regime were expressed. For many people, the younger generation’s revolt was exemplary. Definitely, when the youngsters went out attracting other people to fill the streets, they made possible the radical, long time expected, yet unpredictable, even unthinkable change. They brought much-needed relief for the almost unbearable feelings of culpability, which the adult generation had experienced. For them that was a rite of delegated expiation. [question] ‘What your mother told you about leaving home?’ –‘My mother herself sent me there […]. I remember that she gave me, at Christmas, something which demolished me… a note: “Now, whatever I would told you would be too little. Thank you!” (Students)
1 Irina Nicolau (coord.), op. cit., 8. 2 See George Lefebvre, The Great Fear of 1789. Rural panic in Revolutionary France, English translation, London, New Left Books, 1973.
269 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Myth of the father, evil, terrorists Within the social imaginary realm of the revolution other metaphors and myths are encapsulated. It was said that those who then revolted and died were mostly the so called “Decreţeii”, the generation born in ’68, a period of a coercive communist pro birth policy, with devastating perverse effects on women’s and families’ lives.1 [question]‘Who made the revolution?; ‘- The children did it; the million of children from ‘68. They obliged mothers to make children and now my kid is disabled …’ In that time of crisis and angst, of violence and death, the spectre of the myth of the father arouse insidiously in the social imaginary of those days, and, like any other powerful myth, it was highly ambiguous. As known, the propaganda of Ceausescu’s extravagant personality had long time promoted him as a beloved father, while, in the meantime Ceausescu’s politics tyrannically decided on the birth of children against women’s will. In a recent book on anthropology of the end of political authority, John Borneman states that ‘the death of authority figures such as father or leaders can be experienced as either liberation or loss’. In the same psychoanalytic clue, I would rather say that the experience of such mythic authorities’ loss is essentially dual, liberation and loss, exhilaration and devastation. The (secular) charisma of the leaders which embody the myth of the father plays actually on this duality. Times of crisis and angst, of violence and death, the myth of the father became salient. It was reflected also in graffiti and slogans, since Ceausescu was called at that time ‘the kids’ executioner’, while on the walls were scratches like: ‘Daddy, how bad you were’; Yet on their execution day, Elena Ceauşescu addressed the soldiers who tied their hands ‘my kids’, and subsequently, within the terrorist phase of the revolution, among the rumours spread about those elusive enemies, versions of the orphans brought up by the Ceausescu’s and, therefore, fanatically loyal to them even beyond death2, were intensively conveyed.
1 In the framework of socialist paternalism and instrumentalization of women’s body, the abortion was banned through the decree 770 from 1966, a policy that led privately to “bitter memories”. See Gail Kligman, The politics of reproduction. Controlling Reproduction in Ceausescu’s Romania, University of California Press, 1998. The generation of children born after that year are called popularly ‘decreţeii’, and it is said that they made the revolution. 2 See, for instance, The Observer (ed.), Tearing down the Curtain, London, Hodder &Stoughton, 1990, p. 137.
270 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Within the economy of that phase of the revolution, the myth of the terrorists was one of the most powerful and effective political symbols of the revolution.1 Closely connected with the televised stage, it played a crucial role in the social drama of the revolution. Here I would like to stress its tremendous duality in terms of effects, since any powerful symbol ‘is a double edged instrument’,2 both benign and malign. On the one hand, the fear of terrorists devastatingly produced more victims after the dictators’ fall, than the repression itself; on the other hand, it successfully legitimated the new political power. Besides these, it had also some positive perverse effects, since in everyday life, as reflected in testimonies, the great fear of terrorists shaped special patterns of interaction. When the television monopolized both the making and the representation of the revolution, becoming then its prime arena, instead of the street, those two social spaces complementarily interrelated. The television broadcast became a new compulsive attraction, as ‘people were panicking if they weren’t in front of the TV sets to find out everything’.3 It became the new axis mundi. In the streets people joined around TV and radio sets which were brought up to the windows. Moreover, the television insistently and confusingly launched messages asking people to form a life hedge around it, to protect the vital institution against possible terrorist attacks. Day and night exhaustingly watching the Revolution Life Broadcast and sharing tremendous emotions and confusions became a new form of participation in the (tele)revolution. Even if mediated or illusory, that was a cathartic involvement in the making of those historical events. Undoubtedly, at that stage, the Romanian revolution was purely a media event, as a performance with shamanizing social
1 In a paper that I’ve already mentioned I developed the idea that the tense polarity of the myth of the Saviour and the myth of the terrorists had a crucial role in legitimising, on the stage of the television, the new political power emerged in the Romanian revolution. The study was based on a content analysis of the first life broadcast of the Romanian Free Television, on December 22, 10.50 p.m. (Sidonia Grama Nedeianu, Revirimentul simbolurilor in revolutia romana din decembrie 1989, 1997.) 2 Raymond Firth, Symbols: Public and Private, Ithaca NY, Cornell University Press, 1973, p. 367. 3 Irina Nicolau (coord.), op. cit., p. 111.
271 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 effects.1 Since all the messages conveyed by the television were eagerly absorbed, it became an essential vehicle of rumours on terrorists. Even at the beginning of the next year, when the climax of the events had already passed, echoes of the fear of terrorists still resounded in every day life. Narratives about terrorists were an inextricable mixture of sheer facts and extravagant fantasies, of personalized as well as impersonal accounts, of credulity and scepticism. Stories on previous and current experienced fears of terrorists were told with apprehension and (self) irony, as well. It was said that terrorists ‘were seen jumping from eight levels block of flats and immediately after landing they were running away’; ‘being shot they were instantly disappeared in a sort of thick smoke’2. More ‘earthly’ accounts told about a web of ‘underground tunnels from were they got out in the night to fire at population’; they had very ‘sophisticated weapons, very high-tech which they could deeply hide before dying’ and that they were ‘drug addicted’.3 Irrationality, ubiquity, mastering the vertical and the underground world as well, acting in the dark, the terrorists had, therefore, all the malefic ingredients of a political myth recurrently arisen in crisis times4. As always, rumours about terrorists were also spread by the word of mouth through concatenations of persons. Consequently, at that time, other forms of social relations were shaped, rumours on terrorists dramatically damaging social relationships in every day life, and paradoxically establishing new ones. On January 1990, at the beginning of the new year and a genuine new world, the Orthodox Christian world recently revived within the former official atheistic Romania – as everywhere in the post socialist Eastern Europe where a revival of religious beliefs and revised status of its institutions flourished5 –, there was a religious feast, popularly called ‘Boboteaza’, involving blessing of the waters as a sacred ritual. Amazing rumours were spread then: it was said that ‘the holy water (aghiazma) was poisoned in the church’, so that people were warning those who had taken holy water to throw it away; it was also said, ‘at television, that
1 In these respects, the Romanian revolution life highly matches the definition of a media event as describe by Daniel Dayan–Elihu Katz Media Events. The Live Broadcasting of History, Harvard, Harvard University Press, 1992. 2 Irina Nicolau, op. cit., p. 129. 3 Ibid., 129–30. 4 This is the myth of malefic conspiracy described by Raoul Girardet, Mythes et mithologie politiques, Paris, Ed. Du Seuil, 1996. 5 Katherine Verdery, op. cit., p. 32.
272 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 bullets were found in the ritual food for the dead memory (coliva), as well as in other traditional food that people offered and shared at that time’. These rather ridiculous statements triggered at that time a sinister sense of desecration and devilry. A pervasive suspicion dramatically altered the social relations and the former sense of community that people had recently experienced. The ritual of gift, so symbolically effective in the previous phases of the revolution was now ruined. Stories of people who got sick because somebody had offered them spoilt or even poisoned food proliferated. Soldiers were now cautiously refusing food offerings or asking those who offered to taste it before; at the entrance in the metro stations there were harsh controls even on personal items as lipsticks and deodorants. An oddly new and old wave of suspicion and distrust seemed to infect again the social relations in Romania, as it had been so long in the communist period. Paradoxically those late echoes of the recent great fear of terrorists, which all Romanians had been experiencing since December 22, had also some positive, cohesive effects. In that highly contradictory context, a sense of local community was reinforced. In the communist blocks of flats from Bucharest as well as across other cities of Romania people formed teams to protect the blocks entrances against possible terrorists. Day and night, young and older dwellers spent tiresome hours protecting their neighbours on their watches. On the background of pervasive suspicion, a rather hilarious confusion occurred. Even if later on the facts were recalled and interpreted as such, at that time they were taken for granted and perceived as extremely serious. It meant a form of civic involvement, a personal contribution to an attempt at the restoration of order. Moreover, even the more or less involuntary rumourmongers, who cautiously warned their acquaintances of all kinds of unbelievable dangers, had thus reinforced a new kind of sociability. The fear spread then – like the Great Fear of the French Revolution, which seemed to be in many respects a sort of déja-vu of the Romanian Revolution – had been both damaging and cohesive. Ultimately, the myth of terrorists configured a much-needed social cohesion against a common, even if elusive enemy.
Time(s) of reflexivity I would say that, at the beginning of January 1990 there was a first wave of collective reflexivity on the dramatic events recently experienced. Perhaps they meant the first exercises of distancing and disenchantment. Random discussions recorded on the street at that time
273 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 reflected, on the one hand, the collective attempts to crystallise meanings of those events, and on the other hand, emerging forms of discourse through which those meanings could be cast publicly. An insidious feeling of disappointment was in the air. People became apprehensive about the possible restoration of communism, as the old communists presence in the new political structure was overwhelming. What was hoped and experienced as a definitive rupture with the past, a radical change, proved to be only a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It is likely that a certain degree of disappointment might be rather common in the aftermaths of revolutions, as they are by definition, liminal periods of open possibility. Later on, within the endless turmoil of social and economic transition and confusing politics, people gained a grasp of a tragically absurd situation: ‘They have died in vain!’ The landscape of collective memory has inevitably changed since then. A decade later when I entered this field, other social interests were at stake: the social identity of revolutionary acknowledged officially by revolutionary certificates, and the long lasting trials for the crimes of the revolution have slightly turned the public memory of revolution into a battle field. Thus, testimonies have been used to fulfil these aims which are far from being politically neutral. By claiming authenticity, asserting the status of victims or heroes, and false and genuine revolutionaries, memories on revolution became therefore institutionalized, as public scripts of revolutionary experiences intensively shaped by the narrative genres they belong to. The debates generated since then triggered rather negative connotations of the revolutionaries, which the public eye has seen either as victims or as sheer impostors and profiteers1. Among different genres of narratives on revolution, even the oral history interviews I conducted since 2000 onwards, barely preserved those symbolic elements of revolutionary experience as revealed in the 1990 testimonies. That is why I am taking care to carefully situate them
1 A diagnosis on the social identity of revolutionary I attempted in Sidonia Grama, ‘Social Interests and Revolutionary Identity in the Romanian Revolution from December 1989’, in: E. Magyary Vincze, P. Mândruţ (coord.), Performing identities, Renegotiating Socio-Cultural Identities in the Post-Socialist Eastern Europe, Cluj, Publishing House of the European Studies Foundation, 2004. The idea of the institutional genres of narratives on the revolution and a description of the public discourses on revolution I developed in a paper given at the International Conference of Oral History, Freiburg, 2005. (Sidonia Grama, ‘Memory Features of the 1989 Romanian Revolution: Competing Narratives on the Revolution’, 2006, forthcoming.)
274 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 within the realm of narratives on the revolution, as previous layers of reflectivity in the making of collective memory. Ultimately, they might simply speak about the human propensity to revolt, to be – as Foucault put it – ‘outside history and in history, because everyone stakes his life and his death. (…) And that is how subjectivity (not that of great men, but that of anyone) is brought into history, breathing life into it’.1
1 Michel Foucault, ‘Useless to revolt?’ in: James D. Fabian (ed.), Power, Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984, London, 2002, pp. 450–452.
275
LIBRARIANSHIP
HERMENEUTICA BIBLIOTHECARIA
Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Adrian Marino and the Existential Library An Essay
Mircea ANGHELESCU Faculty of Letters, Department of Romanian Literature, University of Bucharest
Keywords: library, books, travel, initiation, ritual gestures
Abstract Travel had a double function for Adrian Marino. On the one hand it meant a kind of escape from the abstract world of ideas, a mingling with people and a contemplation of everyday life on the streets of the great European cities. On the other hand it was an intellectual pilgrimage to the famous libraries of these cities, an initiation to some old and venerable spiritual centres where the quasi ritual meeting between man and book took place. Several works written by the eminent Romanian scholar speak of the experiences he made abroad and describe his geographical and intellectual itineraries and the encounter with books and libraries during these journeys.
E-mail: [email protected]
For Adrian Marino travel seemed to answer two imperious commandments: a utilitarian and dominant one, which was the need of documentation for his erudite works, full of references; and a compensating one, almost in contrast with the former, the need to get out from the rarefied, almost abstract universe of ideas and the need to socialize. This escape was all the more relaxed and personal as the exception was rarely practiced, outside his usual routes, as is the case with other travellers who allow themselves in such moments different types of vacations, gastronomic or other. During these diversions from the usual he preferred to penetrate the crowds and to observe directly all kinds of people, his favourite place for such an adventure being the street. However, beyond the informational bulimia, never entirely satisfied; beyond the need of a system in which the lack of a stone from the building, the lack of information unbalancing harmony and causing
279 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 an almost physical suffering; beyond the need to get out from among writing notes in order to rest anonymously in the midst of crowds and of the places frequented by them; beyond all these there is a point – actually a universe – where the two experiences meet and cohabit: the library. For the library is more than a scientific store necessary for any intellectual at least from time to time if not every day. It is the place where entities communicate, the book manifests its humanity and individuals manifest themselves most advantageously, in communion with the condensed spirit, enciphered in a book. This is why the library is the marketplace, the forum of the castle. Here the scholar can become acquainted, better than anywhere else, with the image of the whole, both in the books themselves and in the way in which they are collected, organized and used: “I was used to experience the pulse of great foreign cities in public libraries. I began to find some routine in this direction.”1 The library, as Marino’s testimonies indicate, is more than the place where the researcher can find the source he is looking for. It is the symbol of all these noble quests, the source, the matrix of cultural activity itself: “These libraries – Adrian Marino speaking about the famous Bodleian Library – ensure the permanence and dignity of culture as they are fundamental forms of creation and spiritual life. Getting to know them is equal to an initiation, a return to the sources, to an act of regeneration.” Elsewhere, in Coimbra, Portugal, the library of the old university, the “renowned library” built by Joao V (“the wealthiest king in Europe in that period”) impresses by its opulence and baroque richness and the visitor wonders with apparent naivety “how is reflection possible in this decor which exalts and humiliates” and whether “it is possible to work today in such an overwhelming environment”. It is in fact the same route which the monumentality and harmony of the complex imprints; the complex where substance becomes spirit, where the abundance of values and art does not degrade the spirit, but elevates the matter to the values of the spirit: “the profound sensation – he told at the end of his visit – is as a real initiation, a ritual penetration into a space of laic sanctity.”2 Visiting libraries is a noble obligation, but at the same time a passion as well, having even morbid accents as any real passion; for the long relationship and its intensity implies a possessive attitude, a texture of relations that can be transferred to the sphere of great loves, which are
1 Adrian Marino, Carenete Europene, (European Notebooks), Cluj-Napoca, Dacia Publishing House, 1976, p. 293. 2 Adrian Marino, Prezenţe româneşti şi realităţi europene (Romanian Presence and European Realities), Bucharest, Albatros, 1978.
280 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 real and ideal at the same time. Hence rise the reproaches, suspicions, dissatisfactions that confer another temperature and another attitude in a place where, as nowhere else, Adrian Marino felt “at home”, as he said somewhere. Everything is done in the spirit of emotion (“Avidity and impatience. In such moments my inner trepidation is enormous.”) and admission to a library, a public space after all, produces emotion. The fact is projected on a cultural scale and acquires initiatory significations: admission to the British Museum acquires the dimensions of “a small event, a genuine moment of my spiritual existence: the long-awaited entrance into some celebrated cultural precincts, solemn and imposing, efficient and hospitable, grave and discrete. Nobody knows me, nobody is concerned with me. Have I been admitted to the library? I feel that I obtained a series of rights all at once”.1 On the strength of these rights, pretensions grow. “The National Library, my great passion in Paris, has exasperating aspects too: a huge, noisy bustle and – first of all – the (at least apparent) chaos of catalogues.”2 In Lisbon the access is difficult, “reading operations are rather laborious, with all kind of bureaucratic precaution measures, with many signatures and visas. Only three request forms are accepted at a time.”3 In Madrid he worked at the National Library and stated that “In a country of approximations and relativity, the card indexes of the library cannot be very precise either... because of an evidently erroneous card I requested a volume at Investigadores three times, not without irritation”4 etc. In fact, the background against which this entirely special relationship between author and library evolves had already been defined in the Carnete europene with a coherence that indicates a long and mature meditation upon the subject, no doubt existential for the author. The pretext is a book exhibition, but the commentary exceeds the frame: “all vital, material and spiritual acts of humanity had and have a book as their prolongation... Culture and civilization are by definition bookish. Humanity is essentially bookish. It cannot be other for it receives its dimensions and a permanent and transmissible content only from the books.” And both the frustrations and the compensations are concentrated in this same universe and they function without fissures – probably – because this universe contains the other: in this domain he projects “all
1 Prezenţe româneşti şi realităţi europene , op.cit., p. 226. 2 Carnete europene, op. cit., p. 88. 3 Prezenţe româneşti şi realităţi europene, op. cit., p. 158. 4 Adrian Marino, Evadări în lumea liberă (Escapes to the Free World), Iaşi, European Institute, 1993, p. 27.
281 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 my aspirations and repressions, all my nostalgias and enthusiasms. Having been separated from and lacking a certain museum and library for a long time, I make a real orgy, a frenetic and enthusiastic bath... For me this is life, the true way of living.” Consequently, he performs the ritualistic gestures of inauguration and, therefore, of taking possession. By these gestures he exorcises and liberates himself of all the suffering and constraint of the years of detention, forced residence, enslaving surveillance. He does not free himself of their physical, material expression, but of their reflection in the infinite world of the spirit whose symbol is, the book, moreover: the periodical, the changing, hesitant, volatile, but preparatory side of the book. Thus, he said in a passage that can be easily psychoanalyzed and in which each of us can recognize himself, “I collect books and periodicals all of which I know very well I would not be able to read, but I cut their pages with regularity. By this symbolic act I pay homage to them, I integrate myself, I try to maintain a permanent connection with my world, with the movement of literary ideas from everywhere, to show solidarity to their destiny.” And it is only natural to be so, as “the writer’s true and fundamental form of activity and expression is the writing, the text, the work, the library book.”1 This attitude, which surveys the library from an aesthetic perspective and, at the same time, mythicizes it deliberately, and which enciphers its ideals and beliefs in a defining metaphor, does not entirely cover the meanings of the respective object: it is, concomitant with what we have said above, a simple but indispensable space of trial as well. As travel, “the library” (entering the library, deciphering and taming it, taking possession of it etc.) is an ambivalent space, the characteristic place where the fusion of spirits lost in books is realized and also a route of initiation, a formative way, a real propaedeutics to the professions of reader and author. It was not accidental that Adrian Marino made most of his observations and characteristic statements regarding the library in these travel accounts: for him, and not only for him, travel is a book and the two experiences are truly valorized only when they overlap. The bookish aspect of his accounts, assumed with humour by choosing subtitles such as that of the Carnete europene from 1976, “notes of my journey” etc., is only a logical consequence of a submission to the object: the travel is a documentary investigation, a turning up of previous readings, even of imaginary ones, while frequenting the library, searching among index cards and covering a subject bibliographically is naturally a
1 Carnete europene, op. cit., p. 26.
282 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 periplus full of pitfalls, unknown things and discoveries that configure a new world.
283 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
A Different Discourse – Adrian Marino
Felix OSTROVSCHI “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: Adrian Marino, documentation and scientific research centre, Constantin Noica, internal and international personal correspondence, individual reading notes, manuscript works
Abstract The present material would like to presentation briefly the newly established “Adrian Marino” documentation and scientific research centre opened in the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library from Cluj- Napoca. In this article we tried first of all to outline some biographical reference points from the life and scientific activity of Adrian Marino, who donated the collection bearing his name. Then we tried to delineate the main elements which form the bibliographic collection, starting with the books and arriving at the personal dossiers which contain either the internal or the international correspondence Mr Marino had with different personalities of the age, then his reading notes and manuscript works, most of them already published. What we wished to underline in this paper was the importance of this area; as area intended rather to the scientific research rigorously based on the unique materials existing in this collection, than to individual reading. We hope that this material will serve as a starting point for some valuable future research.
E-mail: [email protected]
To find a suitable title for a certain material has always seemed more difficult for me than to prepare the material itself. This always has to be... we everyone knows how without sinking into deontological speculations. The work published in 2001 which contains the dialogues between Adrian Marino and Sorin Antohi, having the title The Third Discourse. Culture, Ideology and Politics in Romania justifies its title in this way: “In order to reduce everything to the essential, the aim of the formula is to exceed the relationship of adversity by finding a solution of collaboration and synthesis between the two fundamental orientations of the Romanian culture: autochthonism and Europeanism”. A definition and title, I think, suggestive for everyone. The present material received
284 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 the title A Different Discourse – Adrian Marino because we shall also be searching for a new formula in it, renouncing both the temptation of homage and mainly that of partial and malevolent criticism. We do not know whether the formula is correct and whether it will lead to the anticipated reaction. Maybe it is more important to present the additives brought to this experiment – Adrian Marino’s personality, the space that bears his name in our library and last but not least the “Adrian Marino” collection. Adrian Marino was born in Iaşi on 5 September 1921. In 1941– 1943 he studied at the Faculty of Letters there. In 1943–1945 he continued his studies in Bucharest. 1939 was the year of his debut as a publicist in Jurnalul literar (The Literary Journal). In 1947 he defended his doctoral dissertation in literature entitled Viaţa lui Alexandru Macedonski (The Life of Alexandru Macedonski). After only two years, in 1949, he was arrested because he participated in the Illegal study circle of the Peasants’ Party members university students. After eight years of political imprisonment he was deported to the Bărăgan, being forced to reside between 1957 and 1963 in the village Lăteşti. After these difficult years of deportation he settled down in Cluj. His first volume, Viaţa lui Alexandru Macedonski was published in 1966 and it was rewarded with the prize of the Romanian Academy. He had a laborious activity as a literary critic and historian, collaborating with numerous Romanian and foreign periodicals, publishing at the same time a series of books both in Romania and in foreign countries. From among his works we can mention: Opera lui Alexandru Macedonski (The Work of Alexandru Macedonski) (1967), Introducere în critica literară (Introduction to Literary Criticism) (1968), Modern, modernism, modernitate (Modern, Modernism, Modernity) (1968), Dicţionar de idei literare (Dictionary of Literary Ideas) vol. I (1973), Carnete europene (European Notebooks) (1976), Prezenţe româneşti şi realităţi europene (Romanian Presence and European Realities) (1978), Hermeneutica ideii de literatură (The Hermeneutics of the Idea of Literature) (1987), Evadări în lumea liberă (Escapes to the Free World) (1993), Politică şi cultură. Pentru o nouă cultură română (Politics and Culture. For a New Romanian Culture) (1996), Cenzura în România. Schiţă istorică introductivă (Censorship in Romania. Introductory Historical Sketch) (2000), Al treilea discurs. Cultură, ideologie şi politică în România (The Third Discourse. Culture, Ideology and Politics in Romania) (2001). Of course, to characterize Adrian Marino’s personality either in private life or as a scientist is a quite difficult task for us, if not
285 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 impossible. This is why we appealed to a subterfuge, selecting from his texts some fragments in which he characterizes himself. “I am not a Thracian, though my family has on my father’s side ancestors from the South of the Danube, and I think we are of Macedonian origin. A hypothesis, anyway, quite plausible.”1 “[...] I, who was formed in a society of another type, I, who at 27 years was put in prison, I was already formed – for better or worse. I had a different notion about society, a different conception about social realities, a different idea about writers. Secondly, as I had not found my place in the communist society, I had no impulse to make a career. I must tell that in the beginning it was extremely hard. Extremely, extremely hard. Economically. But, step by step, being more productive, I was able to resist. In the beginning I was so poor that can you see these shelves? – my wife, Lidia Bote had to borrow three thousand lei from a cousin to make some shelves for me. [...] At the same time, this protected me from serious compromises. They could not tighten the screws on me, I have no texts to be sorry for. You won’t find me in the summary honorary volumes, where, if you cast a glance – and I think you have already done so –, you will find many persons from the ‘good’ world. I repeat I do not belittle them. They had to save their positions, departments, well, their hierarchies and their official honours lists” Adrian Marino reminded us in the same work. “I neither pose as the patriarch of Romanian literature, nor think of myself as a ‘lighthouse’ of Romanian literature. I have no pretensions for honorary periodical numbers; I do not ask for anything. However, I ask for something else: I ask that the status of the free and independent writer in Romania should be recognized, as I belong to an alternative, liberal and independent culture, which believes in individual initiatives, believes in the middle classes, in economical independence.”2 “I am, if you like, a little bourgeois, plain, lacking completely the tragic sentiment of life, I have no spiritualistic experiences. [...] I am, as you can see, a totally ‘mediocre’, ‘average’ personality. Therefore
1 Adrian Marino, Al treilea discurs. Cultură, ideologie şi politică în România. Adrian Marino în dialog cu Sorin Antohi (The Third Discourse. Culture, Ideology and Politics in Romania. Adrian Marino in Dialogue with Sorin Antohi), Iaşi, Polirom Publishing House, 2001. 2 Adrian Marino, Prezenţe româneşti şi realităţi europene. Jurnal intelectual (Romanian Presence and European Realities. Intellectual Diary), Iaşi, Polirom Publishing House, 2004, p. 17.
286 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 there is a fair chance that some will like me, others will consider me an object of insulting irony and the majority of people will profoundly dislike me”, we find in the same work. “Without conceiving literary life in an idyllic or sentimental- fraternal way, it does not seem exaggerated to me to wish for a collegial, correct environment, respecting a minimal code of honest behaviour. I regret that my personal experience has not confirmed these expectations which I still consider to be minimal and legitimate. I cannot believe in a ‘literary life’ where the dominant note is envy, careerism, intrigue, ‘machinations’, lack of collegiality, serious impoliteness. Anyone feels the need of an elevated ambience, certain solidarity and real communication, a moral support in difficult moments, which I, a real misfortune, did not have. Two aspects irritate me in particular, and not only me. In the so-called ‘literary life’ there is little work done and sometimes nothing at all. There is too much bohemianism, too much time is lost and there are too many disordered lives. And the talk of these circles is far too much influenced by material preoccupations and star-like attitudes, too insistent open scene applauses. Writing – maybe a prejudice – presupposes discipline, concentration, tenacity, some kind of asceticism and creative isolation. The pleasure of speaking and writing, are two contradictory ‘pleasures’, as Maiorescu already indicated it. Constructive, serious deliberation is one thing, empty verbal formalism another. Enthusiasm, zeal, dedication and abnegation, and not disgust, cynicism and individualistic egoism define the true spirit of letters. In some circles to discuss literary theories, programmes and messages unfortunately becomes a strident, if not ridiculous preoccupation. In exchange, there are plenty of intrigues, cancans, combinations, material preoccupations. In direct opposition with these negative phenomena I firmly believe in the superiority of organized work done with concentration, tenacity, stubbornness; a work inevitably obscure on long periods, but having a great final benefit. In exchange, this refuge in study and work tears you away from the infected atmosphere of a ‘literary life’, where you can find only deception, bitterness and humiliation, and it gives you back to your vocation and spiritual being. Indeed, you are no longer a pleasant fellow of life, a nice fellow for X and Y, but you become a man of books, of study and, what is more, simply an honest man. And – curiously! – the more you withdraw from the ‘literary life’, the more you gain other sympathies and other adhesions in other spheres, on other levels, which
287 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 open to you new horizons and offer you other compensations and satisfactions. But whoever thinks that this spiritual lifestyle is comfortable, he/she is much mistaken. This lifestyle often consists of awful worries, of terrible interior contractions and seisms, of bitterness, repressions and mortal defeats, of truly silent pains, of the sentiments of some atrocious injustices and horrible ungratefulness, which humiliate you deeply and bring you to the brink of fury, despair and revolt. You are only a step from the catastrophic explosion. This life is dramatic, not tragic, and sometimes I knew it...” “I only claim, if I may say so, some pseudo-‘futurist poem’. As I am always waiting for something, something new, I am a modern man who projects everything in the future, not in the past. My specific state of mind is a dynamic waiting, anticipation stimulated by an increasing and accelerating potential speed of realization. Therefore I am permanently obsessed with the future ‘departure’, since all my spiritual life is projected and orientated towards the future. This is why I was able to leave behind my past (in all its aspects) so easily and for good. It was – objectively – often unpleasant, full of injustice and suffering, but – subjectively speaking – I have forgotten it definitively and irrevocably. Should I recall it? It would mean to go through all that suffering anew. I always look forward and I wait everything, including all that regards me, only from the future, the great future.” “Patriotism also means, among other things, – my definition, I repeat, is far from being complete – to build as solid and fundamental, as enduring and monumental as possible. Patriotism implies resisting and defeating the temptation of empty rhetoric, superficiality, improvisation, approximation, sinister bungling which I detest and combat as well as I can in my little sphere of activity. That such an inconvenient attitude becomes here and there ‘disagreeable’, sometimes even ‘odious’, it is an inevitable fact. We have to pay this price if we are fighting against facility, against the saving of appearances, imposture and intellectual bluff, against ease, which would constitute an inevitable norm of conduct ‘at the Gates of the Orient’. To build rigorously a study, a book, a periodical, a library – apparently an activity ‘out-of-date’, but permanent by its results – presupposes a lot of privations and humiliations, an almost continuous mortification.”1 Dan Chiachir in a letter sent on 14 November 1987 wrote to Marino: “To think freely and sincerely – even to make mistakes
1 Ibid.
288 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 sometimes; inevitably – it was Nae’s advice that I wanted to realize. [...] We need Your opinion: you and I know that there is no critical opinion of higher instance. [...] I have seen that You are a realist and disinterested person. Not in the sense – or under the aspect – of a man who has nothing to loose – a bitter Balkan-like state of mind –, but in the sense of intellectual attitude.”1 Adrian Marino passed away in March 2005; in December 2005 the work Libertate şi cenzură în România. Începuturi (Freedom and Censorship in Romania. Beginnings) was published post-mortem. In what follows let us try to describe the new space created in the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library where the “Adrian Marino” Collection can be consulted. Situated on the second floor of the mentioned library, the room bears the name of the donor of the collection has 32 seats. Having been totally renovated and furnished with new and modern furniture, the reading room has been being used since October 2005. Because of the importance of the collection students are allowed to visit the room only for the consultation, under supervision, of the “Adrian Marino” book collection. And if we mentioned the book collection, it must be said that it contains at the present time approximately 1700 volumes processed and placed on the shelves. The other few thousand volumes will be added to these as soon as they are processed too. The volumes of book, received through donation, already entered the library stacks in the 1990s. However, the majority of the books entered in the last two years. Here – and anywhere else whenever there is an occasion – we have to underline and appreciate Miss Florina Iliş’s contribution, who, as well as being the coordinator of this centre of documentation, selected the volumes personally and even transported the majority of them. We would also like to thank Mrs Lidia Bote (Mr Adrian Marino’ wife), who, though she is of an advanced age, helped us to carry the suitcases (lent to us by her) with the donated books, protected us against the occasional attacks of the dogs from the courtyard and kept us in a good humour with her jokes and her energy of life. The great modesty of these two ladies should not prevent us from expressing our appreciation and gratitude. And as we try to describe the interior of the room, we must remark that on the walls there are important stages of Adrian Marino’s life, immortalised in photographs, framed and placed chronologically (childhood, return from detention, deportation, his workshop etc.). We
1 The letter is to be found in the dossiers of “personal correspondence”, “Adrian Marino” Collection, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library – Cluj-Napoca.
289 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 have even created two mini-exhibitions. In one show case there are different prizes received by Mr Adrian Marino during his life in appreciation of his scientific activity. In the second one we placed a part of the stamp-collection, which was put at our disposal by Mrs Lidia Bote and which we tried to arrange thematically. I have said somewhere above that the access of students to this room is somewhat restricted because of two interrelated reasons. On the one hand, we wished to create a space for the use of PhD-students and young researchers (young does not necessarily refer to the age), as the rooms used by them had already become quite crowded. On the other hand, we wished that the newly furnished room might be more than just a reading room: a documentation and scientific research centre. And I am going to explain why. Besides the undeniable importance of the book volumes, the “Adrian Marino” collection contains other documentation sources as well, which can serve as the base of a rigorous scientific research at any time. Let us present only some of these sources. I would like to specify once again, those materials we present are only a few of the whole collection, but I think they will be sufficient for arousing curiosity and intellectual desire. So we can find in these dossiers (there are a few hundred) various documents already processed from the internal and international correspondence to the elements of Mr Adrian Marino’s personal archives. Somewhere at the end of this paper I will also give some examples of these dossiers. Similarly, this collection also includes the manuscripts of Mr Adrian Marino’s works, corrected and annotated; manuscripts which may offer ways for other scientific researches. Last but not least we should mention the boxes containing the cards with his reading notes – with quotations, notes and bibliographic references – which always remain an information source for any research intended to be rigorous. “In the period when I was a member of the International Committee for Comparative Literature I had a quite vast correspondence with foreign writers which I placed entirely in the Central University Library from Cluj. It is a unique documentary collection in the country with all kinds of legal and illegal correspondents. There are so many dossiers that it is easy to find interesting texts in them. For example, my correspondence in two stages with Ioan Petru Culianu. One from the so- called good period of Mircea Eliade and a much more delicate stage from the period when abroad an anti-Eliade campaign began to take shape,
290 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 related to his past with orientations towards the Legionary Movement and totalitarianism.”1 The mere existence of the reading notes in the form they were donated to the library is an example of profound and more than serious scientific work. These notes collected during a lifetime of research work prove that the method of compilation – as a so-called scientific method – used so much these days is perennial. By making available and using this collection in future research we hope to get rid of what Adrian Marino called “the temptation of empty rhetoric, superficiality, improvisation, approximation, sinister bungling”. Having so many original sources of information united in the “Adrian Marino” collection, this space is intended to be first of all a documentation and scientific research centre. I promised above to present in detail, with examples, the content of some dossiers. Taking somewhat at random one of the dossiers having for theme “internal correspondence” we find: 1.) A letter received from Lucian Boia, dated from 10 June 1999: “As regarding the experience you have gone through it can only emphasize the brightness of a career and a life-work which succeeded in asserting itself in spite of all the adversities.” 2.) A letter received from Dorel Vişan on 17 May 1999: “As an attitude towards the lack of attitude I propose a Symbolic March of Protest... our march is intended to be a respectable, sensitive cultural action.” 3.) Easter greetings from 1999 sent by the president of Romania and signed by Emil Constantinescu. 4.) A letter from Paul Cornea, Bucharest, 23 March 1999, which also contains an invitation to a colloquium: “You will be received with warm regard and respect by all participants. I think everyone in our small circle has the highest esteem for you because all the things you have done for the Romanian culture and because all that you represent.” 5.) A letter from Ruxandra Cesăreaanu, sent on 16 January 1999: “Please accept my thanks for all the theoretical help you have given to me and for the patience you have showed in advising me to take the bull by the horns regarding my theme.” In the postscript we find Ruxandra Cesăreanu’s signature as “nicknamed by you, I think, Countess Bathory.” 6.) A letter from Smaranda Vultur in 1999:
1 Al treilea discurs, op.cit.
291 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
“We are always glad when you are present in public life because this gives us some confidence and some courage in these baffling times.” All these letters contained by this dossier are the witnesses of some past years, sources for the reconstruction of some troubled times for the literary activity, documents of collaborations and diversions from the Romanian cultural circle. As an example we can mention the few dossiers referring to what Adrian Marino named “the Noica case”. These contain newspaper articles, other materials and correspondence. Respecting their content we can read that in September 1992 issue of the Carnet literar (Literary Notebook) an article signed by Adrian Marino announced: “Lately 112 dossiers of manuscripts and documentary materials entered the manuscript collections of the Central University Library. The “Adrian Marino” collection (internal correspondence) contains all the letters I had received from Constantin Noica.” Here we can also find letters, which were published by Mr Adrian Marino in different literary reviews too, such as the Carnet literar: – a letter received from Constantin Noica on 10 December 1976, sent from Bucharest: “Thank you warmly for the book you sent so quickly. I shall read it with the interest always aroused in me by a scholar having your learning and openness. I consider you at the present moment one of the, let us say, first five scholars of the country.” [...] – a letter sent by Constantin Noica from Păltiniş, dated from 25 January 1977: [...] “In what direction are you going? [cynical question that can be found also at the end of Marin Preda’s novel, Moromeţii]. I am interested in your scholarly destiny. Mine is being solved in a «metaphysics», under whose pains I stay and write in my seclusion.” – a letter sent to Păltiniş on 19 April 1987, in which Noica answered Adrian Marino’s invitation to the presentation of his book Hermeneutica ideii de literatură (The Hermeneutics of the Idea of Literature) in Sibiu: “So I participate gladly at the ceremony but I must decline the opportunity to speak before the public at this event; for this I apologise. [...] Being – in a strange way – timid before a small public. Before a large one I have fewer problems. But between friends I shall know what to say about the interest I have for your activity.” Thus with a small scientific interest and with the help of these materials we can reconstruct a part of the communist mould swallowed by the writers of that period: censorship and exhaustion, the dulling of the elites’ mind, the claustrophobia of the literary space. Naturally, each
292 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 researcher will know what to use from this material in order to shade his/her study. The last examples concluding this marathon – intended to arouse scientific interest for the presented collection – would be those dossiers which contain Mr Adrian Marino’s political activity in the Anti- totalitarian Forum and in the Christian-Democratic National Peasants’ Party (PNŢCD). “Coming back to the Anti-totalitarian Forum, I realized that the world was not preoccupied by such problems. We were even robbed, ransacked; the technical equipment, the computers we had had were simply purloined by a certain individual. I have only awkward memories about the Democratic Totalitarian Forum. However, it represented something: an embryo, I repeat, a first coagulation form of the opposition in Romania. This can be seen in the seven dossiers which I entrusted to the Central University Library from Cluj. In the dossiers there are all kinds of manifestos, lists of the democratic forums from the country, adhesions, letters, threats, abuses, receipts, everything you want, but they are not classified too well. The dossiers belong to a documentary collection I founded in the Central University Library, the “Adrian Marino” Documentary Collection. At the present time it has already four hundred dossiers. It is a collection – I think – unique in the country, of ideological, political, cultural and literary documentation, writers’ correspondences etc.”1 These dossiers contain: 1.) Newspaper articles: – October 1991, article from Dreptatea (Justice) announcing that Adrian Marino had been appointed to the leading committee of the PNŢCD; – article from 3 September 1992 in which Adrian Marino declines the offer to stand as a candidate for the elections from 27 September 1992; 2.) There are dossiers containing Adrian Marino’s personal political activity: – newspaper articles which show Adrian Marino’s participation at the manifestations held in August 1990 on the Freedom Square; – in an article published in the local newspaper Adevărul în libertate (Truth in Freedom) on 18 December 1990 we find attacks against the Civic Alliance and the Anti-totalitarian Forum: “The Civic Alliance and the Anti-totalitarian Forum cannot guarantee for the Romanian people by the undemocratic measures they use that the
1 Al treilea discurs, op.cit.
293 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 democratic principles and the law and order will be respected.” [...] “The actual acts which destabilize the country delay the adoption of the Land Law and of the Constitution, constituting a potential danger for the territorial integrity of Romania.” These are some reminiscences of considered language and behaviour from the press of the age. 3.) other materials such as: – the first national convention of the Civic Alliance; – badges and invitations to different socio-political manifestations; – the programme sketch of the Culture and Art Department of the National Peasants’ Party (PNŢ), having Adrian Marino as a coordinator; the text was published in the newspaper Dreptatea on 6 November 1990; – the manifesto of the PNŢCD addressed to the workers; – constitution project elaborated by the PNŢ in March 1991; – different documents which mirror the intestine battles and internal divergences inside the PNŢ: – electoral posters; – election lists either with the proposed candidates or with those who finally stood as candidates. Thus, with the help of these materials, it is possible to present the agitated state of mind, the cataracts which affected the multitude – a vague term, indeed – of Romanians immediately after the events from 1989. Any material, any presentation has good parts and, of course imminent risks. We assume the responsibility both for the former and mainly the latter ones. However, this presentation was not intended to be exquisitely profound from a scientific point of view. We only wished to present – and the time will show whether we succeeded or not – the valour of a great personality of the Romanian culture, who created and donated a valuable collection for/to Romanian researchers. We hope we have aroused the interest for valuable and profound researches, so few in the present day Romania. And I believe that it would be the most suitable to finish with another fragment from among Mr Adrian Marino’s thoughts. “But do not forget that I have an immense handicap, I am a permanent social marginal. I have never had an editorial, university or academic position. Therefore everything is transmitted by the means of published materials, to the measure in which these books reach certain readers. But I have neither velleities, nor possibilities to be a ‘school
294 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 leader’. In ’89 my friend, Paul Cornea, Deputy Minister of Education at that time, appointed me as a consultant professor to the University of Cluj. The Faculty of Letters sent the nomination to the Senate, to the Rector’s Office where it ‘got lost’. Well, how can I feel for a city, a faculty behaving like this? Because this I interrupted every relationship with the University. [...] I am treated with much contempt. Otherwise I also have the sentiment that I belong to ‘another’ culture. Thanks to the help of my wife I got over many shocks. Cluj is not my city. Here I have a second ‘forced residence’! Fortunately, there is an oasis of civility and intellectualism – the Central University Library from Cluj. [...] I must say that I have made a will to the benefit of the library in Cluj, according to which immediately after my death they should come and take my entire library. I do not want my books to be sold to second-hand bookshops by my grandchildren, relatives and so on.” Expressing our thanks for the flattering appreciation we hope that we shall be able to maintain this “oasis of civility and intellectualism”. In an article published in Tribuna (The Tribune) periodical in December 1992 Adrian Marino said: “I am more convinced than ever before that the critical spirit, such as that of the 18th century Enlightenment’s, is summoned to resist at any time and anywhere all the possible myths, fanatic views, fetishizing and censorship. Be they whatsoever. [...] We are for the freedom of research, against any interdiction of any kind. Irrevocably and at any risks. Everything and everyone falls under criticism. We are for the freedom of the mind, of analysis, of research. Let us not lose it once again.”
295 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Hungarian Cultural History in the Second Half of the 19th Century in Transylvania Hungarian Periodicals and the Hungarian Cultural Heritage in Transylvania
Rozália PORÁCZKY “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: history of Transylvania, history of the Hungarian people, history of the Hungarian culture, periodicals
Abstract Against the background of the capitalist economic structures and in the historical context of the second half of the 19th century, Transylvania and the social-cultural activities of its population present a varied, very complex image. The studied material shows the special role the periodicals played in the second half of the 19th century as they modelled people’s view on the world and society, on culture and science, they changed mentalities, and also identified, made known and diffused the elements which constituted the cultural heritage of the different nationalities. Each nationality made efforts to collect, preserve, valorise and diffuse these values among the readers, considering that this cultural heritage, meaning national identity as well, was a national responsibility. The cultural-political role of the category of intellectuals was extremely important, as they became the motive power for the evolution and modernization of society, while the cultural institutions, the existing secondary schools and universities became the centres of scientific and cultural activities.
E-mail: [email protected]
Against the background of the capitalist economic structures and in the historical context of the second half of the 19th century, Transylvania and the social-cultural activities of its population present a varied, very complex image destined to arouse the curiosity of the researchers interested in this period. In what follows we shall discuss some aspects, which we consider remarkable and which were outlined as the result of our studying
296 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 the chosen material: periodicals published in Transylvania in the second half of the 19th century. The material at our disposal, an abundant periodical collection, shows, in an obvious manner, the special role the periodicals played in the period discussed by us. They modelled people’s view on the world and society, on culture and science; they changed mentalities, and also identified, made known and diffused the elements which constituted the cultural heritage of the nationalities living side by side in Transylvania at that time. Each nation tried to get acquainted with, to protect and to enrich its own heritage by any means in order to realize its national objects. The ideals of national justice and independence became a creed in this period, without which the people living in the respective age could not imagine their future. The development of the culture generating institutions made these ideas more efficient and dynamic. The intellectuals’ cultural-political role was much more important than one might have thought according to their numerical proportion, since they wished to become and remain the motive power for the evolution and modernization of society in this period. Having analyzed the profession and social class of those who edited and wrote into the important periodicals, which had an evident cultural impact, it is revealed that some of them belonged to the aristocracy, the nobility and the clergy, while the majority was represented by intellectuals without a solid economic base: journalists, professors – usually working in local secondary schools –, museologist, archivist, librarians, lawyers etc. One thing seems to be certain: those in a modest material situation had not had access to the journalistic, cultural and scientific life yet. Basically, irrespective of the differences, we discover – if we analyze the origin and the ideas of each writer or the evident exceptions – that the main orientation was determined by the dominant ideologies of the age. Skimming through the columns of the periodicals we could observe that, in a period in which scientific activity had just began to develop and was not yet vigorous enough, many historians, ethnographers, men of letters etc. began their carrier later, having worked in other domains at first. Thus, beside professional historians, people trained in other fields also wrote historical works, also some noblemen without an occupation found in history an enticing – but also somehow obligatory – intellectual activity. Many of these made important discoveries in the field of historical researches and, though they had had no professional training, the necessary knowledge being acquired through
297 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 private study (in some cases the study methods taking rather peculiar forms), their strong wish to enrich their national culture urged them to investigate the past, even if they were not professionals. Their contribution is evident and worth taking into consideration as regards the preservation of the Transylvanian cultural heritage. The Hungarian intellectuals from Transylvania, showing great diversity with respect to their studies, were able to assimilate the achievements of middle-class culture and science. Besides contributing to their diffusion, they even developed them on the basis of autochthonous realities. The communication with Western cultural and scientific centres was facilitated by the fact that many scholars had studied in Western European universities. We believe that it was not a specifically Transylvanian phenomenon that the great cultural institutions – as in the case of Hungarian scientific life the Transylvanian Museum Society for example – or the secondary schools with a great tradition, as well as the university of Cluj became centres of scientific and cultural activity, places where the most important scholars of the age met systematically. These spiritual workshops offered a fertile ground for their ideas and the development of their talents in different domains. The activity of the persons who had an important role in the political and cultural life, as well as the increasing thirst for culture breathed new life into the scientific life of the Age of Reform.1 Scientific and cultural societies, as well as the Hungarian Academy made great efforts to put an end to the isolation of scientists. Many participants gathered also at the meetings of the Transylvanian Museum Society. The Hungarian nobility of Transylvania supported the national efforts with money and influence, some of its representatives (Imre Mikó, Zsigmond Kemény, Domokos Teleki) initiating activities for the development and preservation of the national culture. “They are the pride of the nation: they are the eternal watchers in the night, they urge those awake on to work by their deeds, they rouse the sleeping ones”2 and “Those noblemen who do not work with us we do
1 Important period in the history of Hungary before the Revolution of 1848 (1825–1848) marked by the introduction of a series of political, economic, social and cultural reforms. (Translator’s note.) 2 „A nemzet büszkesége; ők az éj örök virrasztói, tettel kiáltják az ébrenlevőket munkára, serkentik az alvókat.”
298 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 not count among ourselves”1 – affirmed Imre Mikó, threatening these persons with exclusion from the Hungarian nation.2 The cultural heritage of a people usually can be estimated on the basis of the marks left by human activity on the environment. These offer us information on the life and activities of people from different ages and the development of artistic and technical abilities in the course of time. The cultural heritage is also connected with national identity and the national responsibility of preserving the existing monuments, archaeological and architectural sites as well as cultural environments. In our opinion the concept of cultural heritage should also contain some aspects met in the subjective way in which a people thinks about its own ethnical identity (the sentiment of patriotism) and the many ideas and feelings expressed in literary, scientific or popular creations. In the second half of the 19th century the inclusion of national history into the universal development became a requirement in Transylvania too. To search for the origin of the nation, was a general research direction, specific to the age related to national pride and ambition. Historical sources were continuously collected and published. Thus, in the Hungarian press often appeared writings on the origin, language3 and history of the Székelys.4 Hungarian history, mainly if it appeared as a motif in the history of arts, was a matter of pride.5
1 Erdély története (The History of Transylvania), III, Budapest, 1986, p. 1610. 2 Ákos Egyed, Falu, város, civilizáció. Tanulmányok a jobbágy felszabadítás és a kapitalizmus történetéből Erdélyben. 1848–1914 (Village, Town, Civilization. Studies on the History of Capitalism and the Emancipation of Serfs in Transylvania. 1848–1914), Bucharest, Kriterion Publishing House, 1981, p. 292. 3 Gyulafejérvári Füzetek (Bulletin of Alba Iulia), 1862, II, pp. 1–29. 4 “The Székely nation is the direct descendant of those Huns who founded the European Hun Empire under Attila. After the downfall of this Empire it was possible for some thousand Huns to survive in that part of Dacia which we call today the Székelys’ land. While those opinions and statements which deny the Hunnic origin cannot be maintained” (“A székely nemzet azon húnok egyenes maradéka, kik Attila alatt az europai hún birodalmat alapiták, ennek összeomlása után nem volt lehetetlen néhány ezer húnnak Dacia azon részében, melyet ma székely-földnek nevezünk megmaradni, mikor is a kritikát nem állják ki azon vélemények és állítások, melyek a székelyek hún eredetét el akaraják odázni”), in: Gyulafejérvári Füzetek, 1861, I, pp. 39–66. See also in: A Székely Nemzeti Múzeum Értesítője (The Bulletin of the Székely National Museum), 1891, II, pp. 75–275. 5 Keleti Virágok (Oriental Flowers), 1889, I, no.5, pp. 177–196.
299 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Besides the historical sources, legends and historical tales were often used as a theme by the authors of historical articles published in periodicals, their role being to give a stimulating example for the young generations (for example: Count András Szentkereszti’s sword preserved in the museum of the Calvinist secondary school in Târgu-Mureş, sword sent by the English as a sign of gratitude for the count’s heroic deeds in the battle from 25 April 1794; the tale narrating how the Székelys obtained their charter of liberty under the reign of King Matthias Corvinus;1 King Matthias’ visit in the Cluj;2 the legendary fighter in the Roşia Montana mountains, Ecaterina Varga;3 the character of Hungarian warriors who had lightning in their eyes, were excellent horsemen, armed with swords, bows, maces from head to toe, had muscles of steel, their movement being tempest, their anger: death4). It is to be remarked the fact that the historians of the age, besides being interested in the evolution of public life, also wished to educate the new generations in the spirit of the love of native country and nature. The writers of the age had as an important aim to help their readers in getting to know the historical and geographical aspects of their country. The letter form – seeming the most convenient – was used to present the geological evolution and the description of the geographical aspects, as well as the flora and fauna of the country.5 The most interesting writings on the geography of Transylvania were published in the specialist journal Erdély (Transylvania) edited by the Transylvanian Carpathian Society. The articles described, among other things, Lunca Mureşului – this article being followed by illustrations (this being a rarity in the press of the age) –; they evoked the
1 “nec habet aliquis dominorum plus, nec servorum minus – de libertate”, in: Marosvásárhelyi Füzetek (The Bulletin of Târgu-Mureş), 1858, I, no. 1, pp. 87– 92. 2 Keleti Virágok, 1889, I, no. 5, pp. 110–127. 3 Keleti Virágok, 1889, I, no. 5, pp. 164–171. 4 “Mindeniknél kard, ij, buzogány, meg puzdra, Vas izmuk a vérten majd keresztül duzzad; Mozdulások: vihar, a haragjuk: halál, Jaj annak ezerszer, a ki utjokba áll!” In: Marosvásárhelyi Füzetek, 1896, no. 1, pp. 45–47. 5 Gyulafejérvári Füzetek, 1861, I, pp. 7–37. See also: “I am so bold to ask you to walk arm in arm with me [...] in search of the most interesting regions of our beloved and beautiful country and if I ask you for this tour, I hope you will be susceptible for the beauties of nature” (“fel merem szólitani kegyedet, velem karöltve [...] buvárkodni, forrón szeretett szép hazánk érdekesb tájékain, s ha felhivám e természetrajzi körútra mivelt szellemének, reméllem fogékony kedélye sem marad el”), in: Marosvásárhelyi Füzetek, 1860, II, no. 5/6, pp. 307–376.
300 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 curative, hydrotherapeutic and balneotherapeutic effects of the watering- places of Transylvania or of the mineral springs, insisting upon the necessity of commercializing them more intensely. They also encouraged the efforts made to improve the balneal tourism and, implicitly, the autochthonous economy.1 These presentations usually functioned as advertisements. The spas of Sovata, Jigodin, Jabeniţa, Homorod, Szejke, Şugaş, Tuşnad, the springs in Biborţeni, Bodoc, Borsec, Corund, the sulphurous cave in Turia, the Saint Ann Lake2 were presented in detail. The spa of Vâlcele was described by several articles being the oldest and most appreciated watering place, having already existed in the seventh decade of the 18th century.3 Its balneal character could be compared to that of the similar health resorts from St.-Moritz, Rippoldsau, Reinerz, Elster, Franzensbad, Schwalbach, Spa, Pyrmont. Natural rarities are mentioned too: the Split Stone, the Jews’ Table4 or the edelweiss.5 Besides geography, the history of Transylvania was also a frequent subject in the columns of the Transylvanian periodicals and it was considered important for the readers to get acquainted with it too. Different themes and personalities were discussed going through the different phases of Transylvanian and Hungarian history. The inherited traditions and the specific local conditions were highlighted attempting to find plausible explanations for the treated phenomenon. Readers were probably interested in town histories (such as of Cluj), the problem of the census in the Székely region or the figure of the 1848 revolutionary, Pál Vasvári. Archaeological discoveries occupied an important place in the reviews. This showed that specialists were interested in and preoccupied with spreading the results of their researches in order to diffuse the values of the cultural historical heritage. Excavation results had central import in these periodicals. Scientifically accurate articles presented for example the discovery of Roman coins on the bank of the river Aghireş in the
1 Erdély (EKE) [Transylvania (TCS)], 1892, I, no. 1, pp. 10–14, 14–18, 41–44. 2 Erdély (EKE), 1892, I, no. 4, pp. 108–116, 148–149, 169–173. 3 “Vâlcele became an important watering place in the seventh decade of the previous century” (“a múlt század hetedik évtizedében lendült fel Előpatak, mint fürdő”, in: Erdély (EKE), 1892, I, no. 8/9, pp. 307–313, 321–325. 4 “Két természeti ritkaság” (Two Natural Rarities), “I. Maladinkő (Hasadtkő)” (I. Split Stone), “II. A Zsidó-asztal” (II. Jews’ Table), in: Erdély (EKE), 1892, I, no. 10, pp. 387–389. 5 Erdély (EKE), 1892, I, no. 10, pp. 391–393.
301 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Turkey oak forest on the Great Mountain near Ilieni1 or the beautiful Calvinist church in Pădureni (Mureş County). This latter study contained a drawing on and the architectonical scheme of the building and the reproduction of three fragments of mural.2 A special place was accorded to the history of culture and to archaeological studies. To study archaeology, the auxiliary science of history, became an important task for intellectuals.3 The old murals from the 13–15th centuries in the churches of Derj, Pădureni, Chilieni, Ghelinţa, Biborţeni in Covasna County, Filea, Mărtiniş, Crişeni in Hargita County, Sâncraiu de Mureş, Sântana de Mureş, Ulieş and Găleşti in Mureş County were presented and described in detail. The authors asserted that any object preserved from the past was the proof of an old culture and it represented the conditions of private and social life in that age.4 Memories must be preserved with piety irrespective of the nation they belong to. The interest for the historical development of mankind must be constant, the task of contemporaries being to collect, protect and administrate those relics and, in the case of historical monuments, to immortalize them in drawings.5 The decorative elements used on the
1 A Székely Nemzeti Múzeum Értesítője, 1891, III, pp. 3–8. 2 A Székely Nemzeti Múzeum Értesítője, 1891, II, pp. 276–290. 3 “Seeking out old churches in the Székelys’ land, I shall bring to light the murals found on their walls and I shall save them from decay. Generally, archaeology is one of the auxiliary sciences of history and its practice must be one of our significant tasks from a cultural point of view” (“a székelyföldi régi egyházakat felkutatva, az azok falain talált falképeket napfényre hozom s azokat az enyészettől megmentem. Általában a régészet azon tudományok egyike, melyek a történelem segédforrásait képezik s melynek ápolása kulturális szempontból egyik kiváló feladatunkat kell, hogy képezze”), in: A Székely Nemzeti Múzeum Értesítője, 1891, II, pp. 33–74. 4 “Each relic confers a data on the living conditions of the past partly from a familial, religious point of view, partly from the point of view of society, state organization, legislation and culture in general” (“mindenik reliquia egy-egy adatot szolgáltat a hajdankor életviszonyaihoz, részint családi, vallási, részint társadalmi, államszerkezeti, törvénykezési s általábam kulturális szempontból”), in: A Székely Nemzeti Múzeum Értesítője, 1891, II, pp. 33–74. 5 “From the point of view of our general culture we must be interested in everything related to the gradual development of mankind, this is why we have as a task not only to protect antiquities, but also to collect them, arrange them according to the scientific requirements of our age and to immortalize in drawings the monuments exposed to decay” (“Minket az általános müvelődés szempontjából mindannak érdekelni kell, mi az emberiség fokozatos fejlődésével összefüggésben áll, miért a régiségeknek nem csak megóvása, hanem azok
302 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 ceilings and altars of churches (in Delniţa, Şumuleu-Ciuc, Tărceşti, Căpeni, Inlăceni, Moacşa and Sâncrăieni), on embroideries of religious or worldly objects, on ceramics and furniture speak of the nation’s culture and history.1 Some issues connected with the history of religions (Unitarian, Calvinist), the mission and the role of the Church in solving the social problems or the autonomy of the Roman Catholic Church were in the centre of attention too.2 Ethnology and the folklore were quite frequent themes in the periodicals of the age which published the texts of some Székely folksongs,3 studies on the Easter folk customs and the ornaments used on painted Easter eggs,4 on the analysis of the wandering gipsies’ signalling system5 or on some ethnological aspects.6 The press of the age abounded in discourses or studies which tried to descry the importance and the role of literature in people’s life. The aim of an appropriate education was to develop the latent talents of the young generation and to encourage them in autodidactic activities.7 With this end in view the reading societies and literary circles were founded. The works of literary criticism evoked the nation’s great precursors Ferenc Kazinczy, István Széchenyi, Bertalan Szemere, Gábor Döbrentei, Kristóf Kerszturi, Péter Bod, János Apáczai Csere, Ferenc Toldy, Pál Kócsi P., Sámuel Gyarmathy, György Aranka and Imre Mikó. They also analyzed the former generations’ literary activity and the most important representatives of the Hungarian culture and literature. Literary translations became a permanent preoccupation for the men of letters. Literary texts were translated from English, French, Persian, German, gyüjtése, azok korszerü rendezése s az enyészetnek kitett műemlékek rajzban való megörökitése is feladataink közé tartozik”), in: A Székely Nemzeti Múzeum Értesítője, 1891, II, pp. 33–74. 1 A Székely Nemzeti Múzeum Értesítője, 1891, II, pp. 33–74. 2 Gyulafejérvári Füzetek, 1890, III, pp. 1–13, 1–15. 3 Korány, 1861, pp. 26–27; 1863, p. 116. 4 A Székely Nemzeti Múzeum Értesítője, 1902, III, pp. 32–77. 5 Erdély (EKE), 1892, I, no. 1, pp. 38–41. 6 Erdély (EKE), 1892, I, no. 7, p. 300. 7 “Allow us, dear reader, to tell you in a few words what has encouraged us to this endeavour. The aim of rational education is to help the pupils start their independent activity by developing their innate talents.” („Engedd meg kedves olvasó, hadd mondjuk el pár szóval, mi bátoritott minket e vállalatra. A józan nevelés czélja a növendékekben eredetileg meglevő tehetségeket kifejtvén önmunkásságba indítani”), in: Korány, 1863, pp. III–X.
303 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Romanian1 (Edgar Allan Poe, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Alexander Humboldt, Heinrich Heine etc.). It will be possible to translate natural scientific works into Hungarian successfully when more studies in this domain will have been published in Hungarian language and the readers’ knowledge will have reached the adequate level.2 Several articles evoked prominent personalities and presented their works with the aim of instructing the readers. Thus we can read a translation made by Miklós Wesselényi from a text on the philosophy, psychology and perception of time or a ballad on Brutus written also by Miklós Wesselényi,3 a short story by Elek Benedek4 or a letter by Kelemen Mikes written on 25 March 1760.5 A quite “fashionable” literary genre was the travel diary. Most of them described journeys in Italy, the itinerary being impressive: Trieste, Venice, Verona, Milan, Bibliotheca Ambrosiana, Certosa, Turin, Genoa, Livorno, Pisa, Messina, Naples, Giardini, Taormina, Catania, Etna, Syracuse, Palermo, Monreale, Monte Pellegrino, Vesuvius, Capri, Caserta, Rome, Vatican, Frascati.6 The travel diary seemed to be a literary genre preferred more by women writers, and if the author was a man the difference of style was evident.7 For example Gábor Kemény’s analytical and critical style is striking as compared with the one used by Juliska Lázár or Mariska Biela. Thus, Kemény acknowledged the usefulness of travelling, stating that one can learn much in the course of a journey. All the travellers acknowledged that the development of the means of transport had a beneficial effect upon the progress of industry, economy and commerce. The development of these means also had a beneficial effect upon culture as it made easier the distribution of books
1 Keleti Virágok, 1889, I, no. 5, pp. 17–25, 45–79, 101–109, 227–236, 245–271, 384–388. 2 “When we shall have a natural scientific literature, when the reader will have the possibility to reach the present day level of natural sciences: the time for translating the «Cosmos» into Hungarian will come too.” („Majd ha természettudományi irodalmunk lesz, ha az olvasó magyar irodalmi termékekből is eljuthat a természettudományok mai szinvonalára: eljővend a «Kosmos» magyarraforditásának ideje is.”) In: Marosvásárhelyi Füzetek, 1858, I, no. 1, pp. 42–57. 3 Korány, pp. 64–75, 102–104. 4 Keleti Virágok, 1889, I, no. 5, pp. 164–171. 5 Marosvásárhelyi Füzetek, 1860, II, no. 5/6, pp. 425–435. 6 Gyulafejérvári Füzetek, 1862, II, pp. 121–258. 7 A „Teleki Blanka”Kör [...] Kis Emlékkönyve (The Small Album of the “Teleki Blanka” Circle), 1896, IV, pp. 5–13.
304 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 and it helped people in developing their aptitudes and abilities as well as facilitated their travels. Gábor Kemény regarded the things experienced in Italy with critical eyes. He found the Italians loud, which remark was also connected with his participation at the Roman carnival full of burlesque scenes and figures. He criticized the Roman emperors’ ambition of establishing institutions for “infamous amusement”, affirming that if they had loved the people that much, they would not have established so many places of entertainment and would not have given “dangerous toys to the child” (gladiator games).1 He mentioned three famous cemeteries, the vault of the Scipio family, the library, the antique and some modern sculptures, the Egyptian and Etruscan museum, the art gallery. He was delighted with Raphael’s Stanze and Michelangelo’s Laocoon. He also praised the antique Hellenic culture. The old Greeks, Gábor Kemény stated knew very much, expressing refined thoughts, feelings and passions in works of art. For Gábor Kemény the antique Greek culture was a flourishing one, being similar to the period of virile maturity. Those who travel, he stated, do not have the time to direct their attention towards the people living in the visited place, towards the citizens and the members of the society in question, though a traveller eager for knowledge should also be interested in local men. He also recommended that one should prepare and plan his journey on the basis of the information offered by the good guidebooks.2 Finally, we may affirm that it is evident: the mosaic-like ethnographical image of Transylvania represented an additional cause for each nation to defend and to wish to enrich its ethnical heritage. The change of attitudes and of political directions was mirrored by the periodicals of the age. A periodical could be edited by a group of renowned historians, philosophers, naturalists, but the numerous ideas elaborated by them in their articles essentially were not always original ones, some thoughts being borrowed from former thinkers, others occurring in the same measure in other contemporaneous works too. This fact, however, does not disparage the role of the great personalities of the Transylvanian cultural and scientific life from the studied era, for they had often the
1 Had they loved the people that much, they would not have made “so big houses for infamous amusements and they would not have given dangerous toys to the child.” (Ha a népet annyira szerették, akkor nem csináltak volna „nemtelen mulatságokra akkora hajlékokat, valamint nem adnak ártalmas játékszert a gyermek kezébe.”) In: Marosvásárhelyi Füzetek, 1859, II, no. 2/3, pp. 83–121. 2 Marosvásárhelyi Füzetek, 1859, II, no. 2/3, pp. 83–121.
305 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 merit of disseminating in Transylvania some modernizing ideas and knowledge, close to the European level and of giving form, vigour and prestige to some diffuse or only budding autochthonous ideas.
306 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The University Library of Cluj – 1906–1909 –
Gheorghe VAIS Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Technical University, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: University Library of Cluj, Library of the Transylvanian Museum, competition, execution plan, functional units, architectural language, interior decoration, Neo-Baroque, Secessionism
Abstract This study presents the development of the library building from the moment the idea of establishing this institution occurred through the different stages of its completion and the execution to its inauguration. When the Ferenc József University was founded in 1872 in Cluj, it was decided that a University Library was required. The Transylvanian Museum donated its rich collections to the new institution. The new library functioned in several rather unsuitable buildings during the following years. Finally the Museum Society, the University Council and the library management asked for a new library building to be raised. The field where the building was to be erected was bought by the Hungarian Ministry of Education and Religion; it was situated at the corner of Mikó Street and Arany János Street, an important location from the point of view of urban planning. In the project competition organized for the construction of the building famous architects of the age participated. The winners, Flóris Nándor Korb and Kálmán Giergl were familiar with the location having already built the University Clinical Complex in the vicinity of the future University Library. Therefore they managed to integrate the library into the new urban area developed west of the city centre; they turned the building towards Arany János Square. Though at the competition the two architects presented a plan characterised by the dominance of Neo-Baroque elements, in the course of its execution the building gained a Secessionist character. The building, whose foundations were laid in the summer of 1906 and which was officially inaugurated on 18 May 1909, represented an economic variant of the architectural program due to financial difficulties. Consequently, some important aspects of the execution project were abandoned and others were realized only in 1931–34.
307 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
E-mail: [email protected]
The institution The University Library of Cluj originates from the Library of the Transylvanian Museum (Erdélyi Múzeum Könyvtár). The library was from the beginning the most significant section of the Museum which started its activity immediately after the institution had been founded. The initial collection was formed mainly by donations. The most important one was the Count János Kemény’s library, promised to the Society in 1842; it contained 15000 volumes and a collection of 1000 manuscripts and official documents. Brought by 36 carts from Gerend (where it had been kept until the foundation of the Museum), this material became the core around which the collection increased, consisting of already 20483 volumes around the year 1863.1 As the library had no appropriate location, it had to function in different rooms obtained by renting or the owners’ generosity. For the longest time it functioned on the ground floor of the house owned by the Count Sándor Bethlen on Bel-Farkas Street (today Kogălniceanu Street) (1857). The reading room was opened here too on 15 July 1860, when the institution began to function as a public library.2 The Library of the Museum functioned independently only 12 years (1860–1872). When the University was founded (1872) it was decided to establish the University Library (Egyetemi Könyvtár). The Museum Society contributed decisively to the educational activity of the university from the beginning. A contract was signed on 29 August 1872 by which the Library of the Museum (30408 volumes) was placed at the disposal of the University. This was the moment when the Library of the Museum became the organic part of the University Library.3 At the beginning students and teachers frequented the two book collections in the places where they were situated when the two
1 Lajos György, Az Erdélyi könyvtárügy és a Kolozsvári egyetemi könyvtár (The Transylvanian Library Affairs and the University Library of Cluj), in Erdély Magyar Egyeteme – Az Erdélyi Egyetemi gondolat és a M. Kir. Ferenc József Tudományegyetem Története (The Hungarian University of Transylvania – The Idea of the University of Transylvania and the History of the Ferenc József Hungarian Royal University), published by the Transylvanian Scientific Institute, Kolozsvár, 1941, p. 223. 2 Ibid., p. 223. 3 Ibid., pp. 226, 227.
308 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 institutions merged: the collections of the Museum in the Bethlen House and those of the University in the building of the former Jesuit college from Farkas Street. This was a ramshackle two-storeyed building and it had been the residence of the Gubernium and of the Royal Committee. Later on, the collection of the Museum too was moved here. A turbulent period followed for the books of the library; they were moved to different spaces by the efforts of the university board. In October-November 1895 the library was moved to the new university building, respectively to the wing opposite to the old theatre. Although the new rooms were more modern than the former ones (light and dry), the library continued to suffer from the lack of adequate spaces, as in the plan of the university no specific library space had been included. A paradoxical situation arose as the library had a smaller room than before and some of the functions overlapped inadmissibly: the reading room was also the cloak room.1 The growing importance of the library in the university environment, doubled by the more and more numerous acquisitions that increased the book collection2 caused greater and greater problems because of the space crisis. Having this situation for a background the Museum Society (Múzeum-Egylet), the University Council (Egyetemi Tanács) and the library management started an energetic campaign at Cluj and Budapest for a new building to be raised.
Location The first reaction came from the municipality of the city, which offered a free lot of 1050 m2 at the corner of Belső- and Külső-Torda (today Universităţii and Avram Iancu) Streets for constructing the library.3 At the same time the Ministry pondered to buy the lot of the old theatre next to the University (approx. 2000 m2), where, after the demolition of the old building, a new one could be constructed in the same style as the neighbouring University.4 The theatre building would be bought in the end by the University in the first decade of the 20th century, but it would be used as the store of the Botanical Museum. Finally the Hungarian Ministry of Education and Religion bought in 1903 a field of 21540 m2 (from Csiky and Tamási) that stretched from the corner of Mikó (Clinicilor) Street and Arany János
1 Ibid., p. 230. 2 At the beginning of the 1890s the collection had more than 200000 volumes. 3 This must have been the lot where the Gábor Áron Students’ Hostel (Gábor Áron Diákotthon) was built in 1909–10 by the architecht Károly Nagy. 4 Lajos György, op. cit., p. 234.
309 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
(Petru Maior) Street to the middle of Mikó Street, approximately opposite to the main entrance of Clinical Complex.1 The field (probably the lots no. 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10) occupied a part of the western side of Arany János Square2 and thus the future library building was to contribute to the urban ensemble of the square.
fig. 1. – Cluj. Coal Square (Szénpiac), fragment from the cadastral plan of the city, drawn by the cartographer Sándor Bádány in 1869. The lots painted grey are those purchased for building the library.
The field on which the library was going to be built was situated on the western side of the Arany János Square.3 This was an important location, situated next to the western side of the town walls, more exactly
1 Ibid., p. 236. 2 Arany János Square (Arany János tér) was renamed Saint George Square (Szentgyörgy tér) after the statue of Saint George had been placed here on 18 September 1904. 3 The old Coal Square (Szénpiac) bore different names in the course of time: 1852–1857 Coal Street Square (Szénutczai piacz), 1899 London Square (London tér), 1899 Arany János Square (Arany János tér), 1904-1917 Saint George Square (Szentgyörgy tér), 1923 Saint George Square, 1933-1937 Gheorghe Sion Square, 1941 Saint George Square (Szentgyörgy tér), 1945 Saint George Square, 1962 Peace Square, 1995 Lucian Blaga Square. [Cf. Lajos Asztalos, Kolozsvár, helynév- és településtörténeti adattár (The Repertory of the Historical Place Names and Town History of Cluj), Kolozsvár Society – Polis Publishing House, 2004, p. 468.]
310 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 to the right of the Boot-makers’ Bastion (Csizmadiák bástyája), which included the Little Door of the Coal Street (Szén-utczai Kis-ajtó). For a long time it was forbidden to construct buildings1 near the walls outside the fortification because of military reasons. As soon as the city lost its military importance, the walls and the bastions became anachronistic and hindered the development of Cluj. The demolition of the Boot-makers’ Bastion stimulated the development of the Coal Square (Szénpiac) and of the entire area west of it. The place was important being situated between the town centre and Mănăştur, but also because 6 streets2 converged here, making the square a focal point for the area west of the town centre. The square was shaped triangularly as this seemed the most natural arrangement for a relatively complicated intersection. Around the middle of the 19th century three town areas intersected here: the Town Centre (Belváros) in the east, the Coal Street Suburb (Szén utczai Külváros) in the south-west and the Mănăştur Suburb (Monostori Külváros) in the north-west. A geological characteristic of the area was that the Gipsy Brook (Czigány Patak) crossed the middle of the square on its way towards the river Someş. It used to supply the moat, but when this was filled up, it inundated the area after each rain, affecting the buildings. The inundation risk was eliminated only in the second half of the 19th century when the valley was regulated and a sewer was built for the brook where it crossed the square. The last four years of the 19th century were an important period for the development of the area adjacent to the square, which became the administrative centre of the county when the Cluj County Hall (Kolozsvármegye Székház) was built (as a sequel to Wesselényi Palace on Arany János Street, today Petru Maior Street) in 1896–1897. The completion of Karolina University Clinics (Karolina Egyetemi Klinikák) on Mikó Street in 1900 made the place an important medical centre of
1 Ibid., p. 469. 2 The following streets lead into the square: from the east Jókai Mór (Napoca) Street coming from the Main Square of the city; from the north Párizs (Şincai) Street connecting the square with the Citadel, the Central Park and the Summer Theatre; also from the north Arany János (Petru Maior) Street making the connection with the County Hall and the Central Park; from the west Mikó (Clinicilor) Street that led towards the Clinics, the Museum (Mikó) Garden and Mănăştur; from the south-west Trefort (Victor Babeş) Street descending from the Psychiatric Complex; and from the south Majális (Republicii) Street that slopes towards the town from the picnic area situated on the north slope of Feleac Hill.
311 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Transylvania as well. Being aware of all this, the town magistrates wished to associate the place with one of the symbols of the city and unveiled here on 28 September 1904 a copy of Saint George’s equestrian statue. This was placed in the middle of the square on the recommendation of Károly Haller, the president of the Embellishing Society (Szépítő Egylet).1 On this occasion the name of the square was changed from Arany János to Saint George (Szentgyörgy tér).
The competition of projects In the spring of the year 1904, the Ministry of Education and Religion from Budapest announced the organisation of a project competition for the construction of a new building, based on the theme elaborated by the library director, the eminent librarian Pál Erdélyi.2 It was a wide-spread practice in Hungary at that time to organise architecture competitions, especially in the case of official commissions. The architectural program prescribed the creation of a “closed library” such as all the great libraries of the age. Regarding its function it was required to comprise, in the same place but separately, the two components of the library in Cluj: the collections of the University and of the Transylvanian Museum. During the research I made in the archives of the University Library, where some of the drafts of the rival projects are still kept, I identified eight architect firms who must have participated in the competition: Ágoston Kesselbauer (Veszprém), Jenő Kismarty-Lechner & László Warga (Budapest), Flóris Korb & Kálmán Giergl (Budapest), Marcell Komor & Dezső Jakab (Budapest), Adolf Láng (Budapest), Ambrus Orth & Emil Somló (Budapest), Artúr Sebestyén (Budapest) and János Villányi & Alfréd Hajós (Budapest). Almost all the participants came from the capital, Budapest, the majority of them being architects renowned in Hungary at that time. They were used to competitions as a current modality of access to important state commissions. Therefore we should not be surprised that to design the library of the second most important university in Hungary at that time was really tempting for the recognized Hungarian architects. Spurred on by their success at the University Clinical Complex from Cluj, finished in 1903, Korb and Giergl participated in the competition with a solution that finally would win them the commission
1 Péter Sas, Mesélő Képeslapok, Kolozsvár 1867–1919 (Storytelling Postcards, Kolozsvár 1867–1919), Budapest, Noran Publishing House, 2003, p. 176. 2 Lajos György, op. cit., p. 236.
312 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 of the work. The situational plan shows one of the most interesting solutions, where, by accentuating one diagonal, the building was turned towards Arany János Square. Thus a greater importance was given to the square, but also to the building, which became an important landmark of the place.
fig. 2. – The situational plan of the competition project, Korb’s and Giergl’s variant.
As only a few drafts have been preserved, it is difficult to decipher the adopted blueprint. However, the plan can be discerned due to a simple and clear solution whereby two wings, with three storeys, with bevelled corners, close behind them the part of building containing the reading room situated on the diagonal of the lot. This is also connected with the other parts of the building by two arched wings which probably contained the annexed spaces and the passages for the personnel. The book stacks are also clearly designed, they occupy a single wing (basement + ground floor + 3 upper floors + attic) situated north of the main part of the building connected with this on only one storey. By placing the main entrance at the ground floor of the bevelled part of the building, the authors obtained a double orientation: towards the square (therefore towards the town centre), but also towards Mikó Street (towards the clinical complex). As this part of the building was aggrandised (the roof was raised higher and a rich decoration was
313 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 applied), it became accentuated and visible from afar. The authors had estimated that it could be seen even from the town centre through the passage formed by Jókai (today Napoca) Street, the axis of this street looking exactly at this part of building. The plan of the second floor, the only plan preserved, shows that for the main vertical circulation there were two stairs with three platforms. The stairs flanked the corridor of the main axis that led to the exhibition hall. At the same time we can observe the simple prismatic style of the book stacks and the clarity with which the bookstands were arranged perpendicularly on the longitudinal walls.1 Each level of the stacks was divided in two by metal galleries (see section A–B), which made possible the access to the upper part of the shelves. Such solutions were frequent and ensured a better use of the space in the stacks, making the access easy to all the bookstands.
1 It is known that the simple and clear arrangement of the shelves within the stacks makes the handling of books more efficient, shortening considerably the waiting time in the reading room.
314 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
fig. 3. – Plan of the first floor (second stage of the competition) from Korb’s and Giergl’s variant.
It is surprising that, though this version did not win the first phase of the competition, it contained many of the functional and formal elements that would be recognisable in the finished construction. This proves the authors’ talent and professional maturity in deciphering rapidly and correctly the theme data. The fact that they “knew” the location better than the other competitors as they had already worked here when projecting the clinics, led them to one of the best solutions from the perspective of town planning. I think, this is why Korb’s and Giergl’s variant became an important reference point for the jury of the competition when choosing the criteria. The jurors made this solution type compulsory in the second phase of the competition. The projects participating in the competition were grouped in two main categories according to the way they located the building. The first category was made up by those projects (Kesselbauer, Kismarty- Lechner & Warga, Láng, Orth & Somló and Sebestyén) which practically ignored the Arany János Square, adjacent to the location. These architects designed the building as if it would have been in the middle of a street
315 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 front. The other category of projects (Korb & Giergl, Komor & Jakab and Villányi & Hajós) connected the library building with the square by “turning” towards it, generating a corner solution. In this way they tried to valorise the vicinity with the square and the visual relationship between the location and the town centre (through the passage of Jókai Street, now Napoca Street). The main task of the jury was to choose between these two variants of positioning. The jury gathered and took its decision at Budapest in July 1904. At the jurors’ proposal1 the first prize (3500 crowns) was awarded to the project submitted by Ambrus Orth–Emil Somló, the second prize (2000 crowns) to Flóris Korb–Kálmán Giergl’s project and third prize (1500 crowns) to Artúr Sebestyén’s solution.2 However, the minister Albert Berzeviczy, considering that none of the projects satisfied entirely the requirements of the theme, invited the winners to a second competition stage with a more exact theme, nearer to the technical and budgetary realities. The minister may have been influenced by some aspects of Korb & Giergl’s solution, which he imposed later on as theme requirements. Unfortunately, out of the three projects that participated in the second stage of the competition only the variants elaborated by Orth–Somló and Korb–Giergl have been preserved in the archives of the library. As they had found the “ideal” solution already in the first phase of the competition, Korb and Giergl had only to make some adjustments to the new variant. Thus they realized a remarkable project whose functional scheme and the plan of its composition had been clearly devised as the only plans preserved (first and second floor) confirm this. The scheme of the composition consisted of an L-shaped plan (basement + ground floor + 2 upper floors) having the articulation bevelled at 45°. Between its arms, on the bisector of the interior angle considered to be the axis of the entire composition the second part (basement + ground floor) had been placed, obliquely to the first. The two are connected by two symmetrical wings, arc segments that close two internal courtyards. In the plan the oblique part of building quartered the great majority of the spaces where the library users would enter first (vestibules, halls, cloakrooms, main stairs etc.) and the main functional units (the main reading room, professors’ reading room etc.). The book stacks (basement + ground floor + 4 upper floors) were conceived as a
1 Two jury members were from Cluj: the Rector of the University, István Apáthy and the library director, Pál Erdélyi. 2 Lajos György, op. cit., p. 236.
316 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 relatively isolated wing in the northern part of the composition. This variant was imposed by the great weight of books and also because independent building parts are easier to extend. The stacks communicated with the rest of the building through articulations with a single level, ensuring in this way the flow of books towards the reading rooms. In order to increase the speed of book handling, the stacks had lifts at each staircase. The sober geometrized eclecticism influenced by Secessionism defined the style of the facades. These reflected the authors’ prudence with respect to the reaction of authorities against Hungarian Secessionism. Korb and Giergl had just had an unpleasant experience at the Academy of Music (Zeneakadémia) in Budapest in 1904–1907. Here under the pressure of the Ministry of Education the Secessionist façades of the winner project had been redrawn by the authors for a Baroque style. One of the important trump cards of the project was the moderate cost of the execution, this being due to the simplicity of the solution and to the rational character of the scheme. For the authorities from Budapest, who required the execution costs to be reduced each time, Korb’s and Giergl’s variant seemed to be the most convenient.
The execution project Finally, the work would be awarded to the Flóris Nándor Korb & Kálmán Giergl pair from Budapest. They would be commissioned to prepare an execution project with a functional solution inspired from the plan of the University Library of Basel,1 considered by the library director, Pál Erdélyi an ideal model for European university libraries. The execution project was officially begun on 14 June 1906, when the Library Construction Committee (Könyvtár-Építési Bizottság) assembled to discuss and to make a decision about the quotations that came from Korb and Giergl.2 Probably these quotations reflected different variants of the project, situated between the minimal and maximal limits of the blueprint. The location was occupied by the building according to the situational plan from the first phase of the competition. The only modification consisted of the elimination of the living quarters’ wing from the western end of the façade looking out to Mikó Street, as a
1 Lajos György, op. cit., p. 236. 2 Ibid., p. 236.
317 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 topographical survey of the town from 1917 shows it. It is evident also in this plan the quality of the solution, which, by generating an accentuated volume on the bevelled corner, ensured the dominant element of the square and of the adjacent area. As the original execution drafts are missing, I used in my study the plans and the section published in the four language (English, French, German and Hungarian) edition of an album entitled A Királyi Magyar Egyetemek Epületei (The Buildings of the Hungarian Royal Universities) vol. III that came out in Budapest in 1908. The documentary value of these plans consists of the fact that they were published immediately after the inauguration of the library. Thus they reflected the characteristics of the execution project, probably containing also the modifications made during the execution. In other words, they could reflect, in the most faithful manner, the functional-spatial configuration of the library at the moment of its inauguration in 1909. At the level of the semi-basement the main functional element was the ensemble of the popular library (anteroom, reading room, cloakroom and lavatory) placed on the southern side of the building, towards Mikó (today Clinicilor) Street. As this section was intended for readers who did not belong to the university system, in other words to the general public, it is understandable that it was placed outside the main flow. It could be accessed quickly from the left of the main entrance, avoiding thus the interference with the flow from the levels reserved to students and professors. To separate clearly the flow between university and non- university readers was beneficial for the correct functioning of the library, but at the same time it reflected the tendency of social separation practiced in almost every architectural programme of the age. On this level were placed the bookbindery and book packing workshops too where those activities took place which aimed at the preservation of the newly purchased or older books. The reduced number of the rooms reserved for therapeutic proceedings can be explained by the incipient stage of the domain in the respective period, the aim being only to ensure the physical integrity of the books.
318 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
fig. 4. – The University and Transylvanian Museum Library, plan of the semi- basement:
1. main entrance and vestibule; 2. hall; 3. anteroom of the popular library; 4. reading room of the popular library; 5. librarians’ desk (popular library); 6. cloakroom (popular library); 7. lavatory; 8. corridors; 9. workshops; 10. furnace room; 11. electric apparatus workshop; 12. boiler room; 13. fuel store; 14. cleaners’ room; 15. packing workshop; 16. bookbindery; 17. the porter’s flat; 18. second staircase; 19. the stoker’s room; 20. book stacks; 21. staircase of the stacks; 22. passenger and cargo lift; 23. book lift.
The rooms dedicated to heating etc. (steam-generating station, boiler room, fuel store etc.) occupied the entire surface of the oblique building part. Their great dimensions reflect a technological level that required very massive heating equipment. I would like to remark here what an ingenious solution was applied in the case of the two chimneys. They were built into a median wall, thus they did not disturb the general outlines. In order to ensure several entrances on the perimeter of the building five wider passages were planed. To realize them the height ±0.00 had to be raised. As the result of this operation the building was raised above the ground level in the north-east. This was accomplished by adding a partial level (basement) under the furnace room, the boiler room and the fuel store. The added partial level is visible in the section and is
319 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 suggested in the plan of the semi-basement where in the boiler room two symmetrical stairs indicate the two levels.
fig. 5. – The University and Transylvanian Museum Library, plan of the ground floor
1. main entrance and vestibule; 2. main hall (stairs and cloakroom); 3. corridors; 4. catalogue room; 5. librarians’ desk; 6. main reading room; 7. lavatory; 8. periodical reading room; 9. newspaper reading room; 10. the book handlers’ room; 11. new books room; 12. the deputy director’s office; 13. anteroom of the council room; 14. council room; 15. the director’s office; 16. safe; 17. anteroom; 18. third staircase; 19. general stacks; 20. staircase of the general stacks; 21. passenger and cargo lift; 22. book lift.
The ground floor contained three functional-spatial units: the first consisted of the three reading rooms (main room, newspaper room and periodical room) reached by readers through the catalogue room. These rooms occupied the geometrical centre of the composition, being connected with the “corner” wing and the general stacks in all direction. These rooms functioned as an interface between the readers and the book collections. At the intersection of the three reading rooms was situated the librarians’ desk, an “island” that controlled the circulation of readers and where the books were received and returned. The second unit was dedicated to the library managerial staff (the directors’ offices, assembly room etc.). As the directors had a representative role in their relations
320 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 with the outside world, their offices had anterooms where the secretaries were. The last unit was dedicated to the books. These were kept in the huge space of the stacks (9.27 km shelves at the inauguration)1 and they were easy to access in each part of the library by stairs and electric lifts. The most important room of the ground floor was the main reading room that occupied the north-western extremity of the oblique building part. This was opened for the students on 8 February 1909,2 almost two months before the official inauguration. The architects designed it for a capacity of 200 seats,3 distributed in the central space and in the six recesses placed symmetrically on the long sides. The flow of books from the direction of the stacks was realized by a small direct circulation, this solution ensured a reasonable waiting time. The interior space was devised with a basilica section in order to ensure natural light, as near as possible to the zenithal illumination considered ideal for a reading room. The Transylvanian Museum (Erdélyi Múzeum) kept its collections in the upper floor rooms, assuring greater protection for its patrimony by remaining outside the main flow. On the first floor was the incunabula room, the miniatures room and the manuscripts room in the wings of the L-shaped building part, on the two sides of the conference room. On the second floor the exhibition room placed on the axis was flanked by rooms that contained the archives of the museum and the family archives. These latter consisted of the documents of approx. 40 aristocratic and noble families, kept in special tin plate boxes.4 If we compare the solution from the competition project with the variant that was carried out, we observe that on the second floor a more economical version was applied by giving up the spaces of the curved wings. Because of financial reasons the space of the main reading room was also simplified. In the competition project (stage II) this had had a more elaborated form; it ended in a rounded-polygonal form, resembling the choirs of catholic churches. It is possible that the authors may have devised this space dedicated to the meeting between man and book on the analogy of a sacred space. The economies made in the case of the reading room generated a less expressive solution with simplified forms. The reading room looked rather poor from the outside, suggesting rather an industrial function.
1 Ibid., p. 240. 2 Ibid., p. 239. 3 Ibid., p. 239. 4 Ibid., p. 239.
321 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Inside the preponderance of the compact planes over the gaps outlined the impression of massiveness and the effort to attenuate this sensation by applying on the compact planes some registers of decorative plaster did not achieve its goal. I consider that this concession made by the architects is the weakest point of the project, especially if we compare it with the architecture of the reading rooms of contemporary European libraries. An important element of the functional scheme, the living quarters’ wing was given up during the execution. Living quarters were compulsory elements in almost every public building from the turn of the century. This resulted from a policy of human resources according to which the quasi permanent presence of the leading staff in an institution contributed to its normal functioning. In our case the living quarters’ wing occupied the extremity of the composition from Mikó (Clinicilor) Street. Thus the flats of the director from the ground floor and of the chief librarian from the first floor would have had a favourable orientation towards south and west. It should have been a little building of the library, separated from this by a corridor passable by vehicles, which functioned as the service entrance to the inner courtyards of the complex. The plan of the ground floor in the execution project shows that the initial conception was modified. The most important modification was the alteration of the functional scheme by eliminating the general cloakroom from the space before the main reading room. By moving it to the corridor of the ground floor a great surface (10 x 11.5 m) had become free, which was occupied by the catalogues. The place of the catalogues in the arched wings was taken by some new reading rooms for periodicals and newspapers. In my opinion this operation performed at the inauguration mutilated the elegance of the functional scheme and crowded the corridor of the ground floor with the cloakroom (divided in two parts). The decision to make this modification was made in order to gain space for the reading rooms. The plan of the ground floor (execution project) also shows that the solution of the oval vestibule from the main entrance was simplified. The eight colonettes that punctuated the central space of the vestibule were deleted, probably in order to save money. They were replaced by little parapet-socles made of stone.
322 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
fig. 6. – The University and Transylvanian Museum Library, plan of the first floor:
1. main staircase and corridors; 2. second staircase; 3. incunabula room; 4. miniatures room; 5. conference preparation room; 6. conference room; 7. manuscripts section office; 8. manuscripts room; 9. study; 10. map stacks; 11. lavatory; 12. general book stacks; 13. staircase of the general stacks; 14. passenger and cargo lift; 15. book lift.
A “closed access” was proposed, where the readers and the stored books were clearly separated. The entire book collection was kept in the central stacks to which no reader was admitted. This library type characterised the age and a long time had to pass until “open access”1 would begin to replace them. However, there were some exceptions to the rule of the “closed access”: in the Transylvanian Museum archives the documents were kept in the reading room. This situation was accepted because this room was frequented only by a reduced number of readers whom the librarians could easily supervise.
1 The difference between “open” and “closed” access is that in the former ones the book collection is kept in the reading rooms and readers have direct access to the books.
323 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Finally, when inaugurated, the university library ensured reading conditions for 252 readers,1 200 in the main reading room, the rest in the specialised reading rooms. In addition there were 100 seats in the reading room of the popular library.
fig. 7. – The University and Transylvanian Museum Library, plan of the second floor:
1. main staircase and passages; 2. second staircase; 3. lavatory; 4. archives office; 5. safe; 6. study; 7. archives of the Transylvanian Museum; 8. exhibition room; 9. room of family archives; 10. general book stacks; 11. staircase of the general stacks; 12. passenger and cargo lift; 13. book lift.
Because of the economic restrictions imposed upon budgetary governmental investments, a “minimal” architectural programme was carried out at the Cluj library, which would be completed later on. The first extension was made in 1931–342, when a new storey was added to the catalogue room and to the curved wings, three rooms and a corridor being built. The (eastern) articulation on the second floor must have been completed with the book stacks at the same time. These spaces were included into the competition and execution projects, but they were eliminated while the library was being built because of the high costs. The last significant extension was made in 1960, when new book stacks
1 Lajos György, op. cit., p. 240. 2 Ibid., p. 246.
324 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 were built1 on the place where the living quarters’ wing should have been constructed.
The execution of the building On 14 June 1906, when the Construction Committee of the Library assembled to discuss the quotations that came from the Korb and Giergl company it was also decided to entrust the execution to Károly Reményik, an entrepreneur from Cluj.2 He was one of the most active constructors in the city, having on his record the execution of some important buildings in Cluj: the Commercial Academy I (today the Rector’s Office of the Technological University) with Frigyes Maetz in 1886–87, the Neolog Synagogue (today the Deportees’ Temple) with the Horváth brothers in 1887, the Post Office Palace in 1891–98, the Unitarian College (today Brassai Secondary School) in 1899–1901 and the University Clinical Complex of the Carolina Hospital in 1886–1903. Pressed by everyone, the constructor started the excavation in the summer of 1906 and the foundations were immediately laid. The fast pace was maintained, and in the autumn of 1907 the building was roofed over. The execution was extremely fast if we consider the exigencies of the façades that combined fields of polychrome enamelled brick with elements of stone. In addition, there were no mechanical appliances for carrying the materials at that time, therefore the workers had to carry the materials “on their back”. To everybody’s disappointment the finishing touches lasted longer than expected, thus the furnishing of the library began only after a year, on 23 December 1908, and the inaugural ceremony took place only on 18 May 1909.3 In the execution work the young architect from Budapest, Géza Kappeter, Flóris Nándor Korb’s nephew had an important role. He represented the planning office at the building site between 1907 and 1908. His task was to ensure the correct interpretation of the drawings from the plan and to complete them if there were any omissions in the
1 The new stacks had a rectangular shape (45.6 x 13.9 m) and offered an additional storing surface of approx. 2580 m2 divided to four storeys: semi- basement, ground floor and two upper floors. The project had been elaborated at DSAPC (Management of the Systematization, Architecture and Planning of Constructions) the project leader being the architect Sóvágó (information provided by: dr. arch. Vasile Mitrea). 2 Lajos György, op. cit., p. 238. 3 Ibid., p. 239.
325 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 planning. Taking advantage of his stay in Cluj, he planned the Urania Palace and a few villas.1 The library building costs (lot, planning, construction and equipping) were 1692007.94 crowns2 and they were supported by the governmental budget, the sum being allocated in yearly instalments.
Functional units The functioning of a library is based upon a specific technology that makes possible the meeting between man and book in conditions of absolute safety for the latter. This requires spaces and an operational technology that may ensure suitable conditions for searching, reading and storing, the three main functional categories of a library. If we follow the main flow of the visitors who cross the vestibule, we will find on the ground floor the general cloakroom of the library, divided in two modules, placed in the hollow spaces situated under the two main stairs. It was placed here due to a compromise that resulted in a functional redistribution before the inauguration. The compulsory use of the cloakroom in our case was ensured by the fact that the cloakroom had been placed in the centre of the circulation. In this way even its position made it “inevitable”. Elaborated panoramically, it had been furnished with closed wooden counters and metallic coat- stands. This required the permanent presence of the personnel who would assure the security of the objects left there for safekeeping, and who would supervise the main circulation centre. The catalogue room made possible the readers’ search for titles they needed and it was supervised by the personnel from the librarians’ desk. This occupied a strategic point between the catalogue room and the main reading room. The main role of this desk was to control the readers’ access and to take over their book requests, being a “core” for the entire library. It was situated exactly at the entrance of the main reading room, in a place where the main flow of the readers forked towards the periodical reading room (left) and newspapers’ room (right). The four big wooden and glass walls made it look like an “aquarium” that protected the librarians without obstructing the view. This was the first specialized space of the library where the readers entered. Here titles could be searched for, being known under the
1 János Gerle, Attila Kovács, Imre Makovecz, A századforduló magyar építészete, (Hungarian Architecture at the Turn of the Century), Budapest, Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, 1990, p. 74. 2 Lajos György, op. cit., p. 239.
326 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 name of the catalogue room. It was placed between the cloakroom and the main reading room, being furnished with cabinets of drawers. In these drawers were kept, according to clear rules, the index cards of the titles and the thematic catalogues. Usually, the organizational system of the index cards and catalogues had to reflect the organization of the stacks in the library in order to ensure the efficiency of the handling personnel’s work.
fig. 8. – Catalogue room. The librarians’ desk can be seen in the background.
• The reading spaces The reading rooms of the library as a functional unit determined the architectural programme and were indispensable.1 As was usual, they were specialized depending on the material and type of the reading. Thus the library had besides the main reading room three more such rooms: the periodical reading room, the newspaper reading room and the reading room of the popular library in the semi-basement. To the same category belonged the specialized rooms (incunabula, miniatures and manuscripts) from the first floor, as well as the archives of the Transylvanian Museum placed on the second floor. These latter were “inaccessible” for the great public because of their specialization. They were mainly visited by those who by the nature of their activity were permitted to use these materials.
1 Especially as the architectural programme did not contain rooms for a loan service.
327 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The main reading room was the principal library space in many respects. It was the liveliest and most crowded place in the library due to approximately 200 readers who could be here simultaneously. This space had the largest free surface (20.8 x 10.75 m) from the entire floor plan and it occupied the most important place in the planimetric composition. The plan was a rectangle to which three studying recesses (3.85 x 1.80 m) were added on each long side. Due to its dimensions and to its basilica form, it was the most spectacular space, even if it was rather too big.
fig. 9. – The main reading room. The librarians’ desk in the background.
The main reading room was furnished mainly with individual studying desks having a somewhat peculiar form: a semicircle was cut from the corner of table tops, thus the readers had an ergonomic position. Each desk had little shelves and an inclined bookrest, and in order to offer some kind of isolation each was furnished with an approx. 30 cm high frontal parapet. In the course of time the desks would be differently arranged in the room, the consistent natural light ensured by the windows permitting such flexibility. As in any reading room there were also some complementary elements of furniture, bookcases for frequently used volumes (dictionaries and encyclopaedias) that were placed at the readers’ disposal in an open shelf system. These bookcases were placed perimetrically, separating the individual studying recesses from one another. The specialized reading rooms flanked the access to the main reading room and occupied the two curved lateral wings: to the left the
328 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 periodical reading room and to the right the newspaper reading room. Having a smaller surface than the main reading room, they functioned according to the same principles and had similar furniture. They were placed here due to some compromises in the plan.1 The aim was to obtain as much space as possible for the reading rooms. The catalogues were to be placed in the curved wings at a certain moment, but this solution was given up. The reading room of the popular library2 represented a more particular case. It belonged to a distinct functional unit of the university library, being a section dedicated to the non-university public. The popular library occupied a part of the semi-basement being composed of a vestibule, a cloakroom, lavatories, a librarians’ desk and a reading room. In this way it was a quasi autonomous functional unit, rather isolated within the general scheme. This ensured that the reader flow did not interfere. As can be seen on the photographs of that time, this room was less comfortable than the other parts of the library. Probably, the readers frequenting this library section belonged to poorer social classes, and the organization of this room reflected the social segregation practiced by the architects of the age. There were approx. 100 seats arranged around six pairs of long reading tables, each table had eight seats arranged transversely, the entire arrangement having a rather poor atmosphere. In the rooms where the collections of the Transylvanian Museum were kept the “reading” and “storing” functions were juxtaposed. In a world of closed libraries this was possible only because of the reduced number of readers who had access to the patrimonial material deposited here in an archive regime. This material had been collected by some important members of the Transylvanian aristocracy who donated their private collections to the Transylvanian Museum. To this category of rooms belonged the incunabula, miniatures and manuscripts rooms on the first floor and the archives of the Transylvanian Museum on the second floor. One of the most interesting rooms mentioned above was the room of family archives situated on the second floor, on the side of the building facing the square. The material kept here consisted of the
1 It is difficult to determine the moment when it was decided to permute the functions of the ground floor plan. It is certain that the new scheme was finalized at the official inauguration, on 18 May 1909. 2 Today the space of the popular library reading room is occupied by the loan department.
329 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 documents of approx. 40 important families from Transylvania and Hungary1 and it was kept on bookcases in tin plate boxes. Resembling the treasure boxes used in bank safes, these metallic boxes kept safe and protected better the documents during research. The inner walls of the room were full of simple metallic shelves. In order to make the upper levels more easily accessible a metallic gallery was made of metallic profiles, lattice and wire netting. The parapet of the gallery was decorated with pictures representing the coats of arms of the most important families who had their documents here. To this category belonged the miniatures room2 too, where a remarkable collection was kept that came from the Transylvanian Museum. The room was rectangular (16.0 x 7.0 m) and it had been placed on the first floor of the wing looking onto Mikó Street. It served as stacks and reading room for a specialist public at the same time. Functionally it was divided in two areas: the stacks (with bookcases and storing desks) and the studying area (tables and chairs) organized near the windows. The most interesting elements of the room were the two massive wooden desks with a double function: exhibiting in the small inclined showcases on the upper part and storing in the flat drawers, which occupied the body of the piece of furniture. The drawers were protected by mobile shutters, which were completely hidden in the body of the desk. The showcases made possible small exhibitions making the miniatures room more attractive.
• The stacks The stacks are the third important functional category in a library. They have the role of preserving the written patrimony, which forms the nucleus of a library, no matter how small this collection might be. In the case of “closed libraries” the stacks have distinct and well defined function and space within the functional scheme of the programme. In most of the cases they are placed in distinct wings of the building. In the library from Cluj the general stacks were housed in a separate wing situated on the northern side of the structure. This wing, having the form of a parallelepiped with a rectangular base (44.42 x
1 Bánffy, Teleki, Wessélenyi, Apor, Eszterházy, Gyulai, Kuun, Jósika, Kemény, Kornis, Lázár, Toldalagi, Thorotzkay, Henter, Szentkereszthy, Ugron, Bornemissza, Wass and other smaller families. 2 Today this space is occupied by the Special Collections room. The furniture seems to be the same as in the period of the miniatures room.
330 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
12.06 m), was orientated with its long axis in an east-west direction and had six storeys (semi-basement, ground floor, three upper floors and a mansard storey). The storing surface was increased by dividing each level with an intermediary floor made of a metallic framework and translucent glass plates. These latter had to admit natural light to the entire area of a storing level, though the intermediary floor rose to half the height of the windows. The organisation of the stacks was simple and functional being elaborated according to the principle of the “comb”. In this system the bookshelves were placed perpendicularly on the longitudinal walls and a central circulation was made, thus all the storing recesses became easily accessible. It was a very simple and usual solution for planning book stacks in that age. In our case each level of the stacks had 18 pairs of shelves on the northern longitudinal side and 15 pairs on the southern one, thus a total length of 9.25 km shelves being ensured.1 The double metallic bookshelves had been conceived by Pál Erdélyi, the library director. He combined the Lipman and Wenkel2 systems obtaining a hybrid easy to exploit. Pál Erdélyi had a remarkable experience in librarianship. This he had obtained as librarian of the University Library in Budapest, which he had left in 1900, when he had been named the Director of the library from Cluj.3 Some great fires in the 19th century drew attention to the idea of fire protection and made it an important issue of the architectural programmes. If we consider that during 15 years (1882–1897) 4750 people died in fires that broke out in European theatres,4 we can understand the concern felt by people and the authorities for the safety of public buildings. Even though libraries had not suffered such catastrophic accidents, they were not neglected by the authorities who would start to emit a series of regulations that stipulated the protective measures required of new constructions. Beside the risk that human lives could fall victim to an eventual fire and that the building would be destroyed, in the case of libraries there was the risk of losing the book patrimony. In the great libraries such a major incident would have been a real cultural catastrophe, which could be avoided by respecting some special norms adapted to the programme.
1 Lajos György, op. cit., p. 240. 2Ibid., p. 240. 3Ibid., p. 232. 4 Hofmann Hans-Christroph, Die Theaterbauten von Fellner und Helmer, Prestel- Verlag, München, 1966, p. 24.
331 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
In libraries the general stacks were in the greatest threat to fire in that time, as they are also today. The architects and librarians had the task to reduce to minimal the number of factors which could cause a fire. Korb and Giergl in order to solve these problems placed the general stacks into a relatively independent wing, which could be quickly isolated from the rest of the library by fireproof metallic doors. The supporting structure made of reinforced concrete and the brick work was incombustible and their fire resistance corresponded to the norms of the age. To make possible the isolation of a seat of fire, the floors of the general stacks were divided into three fire compartments, which could be isolated by closing the metallic doors between them. The furniture of the general stacks had to answer the same exigencies: most were metallic, but the actual shelves were made of wood. It is possible that these plates were covered with a fireproof material. Besides the general stacks, the library from Cluj had another very special storing area – the map stacks – situated on the first floor of the building part that connected the main building with the general stacks. This position ensured that, in case the collection would increase, a part of the general stacks could be used for storing the maps. The space of these stacks was almost square (9.0 x 10.0 m) and had a double orientation (east-west), which ensured plenty of natural light. In these stacks the maps were kept unfolded in order to avoid all the handling (folding-unfolding) that could be dangerous for their safety. The furniture was made of wood; the smaller maps were kept in drawers and the larger ones on vertical sliding panels. The material was handled by the personnel of the stacks, as the access of the public was theoretically forbidden.
• The connected spaces An important task for the libraries in their daily activity was, as it is today, was to propagate culture. Because of the activities aimed at promoting and popularizing cultural events some connected spaces had to be introduced to the plans. In our case these were the conference and the exhibition room. Both rooms occupied privileged positions in the library space being situated on the floors of the bevelled wing where the main entrance was and to which the architects accorded major importance in the general structure.
332 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
fig.10. – The conference room.
The conference room was housed by a rectangular space (19.4 x 1.0 m) ended in two semicircular spaces. This form resulted from the role of the wing that contained it and which gave to the interior space a specific particularity. The room had a capacity of approx. 120 seats. The chairs were upholstered, had tip-up seats1 and they were placed in such way to receive the light from the left. The speakers had a podium on which there were two conference tables. As there were shutters on the windows and a retractable screen was placed behind the podium it was possible to project films. The exhibition room had the same form and dimensions as the conference room and it occupied a similar space on the second floor. According to the photographic material it hardly resembled the present day image of an exhibition hall, as it had heavy furniture difficult to move. This suggests that at that time flexibility was not a priority for an exhibition space.
• The administration offices As the University and Transylvanian Museum Library was under the administrative authority of the University Board (Egyetemi Tanács), it lacked the administrative services of an independent
1 The furniture of the conference room has been preserved almost intact till now. The upholstered chairs were arranged in four groups of 28 seats (7 rows with 4 seats each) separated by passages. The rows of chairs were fixed to the floor.
333 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 institution. Such tasks were performed by the administrative structure of the University. This is indicated by the absence of the rooms with such a role from the plans. However, a few offices figured in the scheme intended for the use of the library management and the scientific personnel (librarians and archivists), and there was also a council room. The director’s office (5.37 x 5.28 m) with its antechamber (5.18 x 7.7 m) occupied the western extremity of the ground floor. It was not accidentally placed here; we may remember that in its immediate vicinity, according to the execution plan, a wing should have been built containing the living quarters of the managerial staff, but this part of the plan had been abandoned. This office actually consisted of three rooms1 and an antechamber where the management secretariat functioned and which was connected to the council room. The deputy director’s office was a two-chambered space situated on the ground floor on the right of the main circulation point. The plan contained an outer space for receiving and for discussions (3.6 x 7.0 m) and four steps higher a working recess (5.3 x 3.2) with an arched window looking to the vestibule of the library. The two spaces were separated by a wooden parapet, actually forming a single very comfortable interior. The council room seemed rather large at first sight compared with the other rooms of the library. This can be explained if we consider that the Permanent Library Board (Könyvtári Állandó Bizottság)2 used to assemble here. This was a rather large administrative committee as the library was subordinated both to the University and the Transylvanian Museum Society.3 This assembly room was rectangular (11.77 x 7.0 m) and occupied the middle of the southern wing. It was in the immediate vicinity of the director’s antechamber to which it was connected by a door. Its main piece of furniture was an imposing rectangular wooden table covered with a green cloth having seats for 23 persons around it. Later on the function of the room changed being today the Professors’ reading room. After a century from the inauguration of the library this space has almost the initial image and furniture, some modifications however being made because of its change of function.
1 The director’s office had a separate lavatory and a closet for the safe. 2 The Permanent Library Board functioned under the presidency of the prorector of the University and it was subordinated to the University Board. 3 The library had a patrimony formed of the collections of the University and the Transylvanian Museum.
334 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
fig. 11. – The council room.
• The auxiliary rooms In these rooms the activities connected with the processing, handling and maintenance of the materials from the book stacks and library archives took place. These activities had to be hidden away so that they should not disturb the readers. The first activity was a primary processing of the new publications. These came in to the new books room situated on the eastern side of the ground floor. Here the newly arrived material was distributed to the different processing rooms situated on different floors; in each one some specific thematic processing activity (carding and cataloguing) was done according to the criteria of librarianship at that time. This is why in these rooms the basic pieces of furniture were the open bookstands with closely placed shelves where the material waiting for bibliographical processing was kept according to different criteria. The titles came into and left the library through the packing workshop situated in the semi-basement, sharing its two rooms with the bookbindery. The role of these two functional units was to recondition the library materials, which meant in that age the preservation of the physical integrity of the books. In the unseen area of the institution there was an entire “army” of book handlers – the backbone of any “closed library” – who transported the books from the general stacks to the readers in the reading rooms and back. In the modern libraries of the age there were also
335 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 mechanisms for book transportation,1 but these only helped the handlers’ activity and did not substitute it. Korb and Giergl created for them on the ground floor a rather large handlers’ room where they had fixed work stations too. The books went through this room before they were sent back to the stacks. Their condition was checked here and they were sent to reconditioning, if it was the case. As this room was situated on a strategic position, next to the eastern staircase of the general stacks the book handlers could easily access the collection, which they checked periodically in order to keep it in the best condition. In the library scheme there were also some auxiliary rooms with technical functions (furnace room, boiler room, fuel store etc.) and some that were not directly connected with the basic activities of the institution – lavatories, cleaners’ room, electric apparatus workshop, the stoker’s room, the porter’s flat etc.). I have not dwelt on them as they had no specific import in the functional plans and their space had no significant architectural relevance.
• The circulatory spaces Due to their function and public character there were two basic circulation flows in the libraries: one the readers and the other the books. The spaces that were intended for the library users had an accentuated public character being large spaces abundantly decorated. These were among the most representative library spaces contributing greatly to the image of the institution. The spaces intended for the book flow were more “discrete” and exclusivist, the aim being to solve logically and functionally the circulation of books and of the handling personnel between the stacks and the reading rooms. Having entered the library building under the portal of the main entrance and having crossed the porch the public reached the vestibule, a true intersection of the readers’ flow. It was the main space intended for receiving the public and the place where the readers decided which of the three possible directions to follow. The first direction followed the main compositional axis of the plan, leading the public along the main flow towards the main reading room and the principal functions of the library. The two other directions were secondary (corresponding to the lateral wings of the plan) and led towards the popular library and its annexes (through the left portal) or towards the annexes of the semi-basement (through the right portal).
1 Conveyor belts, special lifts and sometimes pneumatic post.
336 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Situated on an intermediary level between the semi-basement and the ground floor, the space of the vestibule had also an essential role in taking over some level differences.1 This is why its space was animated by three groups of stairs corresponding to the main directions of circulation. The central staircase ascended to the ground floor of the building and the two lateral ones descended to the semi-basement. Their presence conferred to the vestibule a remarkable spatial dynamism, though the surface was moderate (20.6 x 6.7 m), expressing very well its function of distributing the circulation. Its form resulted from the combination in the plan of a rectangle (13/6 x 6.7 m) and two semicircles (with a radius of 3.5 m). The plan of the vestibule was identical with those of the spaces situated above it: the council room on the first floor and the exhibition room on the second floor. The vestibule and the hall of the ground floor were connected with an ascending staircase2 situated on the main axis,3 which made possible the uninterrupted passage from one space to the other ensuring continuity and provoking an increased spatial impression. The level difference between the vestibule and the ground floor (1.65 m) suggested the idea that the persons ascending the stairs were going on a sacred path, which ascended towards the sanctuary of books. This cliché was often used in the interior architecture of the libraries in that age.
1 The reference height ±0.00 was before the library entrance. The vestibule had its central area at +0.75 and the lateral ones at -0.30 from where the way led to the semi-basement situated at -1.00. From the central space of the vestibule one could also ascend to the ground floor situated at +2.40. 2 In the execution plan it was 1.8 m wide and had 11 steps, which made the connection between the height of +0.75 of the vestibule and the height of +2.40 of the ground floor. 3 The main axis was defined by the bisector of the right angle enclosed by the wings from Arany János (Lucian Blaga) Square and Mikó (Clinicilor) Street. In the plan this axis was occupied by: the porch, the vestibule, the ground floor hall, the catalogue room, the librarians’ desk and the main reading room.
337 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
fig. 12. – The vestibule of the library, the staircase ascending towards the hall of the ground floor.
The hall of the ground floor had also been conceived as an intersection of the circulation of the visitors who entered the inner library spaces. Irrespective of the course they followed having used the cloakroom (divided in two parts, which flanked the main access to the ground floor) they went on towards the ground floor functions or they ascended to the upper floors of the building towards the collections of the Transylvanian Museum. The planimetric and spatial configuration of this nucleus (main access, the two cloakrooms associated with the main stairs) was remarkable by its modernity, which resulted from the plan punctuated freely by the balustrades of the staircase and the pillars of the supporting structure.1 The characteristic elements of this area2 were the two main stairs, which were the central circulatory areas. They had been positioned in two symmetrical recesses3 of the bevelled wing, flanking the main axis
1 Later on a series of modifications was effectuated resulting from other ideas. The cloakrooms were moved to the semi-basement being thus removed from the main flow. The space of the ground floor hall was fragmented by some glass walls, which eliminated completely the effects of spatial continuity created by Korb and Griegl. 2 The area of circulation spaces. 3 The recesses (6.91 x 4.00 m) had rounded corners imposing this form to the main elements of the stairs.
338 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 and imposing on those who mounted ascending paths oriented towards the axis of the building. The staircases connected the ground floor with the first and the second floor on a level height of 5.12 m, each of them consisting of three flights (1.5 m wide) and two landings, containing altogether 32 steps (16 cm high and 35 cm wide). Each staircase began with a starting section (three stairs on the ground floor and two on the first floor) widened in comparison with the flight. These initial steps were planned to be rounded, but finally they were made polygonal. The nosing of the steps was protected by brass profiles and they were equipped with brass rods for fixing the non-skidding carpets. From a spatial point of view the area of the main stairs had an open and free atmosphere thanks to the slim structural elements (pillars, flights, balustrades etc.) that let the natural light in freely. By connecting the space of the main stairs with the halls on each floor and the corridors of the straight wings an ample interior had been created, characterised, first of all, by an ample vertical and horizontal continuity of the space. The expressivity of the main stairs was greatly enriched by the metallic balustrade made (by soldering and riveting) of square profiles, platbands and plates of different size according to a strict pattern. The rigorous lacework of the balustrade formed an advantageous contrast with the simple and moderate decoration of the walls, pillars and ceilings, introducing a tone of preciosity to the atmosphere of the place. Korb and Giergl devised and created a circulation system with generous dimensions, well configured and well illuminated, which made possible for the visitors to orientate themselves rapidly in the space of the library. The circulation plan was very clear: the main stairs and the halls on the different floors were situated in the centre of the composition, on the main axis. From here two corridors started on each floor in two symmetrical directions that corresponded to the lateral wings. At the end of these corridors there were closed staircases containing the secondary stairs. The secondary circulation in vertical direction was ensured by two stairs of service situated at the end of the main corridors. They were named the “second staircase – II. lépcső”, which marked their secondary importance in the functional scheme of the library. They were not identical. The stair situated on the left of the composition, at the end of the Mikó Street wing had a more important role connecting all the library levels from the semi-basement to the garret. The stair on the right only connected the second floor with the garret. Both stairs were closed into semi-polygonal staircases and had balanced flights.
339 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Finally, we must mention the two stairs of the general book stacks, which being positioned at the end of the stacks wing, ensured the personnel’s circulation between the different storing levels and made the connection with the other parts of the library. They were associated with some special lifts, which occupied the empty space between the flights: the lift for book carts at the eastern stairs and the paternoster at the western one.
The elements of architectural language Flóris Nándor Korb and Kálmán Giergl belonged to a generation of architects from Budapest, who, in accordance with the trends of the age, expressed themselves in a Historicist manner, however not refusing some Secessionist experiments. The most important buildings planned by them in Budapest, the Klotild Palaces 1900–1901, the Király Block of Flats 1902 and the Academy of Music 1904–1907 showed an inclination to Neoclassicism and Neo-Baroque motives (Korb preferred these styles) combined with Secessionist and Hungarian Secessionist elements probably introduced by Giergl. He seemed to be eager for innovative experiments forming thus a perfect pair with his more conservative partner. In the case of the library from Cluj the two architects adopted a version of Secessionism – Eclectic Secessionism –, which combined Historicist and Secessionist elements, obtaining a stylistic vocabulary coloured by Neo-baroque elements. Such a synthesis was possible because the Central European Art Nouveau “developed within the baroque model, being more closely related to Historicism, than the parallel movements from France, England or Belgium.”1 Some even considered that Secessionism was not an innovative movement, but rather an apogee of the neo-styles which managed to keep up with the fashion of the age. In the Habsburg Empire a synthetic version of the “art nouveau” style had developed, which became a real “international style” of the Empire in the course of time. The architects with a historicist grounding could easily assimilate and adopt to this the elements of the “new orthodoxy”.2
1 Ákos Moravánszky, Competing Vision. Aesthetic Invention and Social Imagination in Central European Architecture, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1998, p. 112. 2 Ibid., p. 118.
340 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
• Façades between Neo-Baroque and Secessionism The comparative reading of the different graphic sources (especially the façades of the competition plan) and of the actual façades of the library, led me to the conclusion that the architectural language of the façades had been continually simplified by giving up some of the elements. Especially the baroque elements (the embossing of the ground floor and of the bevelled volume of the entrance, the frontons above the main cornice and the statuary groups) had been eliminated from the drawing of the façades. They had been replaced with simplified secessionist elements. It is hard to tell the reasons that led to the simplification of the façades. The possible suppositions I grouped in two versions. The first supposition is based on the hypothesis that the project or its execution exceeded the sum allocated by the ministry and to finish the investment severe economies were needed. This may explain why important parts of the execution project (the living quarters’ wing and the reading rooms on the second floor of the curved wings) were not realized. Such drastic measures suggest that the financing of the project was in a critical situation and the economies that had been imposed could not leave the elements of the architectural language unaltered, which were, as they are nowadays, extremely vulnerable when economies were necessary. The second supposition is based on the artists’ tendency to “keep up with fashion”. The architects, after the unhappy incident at the Academy of Music in Budapest,1 tried to “take revenge” on the same beneficiary by concealing a Secessionist variant under a project dominated by Neo-baroque elements. The language of the façades with which they had won the competition mixed the baroque and Secessionist elements in a manner that could be named Eclectic Secessionism. Taking advantage of the more reduced vigilance of the ministry in the provinces, Korb and Giergl had redrawn many baroque details in a Secessionist manner having the complicity of their representative at the building site, the young architect, Géza Kappéter, follower of a late Secessionism, which prefigured the later “Art Deco”. Thus the balance tipped, after all, towards Secessionism more than in the façades of the winning variant. The urban image of the library was sustained by three street façades corresponding to the main wings of the composition. The most
1 At the Academy of Music (Zeneakadémia) from Budapest, 1904–1907, Korb and Giergl, who had won the competition held in 1902 with a secessionist variant, had been obliged by the Ministry of Education to give up the Secessionist language of the façades and to adopt a Neo-baroque variant.
341 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 important of these was the façade of the bevelled building part, because it was the main element of the composition and the most visible in that urban space. The façade of this wing suffered the most spectacular evolution during the elaboration of the project and the execution of the building.
fig. 13. – The façade looking towards the Saint George (Lucian Blaga) Square.
The first façade versions of the bevelled wing presented at the two phases of the competition showed a typically baroque composition. The decorative language accentuated the entire façade with layers of brick organized around a central bay corresponding to the main axis of the composition. The mentioned bay was marked by the portal of the main entrance and was flanked by two pilasters, which sustained, above the level of the cornice, two allegorical female statues. The baroque character of the façade was strongly sustained by the roof broken by a much decorated intermediary moulding. However, in the drawing of this façade there were also Secessionist elements introduced to the baroque composition. First of all the gaps of the central bay according to their dimensions, form and the division of the woodwork belonged to Secessionism. Besides these there was the decorated arch above the field of the fronton, which reminded one of some elements used by Otto Wagner in the interior of the banking hall of the Post Office Savings Bank in Vienna.
342 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The final version of the façade differs much from that which appeared in the competition project and it is impossible to date the modifications because the execution project is missing from the library archives. The present day image maintains very few of the initial baroque elements, which were replaced totally or received a simplified outline with a Secessionist tinge. The most significant modification was, in my opinion, the general application of a veneer of clinker brick,1 which replaced the exterior plaster and generated a surface with ceramic decoration in Secessionist spirit. The ceramic veneer was not a novelty, as at the turn of the century many architects preferred to cover the façades with clinker brick. In the case of our façade Korb and Giergl associated this veneer with stone and artificial stone elements (mouldings, frames, cornices etc.) obtaining a mixture of baroque and Secessionist elements. Clinker bricks of two different nuances (yellowish and red) had been used to create patterns that resembled Hungarian folk embroideries. On the ground floor the combination of the two shades generated horizontal bands, alternately coloured, suggesting the abandoned baroque layers of brick, while on the upper levels the pattern became more elaborate. The background of the façades was formed by fields of yellowish brick in which accents of red brick had been inserted. The pattern was more complicated above the moulding of the base of the first floor and under the main cornice where it looked like some piece of folk embroidery. A more particular model, based on the vertical succession of rhombuses, accentuated the pilasters which sustained the main cornice. The portal of the main entrance also suffered important modifications. It lost its abundant decoration and the two allegorical statues which crowned the pilasters flanking the entrance. When the decorative elements were deleted, other modifications in the image of the portal were made. The semicircular arch from above the gap of the entrance was relinquished and it became only a segmental arch in the execution. This is an important loss, which greatly altered the Secessionist expressivity of the portal from the project. In order to counterbalance the loss of expressivity resulted from the modifications of the portal the architects accentuated its width to 1.2 m and created on its
1 Clinker brick was obtained by vitrifying the ceramic material. The procedure consisted of the partial melting at a high temperature of a mixture and cooling it in order to obtain a compact and hard mass with a glassy aspect. (Cf. Lexicon de construcţii şi arhitectură (Lexicon of Constructions and Architecture), Technical Publishing House, Bucharest, 1988, vol. 1, p. 328.)
343 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 upper part a balcony corresponding to the conference room on the first floor. The only elements maintained from the initial drawing of the portal seem to be the socles with spheres and the embossed layers of stone, corresponding to the semi-basement, from the base of the portal pilasters. These elements remained because they formed a massive base for the portal and because of the expressivity of the spheres. To apply such spheres at the entrance was an architectural cliché of the time, the original role of the spheres being to protect the entrance from carriage wheels. The portal of the entrance had a much lesser and delicate baroque replica above. These two elements formed a whole, whose expressivity resulted mainly from the contrast of masses. This replica of the portal, because of its position, had the role of accentuating the gap of the central bay which corresponded to the conference room from the first floor. The little portal did not appear in the competition project; it must have appeared as a necessity to counterbalance the disappearance of the initial decorations of the great portal. The modifications made at the cornice and the fronton of the bevelled wing were among the most consistent operations regarding the replacement of the baroque architectural language with a Secessionist one. The pilasters with capitals, the enlarged cornices and the two allegorical female statues had been replaced by some Secessionist elements: a continuous and thinner cornice and a simplified fronton. The main piece of this fronton was a “cartouche”1 surrounded by typically Secessionist mouldings and fields of brick. Behind the fronton rose the impressive mass of the broken roof; its forms and dimensions dominated both the figure of the library and the neighbouring urban area. The roof was austere due to its massiveness and its simple form created by eliminating the baroque details during the execution, and also because it was covered with plates of grey slate. The present day image of the roof differs from that which had appeared in the competition project as a series of details were eliminated and a gazebo, a wooden turret recalling the medieval Transylvanian architecture was placed on top. I do not know why this element was introduced on the top of the roof, as it does not harmonize stylistically with the rest of the building. Any speculation regarding this subject is
1 The cartouches on the main frontons of the buildings were conceived in order to be inscribed upon them the official name of the institutions.
344 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 hazardous. What is certain is that from a functional point of view it has today the role of a deflector-illuminator, ensuring the airing and natural illumination of the garret. The expressivity of the bevelled wing façade was accentuated by the monumental scale of its composition and the enlarged roof. This roof in Korb’s and Giergl’s view had to dominate Arany János (Lucian Blaga) Square and had to be a significant focal point for the two streets which met in the square, Jókai (Napoca) Street coming from the east and Trefort (Victor Babeş) from the south. The prominence of the building was meant to express the importance and prestige of the institution. We must mention that these two architects had discovered the potential of the south-eastern corner of the emplacement already in the first phase of the competition and they adopted a solution which made the best use of the qualities of the site. The façades of the two wings corresponding to Arany János (Lucian Blaga) Square and Mikó (Clinicilor) Street were made symmetrical thus accentuating the importance of the bevelled articulation. In the whole composition, however, symmetry was disrupted by the presence of the book stacks wing and of the articulation which connected it to the lateral wing. The façades of the lateral building parts had a clear composition, each consisting of a central field flanked by two risalits of different dimensions which rose along the entire height of the building. The lateral central fields were the longest part of the lateral wings, comprising four lateral bays. The secondary façades, invisible from the street, were extremely modest, reflecting probably the economies imposed upon the planning and the execution, but also the mentalities of the architects who often ignored the rear of the buildings constructed in the provinces. I am referring in our case to the image of the main reading hall and of the curved wings. Their pattern based on a hybrid language associating fields of brick with fields of plaster was hardly expressive and they are not worthy of attention. However, a rhetorical question is inevitable: how could such talented architects as Korb and Giergl, assisted by their representative at the building site, the architect Kappéter, accept to project and realize so modest space and façades for one of the most important functions of the programme – the reading room? The exterior image of the general book stacks is a totally different situation. In this case some simple and very expressively designed façades had been created, based on windows of great dimensions, associated with fields of brick and horizontal and vertical
345 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 plaster bands. The bold adaptation of an architectural language inspired from “the architecture of 19th century industrial façades (brick pilasters on a plastered surface)”1 conferred to this wing, which had a relatively industrial function, a remarkable expressivity in conformity with its destination. The last contribution to the library building was the new book stacks, raised at the beginning of the ‘60s. The architect Sóvágó successfully integrated the new construction, placing it symmetrically with the old stacks, adopting an adequate volume and using decorative materials inspired from the first building.
• The interior decorative language The decorative language of the Cluj library is characterised by an amalgamation of styles, though with no coherence either between the exterior and interior of the building, or between the different interior spaces. This lack of stylistic consequence may be explained by the following reasons: economies imposed during the execution by the ministry; the provincialism of the building; and Korb’s and Giergl’s experiments who were going to acquire the decorative language of Secessionism. However, there is a common denominator of all the interior decorations: the fact that they did not conceal the supporting structure of the building, respecting thus one of the postulates of Secessionism. It was also common in the interior decorations that the ceramic elements were neutralized, in total contrast with the solution of the façades made of clinker bricks. A first decorative group was formed by the eclectic geometrized language of the vestibule, having also classicist and baroque elements. Here different profiles of plaster accentuated the arched beams of the structure, the pilasters corresponding to the arches and the framing of the different gaps. The most spectacular decorative units were the two lateral portals which framed the openings which ensured the access to the semi- basement of the library. They were plaster imitations of the geometrized scheme of baroque portals, having as main elements two symmetrical volutes associated with registers of meanders and dentils. The decoration of the vestibule was completed by four pairs of decorative stone2 parapets which flanked the main entrance and the lateral flights of steps. Initially, in the execution project they would have
1 Ákos Moravánsky, op. cit., p. 234. 2 It was probably limestone from Viştea, material traditionally used by the masons from Cluj.
346 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 had the role of socles for some decorative colonnettes. These had been given up, therefore they were made into parapets. The three pairs of parapets, which were maintained in the final version, were grouped in two different types according to their dimensions and complexity. The first pair was smaller and simpler; it flanked the stairs which mounted to the ground floor. The other two pairs, which framed the stairs descending to the semi-basement, were bigger and they had been realised by combining the first type with a massive balustrade supported by five profiled posts. By their dimensions and the proportions of their components the parapets gave an impression of robustness and stability amplified by the geometrized Secessionist pattern. In the entire building the vestibule was accorded the greatest attention in regards to the floor. Avoiding exaggerated costs the architects attempted to obtain an effect of chromatic contrast by combining the red marble of the steps with the mosaic floor. The mosaic applied in the vestibule associated decorative perimetrical mouldings with homogeneous fields by combining the colours grey (grey cement with aggregates of white marble) and black (cement and aggregates of black marble).
fig. 14. – The hall of the first floor.
The second decorative group was formed by the elements of the circulation spaces: halls, corridors and main stairs. Using a very simple language consisting of plaster profiles, the architects accentuated the
347 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 functionalist character of these spaces. The applied profiled bands valorised the pillars and the reinforced concrete beam-arches, while the square decorative motives accentuated the floors of the storeys. The most remarkable decorative element of the circulation areas was the metallic parapet of the main stairs which lightened the sombre and functional atmosphere of the halls and corridors with its lacework. The geometric pattern of the balustrade was specific to the last phase of Secessionism which foretold the later Art Deco. The parapet combined by soldering and riveting square tin plate profiles of different dimensions. To these were added little rectangular metallic plates each having a rhomb punched into it. The decorative language of the main reading room was quite different from the other interior spaces of the library, forming a third distinct decorative group. With relatively modest means, some plaster profiles, the architects intended to attenuate the massiveness of the constructive elements which covered the reading room. A great diversity of profiled mouldings, textured fields and various decorative “plates” were associated configuring an abundant decorative language which, however, remained discrete due to the flattened profiles. The expressivity of the interior spaces was also supported by the very different lighting present in the rooms. Their specificity resulted from the different functions of the architectural programme which required first of all good reading conditions. This is why in the reading rooms with a prolonged programme there were some simple tin plate table lamps, some of them are still to be found in the professors’ reading room (former council room). As these lamps evidently had a utilitarian character and they had to be resistant, their design was simple, lacking any kind of decoration. Among the lightings that have lasted to the present day there is a remarkable ceiling bracket with four arms and crystal baguettes to which a fifth arm is added, suspended to the end of some chains. By adjusting the length of these chains one could obtain different heights of illumination. Because it was adaptable this bracket was present in different library areas, mainly in public ones such as the vestibule and the conference room. The image of the bracket differs extremely depending on the length of the chain and because of this it is difficult to incorporate it into a stylistic unit. Nevertheless, the version with a long chain, which one can see in the vestibule nowadays, is incontestably a Secessionist device.
348 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The circulation spaces and the corridors were furnished with more robust and simpler ceiling brackets than the former ones. The light of the lamp bulbs being amplified by crystal baguettes, these lighting bodies offered a more reduced general illumination than that in the reading rooms. The utilitarian character of the brackets was mirrored by the simple design of a sombre elegance conferred by the contrast between the massiveness of the body and the delicacy of the transparent baguettes arranged around the lamp bulb. The lamp posts from the director’s office and anteroom belonged to the Franco-Belgian Art Nouveau. The elegance of this style had been considered the most adequate for the director’s representative space. The configuration of the lighting body was based on three light bulbs whose original lampshades disappeared. The bulbs were suspended with small consoles to a central ring of pressed tin plate, stylistically the most elaborated piece of the lamp post. The four lighting bodies mentioned in this study are among the few which survived the campaign of “modernization” from the beginning of the 1960s. They are important witnesses of the electric illumination technique and technology of the age.1 Their presence in the library spaces reminds that the furnishing of the library with electric illumination bodies represented a novelty for the city, the library being one of the first public buildings from Cluj to be connected to the public electric network.2
Equipment The “closed” libraries at the turn of the century presented the inconvenience of some long routes to be traversed from the general stacks to the reading rooms. In order that the readers should not wait for the publications too long, the libraries were furnished with different mechanical equipments for the transportation of books and periodicals. This machinery facilitated and accelerated the handling personnel’s work. At the Cluj library the system of lifts with winch (cable) was chosen. The lifts were moved by electric engines which operate even nowadays. They were placed into the stairwells from the end of the bars of the stacks, so they functioned in the strategic positions of the articulations which made the connection with the rest of the library spaces. The first lift transported the book carts and it was placed into the stairwell from the eastern end of the stacks. The dimensions of the cabin
1 This information has been given by the library personnel. 2 The building of the electric factory was begun in 1905 and public electric lighting was installed in the town centre of Cluj in 1906.
349 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 permitted the transportation of a cart without an attendant, making the connection with the library spaces from the main part of the building. The cabin functions in a shaft made of metallic profiles and wire netting which have not been greatly modified since the library inauguration in 1909. The book carts transported by the lift were made of wood and metallic profiles. Those that survived are even today remarkably easy to handle and have a reduced weight.1
fig. 15. – The book stacks, the book lift (paternoster) with the system for tipping out the books.
The second lift transported books, being a “paternoster”.2 It occupied the stairwell from the western end of the stacks, in the immediate vicinity of the main reading room. The books were transported by 24 little wooden cabins, left open and moving continuously but slowly. Each cabin-box transported one single book. These were loaded and unloaded while the cabins were moving by the personnel of the respective level. It was simpler to unload than to load them, as one had
1 The attempts made in the last 15 years to replace them with modern versions have failed due to the weak performance offered by the versions of some home producers (information from the library architect C. Trenea). 2 The “pater-noster” was a lift with several cabins on a winch functioning continuously but moving slowly (0.3m/s). It could transport either persons or materials and it was loaded and unloaded without being stopped.
350 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 only to tip the book out manually to an inclined wooden plane, from here this slid into a linen compartment of the unloading table. The evocative charm of the yet functioning equipment from the bookbindery is incontestable. An entire set of guillotines and presses of the most varied forms and dimensions, bearing visibly the brand of the Austrian-German firm “Krause” recalls the atmosphere of a hundred year old bookbindery which still functions in the same semi-basement room.
Conclusion It is quite evident that the University and Transylvanian Museum Library was a main cultural actor in Transylvania and Cluj. Taking over and developing continuously the heritage of the Transylvanian Museum Society, it contributed decisively to the modernization and intensification of the cultural life in the town. As a university institution it had an essential role in forming an image and some functions characteristic to a university town. This feature has been preserved uninterrupted for more than a century. From the point of view of urban planning the appearance of the library on the one side of Arany János (today Lucian Blaga) Square contributed to the configuration of a new urban area west of the town centre. In this area the Clinical Complex in 1888–1903 and the County Hall (the Prefect’s Office) in 1896–97 had already been built. The building of the library had also imposed a new vision regarding the reconfiguration of Arany János Square anticipating the transformation of this square into a modern urban space. Architecturally the realization of the library marks the application of the modern and complete architectural program of a university library for the first time in Cluj and Transylvania. The program was imported by attracting to Cluj some renowned librarians from Budapest who would elaborate the program theme, but also by organising a national architectural competition in which participated first class Hungarian architects of the age. The building, whose foundations were laid in the summer of 1906 and which was officially inaugurated on 18 May 1909, represented an economic variant of the architectural program due to financing difficulties. Consequently, some important parts from the execution project were abandoned and others were realized only in 1931–34.
351 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Remodelling a Library – Remodelling Mentalities
Luminiţa TOMUŢA “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: Library of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, remodelling process, open access system, computer databases, ACS Antitheft System, video supervision system
Abstract The paper presents the modernization process of the Library of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, a branch institution of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library. Having a rather deplorable situation (lack of funds, proper organization, library room etc.) for a starting point, the clever measures applied transformed this library into a modern and effective informative centre offering an agreeable environment for reading, well organized book collections, good electronic equipment and a well functioning safety system. Such a modernization process always requires results in changing people’s mentalities in some measure and it may be an example for further initiatives.
E-mail: [email protected]
This paper presents and analyzes the process in the course of which the Library of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, “Babeş-Bolyai” University, Cluj has been remodelled. This library is one of the Branch Libraries of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library. Consequently, the remodelling process demanded from the beginning that both institutions – having distinct profiles, orientations and even different institutional culture – should participate and work together. However, they were “closely related” as regards the lack of financial resources. Because of this, the library modernization project also required the involvement of some factors that could provide for these resources. Thus the idea occurred to try to obtain the financial assistance of the local government which might provide for a part of the funds necessary to our project. The fact that this process lasted for approximately four years convinced me that in our social-historical conditions such an initiative
352 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 represents more than the realization of some ameliorative municipal and technical modernization processes, but also an effort – in all the directions of all the institutions and persons involved in it – to remodel mentalities. In other words: an effort of pioneering and “setting” an example.
Initial state The Library of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports is a “branch” of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library in Cluj. It was established with the resources available in different moments without applying a well thought-out conception in accord with the specific methods of librarianship. In addition, the library space was unsuitable: a very small room that could be entered from a lecture room. Readers therefore also were not served well. As the institution had mainly served passively as a depository, on the one hand it was necessary to organize the publication collections according to modern librarianship principles – in order that the collection may develop permanently. On the other hand there was a need to make the library institution into a really attractive and stimulating space as regards the educational and socio-communal environment. These were the conditions when I took over this branch library eight years ago being determined to carry out its modernization.
The modernization project of the library 1. The first step, the first quite difficult task was to make the faculty directors realize the need to create a really modern library and to convince them to include this project in their investment priorities. 2. The next step was to find and obtain a space as adequate as possible and to project and realize/furnish an attractive environment from the point of view of the colour effect and functionality. Finding the necessary approval from the faculty leadership I obtained the necessary space. I furnished it completely: painting, parqueting, installing the adequate light and heat sources as well as supplying it with special furniture. From the beginning the project was structured upon some principles that I wanted to apply. All the elements and phases of the operations were subordinated to these: open access, databases of our own that could be accessed freely by the readers, Internet-connection – on the one hand for using the online catalogues and the databases of the Central University
353 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Library, on the other hand for free documentary search – and, finally, creation of an effective protective system. • Open access The entire book collection is placed on open access shelves. It is organized according to disciplines and within the disciplines chronologically. With this purpose all the books were given new shelfmarks. We used labels of different colours in order that the reader could orientate more easily when selecting the material for study. • Computer databases Meanwhile each book was registered into a database created with the help of the ProCite software. In this way searches can be made by any registration field. For indexing the thesaurus of descriptors was constituted – in collaboration with the Library of Physical Education and Sports Academy, Bucharest – which was registered in a card index of authorities and used in order to search for the information according to its content. • Internet connection and access to the databases of the Central University Library Another preoccupation in developing and modernizing the Library of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports was to offer to our readers access to Internet and at the same time to the Aleph database of the Central University Library. With this purpose in mind we obtained a connection to the server of the faculty and before long the connections that enabled the students to consult the OPAC of the Central University Library database were established. • The safety system Open access to the shelves implies the risk of theft. Direct supervision of the reading room being almost impossible because of other activities, I considered it necessary to start obtaining funds for the acquisition of an effective antitheft system. The library having no funds for its acquisition, I prepared a paper justifying the need to the Local Council of Cluj-Napoca, in which I invited the Council to participate with funds – along with the Central University Library and the “Babeş-Bolyai” University – in supplying our library with a modern protection system.
The protection system of the collection The collection’s protection system consists of the ACS Antitheft System and the video supervision system. The ACS Antitheft System (antenna control system) was described to us at that time (2001) as one of the few existing systems which have tags (adhesive bands containing a
354 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 metallic fibre magnetized or which can be magnetized) that can be attached to the back of the book. The system is constituted by: the system of antennas with controller (which must be placed at 5 m distance from any electronic or metallic mechanism), the activating/deactivating machine (which can inclusively be a barcode reader) and the sensor fibres (that is the tags). In this way the ACS systems minimize the risk of book theft. According to the brochure presenting the product a study made in the USA and Canada calculated that the acquisition costs of the ACS are recovered in approximately 18 months. But, besides effectively detecting the willingly or accidentally stolen books, the antennas, looking like gates – by their simple presence – discourage anyway the intention to steal the publications. The antennas must naturally cover the entire width of the exits. In order to achieve this there is the possibility to use two or three antennas connected to the same controller. If there is more than one exit, the controllers can be synchronized. Because of this one should plan where to place the antennas at the same time when projecting the library space taking into consideration the fact that radio waves are sensitive to electromagnetic dust. This latter is easily diffused on big or moving metallic surfaces. It is also extremely important that the antennas should be far from CRT monitors, light sources, metallic pipes (water, gas) and that electric power should be supplied by adequately grounded connectors. The system is equipped with the most modern technology, named DSP (Digital Signal Processing). This is actually a digital filter for sorting the necessary signals from the electromagnetic dust. (The system does not affect pacemakers.) When a theft is detected the antennas can block the doors and command the video camera positioned before them to start recording. The activator/deactivator is a machine that has the function to activate the tags attached on the publication when this is brought into the library and to deactivate the tags when the publication is carried out from the library space with the librarian’s consent. Tags are of different length. There are tags DSA and SSA (one or both sides having special adhesive). And there also are special tags for CDs, DVDs, audio or video cassettes.
355 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The video supervision system In order that an antitheft system may effectively protect the collections of a library it must be aided by a video supervision system. The basic functions of this system are: watching the library space, recording and storing images of it, searching and playing back recorded images. In this way the human resources at the library’s disposal can be used optimally. The cameras are of 0 lux. This means that they can work and see perfectly in the dark. They can be programmed to start functioning automatically when the image changes or to function between certain hours. If it is necessary, the acquisition plate disposes of entrances for each camera separately. The entrances are separately commanded by PIR movement detectors. Each camera channel can be configured separately or all the channels can be configured at the same time. The interface is constructed so that it can use approximately 90% of the camera moving controllers that exist on the market. Minimal requirements for the plate recording video images – selected from the producer’s user guide – are: H/W Requirements CPU Celeron – 2G Memory 256MB over Main Board Intel Chip Set compatible Hard Disk Drive 40G Video Card Resolution: 1024X768 Colour: True Colour (32bit) over Memory 32MB I mention that these are the minimal requirements. Here are some specifications of the video supervision system: • If a burglary or theft is detected, the images will be saved in minimal resolution and with a minimal number of frames/second in order to have enough space on the minimal hard. Because it is placed into a security system, the processor – when used in real time – will keep busy all resources until the valuable information is saved. • In order to decongest the system a CD writer is necessary, the hard disk working connected with the CD unit. It is also indicated to take into consideration the fact that the distribution of resources by using separate central units for the different applications makes necessary to use a separate computer for this application. In this way even if the system
356 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
fails, the other systems will remain functional. Windows XP 2000 is a suitable operation system for this. The programs used for visualization must be newer than 2000.
Conclusions From all these experiences conclusions of different kinds can be drawn. The most obvious conclusion seems to be an anthropological one: despite the immobility and the different difficulties that may occur related to material issues, organizations, institutions and mentalities, concentrated and permanent efforts have real chances to succeed. Therefore one can modify, improve and remodel institutions as well as mentalities. This conclusion is strengthened especially by the fact that such a remodelling process was successful in the case of the Library of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, a faculty that may not usually be known for its members’ intense and varied reading activity... This is why I think that the most important result of the modernization of this library may be that the students’ and teachers’ behaviour and habits regarding the use of the library radically changed. Thus the library became more than an informational “service point” used more and more frequently in these days. It became a space of meeting, of human and professional contact and communication for its readers. This, however, naturally means that the image of our branch library has been positively and radically modified as well. This new image may become popular in the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library and even outside this institution. The propagation of such an image may positively affect the so called organizational culture. The modification of this culture is all the more important as these library institutions are organizations subsidized mainly from the state budget. And this aspect favours immobility and “waiting” for the allocation... But examples and experiences – as the one presented and analyzed in this article – demonstrate at the same time the necessity and the possibility of autonomous and profitable initiatives. Consequently, although the specific function of libraries – to answer the readers’ information needs – remains the same, the means and services must be adapted to the new technologies, as well as to the new mentalities and the new requirements of the organizational culture. This improves the library image, renders the institution’s functioning more efficient and increases its social and human prestige.
357 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
2005: a New Approach to Branch Libraries
Gabriela MORĂRESCU “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: branch library, specialized library, Branch and Special Libraries Department
Abstract This study presents the changes which occurred as a consequence of the new organisational chart of the Central University Library adopted at the beginning of the year 2005 whereby branch libraries were incorporated. The paper presents the activity of this new department for the year 2005, focusing on the collections, rooms, personnel and electronic equipment of the branch libraries as well as the different activities performed by them.
E-mail: [email protected]
The permanent economic, socio-humanistic and political change which characterizes contemporary society at the beginning of this millennium makes necessary a change of function in modern organizations and institutions, inclusively in libraries. The method of total quality management which takes into consideration some principles (the 14 essential principles elaborated by E. J. Deming and adapted for libraries by Makey and Makey) would be a suitable solution for any institution confronted by a change. This method is used as “an instrument for exploring some new organizational and administrative possibilities starting out from the premise that the final result will lead to the restructuring of some organizational aspects.”1 Questions are asked regarding the role of libraries and librarians in the 21st century, taking into consideration that information is the key resource of these days and modern libraries use computerised
1 Irene Owens, Managementul calităţii totale, factor al schimbării: strategii pentru secolul XXI (The Management of Total Quality, the Factor of Change: Strategies for the XXI. Century), in Management for the future – Libraries and Archives, Hermina Anghelescu, István Király (eds.), Cluj-Napoca, University Press of Cluj, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, 2000, p. 55. (Bibliotheca Bibliologica, new series, 21).
358 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 technologies intensively. How will libraries look like in our country and in developed western countries in five or ten years? How and with what instruments will librarians work and what knowledge, skills and competences will they need in order to meet the new conditions? How will librarians be able to add value to the administered information in the most competent way? These are only some examples of such questions. A successful strategy for changing the librarian profession in the future would be to assume some new roles such as: crucial point between past and future, educator, administrator of knowledge, creator of information policies, filter of information sources, individual information consultant and producer of information. The necessity of change has been felt at the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library and at all its branch libraries too. The first stage of this change was the adoption of the new organisational chart of the Central University Library at the beginning of the year 2005. In this branch libraries were grouped in the same organizational unit. Each branch library functions according to the same principles. The personnel, the publications, and partly the computer technology belong to the Central University Library, while locations, furniture, a part of the computer technology and connection to the network belong to the “Babeş-Bolyai” University. A differentiation between these libraries can be made according to: – The localization and organization of reading rooms: these are old buildings having rooms with or without a service desk and new rooms specially furnished for modern library needs, with open access to publications. – The number and information needs of specific users: lower year students prefer to study the publications at home, except at examination sessions, while teachers, researchers, PhD, masters or higher year students prefer to study the publications in the reading rooms (usually scientific serial publications) or in their personal offices. This latter group also prefers the access to electronic information. (Because of this it is necessary to create some modern library instruments and to ensure an access station to the Internet and the databases the Central University Library is subscribed to.) In the present paper I shall analyze the activities of the libraries belonging to the newly created Department for the year 2005 by interpreting the data received from each branch library apart. As the library activities in these branch institutions are greatly varied and complex, I have fixed and followed some primary indicators. These will
359 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 make it possible to analyze realistically the development of activities and services from these libraries from the point of view of both quantity and quality in the following years as well. These indicators are: − the collection of publications existing on 31. December 2004. (the situation from the RMF register); − the real increase of the publication collection in 2005 (only the books and periodicals with inventory number for 2005, processed until 31. December 2005.); − the origin of these publications; − the circulation of documents and the readers’ statistics for the year 2005. The data received from the branch libraries have been processed and interpreted, having as results some comparative reports (presented in the graphical annexes) and some conclusions and proposals for improving and making more efficient the library activities and services.
I. The presentation of the Department
1.1. Component libraries and library staff The Branch and Special Libraries Department consists of three services and two offices: Social Sciences Service, Natural Sciences Service, Philology Service, Exact Sciences Office and Special Libraries Office. In the year 2005 this Department comprised 25 libraries (24 in Cluj-Napoca and 1 in Gheorgheni, Hargita county), the Environmental Sciences branch library being newly established at the beginning of the year 2005. These services and offices comprise several libraries specialized on related fields of study and are directed by the service and office chiefs who are the members of the Central University Library operational management. The structure of these departments can be comprised in the following diagram:
360 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Branch and Specialised Libraries
Social Natural Special Philology Exact Sciences Sciences Libraries Sciences
Modern history Zoology British Library Reference room Mathematics Ancient history Animal American Studies Romanian–Hungarian Physics Philosophy physiology German Library Department Chemistry Sociology Plant Jewish Studies Hungarian literature Astronomy Pedagogy physiology European Studies Romance languages Law Botany Political Sciences Germanic languages Economic Geography Physical education Periodicals Department Sciences Geology Loan Department Environmental Spanish Sciences The personnel of the branch and specialised libraries occupy 74 posts in the Central University Library staff structure. These librarians have superior studies in librarianship (long-range or/and short range studies), superior studies in the domain their library is specialised on or secondary studies and a librarianship certificate. There is also a book handler post (at Philology). Two posts are occupied by colleagues who work in special libraries (British Library and German Library) patronised by other institutions (the British Council and the German Cultural Centre), which signed an agreement of collaboration with the Central University Library in this respect. As regards the staff of the branch libraries we must also mention that we have collaborators, employees of the “Babeş-Bolyai” University or of the Research Institutes of the Romanian Academy in some of the affiliate institutions: 1 person in Modern History Library, 1 in Ancient History Library, 1 in Sociology Library and 1 in Political Sciences Library. Because some librarians were on leave (maternity, study or sick leaves) there were some changes and fluctuations of personnel, the employees on leave being substituted with librarianship students.
361 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
1.2. Reading rooms and book stacks; users All the branch libraries serve the faculties of the “Babeş-Bolyai” University and function in rooms administered by these in 24 buildings. The libraries occupy approximately 4,958 m2 (2700 m2 occupied by reading rooms and 2258 m2 by book stacks) in these buildings. 22,603 linear meters are destined to store the publications in these libraries (in this number the linear meters from the stacks of the Central University Library are also included). The number of reading rooms had increased to 45 by the end of the year 2005, while the number of seats reached 1,329. The Mathematics Library functioned in the year 2005 in a new location (in Ploieşti Street). This is a more functional room than the one the library occupied until 2004, however, some modifications have been still necessary in order to optimise the public relations activities (creating open access reading rooms). The new Environmental Sciences branch library was housed in a building belonging to the “Babeş-Bolyai” University on Ştefan cel Mare Square. At first the library had only one room (with closed bookcases) for storing the publications, but we suppose that as the number of publications increases, it will receive further rooms for book stacks from the Faculty. The rooms with special libraries function have usually modern furniture and the readers have open access to the publications. Unfortunately, there are not enough seats for the great number of users in the reading rooms, the cloakrooms are not well furnished, and only in the Physical Education Library exists an antitheft system that ensures the safety of the publications. In this year the Ancient History library room was renovated and furnished anew (this activity lasted for four months). On this occasion the library collections, the book stacks and the reading rooms of this library were reorganized. The branch libraries users are, according to the Internal Regulations of the Central University Library, all those persons who are registered for the Central University Library and possess a Reader Pass the validity of which is confirmed and verifiable in the Circulation module of the integrated Aleph library system. In general, the libraries belonging to this Department are mainly used by the students, teachers and researchers of the “Babeş-Bolyai” University. In the year 2005 4,011 Reader Passes were issued (141 of them being duplicates) and 7,728 Passes issued in previous years were renewed in the branch libraries.
362 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
If the registration of the new users has been fragmented until this year, the plastic covers for the Reader Passes being made in the Central University Library and in the Philology Library, this activity can be done in other branch libraries as well beginning with the university year 2005– 2006, since some new machines were purchased for making the covers. In order to orientate the first year students of the University towards the services offered by the Central University Library and its branch institutions more efficiently, a new registration method was proposed. Unfortunately, the University did not support this plan. As its support is absolutely necessary for the efficiency of this activity, this proposal to the Rector’s Office of the University will be renewed in the year 2006. The program dealing with the users’ instruction and information will have to work in a more organized manner in branch libraries as well, in parallel with and according to the same principles which are applied in the Central University Library.
1.3. The activities and services of branch libraries In each branch library there are permanent activities (special activities of library technique, public relations activities, offering bibliographical and documentary information) and periodic activities (inventories, reorganizations and/or moving collections, sanitization activities etc.). The publications used in the reading rooms or lent are served from closed stacks or they are kept in an open access regime (in the case of the Special Libraries Office, the Periodicals Room of the Law Library and the Reference Room of the Philology Library). In the following chapter the activities and services offered by branch libraries in 2005 will be detailed and analysed according to the primary indicators mentioned above.
II. The analysis of the Department’s activity
2.1. Collection of publications existing on 31. December 2004. The collections existing in the branch libraries at the end of the year 2004 comprised 996,727 volumes: 790,871 books, 153,414 periodical publications and 52,442 other categories of documents (STAS- s, microfiches, maps, audio-video materials). Surveying the distribution of these collections to the branch libraries, one can observe the “supremacy” of the Philology (most of the
363 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 publications are books). This fact is due to the existence of a single administration for all the sections of this service. The Jewish Studies Library and the Library of the College from Gheorgheni (extension of the Faculty of Geography) had the smallest collections at the end of the year 2004. However, there were a great number of publications in the custody of these libraries from the “Dr. Moshe Carmilly-Weinberger” Institute of Jewish Studies and Hebrew History, respectively from the College from Gheorgheni (donations received directly). There are publications of the Research Institutions of the Romanian Academy in other branch libraries as well (Modern History, Ancient History, Philology). The libraries of Mathematics, Chemistry and Economic Sciences have the second largest collections among the branch libraries after the Philology Library. In the Library of Mathematics most of the publications are books, but there is also a significant number of periodicals, while the Economic Sciences Library contains mainly books. In the Chemistry Library there are many documents of other type (STAS-s), almost equal in number with the books. On the whole, the Special Libraries Office has the smallest collection in the Department (3.17% of the branch library collections), being followed by the libraries of Natural Sciences (19.48%), Exact Sciences (22.63%) and Social Sciences (23.44%).
Collections distribution on 31. Dec. 2004.
Astronomy A. Hist. Physics 1.80% 3.65% Philosophy 3.67% Chemistry 2.05% Mathematics M. Hist. Sociology 8.37% 8.79% 3.81% 0.46% Pedagogy 2.69% Law 4.75% Philolology 31.58% Ec. Sc. 6.03% Zoology Physical 4.34% Education Plant Geol. Geogr. Physiol. 0.74% An. Physiology 3.92% 3.70% 3.74% 1.13% Pol. Sc. 0.67% European St. Gheorghieni 0.73% 0.07%
Jewish St. Amer. St. Environ. Sc. Botany 0.03% 1% 0.00% 2,58%
364 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
2.2. Collection increase; The publications in the on-line catalogue Although many publications (reflected in each librarian’s personal activity) were processed during the year 2005, until 31 December, the publications which entered the Acquisition Service appeared only later on the shelves of the branch libraries. Because of this the real increase of the collections can be seen if one surveys the publications that received an inventory number in the year 2005. Thus the branch library collections increased with 8,059 titles (6,423 book titles and 1,636 periodical titles), represented by a total number of 12,662 volumes (8,417 volumes of books and 4,245 volumes of periodicals). There is a difference between the collection increase of the different branch libraries in the period 1st January–31st December 2005, more publications entering the socio-human branch libraries in general. Thus, if we compare the five branch library services, the following situation can be observed:
Publication titles Publication volumes
Social Sciences: 2,698 4,437 Natural Sciences: 1,149 2,285 Special Libraries: 961 1,379 Philology: 2,304 3,039 Exact Sciences: 947 1,522
The conclusion may be drawn from this data that a better collaboration with the Acquisition Service of the Natural and Exact Sciences branch libraries is necessary in order to purchase publications in these domains. The first step for making this collaboration more efficient was taken in autumn 2005. Inquiries were made which publications were to be purchased from the publication funds received for Legal Deposit. The University teaching staff were questioned once again as well, which foreign publications were considered necessary by them. A part of these publications already entered the branch library collections at the beginning of the year 2006. At the end of the year 2005 the 91,406 titles described in the on- line catalogue of the Central University Library represented also a part of the publications existing at one or more branch libraries. The best represented collection in the on-line catalogue was that of the Philology Library (44,063 records in Aleph). The least represented
365 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 was that of the Jewish Studies Library (18 records) where there were technical problems with the electronic communication network for a long time. In order to exploit the Aleph integrated library system efficiently in the loan activity, the users must find the publication records in the on- line catalogue; the catalogue indicates the available exemplars from each library of the Central University Library network. To this effect, in 2005, clear criteria were established for the retro-conversion of the publications in the on-line catalogue. Cataloguing and ITEMS attribution activities were performed at all branch libraries according to these criteria. This happened to a lesser degree in those libraries (Jewish Studies, Political Studies, Botany, Gheorgheni) where there were and still are technical difficulties. The personal activity reports indicate a high number of catalogued titles in Aleph in the Philology Library (9,536 titles) and a high number of ITEMS attributions in the libraries of: Economic Sciences (9,075), Philology (3,000), Sociology (2,397), Chemistry (3,953), Mathematics (1,354) and Physics (1,408). Totally 150,290 ITEMS attributions were made till the end of the year 2005 in the analyzed branch libraries. Some of the branch libraries had pursued this activity since 2004; some of them even succeeded in starting a computerized loan service (Zoology: 300 computerized loans were reported for October– December 2005). The situation was the best from this point of view in the Environmental Sciences Library where the processing of publications as well as loan activities had been computerized from the beginning.
2.3. The origin of the newly entered publications Regarding the publications which received the inventory number until December 2005 (the real increase of the collections for that year) I processed the data taking into consideration their origin as well: buying, Central University Library copy workshop, transfers in the Central University Library network, international exchange, different donations; in the case of periodicals subscription to Romanian and foreign publications. Only a few publications originate from the copy workshop. The number of transferred books is relevant only in the case of the Sociology, Environmental Sciences, Philosophy and Modern History branch libraries, while that of transferred periodicals is significant in the case of the Sociology Library.
366 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Looking more closely at the three ways of purchasing the publications from the branch libraries, one can observe that donations are predominant, being followed by buying (in the case of books) and by international exchange (in the case of periodical publications).
2.3.1. Books A more or less balanced situation was to be found in the Economic Sciences Library with regard to the three main acquisition forms of the book titles newly entered in the inventory in the year 2005: 106 titles bought, 131 titles donated, 93 obtained through international exchange. Donations predominated in the case of many branch libraries (in the Philology, European Studies, Political Sciences, Mathematics libraries), many titles being obtained by buying and international exchange as well. More publications were bought than donated at the libraries of Modern History, Philosophy, Pedagogy, Law, Gheorgheni and Jewish Studies. There were no donations in the case of the Ancient History Library (the situation being due to the reorganization of the library room). The greatest number of books were bought in the Philology Library (567 titles), while the smallest number in the American Library (1 title). A remarkable number of publications were received through international exchange in the following libraries: Economic Sciences, Law, Mathematics, Philology, Geology, Sociology and Physics.
2.3.2. Periodical publications With regard to the origin of the new periodical publications, most of them entered the libraries through international exchange, the libraries of Gheorgheni, Astronomy, Physical Education, Animal Physiology, European Studies and Sociology making an exception. The American Library received titles only through international exchange, while the Mathematics, Geology, Botany (direct international exchange with the publication Contributions to Botany), Political Sciences and Zoology libraries titles with such origin were evidently predominant. A remarkable number of books were bought by the Philology, Ancient and Modern History libraries. The number of Romanian periodicals purchased through subscription was more or less equal to the number of those that entered through international exchange in the Economic Sciences Library. Many Romanian periodicals were subscribed to by the libraries of Philology, Law, Mathematics, Zoology, Geography and European Studies. No titles
367 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 were subscribed by the following libraries: Ancient History, Plant Physiology, Gheorgheni, Geography, Geology, Environmental Sciences, American Library and Political Sciences. The greatest number of foreign periodical titles was subscribed to by the Philology and Law libraries (where the Faculty helped to finance the subscriptions). The other branch institutions purchased by subscription only a small number of foreign periodical publications or no titles at all. Comparing the number of book and periodical titles which entered the libraries and were processed by them in 2005, one can observe that: only book titles entered the library in Gheorgheni; the percentage was balanced in the case of the Zoology and Botany libraries; while in the other institutions the percentage of book titles was greater. The situation is different if one compares the number of book and periodical volumes that entered the libraries and were processed by them in 2005. This is due to the fact that different numbers of bibliographic volumes were entered for one periodical title. In the year 2005 the Central University Library continued to subscribe to some databases which could be consulted on the computers belonging to the network of the “Babeş-Bolyai” University. A campaign was organized to present these databases (ProQuest and Springer Link) to the teaching staff and the students. The librarians of the branch institutions were instructed to use these databases in order that they themselves could teach the users interested in this service. The Springer publishing house also offered us a database of electronic books. Since the teaching staff required it, this database was also purchased at the beginning of this year. We wish to continue purchasing these categories of documents in the future as well. It is necessary to increase the library collections, and first of all to purchase more publications from the Romanian editorial market, especially in the domains of natural sciences and exact sciences. The collaboration with the teaching staff must focus on the indication and acquisition of the publications edited by them. These publications could be offered for international exchange, along with the series of the periodical Studia. The collections administered by the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library will be substantially increased if we manage to attract donations from the teaching staff, different Romanian and foreign institutions collaborating directly with the faculties of the “Babeş-Bolyai”
368 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
University, as well as different representatives of the Romanian cultural and scientific life.
2.4. The circulation of documents In order to give an account of the circulation of documents, I have processed the data obtained from each branch library separately. These data should have been collected uniformly and according to the same criteria. They should have corresponded to the data given to the Central University Library for numeration. These data reveal that 761,850 volumes (572,682 in the reading rooms and 189,168 at home) were used by 402,118 readers (282,056 used the materials in the reading rooms and 120,062 borrowed them) in the branch library collections in the year 2005. These data, however, are different from those calculated in the Central University Library, as some of the data were inattentively compiled, incorrectly transmitted or erroneously calculated. The correctness of data will be beyond doubt only when document transactions will be computerized. Until then the registration methods of these transactions must be revised. We must differentiate between the activities with the public in the reading rooms functioning in an open access system and the activities in those library sections where the books are kept in closed stacks. Attention must also be paid to statistics. In this chapter I have interpreted the data referring to the volumes used by the readers in the reading rooms and at home, the number of users who frequented the reading rooms and used the publications there and of those who borrowed them. It can be observed which branch libraries had exceptionally frequent activity with the users. The materials were predominantly consulted in the reading rooms (values between 29,500 and 99,000 volumes) in the libraries of Philology, Law, Modern History, Pedagogy, Geography and Economic Sciences. Here there is a need to revise the way in which publications are delivered from the closed stacks or these rooms must be reorganized into an open access system. This system would require less effort from librarians, at least physically. Anyway, such a reorganization could be possible in the year 2006 due to some renovation works (Geography Library) or the moving of some libraries (Modern History, Pedagogy, Economic Sciences). Generally, a greater percent of the publications was consulted in the reading rooms. In the Animal Physiology Library the percentage of
369 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 the publications used in the reading room and that of the borrowed ones was balanced. Loan activity being relatively uniform in the branch libraries, it can be a good criterion for a comparison between these institutions. When the loan activity will be computerized, librarians will have to accord much less time to it.
Statistica circulatie
8,00 vol/cititori 7,50 vol/cititor in salile de lectura 7,00 vol/cititor la domiciliu 6,50 6,00 5,50 5,00 4,50 4,00 3,50
indici specifici 3,00 2,50 2,00 1,50 1,00 0,50 0,00 ISTM ISTV FILOSSOCAPED DREPEC ZOOL FIZANFIZPL BOT GEOGGHEOGEOLMEDIUAMERSEBR SE STPOLEDFIZFILO MATE FIZIC CHIM ASTR Stiinte Sociale Stiinte Naturale Biblioteci speciale FILO Stiinte Exacte vol/cititori 2,03 2,36 1,09 1,34 2,82 4,96 3,40 1,75 2,85 2,04 2,34 1,86 1,50 2,59 2,84 2,49 2,23 1,49 1,22 2,56 1,42 1,38 1,23 1,64 4,82 vol/cititor in salile de lectura 2,11 2,43 1,10 1,39 3,38 5,18 3,91 1,91 3,14 2,72 2,66 1,90 1,37 3,45 2,77 3,31 2,52 1,64 1,14 3,63 1,30 1,28 1,24 1,91 7,70 vol/cititor la domiciliu 1,70 2,25 1,05 1,26 1,88 2,17 1,51 1,44 2,60 1,53 1,53 1,54 1,82 1,73 2,95 1,62 1,63 1,34 1,36 1,59 1,74 1,51 1,22 1,25 1,69 biblioteci filiale We can determine the number of publications per student and the number of delivered volumes per reader by adding to the data received from the branch libraries referring to their collections and to the document circulation the data received from the “Babeş-Bolyai” University referring to the number of its teachers and researchers, as well as that of the students attending the faculties directly served by our branch libraries (only the number of graduating and college students). The number of students and teachers from the faculties which are not served directly by a branch library of this department (the faculties of theology, Business, Theatre) has not been included.
370 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Populatia tinta
12000 Studenti (Nivel licenta +colegiu) 10000 Cadre didactice +cercetatori
8000
6000 Numar cititori Numar 4000
2000
0 Psihol. Sti. Istorie- Biol- Sociol. Sti. Litere Matem. Drept St. eur. si economi Chimie Ed.fiz. Fizica Geogr. Mediu Filos. Geol si A.S. politice St.educ. ce Studenti (Nivel licenta +colegiu) 1564 2791 1752 2085 1010 2149 2178 4371 10876 833 1697 3905 609 2958 711 Cadre didactice +cercetatori 100 211 125 43 84 35 41 57 164 108 55 67 57 67 19 Total populatie tinta 1664 3002 1877 2128 1094 2184 2219 4428 11040 941 1752 3972 666 3025 730 Facultatea direct deservita
The number of volumes/students was 25.56 in the branch libraries, while 1.89 volumes/active readers (having a Reader Pass and frequenting the library) were delivered. The following figure shows these data partitioned for each faculty.
Delivered volumes/reader
Environ. Sc. Hist.–Philos. 2.84 1.89 Philology 1.42 Physics Geogr. 1.83 Mathematics 1.23 1.78
Political Sc. 1.22 Law Physical 4.96 Education 2.56
Chemistry 1.64 Biology–Geology 1.98 European St. Econ. Sc. 1.66 3.40 Psychology– Sociol.–Social Assistance Educ. Sc. 1.34 2.82
371 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
2.5. Other branch library activities − Participation at the realization of the work Scientific Activity of the Teaching Staff, 2004; − Updating the ProCite databases from the Special Libraries and some libraries from the Natural Sciences Service; − Updating the on-line bibliographical database, that can be accessed from the Mathematics Library, and the Bio- bibliography Gabor accessible from the Physics Library; − Collaboration in order to create and periodically update web pages for the branch libraries according to a certain pattern elaborated together with the IT Department; creating some informative posters containing data about the library (Zoology, Animal Physiology); − Solving some problems of global or individual import; − Checking and reorganizing collections, moving great amount of publications in some of the branch libraries (Ancient History, Philology, Sociology, Geography, Zoology); − Proposing some publications for reconditioning and selecting those that are to be removed from the inventory in the future; − Remaking the notification posters in the open access room of the European Studies Library.
III. Electronic equipment
All the branch libraries are supplied with personal computers ensured by the Central University Library. The faculties of the “Babeş- Bolyai” University also donated electronic equipment (computers – sometimes nonfunctional ones –, printers, copiers) to some of the branch libraries. There were 96 computers in the branch libraries at the end of the year 2005, 64 ensured by the Central University Library, 32 by the “Babeş-Bolyai” University. 39 computers were intended for public use, generally for searching the on-line catalogue and the subscribed databases. In the year 2006 it will be necessary to renew the old computers in some of the branch libraries, especially as the new Aleph version will function only on the Windows XP operational system.
IV. Conclusions Analyzing the data received from the libraries belonging to the Branch and Special Libraries Department one can draw some conclusions
372 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 that can serve as a starting point for the changes that are necessary for improving and making more efficient the activities of the analyzed branch libraries.
− New reading rooms endowed with adequate lockers and coat racks are necessary for the libraries functioning in an open access system. It is also necessary to secure the collection of these libraries. − The furniture or the reading room conditions are inadequate in some library rooms (generally in old buildings administrated by the University). In these libraries it is necessary to perform sanitation works, to renew the electric installations and to furnish the rooms adequately. − In order to attract the students of the “Babeş-Bolyai” University to the Central University Library and its branch institutions more efficiently a new registration method will be presented to the University once again and its support will be solicited. − The users’ instruction and information programme must be organized better in the branch libraries as well. The same principles as in the Central Library must be applied in their case too. − The collaboration between the Acquisition Service and the university teaching stuff must be mediated by the branch librarians. University teachers should indicate the publications necessary for a good educational activity, as well as the databases with electronic periodicals and books on different domains that should be purchased. Donations will have an important role in enriching the library collections. They may come from some Romanian and foreign institutions collaborating with the “Babeş-Bolyai” University or some cultural and scientific personalities from Romania. Branch librarians have an important role in attracting these donations. − Describing the publications will be continued according to the criteria settled at the level of the Central University Library. It is of great importance to attribute ITEMS to the volumes from the branch libraries; thus the Aleph integrated library system can be exploited efficiently. In this way users will have extensive information about the collections of the Central University Library and of its branch institutions. A computerized loan service will also be at their disposal.
373 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
− In order to satisfy optimally the users’ needs it is necessary to revise the way in which publications are served in the reading rooms in some branch libraries (Geography, Law, Modern History, Pedagogy). The reorganization of some library rooms (renovations in the Modern History, Geography and Botany libraries, collection removals at the Pedagogy and Economic Sciences libraries), will offer the possibility to create more reading rooms with an open access system. The redistribution of posts can also be considered depending on the solicitations at certain library sections. − Branch library activities are varied and they require physical and intellectual efforts from the librarian. He/she must have a distributive attention and has to maintain an attitude adequate for the academic environment in his/her relations with the public too. These activities depend on the way in which the educational process (specific to each faculty) operates, on the number of students or on the different administrative changes which take place at the faculties. Because of this, the collaboration with the collectivity of teachers and even with the faculties’ administrative personnel sometimes depends on the librarians’ diplomatic skills. − The libraries’ electronic equipment must be maintained in optimal functioning conditions and replaced when it is technically antiquated.
374 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Achievements and Perspectives in Library Automation and Modernization
Mariana FALUP “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: loan department, library automation, open access shelves, closed stacks, Aleph library software
Abstract The paper presents the library automation and modernization process of the Loan Department of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library. Being an important and highly frequented section of the library (as many readers prefer borrowing the publications to using them in the reading rooms), this department required a good and flexible organizational structure. To achieve this, an open access system was created. The main stages of the reorganization process, started in 1996, were: selecting the most frequently used books and preparing them for the open access shelves; the organization of the selected books on the shelves (a systematic-alphabetical arrangement close to the Cutter type arrangement); the changing of the Vubis database for the more efficient Aleph library software in 1999 and the computerization of the loan process. Though the financial support accorded for the reorganization of the Loan Department was small, the personnel’s efforts increased considerably the efficiency and popularity of this library section.
E-mail: [email protected]
1. Introduction The central problem of today’s society is how to manage changes that occur in all domains of social, political, economic and cultural life. The general concept that the library is only a depositary of information is wrong. The library, first of all, is a modality of finding and disseminating information. The modernization and automation of libraries is a vast and complex process that affects the core of the library notion itself. Automation implies a revaluation of the entire institution, the revaluation of its role and functions, as well as adaptation to a great change.
375 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Such a process of automation and modernization took place in the case of the Loan Department of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library. A considerable part of the collection was introduced in the database (OPAC–Aleph) and in addition the way in which users could access books also changed. Being a highly frequented section of the library (with an average of 300 readers/350 volumes/day), a good and flexible organizational system is essential, taking into consideration that the number of seats in the reading rooms is limited and the readers’ demands greater and greater. An essential step was taken in this direction by creating an open access room. This, together with the possibility of computerised search (OPAC) answered a great part of the users’ demands and needs, such as: – access to a wide range of documents; – rapidity in localising and obtaining the information (in this case the publication).
2. The stages of reorganization a) The reorganization of the Loan Department began in February 1996 by a rigorous selection of the collection from the closed stacks. It was necessary for the librarians of several departments to participate in this action which consisted of operations such as: – selecting books for the open shelves, the aim being to cover all the domains; – transporting the publications from the closed stacks to open access room; – making coupons that would replace the books in the closed stacks; – selecting publications that were to be removed from the inventory and all the other operations related to this activity; – moving the books, over 100000 volumes. Initially 3800 titles, respectively 17000 bibliographical volumes were selected and they were introduced to Vubis database that was used at that time. As a next step the volumes were prepared in a way that would help the users to find them on the open shelves (fixing the classification and the shelf numbers, sticking the barcode and the self- adhesive labels with the shelf numbers on the volumes etc.). Practically, the retro-conversion of the library collections started in that moment. The reading lists recommended at the university courses and seminars served as a basic criterion for this selection. The collection thus selected is continually renewed as newly purchased books are permanently added to it.
376 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
b) In order to find the books on the shelves a systematic- alphabetical arrangement (close to the Cutter type arrangement) was applied. This is a quite efficient system. The shelfmark is a combination obtained from the first three numbers from the classification (maximum 3 numbers) followed by the first three letters of the name of the author or of the title of the publication, depending on the headline from the bibliographical description. The shelfmark was made as short as possible in order to render easier the finding of the publication. To this shelfmark a certain colour was attributed according to the domain the publication belonged to. In order to facilitate finding the publications on the shelves a plan of the room was posted at the entrance, showing the existing domains and the colours attributed to them. Indicators were also placed on the shelves where the materials belonging to each domain were.
Image of the Loan Department with open access
c) In 1999 a new software was purchased. Our librarians started to convert the Vubis database existing at that moment into the more efficient Aleph library software. Certain difficulties arose from this conversion as some of the fields from these two softwares did not perfectly overlap and the publication descriptions did not appear according to bibliographic requirements. Nowadays 17000 titles in 40000 volumes are at the users’ disposal in an open access system. These were selected so as to cover all
377 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 the fields of study. These titles can be found in the OPAC–Aleph database with a detailed bibliographic description, including the shelf number, the number of exemplars, whether the publication is available or not and the date when the publication is to be returned (when it is the case). The loan is computerized; it is done in the Circulation module of the Aleph by making the link between the user’s barcode and the barcode of the borrowed publication, the barcodes being read by the scanner. The publications that remained in the closed stacks of the section can be found in the traditional alphabetical catalogue (on index cards). Users wishing to consult these materials must complete a loan request form; the publications will be delivered by the librarians.
3. Present functioning of the section a) Opening hours: Monday – Friday: 9–19, Saturday: 8–14. From 2001 the one hour midday break (13–14) was given up in order to provide for users continuous access to information. b) Library staff: librarians with secondary studies work in two rotas, two of them in each turn. c) Equipment: 2 computers and 2 scanners for the staff, 1 computer for users.
4. Comparative statistic data In the following table, I tried to present a comparative analysis of the main activities with the public. I used statistic data from three years as reference points: 1996, the year when the reorganization began; 2000, the first year when all the registrations were made in the new Aleph Circulation module; and 2004, the last statistical year; the year when the loan period was reduced to 15 calendar days.
378 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Synthetic table Activity / Year 1996 2000 2004 Collections - stacks 239 544 vol. 131 149 vol. 129 419 vol. - open access 16 858 vol. 36 286 vol. 40 000 vol. shelves New publications - titles 876 1 245 244 - vol. 1 499 2 286 399 Readers 15 048 23 154 67 891 Loans - stacks 11 668 vol. 13 260 vol. 1 191 vol. - open access 32 600 vol. shelves 76 013 vol. Returned books 12 588 vol. 35 853 vol. 71 184 vol. Summons 352 381 351 Cancelled loan records 4 395 6 348 9 197 Staff number 6 7 4
Analysing the data presented in the table, we may observe: – the actual situation of the collection in the closed stacks and on the open access shelves; – that in 2004 the number of the new publications added to the collection was 75% less than in 1996, though the number of users increased massively. This can be explained by the lack of funds allocated for book acquisition. We hope that in the near future we will be able to purchase more copies for the Loan Department as it is a highly solicited service, most of the users preferring to borrow the publications to consult them in the reading rooms; – the significant increase in the number of readers who frequent this library section; in the year 2000 this number doubled and in the year 2004 it was 4.5 times greater than in 1996; – there was a 2.17 increase in the number of publications borrowed from the open access shelves as compared with the year 2000, while there were requested 9 times less publications from the closed stacks of the section; therefore the existence of the open access shelves is completely justified; – twice as many graduating students cancelled their loan records than in 1996, which indicates the increasing number of students in the university centre; – half as many librarians are employed in this section than in 2000, though the services offered by this section are continually increasing and their quality must remain exemplary. According to the norms ratified by the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth regarding the number of positions for speciality staff compared with the circulation of documents
379 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
(1 position for 15 000 documents/year) and the statistics of the loan section from 2004, the personnel of this department has to cope with a workload that exceeds regulations by 173%.
5. Making more efficient the user–librarian relationship In order to maintain the quantity and quality of the work and to take into consideration the suggestions made by the readers, the collective proposed to improve the user–librarian relationship. We hope that this will make the current and future activities related to the work with the public more efficient. Achievements: – double registering of loans (loan request forms and computer) has stopped and computerized recording has been chosen. This is safer and faster, so in this way we shortened the time in which the reader obtains the publication. Loans are registered on paper forms only in the case when the publications are requested from the closed stacks of the section; – a piece of paper is stuck on the back of the title page or on the cover of each book for noting the date when the publication is to be returned. This modality of registering was suggested also by our readers, following the model existing at the French Cultural Centre and other libraries having a loan department; – in order to answer the readers’ solicitations the retro-conversion of the publications from the closed stacks will be continued depending on the bibliographic requests. Thus the publications frequently asked for are transferred to the open access shelves and the readers can obtain them in the shortest possible time. Unfortunately, we are not able to move all the needed publications to the open access area because the reading lists of the students are modified every year; – as the small number of purchased copies was insufficient for the high number of requests, it was decided to reduce the loan period from 30 to 15 calendar days; – the new publications will continually be processed as soon as they enter the loan collection in order to avoid any discrepancy that might occur between the moment when the shelf number appears in the general collection and in the loan collection; – in order to recover the publications after the loan period has expired, summons are sent twice a year: in February (the holiday after the winter examination session) and 15–30 July (the holiday after the summer examination session);
380 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
– in order to assure the health of librarians and users as well as to protect the publications it is important that the publications and the room should be preserved according to hygiene requirements, taking into consideration the specific aspects of this library section; – in order that our efforts of introducing the information into the database and establishing the open access system are fruitful, we must continue to instruct the users and to familiarize them with the databases. Perspectives: – we could try to offer to the readers a reservation service, but we do not know whether it would be an efficient service or not, as the borrowed publications are solicited in the same period (session, papers etc.); moreover, this would require some material investments that the library does not have; – for the time being there is no security system that protects the publications placed on the open access shelves, the publications being protected only by the librarians’ vigilance. Their number being minimal, they have no time left for the supervision of the room. The only viable solution to prevent the purloining of publications from the shelves is an adequate antitheft system: – a video camera system; – an antitheft system with a magnetic gate and a deactivator system. All this enormous work required for establishing and making efficient the room with open access shelves was done solely for the benefit of our users, to increase satisfaction in the library services. These changes in the organization and functioning of the Loan Department visibly improved our activities both quantitatively and qualitatively. Unfortunately, the process started almost ten years ago was mainly based on the librarians’ effort, the material and technical investments being limited to two work terminals and a computer on which the databases can be consulted.
381 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Using the Scientific Databases Subscribed to by the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library in the Year 2005
Carmen CRIŞAN “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: online scientific databases, ProQuest, Chadwyck Healey, JSTOR, SpringerLink, search, fulltext article, article with abstract, search results
Abstract The paper discusses some issues related to the online scientific databases subscribed to by the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library in the year 2005. The study presents the four main online collections (ProQuest, Chadwyck Healey, JSTOR, SpringerLink) as well as the major problems related to their use. The different statistics, tables and graphics show an increasing interest in such online databases, which encourages the library management to make available such information sources to its users in the future too. It can also be observed that the databases were accessed by a great number of teachers, PhD students and undergraduate students both from the University and the Central University Library. Though the users’ searching methods sometimes lacked the necessary professionalism, these electronic products seem to be a great help in the scientific activity of the readers.
E-mail: [email protected]
Introduction Online scientific collections are more and more appreciated as they are used in the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library. Our library has been offering such electronic information since the year 1996. If at that time users were not quite familiar with the research in such online databases, in the last few years we can say that they favoured this type of information source. The statistics prove this. The library makes great financial efforts in order to offer online access to prestigious scientific databases; therefore it is extremely important for us to know in what manner and how often the readers use them.
382 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The present paper analyzes in what measure these collections are used. This will be achieved by studying and interpreting the statistics made for the year 2005. This analysis may also provide us with information which should guide us in our future acquisitions; for, as it is well known, it is difficult to select the online products to be subscribed to. The electronic market offers rich resources, the progress is great, the editors and vendors have quickly developed new strategies, making partnerships, offering new products. The result is a confusing and extremely varied assortment of possibilities that is open to libraries. Overwhelmed by an amalgam of offers, libraries are really in a difficult situation. Which are the most suitable collections to subscribe to? It is necessary to analyze all the aspects of the offers coherently: the percentage of fulltext information and texts with abstracts as compared to the price of the product. This paper offers some important directions in this respect.
Databases subscribed to in the year 2005 In the year 2005 the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library subscribed to the following online scientific databases: 1. ProQuest – access in BCU (“Lucian Blaga” Central University Library) and UBB (“Babeş-Bolyai” University) 2. Chadwyck Healey – access in BCU and UBB 3. JSTOR – access in BCU 4. SpringerLink – access in BCU and UBB.
1. PROQUEST The ProQuest collection contains over 10000 fulltext publications and reference works. It is one of the most prestigious databases. It comprises the following 12 modules: ProQuest. ABI.Inform Global, ProQuest. Academic Research Library, ProQuest. PsychINFO Database, ProQuest. Medical Library, ProQuest. Biology Journals, ProQuest. Computing, ProQuest. Social Sciences Plus Text, ProQuest. Criminal Justice Periodical Index.
383 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
1.1. Global ProQuest statistics
Table 1. Global ProQuest statistics for the year 2005
01.01.2005.–31.12.2005. PERIOD
No.sear Cit/Ab Full Total Databases ches str. Text results ABI/INFORM Global 29033 2403 11374 13777 AMA Titles 28933 119 36 155 AMA Titles: Abstracts&Indexing 29267 5 0 5 Criminal Justice 28940 360 942 1302 ProQuest Biology Journals 28751 25 202 227 ProQuest Computing 28653 155 547 702 ProQuest Medical Library 29028 644 6546 7190 ProQuest Psychology Journals 36801 3868 10184 14052 ProQuest Social Science Journals 30421 326 1521 1847 U.S. National Newspaper Abstracts (3) 28464 574 0 574 Academic Research Library 29425 4167 11691 15858 TOTAL 327716 12646 43043 55689
The statistics show the number of searches, the number of downloaded articles with abstracts and the downloaded fulltext articles from each database module. At the number of searches each “click” on the “search” button was counted. The total number of searches 327716 and the total number of downloaded articles 55689 indicates a wide research activity in these collections.
384 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
These statistic data can be illustrated in different combinations that may offer us a suggestive image about the way the subscribed to collections were used.
Graphic 1. The searches/results relation
40000
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000 10000
5000
0 ABI AMA AMA.Ab Crim Biol Comp Med Psych Soc News Acad
Searches Results
The great difference between the number of searches and that of results indicates somehow a lack of expertise in searching. It suggests the fact that the searches are imprecise and made on far too general subjects. This increases the research time considerably, since to reduce the search to a narrower field one has to survey maybe tens, hundreds of articles. The search interface in ProQuest is complex. It allows one to search according to different criteria, to combine different searching keys. All this requires some kind of expertise. The statistics presented above prove clearly that either the users lack this expertise, or the subjects searched for are not covered in the database.
385 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Graphic 2. The articles with abstracts/fulltext article relation
12000
10000
8000
6000 Cit/Abstr. FullText 4000
2000
0 ABI AMA AMA.Ab C rim. Biol. C omp Med Ps y c h Soc N ew s Ac ad
The data (articles with abstracts/full text articles) have been presented comparatively for each ProQuest database module. Two observations can be made: – from each module more articles were downloaded with abstracts than fulltext articles; this suggests that in a research it is often enough the abstract of an article (it provides you with a general view upon the respective domain of study and the entire content of the article is not necessary) – the greatest number of articles (with abstract or fulltext) were downloaded from the following domains: ABI. InformGlobal (economy, business), Academic Research Library, PsychINFO and Medical Library.
1.2. ProQuest statistics on the IP-s of the servers
Table 2. ProQuest statistics on the IP-s of the servers
SearchesCit/Abstr.Fulltext Total
Accesses 95036 3805 12580 16385 BCU R=5.8(search/result) Accesses 232213 8802 30374 39176 UBB R=5.9(search/result)
386 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
These statistics show the great number of searches that were made in the two locations, the library and the university and in all its sub- locations. The two categories of data presented above in the table show how many searches were made from the library (Accesses BCU) and how many from the university (Accesses UBB). It can be observed that 2.4 times more searches were made from the university than from the library centre, and 2.39 more articles were downloaded from UBB than from BCU. It is interesting that the relation between searches/results is almost equal (5.8 in BCU and 5.9 in UBB); this proves the same lack of expertise. We may suppose once again either that the search interface being rather complex is not properly used, or that many searches were unsuccessful, therefore the database does not cover the subjects searched for. Anyway the greater number of searches indicates the great need of research.
Graphic 3. BCU/UBB comparison
250000
200000
150000 BCU 100000 UBB 50000
0 Searches Abstr FullTex t
1.3. Searches from the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library
Table 3. Accesses from BCU
Searches Cit/ Abstract Fulltext Total ABI/INFORM Global 8277 775 3301 4076 AMA Titles 8320 34 14 48 AMA. Titles: Abstracts 8438 0 0 0
387 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
& Indexing Criminal Justice 8297 153 673 826 Periodicals ProQuest Biology 8196 15 64 79 Journals ProQuest Computing 8116 10 150 160 ProQuest Medical 8290 231 1392 1623 Library ProQuest Psychology 11800 911 3105 4016 Journals ProQuest Social 8763 146 355 501 Science Journals US National 8109 269 0 269 Newspaper Academic Research 8430 1261 3526 4787 Library Subtotal 95036 3805 12580 16385
Graphic 4. Fulltext BCU – covered area according to domains
ABI 25% AMA 29% AMA.Abstr Criminal Biology 0% Computing Me dical 2% 0% Psychology 5% 3% Social 0% News 25% 1% Academic
10%
In Graphic 4 the fulltext articles in percents are represented that were downloaded from BCU from all the ProQuest modules. The greatest number of fulltext articles was downloaded from the following modules: 1. Academic Research Library – 29% 2. ABI.InformGlobal – 25% 3. PsychINFO – 25%
388 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
4. Medical Library – 10% 5. Criminal Justice – 5% These data suggest the fact that the modules enumerated above are well represented in the database, the number of fulltext articles found and downloaded being high. The Academic Research module covers almost all the academic disciplines; the ABI. InformGlobal module covers economic and business disciplines; the PsychINFO module contains psychology and all that is related to this domain; the Medical Library module covers medical disciplines.
1.4. Accesses from the “Babeş-Bolyai” University Table 4 presents according to modules the number of searches made from the university (all its locations) and the number of articles with abstracts and fulltext articles that were downloaded. In Graphic 5 the number of fulltext articles is represented in percents downloaded from each domain. Table 4. Accesses from UBB
Searches Cit/Abstr. Fulltext Total ABI/INFORMGlobal 20714 1626 8063 9689 AMA Titles 20569 84 22 106 AMA. Titles: 20787 5 0 5 Abstracts & Index Criminal Justice 20601 207 269 476 Periodicals ProQuest 20513 10 138 148 Biology Journals ProQuest Computing 20495 145 397 542 ProQuest Medical 20694 314 5118 5522 Library ProQuest 24958 2957 7078 10035 Psychology Journals ProQuest Social 21616 180 1166 1346 Science Journals US National 20313 303 0 303 Newspaper Academic Research 20953 2881 8123 11004 Library Subtotal 232213 8802 30374 39176
389 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Graphic 5. Fulltext UBB – covered area according to domains
25% ABI 29% AMA Criminal 0% Biology Computing 1% Medica l 1% 0% Psychology 3% 1% Social 14% News Academic
26%
It is easy to point out which were the frequently used domains in the university: 1. Academic Research Library – 29% 2. PsychINFO – 26% 3. ABI.InformGlobal – 25% 4. Biology – 14% 5. Social Sciences – 3% It can be stated once more that the most appreciated and the best represented module of the ProQuest collection is the Academic Research Library.
Graphic 6. Fulltext – comparison between BCU and UBB
9000 ABI.Inform Academic 8000 Psychology 7000 6000 Medical 5000 4000 3000 2000 Social 1000 Criminal Computing AMAAMA.Abstr Bio lo g y 0
BCU UBB
390 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Graphic 6 illustrates the comparison between the fulltext articles downloaded from BCU and UBB made according to modules on the bases of the data extracted from Table 1 and 2. The only module in which the articles downloaded from BCU are more numerous than those downloaded from UBB is Criminal Justice; in all the other modules the number of articles downloaded from UBB is much greater than of those downloaded from BCU.
1.5. Comparison with the previous year Since the Academic Research Library was the most frequently used module of the collection, a comparison of the years 2004 and 2005 for this module may be proposed.
Table 5. Academic Research Library – monthly statistics 2004
Month SearchesCit/AbstractFulltextTotal January 1113 97 754 851 February 1921 321 1085 1406 March 3882 308 2471 2779 April 1875 147 813 960 May 2865 314 3226 3640 June 1341 585 4402 4987 July 731 80 2308 2388 August 618 48 323 371 September 826 87 448 535 October 1571 293 803 1096 November 2228 575 1335 1910 December 1757 298 923 1221
391 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Table 6. Academic Research Library – monthly statistics 2005
Month SearchesCit/AbstractFulltextTotal January 2542 429 1235 1664 February 1614 177 657 834 March 3279 387 1360 1747 April 3032 376 874 1250 May 2893 401 1012 1413 June 1792 199 596 795 July 1550 415 818 1233 August 1211 107 342 449 September 1199 138 373 511 October 3377 500 1521 2021 November 5154 664 1949 2613 December 2907 550 1380 1930
Graphic 7 reflects the fact that there were months when there was a more intensive activity in this module in the year 2004 than in the year 2005, namely in February, March, May, June, July; in the other months the activity was greater in the year 2005. On the whole, these scientific collections were used more often in 2005 than in 2004, and this is reflected in the annual report presented in Table 7. It can be observed here that, compared with the previous year, there was an 85% increase in searches, a 53% increase in the articles with abstracts and a 7% increase in the total of downloaded articles (with abstract or fulltext). It is a positive aspect, which means we should take this need of research into consideration in the future as well, and which compels us to purchase such online products in the following years too.
392 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Graphic 7. Academic Research Library 2004–2005
4500 4000 3500 3000 2500 2005 2000 2004
1500
1000
500
0 12 34 5 67 8 9101112
Table 7. Annual report. Increases in comparison with the previous year
Time Frame – January 2005–December 2005 Client 65090 – CENTRAL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY IN CLUJ Any FT Searches Database Cit/Abstract Total Format 30118 ABI/INFORM Global 2462 1174314205 30033 AMA Titles 119 36 155 AMA Titles: Abstracts & 30390 Indexing 505 30026 Criminal Justice Periodicals 373 952 1325 29853 ProQuest Biology Journals 34 223 257 29733 ProQuest Computing 155 553 708 30129 ProQuest Medical Library 654 6879 7533 38388 ProQuest Psychology Journals 3987 1090114888 ProQuest Social Science 31584 Journals 352 1588 1940 U.S. National Newspaper 29544 Abstracts 616 0 616 30550 Academic Research Library 4343 1211716460 340348 Grand Total 13100 4499258092 183535 Previous Year 8588 4589654484
393 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
85% % Increase 53% -2% 7% 43259 Total of Unique Searches (Search Button Pressed)
2. CHADWYCK HEALEY The collection comprises 4 modules: History online, Literature online, European Sources online and PCI. Fulltext (new name – Periodicals Archive).
2.1. British History online
Table 8. History online statistics
Month SessionsSearchesResultsFulltextSearches without results January 103 89 34146 288 13 February 59 50 45356 161 3 March 123 148 52210 305 20 April 171 113 41010 277 8 May 46 20 19720 77 1 June 91 91 36832 452 11 July 10 32 6156 61 0 September 4 5 722 0 3 October 33 38 11773 79 11 November 71 58 37055 260 17 December 10 4 2066 6 0
394 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Graphic 8. History online monthly statistics
500
450
400
350 300 Searches 250 Fulltext 200 Searches without results 150 100 50 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12
It can be observed that in this collection the searches were precise, the number of downloaded fulltext articles being high compared with the search results. This is due to the fact that, from the beginning, the searches have been made in a specialized database, consequently, a simple search key leads to quite exact results. This fact makes us believe that it is preferable to orientate ourselves towards the acquisition of specialized scientific collections, smaller databases focalised on a certain domain. Searches are more efficient in these collections. A large product that covers a multitude of domains, with a complex search interface requires an expertise in the use of Booleans operators and keyword combinations. Our interest is to offer our users online products that should be used easily and successfully as often as possible. We are often confronted with situations when the user complains: “I haven’t found anything, the database is not good.” And this happens only because the respective user simply does not know how to search the database. It is a frustrating experience both from his point of view and from the librarian’s, since the library allocates important amounts of money in order to purchase these products, and the institution’s interest is that they should be used as efficiently as possible. We must consider that hard as the librarian might try to assist each user in searching the database, he/she can never guide everyone who accesses these collections either from the university, or from the library.
395 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
2.2. Literature online It comprises 350000 works of prose, drama and poetry, 128 fulltext periodicals of Anglo-American literature and the authors’ complete biography.
Table 9. Literature online monthly statistics
Month Sessions Searches Results Fulltext Searches without results January 46 248 58524 135 148 February 35 178 8966 131 120 March 57 308 145578 174 161 April 62 380 992288 220 241 May 56 237 22020 130 132 June 36 251 514186 187 103 July 10 35 1411 62 26 September 11 116 98724 58 57 October 46 524 326121 260 282 November 57 378 8676822 153 236 December 14 156 28302 104 64
Graphic 9. Literature online monthly statistics
600
500
400
Searches 300 Fulltext Searches without results 200
100
0 12345679101112
396 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
In this collection the searches were made rather imprecisely, the number of searches without results being very high. This must be due again to the lack of expertise in searching, the search interface being quite complex, but we cannot exclude the fact that the database may not cover well the domains of literature (it contains only Anglo-American literature).
Graphic 10. Searches made until May
May (14.05) January 10% 8% April February 23% 25%
March 34%
Graphic 11. Fulltext articles accessed until May
Full Text Abstracte
350
300
250
200
150
100 50 0 Ianuarie Februarie Martie Aprilie Mai (14.05)
2.3. European Sources online
Table 10. European Sources online monthly statistics
Month Sessions Searches Results Fulltext January 1 2 415 1
397 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
February 14 41 4061 10 March 42 90 16159 106 April 51 51 8288 58 May 32 19 2028 43 June 26 10 3464 11 July 6 6 4295 3 September 7 7 3532 2 October 69 37 6300 48 November 34 83 14070 62 December 13 41 9903 67
In this collection fewer searches were made, though it is an important database that offers specialized information on European institutions, governments, administrations or other organizations. This type of information is difficult to access otherwise.
2.4. PCI Fulltext (Periodicals Archive) The collection comprises 15 million articles from 4700 scientific reviews from the domains of art and socio-humanistic sciences; 400 of these are fulltext.
Table 11. Periodicals Archive monthly statistics
Month Sessions Searches Results Fulltext Searches without results January 59 171 16078293 36 73 February 99 167 622922 1160 54 March 120 252 16121959 1422 93 April 94 123 238526 359 58 May 69 160 509840 286 62 June 44 103 239387 184 42 July 24 52 7913 31 21 August 16 22 10485 73 5
398 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
September 56 322 129674 813 98 October 40 128 28628 189 50 November 75 284 360688 428 56 December 59 105 1589338 278 39
Graphic 12. Periodicals Archive monthly statistics
1500
1000 Searches
Fulltext 500 Searches without results
0 123456789101112
The number of accessed fulltext articles is high compared with the number of searches.
3. The JSTOR database, Arts & Science Collection It comprises fulltext articles from the following domains: anthropology, ecology, economy, education, finance, history, language and literature, mathematics, philosophy, political sciences, population studies, sociology, statistics.
Table 12. JSTOR monthly statistics
browsing viewing printing title- vol/ TO Cita- (artic- Sear- pages jprint pdf ps total list iss Cs tions les) ches 2005/01 102 185 213 75 1,169 500 0 539 0 869 3,152 2005/02 62 68 79 5 528 320 0 327 0 422 1,491 2005/03 153 247 420 12 3,497 1,486 01,292 31,537 7,161 2005/04 172 277 359 10 1,278 708 0 879 0 986 3,961 2005/05 57 137 110 1 979 487 0 619 0 563 2,466
399 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
2005/06 65 96 234 19 1,157 435 0 638 0 563 2,772 2005/07 14 13 5 0 355 313 01,534 0 376 2,297 2005/08 1 0 0 0 2 2 0 10 0 31 44 2005/09 10 26 77 5 213 98 0 153 0 165 649 2005/10 29 87 78 3 821 417 0 923 1 592 2,534 2005/11 53 191 311 12 2,638 1,395 01,390 01,651 6,246 2005/12 23 61 65 27 620 314 0 288 0 319 1,403 Totals 741 1,3881,951 16913,257 6,475 08,592 48,07434,176
Altogether 13257 pages and 6475 articles were viewed and 8592 PDF articles were downloaded in the year 2005.
Graphic 13. Activity in JSTOR, in 2004 and 2005
4. The SpringerLink database It offers access to 1200 fulltext periodicals edited by Springer Verlag and Kluwer Academic Publisher. Domains: chemistry, informatics, economy, engineering, environmental studies, law, medicine, mathematics, biology, physics, astronomy, geology.
400 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Table 13. SpringerLink monthly statistics
January 145 February 507 March 1584 April 1094 May 1276 June 623 July 1938 August 389 September 256 October 1072 November 1083 December 625 Total html 586 Total PDF 10006 Total 10592
Graphic 14. Fulltext articles accessed from SpringerLink
January
1% February 5% March 6% April 10% 15% May 10% June
2% 10% July August 4% 12% 19% 6% September
October
November December
401 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The collection was much used, the number of downloaded articles being 10952. The activity was almost uniformly distributed in the 12 months, the most intensive period of activity being July.
Conclusions The statistics presented above show an extensive activity in the online scientific collections our library has subscribed to. This indicates a great need for research. The databases were accessed by teachers, PhD students and undergraduate students both from the upper and lower years. This is gratifying. It is worth emphasizing that professionalism is essential in searching in order to use these electronic products efficiently. Our library will continue to subscribe to databases. This modality of research becomes more and more preferred by library users. One can quickly search the databases and the scientific information is permanently actualized, this being a very important aspect. However, for a university library, which offers its users scientific information from numerous domains, the selection of the online products which are to be subscribed to remains a major problem. The choices have to cover all these domains, but between the limits of an allocated budget.
402 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
From the International Exchange of Publications to the Exchange of Experience – a Polish Contact
Alina Ioana ŞUTA “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: international exchange of publications, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Wroclaw University Library, exchange service, exchange partners, lists of offers, computerized exchange, databases
Abstract This paper, having defined what international exchange of publications is, compares the exchange activities of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library in Cluj with that of the Wroclaw University Library. This service was initiated in 1923 in the Romanian library and in 1954 in the Polish institution. The partnership between the two university libraries began in 1985 and has continued ever since, the most important exchanged publications being the different series of the two university periodicals, Studia Universitatis “Babeş-Bolyai” and Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis. The exchange of publications being a complex activity with several phases, it is natural that the work method of the two exchange offices is slightly different. However, there are many common aspects and tendencies. For both institutions the exchange of publications is important as by its means the library collections are enriched and it promotes a favourable image of the institutions.
E-mail: [email protected]
1. Exchange of publications – defining the notion I would like to present the international exchange of publications service from the Acquisitions Department of the Wroclaw University Library, Poland in comparison with the office of internal and external exchange from the department responsible for developing, organizing and processing the collections of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca. This comparison is founded on the systematic research activity that I was able to perform due to a scholarship awarded
403 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 by the Ministry of Education and Research through the National Office of Scholarships Abroad, Bucharest. The first section of this study has as its objective to outline the theoretical aspects, focusing upon the conceptual diversity necessary for an effective collaboration in publication exchange. The second perspective intends to present comparatively an experience from the point of view of the publication exchanges that can take place in Romania and Poland. Generally, through publication exchange different contacts are established with universities and institutions of higher education, research institutions, central university libraries, national libraries, cultural and scientific societies, international exchange centres, Rector’s offices etc. International exchange represents a specific and widely used method for procuring foreign publications. Publication exchange was promoted by the UNESCO, organization, which in the work entitled Handbook on the international exchange of publications (first edition from 1950) stresses the necessity of a process of exchange in detail and argues for the significance and value of a perspective of relationships between nations. Initially, international exchange was conceived as an accord or contract by which the parties reciprocally grant a varied range of printed materials. But in time the entire project became an important source for developing collections (by procuring current and older publications). Central university libraries are among the institutions most interested in publication exchange, but the main objective remains for them the exchange of their own publications: university textbooks, yearbooks, periodicals, reports, manuscript or exhibition catalogues, guides etc. From the ‘90s, in order to improve the practice of exchange activities, step by step, we began to put on electronic data some specific exchange applications. Exchange activities take place by the means of the modules incorporated by these applications. The applications require: a card index of the exchange partners; a module with the register of the sent and/or received publications. The entire register remains centralized on central or branch institutions. Putting together and dispatching the parcels concretizes the partnerships and the related titles offered for exchange. This process is finally quantified by drawing up different statistics. The entire publication exchange activity requires the following operations: drawing up the lists of the publications that are to be exchanged with other institutions; transmitting these lists; receiving the
404 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 answers containing the wishes of the partners to whom the lists were sent; registering and centralizing the sent publications; drawing up and checking the bordereaux; preparing and dispatching the parcels, receiving the publications from the exchange partners and registering these in the exchange database.
2. The analysis of the publication exchange between the two libraries. Differences and similarities Before starting the second section of my study, I must mention the historical circumstances in which the publication exchange between the two university libraries was established. The first concrete initiatives regarding the development of an international publication exchange activity in the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca were discussed during the meeting held on 24 October 1923. The project was proposed by the Professor Emil Racoviţă and supported by the University Library Board. The first results of national and international exchange were registered in the University Yearbook from the year 1929– 1930. In this the following details were statistically presented: the University Library had exchanged materials with 125 Romanian and foreign universities and other scientific institutions, and it had received 103 parcels containing yearbooks and doctoral dissertations, as well as 124 printed volumes since its setting up.1 The periodical of the “Babeş-Bolyai” University, having initially the title The Bulletin of the Victor Babeş and Bolyai University, since its first issue in the year 1956, has represented the most important publication sent by the international exchange service from Cluj. In the year 1985, it was decided to publish the content of the periodical Studia Universitatis “Babeş-Bolyai” in languages of international circulation (English, French etc.) too. This initiative was the result of the collaboration of university teachers with the librarians employed in the exchange office. In the Wroclaw University Library, the service of national and international publication exchange has been functioning uninterruptedly since 1954. The Polish periodical Acta Universitatis Wratsilaviensis, Bibliotekoznawstwo (librarianship) series, printed and conceived for
1 Octavian Petraşcu, Schimbul internaţional de publicaţii între deziderat şi posibilităţi de realizare (International Exchange of Publications between Desire and Practice), Hermeneutica Bibliothecaria Antologie Philobiblon (Hermeneutica Bibliothecaria Philobiblon Anthology), Cluj-Napoca, University Press of Cluj, 1998, p. 225.
405 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 publication exchange, was issued for the first time that year. The details presented above show that the publication exchange service began to function 33 years later in the Polish library than in our institution. Looking more closely at the organizational structure of the two offices, we may observe that the Polish exchange office has two distinct sections: one dealing with the received publications, the other sending publications to other libraries. The librarians working in this office wish to preserve this dual specialization. In comparison with this, the two components are not separated within the international exchange section at Cluj; the publications are received and sent by the same office. Considering the measures taken in different European university libraries to unify international exchange activities within a single service, the university library from Cluj has the same objectives as these European institutions. However, the unification and restructuring of activities implies the accumulation of the librarians’ tasks at the exchange service. During the year 2005 the Polish library had approximately 350 foreign and 10 Polish exchange partners. I must acknowledge that I was surprised at the great number of active partners. I thought that the library operated with fewer partners than other such institutions. According to the explication given by the personnel of the reception department, this situation arose after all the partners had been checked. This operation finished some years ago and it led to a substantial decrease of partners. Those who had not respected the relationship of collaboration were transformed into the list of “passive” or “inactive” partners. This measure revitalized the cooperation with active partners and represented a positive aspect, worthy to be followed in order to maintain a balanced exchange. In the year 2005 the exchange office of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, according to statistics, collaborated with 1227 active partners. Among these there are some who had sent no publications, but whom we cannot transfer to the group of passive partners as they belong to the following categories: Romanian cultural centres, Rector’s offices of Romanian language. Publications are sent to these people in order to spread Romanian science and culture abroad. A concrete centralization that may reflect the real number of active partners can be made only after the partners have been checked. The finished centralization will implicitly result in a revaluation of the agreements. Cultural and scientific exchange has a central role in the collaboration between Romania and Poland. By sending publications cultural relationships may substantially increase in value in the future. In
406 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 this context it is desirable to accentuate the international exchange of publications between the two university libraries. The partnership began in 1985 and has continued ever since, even if this collaboration implies manifold activities: correspondence with the exchange partner; transmitting the list of publications destined to exchange; registering the sent publications; drawing up the bordereaux; preparing the parcels; sending them; receiving and registering the publications sent by the exchange partner. On the strength of the partnership between the two libraries, the exchange service of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library sends the Polish library the periodical Studia Universitatis „Babeş-Bolyai” having the series „Oeconomica, Biologia, Geographia, Philologia, Mathematica, Chemia, Jurisprudentia, Historia, Philosofia, Psychologia- paedagogia etc.”, as well as other periodicals present on the Romanian editorial market. In addition to these we send some 70 books, published by the most prestigious publishing houses from Cluj: University Press of Cluj, Accent, Argonaut etc. Our library due to this partnership with the Polish Wroclaw University Library receives all the series of Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis: Anglica Wratislaviensis, Antiquitas, Bibliotekoznawstwo, Biblioteka Judaica, Bibliothecalia Wratislaviensia, Classica Wratislaviensia, Dramat-Tatr, Ekonomia, Estudios Hispanicos, Ethnologia, Filozofia, Germanica Wratislaviensia, Gory-Literatura- Kultura, Historia, Historia Sztuki, Hydrolologia, Jezyk a Kultura, Ksztalceanu Jezykowe, Literatura i Kultura Popularna, Logika, Musicologica Wratislaviensia, Neerlandica Wratislaviensia, Niemcoznawstwo, Nowe Media-Nowe w Mediach, PolitologiA, Prace Botaniczne, Prace Geologiczno-Mineralogiczne, Prace Kulturoznawcze, Prace Literakie, Prace Ogradu Botanicznego Uniwersytetu Wroclawskiego, Prace Pedagogiczne, Prace Pszchologiczne, Prace Zoologiczne, Prawo, Probabilitz and Mathematical Statistics, Przeglad Prawa i Administracji, Romanica Wratislaviensia, Slavica Wratislaviensia, Sociologia, Studia Antropologiczne, Studia Archeologiczne, Studia Filmoznawcze, Studia Geograficzne, Studia i Materialy z Dziejow Uniwersytetu Wroclawskiego, Studia Linguistica, Studia nad Faszyzmem i Zbrodniami Hitlerrowskimi, Studium Generale Interdyscyplinarn, Wroclawski Studia Wschodnie. The series of Studia Universitatis “Babeş-Bolyai” and of Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis are the forte of the exchange. I have mentioned them in order to show the interdisciplinary character of the two periodicals, as well as that
407 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 researchers and teachers are interested in publishing in them. The sent and received publications undoubtedly promote culture and science in the university and intellectual circles of the two countries. The exchange service of the Wroclaw University Library does not use lists of offers as a work method. Exchange partners can select the publications, according to their priority needs, simply by accessing the site of the Wroclaw University Press: www.wuwr.com.pl. In comparison, the exchange activity of our library is based upon the lists of offers in Word format. This is one of the differences between the Romanian and Polish exchange services. The partnership with the Polish library improved palpably in the ‘90s when the “Lucian Blaga” University Library began to apply the new techniques and technologies of working with the publications. This led to the exchange of the traditional procedure for a modern one. From the year 1996 international exchange activities have been centralized by applying FoxPro, a program incorporating four modules by the means of which the exchange activity takes place. By using this application we can update data (partners, titles, postal taxes), which allows us to introduce new registrations in the data files; we can modify existent registrations; delete registrations; process data in order to distribute the publications; establish relationships between titles and partners and extract reports and different statistical accounts. Its application for the international exchange of publications was conceived by the specialists of the IT Department of our library. In the first part of the article, entitled Informaţii generale privind instituţiile ştiinţifice cu care se întreţin relaţii de schimb de publicaţii (General information on the scientific institutions exchanging publications with our library) (Bibliorev, 2005) the author emphasizes that “from the beginning the international exchange section had an essential role in starting computerized activity, providing entrance and exit data and testing the program. In this way the international exchange activity is almost entirely dependent on computers.”1
1 Adela Mateuţă, Schimbul internaţional de publicaţii al Bibliotecii Centrale Universitare „Lucian Blaga” din Cluj-Napoca, Prezentare generală (International Exchange of Publications in the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library from Cluj-Napoca, General Presentation), Bibliorev, No. 12 (2005) http://www.bcucluj.ro/bibliorev/arhiva/nr12/info4.html
408 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The Wroclaw University Library has used the VIRTUA System, developed by the American organization, VTLS since 1994.1 In time working in the VIRTUA System became unsuitable for the needs of the library, thus it was decided to elaborate the institution’s own database. From 2004 the library’s new, independent database, entitled “Database of Acquisitions” can be accessed by all the employees of the library. It enables them to perform activities related to exchange, but also other library activities. If in our library the application FoxPro was created by the specialists of the IT Department, the database used in the library from Wroclaw was elaborated by the personnel of the Information and Scientific Documentation Service of that institution. As a conclusion we can say that both libraries have databases of their own, but while the application of our library has been devised specially for exchange activity, in the case of the Polish library it serves for the exchange and processing of the publications received as Legal Deposit or donation, as well as for other activities. The centralized data system of the Wroclaw University Library has six modules, which I would like only to mention: ¾ the role of the first module, entitled „wpisywanie”, is to create and modify registrations; ¾ the second module, „przeglandanie” makes possible to re- visualize the registration according to: author, title, editor, the sender of the registered publication and the name of the series; ¾ the third module „wyszukiwanie” makes possible the search in the database according to the following bibliographic fields: author, title, title of the periodical, publishing place, editor, ISSN, ISBN, the title of the series, the number of the series, pressmark, document type etc.; ¾ the aim of the fourth module, entitled „przekazanie”, is to transmit the registered publications to the Cataloguing Department of the central library or to the branch institutions. The publications sent to these two locations are marked with number “1”, while those that are not sent to the Cataloguing Department or to the branch libraries are marked with “0”. When the option is accessed, a list appears with the following information: current year; publication type; the number of the parcel; identification number of the respective publication;
1 Pawel Domino, Baza rejestracyjna oddzialu gromadzenia BUWr, EBIB 4/2005 (65), http://ebib.oss.wroc.pl/2005/65/domino.php
409 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
allocation to the Cataloguing Department or to the branch institutions (0 or 1) and the branch library where the respective publication was allocated to; ¾ the fifth module, „udostepnianie”, is used by the personnel of the exchange service who are responsible for receiving the publications. Being in close collaboration with the information department, they make easier to loan the books received through exchange, without cataloguing them beforehand. It is intended thus to indicate the respective publications on the library website at the “novelties” sections. This detail shows a concrete and viable advantage of the Polish exchange service. Unfortunately, the exchange service of our library has not yet instituted a similar measure; ¾ the sixth module, „raporty”, can make different qualitative or quantitative statistics (e.g. the total number of books received from a partner and the prize of the publications received from the chosen partner). By accessing the operation „raporty”, for example, we can find out that during the year 2005 (until 27 December) by the means of the national and international exchange service, the Polish library received 696 periodical titles and 1989 books; 1461 books were allocated to the central library collections.1 The activities of the Polish exchange office can be classified in this way: ¾ correspondence with exchange partners, which implies confirming that the publications were received; making complaints; selecting and ordering the publications from the lists of offers (this takes the longest time); answering the letters received from the partners etc.; ¾ receiving the parcels; ¾ allocating the publications received through exchange to the central institution or the branch libraries; ¾ registering the publications into the database; ¾ sending the publications to the Cataloguing Department or directly to the branch institutions. At the same time, the books selected by the branch libraries are directly transmitted without cataloguing them to the following institutions: Austrian library,
1 I would like to thank Mrs Waclawa Araszkiewicz for her kindness and good will she showed while coordinating my work during the three months I spent in Poland.
410 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
library of chemistry, library of Indian philology, library of classical philology, library of Dutch philology, library of computer science, library of mathematics, library of microbiology, natural history museum and library of law. Textbooks are catalogued by the Cataloguing Department of the central library, the other books by the branch libraries; ¾ preparing two copies of the bordereaux, which accompany the books that are to be sent to the branch libraries; ¾ registering the sent publications on traditional library cards and in Word; ¾ drawing up two copies of the bordereaux, which will accompany the books that are to be sent; ¾ printing the labels directly from Word; ¾ preparing the parcels; ¾ sending them. The activities of national and international exchange are approximately identical in the two libraries; however, operation in the databases is different. According to my experiences made in the office of international exchange, the exchange of publications is very important for supplementing and enriching the library collections, especially in the actual economic conditions which characterize Poland and Romania and which have negative repercussions on the educational and cultural policy. The library subordinated to the University of Wroclaw enjoys the direct support of this institution. International exchange represents a priority in the managerial activity of the library. The exchanged Polish publications undoubtedly promote the general image of the two institutions. This holds good for the Romanian publications as well. The integration of Poland into the structures of the European Union rendered necessary to reconsider the tasks of publication exchange, to reorganize the work, to identify new strategies and tendencies of development. The aim of the new strategies of the exchange service from the Polish library was to improve the exchange with the foreign partners, to find new exchange partners, obtaining new titles of periodicals etc. In this context work quality became emphasized. It was desirable to balance the sending and receiving activities and to have a better control upon partners. The present priorities of the exchange office of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library are: to check partners, to divide them in two groups (active/passive), to find new partners, to improve the
411 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 exchange with Romanian partners, to diversify the lists of offers (this implies a good knowledge of the publications that are appearing on the Romanian editorial market) and to revaluate the exchange activity with some of our partners. At the end of this article, we specify that both institutions have tried to transcend the linguistic barriers that are often invoked without taking into consideration the cultural and scientific values of the sent or received publications. I hope that the collaboration between the two institutions will remain an active one in the future and that the consolidated partnership will reciprocally be maintained from the perspective of both Romanian and Polish priorities.
412 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Bibliographic Information or Tracking the Book in the Library
Costel DUMITRAŞCU “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: bibliographic information, bibliographers on duty, search, user types
Abstract The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of the bibliographic information service in the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library. The library having several collections and catalogues, users may often need some help in their search for information. It is the task of the bibliographer on duty to assist them. Assisting readers is not a simple task. The librarian, besides being familiar with the library, must have a good knowledge of human psychology for he has to help the different types of library users according to their needs. He must decide in each case whether he should help the user to find certain information or to show him how to search for it independently. Though it is better for both the user and the librarian if the former learns to use efficiently the informative tools of the library, the librarian is ready to answer satisfactorily even the most banal questions.
E-mail: [email protected]
It is a well-known fact that the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library is one of the biggest libraries in the country. Developed over several decades, the material of the library is organized in many collections. One can find several pressmark types in the traditional and/or online catalogues, these being placed in the Catalogue Room but in other locations of the library as well. Because of this, certain categories of users have only limited access to them. In addition to these, there are different types of access to the publications: served from the stacks (in certain rooms, depending on the collection to which the book asked for belongs) or, in certain cases, directly from the shelf. The complex collections and search methods make difficult finding the required information even for the librarians sometimes. In order to solve such problems, a Bibliographic Information desk functions in the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library. Here
413 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 two librarians, the bibliographers on duty, assist the users in finding the needed information, more precisely in using the informative instruments of the library. They also have another task: to teach the readers how to use the library services more or less independently. It has not always been sufficiently understood how complex some aspects of this service may be; a service in which the librarian represents maybe the most important link, intermediary between the reader and information. Evidently, in order to inform the users properly, the librarian must be familiar with all the library resources. Being a bibliographer on duty, I can say that the maximum efficiency of this service is assured only if the librarian, besides being familiar with the library and having all the qualities necessary to maintain relations with the public, has a wide general culture and last but not least he has a good knowledge of human psychology. Why am I saying this? We can answer correctly, completely and clearly the majority of enquiries and we can express (verbally and non-verbally) that we are ready to answer these queries, but the user must decide whether he takes advantage of this service or not. In many cases, users do not know how complex the available information sources are, therefore they think that they need no help. In other cases they do not know at all that they can ask for help. Some users hesitate to ask the librarian’s assistance for different reasons, others, fortunately few people, are unwilling to accept this. On the other hand, having decided to ask for help, sometimes the user does not know to ask exactly for the information he needs, and, in order to understand the query accurately, we need to ask additional questions, which may give us further clues. It is more important to instruct readers who are able to use the informative instruments of the library than assisting them in their search each time. In the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library we instruct the users – if they are disposed to cooperate – in courses organized with this special purpose or simply during everyday work. Naturally, the librarian must decide whether in the case of an enquiry he presents to the reader what he finds in the library collections or how the reader himself should look for the information he is interested in; whether he directs the reader to the required information or he explains how the user himself can search for it. In my case, when time does not interfere in my decision, I take into consideration the degree of interest shown for the library by the respective user and his disposition to learn. During the years spent in this service I observed that the users of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, mainly students, use the
414 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 library services in order to complete their knowledge required in their studies. Thus, in most of the cases, they are interested in the library as far as their professors request them to use the library in the studying process. This is why many of these students are not interested in the library services themselves. More precisely, they do not realize how important and useful is for them to be familiar with the library services. Many of them come to the library from time to time in order to prepare a presentation or to obtain the compulsory reading material. Their aim is to get the publication asked for into the reading room (after, in most of the cases, having tried to borrow it) as soon as possible and eventually to photocopy the necessary pages. Unfortunately, even in the case of those who spend a lot of time in the reading rooms being interested in reading does not necessarily imply an interest in the library. Although this lack of interest may be justified, it is not agreeable at all from the point of view of the librarian who has to explain elementary issues to a user he has been seeing in the library for 2–3 years, almost every day. These are the users who receive exact, precise answers in the shortest possible time when they ask for help. In their case, I think we cannot speak of formation. Fortunately, there are also “others”, users who, spending much time in the library, find it normal to understand what is going on around them, to become acquainted with the library and its services. As they are evidently more inclined to learn, in their case, when helping them to find the necessary information, the emphasis is on explaining the way in which this can be done. The formation of users in the case of this category is equally necessary for the reader and the librarian. The reader has the advantage of a greater independence when using the library services, while the librarian’s work is radically facilitated. As a personal conclusion I can say that the activity of giving bibliographic information is first of all a provocation for me. Even if not every enquiry makes me feel like a detective tracking the book in the library, in each case I have at least the gratification to answer satisfactorily even the most banal questions.
415
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS OF THE LIBRARY
Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The Adrian Marino Archive Collection of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library
Emilia-Mariana SOPORAN “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca E-mail: [email protected]
Introduction This presentation aims to give a general view of the social- political life of the literary critic, historian and theoretician, Adrian Marino from the point of view of the librarian-archivist, illustrated by the materials which form his archive collection. The formation of the archive collection had already begun from the year 1992 when Adrian Marino donated the first dossiers from his personal archive to our Library. This donation had a clause which stated that A. Marino’s original organization of the inner contents of each dossier should be respected. Because of this several dossiers are not organized according to the archival principles of arrangement. Later on, to be more precise, in the year 2004, A. Marino reconsidered this clause permitting the intervention in the inner organization of the dossier contents and the application of the archival principles of arrangement and classification. Nowadays this collection – accorded the name the “Adrian Marino” Collection – consists of 467 dossiers in which numerous materials were carefully collected. These outline the whole personality of the literary critic, historian and theoretician. Thus, even the titles of the dossiers, formulated by Adrian Marino himself, reflect his interest in some aspects of the cultural and political life of the Romanian society. In addition to manuscripts of his works, he also gathered scientific materials in the course of time which he used as a support in his research work. These were classified in different dossiers, in many cases being specified whether they were used or not.
Literary activity Naturally, most of the titles reflect A. Marino’s literary activity, illustrating once more, if it was necessary, all the significant themes he discussed in his works and which animated his entire life as a writer. The titles were incorporated into the collection according to the critic’s editorial and publishing chronology.
419 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The materials referring to the life and work of the poet Alexandru Macedonski have been gathered in four1 dossiers, two of them having the same title2 inscribed upon them as the published volumes. The dossier3 containing the original manuscripts of Alexandru Macedonski’s plays La mort du Dante, 21 October 1916 and Le fou? (the four acts of his dramatic creation in original), as well as the translation made by his son, Nikita Macedonski, of the play Nebunul (The fool), produced in Paris in 1913, is of special importance. In the year 1999 the collection was enriched with 120 new dossiers having the titles: Dicţionar de idei literare (Dictionary of Literary Ideas), Biografia ideii de literatură (The Biography of the Idea of Literature), Hermeneutica ideii de literatură (The Hermeneutics of the Idea of Literature), Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade (Mircea Eliade’s Hermeneutics), Ideea de modern (The Idea of the Modern), Critica literară (Literary Criticism) and Estetica literară (Literary Aesthetics). On the bibliographical record accompanying the donation Adrian Marino noted: “Thematic documentary materials, photocopies, clippings, versions, drafts precursory to some personal works.” He accorded special importance to the idea of the modern, respectively to the notions of modern,4 modernism,5 modern arts,6 ancient and modern,7 ancient and modern in France,8 decadence- morality,9 modern-language,10 modern and humanity,11 rhetoric,12 relativism,13 De arte metrica1 etc. All these notions are to be found as
1 The four dossiers have the pressmarks: Fd. Marino 129, Fd. Marino 130, Fd.Marino 180, Fd. Marino 379. 2 Viaţa lui Alexandru Macedonski (The Life of Alexandru Macedonski), pressmark: Fd. Marino 379, Opera lui Alexandru Macedonski (The Work of Alexandru Macedonski), Introducere în critica literară (Introduction to Literary Criticism), pressmark: Fd. Marino 180. In what follows we shall give only the pressmarks of the dossiers referred to. 3 Fd. Marino 129. 4 Fd. Marino 332, Fd. Marino 340. 5 Fd. Marino 333–334. 6 Fd. Marino 334. 7 Fd. Marino 335. 8 Fd. Marino 336. 9 Fd. Marino 337. 10 Fd. Marino 339. 11 Fd. Marino 341. 12 Fd. Marino 342. 13 Fd. Marino 343.
420 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 subtitles of the generic title, The modern Idea. The materials referring to the work Modern, modernism, modernitate (Modern, Modernism, Modernity) are in the dossier with the same title.2 The work whose title covers the greatest number (75) of dossiers3 is the very same work which imposed a particular documentary effort due to the encyclopaedism present in its articles. This writing is, of course, Dicţionarul de idei literare, which required numerous documentary, scientific materials, necessary to the elaboration of any such work. The bibliography used when writing the texts is conclusive from the point of view of both the historicity of the ideas and their actual stage. The materials gathered in these dossiers are thematic articles and contemporary studies of Romanian and foreign specialists; this encourages researchers to look through them. From among the many subtitles of this impressive work which represents “the defined concept or the fundamental key-idea”4 we shall give only some revealing examples: Sacred/profane,5 Baroque,6 Imitation,7 Popular Literature8etc. Biografia ideii de literatură, the first complete Romanian literary encyclopaedia published in several languages, as almost all the works written by A. Marino, the Romanian critic best-known in Europe, is to be found in 11 dossiers9 referring to the Romanian edition and in a dossier referring to the American version.10 The subtitles of these dossiers present chronologically the entire evolution of the idea of literature: Antiquity,11 Middle Ages,12 Renaissance,13 17th c.,14 18th c.,15
1 Fd. Marino 344. 2 Fd. Marino 382. 3 Fd. Marino 255–316, Fd. Marino 383–387. 4 Adrian Marino, Dicţionar de idei literare, Bucharest, Eminescu Publishing House, 1973, X. 5 Fd. Marino 269. 6 Fd. Marino 275. 7 Fd. Marino 273. 8 Fd. Marino 280. 9 Fd. Marino 317–326, Fd. Marino 396/1–5. 10 Fd. Marino 420. 11 Fd. Marino 318. 12 Fd. Marino 319. 13 Fd. Marino 321. 14 Fd. Marino 320. 15 Fd. Marino 322.
421 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
19th c.,1 20th c.,2 20th c. Paraliterature, Mass-literature.3 The unused materials were gathered in a different dossier.4 Besides Biografia ideii de literatură, Hermeneutica ideii de literatură is an important work too. Western literary theory would be proud of these works, if it owned them. Hermeneutica ideii de literatură is illustrated by a few dossiers.5 The work, Hermeneutica lui Mircea Eliade, included in the dossiers6 of this collection represents an initial manuscript, materials used in the writing process of the work, texts by Mircea Eliade, studies on Mircea Eliade, as well as Romanian and foreign reviews on the numerous editions of Mircea Eliade’s works. There are 17 dossiers7 with reference to literary aesthetics in which there are described concepts and ideas belonging to the domain of contemporary aesthetics: creation,8 aesthetic emotion, aesthetism,9 purity,10 imagination, fantasy,11 uselessness, luxury, play, gratuitous12 etc. As editor and director of the first Romanian periodical of literary studies circulated in foreign languages, Cahiers roumains d’études littéraires, Adrian Marino gathered many articles sent to him in order to be published and written by such personalities as Ion Hobana, Aurel Sasu, N. I. Popa, A Lăzărescu etc. This periodical was little-known in Romania, but it was appreciated in the intellectual circles abroad. Adrian Marino describes it as a periodical collection of studies focusing on comparative literature, each of its monographic numbers being consecrated to a certain theme. The main contents were thematic, they were followed by the chronicle of translations where books by Romanian authors translated abroad were reviewed.
1 Fd. Marino 323. 2 Fd. Marino 324/1–6. 3 Fd. Marino 325. 4 Fd. Marino 326. 5 Fd. Marino 327–328, Fd. Marino 394–395. 6 Fd. Marino 329–331, Fd. Marino 392–393. 7 Fd. Marino 348–364. 8 Fd. Marino 353. 9 Fd. Marino 358. 10 Fd. Marino 360. 11 Fd. Marino 354. 12 Fd. Marino 359.
422 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Naturally, there are many dossiers containing articles for the Cahiers... Besides the titles1 gathering printed articles, there are those comprising reviews on the periodical which were published in the national and international press.2 Adrian Marino was the contributor of many Romanian and foreign periodicals. Many dossiers have as a title the names of personalities belonging to Romanian and foreign cultural circles, such as the dossiers named after Constantin Noica,3 Ioan Petru Culianu,4 Matei Călinescu,5 Pavel Chihaia,6 Iordan Chimet,7 Alexandru Piru,8 Andrei Pippidi,9 Adrian Dinu Rachieru,10 Sorin Antohi,11 Mircea Iorgulescu,12 Vladimir Tismăneanu,13 Monica Spiridon,14 Radu G. Ţeposu,15 Dorin Tudoran,16 Paul Lăzărescu,17 Nicholas Catanoy,18 Ruxandra Cesereanu,19 Corneliu Ştefanache20 etc. Each of them were essayists, poets, prose writers, literary historians and critics, translators, whom Adrian Marino collaborated with in his literary activity. These dossiers contain the correspondences between the above mentioned personalities and Adrian Marino, as well as articles written by or materials about the formers. An example worth mentioning is the dossier entitled Constantin Noica which comprises the correspondence between C. Noica and A. Marino, a memorial about Mircea Eliade signed by C. Noica, an article on C. Noica
1 The dossiers are to be found under the pressmarks Fd. Marino 1–21, Fd. Marino 48–49, Fd. Marino 138, Fd. Marino 140 and others. 2 Fd. Marino 215, Fd. Marino 407. 3 Fd. Marino 371. 4 Fd. Marino 372. 5 Fd. Marino 438–440. 6 Fd. Marino 184. 7 Fd. Marino 452. 8 Fd. Marino 214. 9 Fd. Marino 449. 10 Fd. Marino 451. 11 Fd. Marino 445. 12 Fd. Marino 424. 13 Fd. Marino 448. 14 Fd. Marino 446. 15 Fd. Marino 373. 16 Fd. Marino 450. 17 Fd. Marino 474. 18 Fd. Marino 472. 19 Fd. Marino 473. 20 Fd. Marino 475.
423 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 signed by the French professor, Claude Karnooch,1 photocopies and periodical articles referring to C. Noica. The rich correspondence between Adrian Marino and numerous personalities is an important documentary source which may help us to outline a true image of the Romanian literary and even political culture in different periods of the society and under different political regimes. The letters contain opinions and accounts of some events which question attitudes insufficiently understood at that socio-political moment or bring to judgement actions beforehand unknown. The dossiers containing correspondence are sorted according to the origin or the destination of the letters. Thus, we can find titles as: Romanian Correspondence, Foreign Correspondence, Switzerland Correspondence, Letters from Readers, Letters from Reviewed Authors etc.
Study trips, conferences Adrian Marino collected during his study trips abroad notes, editorial prospectuses, new articles, folders. From the material of his Switzerland trip2 he constituted a dossier for each domain of personal interest: folders and notes from the University of Geneva,3 notes on the Romanian presence in Switzerland,4 information on the Society of Swiss writers,5 on Rhaeto-Romanian writers,6 documentary materials on Switzerland.7 His other study trips as those to Belgium,8 Greece,9 Turkey,10 Israel11 etc. are represented as well in the Adrian Marino archive collection. Having participated at several national and international congresses of neo-Latin studies,12 at international colloquia and
1 Claude Karnooch, “Constantin Noica et la quête d’une essence de la tradition roumain”, in Lupta (The Struggle), March 1988. 2 Fd. Marino 156–164. 3 Fd. Marino 157. 4 Fd. Marino 158, Fd. Marino 163. 5 Fd. Marino 159. 6 Fd. Marino 162. 7 Fd. Marino 160, Fd. Marino 164. 8 Fd. Marino 154. 9 Fd. Marino 205. 10 Fd. Marino 253, Fd. Marino 376. 11 Fd. Marino 377. 12 Congrese de studii neo-latine (Congresses of Neo-Latin Studies), Fd. Marino 169; The Third International Congress of Romanian Studies, Fd. Marino 234.
424 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 conferences (Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin1), Adrian Marino collected literary materials of great scientific interest, participation bulletins, as well as a rich official correspondence with the members of the organizing institutes. Always interested in the spreading of Romanian literature and in the image of Romania in foreign countries, he attentively followed and recorded the way Romanians were thought of in the world both from literary and political point of view.2
Political interest Adrian Marino’s political interest and the value of the collection initiated by this result from the different notes referring to Romania’s political and cultural situation, notes to be found in the dossiers containing political materials.3 As a former political prisoner (1949– 1957), then a deportee to the Bărăgan 1957–19634, he took an interest in the situation of political prisoners from the communist period and militated for human rights.5 He was a member of the Sighet Memorial Foundation.6 As a member of the Anti-totalitarian Forum7 and supporter of democracy8 in Romania, he attentively followed all aspects related to the sensitive problems of Romanian politics: minorities,9 European integration. Adrian Marino speaks of European integration supporting the realization of this political objective. The dossier titles suggest this:
1 Fd. Marino 206–207, Fd. Marino 254. 2 Românii în lume. Prezenţe literare (Romanians in the World. Literary Presence), Fd. Marino 172; Românii în lume. Prezenţe politice (Romanians in the World. Political Presence), Fd. Marino 173; Prezenţe româneşti şi realităţi europene (Romanian Presence in European Realities), Fd. Marino 391. 3 Materiale politice (Political Materials), Fd. Marino 245; Politică şi cultură (Politics and Culture), Fd. Marino 399, Presa şi materiale politice (The Press and Political Materials), Fd. Marino 468. 4 Pica Ioan Victor: coleg, deportare (Pica Ioan Victor: Colleague, Deportation), Fd. Marino 249; “Dosare” deţinuţi politici (“Dossiers” Political Prisoners), Fd. Marino 464. 5 Fd. Marino 243. 6 Fd. Marino 461. 7 Fd. Marino 122–127. 8 Democraţia creştină (Christian Democracy), Fd. Marino 244. 9 Greco-catolicii (Greek Catholics), Fd. Marino 459; “Separatiştii ardeleni” (“Transylvanian Separatists”), Fd. Marino 457; Relaţiile româno-maghiare (Romanian-Hungarian Relations), Fd. Marino 456.
425 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Europe,1 Central Europe, Federalization of Europe, Integration,2 Return to Europe,3 Europe and the Romanians,4 Romania and Europe,5 Romanian Presence and European Realities,6 For Europe,7 Pro Europa League.8 He was a contributor to the radio stations Voice of America and Free Europe,9 member of the Civic Alliance10 and of the Christian- Democratic National Peasants’ Party. During his party membership he gathered into several dossiers11 political materials referring to the party leadership, dissidences and exclusions from the party, manifestations, declarations, demonstrations, surveys, works on the history of the party, on external relations, on Ion Raţiu’s personality (personal activities within the cultural department), programs, principles, manifestos, political documents.
Awards Data referring to the prizes Adrian Marino had been awarded with can be found in the dossiers Herder Prize,12 Opera Omnia Prize.13 Literary prizes of the National Book Salon,14 diplomas awarded by the Romanian Academy15 and the Union of Romanian Writers are preserved in other dossiers.16 The great number of themes to be found in the dossier titles of the Adrian Marino collection has not allowed us to dwell on each subject.
1 Fd. Marino 460. 2 Fd. Marino 458. 3 Fd. Marino 400. 4 Fd. Marino 454. 5 Fd. Marino 455. 6 Fd. Marino 477. 7 Fd. Marino 398. 8 Fd. Marino 241. 9 Piese din arhiva posturilor Vocea Americii şi Europa Liberă (Works from the Archives of the Voice of America and Free Europe Radio Stations), Fd. Marino 176. 10 Alianţa Civică: 1990–2002 (Civic Alliance 1990–2002), Fd. Marino 177, Fd. Marino 466. 11 Fd. Marino 178–183, Fd. Marino 246, Fd. Marino 467. 12 Fd. Marino 148. 13 Fd. Marino 227. 14 Fd. Marino 228, Fd. Marino 496. 15 Fd. Marino 483. 16 Fd. Marino 482, Fd. Marino 493-495, Fd. Marino 497.
426 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
In this article we mentioned only those themes whose discussion is of greater importance. Such subjects as Poems from the Age of Dictatorship1 or Cultural and Literary Materials: Ceauşescu’s Age 1981–19852 etc. have not been mentioned but they have a real value for the literary historian. Similarly, I have not referred to titles as Fulbright- Rochester Scholarship,3 Cultural Foundations4 or International Comparative Literature Association5 etc., however, they are important for the writer’s complete biography. We hope that this presentation has offered a general view of the information that can be found within the archive collection with reference to the interests Adrian Marino, scholar and man of culture, had during his life. We think that the investigation of this collection will be useful to Adrian Marino’s biographers, as well as to literary historians and not only to those who will undertake to write the history of contemporary Romanian literature.
1 Fd. Marino 242. 2 Fd. Marino 216. 3 Fd. Marino 151–152. 4 Fd. Marino 176. 5 Fd. Marino 72, Fd. Marino 131–137, Fd. Marino 145.
427 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Exhibition of 16–18th Century Manuscripts in the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Homo Scribens: Memory Culture and the Typology of Writing in the 16–18th Century
Judit KOLUMBÁN “Lucian Blaga”Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca E-mail:[email protected]
The exhibition was organised on the occasion of the conference entitled Memory and Devotion in the 16–18th Century initiated by the Department of Old Hungarian Literature and was meant to offer illustrative support to the theme of the conference. The exhibition opened in the Special Collections department of the “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, draws the visitor’s attention to manuscripts, printed publications with marginalia belonging to memoir literature. 53 exemplars were exhibited, original manuscripts and copies, as well as illustrative materials. The material was organized in three categories. The first category included: chronicles, diaries, memoirs in chronological order, presenting the genres of the memory-literature in general. Among them I would like to stress the importance of János Szalárdi’s The Siege of Oradea,1 which offers important data about the events of the year 1662. In this category György Wass’s diary2, the memoirs of Ferenc Szakál3 (1657–after 1726) and György Rettegi4 (1718?–1786) were exhibited. The latter represents faithfully the opinion of the middle nobility in Transylvania regarding the historical events immediately following the instauration of the Habsburg regime in the province. The second category of documents focused on the classics of the Transylvanian memoir-literature. In this category were exhibited János Kemény’s, Miklós Bethlen’s, Mihály Cserei’s and Kata Árva Bethlen’s autobiographies. János Kemény’s (1607-1662) Historia5 and
1 No. 11. 2 No. 19. 3 No. 20. 4 No. 21. 5 No. 24.
428 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Biographia1 are the copies of the same work made in different periods. The exemplar entitled Historia2 is a copy made in the 18th century; the note on the inner cover of the manuscript (“Ex libris est Sigismundi Enyedi ab A(nn)o 1756.”) reveals the possessor’s name. The Biographia was copied in the year 1807. From Miklós Bethlen’s works three handwritten copies3 were exhibited, compiled in the 18th and the 19th century. The first was the count’s Autobiography, a colligate made in the 19th century, comprising Miklós Bethlen’s biography, as well as some of his works. Another example worth mentioning was a copy from 1770 having a manually decorated title-page, a note by the illustrator (“Franciscus Domokos De Also-Tsernaton”), as well as the ex-libris inserted by the later owner (“B. Horváth J.”). Mihály Cserei’s (1668-1756) work, Historia, written in exile at Braşov presents the historical events that happened in Transylvania between 1661 and 1712. The work outlines the profile of the protestant, pro-Habsburgic writer as well. The item No. 30. of the annex is a copy made by “Petrus Istvanffi de Csik Sz Királly”. Beside the owner’s note it contains a “will” referring to the destiny of the manuscript after the owner’s decease. In this will Péter Istvánffi bequeathed the manuscript to his son, László Istvánffi, and, if he was detained from home on account of his military service, meanwhile the owner would be Péter Istvánffi’s brother, Tamás Istvánffi. 4 Kata Árva Bethlen wrote The Description of Her Own Life5 from 1744 till her death (1759). Towards the end of a life full of vicissitudes she wrote her autobiography which presents the drama of a
1 No. 25. 2 No. 24. 3 No. 27. Count Miklós Bethlen, Önéletírása (Autobiography), Sudores et cruces Nicolai Bethlen, s.l., 19th c. No. 28. Miklós Bethlen, Művei (Works), s.l., 1770. No. 29. Miklós Bethlen, count, Élete (His Life), s.l., 18th c. 4 “Ezen tulajdon kezemmel le irt Collectiok történhetö halálommal. Ha természet szerint valo fiam Istvánffi László Katonai Tiszti hivatallya miatt ide haza nem lehetne, addig is legközelébb Kedves Testvérem, Istvánffi Tamásra szállyon Legalis Haeressio szerent. ” (These collections copied by myself, when I happen to die, in the case my son, Istvánffi László should not be at home because of his service as an officer, should pass to my dear brother, Istvánffi Tamás, according to legal succession.) 5 No. 32. Kata Bethlen, Életének rövid le irása (The Short Description of Her Life), s.l., 18th c.
429 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 woman, who had lost two husbands and five children. To these tragedies were added the interconfessional conflicts within the family. Because of her Protestant religion, in which she firmly persisted, her catholic relations bereft her of the two children born from her first marriage. This autobiography was first published in 1762. The exhibited copy, transcribed by Péter Bod1, has fewer pages than the published variant. The third group of the exhibited documents was formed of calendars in which the possessors made various notes referring to their personal and family life. These notes were mainly devised according to the typology of diaries.2 An 18th century owner of the Calendar for 1551 by Eberus Paulus3 informs us on the pages of this publication about the birth of his daughter: „Hoc die nascitur Anna Tetsi circa horam noctis 1am, Anno 1760”. In another calendar we can find the name of the institution in whose possession the copy used to be: “Tanacze” (that is, “the Council’s”).4 The notes of the politician, Mihály Cserei can be found in several of the exhibited calendars.5 The notes refer mainly to the
1 Péter Bod (Felsőcsernáton, 22. February 1712. – Magyarigen, 3. March 1769.): ecclesiastical and literary history writer, Kata Bethlen’s court chaplain. 2 No. 34. Eberus Palulus, Calendarium historicum, Vitebergae, 1551. 3 No. 34. Eberus Palulus, Calendarium historicum, Vitebergae, 1551 (vol. IV.). 4 No. 41. Kalendárium az 1632-es esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1632), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. 5 No. 45. Kalendáriom az 1690-es esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1690), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. No. 46. Kalendáriom az 1691-es esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1691), Lőcse, s.a. No. 47. Kalendáriom az 1692-es esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1692), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. No. 48. Kalendáriom az 1693-as esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1693), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. No. 49. Kalendáriom az 1694-es esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1694), Koloszvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. No. 50. Kalendáriom az 1695-ös esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1695), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. No. 51. Calendariom az 1697-es esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1690), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. No. 52. Calendariom az 1698-as esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1698), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a.
430 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 possessor’s personal life, usual activities and journeys, which are revealed on these calendar pages. All these manuscripts belonging to the genres of memory- literature are important historical sources as they speak of the cultural and social life of the centuries they were written in, enabling us to investigate these aspects of the past more thoroughly.
Hic incipit catalogus:
1. István Székely, Krónikájának folytatása 1558−1601 (The Continuation of His Chronicle 1558–1601), s.l., s.a. 2. Sebestyén Borsos, Krónikája Erdély történeteiről 1490-1584 (Chronicle of the Events in Transylvania 1490–1584), s.l., XVIII.sz. 3. Ferencz Mikó, hidvégi, Erdélyben maga életében történt dolgokrul írt historiája 1594−1613, Bíró Sámuel folytatásával, 1613 augusztus végéig (Chronicle of the Events That Happened during His Life in Transylvania 1594–1613, Continued by Sámuel Bíró to the End of August, 1613), s.l., 18th c. 4. Sebestyén Borsos, Krónikája Erdély történeteiről 1490-1584 (Chronicle of the Events in Transylvania 1490–1584), s.l., 18th c. 5. Mihály Toldalaghi, Követségi naplója és jelentései Bethlen Gáborhoz (His Embassy Diary and Reports to Gábor Bethlen), s.l., 1627. 6. Count László Rhédei, Naplókönyve 1653-1656 (Diary-book 1653– 1656), s.l., 1653-1656. 7. György Lipcsei, Naplófeljegyzései (Diary Notes), s.l., 17th c. 8. István Enyedi, II. Rákóczi György fejedelem veszedelmeiről 1657−1660 (On the Perils of Prince György Rákóczi II 1657–1660), s.l., 1720-1743. 9. Dávid Rosnyai, Diáriuma 1667-től (Diary from 1667), s.l., 17th c. 10. Description exacte des royaumes de Hongria et Dalmatie, etc. : et gravees en cuivre par Gaspar Bouttats, Anvers, 1668. 11. János Szalárdy, Várad ostroma. 1662 (The Siege of Oradea. 1662), s.l., 18th c. 12. Dávid Rosnyai, Diáriuma 1667-től (Diary from 1667), s.l., 18th c. 13. Anna Bornemissza, Gazdasági naplója 1667–1672 (Economic Diary 1667–1672), s.l., 17th c. 14. Imre Thököly, Naplója 1676–1678 (Diary 1676–1678), s.l., 18th c. 15. Gáspár Gönc−Ruszkai Kornis, Naplója 1678−1683 (Diary 1678– 1683), s.l., 1678-1683.
431 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
16. József Inczédi, Emlékirata 1688−1710 (Memoirs 1688–1710) s.l., 1688-1710. 17. Mihály Apaffy II, Diarium de anni 1690–1694, s.l., 19th c. 18. János Komáromi, Diariumja és Experientiáji 1697. okt. 8. – 1705. szept. 13 (Diary and Experiences 8. Oct. 1697. – 13. Sept. 1705.), s.l., 1856. 19. Georgius Wass, Diarium Viennense 1698–1702, s.l., 1698-1702. 20. Ferenc Szakál, Naplója 1698−1718 (Diary 1698–1718), s.l., 1847. 21. György Rettegi , Emlékirata 1718-1777 (Memoirs 1718–1777), s.l., 1718-1777. 22. János Ikafalvi, Vegyes naplójegyzetei 1747–1759 (Miscellaneous Diary Notes), s.l., 19th c. 23. István Tekerőpataki Gáborfi, Naplója 1744–1764 (Diary 1744– 1764), s.l., 1744-1764 24. Prince János Kemény, Históriája (Historia), s.l., 18th c. 25. Johannis Kemény, Biographia, s.l., 1807. 26. Johannis Kemény, photography, s.l., s.a. 27. Count Miklós Bethlen, Önéletírása (Autobiography), Sudores et cruces Nicolai Bethlen, s.l., 19th c. 28. Miklós Bethlen, Művei (Works), s.l., 1770. 29. Count Miklós Bethlen, Élete (His Life), s.l., 18th c. 30. Mihály Cserei, Históriája (Historia), s.l., 18th c. 31. Mihály Cserei, Históriája (Historia), s.l., 18th c. 32. Kata Bethlen, Életének rövid le irása (The Short Description of Her Life), s.l., 18th c. 33. Péter Bod, Narratio de vita, s.l., 18th c. 34. Eberus Palulus, Calendarium historicum, Vitebergae, 1551. 35. Eberus Palulus, Calendarium historicum, Vitebergae, 1571. 36. Eberus Palulus, Calendarium historicum, Vitebergae, 1559. 37. Eberus Palulus, Calendarium historicum, Vitebergae, 1551. 38. Cluj-Napoca, lithography, s.l., 19th c. 38. Erdélyi Kalendárium, 1798. esztendőre (Transylvanian Calendar for the Year 1798), Szeben (Sibiu), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. 39. Erdélyi Kalendárium, 1800. esztendőre (Transylvanian Calendar for the Year 1800), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. 40. Erdélyi Kalendárium, 1797. esztendőre (Transylvanian Calendar for the Year 1797), Szeben (Sibiu), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. 41. Kalendárium az 1632-es esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1632), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a.
432 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
42. Kalendárium az 1678-as esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1678), Lőcse, s.a. 43. Kalendárium az 1681-as esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1681), Lőcse, s.a. 44. Kalendáriom az 1692-es esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1692), Lőcse, s.a. 45. Kalendáriom az 1690-es esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1690), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. 46. Kalendáriom az 1691-es esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1691), Lőcse, s.a. 47. Kalendáriom az 1692-es esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1692), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. 48. Kalendáriom az 1693-as esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1693), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. 49. Kalendáriom az 1694-es esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1694), Koloszvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. 50. Kalendáriom az 1695-ös esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1695), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. 51. Calendariom az 1697-es esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1697), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a. 52. Calendariom az 1698-as esztendőre (Calendar for the Year 1698), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), s.a.
Hic explicit totum !
433
MISCELLANEA
Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Adrian Marino between unit-ideas and Zeitgeist
Ruxandra CESEREANU1 Faculty of Letters, “Babeş-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca
Historian of ideas and liberal thinker, interested in the study of ideologies (fascination often manifested after the fall of communism), Adrian Marino claimed public attention in less than a year after his death with a vast work, which though unfinished, deals not only with censorship in Romania, but also with the theme of liberty.2 The two terms facinated the author in the last period of his life. He conjoined them in an antithetic pair with the very purpose of accentuating the pluses and minuses of Romanian culture and society analyzed in a studious and exhaustive racourci with application to the 18th and 19th centuries. Adrian Marino elegantly handled the lancet on the pre-modern Romanian political thinking and culture, being fascinated by the evolution of a critical spirit. Therefore, as a scrupulous analyst, he did not explore merely the visible idea-structures connected to the mentioned subjects, but he also looked into the less-known, marginal areas. Preoccupied with the slow process of Europeanization of Romanian culture, Adrian Marino particularly focused on the concept of modernity applied in the sphere of political thinking. Is there a Romanian tradition in this sense? Was our liberal thinking only an epigone? Returning to the sources, to the origins, Adrian Marino engaged himself in the Sisyphean labour of gathering documentary evidence, for he wished to respect the historical truth faithfully. The author recognized the militant character of his procedure, which even had missionary accents “defending and affirming the liberty of conscience, thinking and expression”. As a synonym for censorship, he also liked to use the term constraint, considered sometimes more adequate for its evident noxious meaning. Death prevented Adrian Marino from writing the final chapter of his work, namely, “Confruntarea dintre liberalism şi totalitarismele de dreapta şi stânga” (The confrontation between liberalism and leftist and rightist totalitarian regimes). This would have been an imperious chapter for professionally
1 E-mail: [email protected] 2 Adrian Marino, Libertate şi cenzură în România (Liberty and Censorship in Romania), Iaşi, Polirom, 2005, 299.
437 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 separating the conceptual waters (and not only) in the ideological confusions that haunted Romania after the fall of the communist regime. Naturally, the author defined his method at the beginning of his book: he was a representative of the history of ideas, discipline having no Romanian model. The history of ideas was seen as the only appropriate method throughout centuries for analyzing Romanian culture and ideology. Adrian Marino admitted that he partially accepted the American version of that method through the “unit-ideas” term relying on the analysis of a theory, a doctrine, a program etc. Through the term „unit-ideas”, the relations – beyond time or space – between different political ideas can be detected. In spite of the multiple nuances which may occur in such cases that which the author called “ideological, mental construction“, remains a constant of the analysis. The ideological invariants which essentially take part at the portrayal of a culture and of a political thinking are interesting too. The long-term changes often depend on these invariants. Adrian Marino did not rely on a quantitative method of the history of ideas, but on a qualitative one. And, at this point, the author displayed the revelation he had had during his documentation: the acknowledged cultural or literary hierarchies will undergo some major changes; works catalogued as minor are to become important strictly through the medium of the history of ideas. Adrian Marino even talks about a certain voluptuousness in the rediscovery of some unjustly ignored writers from before 1848. For this rediscovery, the author used various sources: memoirs, correspondences, official reports of the age, etc. His revelation was embodied – among others – in “Noul Geist al Şcolii Ardelene” (the New Geist of the Transylvanian School), which had surpassed in relevance, in the sense of the unit-ideas, the traditional cultural practice of the age. Basically, Adrian Marino’s counterattack was directed against the primacy of the aesthetic, his analysis proving that the political idea had been prior to the literary idea in the pre-modern Romanian culture, and that the latter was dominant in the Romanian space only from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. By means of such an investigation the author solved an obsessing Romanian cultural complex: containing undeniable ideological, political, social values, Romanian culture had initially been an advanced and not at all minor culture. Adrian Marino voluptuously rehabilitated it and offered us an unprecedented explicative solution that satisfies the national pride.
438 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
As regards the title of the book, it must be specified that the author was more concerned and fascinated with the idea of freedom than with the issue of censorship. Adrian Marino considered the idea of freedom “the first Romanian principle of thought” but understood in the definition of stating and claiming the liberty of will. The impulse of liberty is a “fundamental human” impetus; that is why liberty was not initially theorized in Romanian culture. An ideological pro domo defence for liberty is needed only in the moment when constraint appears. Transylvania was the first Romanian territory where the idea of liberty began to be discussed on a professional level, having an ideological background. However, the discussion remained inside the cultured class and did not break into the profound Romania of the masses. The idea of liberty had different nuances in Transylvania than in the other Romanian Countries – but this fact is natural and utterly justified. Notwithstanding, Adrian Marino’s central observation was other: namely that the idea of freedom – as it appeared in Transylvania – was thoroughly contemporaneous with the European flux of ideas; if nothing, this point showed that in the 18th century we were at the same cultural level as Europe and we were integrated in her. Only Europe did not know about us! That is why a chronology of the idea of freedom is necessary; we are informed accordingly that in 1799 Paul Iorgovici, was the first to express clearly this idea, followed soon by Samuil Micu and by the other members of the Transylvanian School. Marino’s analysis was made step by step, entering into details, in order to offer a general view on the Zeitgeist of the age. The majority of interventions related to the idea of liberty appear in theological or linguistic debates, then in historical and social-political discussions. However, the idea of freedom was decisively interlinked in Transylvania with the aspiration towards religious freedom, and only after that with political-social liberty (the national idea) and the freedom of press. Supplex Libellus Valachourum was mainly the quintessence of the first two issues. The European idea or ideas flow into Walachia and Moldova through Transylvania – asserted Adrian Marino. Transylvania was the first Romanian province that assimilated the European model and discovered Europe through the flux of ideas. The journeys made by Romanian scholars to Vienna and Rome (more rarely to France or England) were essential in this respect. Moldova and Walachia were also discussed in equally detailed case studies, but Transylvania remained – at least for the 18th and for the beginning of the 19th century – the champion in Europeanizing the
439 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Romanian area, and in introducing the ideas circulating throughout Europe. The other two Romanian countries seem to have promoted the idea of liberty less impetuously, at least in the period studied by the author. The progress was individual in Moldova and Walachia and not collective (as in Transylvania), and the influences being brought by Phanariotes or they came from Russian, and not from the West. Nevertheless, the critical spirit developed and the modernization process took place progressively and favourably in Moldova and Walachia, both being more patriarchal-traditional countries than Transylvania. There were several peculiarities in both regions: in Moldova freemasonry implanted a current of western-liberal ideas; the lack of censorship and the massive book-import approved by the foreign cosmopolite rulers were important too; and last but not least the influences and especially the echoes of the French Revolution were essential. In Moldova’s case, Adrian Marino also followed the “beginnings of the Romanian «historical» complexes of inferiority and superiority”. “We are indeed inferior Europeans, but we also have a great capacity of recovery” – asserted the author optimistically. The case of Walachia was almost similar to that of Moldova; however, the author observed here a more intensive process of Europeanization than in Moldova, even if there was the a danger of creating some “forms without essence”: Europe was mythicized, but it did not have a clear content that could have been taken over and assumed by the intellectuals of Walachia. Europe was blank (as an adoptable essence) but imitable. Adrian Marino’s discussion is challenging as it was aimed inclusively at the debates on the same obsessing theme, which have taken place since 1990, after the fall of communism and the more of less forced joining of Romania with Europe. Up to this point we discussed the 18th century. Another impressive model was dedicated to the 19th century in Transylvania, a real obsession of the author, I would say, to fix the origins of the Europeanization process of Romanian culture in Transylvania, and not in the South. The procedure was without parti- pris, however, it was deeply scientific, like the entire book, which makes Adrian Marino – if this is still necessary – the most prolific historian and bibliographer of ideas in Romania.
440 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Jewish Philosophy: between Jerusalem and Athens
Sandu Frunză: Philosophy and Judaism. An Answer to the Question: “What is Jewish Philosophy?” Iulia GRAD1 PhD student “Babeş-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca
In the volume entitled Philosophy and Judaism. An Answer to the Question: “What is Jewish Philosophy?” (Cluj-Napoca, Limes Publishing House, 2006, pp. 159) Sandu Frunză proposes a specialist’s extremely elaborated perspective on the antique and medieval Jewish philosophy. The volume is the first of a series of three books in which the author outlines possible answers to the difficult question formulated in the title. One of the answers, the one offered in this volume, has as a starting point two representative figures of antique and medieval philosophy, Philo and Maimonides. Another answer, which will constitute the subject of the next volume of this project, can be given by surveying the works of some famous names of modern Jewish philosophy; while the third answer, offered in a third volume, will be based on the philosophy subsequent to the Holocaust. The author announces from the beginning that the metaphor of the cities Jerusalem and Athens or of the realms of Israel and Greece has an essential role in the logic of this book. This metaphor describes the dynamics of the relationship between philosophy and religion, a relationship with varied forms having a decisive role in outlining the sphere of Jewish philosophy. “Jewish philosophy – Sandu Frunză says – proposes a privileged modality for understanding Judaism by the encounter between philosophy and religion as the founding polarity of a creative tradition.” The first part of the volume is a general introduction to the proposed subject. Firstly, the author presents the classical solutions to the problem of the circumscription of Jewish philosophical sphere proposed by the formalist and essentialist perspectives and analysed by Raphael Jospe. The formalist perspective indicates an exact criterion –such as language or belonging to the community of Israel – for circumscribing
1 E-mail: [email protected]
441 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 the Jewish philosophical sphere. In this way an uncomplicated though oversimplified view on Jewish philosophy is established. The essentialist discussion proposes the existence of an essence of Judaism according to which a philosophical system is or is not Jewish. This perspective, however, does not offer a coherent explicative model, being, according to Raphael Jospe, rather prescriptive than descriptive. The attempt to find some criteria or elements that should constitute the essence of Jewish philosophy is destined to failure because of the diversity of Jewish philosophical thinking. At this point Sandu Frunză states that one of the great provocations formulated by Jewish philosophy is exactly “to go beyond the formalist-essentialist divergence by analysing different systems of thought, which offer a series of special modalities for establishing the relationship between philosophy and religion.” Another level discussed while attempting to outline the necessary background for the formulation of an answer to the question “what is Jewish philosophy?” is the chronological perspective. Sandu Frunză analyses several approaches such as Isaac Husik’s, according to which Jewish philosophy can be identified only in the past, or Daniel H. Frank’s opinion who sustains that we can talk about Jewish philosophy only from the beginning of the 20th century when this academic discipline appeared. Regarding the place of Jewish philosophy as a part of philosophy in general, the author mentions Warren Zev Harvey’s analyses on the historiographic perspectives of some philosophers such as Hegel, Wolfson, Strauss or Pines. Later on, the possibility of the existence of a Judaic theology is discussed, several options being mentioned: on the one hand, that which sustains that theology is a Christian invention having no equivalent in Jewish thinking; on the other hand, that which thinks, as Louis Jacobs did, that there is a Jewish theology and that this is given more and more attention these days. Sandu Frunză analyses in more detail and somewhat critically the perspective on theology in the Jewish context, proposed by Manfred H. Vogel, who redefines what modernity presents as philosophic reflection as authentic Jewish philosophy. The metaphor of Jerusalem and Athens, a metaphor which accompanies the reader during the entire book, will be discussed once again when Leo Strauss’ position regarding the relationship between the two is presented. Strauss thinks that the particularity of Athens consists of the option for the individual, independence and knowledge, while Jerusalem
442 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 is characterized by dependence and affection, in the biblical reference to honour one’s father and mother. In this way the idea of a permanent conflict between philosophy and religion and the impossibility of their coexistence in a coherent cultural construction is outlined. The secret of western civilization consists exactly of the attempt to put together thought and faith. The metaphor of the two cities expresses the fundamental tension between the philosophers’ God and Abraham’s Isaac’s and Jacob’s God, the irreconcilable isolation of reason and faith. The author presents at this point how A. J. Heschel proposes to surpass the impossibility of reconciliation between reason and faith. He too resorts to the metaphor of the two symbolic cities, Athens and Jerusalem at the meeting point of which Jewish philosophy should be constituted. It is possible to keep the two poles in balance if their meeting is imagined as an ellipsis. Jewish philosophy appears as an “elliptic thinking”, since it revolves around two central points: philosophy and religion. “Because the tension resulted from the competition of the two powers this thinking with an elliptic orbit continuously gives new senses to the meeting between philosophy and religion.” (p. 53.) Sandu Frunză thinks that this perspective is to be preferred to the others because it proposes a possibility for avoiding the conflict between Jerusalem and Athens by establishing a dialogical relationship between reason and faith. Further on, the author presents, by analysing Philo of Alexandria’s philosophy, one of the possible answers to the question raised by the subtitle of the volume. To start with, Sandu Frunză mentions the periods Jewish philosophy is usually divided into: the antique period which lasted to the destruction of the Temple and its emblematic figure being Philo of Alexandria; the medieval period which ended with Uriel da Costa and whose exemplary figure was Maimonides; the modern age between Spinoza, Mendelssohn and the Holocaust; the contemporary period beginning with the founding of Israel. Another division into periods was proposed by Wolfson; this has as a criterion the relationship with the Scriptures. Thus, the history of philosophy is divided into: the philosophy which does not know the Scriptures, the philosophy which serves the Scriptures and that which wants to free itself from the influence of the Scriptures. Further on, there are analyzed different approaches to the relationship between philosophy and tradition at Philo, approaches
443 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 proposed by different thinkers, such as Wolfson, Shlomo Pines, Cohn- Sherbok or Guttmann. The author believes that Philo thought philosophy was the divine gift given to the Greeks in order to discover by the way of reason that which had been given to the Jews through revelation. In this sense it is useful to mention the metaphor of the two callings, a metaphor referring in fact to religion and philosophy: the calling of Moses, who loved virtue and was loved by God and reveals himself to him, and the calling of Bezaleel, who was chosen to be the artist of the Tabernacle and of all the things in it, and who knows God only by the means of his creation. The conclusion is in this context that both faith and reason, both religion and philosophy belong to a reality named by Philo Wisdom. The relationship between philosophy and wisdom can be integrated into the paradigm of the two cities according to Sandu Frunză. In Philo’s case these two symbolic cities are integrated by “the medium of virtue, a virtue which is valorised as devotion and as mystical experience.” It is essential to take into consideration this “ritualization of thinking, which requires that tradition should be adapted to the field of philosophy and that philosophical and religious reflection should return to a creative stage of tradition.” The author accords an important role to the presentation of the Christian reading of the Philonian philosophy in the analysis of the Jewish thinker’s system. Here Sandu Frunză refers, among other authors, to the Philonian exegeses of the Christian theologian Ioan Chirilă, who, affirming that Philo’s oeuvre is not a “pre-Christian intuition”, but “an elevation towards the Logos”, manages to avoid the trap and temptation of some sub-textual readings or of exaggerated connections. Another emblematic figure of Jewish thought, Moses Maimonides is the subject of the analysis which outlines the necessary background for the circumscription of the Jewish philosophical sphere. Sandu Frunză states that the analyses regarding the place of philosophy in Jewish thinking emphasize its preponderantly hermeneutic character. In this context is situated another important aspect for understanding Jewish philosophy, the meeting between philosophy, mysticism and Judaic tradition. A decisive moment in this sense is, according to the author, the meeting between Maimonides and those exegetes of his work who were preoccupied with the redefinition of the relationship between philosophy and esoteric thinking, in this case, the Cabbala.
444 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The author differentiates between two types of attitudes towards Maimonides and the Guide of the Perplexed: on the one hand, the acceptance of the possibility that philosophy and the religious tradition can be comprised in one exercise of thinking; on the other hand, the emphasising of the esoteric character of philosophy. Thus, the mystical sphere is the medium which offers the balance between philosophy and Judaism. Referring to the complex relations between philosophy and Jewish mystical thinking, the author mentions Moshe Idel’s works which analyzed this subject. Idel, Sandu Frunză tells, managed to perceive the phenomenon in its complexity, being aware of the variety of nuances. Similarly, our author insists upon the perspective proposed by Moshe Halbertal who attached great importance to Maimonides’ esoteric preoccupations. Frunză declares, relying on his complex analyses, that “Maimonides and his exegetes invest philosophy with the status of a practice which helps us to orientate ourselves in the world of secrets and secrecy.” Another discussed subject is the controversy between the Maimonidian perspective – which claims that it invented an alternative to antique esotericism – and the cabbalists. This controversy leads, according to Moshel Idel, to a powerful development of the esoteric tradition. Sandu Frunză, in what follows, analyzes in detail the effects and the controversies generated by the revolutionary Maimonidian conception, which made a clear break and provoked many very different reactions by reinterpreting in a rationalist manner the Jewish tradition. The general reception of Maimonides in Christian intellectual circles is varied, but it is included, however, by a specific pattern. Étienne Gilson, whose attitude towards the Jewish philosopher is also analyzed, complies with this pattern too. In spite of the extremely different reactions to Maimonides and though the importance of his work has been minimized (to this effect the author mentions the fact that Hegel dealt with him in less than a page in his famous history of philosophy), Sandu Frunză considers him “the most significant personality of medieval Jewish philosophy”, a personality whose oeuvre represents an indispensable subject of analysis if one tries to outline an answer to the question “what is Jewish philosophy?”. The last chapter of the book is very suggestively entitled From Jerusalem to Athens and back. It is both the conclusion of the book and,
445 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 at the same time, an opening towards the subject which will be the basis of the next volume of the project the author intends to continue. Sandu Frunză asserts that the influence of religious tradition upon the thinking of an author who belongs to this tradition is profound and cannot be ignored. In spite of the diffused Aristotelian or Neo- Platonist elements, the author says, antique and medieval Jewish philosophy identifies itself with the contents of Jewish tradition. The discussion on the question what makes a work Jewish in its character is quite complex as Alexander Broadie’s analysis proves this. The relationship between tradition and philosophical meditation, specific to the antique and medieval Jewish context is mentioned too by Sandu Frunză when he says that, though philosophy is situated under the badge of the exigencies of the Scriptures, religious authority is not a dogmatic one and philosophy has not an ancillary situation in the context of thinking. Antique and medieval Jewish philosophers wanted to show first of all that “philosophy and religion have a common content and in the formula Jewish philosophy the two are integrated – in different formulas and in different measure – in a common Judaic tradition.” The examples of Philo and Maimonides give account of a much more complex relationship between philosophy and religion than the model of ancillary situation of philosophy; a complex relationship in which “the integrating force of tradition” ensures the balance between the two cities. Sandu Frunză, applying once again the metaphor of the two symbolic cities, reports the fact that Jewish philosophers practicing an “elliptic thinking” remain in the sphere of a “between”, as a form of thinking auto-exiled from both cities. He is not satisfied with this “paradigm of exile” and proceeds introducing another paradigm, offered by “the dynamics of exile–redemption”. This, postulating the journey from Jerusalem towards Athens, but also the return home, makes possible to avoid the estrangement from both cities. Moving away from Leo Strauss’ conception, Sandu Frunză perceives Jewish philosophy as the phenomenon which manages to diminish significantly the tension between Jerusalem and Athens.
The manner in which the subject is approached, the impressive amount of knowledge offered to us and the originality with which the author places the information in the frame formed by the possible answers to the question “what is Jewish philosophy?” make Sandu Frunză’s extremely profound and erudite study an indispensable instrument for those interested in Jewish culture.
446 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
A Man, a Book, a Library Traian Brad – a Servant of Books
Raluca SOARE1 “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca
Writing reminds you of books and books lead you not only to the territory of imagination but also to libraries as both independent architectural entities and institutions, together with the symbolic content the word library has. But the world of libraries cannot be imagined without librarians, without those persons who offer you their knowledge, their rich culture in order to help you as a reader to find the information you need or, on other occasions, who help you to find among the large bookshelves the book suitable for an afternoon relaxation. And this librarians’ world is not confined only to doing good with the reader who enters the library. These people often succeed, through their continuous efforts, in producing positive modifications, in making things for the benefit of a whole community, or even in changing the view of the city they live in, their aim being to spread knowledge. Such a librarian, such a “servant of books” who dedicated himself to culture, to books and to the library was undoubtedly Traian Brad whose name is connected with the new building of the Public City Library in Cluj at the foot of the Feleac Hill. He was also one of the founders of the National Association of Librarians and Public Libraries in Romania (NALPLR). Though he is no longer physically present in the everyday life of the Public City Library’s personnel, but his spiritual heritage, his memory is ever present in the institution and in those colleagues’ memory whom he instructed both professionally and through his personal example. The volume entitled suggestively Traian Brad – un slujitor al cărţii (Traian Brad – a Servant of Books), published at the Casa Cărţii de Ştiinţă (Scientific Book House) in Cluj-Napoca (2005, 296 pp.) is proof to this. The book came out on the occasion of Traian Brad’s 60th anniversary in the form of an anthology meant to present the entire activity as a writer of the much missed director of the “Octavian Goga” Public City Library. It also collects the thoughts of the persons who knew him, loved him and appreciated him, as well as interviews and letters.
1 E-mail: [email protected]
447 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The book thus becomes a true memorial volume; its pages outline for the reader the personality of this guide in the world of books who left his mark on the cultural life and the library activities of Cluj and Transylvania, his influence being maybe felt on a wider scale too. The volume contains three distinct parts and a chronologically arranged “photographical” appendix at the end which presents Traian Brad in different moments of his life: in his study, at professional meetings, symposia, conferences, “soul meetings”.1 The book starts with a presentation of the late Traian Brad’s biographic data – he graduated the Faculty of Letters in Cluj in 1972, he was the director of the “Octavian Goga” Public City Library and initiated and coordinated several European programs for Romania in the domain of public libraries. This is followed by the presentation of his activity as a writer. He published studies of literary history in Tribuna and Lectura such as: studies on Iosif Pervain; Ideea naţională la Octavian Goga (The National Idea in Octavian Goga’s Work) whom he presented as an ardent champion of the unification of the Romanian territory from between the boundaries of the former Dacia through Romania’s participation in the war; Haşdeu şi istoria critică a românilor (Haşdeu and the Romanian Critical History) in which he presented Haşdeu’s study on the Romanian critical thought in detail following its table of contents and through the notes made by the author in a copy of his work owned in the present by the “Octavian Goga” Library. After the articles of literary criticism his rich research activity in the domain of librarianship is emphasized by the enumeration of the studies in librarianship and information science written by Traian Brad. Some titles and themes of this activity are: Programul Phare la Cluj (The PHARE Programme in Cluj) which describes the steps of the programme and its material implications, as well as its importance in the development of information sources; Modele de organizare a bibliotecilor (The Organization Model of Libraries) in which libraries from Belgium, Holland and Greece are compared with their particularities and common elements, their interest in the users’ needs, the centralization of some services and the continuous striving for funds; Managementul pentru bibliotecă: o abordare personală a stării bibliotecii publice româneşti şi clujene (Library Management: A Personal View on the State of Public Libraries in Romania and Cluj) which outlines the problems of public libraries, the lack of responsible organizations, the importance of the
1 Spiritual holiday in Pănade, August 1999.
448 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 public library for the local cultural medium and the impossibility of elaborating long term development strategies; Noi suntem cei care vom extinde centrul oraşului (We Are the Ones to Extend the Town Centre) – an essay emphasizing the role the opening of a new public library building was going to have, being a new cultural and not geographic centre of the city. In this part of the book are also presented: the activity of the National Association of Librarians and Public Libraries from Romania (NALPLR) through its relationships established or presented by Traian Brad as the president of the association; the interviews realized by Dan Damaschin, Constantin Mustaţă etc. and published in Biblioteca, Adevărul de Cluj and Piaţa de Cluj; as well as Traian Brad’s correspondence with Hermina Anghelescu. The last part of the book contains reviews on Traian Bard’s works, Pănade 700 de ani (Pănade 700 Years), Lectura şi biblioteca publică la Cluj (Reading and the Public Libraries in Cluj) written by Ion Buzaşi, Mircea Popa, Dimitrie Poptămaş, Ionuţ Ţene, Săluc Horvat etc., and the honorary and commemorative articles formulated by his colleagues from the library, his family and those who esteemed him. An immense admiration, appreciation and the regret that he is no longer present among them is revealed on these pages. Traian Brad was a man who “knew to administrate culture, to valorize it, being an extraordinary library director”, a man “inspired by the importance of books and of the institutions preserving it and putting it at the readers’ disposal” according to the characterization of an article published in the Apostrof, a characterization quoted on the last page of the book too. Probably, whenever we are thinking of libraries, the information centres of the community in Cluj, whenever we pass near the building of the “Octavian Goga” Public City Library, we shall give a thought to Traian Brad. The memorial volume realized by those who were his friends, subalterns and close acquaintances will help us to discover his personality.
449 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Lidia Kulikovski: Library Services for People with Special Needs (Textbook for Librarians) Chişinău, Epigraph Publishing House, 2006, 288 pp.
Ildikó BÁN1 “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca
An exceptional book deserves some introductory words about its author. Dr Lidia Kulikovski, born in the village Nicoreni, Drochia (Republic of Moldova) in 1951 is the Director General of the “Bogdan Petriceicu-Haşdeu” Public Library, the Associate Professor of the Department of Librarianship and Informational Assistance from the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences. During her 33 years of professional activity she published over 200 scientific articles, numerous bibliographies and monographs out of which we should like to mention: Cartea, modul nostru de a dăinui: contribuţii la dezvoltarea domeniului biblioteconomic (Books, Our Way of Life: Contributions to the Development of Librarianship); Servicii de bibliotecă pentru persoanele dezavantajate: istoric, prezent, tendinţe (Library Services for People with Special Needs: History, Present, Tendencies); Monografii bibliografice Iurie Colesnic: bibliografie (Iurie Colesnic Bibliographic Monographs: A Bibliography); Mihai Cimpoi: bibliografie (Mihai Cimpoi: A Bibliography). At the present time she is the Chief-Editor of BiblioPolis, a librarianship and information sciences periodical, and a member of the Editorial Board of the publication Symposia. The book we are going to speak about has an accessible structure, having eleven chapters each one beginning with a motto intended to render the reader sensitive and ending in a practical activity for the consolidation of the knowledge. The volume is based on the information gathered while elaborating the study Servicii de bibliotecă pentru persoanele dezavantajate, the main theme being the access of people with special needs to the library. In the first chapter the concepts of social inclusion and exclusion are defined, and library activities are identified meant to ensure social inclusion. In the second chapter entitled Social groups: characteristics, statistics, tendencies the author characterizes and identifies the following types of deficiencies, underlining how important is to be familiar with the
1 E-mail: [email protected]
450 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 terminology and the specificity of each disability: sensorial deficiencies (such as visual disability, hearing deficiency), locomotor disorders (arthritis, paralysis, ankylosis, malformations etc.), mental deficiencies (including intellectual disability, linguistic disability, behavioural disability), multiple or associated disabilities (persons with multiple deficiencies, blind-deaf-mute etc.). Elderly people, persons deprived of their freedom, cultural and linguistic minorities are also included in the category of disadvantaged persons. Being familiar with the types and specificities of each disability helps the librarian to organize the activities with disadvantaged persons correctly, to offer special services in conformity with the needs of each group. The problem of architectural accessibility is discussed in the third chapter of the book, where the author attempts to systematize the requirements the libraries have to meet in order to comply with the access necessities of the different groups of disadvantaged people. In order to ensure accessibility the libraries have to take into consideration international legislation, disabled people’s needs and they have to consult the organisations of these groups when they carry out renovation, construction and extension plans. In the chapter entitled Accessible collections and formats the specific problems related to the development of an accessible library collection are analyzed. The collections of an accessible library have to comply with the information needs of different user categories and have also to contain, besides the traditional documents, “alternative formats” (accessible formats) such as: audio tapes, CD-ROMs, telephone based informational services, Braille books, electronic formats, books printed in large type, speaking books, tactile books etc. The author surveys some “inclusion principles” a library collection has to comply with. The library collection must represent disabled persons clearly and without stereotypes, the information referring to disabilities, services and the rights of disadvantaged people must be actual, accurate, correct, without prejudices and stereotypes. Chapter five entitled Inclusive informational society: disabled people’s informational and communicative technologies analyzes the way in which technology influences the relationship between the library and people with special needs. Computerization produces a series of mutations in libraries, the services offered to disadvantaged people improve and become diversified. Technological achievements have changed everything for disadvantaged people, as they may help to overcome the disadvantages by removing technological barriers. These
451 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 days there is a wide range of machines facilitating the use of library resources (varied depending on the particularities of the disability), including: modified typewriters and computer keyboards, stations controlled by voice, modified telephones etc. The longest chapter of the book (chapter six) discusses library services. To ensure accessible services one must be familiar – besides the users’ information necessities – with the barriers of studying and reading which the disability causes. Usual library services must be extended depending on the disabled peoples’ needs and interests by including some new services such as: home services, services to the place of institutionalisation, multicultural services, special reading equipment for people with physical or sensorial disabilities, special materials for people with difficulties, electronic communication services. All these services can be really accessible to disadvantaged people only if the five service principles are respected. According to these principles services must be orientated towards the beneficiary; they must be socially inclusive; they must be useful, efficient and always at the users’ disposal. A service is efficient if it is physically and intellectually accessible. In the evaluation of library programs and services, disadvantaged users should also be involved in addition the library personnel. Special attention is given to elderly people as well. They constitute a highly varied group from the point of view of education, profession, ethnicity, disabilities. In the library collections there must be materials referring to the special interests of elderly people too (information on health, medicine, special legislation, information on organizations and foundations which help these people to find a job). Libraries also organize programmes for promoting minority cultures, for supporting cultural diversity and the accessibility of the different cultures; they support cohesion by varied actions, policies and programmes. People in prison also belong to the category of disadvantaged people who are the beneficiaries of some library services. In prisons the library helps in offering educational, recreational and rehabilitation programmes. The diversity, extent and level of library services for people in prison must be based on their demographical, social and educational profile. Libraries offer programmes and services to disadvantaged children too, these programmes being based on the principle of inclusion, which means the possible adaptation of all the library programmes and services so as the children can participate in the programmes they like.
452 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The author enumerates some programmes for children: Story-telling hour, Homework, Summer clubs. Other activities with children in difficult situations are the reading camps. In the activity with disadvantaged people bibliotherapy, melotherapy, the therapy of graphic and plastic expression, ludotherapy can also be applied. This chapter is a real guide in the interaction with disadvantaged people; it instructs us how to deal with different categories of disabled persons. The chapter entitled Management points out the central role of management in rendering some library services for disadvantaged people. Inclusive management ensures the institutional, structural and political supporting frame for inclusion in library. The next chapter of the book focuses on marketing issues: The marketing of informational services for disadvantaged people. Marketing is a part of the library policy regarding disadvantaged people and has as its aim the inclusion of excluded people, being the instrument which reunites the techniques employed to attract disadvantaged persons by promoting the library services and programmes. Working with disadvantaged people requires the “accessible instruction” of librarians. In the course of the instruction programmes the importance of the services offered to this segment of the population must be stressed in order to avoid the stereotypical attitude towards disadvantaged people. In the penultimate chapter, With small means... and little time the author offers some practical suggestions for the improvement of access for disabled people, taking into consideration the different categories of disability. The book ends with a chapter of appendices, which contains an ALA guide and a list with the organizations of disadvantaged people. Having as its aim the complex presentation and analysis of disadvantaged people’s accessibility to libraries, this book is addressed to students and librarians, constituting an excellent support in their professional preparation and improvement.
453 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
The 10th Conference of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL)
Ioana ROBU1–Sally WOOD-LAMONT2 Library of the University of Medicine and Pharmaceutics, Cluj-Napoca
The 10th Conference of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL) was held in Cluj between 11- 16th September 2006 at the Academicum Collegium of the Babeş-Bolyai University. This conference is one of the most important scientific events in Europe in the field of medical library information. It takes place every 2 years, with a participation of over 300 medical librarians, specialists in medical informatics, doctors and other information specialists from all the European countries as well as the USA, Canada and Australia. It was the first time since EAHIL was founded, 20 years ago, that the bi-annual conference was held in an Eastern European country. This conference was attended by 330 participants from over 36 countries (only 35 came from Romania) and was one of the largest international events ever to take place in Cluj-Napoca and Romania.
Scientific Programme There were 6 Plenary sessions, 51 oral presentations, 34 Poster Presentations and 6 Empowerment Sessions. This idea of an Empowerment Session was proposed by Eva Alopaeus (Sweden) and Patricia Flor (Norway) as an opportunity for participants to discuss, in depth, certain topics in an interactive environment. The purpose of an empowerment session was to give an overview for participants with different levels of experience with the topic in question. It could have been in the form of a Continuing Education course, a lecture, or a mixture of these presentation forms and was practical rather than theoretical in nature. The facilitators were all well known names in EAHIL with excellent experience in their chosen subjects. In addition, 9 Continuing Education Courses were given by international lecturers and were attended by 140 participants from the 11–12 September in the Medical Informatics Department of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy. On
1 E-mail: [email protected] 2 E-mail: [email protected]
454 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 the first evening a new event was introduced for EAHIL conferences: a First-Timers evening where all new members of EAHIL were encouraged to come along and make friends and meet other people. This was a great success.
Social Programme The social programme, intended to show the best of Romanian culture and tradition, consisted of an evening featuring a selection of arias from well known operas led by the wonderful soprano Ştefania Barz and included a welcome buffet in the beautiful Romanian National Theatre in the centre of Cluj. There were three afternoon tours, Walking Tour of Cluj, Visit to the Village Museum and a Visit to Turda Salt Mine. At the village museum, the participants were greeted by two men on horseback in full Romanian costume and were given an excellent display of Romanian dancing and singing by a group of children. At the Turda Salt mine four Cluj Academy of Music students gave a wonderful 30 minute concert. The full day tours offering exciting insights into the history and culture of Transylvania were: Alba Iulia & Râmeţi monastery, Hunedoara Castle and Lake Cinciş, Biertan & Sighişoara. Two hundred and forty participants enjoyed these tours. The final event was a Gala Dinner in the Hotel Belvedere on top of the one of the hills that surround Cluj, with panoramic views of the city. Again we were able to offer a marvellous display of Romanian dancing and violin playing which brought the whole audience to their feet. The President of EAHIL, Arne Jakobsson, Director of the Oslo University Library of Medical Sciences said about the conference: “To really describe the success of the 10th EAHIL conference in Cluj you need more superlatives than there are available, even in the English language. I limit myself to outstanding - superb! I hope Sally, Ioana, Benoit and the Local Committee who helped organize the conference received all the superlatives they surely deserved from the conference delegates. The organizers also succeeded in opening our hearts to Cluj and Romania. The overall quality of the scientific programme was excellent. It is very promising for the future that the quality is getting better and better with each succeeding conference. New successful ideas were introduced in Cluj. The reception for first-timers was a huge success and so were the Empowerment Sessions where we could go into depth on one theme. Hopefully they will continue in the future. The Social Programme was outstanding. Opera, gala dinner and sightseeing tours! The organizers had left no stone unturned. They even dragged down a
455 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007 string quartet into the salt mines, I visited. The acoustics were fantastic. On behalf of EAHIL board and all EAHIL members I wish to thank everyone who helped with organizing the 10th EAHIL conference in Cluj.”
456 Philobiblon – Vol. XII - 2007
Previous Volumes of the PHILOBIBLON:
Volume I. Number 1–2 / 1996 134. p. (Culture, Books, Society: Europeanism and Europeanization; Librarianship: A Changing Profession in a Transitional Society: Data – Conditions – Possibilities; The Special Collections of the Library)
Volume II. Number 1 / 1997 136. p. (Culture, Books, Society: Axiological Openings and Closures; A Changing Profession in a Transitional Society: Data – Conditions – Possibilities; Varia: The Special Collections of the Library; Miscellanea)
Volume II. Number 2 / 1997 237. p. (Culture, Books, Society: Existential Dispositions; A Changing Profession in a Transitional Society: Data – Conditions – Possibilities; Varia: The Special Collections of the Library; Miscellanea)
Volume III. Number 1–2 / 1998 319. p. (Culture, Books, Society: Dictionaries – Backgrounds and Horizons; A Changing Profession in a Transitional Society: Data – Conditions – Possibilities; Varia: The Special Collections of the Library; Miscellanea)
Volume IV–V–VI–VII. 1999–2002 538. p. (Culture, Books, Society: History and Memory; A Changing Profession in a Transitional Society: Data – Conditions – Possibilities; Varia: The Special Collections of the Library; Miscellanea).
Volume VIII–IX. 2003–2004 573. p. (Culture, Books, Society: Censorship and the Barriers of Freedom, A Changing Profession in a Transitional Society: Data – Conditions – Possibilities; Varia: The Special Collections of the Library; Miscellanea).
Volume X–XI. 2005–2006 603. p. (Culture, Books, Society: Music and Existence; Librarianship: Hermeneutica Bibliothecaria: Data – Conditions – Possibilities; The Special Collections of the Library; Miscellanea).
457