CONFLUENŢE Texts & Contexts Reloaded T.C.R. Analele Universitǎţii din Oradea Fascicula Limbi și literaturi moderne Oradea, 2018 Editura Universitǎţii din Oradea 2018 Editor-in-Chief: Ioana Cistelecan Secretary: Éva Székely Executive Editors: Anemona Alb (English) Floarea Mateoc (French) Giulia Suciu (English) Advisory Board: José Antonio Álvarez (University of Alicante, Spain) Tamás Bényei (University of Debrecen, Hungary) Roger Craik (Kent State University, U.S.A.) Sylvie Crinquand (University of Dijon, France) Magda Danciu (University of Oradea) Sean Darmody (Trinity College, Dublin) Claire Despierres (University of Borgogne, France) Erika Hammer (University of Pécs) Stanislav Kolář (University of Ostrava, Czech Republic) Krisztina Lajosi (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands) Teodor Mateoc (University of Oradea) Mircea Morariu (University of Oradea) Gene M. Moore (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands) Michaela Mudure (Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca) Petru Popescu (writer, U.S.A.) Irena Ragaišiene (Vytauas Magnus University, Lithuania) Nóra Séllei (University of Debrecen, Hungary) Angeles Sirvent Ramos (University of Alicante) Marta Teixeira Anacleto (University of Coimbra) Maria Trappen (“Lucian Blaga” University, Sibiu) Elena Viorel (Partium Christian University, Oradea) Crina Magdalena Zǎrnescu (University of Pitești) In 2012 the Ministry of Education and Research (Romania) ranked our journal category C. Our journal has been accepted by international data bases such as EBSCO. We have been indexed in ICI Journals Master List 2017. Six issues of our journal (2012-2017) have been included in the database of the Central and Eastern European Online Library. e-ISSN 2344 – 6072 ISSN - L 1842 - 662x Adresa redacţiei: Facultatea de Litere Universitatea din Oradea Str. Universitǎţii, nr.1, Oradea, Bihor Tel. 0259-408178 http://www.confluente.univoradea.ro/ro/ 2 Contents Tables des matieres Issue’s Topic: Children and Childhood Thématique du numéro: L’enfant /L’enfance INTRO A Cool Purposeful Ride by MIRCEA PRICĂJAN 5 Jill Tomlinson’s Books on the Animal Kindom by LILI TRUŢĂ 8 LITERARY-ISMS: ÉTUDES LITTÉRAIRE “Children Are the Most Ridiculous Things Ever Papatya Alkan- 14 Invented”: Jeanette Winterson’s Tanglewreck Genca Enfance, gémellité et déshumanisation dans Le Andreea Bugiac 26 Grand Cahier d’Agota Kristof L’enfance mythique d’Amélie Nothomb Teodora Cernǎu 43 Enfants solitaires chez Le Clézio Florica Mateoc 51 Child Labour and Fantasy in Charles Kingley’s The Mira Mürüvvet 66 Waterbabies Pınar-Dolaykaya The Child and the Impossible Endings in Beckett’s Dana Sala 78 The Calmative and Endgame Aspects of Liminality and the Figure of the Éva Székely 97 Trickster in P.L. Traverse’s Mary Poppins Novels CULTURAL-ISMS / ÉTUDES CULTURELLES Reflecting on Diversity: Being the Other Child Magda Danciu 112 Mark Twain and the Role of Children in the Ioana Daniela 118 Society Heredea “Be a man”: Constructions of Childhood in Monika Kosa 128 Priscilla Galloway’s Truly Grim Tales 3 Children and Childhood in Movies Camelia Diana 138 Luncan The Loss of Identity in Hanif Kureishi’s The Adela Daniela 150 Buddha of Suburbia Tigan Proper Names as Signs in Adina Rossetti’s Stories Anca Tomoioagǎ 157 DIVERSITY-ISMS Poets and the Expressiveness of Language Ștefan A. Doinaş, 171 Steven C. Reese (translator) Dynastic Fathers and Disinherited Sons in Teodor Mateoc 178 Absalom, Absalom! Literary Translation as a Workshop for Creative Mircea Pricǎjan 196 Writing BOOK REVIEWS/ COMPTES RENDUS DE LIVRES Filiation in Salman Rushdie's The Golden House Anemona Ab 200 Stories of Us … On Mircea Pricăjan’s Calitatea Ioana Cistelecan 202 luminii The Challenges of the Memory Texts in Kate Magda Danciu 204 Mitchell’s History and Cultural Memory in Neo- Victorian Fiction. Victorian Afterimages Re-conquering the human. The poetic battle in Marius Miheţ 206 Radu Vancu’s Elegie pentru uman. O critică a modernității poetice de la Pound la Cărtărescu A History of Childhood: Children and Childhood Dana Sala 208 in the West from Medieval to Modern Times Peisaj în devenire. sO Panoramă a poeziei din Dana Sala 211 Banat (Changing Landscape. A Panorama of Banat Poetry) Muriel Barbery: The Elegance of the Hedgehog Giulia Suciu 213 AUTHORS/ AUTEURS 215 NEXT ISSUE’S TOPIC 216 Section Code: C023 4 INTRO The Author: Mircea Pricǎjan1: A COOL PURPOSEFUL RIDE Sometimes it so happens that you have to write upon request. I, for one, got the commission for my novel for children from the only person in the world whose wishes I must very cleverly balance and filter before I fulfill them. That is because at the age of seven a child is prone to have the most bizarre requests. Most of them downright unhealthy. And some completely unrealistic. But when a child asks his parent to write him a book, and when he knows that the parent has done that before, you can only take on the challenge. After all, if that parent would be a welder and his child would ask him for a swing, he’d surely get the best welded swing that parent is capable to manufacture. That commission is not only doable, but it’s also a fatherly duty. Therefore, I, too, acknowledged my duty (a moment that I knew deep down would come, and also one that in some way I paved the road to), and left aside everything I was working on in order to start writing the story of the boy with an iron fist. First came the title. ”Daddy, I want you to write me a book and I want for us to name it Iron Fist.” These are his exact words and more than anything I was happy for that plural. ‘For us.’ It meant that my boy wanted to be a part of this effort. ”Then that’s the name for it, Mihai”, I told him. ”But first let’s see what this boy needs to be doing for him to have such a power.” We were lying in his bed together. Sleep was soon to come. We’d 1 Editor of Familia Literary Magazine, Oradea, Romania. 5 just finished reading the daily bedtime quota, the lights were off and it was now time for our small talk in the dark, those whispered words that usually lull him to sleep. ”Here’s an idea, Mihai. I suggest that the boy in the story would first have a concrete hand. Like you had when you broke for arm and had to be in a cast for so many weeks. Do you remember that?” ”Yeah!” he said enthusiastically. ”I still have that cast!” ”Good. So let us have him in a cast, let’s give him a concrete hand, and when he’ll finally be out of it, only then should he find his iron hand.” ”An iron fist!” he corrected me without a beat. „Iron fist, you’re right. Do you remember how aware you were of that hand after it came out of the cast? How sensitive it was? You let nobody touch it, you kept it close to your chest for many days.” I knew that feeling from my own experience. Like my son, when I was little I managed to fracture not only my arm, but also my collar bone. Consecutively. ”Yes, I know, daddy. And the doctor told me that if I will ever fall on that same arm again, my bone will stick out through the skin.” ”Well, all he wanted was to scare you a little, so that you’ll be more careful in the future…” ”He succeeded at that.” That evening, because sleep was already near, I remember we drafted a completely unrealistic plot for our story. Of course, I didn’t tell him that—he was too enthusiastic about it. But the following evening I know how to suggest to him, step by step, more believable, more logical events, adventures that would build into a solid story, one that would stand its ground beyond the mere actions it described. That is because, you see, children books are some very hard to steer vehicles. Those who get on board are all eyes for the wonders along the way, they want to be impressed at every turn of the road. After all, that is why they keep their nose stuck to the window. But the experience is worthless if, once the destination is reached, all those wondrous sights are missing a purpose. If their parade does not track a course back to themselves, in fact. The story of Iron Fist needed to follow this purpose. I knew that. Mihai, on the other hand, knew other things. So we compromised and decided that I, as the one who would actually write the story, will have the liberty to choose from all his suggestions only those I thought would help us turn this into… a book. ”I have faith in you, daddy, please know that I’m confident you’ll make it a very cool book.” 6 ”As cool as you?” I stroke a joke. ”All kids will love it”, he cut me short with great gravity. ”I have faith in you.” And I felt his gaze in the dark. I wrote Iron Fist with these words always ringing in my mind. The writing was easy from the very beginning, I wrote like I was reading the story from someplace else (maybe from that miraculous space that exists right after the portal of sleep?), I wrote the book as if I was reading it to my son. From our conjugated effort there came out a book which I, too, am confident the kids will love, a most sincere book about the way a child copes with change and the uncertainty it brings, about how one can lose the friendship of others, and also about how one can regain it, a book about the force that keeps us all together.